Burial of Grandma Butler/Chicago weekend

I wish I had my camera for the weekend because there were sooo many great photo opportunties, but it wasn't packed in the case.  The case came along, but no camera.  Oh well.

On Saturday night around 11 pm we got home from Chicago.  We left Thursday morning of last week, 3 days after getting home from a 4-night stay in Minnesota.  It was a flury of a turn-around, I scrambled for those 3 days to get caught up in many departments...and then we packed up and left.  Dave's brother Sean was still in Chicago (they stayed the week at Martha's house after going to the funeral in MN) and Dave really wanted to go spend time with him. 

It turned out to be a really great weekend.  I struggled with my attitude at first, really wanting to just stay home, but the Lord blessed our time together.  Thursday evening was "Cinco de Mayo" so we all met at a mexican restaurant for dinner.  I sat across from Martha with Vanessa, and V and C sat on the other end of the table in the middle of the crowd of cousins.  They were well behaved, excited to see everyone, ate well, and did great!  I'm realizing my kids are growing up, LOL.  Violet and Lynnea really hit it off and became "best buds" during the weekend, playing around with clapping games and dancing at any given minute.  Vanessa chowed down on the rice off my plate.  It turned into a dancing party at Grandma Martha's.  Sean played some old records full of silly childhood songs he and Dave used to love.  All the kids were crazy, dancing and jumping around until 10 pm or so.  We opted NOT to stay at Martha's house, simply because there was no room and it was crazy enough with the family of 9 taking over every square inch.  We stayed at a hotel a few miles from her house instead.  Violet jumped right in with her cousins, dancing and goofing around, but Calvin kept to himself playing with the toys and play slides on the Martha's front deck area.  I think he was embarassed to dance, haha!

We stayed up too late, but it was super fun.  We got to the hotel late, and got the kids to bed as soon as we could.  This particular hotel was much different than our 3 bedroom suite at the Embassy Suites last weekend.  It was standard Hampton Inn with 2 queen beds and a crib for Vanessa in the corner.  Calvin walked in the room and said "Uhh...mom? dad? where's YOUR room?" thinking there was more to it than what he saw.  In the previous hotel he and Violet had a room with two queens to themselves.  They decided which bed they would share, and we got them in PJs, brushed teeth, and they were sleeping with in 10 minutes.  Violet had some "sharing" issues, and insisted on putting her princess pillow in the MIDDLE of the bed but seeing how that wasn't going to work all that well with Calvin an inch from her head, we made her move over.  She was not to happy about it (she's got a goofy thing about tucking her head into small cozy corners that she creates) but went to sleep anyway.  Vanessa went to sleep too, and Dave and I were in bed shortly after them. 

The next morning we all slept in and decided to go eat breakfast in the lobby before we got ready for the day.  Calvin is not a happy camper if he doesn't eat with in a short time after waking up.  We had yummy waffles, yogurt, and muffins for breakfast.  The coffee was pretty decent, too!  The kids watched some cartoons on TV (I came across some OLD Loony Toons cartoons that we used to watch when we were kids and ended up watching them with the kids...Rachel, remember Bugs Bunny and the abominable snowman that melted?).  The morning was lazy, but we got ready and left in time to go to the cemetary for the burial of Grandma Butler.  It was scheduled at 1 pm and we got there a little early by 12:45.  Vanessa fell asleep in the car on the way, so we left her to sleep in the van with the windows cracked open (it was a breezy cool day), and she slept through the whole time til we got back to the van after the burial.  There were few people there, and I was asked if I could help carry the casket from the car to the burial spot.  I had never done it before, but was glad to help.  Josh and Dave were on my side, and it was still heavy.  Martha's sister Kathy was there, I remember her from YEARS ago at conference.  Uncle Roger spoke at the burial spot, and reminded us that we don't weep and mourn like others do, and our hope and faith is in Jesus Christ, the same hope and faith Grandma Butler had, and she was called home and is much happier with the Lord.  Aunt Mary brought a bunch of flowers for all the grandkids, and a flower was placed on the casket by each grandkid before being lowered underground.  We could see the box from the casket and burial spot on Grandpa Joe Butler next to Florence's spot underground.  Calvin watched the "digger man" fill the hole with dirt after she was lowered down. 

The family made lunch plans to eat at JC Georges, a favorite lunch destination of Grandmas.  Violet sat between Emily and Lynnea and wanted chicken noodle soup after watching Lynnea devour a bowl of her own soup.  Vanessa ate most of my chicken noodle soup, I got a spinach salad for lunch.  Calvin got a cheeseburger but only ate a couple bites of it. 

After lunch, there were no plans, so Dave used his place locator app on his phone to find a park we could all go to.  The kids needed a place to run around and Martha's house was not ideal.  We found a nice park a few miles from where we were, and it was a nice one!!  The weather was great too, it warmed up a little and was sunny.  All the kids ran around and entertained themselves for close to 3 hours.  We left and ate leftovers at Martha's for dinner, and went back to our hotel at a decent hour...but it was still late.  We all slept better.  Before leaving Martha's, Dave and Sean made plans to go to the Brookfield Zoo in the morning. 

Saturday we met everyone (Josh and Carrie and family, Sean and April and family) at the zoo entrance at 10 am.  We spent the WHOLE day there, from 10-6 pm.  We saw lions, tigers, zebras, giraffes, dolphins, baboons, Violet, Dave and Calvin got to touch and feed stingrays, birds, etc....there was so much to do and see.  We stopped for lunch somewhere in the middle of that time, and let the kids play on the playground equipment in the center of the zoo after lunch.  Vanessa stayed in the stroller most of the day, other than nursing breaks and diaper changes.  She took a long 2 hr snooze in the stroller while everybody wandered through the petting zoo.  She enjoyed watching what was going on.  Emily really liked holding her when she got the chance!  Vanessa ate a bowl of macaroni and cheese for lunch.  Dave rented a double stroller for V and C at the zoo which was a good decision, they got super tired of walking and liked being pushed around.  There were random peacocks running around the zoo in all sorts of places, they are such beautiful animals!

I thought it was funny to see a hungry white seagull swoop down and snatch up one of Sean's kid's peanut butter and jelly sandwich right off the table and fly off with it.  April and Josh both got pooped on by birds at lunch...ick!  Josh got hit on the back of his jacket, April got a dump right on top of her head.  She ran to the bathroom quick and washed it out. 

Well...it was time to go when the zoo closed at 6.  We said our goodbyes and packed in the van - then stopped a few places to get supper.  Dave and I first drove through Starbucks, and Violet asked if they had food at that place.  I told her there was oatmeal and banana bread, and she excitedly said she wanted oatmeal.  So we got her an oatmeal at starbuck's for supper.  Calvin wanted chicken nuggets, so we drove through and got him some nuggets at Burger King, and down the street, Dave really wanted Mr. Submarine.  So after many stops for different things, we were all fed and ready to take off for our drive home.  All 3 kids were sleeping soundly with in 20 minutes of leaving.  They all slept for 2 hours!  We enjoyed the silence. 

We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Iowa, and the rest of the trip was uneventful.  The kids woke up and were giggling and playing silly games for a little while before falling asleep again.  Vanessa wasn't too happy the last hour of the trip, crying a lot.  I think everybody was glad to be home in their beds.