This past weekend, Paul's sister, her husband, and their newborn baby flew out to St. Louis. We all piled into the "cool car" and drove north to Iowa for the annual Paul's-Mom's-Family reunion.
My mother-in-law's older sister and her husband own a home on a fair piece of land in a lovely rural area. Their three daughters and 4 grandchildren live nearby, so we head up to visit them each summer. Christmas time got too chaotic as the families grew and spread, so we started celebrating in the summertime when weather is better.
Ellie loves these visits, where we sleep in a camper in the driveway.
Here she is enjoying a drive around the backyard with her 3-year-old boy cousin. Since she's the passenger, she's free to chat on the phone.
Here she is napping with her same-age girl cousin.
And even though this year's visit included a memorial service, it was a lovely weekend indeed.
4 comments:
It sounds like a wonderful visit was had by all. I'm so pleased to see that. It's great when family comes together in no (or low) stress ways.
Seeing your recent trip and learning of your fly-in relatives visiting has made me wonder about travel with kiddies.
I'd love some advice on flying with a toddler. I'm taking a flight (albeit short) with Carys in a month's time and am nervous about it. Carys will be nearly 20 months when she flies for her first time. Fortunately no borders will be crossed.
Love the Scotland travelogue and great photos, thanks for sharing them!
Also very pleased to hear positive progress has been made on the marriage front. I'm rooting for you all!
Thanks, Seasonal! 7 months ago, I would have been hard-pressed to imagine myself still married at this point, let alone doing so well. I appreciate the cheers!
Beach, does Carys watch any TV? If so, I highly recommend a portable DVD player for Baby Einstein, Mickey Mouse, anything that distracts her for a few minutes and gives you a moment's break from the book-reading and song-singing you'll undoubtably be doing a lot of. Surely your seat neighbors would prefer a little quiet singing or Dora the Explorer to a crying baby.
When we fly, our goal is a happy, quiet kid, and we throw lots of our parenting rules out the window to achieve this end. We dole out "special" foods at a careful pace: fast enough to keep her quiet, slow enough to last as long as possible. We don't limit video watching.
And, at 20 months, I was still nursing, so I did that for as much of the trip as I could.
Bon voyage!
I'm pleased, too, for all of you that things are going well with the marriage. It can be hard to keep it all going and healthy. I wish you both the best in building on your bond.
Thanks so much for the advice on flying, too. It helps a lot to have your input.
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