This Sunday evening the task feels especially daunting, as we've been on break from work and school since Wednesday evening. We are not looking forward to getting back into the swing of things tomorrow morning.
Happily, I can write that we took full advantage of our time off. Since Dave had to work through Halloween, I packed the boys up and traveled north to spend the weekend with my family; my parents and all of my seven siblings. All of the boys did so well away from home. The rockiest part was the actual trip to and from my mom and dad's house. Emmett is not much for road trips, and quite vocal in his displeasure. Besides the 200+ miles of misery, our weekend went perfectly.
We squeezed in a visit (full of squeezes itself) with my good friend Lora who I have not seen in over a year (hard to believe...) I got to see, for the first time, Lora's beautiful new home.
And Lora got to meet our Rubin.
Of course, she's seen him plenty of times in photos and even heard him here and there in the background of our telephone conversations. But this was their first meeting. And her reaction to Rubin, live, was remarkably similar to the first time that I saw my son in Seoul... Lora couldn't believe that he is still just a baby. How small. Not grown up yet, at all.
Rubin made himself right at home. Digging right into Z's toys and rummaging through Lora's kitchen cabinets. Squealing, delightfully, over her little dog.
Our visit wasn't long enough, and I'm already looking forward to our next time.
Upon our return to Gramma's house we found Emmett with a much needed haircut (thank you, Mom!)
and cousins fresh from M with their mama, waiting to play.
I loved spending the afternoon at my mom's house with my sister Jessica and all of our kids. We spent as much time as we could outdoors: swinging, playing in the sandbox, tossing and kicking the football, playing "Simons says", and racing.
I can't help but include this following set of photos:
Yes, that is my 34 year old sister engaged in a foot race with our children and my parents' little neighbor girl.
Yes, that is the same said sister one-handedly wrangling and tossing her 7 year old son, who was quite clearly whooping her butt, to the ground.
Can you say, "competitive?"
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Saturday was, of course, Halloween!
The boys and I got to Trick-or-Treat this year with all of our (little) P family cousins. Jonah and Ethan, Macy and Ellie, Gabe, Lucy, and Nora. We had a great time, and I do believe that we were the cutest bunch out and about.
After about an hour hitting the streets for loot, we all snuggled in to Aunt Meggan's house for soup (homemade chili, chicken noodle, and country mushroom... yum!) and sandwiches, wine and (of course) some candy. We did our best to tire them all out anticipating that, with the time change, everyone would be up and ready to go again at 5:30am. Success this morning was sweet when 1.) all of the kids slept until nearly 7am and 2.) my big sister allowed me to crawl back into bed and catch a few more zzzzzzzz. (Thank you, Aunt Sica!)
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Brunch this morning was an excellent ending to our long weekend at home. I was thrilled to be able to get a photo of all of my brothers and sisters, together in one place.
We gathered to send my youngest brother off, as he and his boyfriend are relocating to California.
Get ready, Uncle Eli and Damon, because with highs of 40 degrees in our forecast, we might be visiting sooner rather than later!
11 comments:
Fun, fun, fun. LOVE the footrace. Hilarious. Are you that fierce a competitor too? Yikes!
And I cannot get over Emmett's BEE-utiful hair! So lovely. And yahoo for a happy weekend!!!
just so we're clear... i felt i had to slow gabe down in order to even the score from accidently plowing over little emily at the turn. you failed to include the last pic, where i went down with him and emily and lucy won. so there. tee hee hee. field goals with gabe and emily was my favorite.
i love the pictures. the blurry streaks of the competitors. you and all of your siblings. so great to see you all in one place. and the sweet halloween costumes. how lovely for lora to meet rubin. i can't wait for my first meeting with him next summer.
xo
It looks like you have an AWESOME family! And that you all like to have a little fun. Hard to tell who are the kids and who are the adults :)
Loving Rubin's giraffe costume!
looks like a wonderful time with family!
I think I remember some competitive racing in that same backyard! Did you make the kid's costumes? They are fantastic. And you look so beautiful in the picture with your family. I called you yesterday while I was standing in the middle of the NYC marathon. What an inspiration. Can't wait for you to do it!
miss you,
e
P.S. I am flying back to Seymour late Friday night on Nov 27th (day after thanksgiving) and will be there until Thursday Dec 3.
Ohhhh too funny! Looks like you guys had a blast, with a weekend full of big and little happenings.
And Jessica--just admit to it--you might be faster but the kids have moves we only can vaguely remember! They can be slippery little stinkers!
Oh--and can I hop on that California visit with you?? I'm just cold--and I'm not liking it!
Looks and SOUNDS like so much fun!! Eek.
And yes, I love that our boys really still are babies. Even if said baby in this house figured out how to move side table over to fish tank to allow for "sharing" with the fish. Great.
um, erin, are we talking about the same emily? did she MAKE them? she would've done that when?
and, she would have done that HOW?!
My three favorite things are:
1) the pics of Jessica. She is hilarious, so cute and SO competitive. Love that about her.
2) Your trick or treat pics. Sorry I am so behind. Looks like you had a great time.
3) The picture of Eli and Damon. It was so great seeing them, meeting Damon. I am friends with them both now on FB! :)
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