Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house (Part 2)

Part 1 here.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids in front of mom and dad's house. I especially like the one of Asher--it looks like he was superimposed onto the picture!

Ainsley next to the "tree" she "planted" herself.

Super large Asher!

My parents are blessed to live by some great neighbors (who I also grew up next to). While we were there, neighbors R & M had a bonfire in their backyard to burn brush and sticks. R called when he lit it and I took the kids over to see. You can see by the picture that I didn't let them get close (it was burning pretty hot and the wind was shifting), and that I kept Asher in the stroller. Ainsley collected sticks and gave them to R to put on the fire. Neighbors T & S let us use their pool. We waited until Friday, the day before we left, because at first the kids were sick, and then it got to cool to swim for a few days (which I am definitely not complaining about!). The water was chilly, but the kids liked it. Ainsley like the fountain that flows into the pool, and Asher enjoyed splashing.

Watching the fire at R & M's house

On her quest for sticks to fuel the fire, Ainsley captured this poor little frog. I think he came out of his experience ok, but I am sure that he was shaken up a bit!

Asher trying to jump out of my arms into the water

Ainsley hanging out on the steps

On Thursday, Dad and I hopped in the truck and drove 3 hours to deliver furniture to Sarah at her apartment. We all 3 worked and got it up the stairs. Then Dad worked on fixing and installing things (blinds, etc.) while I helped Sarah get things situated. I think it was a fruitful trip. It is always hard to get things feeling like home after you move, and I think having us there helped to make the apartment more like home for them. We hit traffic on the way home, so it took us a lot longer to return than it did to go. Dad did all of the hard driving, but started to feel sleepy, so I took over for the last part of the trip. I haven't driven a standard in probably 10 years, but it came back to me pretty well. I didn't stall or give us whiplash, even in stop and go traffic. :-)

The day we left, we had to get the kids up at 4 AM to make our plane. We expected no traffic, but there was a sign that the highway we needed was closed, so dad found us an alternate route. When we got to the airport, I put Asher in his stroller and got his car seat onto my back. Somehow in the confusion of saying goodbye, Ainsley took off. I swung around to chase her, and the car seat on my back hooked onto Asher's stroller. It swung him around, flipped the stroller and pushed his face really hard into the concrete. It was awful to see. He had 2 fat lips and a cut up mouth. We checked his teeth, and they seemed ok, so we headed on to the plane. The next day he had pretty big scabs above his lips. I didn't get a picture of that, but below you can kind of see his fat lips. There's nothing like the feeling of knowing you hurt your own kid. I am thankful that he wasn't hurt worse than he was.

I did pretty well on the planes. I had Asher in his car seat, and for Ainsley I had a harness called Cares. This is the first time we have had it. It worked pretty well, not quite as well as I thought it would, but still definitely worthwhile. I think the kids ate pretty much the entire time we were on the plane, but to keep them happy, I let them do it. Jon picked us up, and then we all took much needed naps!