Fancy extra#1.... the beach.
Raegan had SUCH fun at the beach! All that sand to throw and put on her own head! All that water to splash in! All those shells to collect! AND! AND! Daddy playing WITH her! Kael, on the other hand, spent the first 20 minutes crying because... he was hungry, had a dirty diaper, was hot, was cold, was awake, was asleep, the sun was up.. the wind was or was not blowing.... anyway he finally fell asleep and was cuddled by Mama on the beach for the better part of the visit. I did manage to get myself out there to play in the water a bit with Raegan when her and Matt wandered back to the picnic blanket for a short break.. so when I finally got my hands on her to play she was pretty beat. Oh well, the weather was nice and the water was fun. I did manage to foist the camera off on Matt and he got a pic or two of me.. Good lord, I really look like that. Oh well. All in all, our time at the beach was fun!
The wedding was small and simple, lasting all of 5 minutes with kids running around screaming and the groom holding his Nascar hat in his hand the whole time. Simple but fun. We dined on fried chicken and taters cooked in a huge turky deep frier thingie. Fancy extra #2 was that dining experience.. Matt is convinced that we must now own one of those. That's HIS kind of outdoor cooking! Around 5:30 we decided we needed to head home. Raegan was getting a second wind but she was boogering all over the place, crying over the smallest things, and it was kind of chilly out. Plus, after a good long awake-and-upset period Kael was finally asleep.. a good time to go. We loaded a plate with chicken strips and tots and headed down the road. This was the beginning of the LONGEST DRIVE IN HISTORY. I swear, it took us two lifetimes to get home. Raegan did sleep the first hour as did Kael so that was nice.. then they woke up. We stopped to feed Kael a few times and let Raegan out into the fresh air once or twice. Fancy extra #3 came in Springfield. Kael was crying that if-you-don't-help-me-now-I'm-gonna-DIE kind of cry so we took the first exit off the highway and found ourselves in a remote parking lot parked under a weird tree. This tree was growing some kind of fruit or nut or something.. I know nothing about trees. Anyway, there were tons of big clusters of these things all over this tree! On the ground were even more, some dried up or the husk/fruit removed revealing the nut inside.. maybe Walnuts or something? Anyway, Matt and I amused ourselves while Raegan ran around and Kael nursed ( while I was standing, multi-talented, huh?) by placing these nuts in various states of decay behind the tires and backing over them. The fresh ones from the tree just squished, but the ones that had fallen and the ones that were bare nut POPPED! Was way silly and immature.. and such fun! We spent a good 10 minutes there messing with these silly things.... I even managed to snag a large bunch of them to bring home and use for decor. I really should find out what they are.. fresh, they are green and the size of a small lime, bigger then a golf ball. The nut inside is the same texture but rounder than a peach pit. Also, they smell kind of minty.... any ideas? ** Thanks Karen, for carefully examining them and proclaming their walnut-ness! So.. that's what walnuts look like...*
ANYWAY....... that was the end of the fun, and that was only half the distance home. The rest of the trip was filled with crying children, vomit, and end-of-their-rope parents. At one point I seriously considered climbing in the back seat and draping my body over Kael's infant carseat & flopping out the ladies to feed him while we drove. There was NO way I was stopping this car to feed him again! I wanna go HOME! Luckily he settled for me sitting next to him and petting his head. We finally made it home at 11:45 and thank GOD.. as we couldn't have lasted another minute. Traveling with children... SUCH fun!
