Wedding Shower Bliss

Last night after the kids went to bed, I told Hubs, "This is the best moment in Michigan yet," somewhat quizzically, he tilted his head. "Because we are here. In our house, going to sleep in our own bed tonight."

Yesterday was Uncle D and Aunt J to be's wedding shower. It was classy, beautiful, fun, busy, crazy, emotional, exhausting, exhilarating - all the things big milestone events like your brother's wedding should be. Even the boys partook briefly, for the cupcakes of course.

We would have moved heaven and earth to make it to that shower, and if you count moving our household to a new state, we did. Otherwise we would have flown the kids, packed the suitcases, rushed the gift-purchasing and making, crashed at Mom's, wrestled the kids to sleep there, repacked and done everything in reverse to get back to MI...in a weekend.

Instead, We bought lamps last week, because UD told us 12 years ago we couldn't get married because we didn't even have a lamp. He bought us our first lamp. We returned the favor yesterday. I made food for the party and even had some wonderful company to Assist. Then we all partied like it was breakfast at Tiffany's and at the end of the day, we all tucked into our cozy familiar beds.

No suitcases.
No standby flights.
No checking car seats.
No splitting up to fly separately (but we did drive 10 miles separately).
No anxiety (besides the egg bakes taking too long).

Just drive home and tuck them in and talk about how beautiful the bride was, how ebullient the groom was, how delicious the egg bakes and white chocolate Tiffany blue dyed pretzels were ;), instead of what we usually talk about: how we are going to fly 5 people home standby tomorrow?

Love. Life.

Me MCing a shower game
The girl cousins:Aunt L, Me, Bride J, L, E, J
N and M the thug eating gourmet cupcakes (right before Daddy whisked them away to play toys at Grandma's, lest the cuteness wear off)
UD opening one of our gifts: a handmade afghan From me ;)

Staycation Adventures

What a week!  Please excuse my absence, readers - I've been on wonderful adventures with my in-laws during our "staycation."  Everyone made their way to our place to spend some family time together - by car, by plane, and by semi-truck - no joke!  It was so much fun to be a tourist in our own area - we got to do some activities that we haven't done yet in all of our seven years here in the Twin Cities.  You know what the best part of vacationing at home is?  You guessed it- sleeping in your own bed! 

Here are a few shots of Sunday and Monday, our first Staycation days spent in our town and then a few hours at the Mall of America, because what Minnesota vacation can be had without that?, after picking Mom up at the airport.

Grandma and M play the bongos at the Best Buy MOA

They didn't heed the "Please Don't Feed"

Dwinka wadda?

Aunt L and N play at the Legos store at the MOA

We kind of took over the joint

My in-laws amazed our server with their Bubba Gump trivia knowledge!

M was amazed only with the ping pong paddle

Okay, and Forrest's shoes!

Tuesday was a special day because we drove up to Stillwater and took a paddleboat luncheon cruise down the St. Croix River.  Not only was the weather perfect - and it has been all week, praise the Lord! - but the food was good and the boys were well-behaved, something I was a teensy bit nervous about.  What nut takes all of her in-laws and twin toddlers on a humongous 18th-century, two-hour paddleboat ride? Me.

Cool boy N, Grandpa, and M

N was quite snuggly and silly with my sunglasses!

All Aboard!

exploring the boat before we lift anchor

Don't kiss me, Aunt sheeshee!

Boo hoo! N spent a bit of time on the deck howling about something - like he can't jump overboard.

Upstairs, downstairs!  The boys can talk Grandpa into anything!

I said the weather was grand, didn't I?  So that evening we surprised Grandpa with his favorite cake, Pineapple Upside Down cake, which I'd never before made but everyone ate it so I guess it was ok, for his birthday (next week) and all settled down for a bonfire with s'mores.

There were grey clouds overhead but it looked like the weather was to the north of us and was going to miss us.  Hubs had a nice little fire going when we brought the fellas, freshly bathed and covered in long sleeves and socks to protect them from the evening skeeters, down the fire.  They were so tickled and thought that being outside in their pj's was the funniest thing!  We were outside for maybe 15 mintues, M was aways off "mowing" the lawn when

BOOM!

The loudest crack of thunder any of us have ever heard rattled the trees and our ears!  We all dropped low to the ground as bright lightning flashed all around us for a few seconds.  Then we grabbed our kids and our cameras and rushed inside to watch the downpour!  We were a bit rattled and had to watch an episode of "Imagination Movers" to take our minds off the fact that we had been nearly killed by lightning!

Junction Valley Railroad

Choo!  Choo!  We spent Memorial Day with Hubs' family visiting Junction Valley Railroad, the largest quarter-sized model train in the world!  Hubs and his siblings have fond memories of spending days riding the rails there as kids, so he's been itching to take the boys there since they've developed a love for trains this year. 

All smiles - priceless!

Meeting the conductor

Tunnel is coming!  (They are STILL talking about this tunnel!)

JVRR only runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so if you have a chance to visit this summer, be sure to go!  We have plans to ride the rails again in July - hope to see you there!

WHAA!  WHAAAAAAAA!

Little Funnies

"I'll have Nutella and blueberry preserves on wheat, please"

• M's vocabulary is exploding and he'll talk to anyone who will listen...or is in audible range.  He'll repeat anything he hears, but I was floored this morning when he came down the stairs in Hubs' arms and said, "Good Morning, Mama."  WHAT?!

"Whee!"

•  N's vocabulary is also increasing but he'll only talk to me, Hubs, and "bro-bro," which I didn't realize until my friend A, who babysat on Saturday night, said that N refused to say a single word!  He did, however, ask for treats by placing a hand on her knee and giving her the eyes.  Then, he didn't say anything when we had company yesterday until they backed out the drive. "Bye, bye" he called.  I assume this is just a stage, though, and he'll speak up for himself soon enough.

• M likes to bring me my slippers if he can find them.  I call him my little puppy.
• N has figured out how to open doors.  I bought doorknob covers this weekend.  As if my house doesn't look cool enough, these are over the top stylish!
• They are terrifying me by WALKING up and down the stairs, no matter how I try to coax them to "go down on your belly."  As a result, we tentatively removed a gate at the bottom of the stairs because if they're going to do it, at least they can land on the carpet and not crash into the gate!

• Yesterday M was talking about "Gama," so we Skyped with both of the grandmas before bed.  While we were talking with them, he found the "cama," so I helped M take this pic of Uncle D, "SheeShee," and "Gama." 

•  M ate scrambled eggs this morning!  I've been told you have to introduce some foods up to 17 times before a kid will eat it, and I'm pretty sure this is accurate. Maybe he needed 19 months to digest the eggs I ate while I was pregnant with gestational diabetes?  Two eggs/day X two months = 180 eggs?  Maybe he was just sick of them until now.
• N was helping me fold laundry when he took a dishtowel out of the basket then carried it into the kitchen and PUT IT AWAY in the correct drawer without any prompting!  A also told me that when she told the boys to clean up their toys Saturday, they filled up the basket then ran to the bottom of the stairs, ready to go up for night night. I seriously have the best kids ever!
• I'm kind of proud of myself, too.  Since I took up crocheting two months ago, I've improved to the point that I think I can actually make items as gifts for other people (as in, other than my immediate family who will always be kind no matter what it looks like because they're just that cool).  I tried my hand at baby bear hats (for Hubs' former boss whose baby boy is in the NICU, and for my cousin K who is due on Valentine's Day - check out her blog here.)  Hope I didn't ruin the surprise!  I think they turned out well!  And the afghan behind the bears is my first for my future niece, due in April.  Not too shabby, huh?