Meanwhile the kids were having a blast in St. Louis. They got to go see Charlotte in the
hospital. My mom said Jackson was one of
the first ones in there and the first to ask to hold her. He thought she was pretty special. I imagine it was one of the craziest hospital
visits ever. Then that night they went
to the game. They were having Christmas
in July at the ballpark and all the kids got Cardinals stockings. Some of them also were interviewed by the
Fredbird Girls about Christmas stuff.
The pictures Lissy had from the game looked like they had a lot of
fun. Sadly, the Cardinals lost but I
don’t think most of the kids could tell you that. Then the next day they got to go to the Magic
House and welcome Charlotte home before they headed home.
I had grand plans to get a lot done on Thursday but the
twins had other plans. They were just
ornery little boys. I finally got them
down for a nap, or so I thought. I
started working on a new dessert I wanted to make for dinner that night and get
a lot of my dinner prep done. I had it
mostly ready to go in the oven when I noticed I heard voices upstairs. The twins were up and out of their room…and I
was greeted with an unsightly, smelly surprise.
Bennett had pooped, taken off his diaper and proceeded to smear on the
carpet. It was even all over Lincoln’s
cowboy hat. Miles had pooped too but
thankfully still had his diaper on. But
then I noticed poop on his shirt and hands.
Bennett also decided to climb back into his bed so it was. So I got them into the shower and started
cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. I
eventually got the room cleaned, them cleaned and dressed and laundry started
(on the extra long stain cycle with pre-wash and extra rinse-I wasn’t taking
any chances). I then made them each sit
in one of the chairs in the family room while I worked on dinner and
cleaning. I was hoping to actually do
the clothes packing while they were napping but that definitely didn’t
happen. They had to sit there for quite
a while. I don’t know if it even sunk in
though. Just as I was finishing up
dinner my parents and Caroline showed up with the rest of our kids and joined
us for dinner. Later that night I
finally got around to labeling and packing up the clothes. Ellie joined me and worked on addressing
envelopes for letters home. She kept
wanting to do more which is funny because Jackson didn’t have to do any since
he still had all the ones still in his trunk from last year J. I had bagged up several of Ellie’s outfits (I
put an outfit and a pair of underwear and socks in a ziplock bag for each day)
when I realized I hadn’t labeled any of it so I had to start over. I finally got it all packed up except we had
lost one of Jackson’s water shoes. They
were probably too small anyways.
The next day was Mr. Lincoln’s 5th
birthday! I got up early and blew up
some balloons and put up the chalkboard for him to see when he came
downstairs. Since the rest of the
decorations were at my parents, I thought he would be happy with balloons and
he was J. He was excited it was his birthday but
couldn’t understand why we weren’t starting the party yet. It rained a little bit throughout the day so
while we waited for it to clear up I made a couple desserts to take to Sara’s,
made sure everything was ready to on Saturday including packing for the twins,
Lincoln and I to stay overnight in St. Louis.
The sun was coming out as I finished up and we headed over to my parents
to start getting ready for the party.
The kids swam a little but it was actually kind of chilly. I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up cupcakes and
water shoes for Jackson then started the decorating. It really didn’t take too long since I really
didn’t have many decorations. My mom helped
hang some of their red lanterns on the lights under the arbor. We had a pretty small group and just ordered
pizza so overall it was a low-key party.
Lincoln loved it though. He loved
the decorations, he was excited about the people who were able to come, very
excited about his presents and pumped for his piñata. Miles and Bennett couldn’t wait to get into
the cupcakes. Over all it was a great
party for Lincoln. I just love his
excitement and joy. Lincoln is his own
special person and we are so blessed to have him in our family. I love that he wants to give me hugs and kisses
and still wants to be my helper…well most of the time as other times he likes
to complain a bit. I love his
imaginative play. As I type this we are
driving back from dropping the kids off at kamp and he has been playing with
his new Power Ranger toy for almost two hours just talking up a storm about
what it is doing-to himself. He does
have a mischievous side to him that gets him in trouble. But what little boy doesn’t.
After the party (well actually before it was even over)
Lincoln was anxious to get home and get some of his new toys out. Andrew took everyone but Ellie home to do
baths while my parents helped me clean up everything from the party. It actually wasn’t too bad. Then we headed home to unload everything just
so I could pack up the back again with the trunks and bags for kamp. I also had to repack Lincoln because we
decided he could spend a couple extra days in St. Louis with Lissy since that
is something he has been wanting to do.
Morning came early again. I
actually forgot why my alarm was going off at 5:45 but quickly remembered. After we dropped off the twins at my parents
we started our trek down to Branson. We
tried to stop at Lambert’s in Ozark but the parking lot was totally packed with
people all over outside waiting and it was only 11:15. So we headed down the road to an Olive
Garden. The kids weren’t too happy, but
Andrew and I enjoyed it. Ellie tried to
convince me that she shouldn’t eat because her stomach was hurting. I think she ate one bread stick and part of a
chicken strip. Then she kept complaining
of stomach hurting when we got out to the car.
That girl can get so nervous but I kind of understand. She was able to rest for a little bit and
then we were at kamp before we knew it.
We were some of the first ones there.
We decided to meet the LaBeths and Vincents there so we sat in the car
for a bit. It was supposed to be a
lovely 100 degrees in Branson that and it was 98 when we got out of the
car. The gates didn’t open until 2 so we
had to stand in line in the sun for a ½ hour while we watched some kids play in
the Lazy River at K-Kauai. It was not
fun for anyone but the youngest, Lincoln and Alex, were breaking down. Alex started crying and Lincoln kept say, “I
can’t take it anymore.” It was
hot!!! They did come out and check the
kids in on an iPad so they didn’t have to do it once they got inside the
gate. We were almost done with our wait when Ellie started feeling
bad again. She sat down for a while but
there was no way to escape the heat. And
just as we got into the gate she said she was going to get sick. We got her over to a grassy area and I
grabbed a cold water bottle to stick on her neck but it was too late and she
started to vomit. It took her a little
bit to recover and by that point we knew they were probably getting ready to
announce Jackson, so Andrew went over that way to catch all of that while I
took care of Ellie. We tried to get in
line but then she got sick again just as I heard them announcing Jackson’s
name. So we decided to head into the
nurse’s station and see my old college friend, Patty, the volunteer nurse for
the week. Ellie was actually the second
girl in there. A girl a couple spaces
ahead of us in line also got sick right before we were all heading in. So Patty was a busy nurse already. She gave Ellie a cold rag to put on her neck,
plus the room was air conditioned. After
Ellie sat in the cool air for a while she was ready to go. There was a little bit of a line at this
point so I took Lincoln to get a snow cone while we waited. She had that nervous look as she got up there
but she made it through without getting sick again. She is in Barn 3 while Jackson is in Barn 8
on the guy’s side. Zach is in Barn 7, so
just right by Jackson. Then Addi is in
Barn 9 which actually ended up being right by Ellie’s barn. So all was well. We got Ellie all set up first-made her bed,
got her shower stuff out, etc. Her
counselor asked about any previous family members attending kamp and Ellie
informed her that we were all Kickapoos.
So now her aunts don’t have to worry about her being a Kiowa J. After we got her ready to go, we all headed
over to Jackson’s barn. He had already
unpacked his trunk but didn’t have his bag yet that had his bedding in it. So while we waited for that to show up, I
went to the kamp store to get a few things.
Ellie loaded up on several snow cones.
I imagine the cold hydration helped a bit. We finally got Jackson settled and said our
goodbyes. He was all good and ready to
go. Then we took Ellie back to her
cabin. She was so much better by the
time we left and was excited for all of it-no tears or anything. I hate to leave them for a week but I am so
excited for what they will get to experience.
I am praying they have the most amazing time.
After we got back to our very hot car, I convinced Andrew
to drive me down the street to K-1 so we could see Molly real quick. I just had him drop Lincoln and I off at the
gate and they were having their opening ceremonies at the K-Dome which was just
right inside the gate. We found Molly
pretty quickly and she was so excited to see Lincoln. I think she was just excited to see someone
from home. We talked for just a little
bit and were on our way. She was
definitely in her element.
Then it was time to head to St. Louis and meet Miss
Charlotte. We got there just as they
were finishing up dinner, so we grabbed a bite to eat, Andrew got to see
Charlotte and then he headed home. I
stayed overnight and got to get some snuggles with Charlotte which was pretty
sweet. The kids were pretty wild so I
wasn’t sure if they were ever going to settle down. Eventually everyone started to go to
bed. Lincoln and Bella got themselves
settled on the couches down in the basement to watch a movie on the iPad while
the twins and I slept in one of the beds in the basement while Caroline was
right beside us in the daybed. I was
worried it would be a long night for her but the twins actually did pretty well. I turned on Thomas for them on my computer
and after that was done they went to sleep pretty easily. And they didn’t really wake up during the
night. I woke up several times and was
kind of squished but I can’t complain too much.
We spent most of Sunday in St. Louis too. My parents took the boys to a train store
while Bella went with Caroline and I to run to a few stores. I had a couple returns but also wanted to
look at Home Goods/Marshalls. Caroline
and I are kind of pathetic shoppers. We both
had a couple things at Marshalls and ended up putting everything back and not
buying anything. And then we both bought
a couple things at Target J. I had a return for Old Navy and used my phone
to get directions to one. Sara said she
didn’t even realize she had one that was that close and it turned out she was
right. The directions took us to a
neighborhood without an Old Navy in sight.
Oh well. Before we left for
Kirksville that evening we had dinner.
Ryan smoked a pork butt-big joke with my dad J. But then it was time to head home. Lincoln actually did end up staying-I wasn’t
sure if he was going to go through with it.
Brady was very upset when he thought Lincoln was going home because then
he wouldn’t have anyone to help him with Minecraft. Lucky for him, Lincoln decided he wanted to
stay for a couple days. The twins and I
rode home with my dad and Caroline while my mom stayed in St. Louis too to help
Sara out a bit. I got to work on
designing stuff for our back to school dinner on the ride home. I have decided that it would be a good idea
to use the kamp theme for our yearly theme since they are also using it for
K-Life now. And now it is time to get
busy and see how much I can get done while we only have 2 kids J.
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