On the Farm

This weekend we went down to Illinois for the Hartzler Hog Roast, a family/friend get-together hosted by a second cousin of Rob's. We spent two nights with my parents and on Saturday went to the farm and had a wonderful time! This pic is of Anna enjoying herself on top of a hay bale. I'll be posting more pics on Facebook whenever I get around to it :)

We did not start the trip until around 5pm on Friday b/c Rob had to work a 10 hour day. I had another bought of exhaustion (which means I felt like I had lead weights all over my body) that day, so I wasn't able to start packing until right before Rob came home. The kids and I had a great time loading up the bags, especially since each of the boys packed their own (with Mommy's supervision, or Matthew would have ended up with 3 pairs of pj's and nothing else!) We didn't take off until close to 6pm, but since we weren't on any time schedule, it didn't matter. We stopped for supper at Burger King (which was one town later than we remembered) and ate in the car. If you've tried sitting in any restaurant with 3 kids under age 5, you understand why :) We made one more stop after that, which I consider to be pretty good for our little group. Anna wasn't too happy, but she slept alot, so that helped :) Matthew's also pretty good about feeding her when necessary.

We made it to my parents' home by 10pm, so we made good time. The boys played for a bit and then Rob attempted to put them to bed. In the same bed. Yeah, that worked. They settled down by midnight when we finally turned off every light in the house. Anna played around in her crib until 11:30 when she gave up! Amazingly, Rob and I were both awake by 6am and ready to go on our breakfast date. We walked over to a restaurant downtown, but since they didn't take debit card (what is up with that anyway??) we walked back to Mom and Dad's, got the car, and drove to a different place. We had a yummy breakfast and then walked around Wal-Mart's toy department to get ideas for the kids for Christmas. We already have their presents (go ahead and be impressed) but we needed ideas for those who ask. And it's alot easier to look at toys w/o a chorus of "Can I have that? Can I see that? I want it!" to deal with.

After the date, we went back and found Mom trying to get the kids dressed. It would have helped if Matthew had put on HIS clothing instead of Ben's. :) We then went for a walk so Mom could show off the grandkids and then went over the park and played for a bit. Later, she and the boys went and picked apples off her tree while Anna napped. And napped. And napped some more, so we finally woke her up and fed her so we could get to the farm!

We had a wonderful time out at the farm. We ate ourselves silly and had a great time seeing family, both immediate and distant. Anna stayed on the blanket with her adorable cousin Jamie most of the afternoon. My boys (all three of them) were not as easy to keep track of. Once Matthew and Ben figured the place out, they were constantly on the go. There wasn't much trouble they could get into so we just let them run. There was a hay maze, a bunch of kiddie bikes and tractors to ride, a tire swing, tractor rides, a combine ride, and oodles of cousins to play with. I was surprised that Ben took off so much since he is the shy one, but he had a blast running around. We tried to wipe him off whenever he flew past, but dirt seems to find him so he went home pretty filthy. Matthew and Rob were harder to keep track of than Ben. Rob just gets caught talking to everybody. I prefer to stay in one spot and talk to people I know well, which was just a well since I was pretty tired that whole day.

We left just after the fireworks that evening and dumped the kids into a bath tub upon arriving back at my folks. Mom scrubbed down the boys (and probably the tub afterwards) and they went to bed. I was so exhausted that I couldn't see straight so Rob sent me to bed. Then I spent most of the night in agony from toothpain (no meds or Orajel worked for long) so I'm trying to find a dentist that will take our health plan (no luck yet..grrr....)

The next day found me too tired to go to church, but the rest of the fam went. Then my sister and her family came over and I got to bond with my niece, who napped on me for over an hour. I tried to steal her, but there wasn't enough room in the car. We left around 4 and got back around 8 with a pretty pleasant trip. We're tired today, but in good spirits.