Of sitting in the Beast of a van...
With our two good travelers...
AND two 2-year-olds, a 14-month-old, and a 7-month old who are NOT good travelers, even on trips across town.
But, you know what? We can't suspend our lives forever. We have to take chances, introduce experiences, keep up with as many traditions as possible, and visit family! There has to be a "first" every now and then.
We are brave souls, afterall.
Here is the highlight reel, minus the great pictures I got of the four littles.
We got to celebrate all the September birthdays with our Colorado family.
Oh, how we love the Colorado Springs zoo! A couple of my little ones love giraffes, so it was fun to get this close to them!
There was a brand new baby gorilla at the zoo!
We got to see one brown bear drink from the water and another brown bear climb right into the water. We watched a tiger playing in the water, too. So many of the animals were extra playful and fun to watch!
We went to the park that is only a block away from my sis-in-law's house. This is the view. I can't imagine how they felt when the fire suddenly came over that ridge, getting so close to their house. When we were there, we saw helicopters dumping loads of mulch and seed along the hillside, trying to help things grow again. Mr. Strut thought the helicopters were the very best part of the park. He and Uncle Tyler sat in the grass and watched them for the longest time.
We always enjoy riding the Taskerud's fancy bikes when we are there. Brishen fell in love with Uncle Tyler's bike. It wasn't the Walmart Special that he is used to riding!
It has been forever since we've been to a park with an actual merry-go-round! Brishen would get them going really fast, then stop it quickly and watch the kids try to run while dizzy. It was very entertaining for those of us too big to climb aboard.
The longer my foster children are with us (almost 7 months for Miss Personality, 6 months for Mr. Strut, 4.5 months for Miss Independent and Wee One), the more they feel like part of the family and the harder it is to have to edit them out of my blog. There are so many pictures from our trip that I would LOVE to share but cannot because I have no legal rights to these sweet kiddos. Here are some descriptions that will have to do:
1. Miss Independent, who LOVES giraffes, in Jon's arms, with terror on her face as she is placed a little too near an actual giraffe. Funny stuff.
2. All the cousins around Grandma's table with the cake
3. Cousin Gretchen reading to Wee One
4. Aunt Jeanne and Gretchen feeding a bottle to Wee One
5. Mr. Strut so happy to be near the giraffes but not quite brave enough to offer one the lettuce in his hand
6. The pure joy on the kids' faces as they play ball outside Grandma's house
7. Gretchen sliding with Miss Independent
8. Miss Personality walking, so pretty, in the grass near the park
9. Wee One with the biggest smile, wearing Jon's hat and sitting in the grass
10. Uncle Tyler pushing first Mr. Strut and then Miss Independent around the park on a bike
11. Mr. Strut walking Aunt Jeanne's dog
12. Mr. Strut asleep in Jon's arms
Was the trip all tulips and lollipops (or giraffes and merry-go-rounds)? No. Kids were crying before we left El Paso. Miss Personality wore out her lungs on the first leg of the trip. Mr. Strut woke up crying every five minutes the last leg of the trip. We had to change outfits multiple times because of diaper issues. Yes, even big brother Brishen had to change clothes on the way up there. (side note: it amazes me how he embraces the "big brother" role. a year ago, he would have been utterly horrified to get baby yuck on him. he totally took getting tinkled on in stride and didn't freak out when a diaper leaked something a bit grosser on him shortly after that. wow!) We had to actually go into a McD's playplace to give kids time to recuperate from sitting for so long, messing with our driving time. We stopped for potty breaks along the way for a newly potty-trained gal many, many, many times! We had to listen to the "Uh-Oh" song by Rosenschantz way too many times to break kids out of their grumpy (or screaming) spells. We handed out sticky lollipops to buy a few minutes of peace now and then. We let the big kids play too many hours of video games, forgetting that they used to read and color and play for that many hours. We missed naps and got to bed late and might have scared Grandma with how much soy milk and fruit we consume in a day. We had to rip precious breakables from the hefty grip of a toddler more times than I could count. We had allergy issues with one. We had to file an incident report because of a nasty spiral slide incident with that same one. I can't even tell you how rough the re-entry into our routine has been for the toddlers.
But, you know what? It was a family-bonding experience, and I'm glad we braved it. Brishen and Basia got to have a sleep over with Graeme and Gretchen and stayed up until 3am, loving every minute of it. Some of us made it to the awesome CO Springs game store, picking up new board games. I made it to their thrift store, picking up a few great items. Grandma spoiled us all rotten and didn't complain once about us invading her town home with all six kiddos. Jon and I shared a room with all four little ones, and we actually all slept. Jon got to go to church with his mom and meet some of her friends and her new pastor. The kids got to play with all the amazing vintage toys Grandma has so carefully preserved. We got to introduce our new, sweet children to an aunt, uncle, and cousins for the first time and watch the bonds form.
We may not want to take another road trip like that in the near future, but we are so happy that we braved this first big adventure together!
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