Reunion Road Trip: Part Deux

The Aquarium Pictures

End of the story clips:

You are not on a real live-kids under 5 road trip unless you have used their tiny handy potty yourself while stopped in the toll line.

You have not battled paying attention to the road unless your Mother is swatting at a bee with rolled up newspaper while yelling, "Hi YA!" over and over behind you, then as the bee flies toward you (the driver), she yells, "Roll down your window!!" 

You have not enjoyed a meal with toddlers until is 100 degrees outside and during the meal in a little place with no restroom you hear, "I have to poop right now." Thus the problem, you can't let him go in the car potty since it will simmer for an hour, and you now have to get your newly-met cousin's husband ask the local auto body shop to let a 3 year old use his toilet. 

Family Reunion

As I sit at my computer and write about this past week, I have to note, that it is cloudy, raining, and under 80 degrees outside. A drastic change of pace around here if I do say so myself. Kinda nice to not have my kids yelling, "I want to swim in the pool!" at every waking moment. My mom has flown to see my sister and after putting about 1400 miles on the van in 6 days, I can't say I'm sad to be inside doing hardly anything. It's always hard to see family leave, my motivation goes out the window for a few days, thus, I will play on the computer and let the kids hang out and entertain themselves for a bit.

My mom and I packed up last Thursday morning and headed out on our journey to the Guzialek family Reunion (the first annual?). I have only met a few of my relatives on my Mom's Paternal side of the family, so it was great to meet almost all of her first cousins and their children. We left on one of the hottest days of the year so far and before we got on the road, I stopped by our car dealer to have him re-fill the freon in the air conditioner. A MUCH NEEDED comfort that day, I will tell you that much. We drove and drove watching the thermometer on the van climb and climb some more. We topped it at 105 degrees, but my last picture was 104. Peter just kept saying, "It's stinkin' hot." Since that's what I usually tell them at home. We made it to Howe, Indiana the first night, after about 7 hours of driving. I guess it's the birthplace of Lincoln? Wish I could have explored that a little more. Driving on the toll roads does not afford much sight seeing, mostly fields and rest stops. After a decent night sleep, breakfast, a jaunt on the treadmill, and packing up, we were on our way again. The storm that had hit Chicago the night before was headed right for us. I drove through some intense rain at about 40 mph for a good 20 minutes. We watched it roll in and I said, "It feels like Storm Chasers." People pulling off to let it pass and all. We sat in Chicago Friday afternoon traffic for a really long time, but made it to the hotel and our cousin's house. That night they took us to "Paradise Pup." A little place featured on the Food Network, and it was worth sitting outside, sweating while we ate. The next day after the kids got their nap in, I went to Patti and Mike's house to see the rest of the family. It's funny when you meet random people for the first time, you don't really think too much of it. When you meet cousins, their children, Great Uncles, and spouses, you instantly have a connection whether you like it or not. It's called DNA. Lucky for us, we have nice family, so meeting them was great. The kids all played well, there was lots of food, we got to hear stories and catch up in person. I hope this isn't the last time, seeing as how my husband wasn't able to come and neither was my sister. Good times had by all. Thanks again everyone for coming out. 

My brother threw the idea of going to the Shedd Aquarium out there for our Sunday activity before he flew home and we got on the road. So we drove into Chicago and saw the fish. Lots and lots of fish. It was fun, but next time I will not do it when the kids would usually be napping. They did fine in the end, but were a little bit lazy and clingy while fighting crowds of other tourists. We even had a special visit from Andrew's Aunt Jan and Uncle Don who live in Chicago as well. It was nice to see them, they hadn't met John yet and Peter was 9 months old and teething the last time we saw them. Not as pleasant of a child, we'll just say that. Glad it worked out for them to drive over and meet us. 

Back on the road in order to get out of the city before Monday morning. We made it all the way through Indiana and into Ohio for the night. Ended up in the middle of no where since Andrew booked us on Hotwire. Turned out alright, but we learned a lesson about doing research before booking next time :). The rest of the drive was nuts. It rained the entire way through PA. Not just a drizzle, I mean, the do not blink, grip the wheel, be ready for anything kind of rain, lighting, and thunder. We were totally exhausted and my shoulders were killing me by the time we pulled into Danville. The kids just started saying, "Danville, Danville, Danville." John says it "Danbull." They knew we were home right off the exit. The saying, "Home sweet home." Has not been more applicable. We had a great time, made lots of memories, and have vowed not to get in the car for more than 10 minutes in the next week or so. 

pictures continued on the next post...

It's off the Charts!

What is off the charts you might ask? Well, for one, the weather. It's 100 degrees out here and we are baking like "toasted cheesers" as they say in "Sandlot." Lathargic, dehydrated, agitated...this pretty much sums up how we feel when we aren't in the A/C or wet in the little pool or "poodle" as Ella STILL calls it. The other thing about charts, we finally finished marking all the days and Gramma Paula is HERE. Last week we picked her up in Harrisburg and took a trip to Costco before driving home. It has been nice to have company since this has been a very long week of work for Andrew. The kids are enjoying their time with her as well. We took a trip to Wilkes-Barre since Andrew was working up there for the weekend and got to swim and do a little shopping. It's always nice to have a free night in a hotel! My mom took the kids to Target yesterday by herself since I had a meeting in the morning. My friends kept telling her how brave she was for doing that :). The kids had fun and even helped her with the directions to get there. Yes, my kids know the way to Target and McDonalds. We had a thunderstorm yesterday, planning for another one tonight (we'll see), and other than trying to stay cool, we are heading to Chicago tomorrow morning. Yup. Going to a place where it is EVEN hotter than it is here. I will get to see and meet more of my extended family on my Mom's side as well as my Aunt Carol and Brother will be there. 10 hours in the car. Pray for us. We got new tires today on the van to ensure that we do not break down on I-80 in the 100 degree heat due to worn out treads. So, while at Wal-Mart, we got hungry and decided to walk to Panera. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but it is a big parking lot, a little road and a hill to Panera. We walked the cart over there and parked it in the back of the lot. A man who was letting his dog run around smiled at us and my mom said, "Getting the tires done at Wal-Mart, so we brought the cart over." He smiled again and said, "Well, it's good lunch." Yes it was, it's just that I felt totally ridiculous wheeling our cart all the way over there and on the way back, all the kids were hanging off the cart and my Mom could not stop laughing. Where did that leave me? Pushing FOUR people's weight back up and across the parking lot while listening to Peter whimper thinking a car was going to hit us while they swerved around what may have appeared as the "Beverly Hill Billies" in a shopping cart. We made it, the van was done, our tummies were full and we even got a couple cute shirts to boot. (Yes, you can find some cute stuff if you just look deep in the Wal-Mart women's section). ;)

 Fun memories. 

I will not do that again. 

Come to think of it, our stroller was in the trunk of the van the whole time. 

There we are. Cart and all.
While walking back out to the parking lot, we laughed since our "cart" was the only one of its kind parked there.

Room to Grow

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.  

~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Today this is my windowsill.
 I'm not going to lie, I actually enjoyed doing this dishes today only because of the cute flowers and colorful glass I got to look at while doing them. The big ornament that hangs in the window I got in Alaska last year. I keep it there all year  since it has pretty flowers on it.

When I was taking the picture for my sister's birthday, Peter asked to hold the vase and have a picture.
Who would say no to that? Not me.

These hair clips are selling at my friend's shop.
I wanted to keep them, but I think little girls other than Ella should have a chance to
wear such cute clips.
(Jenna and Katie, I hope to get some in the mail for Kenzie and Hayley very soon)

I made this frame to hold my earrings. There are tiny holes in the fabric where they will go.
Of course I had to embellish it with pins and old buttons. I got the frame free from a garage sale. Even better.

Yes,  I really like flowers.

Since I have had my little garden this year (pictures of that to come), I have been pretty excited about growing flowers. The Zinnia I am able to cut and enjoy inside, were planted in pots from seeds. Ella helped me plant those. We weren't sure they would survive after we got home from Alaska since some things really dried up. We watered and watched them and they started to green up again. The other thing was, that Ella was a little distracted and maybe a little excited while planting and put quite a few seeds in each pot. Later I read that they should have been planted inches apart. Oops. So basically they were choking each other and some of them needed to be removed in order for the others to thrive and make flowers. I know I have heard this lesson before, about how when we fill our lives too full of stuff, we can't enjoy or thrive in anything. Everything turns out half-effort and not as fulfilling as if we could just cut a few things out and enjoy the rest. It was weird for me to pull out what seemed to be perfectly good plants, but it wasn't until after I took away some and gave the others breathing and "rooting" room, did they finally produce buds and flower. They are colorful, happy, exciting little flowers now.

 We will do better next year while planting seeds ~ Give them room to grow ~ Lesson learned.