02 August 2010

Post Visit Report: Ups and Downs

The families have come and the families have gone and we are now back in our regular old routine. Boring, but our routine and we are happy with it.

It was wonderful to see all the grandkids.

Reese didn’t want her picture taken but I took it anyway, and Hunter is watching bubbles whilst eating an apple.

 ReeseSnarkyDSC03137HunterBubblesDSC03135_edited-1

Pete is showing off his collection of snails from WP, Dave is sporting a black eye and Leah is modeling a new shrug.

PeteSnailsDSC03141DavidBlackEyeDSC03139 LeahShrugDSC03154_edited-1 

Lauren & Mark arrived first with Reese (4) and Hunter (2) on Friday Aug. 16 and had a couple of days alone before Shannon and co arrived on the 18th.  They stayed at a nearby cottage and Shan’s family stayed with us. Peter (6), David (4) and Leah (2)!  The cousins had a wonderful time together.  As did the sisters and their husbands.

Highlights:

David got his cast off on Monday morning and everything was fine.

Reese had a birthday party with a giant castle shaped bouncy tent, special princess cake and pizza.  Her cousins and the children of a couple of her long-time friends all had a ball!

We had a big family dinner here with my brother and SIL and my sister and BIL, both coming up from Yarmouth.  Sister and husband have just moved back from England and had never met any of the little ones, so they were really excited. 

The weather was perfect, sunny almost every day and hence lots of beach time!

Lots of bonding with the grandparents!

Lowlights:

Shannon’s kids were having sleep issues and so the parents didn’t get great sleeps.  And after Paul left on Sunday, Shan was the one dealing with the kids not sleeping and not getting much sleep herself for the last week.

David fell the day after getting his cast off and got a black eye which lasted the whole time he was here.

But all in all I would say it was a great vacation for everyone!

The finale:

I drove back to Ottawa with Shan on Friday and Saturday and then flew back home on Sunday.  The drive to Saint John on Friday wasn’t too bad, just road construction hold-ups.  And we had a fun time at Lauren’s house that evening. 

But Saturday, the long drive day, the 11 and 1/2 hour drive day!  Let me summarize:

DVD player broke after the 3 hour.  Leah freaked!  Crying and screaming and wanting to watch Diego.

Very low on gas, got lost trying to find a gas station in Sherbrooke QC. 

Just as we parked at the gas station, Pete vomited inside the car all over everything.  Got him cleaned up and the car cleaned up and headed out again.

Leah watched a Scooby Doo movie on my IPad ( yes I did break down and got one and thank goodness I rented the movie before we left)!  Then she wanted to watch Diego on the still not working DVD player.  Tired and cranky and still hadn’t napped. Crying and whining.

We are on the right highway to Montreal and Shannon, who drives this road all the time got lost going into Montreal and when we came through the other side.  Add more time to an already long trip.

Leah finally fell asleep about an hour and 1/2 from home.

Total time in the car that day – 13 and 1/2 hours!

We arrive at Shannon’s house, unpack the car, get something to eat and go to bed.  I sleep on a pullout bed down in the rec room and slept well, but did hear a bit of a commotion during the night. 

Got up in the morning to find out that Pete had vomited in his bed.  Paul cleaned him and it all up and decided they would sleep in sleeping bags in the living room.  They just settle down to sleep when Leah comes out to tell her father that she too had vomited in her bed and all over herself.  Those two continued with the vomiting and now diarrhea until I left for the airport at 11 o’clock. 

I love them all dearly but I cannot tell you how glad I was to be on that plane flying home to NS and John and my two dogs and my quiet boring life!

Can’t wait till next summer when hopefully we can do it all again!

3 comments:

Marti said...

Oh man. That sounds like some drive. Hope all are feeling better.

lexa said...

Sounds like it was.... eventful? lol! Too bad the kids got sick, hope they didn't pass anything to you.

I keep a 2L ice cream container in my car for illness purposes. When I was a kid I had terrible motion sickness, puked every second Sunday on the ride to the grandparents place in Lockeport. The Littlest One sometimes gets car sick (though he's not nearly as bad as I was), so I keep it there just in case. Although sometimes it shoots out unexpectedly like a cannon...

Mine have been sick through the night, too, a few times, where they didn't make it to the bathroom. The worst was the time I had the flu as well, and the Oldest One puked all over the bedroom carpet, so there I was, sick as a dog at 2am steam cleaning the carpet. Not pretty! But that's what you get when you've got kids, I guess. :)

Frieda said...

Oh my gosh that sounds like one long, exhausting trip ! Hope that they're all feeling better now .

Sounds like you had a wonderful visit with them all before the return trip to Ottawa. The photos are super !

 

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