Visit to the Great Grandparents
We're in Indiana visiting dh's grandparents. The girls were very nervous about coming out here, wouldn't really talk about it, but it kept coming out in lots of acting out last week, and anytime they were upset about anything they would say how much they didn't want to come on this trip, yadda yadda. I think, Ashlyn at least, was remembering, at least subconsciously, how totally overwhelmed she was last year when we went out for SIL's wedding and all the relatives were excited to meet the girls/see them again. I'm not sure if Lexie was remembering that as well (she wasn't as noticeably stressed by the relatives at the time, but she was at a stage of not being as easily, noticeably, overwhelmed, so might just have hidden it better) or was just feeding off A's stress (plus L's in a stage of being much more easily overwhelmed/showing it more, now). . .
Anyway, made me nervous how things would go, but overall things went well. We got to grandma & grandpa's yesterday afternoon and the girls were shy at first, and then rather restless in the house, so I suggested that we go see if we could see any fish (grandparents live right on a lake) so we did that, never saw any fish, but the girls thought the floating dock was super fun. Mommy spent lots of time alternating between reminding them to walk, not run/jump/skip . . . and reminding MYSELF that if they fell in dh or I could jump in and fish them out & chances were none of us would be any worse for the wear LOL. Then the girls discovered there were feathers (goose/duck I assume, just small ones) in the yard, so spent a long time hunting for more. When we went back inside, Grandma showed them a big feather that Grandpa had found in the yard last spring, so they were very impressed by that. Of course, when they first found feathers, Lexie heard grandpa telling dh something about how he used to make whistles out of feathers when he was a kid, so Lexie tried blowing on the feather, and then again, when they were playing w/ the big feather, Grandpa told dh "THAT feather would be big enough to be a whistle" so Lexie had to try blowing on it too. I'm not overly germophobic, but feathers in mouth doesn't go over well with me LOL. Anyway, the grandparents finished winning the girls over by telling them they could KEEP the big feather, it's the current prized possession LOL. As we were leaving Lexie gave Grandpa a drawing she'd made earlier in the day. And on the way back to the hotel Ashlyn drew pictures of the sunset (which was very pretty) for both Grandma & Grandpa. Today went really well, the weather was GORGEOUS so we spent most of the time outside again, grandma came and sat outside too, so I didn't have to feel guilty about choosing between wanting her to get to see/spend time with the girls too, and the fact that the girls got bored/restless so quickly in the house. So, we spent most of the afternoon just letting the girls play their imaginative games in the yard while we sat and watched/talked. Ashlyn refused to be in pictures early in the afternoon, but Lexie happily posed with Grandma, but then as we were leaving the girls both willingly posed w/ each grandparent so I think/hope we got some great pictures, don't have the camera cord with me though, so can't download them till we get home.
In other trip news, Ashlyn is NOT at all impressed with the hotel we're staying in here close to the grandparents. She keeps saying she thinks we should just go back to "the other one" (halfway home ,well, more like 1/3 but still, that we stayed in on Fri night on our way out). I never pinned down her reason, but she says she liked the pool at the other one better, something about this one scared her, but I never figured out what. But the bigger issue is, we're on the 2nd floor and there's no elevator which means none of the fun of pushing buttons AND when we got here, we couldn't use the luggage cart to carry everything up, the girls LOVE the luggage cart LOL. And to make it worse, dh didn't realize there wasn't an elevator, so got the luggage cart, we piled everything on, then got it inside & couldn't take it upstairs, so the girls & I carried the first couple loads up while he guarded the rest of the luggage. So, part of Ashlyn's dislike was having to carry her suitcase upstairs, which she did really well, but didn't like. I assured her that when we leave, she & L can stay in the room while Daddy & I carry everything down, so all she'll have to carry down are her babies & backpack. . . I told her she's turning into a hotel expert by staying in lots of different hotels on this trip LOL.
Tomorrow we're going to try to see dh's neighbors from when he lived out here as a kid, and then we're heading home, whew . . .
The dvd player in the minivan has been a wonderful thing, though we'll see how the girls react when we get home & I enforce the "only for on trips" rule I've been reminding them of throughout the trip. They've done really well w/ the traveling though, makes me abit less nervous about the Disney trip (driving down) the end of Oct. Disney is longer, but is a trip they're looking forward too, so I think that will balance out the longer days of driving.
Anyway, made me nervous how things would go, but overall things went well. We got to grandma & grandpa's yesterday afternoon and the girls were shy at first, and then rather restless in the house, so I suggested that we go see if we could see any fish (grandparents live right on a lake) so we did that, never saw any fish, but the girls thought the floating dock was super fun. Mommy spent lots of time alternating between reminding them to walk, not run/jump/skip . . . and reminding MYSELF that if they fell in dh or I could jump in and fish them out & chances were none of us would be any worse for the wear LOL. Then the girls discovered there were feathers (goose/duck I assume, just small ones) in the yard, so spent a long time hunting for more. When we went back inside, Grandma showed them a big feather that Grandpa had found in the yard last spring, so they were very impressed by that. Of course, when they first found feathers, Lexie heard grandpa telling dh something about how he used to make whistles out of feathers when he was a kid, so Lexie tried blowing on the feather, and then again, when they were playing w/ the big feather, Grandpa told dh "THAT feather would be big enough to be a whistle" so Lexie had to try blowing on it too. I'm not overly germophobic, but feathers in mouth doesn't go over well with me LOL. Anyway, the grandparents finished winning the girls over by telling them they could KEEP the big feather, it's the current prized possession LOL. As we were leaving Lexie gave Grandpa a drawing she'd made earlier in the day. And on the way back to the hotel Ashlyn drew pictures of the sunset (which was very pretty) for both Grandma & Grandpa. Today went really well, the weather was GORGEOUS so we spent most of the time outside again, grandma came and sat outside too, so I didn't have to feel guilty about choosing between wanting her to get to see/spend time with the girls too, and the fact that the girls got bored/restless so quickly in the house. So, we spent most of the afternoon just letting the girls play their imaginative games in the yard while we sat and watched/talked. Ashlyn refused to be in pictures early in the afternoon, but Lexie happily posed with Grandma, but then as we were leaving the girls both willingly posed w/ each grandparent so I think/hope we got some great pictures, don't have the camera cord with me though, so can't download them till we get home.
In other trip news, Ashlyn is NOT at all impressed with the hotel we're staying in here close to the grandparents. She keeps saying she thinks we should just go back to "the other one" (halfway home ,well, more like 1/3 but still, that we stayed in on Fri night on our way out). I never pinned down her reason, but she says she liked the pool at the other one better, something about this one scared her, but I never figured out what. But the bigger issue is, we're on the 2nd floor and there's no elevator which means none of the fun of pushing buttons AND when we got here, we couldn't use the luggage cart to carry everything up, the girls LOVE the luggage cart LOL. And to make it worse, dh didn't realize there wasn't an elevator, so got the luggage cart, we piled everything on, then got it inside & couldn't take it upstairs, so the girls & I carried the first couple loads up while he guarded the rest of the luggage. So, part of Ashlyn's dislike was having to carry her suitcase upstairs, which she did really well, but didn't like. I assured her that when we leave, she & L can stay in the room while Daddy & I carry everything down, so all she'll have to carry down are her babies & backpack. . . I told her she's turning into a hotel expert by staying in lots of different hotels on this trip LOL.
Tomorrow we're going to try to see dh's neighbors from when he lived out here as a kid, and then we're heading home, whew . . .
The dvd player in the minivan has been a wonderful thing, though we'll see how the girls react when we get home & I enforce the "only for on trips" rule I've been reminding them of throughout the trip. They've done really well w/ the traveling though, makes me abit less nervous about the Disney trip (driving down) the end of Oct. Disney is longer, but is a trip they're looking forward too, so I think that will balance out the longer days of driving.