Whew! We are home after a few long drives and a crazy busy "vacation". We got up early on Thursday morning (3am) and were on the road by 3:45am. We were hoping that would give us a while of Jake sleeping to drive without having to worry about him needing to be changed or eat again. He was up for about an hour before he passed out, but we were able to get to Arkansas before having to stop for the first time. We did a lot of driving that day, well Josh did a lot of driving. Mom and I kept offering to drive but Josh said he was ok driving. Jake did really well. We had bought him some new toys for the road and borrowed the Morrow's DVD player, so Jake had a lot to do. He really liked Lilo and Stitch. We ended up getting stuck in horrible traffic after a battery truck and asphalt truck collided and caused a huge fire and closed down a highway. It took us about 3 hours to go 10 miles. That was probably the worst part of the trip. We were on a 2 lane road that went through a small town along with a ton of 18 wheelers. Jake was such a trooper though. We got through it and eventually got to our hotel in Indianapolis a few hours later than planned. We were all exhausted and went to bed quick. We slept in a little bit the next morning but were still on the road by 8am . Thankfully that was a much shorter and smoother drive. We got to Aunt Gini's a little before 1 and just hung out at her house that night, relaxing and letting Jake roll around out of the carseat.
Daddy and Jake getting a break from the car
Trying to eat the camera
In Illinois, the only state line we were able to stop at
Where's Jake?
There he is!
Saturday was the family reunion so we spent the morning helping Aunt Gini and Al finish cleaning up and getting stuff set up. It wasn't supposed to start until 4pm, but people started coming over around 11am! The reunion was awesome! We counted 85 people that were there and I think we were only missing 10. Each family wore a specified color so that everyone knew who everyone belonged to. We were green. We had a ton of food and a ton of pictures were taken. We had a lady out to take pictures so we should be getting that back soon. We didn't ever get a whole family picture though which I wanted to get. It was hard enough to get cousin and 2nd cousin pictures. It was crazy how many 2nd cousins there are now. We did get some pictures of the new babies. There are 5 that were born from October to March, but only 4 of them were there. And 3 of those 4 were born 7 weeks apart. It was really cool to have all those babies together. That makes me wish we lived closer. Cosmo was awesome during the reunion. Aunt Gini's yard isn't fenced in but we didn't want to have to keep her on the leash so we let her run around and just kept an eye on her. She only wandered off once and the rest of the time she stayed in the backyard or garage. And she was nicely rewarded with all the food that was falling on the ground! Jake was great all day being passed around and outside but the poor kid was so tired! After he went to bed we hung out by the bonfire until 1am. We had a blast but were so exhausted! And there were just so many people I feel like I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with everyone. I felt like we would have had to spend the whole day there to have enough time to talk to everyone.
Meeting Aunt Wanda
Little Luke and Jake playing
Family picture (forgot to give the camera to someone to take one with Mom in it)
His new favorite toy
2nd Cousins
Flying baby!
Siblings that were there, missing two that couldn't come and Aunt Rita
Newest babies
Adleigh and Jake, the only two that sat still for the pictures
Girl cousins
Cousins
We were headed out to Harsen's Island to see the Louisell's on Sunday. We ended up getting a later start than we planned but I think we all needed the sleep! We also woke up Sunday to Jake having a diaper rash. He has never had any sort of diaper rash with the cloth diapers at home. But we used disposables on the trip. Next time we will just deal with having to wash the cloth diapers. Harsen's Island was gorgeous! Aunt Midge's house is right on the channel where freighters go and we saw quite a few of them pass through. And right on the other side is Canada. I met cousins and 2nd cousins that I hadn't ever met (or remember meeting) and everyone got to meet Jake. Everyone brough their dogs so Cosmo got to run around for a 2nd day in a row. It was nice to spend time with them. I don't know or see that side of the family very often. Shortly after dinner a storm started to blow through, it was so windy! But it was awesome to watch it come in over the water. We had a great time visiting then headed back to Aunt Gini's.
In front of the chanel
Monday we had planned to spend the day in Frankenmuth, but decided we wanted to relax a little and just spend a few hours there. Well Jake took a (much needed) 2.5 hr nap, so we ended up leaving a lot later than planned. But it worked out ok. We went to Bronner's (fabulously wonderful Christmas wonderland store) and walked through, bought some ornaments and a tree topper. We ended up meeting Aunt Eva, Aunt Wanda, Tante Adele (Mom's aunt from Germany) and Ingrid there then headed over to the Bavarian Inn to eat a really late dinner. That was great to get to spend some time with them. Poor Jake was exhausted by the end of the meal though so Josh walked him around in the stroller to get him to sleep. We went down the street for some fudge before heading back to Aunt Gini's. Lindsay and Chelsea came over for dinner and we all hung out for a while before the adults (Mom and Aunt Gini) went in. Then the kids (funny because we are all technically adults now) had a bonfire and some s'mores until it started raining.
Jake's first trip to Bronner's!
Christmas in July
So many decorations!
Posing with the sleeping baby
Cheese Haus Mouse
Smiley baby
Taking a bath outside on Aunt Gini's deck
With Chels
Hanging out with Gini after dinner
Loving Lindsay
We headed out Tuesday morning for the long drive back. We didn't drive as long the first day this time and got to the hotel and were able to relax and let Jake play for a while. We ate dinner and were all asleep by 10pm. Jake was a little bit more irritable on the way back. I think he was just sick of the carseat and tired though. He watched Lilo and Stitch and Finding Nemo again on the way back. Those kept him entertained for a while so that was really helpful. We got home around 6 last night. And it was really nice to be home! We have done some relaxing today before I head back to work tomorrow. And we were really happy to get Jake back into his cloth diapers and his diaper rash has completely cleared up already. YEA CLOTH!
So exhausted
Playing with one of the new toys
Not too sure about the song the cookie jar was singing
What diapers did you put Jake in? Was it Cruisers? Those have the crappy drymax stuff, so maybe that was why he had the rash?
ReplyDeleteI was thrilled to get home to my cloth diapers too, but no rash for us, so it wasn't as urgent!
We had so much fun seeing everyone. I hope we do in the next 5 years rather than 10 or 20!