Thursday, August 30th we loaded up the car first thing in the morning with our THREE kids (first road trip for two week old Amy) and headed to Grandma's (my Mom's) for the long weekend. Amy was a terrific traveler and slept most of the way. She woke up once and I fed her a bottle of breastmilk to minimize the time of feeding her (nursing her takes about 45 min. versus stopping for 20 minutes to feed her a bottle).
Friday morning we drove into town and had a nice visit with my 98 year old Grandma (my Dad's mom - my kids' great-grandma). Amy was the perfect baby and slept the entire visit in my Grandma's arms. SO SPECIAL!!
Saturday morning was the annual parade in my Mom's hometown downtown street. I grew up going to this parade every year so it is especially great to share this tradition with Matt and our kids. Amy slept through the whole thing cozily tucked in her car seat inside the stroller. It was special to have Matt's sister Shawn, husband Mike, and their boys from Oregon join in on the hometown fun.
David was especially fun to watch this year during the parade. He was just so excited about every little thing. Of course picking up the candy was the biggest excitement! We came home with a huge stash which was split between the 4 boys.
Jay really enjoyed the whole experience again this year, he just wasn't AS verbal about his excitement like David was this year. Below he is enjoying a piece of candy while waiting for the next parade entry to come down the street.
After lunch and naptime, Matt's sister's family joined Matt, Jay and David with a trip in to the fairgrounds. I fed Amy, then Grandma Amy (my mom) babysat baby Amy so I could join up with them for dinner at the fair followed by the rodeo. I left shortly after the rodeo started in order to be home in time to nurse Amy again.
We all left on Sunday, but not before I captured a picture of cousin Alex holding 2 week old baby Amy!
Thanks for hosting all of us, Mom. The food was TERRIFIC and the time spent with you and all the others in fellowship was wonderful. Looking forward to doing this again next year!
