Wichita Weekend

Let me go ahead and bullet point our weekend for you because paragraphs sound like a lot of work right now and sometimes I regress into lazy infant mode/my current medication situation is getting the best of me.

+ the seven hour drive up wasn't terrible. Julia watched Curious George nine times in a row and slept for 18 minutes (!!!!!! call the miracle police because the last time she slept in the car she was two months of age), Sebastian was a trooper because he doesn't care about screens like his sister does and he only got really angry about being strapped in for multiple hours a few times, Theo was okay, Simon got a little stressed while driving in some thick traffic and I made fun of him BUT I almost had a total meltdown driving back on Sunday so .. karma's a big b.

+ Julia was SO excited to see "grampa and grampa" and understood their house and their house alone to be all of Wichita. Sebastian sought to destroy everything at his eye level and learned how to say please when he wanted more bacon. Well ... if "piss" counts and this mama bear is counting it. Theo was completely inconsolable for the first time in his life both nights ... maybe he missed the solitude of his Pack-n-Play in the attic? My respect for parents of colicky babies is HIGH.

+ Mary's bridal shower was amazing. If I had to pinpoint my greatest notstrengths it would definitely be interior decorating and planning parties so I really appreciated all the work that Simon's mom, sister Elizabeth, and Mary's bff Meg put into throwing the best party complete with a mimosa bar, potted plant party favors, a stellar soundtrack, and not a single game in sight.

+ the Bachelorette party was also a huge success. We went to a restaurant that served a great, relatively safe salad as far as iodine is concerned (because, you know, the party was about ME), the company was stellar and only toward to endish of the night did we see another bachelorette party toting around a naked male dummy that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Wow.

+ Wichita State beat Gonzaga! I love a good Cinderella story and as a former Shocker (best mascot? absolutely) myself (if a few summer and night classes count while teaching) ... I was more excited than I generally ever get about sports. Shocker Nation (until they play KU).

+ the kids weren't terrible for Palm Saturday night Mass! I carried Bash up to communion and he stuck his tongue out and leaned allllll the way to the priest's hand for a serving of what everyone else was having and I lost it by way of the giggles but other than that .... no complaints.

+ the eight hour drive home was a little bit scary. I love driving on long trips because the kids know that I can't be bothered with 89 trivial requests but after we hit a few ice patches (fine ... snow, whatever) and I lost a leeeedle bit of control of the van while watching the ginorm truck fishtail like crazy in front of us I handed the wheel over to Simon while I gulped back tears of adrenaline.

+ We told Julia we were going home to Saint Louis and she was completely horrified when we pulled up to our house as she thought we were going to visit someone by the name of Louis. She was finally sort of placated when I explained that we would be visiting her tomorrow. And tomorrow never came.

+ Traveling with kids can be super stressful with sleep schedules thrown off (and I live and breathe by the children's sleep schedules ... roll those eyes!), new "strangers" in the mix, and forgotten stuffs (always) but I was oh so pleasantly surprised by this weekend. A new Patton frontier? Possibly.

+ Weekend recaps can make for stale blog posts and this is probably one of the stalest (most stale?) so please accept my half-hearted apology.

And now back to your Tuesday afternoon grind.