The trip was a sweet time with my parents; I will let you figure out where the sour came in.
This flight was the first one in a long time for all the kids. A would not even remember her first flight at 6 months old. It was at the perfect time in the afternoon that the kids should have slept on the plane. Not my kids... A insisted her window shade be down and was a bit fussy during the flight. E and D did better but no naps. Fortunately, the plane was half empty and we had no one in front of or behind us. And the ipad worked its wonders...as did the front pocket emergency evacuation reading material. :)
We arrived rather late Tuesday afternoon and got to my parents' house in time for dinner. After dinner, the overly exhausted kids went downstairs to their room. A was in a hall in the pack and play and E and D were to share a lovely room downstairs. An hour after bedtime M and I could still hear the kids rustling around. My mom suggested we should just ignore them. An hour later, ditto. Finally, I went downstairs to check on them. (only three hours after our arrival at my parent's house) I walked into the sitting room to find clothes strewn all over the floor. Feeling a bit frustrated, it only got worse. I next discovered simultaneously paper from crayons (which I did not remember were in their backpacks in the sitting room) all over the floor and far worse...crayon scribbling all over the wall, the nightside table, the pictures on the wall and a few markings on the sheets! I was livid! I fear I did not respond in a patient, Godly fashion. When I asked David whether he knew this was wrong and why he just let his sister do this, he replied," I now know it's wrong." Poor naive boy! And E? What was she thinking?!?! She has never done anything like this. EVER! And she is so mature most of the time! She apparently, in a rare moment of naivete, also seemed to not comprehend the error in her ways. We quickly set that straight, I proceeded to cry most of the rest of the night. What a way to start our vacation!
what I saw at first
what I really saw, once the overhead lights were turned on. (underhandedly taken by M which did not show the full magnitude of the room)
Wednesday was still lovely weather and eager to get out of the house (hmmm. I wonder why?), my mom suggested taking us to a park she had never been to before. It was a huge, lovely, rather remote-feeling place. Autumn showed its true beauty there. Both Abigail and Elizabeth took turns being a bit cranky. (late night combined with no naps the day before)
The girls spent the afternoon playing dress-up while David built with legos. Even I got into the spirit of it. :) The most fun was taking pictures of 3 generations in my Mom's original wedding dress and hat, now turned dress-up. I think it looked the most natural possibly on E. (and again,love her posing! :) )
And the pictures of A in the wedding dress, just remind me of the story of "Where Did the Baby Go?"
Thursday was my birthday. Seeing how it had cooled down significantly, we spent the day primarily indoors. We headed to Columbus' magnificent main library. I remembered it from years earlier but had had no reason to check out the children's area at that time. This time, I was completely impressed (and a bit jealous) of this particular section. The book selection was quite large, and the area very well geared to readers, artists, techies (D played on one of the ipads almost the whole time), learners (E practiced phonics on one of the computers), and socializers (lots of fun chairs, toys etc.). And it was almost entirely empty!
PS: enjoy the sight of the cell tower-turned-pine tree right near my parent's house--on the way to the library.
That evening, my parents celebrated my birthday by getting a babysitter (actually twins) and taking us to a thai restaurant and afterward to a chamber music recital. The local university apparently has many of these student recitals...some more worthwhile than others. It was fun to listen to. The baroque music (much of which, Mozart) was lovely and quite skilled musicians. Not such a fan of the more modern music. Except the last percussion piece that fascinated me watching the rhythm that was so desperately required.
Friday was another cold day. We went to the mall to check out the little kid play area inside. Gram splurged on an overpriced shopping cart that barely fit my kids (thought we might have to call the emergency squad to get D out again), but they loved it!
We spent a quiet afternoon doing art/crafting. We tried to rehabilitate E and gave her some crayons once more...only to be used at our declaration and only on the given paper!
That evening we had another evening out without kids. We went to a local restaurant where there was to be a jazz concert. Unfortunately, we had the time wrong and ended up with standing room only to enjoy one song before venturing into the rather full dining room to eat dinner. The one song we did hear was fantastic!
Saturday and Sunday were full of a few errands, church, and more just relaxing. We did start a puzzle over the weekend...which the cat tried her best to dismantle, but despite all that, we were able to finish it just in time for us to leave on Tues. It was one of the hardest puzzles I have ever done--and it was only 500 pieces!
Sunday night we tried to get out a few wiggles by visiting a local school playground. Not sure how effective it was, but...
Monday had warmed up a tiny bit before it was supposed to get bitter. So we took a walk around the neighborhood a bit. David came up in the following jeans, not realizing that they were not his own. I took a second look, quickly taking in the length. Only to determine, they were not E's but A's! And David had even snapped them! E too had a bit of trouble dressing. See below for her little backward feet (not too out of the ordinary though). The colors on the walk were magnificent although the rain had taken most of the leaves off the tree that just earlier in the week had looked liked the burning bush of Exodus. (too bad, I missed my opportunity to catch those pictures earlier on).
Monday night we celebrated Christmas with the kids. They opened their Christmas presents from Gram and GDaddy so we did not have to pack all the wrappings. They loved modeling in their new dress up clothes!
Monday night was rough since A was up half the night crying. Not exactly sure why, although she did end up with a cold our last day there. We were all pretty cranky that morning. Time to go! The weather had turned QUITE chilly (enough for ice on the burning bush tree).
We flew out late afternoon this time. This meant we left right after lunchtime to get to airport on time. A did not get a nap. By the time the plane took off at 4:30, she was pretty delirious. She cried/slept/cried/cried some more the whole flight. Rather rough! It was time for us all to be back in our own beds...Only sickness caught up to several of us once we got home...
A trip, sweet and sour...but mostly sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment