Weekend Trip

Not appreciating the Efron

We hadn’t been up north since Christmas – so Otto’s third birthday was just the perfect reason to make a weekend trip. Since we weren’t making it a long weekend, we decided to have the girls ride the bus home and we would get out of town a little before the official end of the work day. Which was a super good plan. Until Mike called me and said that the entire network was down at the theater and he needed to stay until he could get them up and running again.

So I ran through Target with my giant bag of dog food, scurried to preschool to scoop up Declan, and caught all the lights back to our house to get to the bus stop by the skin of our teeth. Luckily we had Ms. Katie in our back pocket – who would have snagged the girls if D and I had not made it. As it turned out, Ms. Katie was the only mom in the neighborhood who had it pulled together and she was basically collecting every child from the bus.

Leprechauns

The kids and I got home and Mike called to tell me they were back online and he was on his way. Whew! We managed to hit the road shortly after 4pm – not too shabby based on the previous hour of mania. About an hour into the trip, I went to put a movie on for the kids and the DVD player was all sorts of uncooperative. While disappointed, the kids took the news pretty well and hung in there until Milaca when we made a pit stop at Subway for dinner.

I was able to fix the DVD player and the melodious sounds of High School Musical 2 propelled us to Grand Rapids. Or at least four of us. Someone did not find Zac Efron as delicious as the rest of us did. My favorite moment was when the entire back seat sang most of the “dancing baseball” scene and Mike died a little inside.

Just the sweetest buddies

We made it to Rapids shortly after 8pm and got a fun visit from Auntie Tracey, Nate, and Ben before we trundled the troops off to bed. Ben’s my practice for how I’m going to feel someday when D is taller than me. If my current state of mind is any indication, I’m not going to like it!

Saturday was all sorts of busy, but also pretty laid-back and relaxing. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s how it felt. The kids and I headed to the gymnastics academy mid-morning for Otto’s kid party. They had a great time tumbling, jumping, rough-housing, and eating cake. They did not have fun when I told them that we actually didn’t get to be there all day and needed to leave.

Birthday boy!

While Dec took a very needed nap, Quinn and Auntie had a headstand contest. We decided Grammy won because nothing in her house was broken during this "athletic" event. Then Auntie and I hunted through the shed and brought in our old Barbie stuff … “for the girls.” We had a great time setting up our old surf shop and campsite – and marveled at the super stylish clothes that Barbie had in the bin. Yikes! The girls, especially Fiona, spend the whole afternoon playing with them. Dec even joined in when he woke up.

Meanwhile, Mike and my dad were ice fishing on the bay. In the direct sunlight. Mike walked in late afternoon and all anyone could say was “WOW!” It was 4^th of July quality sunburn, which is pretty impressive for mid-March! After pizza dinner, we squeezed in one more visit with Nate and Tracey and the girls played with Auntie Tracey’s Barbies (there was a theme for the day!).

Coffee, bagels, and silly faces

Sunday morning, we met the gang at church and the little boys lasted about 12 minutes before they were crawling over and under pews and were sent down to the nursery. They were happier there … and likely MUCH louder! There’s just so much love to contain in a church-service-appropriate environment.

After church, we packed the car and went to Otto’s family party. We got more pizza and cake, played pin the smokestack on Thomas (which Fiona won), and ran around with the cousins for a couple hours. Yet again, they were not happy when it was time to leave. Otto and Dec turned their good-bye hugs into an excuse for a bit more rough-housing … because they are three-year-old boys!

After a little naptime at the early part of the ride, the DVD player cooperated and we watched non-High School Musical options for the sake of the driver. We made one pit stop for coffee and bagels (YUM) and made it home in time for dinner. It was a quick, but really fun, trip to see everyone. And the kids were glad that Darby the leprechaun founds us in Rapids and left gold candy in their shoes.