We went to Chicago this past weekend to attend the memorial service for Dave's Grandma Butler. The original plan was for Dave to go himself, go there Friday after work and come right back afterwards on Saturday. But then I found out Rachel was going to be in Chicago for an ortho alumni thing, and we made plans to get together Saturday night downtown at the restaurant (Leopold) that my cousin Christy and her husband opened in January. Dave's cousin Kala also came with us.
We had planned on leaving for Chicago right after Dave got off work on Friday, but he was so bogged down with stuff to accomplish before the weekend that he worked until 7 pm, much later than he and I wanted. We also had to deal with the truck which had a dead battery and was stuck in the Hertz parking lot on University Avenue. It was a frustrating afternoon/evening for me because I was trying to handle 3 kids, pack up stuff and load the car at the same time. To make a long story short, we did not leave Cedar Falls until close to 9 pm. We got to Dave's mom's house at 1:30 am - I don't remember much of the trip because we were both tired. The kids slept, Vanessa was awake the most, crying the last hour of the trip. Dave was starting to get really sleepy at the wheel so I used his phone to look up some of the lyrics of his favorite songs and he sang songs to keep himself awake. It was actually pretty funny, we got the "goonies" the last hour of the trip because his performances were hilarious. He managed to perform "Bohemian Rhapsody" while navigating through Chicago traffic at 1 am. It worked to wake him up!
When we got to Martha's house, the kids thought it was MORNING. Yeah...not so fun. They were awake as could be, jumped on the beds, ran around the basement, and were giggling and playing games. Vanessa was crawling around and growing and sqwaking for a long time. We just wanted them to go to SLEEP so we could sleep. It wasn't until close to 2:45 am that they finally settled down and went to sleep. Violet slept on the floor on a bed of blankets, Calvin got the twin bed, and Dave and I slept in the full size bed - all in the same room. Vanessa slept in the crib in the basement outside our room, but she did not sleep well. She woke up many times crying. That next morning was a drag. Nobody seemed happy and we barely managed to get showered, fed, dressed, and out of the house to the memorial service (which was 45 min away) in Wheaton by 11:00. The kids ate oatmeal at Martha's house but Dave and I didn't have time for breakfast so we stopped at BK and got sausage and egg muffin sandwiches on the way.
The memorial service was very nice. It was held at College Church in Wheaton, about 60 people were there. Florence's sister Madeline was there, she is 76, and flew in from North Carolina. I recognized a lot of people. Lots of family from Joe Butler's brother were there, Betsy Hunt and all her siblings....I can't remember them all. Lots of stories and memories were shared. Martha stood up and retold about the last hours that Aunt Laura had with Grandma Butler. Dave sat with Violet and Calvin, I walked around and bounced Vanessa - she was restless, wiggly, and loud...so I was very distracted.
Lunch was provided so we walked across the street to an area where it was being served. Chicken, rice, and sugar snap peas were served. Dave and I thought it was good but the kids didn't - they barely touched it, preferring dinner rolls. To avoid the fight, we just let them eat dinner rolls. There was a TV set up in another room next to the room we were all eating, and I learned that Dave's aunt Mary had asked for a TV to be put there so the kids could have something to watch - Josh and Carrie brought some Elmo movies. The video kept them entertained for a short time, but they just started running around - Violet found some "secret passage" which was actually just two doors that led to a hallway between the two rooms. She attached to some older girls which are actually Dave's 2nd cousins once removed or something like that - age 15 and 20, they were happy to play with them. They performed cartwheels and tricks. Calvin followed Violet around like a puppy. Vanessa cried, I fed her, and she took a nap in the stroller. Dave and I talked with people there for a couple hours....until we decided it was time to go. Kala and I had to catch the train downtown at 5:20 so I had to get back to Martha's house to change clothes.
The evening turned out to be really fun. Dave was kind enough to take all the kids under his care for the night while I went out to eat at Leopold, the restaurant that my cousin Christy and her husband Don opened in January. Rachel, Kala and I enjoyed the atmosphere, lighting, and especially the food. Christy was busy expediting orders in the kitchen, busy as a bee. The food was delicious!! We had oysters and wine for an appetizer on the house, fries with lamb sausage gravy and cheese curds with some delicious undescribable sauce that was sweet and salty, pierogies, and short ribs with potatoes. For dessert we tried their cheesecake with fresh berries and strawberry sauce (on the house!), and some chocolate mousse. Our taste buds were majorly pleased - every dish was fantastic. Some pear cider to finish the night, and we had to leave to catch the train back to the suburbs. Christy was able to sneak away for a few minutes to greet us, we snapped a pic just to prove it, and we had to go. I wish we could have seen Christy for longer. The weather in Chicago that night was MISERABLE. It was freezing cold, raining, windy, and the umbrella we tried to use kept getting blown insideout. Rachel had met us by coming in a separate cab, so we left her there with Christy, and Kala and I headed straight for Union Station, thinking we were barely going to make our train ride back but turns out, we had the schedule mixed up and were 15 minutes early. We got seats on the 2nd deck together which was nice.
Dave had taken the kids to Josh and Carrie's house for the evening, and stayed late too....so the Lord worked out the timing in an amazing way. I stepped off the train at the station in Berwyn, and called Dave to see where he was so he could pick me up. The drive back to Grandma Martha's house from Josh and Carrie's is about an hour long, so I really didn't know how long I'd be waiting for him to come. When he answered the phone, I asked him where he was, and he said "3 blocks from the train station in Berwyn". amazing! So he pulled up, I got in the van, and we all got back to Martha's. The transition to beds was much smoother than the night before. All 3 kids were truly exhausted and transferred to their beds smoothly and kept sleeping.
Sunday morning we decided to stay home so we could have some down time and pack up all our stuff (which seemed to explode somehow everywhere in Martha's house...clothes and stuff were in every corner of the main floor!). Dave and I had some coffee together in her kitchen with the 3 kids running around - Calvin enjoyed playing in the basement with all the "boy toys". We managed to get showered, dressed, and the van packed (that whole packing up process felt like trying to pour molasses....just crawled along at its own pace no matter our effort to speed up) by 12:15. We were trying to make it to Uncle Roger and Aunt Mary's house by 12:30 for lunch....problem is...it takes 45 minutes to get there. We let them all know by text that we'd be late and don't wait for us. But when we got there, they were all sitting down to eat. The meal was delicious and very pleasant. The kids sat well, ate hot dogs (they weren't real keen on salmon and couscous salad), and conversed pretty well with everyone.
The dinner conversation turned toward everybody remembering things that Grandma Butler made in the kitchen. Roger and Tim remembered saltine crackers and sauteed celery as a snack. Florence's sister Madeline said they stored things in lard because there was no refrigeration in the jungle in Africa where they grew up. Talking to Aunt Madeline was so interesting. She always had a big smile on her face, was very cheerful, and it was almost like talking to Florence because she spoke the same way, said words the same way with the same "accent", sort of looked like her, and had the same eyebrows. She is 76. I know this because Violet asked her how old she was. Madeline made her guess and keep going up and up and up. Violet said "wow!" when she got the number 76. It must seem so big to a 5 yr old mind.
Josh remembered her "tomato bake". Dave remembered she always made scrambled eggs with whatever else was in the fridge....always a surprise there. There were more but I can't remember.
We spent the next 2 or 3 hours at Roger and Mary's house. There wasn't much for the kids to do so Mary put on a Frosty the Snowman movie for them to watch. When that movie was over, Violet found the piano and started playing songs. She knows "Joyful Joyful we adore Thee", Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Jesus Loves Me by ear...., Mary, who is also a great piano teacher, was right there with her trying to teach her how to touch the piano keys. Everyone ended up in the piano room and Violet wanted to put on a show for everybody. She had the idea to sing a round of Row Row Row Your Boat with everybody in the room - so that was about 8 of us. We did it, and it made her face light up hearing all the harmony. The Butler family can sing!
It was time to go, so we packed up our stuff, said goodbyes, and packed in the van. We made a stop at Starbucks on our way out and headed back to Iowa. We took a different route back home than we usually do to see if it was shorter, but it was hard to know, since we stopped for an hour to have dinner.
I think we got home somewhere close to 11. The kids went right to sleep. Monday morning was difficult. I had to drag Violet out of bed to get to school...I probably should have just let her sleep now that I look back at the day. Vanessa slept in until NOON.
Looking forward to getting our family "back in the swing of things" with out packing up and traveling every few days for 3 weeks straight. Even though it is hard to travel, it is also a huge blessing. Getting away from home makes us miss it, the kids get to connect with family, do different things, and learn the importance of getting together with family even though they don't realize they're learning it now.
Keep writing and I will keep reading!
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