A Tale of the Traveling Sisters

My sister and I and all FIVE of our kids took a road trip back to our old stomping grounds of southwest Iowa. One of our cousins got married on Friday night, but we made several other stops along the way.

We left at 10:00a on Friday. The first stop (after stopping in Adair to eat sack lunches and feed the baby boys) was to visit my grandma and grandpa in Red Oak, Iowa. Brady and Mya gave Kate and I a hard time because we drove past the Red Oak water tower four different times trying to find my aunt's house! Bummer that they are old enough to know we were lost! Kate and I were laughing hysterically.

One of our cousins and his family (who live in Utah) happened to be visiting at the same time. We haven't seen them in about five years. Below are a bunch of grandpa and grandma's great grandchildren. Only four were missing. Angelica (holding Abram) is half Hispanic and had been looking forward to meeting Abram!
We left Red Oak and drove to Treynor, Iowa, to the friend's house (Josh & Shelly Guttau) where we were spending the night so we could catch our breath and get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was in Council Bluffs. We unloaded everyone out of the car and got three steps away from the car when Kate and I realized we forgot Greysen! Had we gotten further away, it might not have been so funny, but we laughed pretty hard about it.

I don't have any pictures of the actual wedding or the bride and groom (oops). But, plenty of pictures of the kids at the reception.

Sydney only took a nose-dive off of her chair THREE times during the evening. That girl is quite the rough one! Jason and I have her pinned as the athletic one of the bunch.

I mostly hung out with Abram at the reception . . . while supervising Sydney eating her cupcake, which was quite the mess as you can see above!

Mr. Big Eyes!

Kate & Greysen

Good thing Dad was with us. He had Greysen-duty most of the time . . .

After the wedding and the girls had a BLAST playing with Joslyn Guttau, who is four. They were like three peas in a pod!

Saturday morning (late morning) we met Dad and Mitch for breakfast at the Treynor Clubhouse (at the golf course). Kate and I had our very first jobs in high school at this place! Dad's best friend, Kenny, joined us too, of course.

Uncle and the boys (thank you Brady for displaying the lovely menu!)

Papa and Abram

After breakfast (which was now noon), Mitch took the kids for a ride in the golf cart. Sydney wasn't loving it so much.

Our next stop was to visit one of Kate and my best friends from high school, Dana (bummer, no pictures of this stop). She lives in Treynor and her and her husband just had their second baby last week. So, it was good timing to stop to see them.

The other great timing is that our cousin Donell had her baby on Friday. We knew she was due that day, but didn't know if we she would have the baby during the time we were back for the wedding. At the beginning of last week, we found out she would be induced on Friday. So, Saturday afternoon, we got to go see her in the hospital in Omaha.

Donell with Courtney Lois Kvall

She is such a doll!

It was such a blessing to get to see her!

Unlike Mary Greeley Hospital, the kids got to be in the room. Aunt Janell (Donell's mom) held Abram the whole time.

And she entertained Mya. I learned on this trip that Mya is introverted. We were in several different situations with several people she didn't know very well. At first, Kate and I thought she was tired, but when she would get in the car and just her and Brady would play or when she played with Joslyn (who she knows), she would be SO happy and like a whole different girl. I identified it easily because I am introverted and know the feeling of being with a lot of people you don't know very well.

Meanwhile, Uncle Wendell (my dad's brother . . . can't you tell!), entertained Sydney and Greysen . . .

Brady became obsessed with the camera and must have taken this one of Uncle Wendell and Sydney being so silly!

We got home around 8:00p on Saturday. I think we got in and out of the car a total of 19 times in the 35 hour trek! At one point I was carrying Abram in his car seat in my right hand and carrying a very sleeply Sydney on my left hip. No wonder my shoulders were killing me yesterday! Even though Kate and I were WIPED OUT by the time we got home, it was such a fun trip and definitely something I'm sure we will do again. Praise the Lord for allowing me to be a mom and not work so I could do this with my sister. It was priceless!

How Long Does It Take to Suffocate A Chipmunk?

. . . We are about to find out!

This morning after I turned on the dryer, I heard an animal running around in my dryer vent. Of course I FREAKED OUT! Jason thought I was deathly ill or something. I was so glad he was still home.

Jason went downstairs and let me know it was "definitely bigger than a mouse." Great. I stayed upstairs while I heard Jason banging around downstairs. It was a chipmunk. GROSS! He literally tore apart the utility room trying to catch it, as you can see below . . .

And tried to set up a barrier to keep it enclosed.
The chipmunk made its way from the utility room into the storage room (at least the storage room is much smaller!). Jason said the chipmunk jumped and he was able to put the bucket over it as it landed!! He yelled at me to come help him and this is how I found him in the storage room. I died laughing! And then said, "wait a minute, I have to go get my camera!"

The chipmunk is under the bucket, duct-taped to the floor . . .

. . . with a bag over the bucket!

Had I been willing to help, perhaps we could have gotten the chipmunk into the bag and outside. But, I hate ALL animals of every shape and size and I refused to even take a look at that nasty chipmunk who made its way into my house through my dryer vent! Just seeing its tail wiggle once through the bucket made me shriek with horror!

So, the chipmunk is currently waiting to suffocate to death in our storage room in the basement.

The Kids

Until we have more than one child, "the kids" will still mean my sisters kids. Many people have asked me what Kate's kids think of Abram. Of course they love him a lot and they love that they get to see him a lot (they have a lot of cousins on their dad's side of the family, but don't get to see them very often).

I have loved getting to watch Kate's kids for her during the day so she can run errands. The past two Fridays, the kids (except Brady) have come over to my house for the morning and for lunch.

This was the scene for most of the first Friday morning. The girls were playing school and the boys were lounging.
What cuties! More and more lately Mya and Sydney remind me of Kate and I when we were litte. We did everything together. Sydney is now old enough to do whatever Mya is doing. It is so fun. I didn't have them pose for this picture . . . they were both sitting on the one seat coloring on their own.
And they helped me take care of the boys . . .

Perhaps someday these two -who are just 5.5 months apart in age - will be the same size. If their sizes now are any indication of the future, Greysen will definitely be the linebacker on the football team and Abram will be the d-back (Jason had to help me with that one)!

This past Friday morning, we had a very special guest . . . Roonee (Renee Nesbitt). The four of us girls had a little coffee time . . . well, the little girls were eating cheese and crackers.

Today was Brady's last day of school. (I can't believe he just finished kindergarten!) He got out before lunch, so Kate and all the kids came over with sack lunches to celebrate. We were going to go to the park, but it was raining a little. So, we had a picnic on my living room floor. So fun! Jason's mom, Rhonda, is staying with us for a few days, so she got to join the picnic, too!

Have I mentioned I'm loving this staying home thing?