Hardinger get together - Rathbun Lake

We returned from a family-oriented weekend today. My grandparents planned a family "reunion", but not there wasn't a complete showing of all family members. Those who had the weekend open made the trip. Loren and Rowena, Uncle Dave, Aunt Ruth, Dave and I (& kids), and my parents. Jay and Molly made an appearance on Saturday night (they were at a good friend's wedding on Sat). We all stayed at Honey Creek Resort on Rathbun Lake (15 miles south of Albia, IA) on Friday through Sunday. Dave and I took off early on Friday morning and had lunch with my Hardinger grandparents in Albia. We were a little late leaving our house on Friday morning, however. A big thunderstorm rolled through early Friday morning around 3:45 am. We woke up to the loudest wind I have ever heard. Out the windows was thick gray, I couldn't see anything because the hail was so heavy. We each grabbed a kid and ran to the basement and let the storm blow over for about 30 minutes. The lighting and thunder was constant. We heard hail pound on the roof and smash our flowers to the ground. The wind peaked at around 60 mph we heard on the news the next day. When the sun came up and we could look at our yard, we found pieces of people's chimneys on our lawn, a piece of aluminum soffet about 10 feet long had ripped off our siding near the roofline of our bedroom and was banging against our house, the neighbor's tree was ripped out of the ground and fell, and most everybody's playhouses were smashed to the ground. Felt like a mini tornado came through, but it was just the fierce wind. Dave got up on the roof and made a quick fix with a hammer and some nails to the piece that ripped off our house. We called a pro to come fix it, but he didn't want to leave it hanging there. We also lost power for about an hour or two during the night when the storm was at its worst. The battery back up for our sump pump has a problem so we knew that could be a concern. Poor Dave was awake for a few hours during the night dealing with that issue. He could see the well in the basement filling up with water as we didn't have the power of the battery to make the pump work. He thought quick and grabbed the boat battery (which the night before we had JUST charged to full strength) and hooked that up to the system so it could pump. The last thing we needed was another flooded basement. Success! He got things working, the power came back on, and the pump did it job. Dave was really tired on Friday, though. Violet was so scared of the loud claps of thunder that she ended up sleeping in our bed most of the night. She was scared that her fan didn't work. I praise God that Calvin went right back to sleep after being ripped from dreamland when we brought them downstairs. I put him back in bed once the storm had calmed down and he slept through the rest of the night not having his fan on either. Both of our kids really like that hum of the fan to sleep. We ended up leaving town an hour and a half later than we wanted to. As we drove away from our house to the highway (we made a pit stop at Starbucks :) ), CFU trucks were up working hard to restore power to residential areas. Trees had been split in half, branches broken and fallen everywhere. We arrived in Albia in time for lunch at 1 pm, had a yummy lunch, and got the kids right to bed for their naps. We then left for the resort once they woke up. The resort on the lake was 15 miles of a drive from their house. We got checked in and spent the rest of the day chasing our kids around their indoor water park. There was a mini lazy river, a zero-entry kiddo pool with two slides, and another area with climbing things and a basketball net. Violet loved to float with her fishy intertube around the lazy river and go down the slides. Calvin just walked around the water and splashed. It was so fun, and a bit scary at the same time. Its a big responsibility to watch kids who can't swim play in the water. We had to be on guard 100% of the time, not really trusting any of the lifeguards to pay close attention to our kids. We joined the rest of the family for dinner at the restaurant, and then got the kids to bed. Once we knew they were both sleeping, we took a walk down to the dock area and were very impressed by the frogs. We couldn't see any of them, but we could HEAR them. They were screaming so loud!! We had to raise our voices over their singing to talk to each other. Dave and I sat on the end of the dock for awhile enjoying the alone time. It was a rare treat on weekends like this. The night time did not go so well. Calvin kept waking up and screaming intermittently at 2 am, 4 am, and 6:30 am. At one point, Violet woke up at 4 am and said "Can I get up now?" I told her NO, and instructed her to go pee and get back in bed. She did, and actually went back to sleep. It was still pitch dark outside, she must have just not known what was going on. Dave got up with Calvin at 6:30 am and rubbed his back for what seemed like forever, but he went back to sleep and slept in til 8:30 am. Rough night. Saturday we spent most of the day out roaming the lake on a rented pontoon boat. A couple times we threw in the anchor near shore and swam in the lake for awhile. Violet got in each time with her life jacket. She still doesn't trust her jacket to hold her up in the water. She had to cling to somebody and hold on. My dad drove the boat most of the time, Dave, Aunt Ruth, Grandma Rowena and I got out and swam. We took a break from the boat for lunch and naps in the middle of the day, and returned the boat later in the evening. We couldn't get dinner reservations until 7:45 pm. Too late for Calvin, so he ate earlier in the evening and we put him to bed before we went down to the restaurant. Violet was a ham and charmed everyone. She especially made a connection with Aunt Ruth. She ended up in her lap at dinner time, and they started singing all these goofy made up songs. Aunt Ruth decided they were being too loud (ha!) so they went to a further place away from the rest of us and danced and sung together for what seemed like an hour or so. I could hear them both giggling and laughing almost the whole time. When they got back to the table, Violet announced that they traded names. She was Ruth and Aunt Ruth was Violet. I don't know where this came from, but Violet always points to Aunt Ruth and says "MITT!" Its a silly game they invented that seems unrelated to anything she knows about. Even the next morning when Violet caught her first glimpse of Aunt Ruth, she immediately ran up to her and pointed at her and said "MITT!" lol ~ whatever. I'm glad they had a chance to connect in such a fun way. My aunt Ruth can be so silly sometimes. Its nice when people who don't spent 24/7 time with a kid have the energy to sustain a 3 yr old at such a high level for that amount of time. I certainly couldn't have done that now. I have short spurts. But I remember when I didn't have kids and would spent time with my nieces and nephews, I was the same way with goofy games and silly songs. Its just different when you're a parent, I guess. :) Saturday night the kids slept much better. After a quick buffet breakfast, Dave and Violet hit the water park again and Calvin and I watched them from the balcony. Violet probably had the MOST fun this morning in the pool. She made a little friend on the slides. A little boy noticed her and showed her his little temporary tattoo on his arm. She thought that was cool, poked it a couple times, and then they went down the little slide together. They giggled, and ran back up to do it again. She initially was too scared to go down this bigger tube slide, but she saw this little boy do it and she got brave and went down the slide, too. The family made plans to all meet in Albia for lunch at Hardinger grandparent's place. We didn't have that plan for the weekend when we all started, but it seemed to be a good idea for everyone. We were a little late checking out of our hotel room, since Dave and Violet had to clean up after being in the pool. Everybody drove to their place and Grandma Rowena cooked up some burger patties she had in the freezer. Aunt Ruth cooked the sweet corn, and they threw together a salad or two. We thought we'd drive home right after lunch, but we decided to put the kids down the naps in their comfy beds at grandma's place before driving home so the naps would actually be comfortable and restful, as opposed to them sleeping in their car seats. Sooo...the kids slept, people left one by one, and we were the last to leave once the kids woke up. The drive back went well - it was only 2 hours. We left their place around 3:30. Grandma Rowena gave her this silly little dancing cat that sings Electric Avenue and lights up and dances. She played that constantly for about an hour until we thought we were going to go crazy hearing that song one more time. V and C are pretty good about making each other laugh in the car. Dave and Violet went to night meeting at the chapel, while Calvin and I stayed home. He was hungry so I made him oatmeal and bananas - he used a spoon to feed himself and had plenty of fun doing that. He seemed to be really happy to be home and be able to have all the toys to himself with out Violet stealing them from him. He entertained himself really well for about an hour while I got the dishes unloaded, suit case and bags unpacked and got the laundry started. It feels good to have made progress...unpacking and cleaning up from trips is hard for me to do, so having that almost done feels good. As I type this, Violet and Dave got home and she's already melting down quickly. She's already thrown a few fits, and is sitting in time out because she was whining. I can't wait to get her in bed so we can relax for a little while!! The week starts...tomorrow.