Visiting Gigi

While Pete and Sheena were in town, we decided to take a caravan up to Virginia to see my grandmother, Nana. I haven't, sadly, been up there since Thomas was two months old. Andrew and family weren't able to come because of work, but they went a few months ago. Katherine and Lauren had not yet met their Gigi (as a grandmother she is "Nana," but as a great-grandmother, she is "Gigi"). Now everyone has!





Lauren was most interested in Gigi and gave her some of her biggest smiles.



We went out to eat once while we were there. Luckily it was a very kid-friendly restaurant and they seated us in a section all to ourselves. Included in this group beyond those already mentioned were my Aunt Lori and her daughter (my cousin), Ashley. We were also able to see my Aunt Lisa, Uncle Mike, their daughter (again, my cousin!) Kris (and Kris's son Ty) the evening we arrived. Here's a picture of our lunch out:


Ashley, Pete & the gang...

The boys, especially Parker, loved Ashley. I loved listening to Parker trying to say her name.

A couple of weeks before we came, Richmond had a very big snow. There were still piles of old snow scattered throughout the neighborhood. The kids thought this was very neat and they had a ball kicking the piles of what was then essentially just dirty ice.


Pete and I took Katherine and Thomas walking around the neighborhood and they enjoyed playing ring-around-the-rosie in an open field.




When the kids got a little rowdy waiting for dinner, we tried to calm them with a game of Red Light, Green Light (or maybe this was Mother May I?).


And after they went to bed, the really big kids (us!) enjoyed a game of Wii Bowling (Pete playing with Aunt Lisa in the background...she was our instructor).


In the end, Mom won and I trailed behind her by two points (Pete & Sheena were 3rd and 4th).


One thing that was hard to break Parker of during and after the trip was his newfound love of "moo-moo." That would be "movies" on the DVD player. It's funny though... The only DVD he watches is one (I can't think of the name of it but it is fabulous) that shows various underwater scenes of sea life while singing these silly but cute songs. He is mesmerized by it. He sits there and watches, calls out the various fish he sees and sucks his thumb while twirling his hair.


Before we knew it, it was time to head home. We took two cars (Mom, me and the boys in our rented minivan) and Pete, Sheena & the girls in the other car. During a stop to feed Lauren, I snapped a few pics of the boys. They were actually reasonably well behaved. I was pleasantly surprised.


Parker though did a little better on the way up there. I turned his seat around for the trip home thinking I could strap the DVD player to the holder on the back of my seat and that would be okay. It was not. And then with the seat turned forward, his lap wasn't big enough to hold it and he got very frustrated. Lesson learned.

I was glad we made the trip though and glad my boys didn't drive me insane during 7-8 hour trip (it actually took us about 9 hours to get back home and they did great). All smiles at this moment!




Hopefully we can go back soon and Trey will be able to join us for his first trip to Richmond!