A Good Weekend

We made it back from our weekend with Bob's family. We left later than we planned to go on Saturday, and there was a big accident on the Turnpike (which we never take, but I pushed for this time, since we were so late, and it is a shorter route--hah!). So we got there a little after 3:00. The dinner was at this St. Joseph's Center, which is a big Catholic retreat center, it appeared. The grounds were really pretty, and we had a nice room with round tables for our party. Bob's sister-in-law Sherry did an excellent job setting it all up. There was a buffet line, and the food was pretty good. Bob's sister Ann did a nice job making little party favors and decorating, and she also started putting together a scrapbook for Bob's dad. It had pictures of him from different decades of his life that she got from one of his brothers (actually brother-in-law, I think). We're supposed to send him pictures that we have to complete the album. There were several pictures I had never seen before. 

After dinner, Rose decided we needed some toasts. So she gave one, then Bob said something, then Ann, then Jane, then Paul (Dennis was the only sibling not there). After Paul, Sherry got up to say something on behalf of the in-laws, but then Wally got up as well, and then even Terry said some words. Well, that left only . . . me . . . as the person who had not said anything. ACCCK! People were chanting my name! I was embarrassed, but more so by the fact that I could not think of anything at all to say. Bob's dad has never tilled a garden for me, as he did for Wally at their first house. We certainly don't golf and pal around together, like he and Terry. And Sherry took the whole "Thanks for welcoming me into the family" speech (which was very gracious of her, considering they did NOT welcome her into the family back in the beginning!). So I got up and moved over to him, sort of babbling as I went ("I don't usually talk in front of people, I'm so embarrassed, I should have worn my red sweater to match my face, blah, blah . . .). I said something about being the last in-law to enter the family, and I thanked him as well for welcoming me, but then inspiration struck (thank you, Lord!), and I said that we were doing our best to carry on his proud family name with all our boys! Everyone laughed, so that was okay. WHEW! 

Everyone had a good time visiting though, and it was nice to be in a big room not in a restaurant, so the kids could kind of be freer, and you knew they weren't bothering all the other diners! I think Bob's dad really had a good time. We went back to the hotel and got the boys down, and then Bob went back over to his parents' house. In a surprise twist, instead of playing cards, they all looked at family albums! Bob came back saying, "Whose family is this?!" 

We went back over there after church Easter morning, and I got to look at the albums too. I had seem most of them before--there are basically 2 groups of pictures. There are quite a few black and white ones of Frank and Marsha (the oldest 2 kids, who died in a mysterious car accident when they were 3 and 2). They were so cute. Again I was overwhelmed with the enormity of that tragedy. I simply can not imagine losing my two oldest kids while pregnant with my third. The whole time I was pregnant with Caleb I thought about that. Anyway, then there a whole lot of pictures starting when Bob was maybe 10 years old. They are in color, but there are still hardly any of Bob. I only saw 2, I think. Mainly they are of the older kids at the sports events and such. When Bob was in high school, there start to be more of him, and there were a ton of him at the Academy--they went out 2 times to visit him, and they took lots of pictures then. I love to look at pictures, though, so that was a good time for me!

 For church, we went to a different one this time, Church of the Open Door. When were stationed in Ohio, there was a man in Bob's office who was in the Reserves, so he would just come every so often to do his duty. Well, it turned out that amazingly enough, he lived in Bob's hometown, AND he was a Christian! So Bob asked where he went to church, and he said this church. Bob went a few times when just he or he and the boys were back, but this was the first time for our whole family. It was really nice. We all really enjoyed the service, and it was wonderful to feel like we really did celebrate Easter with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will definitely go there again when we're back in town, and it works out.  

We had quite a trip back home though. We left later than we wanted, around 4:00, and it started raining. It rained steadily the whole way home, and there was tremendous fog in the mountains, which always makes for a hair-raising trip. As we merged onto I-70 from I-68 in Maryland and saw the long continuous line of tail lights, we realized that we were going to be a part of all the D.C traffic coming back from Spring Break. Such constant traffic also makes for more stressful driving. We also made the crucial error of deciding that, due to weather, we would take I-270 down into D.C. instead of going down Rt. 15, which is just a little 2 lane road. We crept along at 30 miles an hour for awhile, until it went to 2 lanes. By this time it was almost 8:00, and we had never stopped for dinner or anything. The boys needed to go potty, so we pulled off where we saw a sign for McDonalds. Well, it certainly wasn't right off the highway, so we wandered around, trying to find any signs of anything like a McDonalds, since it appeared we were more in a residential area. Finally we came upon a shopping area with a Taco Bell, where we all rushed in to use their facilities! And then we scarfed down some food and leapt back into the car, since I knew we probably had another hour of driving left. We didn't get home until after 9:30, and we were so glad to be back. Such stressful driving makes what is normally a 4 hour drive seem like a 20 hour one!