Good times with the Family

 Luckily, Eric had the foresight to take the Friday after our return off.  It was a great opportunity to go to a local place called The Track.  I thought there was deal going on that allowed us to get 2 for 1 tokens, but turns out that starts after Memorial Day...guess we will be going back!

 All the same, we had a really fun time doing the bumper cars, go karts, and carnival type rides with no crowds. 

 John is still on the short side for some of the rides, so he had to make due in the mini-ferris wheel while the other played bumper boats.

 And Molly took a drive around a track all by herself.  By the way, I beat Eric at the Go Karts...and everyone else, too.  Will and Molly were super impressed.

 John in his Mickey sweatshirt.  He is pretty proud of his disguise if you can't tell.

Have you ever watched a child fall asleep?  I remember the first time I watched my niece Mary Ann fall asleep.  I thought it was such a magical moment and I still think that.  The child gets very still and starts staring straight ahead.  Then the blinks start going slower and slower until finally the lids just don't open and they are out.  As we have been in the car a lot lately, I have witnessed John's slow blinks at one stop light and discover him asleep at the next stop light.  On our recent road trip, I turned around after a stop and saw the tell tale long stare.  I ask the general audience: 'Who's about to fall asleep?' John breaks his stare long enough to look at me with a little smile and say: 'It's Me!'

Sure enough, within 5 minutes we hear his slow methodic breathing as he dreams about not being in the car seat anymore.  I can only guess that must be his dreams as he is nearly always quite upset to wake up and discover he is still in it.

ROAD TRIP!!! (tablet edition)

 Our nephew, Peter, made his First Communion on April 23rd. An excellent excuse to make a road trip back to the central part of the country.  We decided to go a little crazy and make the drive to St. Louis in one day.  For the long day in the car, I thought the kids (John) would probably need a little technological assistance.  I purchased three new Fire Kindles to add to our one that normally goes to the loudest child (John).  Eric made a point of explaining to the older children (not John) that these tablets were all his and he was letting them borrow them for this trip.  Molly questioned why hers had a pink cover, but all in all, they accepted his stipulations without complaint.  And our first day of travel went extremely well.  We left about 7 in the morning, and for the first 3.5 hours, just listened to music or read.  Then broke out the tablets for a bit, then watched a couple of movies, then got milkshakes, then John fell asleep, then John woke up and was not happy for the first time in 11 hours of being strapped into his car seat.  Luckily, we only had one more hour to go and he calmed down enough for us to pull into St. Louis without further incident.  Phew!

 We spent the night with my aunt and uncle and visited Oma the next morning.  And then, it was back in the car once more for a short drive west.  Oh!  We picked up Gus's pretzels first.  A St. Louis specialty.  Everything is better with Gus's Pretzels!

 We spent Friday and Saturday hanging out with the Reddigs.  Our kids love hanging out with each other.  I love watching them run off and then not really seeing them again for the duration of the stay.  Except when they get hungry. This particular trip, the older kids and Eric and Robert headed to a newly opened arcade and had a great time playing old school games.

While the older kids played at the arcade, Katie and I took the three youngest to Costco! It is pretty fun to walk around and peruse the various items for purchase.  I got a swimming suit, Will and Dom got some Royals gear, John got a book that makes popping noises, and Molly got a hot dog.  Everyone wins!

 We also spent a lot of time at the soccer fields.  Though, Dom got in a lot of baseball practice with his dad.

 By Sunday, we were all pretty tired, but excited to watch Peter receive his First Communion.

 For our gift to him, we purchased a hat (of course, we purchased a hat).  On a whim, I picked up a hat from the $3 bin on 70% clearance for John.  Turns out he loved it!  He is still regularly wearing it.  Naturally, we had to put everyone in hats in order to get some pictures.  I was wishing we had bought Dom and Will hats, but luckily, Eric brought enough to go around.  What a guy!

 The Reddig family...and Eric's hand.  Probably should have photo shopped that...aw well.  Just put your hand over the right side of the picture and you get the same effect.

 Our dapper fellow!

 My sister and brother-in-law do many things to make their home feel like our home, but road trips are exhausting and as we get older, I miss my bed more and more.  However, then I come around the corner and see Molly and Margaret swapping secrets or hear the kids laughing late into the night and I would do it again in a heartbeat...well...give me a few weeks to recuperate, but I am ready to see them all together again!

 While waiting for Mass to begin, Molly was reading a children's prayer book and came across this prayer.  She showed it to me and whispered: This is me!  I wanted to make sure I had it word for word correct.

 We had a wonderful time celebrating post Mass, but the next day it was time to load up and head out.  I've said it before and I will say it again: I love how quiet everyone is after leaving the Reddigs.  They don't waste much time resting when they are with their cousins.  John passed out within a few minutes of getting in the car.

 Now, we can't take a trip to Kansas without driving through Oklahoma on the way back.  Especially when our newest nephew, Benjamin, just arrived a couple of weeks before. Originally, we thought we'd just spend one full day in Oklahoma, but after our great 12 hour drive, we thought we could go for broke and attempt a 15 hour drive, which meant we could spend two full days in Oklahoma! 

 We spent those days watching baseball, watching NBA playoffs, going to the zoo, playing Wizard chess, reading books, playing with matchbox cars (literally for hours!), and eating ice cream.  And spending time with Zachary, Benjamin, Megan, Scuba, Grandma, and Grandpa. 

But, as with all things, our visit had to come to an end.  By 7:30 AM we were on the road again and we pulled into our driveway a little before midnight.  Aside from an instance of car sickness and saying goodbye to a Minnie Mouse blanket that took one for the team on that one, it was a fairly smooth drive back. And we were all happy to sleep in our own beds for the rest of the night, but looking forward to the next time we get to see our favorite people in the world.

Easter

 For the tenth year, Eric and I have undertaken dying eggs with our children.  And we have yet to figure out a way to do this without making a mess...but, doing it outside helps.

 Everyone is so excited to dye the eggs.  But, this is the quintessential 'hurry up and wait' activity. 

 It is also difficult to help the 3 year old understand to not just drop all of the eggs in the same mug...or any mug of his choosing when there are other kids waiting patiently.  Tears were shed, but in the end we got some lovely colors.

And just for reference here is a shot from our first egg dying experience with Dom a decade ago with our friend, Jeff:

 Huh...that oven mitt is not nearly as white now...

 Easter Sunday dawned early and everyone put on their finest.  I love Easter weekend.  We were able to attend Holy Thursday and Good Friday services.  And Easter Sunday is always beautiful and uplifting.  Christus Vincit!

We got a few pictures in front of the Altar.  John wasn't super impressed.

 Until he got to pose with the flowers.  And the Easter Ham made his appearance.

 For our Easter Egg hunt, Eric made the older three wait while John had a head start.  Didn't help him a whole lot.  He walked by several.  Found one, and took nearly his whole allotted start time opening it to get at the candy inside.

 Molly also got a slight head start.  She did not waste any time:

That girl was on a mission and cleaned up several before the boys even got out of the door.

 Our children do not have a great strategy for looking.  They all just follow whoever takes off first.

 Eventually, we were down to the harder to find eggs.  Eric originally hid them in plain view.  I re-hid several to make it a bit more challenging...since we have a 10 year old and Will...not just John.

 Eventually all eggs were found (or so we thought...turns out there were a few still out).  Molly was thrilled with her haul.  Will spent a good bit of time decrying the unfairness of it all.  I pointed out that he probably shouldn't have followed Molly or Dom and he might have found more...he did not appreciate my critique of his egg hunting abilities.

 Along with the eggs, we hid several communal gifts around the house.  Mainly bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and odds and ends.  However, the kids also received Dino Dig eggs.  Dom and Will had used these at a science program at the library and loved them.  It was an activity for everyone and Eric and I got in our Easter cribbage game while they worked away at the excavation. 

 That evening, we went to a friend's house and shared dinner with two other families.  The kids played in their pool where John was able to jump from the edge to one of our boys  and they would help him back to the edge.  Eric was right there, but never actually had to get in the water.  It was pretty awesome.

It was a really wonderful Easter Sunday spent with family and friends.  Even if I lost our cribbage game...

And for reference, our family Easter portrait from a decade ago:

I agree, we have all improved with age ;)