Roll out the barrel . . .

This past weekend was the annual family reunion for Bob's dad's side of the family. We left Saturday morning and didn't get there until 3:00, but the party was still in full swing! I was still able to get my yearly fill of polka music and kielbasa, although I passed on the cabbage. This was the 10th annual reunion. We've gone to the last 4 I think, and I am still confused about who is who (or would that be "whom"). Bob's dad had 5 siblings, and they all had big families as well. I desparately want someone to sit down and draw out a big family tree for me. Instead, whenever I ask questions, they assume a previous level of knowledge that I simply don't have. ("Oh, that's (whoever). His mom was a (ethnic Eastern European last name) from up near (town I've never heard of). His sister married (someone else I should know but don't), and they had 3 kids. One of them, (another name), moved out to California, got married and divorced, and one of THEIR kids moved back here and married (some other ethnic last name) . . . ." and on and on with no clear resolution or even answer to my original question.) I am hanging in there, however, and I do feel like I am getting to know the people we see every year at this thing a little bit better. Most of them had no idea we had another baby this year, so that was a little surprise, LOL. Hey, we're just carrying on the big family tradition.

We stayed in our usual room at Comfort Inn. This room is the only room in the hotel that has 2 double beds and a fold-out sofa. Of course, that still leaves us 2 beds shy, but this is a big room too, so there is enough room for 2 pack-n-plays. We started staying in this room awhile back, and now we just make reservations for our next trip before we actually leave the hotel. That way no one asks about the number of kids, because it seems like the clerks don't care. I'm not sure what we'll do when Anna grows out of the pack-n-play. Oh well--that's a few years away.

I will say that it was not a restful night. There may be plenty of room for 8 people, but there still are a lot of little sleeping noises from that many people. I had to fiddle all night with the air conditioning/fan thing so that it would stay on, but not freeze us out, so that it provided some white noise. Anna woke up at 3:00, and fussed around until 4:00, but fortunately everyone else slumbered on peacefully. Grace woke up at 6:30, but she went right back down after nursing. Anna and I were both crabby the next day, LOL.

Sunday we went out to eat with Bob's parents at Ponderosa. They really like going there, but since Bob's dad can't drive anymore after his latest seizure, they don't get to go out to eat much. Then we all went over to Bob's brother Paul and Sherry's house. They have a nice above-ground pool and a trampoline, so the boys were in heaven. Anna had a good time on the trampoline too. All too soon it was time to head back home. I had been pushing for a picture of the kids with Bob's parents the whole time, but finally we were able to get one right before we left. Even though Grace is sleeping, it still turned out well, so I was glad I insisted. With Bob's dad's health issues of the past year, I don't want to take anything for granted, and I really wanted to get a picture of them with Grace.

We left about 5:30 and made it home by 10:00. That makes the trip sound pretty easy, but in fact, it was another loud trip. The plain truth is that Grace is just not a very good traveler. I've never had a bad traveler before! She hates her car seat, and she can fuss about that for a LONG time without giving up. This makes Anna antsy, and they sort of feed off each other. When one will be winding down, the other will choose that moment to let out a long shrill cry, and that will set the first one off again. Sigh. I am not looking forward to our trip to Ohio the middle of August!