Alive and Well...

We made it to Washington and back without losing anyone.  I can't stress enough what an accomplishment this was!  We had 2 Toddlers and Gram to keep in line.  Erin was an adventure on the plane on the way up.  "Inside Voice" is not in her vocabulary.  She was loud on the plane and had a hard time settling down, but did eventually nap on the 2nd flight.  She loved the take off and landing and was impressed with the snow in the Rockies.  I heard her tell William that they were going to make a snowman after Christmas because it would snow.  He was excited.

We had a great visit with the Aunts and Uncles Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  My Aunt Sheryl went above and beyond the call of duty making her house ready for us.  She remodeled the basement to accommodate us and put in a Toy Room!  The kids loved it.  In fact, both of them ended up stealing a Match Box car from the toy room.  We found them on our travels back.  William picked his up in the rental van and Erin had put hers in the backpack.

My aunts also rented a big Bounce House for the kiddos at the Reunion/party.  It was a tremendous hit.  Most of my cousin's kids were really excited about it too.  They delivered it on Friday and we had a tough time keeping Erin and William out of it!  It was such a hit that my 22 year old cousin Marshall and his friends got in it on Sunday night and jumped like little kids.  (Of course, they were drinking beer and jumping, but whose judging!!)

I got to visit with cousins I haven't seen in 20 years.  We've all changed a lot but we picked up just like we've never been apart.  (Most of them are kept in the loop with this blog and I didn't realize just how many of them actually read it!!!  It was a pleasant surprise.)  It means so much that they all put their busy lives on hold to come and see us.  Some of them live 5 hours away.  They all came like it was no big deal to make that drive.  We broke out some of the old cousin photos and had a great laugh.  Jason had short shorts, Jon Jon had no shirt on and Justin and Amy had the same haircut.  (I of course looked stunning in all the old photos.)

The only hitch in the whole thing was our allergies really kicked in.  By Saturday, I had laryngitis and a stopped up head.  Erin had a constant snotty nose and she and William kept sneezing.

Erin and William got along great on this trip.  Yes, they had some minor dust ups but for the most part they were great company for each other.  I'm very proud of them.  They were troopers and even had fun when we had to literally sprint from one gate to the other in the San Fran airport to make our connecting flight.  We got off one plane and took off running.  We found the flight board and of course the gate was on the other side of the airport.  I made Erin run along side me holding her hand and carrying our bags.  Amy had to carry William and run with her backpack.  We made it as they were boarding the plane.  We were some of the last ones on before they shut the door, but we made it.

I'll post pictures of the trip as soon as I find my camera!

A big thank you goes out to all the WA relatives.  You have no idea how much we enjoyed seeing you and really do appreciate the efforts you all put in!  We love you!