Vacation Day Three and Four

We spent the evening at the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding - a nice but still short service (which was nice with the three kids) the bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome and the vows and ceremony went off without any trouble. Weddings always make me appreciate more my own husband and family and how blessed we are. I truly enjoy them and love spending time at weddings with Serona. The kids behaved much better than I expected and we were off to the reception which was a lot of fun.

Rhiannon really enjoyed herself spending all the time she could convincing people to dance with her and listen to her. She danced with all of Serona's cousins and his uncle. She even got to dance with the bride which I believe was the highlight of her night, she kept telling everyone! When Serona or I would ask to dance it was as if she were reluctant to give up some of her precious dancing time though she did enjoy dances with both of us. At one point in the evening when one of Serona's cousins asked her to dance she said "I'll have to get back to you" as if she had a dance card and it was all full! It was funny simply because she is only 5! She was beautiful in the dress she picked out and realy enjoyed dancing.

Ciaran ate WAY too much chocolate that evening. As many of you know our kids rarely get sweets and so when they do it is a real treat - but it also sends their systems into a shock of some sort when they have more than they should. He was so wound up - he tied ribbons around his head - and it made him look like a Native American and he was running around the table and hiding under it. Finally I took him outside and literally had him run laps with me. He ran between me and a wall MANY times. To keep him interested I had him act like a different animal each time (frog, lion, tiger, bunny, cheetah, kangaroo, fish, deer, antelope, monkey, baboon, cat, dog, pig, cow and many others I am not remembering). People who were walking by stopped to look and comment on how much fun he was having. At first I was concerned people would think he was being bad - but I did not get one negative comment - mostly positive about how creative I was being or how cute he was. It was a great way to burn out his energy and he was in a better mood when we went back into the reception hall.

Sirah pretty much just walked us the whole night. Serona and I took turns walking around the reception hall with her. She enjoyed running around and going up to people, opening drawers and crawling under coffee tables out in the main area. She walked around inside the ballroom when it was appropriate and spent some time in the sling. Mostly we walked laps around the reception hall.

Despite keeping up with the kids who kept us quite busy - Serona and I actually were able to visit with our family and truly enjoy ourselves at the wedding. We worked so well as a team and took turns seamlessly that we were all still able to enjoy ourselves and avoid any battle of the wills. While we did not accept bad behavior we tried to preempt much of it and were successful for the most part and everyone enjoyed themselves. The kids crashed within about 30 seconds of coming back to the hotel and for the first time in FOREVER they slept until nearly 8am! I was in shock!

The morning was a lot of fun - we started with a big family cuddle time us and all the kids in bed - laughing and playing and rolling around. We got a phone call to join our family for breakfast before it devolved into pillow fights - but we were nearly there. Then we headed to breakfast and visited with family we do not get to see too often. Then it was off to the grooms parents (Serona's aunt and uncle) for a day of visiting the bride and groom spent a good amount of time there which was a wonderful surprise. The kids enjoyed playing with Serona's cousins and I think they helped wear the kids out some! I love spending time with our family - they are the kind of people that the more time you spend with them the more you want to spend time with them. There were people we haven't seen in 1, 3, 5 and even 7 years there and it is as if no time goes by and everyone just jumps right back into your life and loves you for who you are right now. It is refreshing to not need to make excuses or apologies and to just understand each other and know that the love is there. I feel so welcome and loved in this family as do my kids.

We finally got on the road around 3pm to head home - anticipating a 12-15 hour drive depending how much time we take for stops. After being on the road for several hours and nearly to Chicago - we realize that we have left Serona's computer back at the hotel! A quick call confirmed that they indeed did have it and as it is for work we needed it immediately and could not wait for it to be shipped so we turned the car around and backtracked the entirety of Indiana that we had covered! Then we debated staying another night at the hotel and starting in the morning or pushing through and traveling while the kids slept. Based on the fact that the kids had been miserable in the car that afternoon and we did not want a repeat we decided to push on through. It was around 11pm when we started out from Indianapolis the second time with a car full of food and munchies.

Serona and I took turns driving and sleeping and the kids thankfully slept nearly the whole way home. As tired as we were today we made the right decision driving through the night as we made excellent progress when the kids were asleep and the kids had patience left for the early morning push as they slept all night. Serona and I were both able to actually sleep in the car and then keep ourselves awake with books on tape, music and of course the grace of God who was watching over our journey home. We finally pulled into our driveway nearly 20 hours after we started the 10 hour trip. We unloaded, unpacked and cleaned the car and then Serona graciously let me take a wonderful nap while he watched some of the Star Wars trilogy with the kids. I awoke and then sent him to bed for the evening while I read to the kids and continued with the trilogy. I will go to sleep as soon as they all do as well!

It was a great vacation. We had some challenging moments but overall we made it into a great time. Tomorrow for school I have some followup work from the trip - papers and activities we picked up along the way and discussions based off the weekend. We will also finish up B week and play catch up from the weekend we missed.

Peace,
Tenn