Mini vacation

This weekend, we took advantage of the fact that our fall break from the university overlapped with our kid's fall break for *one* day and headed up north. Dan had a conference on Friday on being an educated person, so he gave his students a test that day and we left Thursday evening.

Friday, I took the kids in for pictures. And, of course, I carefully picked out coordinating outfits--and then left them hanging by the door at home. So we had to improvise at the last minute. Also, I'd forgotten how hard toddlers are for pictures. Oliver did *not* want to sit still for the pictures. In the few pictures, where he's smiling at the camera, Evelyn managed to look somewhere else, or give the world's goofiest grin. I suppose it's good for my pocketbook, but not so good for getting pictures that will look good on our Christmas card (eventually).

We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with my brother, Jared, who spent the night at my parents' house with his family. Dan and I managed to beat Jared and Mitcee at hand and foot, so you know we enjoyed ourselves. We also ate all of my mom's stash of kettle corn.

Saturday morning we held a birthday party for my dad. Later that afternoon,when Bubby asked me how my dad liked his party, it occurred to me that the party was really just an excuse to get the whole family together. And for the first time in at least two years, we managed that. My parents, their four children, and all twelve grandchildren.

It was a little bit noisy. Just a little.

We took the kids outside partway through and played lots of running games: partner tag, sharks and minnows, freeze tag, etc. And it was officially confirmed to me that both of my brothers can be very goofy. The kids loved it, though. I particularly appreciated Dan's smooth moves: when I was "it" and chasing him, he very thoughtfully executed what was no doubt supposed to be a cool getaway maneuver (he dropped down to the grass and rolled), but it made it easy for me to catch him. Which, I suppose, was the point.

(Here's my evidence: ten of the twelve grandkids at the table eating ice cream sandwiches. Just missing the two babies.)

After this party wound down, we headed up north to Sarah's, where Bubby and Poppy were still hanging out. We took the kids to the park and played and ate sandwiches. I spent most of the time trying to keep Oliver from eating woodchips--one of the new perils of his increased mobility.

 Oliver did like the swings. And contrary to her expression above, Evelyn had fun running around with Lydia.

 Bubby put Oliver in a swing that was a little too big for him. He liked that one too, though he could hardly see out.

And finally, evidence of Oliver's increased mobility. (Also, my children's good taste in music.)