Robbins Reunion Part 3: ...And Back Again.

      Our vacation ended on Sunday and I have to say I didn't prepare for this trip as well as I had the first part.  We scrambled to get everything together the night before until far too late when we should have already gone to bed to get enough sleep to leave early.  Because we didn't prepare early enough we didn't end up leaving until after 9:30, maybe later.  This made for a more interesting trip.  We made a quick stop in Tri-cities to change her diaper and for a early lunch.  Anna was still going through some diarrhea and so we had to stop more often as well.  Ty and I were also still extremely tired since we didn't a decent amount of sleep the night before. 

      We stopped in Nampa to gas up and we bought a couple of Rockstar energy drinks to help perk us up. After that we found a park for us to change her diaper and let her play around a bit.  She loves swings and decided to try going hands free a couple of time.  Totally freaks me out.

 

 

      Getting back into the car was not on her list of wants, but once again Ty made sure to stick to the routine as closely as possible and put her down for a nap.  This time he tried propping her head up to see if that would help her from bobbing awake.  It did seem to help, but only for a little longer than her normal car time naps.

      We stopped again in Boise at BK for dinner and it was at this point I realized that Rockstar drinks and I don't mix.  I felt awful and decided I definitely won't be trying them again.  Anna still did pretty good, but I think we were all overly tired and let her watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse on repeat.  The later it got, however, the more not even Mickey could calm her.  We were about an hour from home and she became restless and upset and just too tired to manage.  That's when she started screaming with tears of exhaustion.  We tried everything we could think of to try to calm her and even see if she would sleep, but nothing worked.  We didn't know what to do .  Ty started speeding and weaving through the lanes in order to get this poor little girl in bed quicker.  And do you know what happened?  We got pulled over.  Luckily, we only got a warning.  I imagine the officer felt pity on us since Anna was still screaming.  Finally, we got home around 11:30 and it was 90 something degrees inside!  We cranked on the A/C and immediately went to work getting Anna to bed.  I think we definitely learned a few things about what to do and what not to do for this road trip.  With the next time being in November, it will be interesting to see how that drive goes with snow involved.  I'm just glad we'll have time to recover from this last trip.  Haha.

Robbins Reunion '13 Part 2: .....The Main Event...

      We were excited to have arrived on the Fourth of July so that we could enjoy the Othello fireworks from Rex and Cheryl's deck.  They have a great view and it was so fun to watch, though it was incredibly cold.  Last year was too little to take anywhere.  She was this year too, but luckily she was in bed  and we didn't have to go anywhere to go watch the fireworks.  I'm looking forward to seeing her reaction next year.

 

      When we got there, only Ty's parents and Nathan and Celia's family were there.  It was fun to be there in the beginning as everyone trickled in, as opposed to being one of the (if not THE) last to arrive. However, catastrophe struck when, slowly, but surely, we ALL started getting sick.  It was either nausea, diarrhea, or both.  Yeah, fun times.  Despite that we managed to have a good time and even just commiserate together. It will definitely go down in the record books.  Next year, I think we'll all stock up on our immune boosters beforehand.  Haha.

      Here are some highlights of the few things I was able to catch.

-Cheryl taking Eliza, Anna, and one of the twins (I think it's Ezra, but honestly I can't tell anymore) on a walk.  Anna loves to look around and just sit in the stroller when she goes on walks.  It's very peaceful.

- The kids LOVED being outside in the backyard and Anna was no exception.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- We had a day where we got out the big waterslide of Rex and Cheryl's and filled up a little innertube as a pool for the little kiddies.  Turned on the sprinklers and just had a fun backyard water day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

- We got to celebrate Ty's birthday!  He wasn't sure what kind of a cake he wanted and after talking about it we decided to do a White Velvet Cake with Oreo Creme with crushed Oreos Frosting.  Sooooo Good!

 

 

 

- I said everyone got sick, and I meant EVERYONE.  The worst (to me) of all was poor Anna, and really poor Ty, because she threw up so many times....on Ty.  And the floor. And the couch.  At some point we decided to keep a throw up cup close to her as a precaution.  Though, it didn't always make it in time, I felt a surge of anxiety any time she started coughing.  It was pretty awful.  She became so much more cuddly though, which was a plus for us, but I hated that we had to be so cautious with what she ate after that.  She was still a happy girl until she could feel something happening and would come over to us (again, mostly Ty) to hold her while she whined until it came up.  On top of everything was the diarrhea she had.  It was kind of a nightmare.  It didn't help that Ty and I were both still trying to recover from our own versions of the illness.  One day, we all just sat around watching Netflix because we just didn't have much energy to do anything else. It was still good to get some fresh air outside.  You'll notice Anna is frequently in her pj's.  We were all pretty tired.

 

 

 

- The guys working on Ty's motorcycle.  We were able to leave it with Ty's parents when we moved and hope that Rex can fix it.  Personally, I have my doubts.

 

 

 

 

- With half of us sick, I can't believe we were able to get family pictures, but it worked out really well.  Wendy Spinelli in Othello is awesome and I love her! Everyone was pretty relaxed waiting to get our pictures taken.

 

 

 

These are Wendy's work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

- The next morning, at Grandma/Great Grandma Robbins's request we all made a singing performance for the retirement home she lives in.  I didn't get any pictures of all of us, but I wish I had taken some of Anna walking around and being super cute and how much the ladies enjoyed her.  Not a hard task to accomplish for this little lady.  Our car was getting the windshield repaired quickly (it's been making a strange whistling sound the faster we go) and so we hitched a ride with Grandma Evans (Cheryl's mom).  Pay no attention to the illegal sitting of this child. Afterwards we went for a much deserved BK ice cream trip. Only we were craving lunch by that time.  Anna LOVES french fries.  She wouldn't be mine if she didn't.

 

 

 

 

 

- The kids, Cecilia, and Danielle made tie-dye shirts.  I did one of the onesies for Anna and they turned out great.  I think I'll do one for myself next year.

 

 

- There were a couple of days for boating, but we only made it to one and by the time we got there it was just about time to leave and come back home.  Haha.  Anna enjoyed it though.  She definitely loves water.

 

 

 

 

- The last night that everyone would be there we ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant Chen's (SO GOOD!) and then headed to the church to play in the gym for awhile.  Then have dessert while we watching a slideshow of pictures Celia had taken during the reunion.  It was great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

- When we weren't doing any activities we were hanging out catching up, indoors and outdoors.  We have a great family and it's always great to be together.