hello new week

Hello to waking up in our own beds (except for SJ who slept in the guest room because there was a huge, ugly spider hiding out around/under/in her bed that we couldn't locate after he ran away).  Hello tired, tired puppy after her weekend playdate.  Hello last few days of school and all the activities that go along with.  Hello first piano recital.  Hello to planning meals for using up things in the fridge before vacation.  Hello to packing.  Hello to an old dear friend in town sharing much of our week. 

We had about the busiest, most jam-packed weekend you can imagine.  I. am. exhausted.
We left town about noon on Friday.  Oh wait, I should include Friday morning in our busyness... or MY busyness I should say, since I singlehandedly washed and dried (and piled on our bed) three loads of laundry, got two grown-ups, two kids and an infant packed for the weekend (it's been while since I had an infant for a trip; extra binkies, diapers, formula, bottles, blankets, etc.), watered the yard, flowers and tomatoes, bathed all three kids (plus myself!), got the dog packed and prepped to stay next door all weekend, remembered birthday gifts, not only the epi-pen we're notorious for forgetting but antibiotics Sawyer is on as well and also important miscellaneous paperwork we needed with us.   And we were on the road to pick up Ryan from work by noon.  Whew.  I was already ready to call it a day!

We got up to St Louis for a late dinnertime and met up with the Swinigans, Malones and Laughlins at a park for a picnic and kid runaround time.  We stayed out until dark and it was going on 10 o'clock before we got back to the Malone's house and put our kids to bed.
Of course the kids were up bright and early Saturday morning and we as a whole were out the door by 10am to make a couple of stops before heading over to the main event; Evan and Alex's b-day party.  We spent the whole day there with tons of their family and friends and the kids were basically running full speed outside in the (90°) sun all day with games and sprinklers and soccer and the like.  Plus, you know, cake and ice cream and juice. :)
We hung out after the party a bit and the kids were crashing fast.  Mike and Kasey put their kids down at grandma's and followed us as back to the Malones house so we could put our four (five... baby slept awesome!) kids down to bed early and then all of us grown ups ordered some take out and thoroughly enjoyed an great old fashioned evening of hanging out on the back deck with beers with some of our favorite company.  Great night.

Sunday was another bright and early morning as we bid adieu to the Malones and headed back to our old neighborhood across town in time for the early service at our old church.  When we left church we drove through our street where our former neighbors had set up a little garage party for us and we got to chat and catch up the the kids got to run around and play for a bit.  It was like they hadn't missed a beat.  That visit was way too short before we were off to have lunch with friends from church -basically our old small group plus a few other good friends- at Shaun and Laura's house.  The kids had a blast getting to have time with all these old friends and Ryan and I so enjoyed the time to visit. 
We left there after a couple of short hours to make one more stop before we headed out of town to say hi to the family who I babysat for the year before we moved... "Baby" Caleb is now about to turn three and we finally got to meet his "baby" sister Hannah who will already be one in just two short weeks!  Oh it was so good to see them again and just marvel over how these kids grow up so, so fast.  Caleb was still (or again I should say, since I doubt he remembers him) in complete love with his buddy Sawyer and it was so fun to see this sweet boy turning into such a kid. 

We finally got on the road at almost 4.  And hit storm after storm on the road so between downpours and potty breaks and one rather lengthy stop at a restaurant to try and wait out the weather, we didn't get home until almost 10:30 last night.  Ugh.  The kids were done, baby Miya was a trooper, but we were all exhausted.  And still are. ;)

But we have a busy week ahead, lots going on, lots to get ready for. 
So ready or not, here we go!