Time at the Reddigs

 The Monday after Christmas, we headed to Lee's Summit to spend time with the Reddigs.  Our children immediately disappeared, which has become the norm.  It was pleasant to spend a quiet evening just chatting with Katie and Robert over bowls of hot soup.

The next day was New Year's Eve.  Katie and I discussed a schedule of events that we quickly did not stay on top of.  However, one of the events was using the Reddig kids brand new slurpy machine.  Dom had picked this gift out for them and as I paid for it, the thought occurred to me that this could be a big waste of money.  But, it turned out that it actually was fairly simple to use and the results were adequately fun and tasty for the kids.  So, overall, not such a bad gift!

 While the big kids were working on slurpies, Eric was hanging out with his youngest niece.  He claims they were having a great time until just before this picture was taken...

 After getting somewhere in the range of a million gifts for Christmas, balloons on New Year's Eve were the bigger hit.  Typical.  We did do a balloon drop with the kids, which was pretty fun.  And I have no pictures of it.  Sorry. 

 Though we had intended to attend Mass on New Year's Eve, as the day progressed, we were all so tired, that we elected to attend New Year's Day.  Which turned out to be a great idea.  We were still tired, but it was nice to get up, dressed, and then have a wonderful brunch.  Especially as Eric was suppose to leave in the early afternoon.  It was preferable to sleeping/lounging the morning away.

 Here is a shot with Margaret, too.  I couldn't quite get her in the first shot.  I guess I could have had her on Eric's lap...

 Eric picked out special t-shirts for the boys.  Dom received a Chelsea shirt and Will received a shirt that encompassed his two loves:  Science and Bacon.

 As it turned out, Eric did not leave on New Year's.  It was a particularly stressful evening as snow was falling, we were receiving texts giving updates, and Molly was throwing up.  Eventually, Robert went to pick him up and they made it home safely.  In about 12 hours, we threw our original travel plans out the window and made up a new itinerary.  This one had us leaving two days earlier from the Reddigs (there were several complaints from the kids on that score) and staying with Eric for two weeks in San Antonio.  Why not?

 As it turned out, Dom was most disappointed that we wouldn't celebrate Molly's 3rd birthday with the cousins.  No problem!  We invited Nana and L'Opa over for a pancake breakfast on the morning of our departure.  I decorated with leftover balloons from the balloon drop and we had a lovely breakfast.

 And she got to open all of her presents in front of her cousins!

 Nana gave her a Clifford game.  For a 3 year old, it is perfect.  Will even likes to play with the various characters.  For an adult...I'll just say that "Wits and Wagers" it is not.  But, it's not about me, is it.

 And she got another umbrella!  Which is great, because she loves umbrellas.  And we tend to lose them or break them on a regular basis. 

 We had a lovely time with the Reddigs.  The kids played so well together.  Both generations.  We played a lot of games and watched a lot of football.  It was awesome.

Bedtimes went out the window for everyone, though.  Our kids were so sleep deprived that we made the 6 hour trip to Edmond sans technology.  They just slept or stared out the window aimlessly.  Well, not entirely.  The scientist started a race with the sun to see if we'd be at Grandma and Grandpa's before the sun set.  I think we just beat it.  But, I'll ask him.  He was giving regular updates on its progress. (Spoiler alert:  We did not beat the sun on our trip to San Antonio).  They started to ask for it about 15 minutes before the end of the trip. 

And this picture says it all on why we travel so many hours and miles to be with family.