Canche Chronicles: Catch-up: Our trip to PA!

I am so behind on this blog, probably the most behind I've ever been! The hard drive on the laptop went out so that was the problem with that but we got it back today and it is all fixed!!

The last time I wrote was in early July and I am supposed to start up with July 7th. I feel like it would be too painful to give a day by day post of the past sixteen days so I'm going to go ahead and recap with the main events.

Sunday July 7th and Monday July 8th were spent going to church (Sunday) and cleaning and getting ready for our trip to PA on Tuesday. Our flight out on Tuesday didn't leave until 4:55 so we left for Dallas around 1 and the girls took their naps in the car. David dropped us off at curbside check-in and then headed back to Longview because he had an evening flight. The girls and I made it through ticketing and security without any problems but when we got to our gate the flight was thirty minutes delayed. No problem for Haley, it us gave her more time to watch the airplanes. It got awkward at one point when she kept going up to a little black girl who had her head buried in her arms and was trying to sleep and yelled 'wake up!' I tried to explain to her that it was rude but then she just stood next to her and talked loudly about how the girl was sleeping and should wake up.

I had packed dinner in the diaper bag so after settling in on the plane we ate and then looked out the window and played with the magazines behind the seat until we landed in St. Louis. Most of the passengers got off and we got to stretch out legs for a little bit and use the bathroom before the final flight to Philadelphia. On that leg we had a whole row of three seats so that was nice. I put the girls in their pajamas and they eventually drifted off to sleep and I got to rest a bit too. Mimi and Pops picked us up in Philadelphia and Aunt Carly was waiting for us asleep on the couch when we got in.

Wednesday all of us went shopping at the Philadelphia premium outlets. This was slightly insane because we brought all eight of the grandchildren and there were only five adults. Just picture us trying on clothes in the handicapped dressing room with a bunch of kids running around, some crying, a spanking, pizza for lunch, and naps on the way home. Needless to say, nobody bought anything, haha. Mimi made steak sandwiches for dinner and the kids were pretty quick to go to bed from what I can remember...

THURSDAY was I think, literally, the best day of Haley's life. Mimi, Carly, and I took the Brust and Canche cousins to Dutch Wonderland for the day. Dutch Wonderland is a kid's amusement park that I went to as a kid. I never considered it to be a 'kid's' amusement park until I went this time, haha. Haley LOVED every minute of it. She was not tall enough to ride over half of the rides but she didn't seem to mind and just rode the same rides over and over. She rode the carousel at least eight times. Mimi, Carly, and I kept commenting about how wonderful the kids were being and it really was amazing. I guess they should have been considering where they were. Emily even got to ride a couple of rides. She dozed off in the stroller sometime in the afternoon and took a nice nap. We were at Dutch Wonderland from ten until four so needless to say, most of the kids fell asleep on the way home. Grandma DeWalt had invited us for dinner so we went there almost as soon as we got home. She had made a huge dinner with even a separate kid's meal! After dinner we hung out in the living room for a while before all packing up and heading to the airport to pick up Aunt Rin! I'm sure when Aunt Rin stepped off the plane Haley could hardly believe that her day had gotten even better! Kimi and I were front and center with Ellie and Emy since Rin hadn't met them yet. Haley did recognize Rin but acted a little shy at first. She was warmed up and in her arms by the end of the night though!

FRIDAY we spent a lot of time catching up with Rin! We took it slow in the morning and then put the kids down for naps in the afternoon while Carly, Kelly, and I went shopping with Rin. We left Mimi with the kids. Apparently the kids heard we were leaving because none of them took good naps except Emy. Only Emy slept the whole time we were gone, everyone else was wide awake and playing when we got back. They were all walking around all over the house and Mimi was handling like the pro she is: on the phone. Haha, it reminded me of when I was a kid! Grandma and Grandpa came and watched the kids in the evening while the rest of us went out to celebrate Dad's sixtieth Birthday! We had a late dinner which worked out well because we just put the kids to bed before Grandma and Grandpa even arrived. When we got back around eleven, Grandpa was walking around with Emy. Apparently she had woken up almost an hour prior and had just been hanging out with them. They said she wasn't crying or anything, just wide awake!

SATURDAY morning Carly, Mimi and I secretly set up for Corinne's shower. The shower was at Mom's house and we knew Corinne would eventually find out once she woke up so when she walked down the stairs we all ran to her and yelled 'surprise.' I think she was surprised. Her shower was at 12:30 so I let Haley and Emily stay up for the first hour or so and then I put them down for naps. Haley, Calla, and Kelsey all wore matching dresses that Aunt Rin had brought them back from Africa! It was a great shower if I can say so myself! After the shower we sat around and talked about how great the shower was, haha, and then had dinner. The sisters had another shower for Rin in the evening with a more specialized theme and Haley and Emy kept waking up while we were trying to have it. Pops volunteered to be with Haley so I could be at the shower which was really nice of him! He gave her some orange juice and apparently that was what she needed because she finally dozed off after that.

SUNDAY we went to church at Mimi and Pop's church. I didn't get called out for Haley or Emily so that was good! When I went to pick up Emily she was fast asleep in one of the worker's arms. After church we went home and ate lunch (Dad picked up sandwiches from the deli, YUM) and then Carly and I loaded up and headed out. We had our trip planned perfectly to start with naptime and end with nighttime. Naptime kind of failed because Haley didn't even sleep an hour and Emy maybe slept an hour and a half. It worked out though because they were happy when they were awake. We stopped halfway through the trip for dinner and restrooms and then got back in the car for the rest of the five hours. All of the kids fell asleep for the night then and Carly and I got to drive the rest of the way in peace. David met us somewhere on eighty and we said bye to our Brust cousins and drove up to Michigan! I'll try and recap our stay in Michigan tomorrow.