behind the scenes: going to Grandma and Grandpa's house

We went to my parents' house this weekend.
Getting ready to go takes me the whole day:

7:30 am--this crazy haired girly wakes us up. She's hungry. And she wants to watch a show on my phone. I usually say no because watching tv makes her grumpy.
But this morning, I give in.
I stay in bed and keep nursing Christian. 

8:15--we head downstairs. I spend some time snuggling this little squishy monkey.

8:26 am--Nicholas finds a flag shape in the sunshine on the floor. He sits at the end and pretends to "hold" the flag.
8:29 am--Ellie sees what he's doing and stands on the flag.
8:29 am--Nicholas is mad. Because Ellie's standing on his flag. They proceed to argue about the flag made of sunshine on the floor.
8:33 am--I tell them: "Stop fighting over the sunshine, guys!"
I never expected to hear myself say that.

8:44 am--I get my Bubs dressed again. His diaper soaked through onto his monkey outfit.

8:57 am--the kids already ate once, when Kent brought them down before he left for work. But Nicholas runs outside, finds a dandelion and blows on it, then comes back to tell me:

"Mom! I wished with a clover wisher for more cereal!"

9:15 am--My mom and Sarah stop by. They're on their way to see Alicia's graduation from UVU, but they spend some time here first.

9:30 am--I lay Christian down for a little nap, but he won't go to sleep, so I nurse him first. Sarah is downstairs playing Go Fish with the kids, and Ellie tells her about the time she swam with dolphins at Bear Lake.
Ellie's oblivious to the meaning of "tell the truth."
My sweet mom does my dishes while I'm upstairs.

9:57 am--my mom and Sarah have to go, Christian wakes up and I feed him again while the kids play outside and in the garage

10:30 am--I'm done feeding Christian. I try to start organizing a few things to pack.
10:32 am--Ellie's hungry. Snack time.
11:08 am--I get Christian to sleep. I never know if he's going to sleep for 20 minutes or 2 hours, so I get to work fast.

11:11 am--first task, clean out the van. No matter how hard I try to keep it clean, it's always full of jackets, toys, and trash

11:12 am--Ellie runs past and throws her empty cheetos bag in the car. I think I've discovered the problem.

11:39 am--I stick the kids in the tub for two reasons. They need to be cleaned and it will keep them occupied and not making a mess while I pack the suitcases.

12:29 pm--Kids are out of the tub and shower. I stop packing and folding laundry to make lunch.
Nick wants a peanut butter sandwich, Ellie wants a grilled cheese.

I heat up leftover green chicken enchiladas for my own lunch.
Ellie says they look "slobbery like a snail. See, Mom, the sauce?"
12:34 pm--I sit down to eat my lunch. To drink I have a sparkling water--I've been loving these lately. They're not sweetened at all, just carbonated water and natural flavors. I like them, and I like that they aren't sweet because that means I don't have to share them with the kids.

12:54 pm--time to clean the fish tank and transfer the fish to the bucket to take with us.
Yes, we take our fish to Grandma's house. So I don't have to find someone to come feed them.
I'm feeling ready for these fish to move on. The black one is often swimming belly-up, but unfortunately, he always recovers.

1:10 pm--packing and cleaning. The kids are everywhere, packing their own backpacks with their own treasures and favorite toys. Their packing methods aren't very tidy.

1:27 pm--turn on our sprinklers

1:30 pm--Christian's awake again, and ready to eat. We sit down to nurse while I watch the big kids finish "packing."

2:02 pm--Kent's home from work. It's time to gather up the last few things

2:14 pm--Nicholas is supposed to be going potty and getting in the car, but he can't leave Christian alone. He's got a serious case of baby-love.

2:15 pm--remember to turn the sprinkler timer to "off." We learned the hard way last summer that if we leave the sprinklers set to go on by themselves, they'll turn on....and then turn on again, and again, and again, until they flood the golf course.  We probably should just get a new timer.

2:20 pm--in the car, on our way!

2:40 pm--Christian falls asleep after surprisingly little fuss.
2:55 pm--Christian's awake again. I feed him a bottle while we drive.
3:16 pm--the kids:
           Nicholas

       Ellie

        Ellie's pants.

        She wore a skirt in the car last week and the way it bunched up in her seatbelt drove her crazy, so she took it off while we rode, and so naturally she now insists that she take off any sort of dress, skirt, pants, or shorts on the off chance it might bunch up when we buckle her. 
Three-year-olds are awesome that way.


Christian was surprisingly chill the rest of the drive.

As were the fish.

3:57 pm--Nicholas woke up and insisted he hadn't been sleeping at all. Then he looked out the window at the trees in the canyon and said,
"Wow. Those trees are just really too green, aren't they?"
I told him I thought they were pretty and asked him if they even could be too green.
His response? "Actually, it's pretty nice to be green."

Agreed.

We had an awesome weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house,
and when we set off for home on Monday morning, my mom sent us off with this tray of cookies fresh out of the oven.

 I asked Nicholas to smile for me, but this is his "I'm super mad because I don't want to go home" face.

 Little brother was happy, at least!

We're planning a trip to California in a couple of weeks...
I think I'm going to have to start packing for it today if I want to get everything ready in time. Whew!