Over the River and Through the Woods

Road trips are the best! So we are doing a lot of them this summer! Behold:

Right now we are in the Denver phase of our plan. In ten weeks we head to NC. Ten weeks seems like a good length of time to set some exercise goals. I like the look of this race. Also, there has been some talk of meeting the siblings in Moab for an epic biking weekend towards the end of our time here. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Roadtripping.

The babies did surprisingly well considering we just took a couple books and snacks, loaded Frozen onto the Kindle and hoped for the best. 

Riley kept us all entertained with her songs and random conversation. She sang a version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that had the spider crawling on all sorts of farm animals at night and then phased into an original piece called "my butt is stuck but I just want to get out of here." Radio? Who needs a radio? Oh and we heard, "Are you kimming me?" about forty times.

 Sassy pants.

When we got to Grandma's that night, we were barely inside the door before she had Joe's heart won completely over with a bowl of popcorn. He didn't even have to reach for it. That pretty much embodies the theme of our stay. :)

But also, we got to spent time with cousin Brice and soon-to-be cousin-in-law Danielle, Aunt Spring and Uncle Doug and my brother Jon. Brice and Danielle are the funnest couple and are especially generous when it comes to watching baby toons and playing random games like "blow the trash across the table," which Joe and Brice played for a good fifteen minutes.

Spring and Doug are helping to get the house ready for sale so there was a lot of inventory-taking and sorting and re-bricking going on. Didn't stop Grandma from getting gourmet meals on for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which I was allowed to help with. Grandma has some killer recipes! Such as the pecan pie of breakfast one day. Yum. Aunt Spring demo'd the easiest pie crust recipe ever too! I am going to kill at next Thanksgiving!

 We walked to "The Park" at least once a day. Nothing special, just close to Grandma's so it's a little piece of my childhood too. Fun to be taking my babies down there.

This is Grandma's award-winning quilt, faded with time. Still awesome and good for dreaming on.

We only had a few days but it was everything I could have hoped for. This will probably be our last visit there as they are moving to Florida for good at the end of the summer. Which we look forward to visiting as well! But Red Oak will always have a special place in my heart. Luckily, Grandma gave us a few pieces of it to take with us - whenever I look at the little cherub-blowing a kiss ring holder by my kitchen window or the tapestry Grandma made of a scene from Germany, I get warm fuzzies reminiscent of summer swim lessons with Grandma, late-night card games, pot roast dinners and long walks with Grandpa and Bear.

Also, one can always hope that my ring-loosing days are over. Seriously, if my head wasn't screwed on so tight...

  Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for a wonderful visit and and and extra inch to our waistlines! We love you so!