Last minute trip to Indiana

Chris' dear grandmother passed away in February.  His mom's mom is now gone - and my heart hurts for Chris' mother and her family.  I unfortunately only met Grandma a few times, but I have loved hearing the stories come out about his grandmother in the past month since her passing... she was truly amazing and she raised an amazing family.  One great thing about my part time/from home job, is that we were able to immediately leave and drive to Indiana as soon as she passed to be with Chris' mom and the rest of Chris' family.  My company would have completely understood and would have given me the time off if I was working full time at the office, but being able to immediately leave with our entire family with just a day's notice is absolutely a blessing in a situation like this.

Chris and I both lost our grandmothers in only a few months.  I lost my grandmother in December... and I still can't bring myself to even devote a blog post about her in her memory.  In my mind, she's still here, with me, and I pick up my phone several times a week and dial her number thinking she'll answer.  Maybe I'll get to the point of facing the truth soon... but not yet.

SO - even though we were in Ohio and Indiana for some really sad circumstances, we made the best out of it and tried to have some fun with the family while we were all together.  We went to the Cincinnati Zoo and Parker loved it!   Here he is with the "ef-a-lunts" as he calls them. 

Oh look it's my husband ;)

Chris' cousin, Kelsey, with Parker and Campbell at the zoo.

Ummmm Parker got a nice "mommy daddy" lesson while at the zoo.  "Mommy, why are those bears hugging like that!"  I sort of felt like we were invading their privacy by taking this picture, but c'mon, get a room.  Really.

I wasn't able to snap a picture of this on my phone but this is a mommy and daddy monkey-type animal and they were so stinking cute as a family.  They had a little tiny baby who kept jumping on the mom and breastfeeding!  She would shove him off, then swing to another tree.  And a few minutes later the baby monkey-type animal would jump back up to her and would hold on to her and start chugging down.  I literally started tearing up... I guess as a breastfeeding mommy myself, it was just so sweet to see it in action in the wild.

Parker said, "Mommy it's Simba!"

THIS was amazing.  These peacocks would just walk around the zoo and when were on our way out, he gave us a show!  I could have stared at this animal all day long.  But as you can see, Chris has to run and grab Parker to walk away because Parker thought it would be funny to run at the peacock and yell at it.... boys.

We stayed with Grandpa Hull while in Indiana for a few day... he LOVES his baby time.  

This picture is priceless...

Here he is getting some snuggle time with baby Catherine on the floor... nothing can keep Gpa away from these sweet girls...

Aunt Phie is Chris' aunt who we just love.  Aunt Phie has a special connection with Chris - mostly because she practically was with him more than anyone else besides his parents the first several years of his life.  Aunt Phie loooooves all her little great nieces and nephews.  She has a very special heart for kiddos and our kids know it... they flock to her as soon as they see her and talk about her non stop when we leave!

Parker thinks she's hysterical!

So does Griffers!

Griffin's daddy, Uncle Jeff, started a tradition of telling REALLY great stories to the kids while we were in Indiana... Parker LOVES hearing stories now.  All of Jeff's stories are different but they ALL include a few details.  (A truck, a tractor, a car wash, and mud.)  He is constantly asking us to hear another story about Uncle Jeff and Griffin and a tractor and mud and a truck and the tractor PUUUUUUULL PUUUUULL PUUUUUULLING the truck out of the mud... then going to the car wash of course!

This is what our families do for entertainment now... just sit around and watch the kids interact... Parker and Griffin (one month apart) and huge goof balls together.  I can't wait to see what the three youngest girls (all born within 8 months of 2011) are like in a few years!  TROUBLE.

I love this one of Griffin!

On the morning that we were leaving for Indiana, I LITERALLY had not gone to the grocery store in several weeks - so - Parker got M&Ms and fruit snacks for breakfast.  Mom of the year right here y'all.

Since we literally never go anywhere while at home, Caroline finally had a reason to get all dolled up in this precious outfit our neighbor got her.  Grandma never got to meet Sweet Caroline so we had to make sure C-line was all dressed up for the funeral service. 

 

SO, one thing I must record for my memory are the storms that came across Indiana and Ohio (and also through the rest of the southeast) one of our last nights up in Indiana.  WOW.  Tornadoes were ripping through Ohio and Indiana and at one point, we looked outside and actually saw circling clouds above.  I have NEVER seen anything like it.  I was READY to grab my kids and run into the closet at Grandpa's house.  Apparently the sirens were going off, but we couldn't hear them because of all the wind.  Well, literally THREE miles away from us, two people were killed by storms and lots and lots of homes were destroyed.  One our trip back home, we passed some areas that were completely demolished.  It was so sad and tragic... my heart hurts for those people who lost their loved ones and homes and belongings.. but it also puts things in such perspective.  Our Lord gives, He takes away...  There were a few minutes the night of the storms that I was literally scared for all our lives.  What a scary feeling.


On a much lighter note, the trip to Indiana - there and back - was AMAZING.  Caroline literally slept the entire car trip, Parker watched movies, slept, read books, talked NON stop and kept us entertained.  When we finally got to Indiana, they both slept amazing all night and started the next day with no problems.  We all stayed in one room the week we were up there and they both did amazing.  Parker slept with us in a king size bed for a few of the nights and he did wonderfully.  I simply owe their good sleeping habits to Moms on Call - look them up if you want an amazing baby.  :)  www.momsoncall.com.

So - what does a nearly 3-year-old do in the car when he gets pretty bored?  Hmmmm - inspect his toes?

Or maybe chew on them.... gross!