Litwiller Family Fun

In spite of my back injury (of which I am not truly complaining b/c I beat that wretched purple coin Toy Time level in Super Mario Galaxy) we have managed to have quite a bit of fun around here recently. Last Friday we took off for another trip to Illinois, this time for a family get-together. It is rare that my entire family (meaning parents, sibs, and nieces/nephews) are all together so I knew I wanted to be there in spite of the back pain. And it was a painful road trip, both there and back, but well worth it.

We ate supper on Friday at GG's and then visited Rob's other grandparents. We had a great time over there, managing to keep the kid mayhem to a minimum. The next day was our big family get-together. Rob and I ran out to re-purchase ground beef for hamburgers (see two posts ago for the ground beef story) and then he and his dad grilled all of the meat. It ended up raining for most of the picnic, but the kids had a ball anyway. I enjoyed sitting and watching various members of the family interact. Matthew and Ben played some ball with my dad and my brother, Adam, and showed off their appalling lack of sports skills (Note to self: work more on real baseball and less on Wii...). Anna had fun toddling everywhere, leading her daddy or aunts and uncles on a merry chase. We all decided to pack up the picnic early (oh, we were under a nice, big pavilion reserved by my wonderful sister) and we headed to my sister's house. The kids watching a movie and played with toys while the adults chatted. At four o'clock my parents and one sibling's family headed home while the rest of us went to play at State Farm Park. My brother-in-law works for State Farm and they have this awesome park for employees and guests. We couldn't get in until 4 o'clock, hence the later start. Rob and I took our kids to the pool while my sister, her twin brother, and their families ate supper and went mini-golfing. It was a little too cold for swimming, but we had promised the boys. Turned out to be a good thing for my back. The lazy river felt great! Anna had fun, in spite of a near drowning incident (and life guards really shouldn't be texting while on duty!) We then went back to Rob's parents' for supper and bedtime.

On Sunday night, after the drive and church, I took the boys to the Aquatic Center for the library pool party. Again, the idea was that I would get more "pool therapy" for my back. A friend of mine said all the pool did was numb the pain, and she might have been right b/c it was awfully cold! But it did help my back out. The boys had a great time and they won a puzzle for doing some extra reading. Rob and Anna went grocery shopping then watched us from outside the fence.

On Monday, Rob took the kids through the car wash and Ben is still talking about it :)

Tuesday we went back to the Aquatic Center with two free passes for the boys. This time Rob and Anna joined us. Anna had fun swimming with me and then she found the slide. She's too light to really walk much in the water, but she was determined to get to the slide! We did let her go down some, but there were so many kids on it that it wasn't safe to let her go alone. Rob finally took her out for a snack. Matthew did go into the deep end with me and enjoyed himself. He's a big chicken around water so it was MAJOR that he allowed me to take him over. Ben was doing great going as far as he could on his tip toes, then he and I went into the deeper water together. He even went under with me a few times. Brave boy!

And today we will go to Riverfest and ride some carnival rides (them, not me b/c of the back) and eat some deep-fried foods. We had the boys save back some of their birthday money so they could go on as many rides as they like. We'll see how many that ends up being :)