A Long Weekend

Ryan's Labor Day weekend started Wednesday when he was home with Daddy, but mine started Thursday. By some miracle, Ryan and I were packed up and on the road to Omaha by 8:15 am. He slept all the way over, and it was easy to get to the Henderson House. Angie and the kids pulled in the driveway about 5 minutes after we got there. It was great to see everyone! We helped Angie unload her groceries and then we just hung out and played with the kids. I was in awe of their new 3600! sq ft house. It is really nice and homey. The twins and Ben are very active and quite hilarious. The girls blame everything on Ben and also gang up on each other. For instance, Angie is disciplining Anna, and meanwhile Emma is chanting 'Spank her! Spank her!' In the afternoon the ice cream truck came by, so we had ice cream, then loaded up into the van so Ryan and I could see all the features of their neighborhood. Then Jason came home and made homemade pizza for us. After supper, we all went to the park that is just down the street. Ryan really enjoyed his first time swinging and all the kids had fun, although Anna did step on a burr. We got all the kids down for the night and watched a little tv. I hit the sack early at 10:15. The next day we just played all morning. Ryan and I left at 11 am. All the kids were getting surly and Angie had more company coming in the afternoon, so it was a good time to go.

I was going to head straight to Waterloo, but Ryan woke up when we got Des Moines. We went and looked for a new car seat and dropped by work to visit. Then we relaxed at home. Ryan seemed relieved to be in his own house. Saturday morning we didn't wake up until 9 am, then we had to go to the bank, pick up the car seat, and get gas. I didn't think we would ever get to Waterloo. We made it to Wloo at 1 pm and went to visit my grandpa in Skilled Nursing at the hospital.(He broke his hip 2 weeks ago). He was SURPRISED to see Ryan and me. We had a good visit, but I was getting tired of chasing Ryan as he crawled all over Grandpa's walker, slithered down the side of the bed, and tried to push the buttons on the bed. We finally got to the farm about 3:30. I was beat. Ryan was jazzed up and spent the whole evening getting into everything and chasing the dog, who wanted nothing to do with him. Saturday I gave Ryan a bath in a giant rubbermaid and then we headed to Wloo to see Grandpa again. Afterwards we went to Olive Garden. It took FOREVER to get our food. I think we waited for them to catch the steer and butcher him for Dad's steak. Seriously. It was that long. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and finally got back to the farm at 5:30 pm! By that time, Ryan was totally off schedule and CRAZY. He gets super hyper when he is tired. I finally got him to bed at 10:30. He was up again at 3:51 am. I ended up rocking him back to sleep in Mom's giant recliner. That was fine and dandy, but the springs are broken so you sink far down into the chair. I couldn't reach the handle to get out. Finally at 7 am my dad came and rescued me and got me out of the chair and Ryan into his bed! We left at 11 am and Ryan slept all 3 hours home. Whew. He also took a big nap with dad while I mowed the lawn. What and exhausting weekend!