My trip to Spotsylvania County

Last week I had the great fortune of being able to go to Virginia to visit my brother's family. My sister-in-law Natalie is recovering from major surgery so I got to "play mom/ fun aunt". It was really fun because I almost never see the grand-babes over on that coast since they only get to come to the West for bi-annual family reunions. So what did I do?

I took the three youngest to Funland. They had two rules 1. No crying and 2. Stick together. I am happy to say that they did great, despite more Madalyn face planting and hurting her poor little nose. Here's Madalyn, Brenner and Caitrin posing for me during put put.
I also went to the 3D version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Here's me, Caitrin, Madalyn, Conner, Brenner and Parker posing in our ultra cool 3D glasses.
I Supervised fabulous bubble baths.

I spent tons of time in their pool. Which I just have to say thank heavens for pools in Virginia. There's nothing more refreshing on a hot muggy day than jumping in a just cool enough pool and having your body say "aaaaaaaah".

The last day before I left I took the oldest three, Caitrin, Conner and Parker to King's Dominion. Virginia's local amusement park. They were given the same rules, no crying and stick together. Parker decided to add in rule #3 - no dying. Very appropriate.
My two favorite memories of the day were 1. almost throwing up on poor Conner. We went on a Tuesday when there are no lines. This is great for seeing everything in the park and more but bad for my stomach. No good when I go from ride to ride with no opportunity in the middle to let my tum tum return to some sort of normalcy. The kids were really nice and didn't make fun of me at all. They seemed content to go on the Scooby Doo ride which their 3-year old brother goes on and pretty much call it a day. Super Champs!!

My other favorite memory of the day came on the ride home when I took everyone to Dairy Queen before having to drop Conner off at his Basketball Camp. We killed time by taking our ice cream cones to the van to finish watching a DVD. The car was just as hot as the outside and poor Caitrin's cone started falling over. I would have dumped the cone and bemoaned my fate but not Caitrin. As she was being banished to the outside she handed her cone to Conner with strict instructions not to eat it while she ate the top portion in her hands. Her face was covered in vanilla ice cream, not to mention her hands, shoes and legs which caught the droppings. One of the few times in my life when I really really wished I had a camera.

So that's it. The week before I spent a week visiting friends and family and working in Oregon and then I met Matt in Seattle and drove to Eastern Oregon to hang out with his family. Now I'm home and excited to get back to a normal sleep schedule. I'm getting old.