The Relatives Came

Does anyone remember reading this book as a child? I certainly do and while Evans and I were the relatives that were doing visiting this weekend, I found myself thinking of this book from my childhood quite often. It has been many years since I read it but I remember the story of the rainbow colored station wagon (which was actually a black suburban this weekend to fit the entire herd of children) and the anticipation of the relatives arriving. Evans and I flew to North Carolina last Thursday to visit my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and the wild ruffian niece and nephews. Let me tell you, these trips are never dull, Evans doesn't sleep AT ALL and typically the two youngest require a midday bath. This trip was no different. We arrived home last night (Tuesday) and Evans slept about 18 out of the last 24 hours. The cousins just take it straight out of him. And he enjoys every minute. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and picked up several new flying tips for traveling with a one year old. Please stay tuned.

After arriving on Thursday afternoon I promise that Evans and Karis needed a bath within one hour of being around each other. It was about 8 million degrees outside, around 98734 Popsicles were consumed, Karis ate a piece of bark and Evans ate a stick. Keeping in form and following all the guidelines of having a trailer park child, I removed Evans' pants and let him crawl around in the dirt with a white onesie. I have never seen feet so black.I promise that there was dirt left on the bottom of the bathtub that evening. Brittany and I had plans on Thursday evening to relax and enjoy some margaritas with a couple of her friends at their favorite (only) Mexican restaurant. Imagine our disappointment with our babysitter never showed up. We did the only thing reasonable in a situation like this and called the 8 year old boy down the street (ok, so he was really like 15 but he weighed as much as an 8 year old) to come down and watch all FOUR of our children. I really fooled myself into believing that Evans would stay asleep in his oh-so-comfy pack 'n play while I was gone but I made the babysitter promise to call me if he woke up. I arrived home to find Evans playing with his two older cousins. This started the "trend" of sleeping in the bed with Mommy that lasted the next four nights in a row.

Friday we loaded up the kids to head to the beach around 11:30am and actually arrived there around 3:30pm. You might wonder why we picked a beach to spend the day at that was 4 hours away but the truth is that between stopping for lunch at Chick-fil-a and missing the entrance multiple times to the public beach access, this normally 30 minute drive was stretched out a tad. Things like this tend to happen to us. Once we unloaded everyone and set up post on the beach, we were met with an entire school of sharks in the water and had to cut our visit a little short. But don't worry, not before Evans and Karis managed to cover every inch of their bodies (and ours) with sand and have a great time. My brother-in-laws parents arrived on Friday afternoon (everyone was coming in town to celebrate my niece's first birthday) and we dined on margaritas at the mexican restaurant again much to Brittany and my's great pleasure!

Saturday morning was another early morning for me as Evans was wide awake to play with the cousins when the sun started to come up but it was a good thing because as it turned out, we needed to plan Karis' whole birthday party that was to be taking place in a matter of 7 or so hours. I'm pretty sure my sister in law WOULD have made fondant cupcake toppers like I did if it weren't for that pesky little hurricane named Irene that just about blew their house away. For last minute planning (seriously, she mailed the invitations on THURSDAY, two days before the party) the party was a total success! The neighborhood clubhouse looked really cute....all the kids had a great time swimming and taking turns at the pinata.....And Karis really LOVED everyone singing happy birthday to her on her big day!Both Evans and Karis got to spend some quality time with their Gannie and their Old Gannie at the party (these relatives arrived on Saturday morning).The party was a success minus a small crisis with the low country boil (the actual boiling part) and the pathetic performance by the Georgia Bulldogs that evening and Evans even slept in the pack 'n play for about 4 whole hours before getting in bed with me!

Sunday was a low key day that included church, lots of porch sitting, lots of tree stump pulling, several naps by my child (he was really starting to feel the hurt by Sunday and approximately 96 hours with the cousins). The entire family had a fun dinner at Outback (only a 30 minute hop skip and a jump away), kids were well behaved for the most part and it was an enjoyable evening. Monday morning all the rest of the relatives had to head home. The weather was dreary but we took our chances and loaded the kids, boat and dog up for a trip to the beach. This time it only took us 30 minutes to get there! After a quick boat ride we were on this awesome beach and Evans and Karis both had a great time.You might not be able to tell by this picture because Evans can hardly open his eyes it was so bright. I guess I should have brought him his hat. Might have kept the sunburn off his scalp as well! The beach really was perfect and Evans loved his first time swimming in the ocean and was so pooped by the end of the day he conked out on me in a beach chair. Everyone enjoyed being outside and in the sun including Mark and Karis.(you see that Evans? Karis is standing. It is what you do with your feet). You know it was a big day when Evans, Karis and my nephew Colson (he is 6) share a large cheese pizza from Little Ceasars when we got home and ate everything except for one piece. My nephew Kyle couldn't help them out because he collapsed in the driveway on the way from the car into the house and was asleep on the concrete before anyone noticed it.

Tuesday was the big departure day. Britt made us go to the gym in the morning and held a gun to my head and made me take the spin class she was teaching. :) It was actually great (I do like spin) and the kids got to stay in the nursery (even better). After lunch we headed to the airport. By this time Evans was particularly cranky without having a nap. I was greeted by the ticket counter agent and informed that the weather in Charlotte (where we had to connect) was horrible and our plane may or may not take off. Great. We were already flying on a prop plane that was a bumpy ride on the way up in perfectly clear weather. Miraculously the flight showed up and we were able to board only about 15 minutes late. Note to self, when you are aware ahead of time (as I was) that you will be boarding a prop plane directly on the tarmac, it would be smart not to wear a dress. I'm just saying. It would cut down immensely on the need to hold the dress between your knees while you collapse strollers etc. Evans was HORRIBLE upon boarding the plane and since there was NO AC, we were both sweating profusely and he was wailing. People were turning around and looking at me. I wanted to die. Then we took off and he promptly fell asleep. All good news. Then the weirdness starts. As I was about to doze off myself I was startled and shocked when I was splashed in the face by a steady stream of freezing cold water that continued to pour down from the overheard compartment and drench me and my child's head. Water was dripping off of Evans' eyelashes though thankfully after his initial jerk, he never woke up. I had to page the flight attendant and tell her that some sort of unidentified liquid had just soaked me. As she ran off to get me some napkins she was explaining that the "drip" must just be from the air conditioner condensation and she proceeded to dab a portion of the ceiling above me that was about 12 inches from where the deluge hit me. Hello? I'm not an idiot! That was not condensation! It was a downpour! I explained it came from the overheard and this lady completely ignored me as she explained again that it was just a drop of condensation. Pretty big drop if you ask me.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and Evans slept on our connecting flight to Atlanta. We got home in time for me to pick up my fantasy football draft in the third round, but not before my smart brother drafted Peyton Manning, who was listed as out for half the season as of this morning. Awesome. All in all our little mini vacation was chaotic and super fun. I always have fun with my sister in law and I miss her when I can't see her very often. She makes me feel loved and I can only hope that I am half as good of a sister to her as she is to me. The Relatives Came ends with "when they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer" and the best part is, we don't even have to wait that long. Four more months until Christmas! Get ready for GAS LAMP! I love y'all.