Labor Day Weekend

We loved having Aunt Rita come visit! She lavished our children with attention and gifts! Thanks Aunt Rita. We spent a good part of Friday getting Aunt Rita's room in proper order. 2:00PM Saturday did not come soon enough for everyone. That is when Aunt Rita arrived. Here is the weekend update from Aunt Rita's perspective. Oh and I might add. . . When we were all out playing in the street (no driveway) and Drew was struggling to raise the unicycle seat I told everyone to get out of the street because a car was coming. Baruch practically yelled "Watch out woman driver". Rita was looking all around to see where that came from! Where do you think that boy learned such talk?

Rita's update:
As you may or may not know, last weekend (labor day weekend) I drove to Iowa to visit the Tribe. Tim was going to go with originally but due to some changing circumstances ended up having to stay home. I knew that this news would be disappointing to the nieces and nephews, especially Jacob, but Beth said he handled it like a man.

So anyway, I woke up pretty leisurely on Saturday morning and left the house about 8:00 a.m. It took me 7 hours to get there due to some congestion on the highway out of Chicago toward Wisconsin. Boy, there is sooo much construction going on but it does finally look like they are making headway along several stretches in and around Chicago.

Shortly after my arrival we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a bike ride. This required waking up Abigail and Baruch early from their naps, otherwise if we left later it would have interfered with dinner time. Ah, with 5 in tow, it is amazing that the timing of it could be worked out at all.

Drew was in front with Abigail connected by the tow-along (or whatever it is called) and then I think it was Abram in the baby
trailer behind her. Then Beth was on her bike with Baruch in the baby trailer behind her. Mary and Jacob each had their own bikes and I was on a very nice spare that they happened to have. We rode all the way into the city up to the river where they have revamped the Mississippi river walk area. Beth and Drew knew the route with the least amount of tricky maneuvering and least amount of traffic but it still gave me a heart attack to see Jacob going gung-ho while approaching a stop sign. Of course he did stop for the stop signs and of course Beth and Drew knew that he would but since I haven't been there to witness this before I was just holding my breath. But what a sight we were to see in our big long train of bikes and trailers. Jacob wanted to ride next to me so we could talk but then when there was traffic he had a hard time getting in line single
file in time and would cut off Mary. Finally, on the way back, Beth told him he needed to ride right behind Drew and his line-up, then Mary would ride behind him, then me and then Beth brining up the rear. Well, Jacob did ride behind Drew but every time Drew was slowing to a stop, Jacob was too interested in everything else around him and only realized he must stop at the last second. I counted at least 4 times when Jacob rammed into the back of the trailer. Whoops. So I think Abram (if in fact that was who Drew was towing) might have suffered a little whip lash, but never once did I hear a whimper.

Then on the way home we stopped at a park and played some fun chasing / tag games while Drew pedaled up to the house and brought back the van with the trailer. He then loaded up the bikes onto the trailer. The reason for this is because there is a humongous hill that we would have had to have ridden up to get home. It is doubtful that all of the little ones (and doubtful that Beth or me either) could have ridden up it. I guess this is their routine anyway.

By the time we got home it was supper time and thanks to Beth's foresight and expertise in setting the timer on the oven, she put a delicious lasagna dinner on the table in a matter of minutes. She also had made a delicious homemade chocolate cheesecake for dessert. They put candles on it and sang Happy Birthday to me which was so sweet.

The next day the weather was kind of yucky and rainy. We ended up going to the National Mississippi River museum. The highlight of that was the "creature feature" which happened to be a Bull Snake that day. We learned all about the snake and got in line (several times over) to pet it. Very interesting!

When we got home the rain had let up some so we spent time outside. I had brought some scooters that Kelsey, Sean and Emily had outgrown so the kids were riding up and down the street and sidewalk on those. In the mean time they had been asking me if I could ride a unicycle and would I show them. So, Drew got out a wrench to try to lower the seat on it. He was exerting himself so forcefully trying to lower the seat that he by accident passed wind. Then he was trying to use a hammer and it somehow got caught and ripped the pocket of a very nice plaid shirt he was wearing. In the end he did
get the seat raised and Beth and I were able to show the kids that we could ride the unicycle. But was it worth it since Drew ended up ruining a pair of underwear as well as a shirt??

I took a few pictures which I will try to put on the site or send out soon. You are not going to believe this, but I forgot to get
any pics of Abram. You'll just have to believe me that he is as cute (and strong) as the dickens. All of the other children are great too; just as nice and polite as can be, funny and smart too!! Beth and Drew are doing a very commendable job.

The kids sang Happy Birthday to me as many times as they could fit it in over the weekend. I loved it. It made me feel so special! Monday morning came around fast. The kids woke me up by singing Happy Birthday to me again which really made me laugh. I departed after pigging out on a wonderful pancake breakfast that Drew made. It only took me 6.5 hours to get home. Even though it didn't take as long as the way there, it still seemed mighty long.