Photo Every Hour: December 21st

Yeah yeah yeah. I'm just a little late on getting this posted. But hey--it's a special Travel Edition of Photo Every Hour because the 21st fell while we were in Atlanta to celebrate Christmas with Darrell's family (and staying with Darrell's super awesome cousin who also happens to have three boys. So we had six boys ten and under in one house. It was pretty crazy). 

 

It wouldn't be vacation if I didn't stay up until after midnight, right? It also wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't procrastinate on getting my parent's photo calendar completed and end up having to stay up late (and pay extra for shipping) to get it finished

Con of staying with Darrell's cousin: Our family of five slept in one large living room in the basement. It took Connor all of three hours to figure this out and he subsequently refused to put himself back to sleep when he stirred in the middle of the night--one of us had to go get him and rock with him. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the best few days of sleep for multiple reasons

All things considered, not too shabby of a wake up time

8:00 We bought the older boys new sticker seek-and-find books for the airplane, and after twenty minutes of trying to convince him to save the remaining stickers for the flight home, we gave up on the battle (partially because we had intel from grandparents that he'd be getting other good plane activities for Christmas)

9:00 Look Mom! We flew halfway across the country and found trains to play with! We never do that in South Dakota!

10:00 Foosball, on the other hand, is definitely a new activity for the boys. Poor Garrett was a little short, but William loved it and would go downstairs by himself to play

11:00 Musical instruments! More toys that are very similar to stuff we have at home but are way cooler because they are in someone else's house!

12:00 Lunch is served!

1:00 When the boys at the house you are visiting have rest time instead of nap time, you do the same (unless your name is Connor, of course). We managed to get Garrett to nap the last few days of our trip because he was so worn out, but it would have been an impossible battle the first few days

2:00 I don't love the excessive TV time for rest time, but when in Rome...

3:00 Finally. Back to playing with toys. And a way bigger--and cooler--selection of Lego Duplos than we have

4:00 Making a grocery store run to pick up some essentials--and make sure our boys didn't eat Darrell's cousin out of house and home

5:00 Mommy was actually trying to "vacation" and read a magazine, but Connor was not a fan

6:00 Getting some water and getting ready for dinner

7:00 See the blurs? There was a whole lot of that going on. Those boys ran each other ragged

8:00 Trying to get calmed down and ready for bed

9:00 Ah. Enjoying some peace and quiet and adult conversation. And pretending like I don't have anything better to do, like...

10:00 Wrap presents

11:00 Darrell's cousin has a resident elf during the Christmas season. Thankfully my boys didn't get too into the whole thing, because this house will never have an elf

12:00 Would you believe it if I told you this isn't even all the luggage we took with us? We make for a pretty entertaining entourage entering and leaving the airport (thankfully we check over half of those bags, so navigating through the airport isn't quite so bad)

Bedtime at last--and a whole minute earlier than the night before!

Photo Every Hour: September 21st

Welcome to a special Chicago edition of Photo Every Hour! The 21st of September happened to fall while I was in Chicago hanging out with two of my close friends (we've known each other since high school--or earlier!), so it was a fun excuse to make sure I remember to document (at least one day of!) our trip

 

So Darrell would argue that "technically" it isn't the 21st yet since I haven't gone to bed to end the 20th (#vacationlife), but my phone says otherwise so I snagged this screenshot on my way to bed

In bed after midnight and I still got almost eight hours of sleep?!? Life. Is. Good

9:00 Our breakfast spread that we picked up at the grocery store near our AirBnB

10:00 I got away from the kids, but couldn't quite get away from all of my mom life #nursingmomproblems

11:00 Enjoying a mid-morning walk along Lake Michigan

12:00 Confession--public transportation kind of scares me. I am always so worried that I'm going to get on the wrong train or end up in the wrong spot or something similar. Thankfully my friends (one of whom lives in London and doesn't even own a vehicle!) are public transportation experts



1:00 Checking out the shops in the Wicker Park neighborhood after lunch

2:00 So my friend from London is obsessed with cramming as much stuff as possible into every vacation. And even though she lived in Chicago for short while after college (and got married there!), she still wanted to spend some time playing tourist. Which led to her booking us on a (free!) walking tour of Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park

3:00 Does this picture even need a caption (other than can you find me in "The Bean" somewhere?)

4:00 Wrapping up our walking tour and heading toward the next item on our itinerary....

5:00 A (super crowded with crazy expensive drinks) rooftop bar! (But hey, the view was great. Once you could actually make your way to the edge, that is)

6:00 When your friend from London wants to visit Target (to pick up beef jerky and graham crackers for her husband!) you gladly oblige

7:00 Mom life round two (cue eye roll--but at least it's better than being engorged and uncomfortable all weekend!)

8:00 At the theater for some comedy!

 

9:00 #Shethepeople

10:00 Yes, that's a dinner menu. Yes, it's 10:00 at night. Apparently this isn't terribly unusual (at least in the European crowd of people who don't have kids--which clearly I am not)

11:00 Ugh. Super late dinner and Friday night bar scene. I need a blinking light over my head that says "Does Not Belong"

12:00 Finally. Back at our AirBnB and lounging around. This is definitely more my style #homebody

And almost exactly twenty four hours later--bedtime again!

Photo Every Hour: December 21st

7:00 Yes, it's the week before Christmas and yes, my boys are watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving". There are worse problems to have, right?

8:00 Darrell is home since we're starting our Christmas travels today, which means I can enjoy my shower without having to worry about what kind of shenanigans the boys are getting into (or without getting up at the crack of dawn to take it before Darrell leaves for work)

9:00 I swear, we're only going to be gone for six days #travelingwithkids #minivanforthewin

10:00 After a quick stop to pick up a few last Christmas presents, we're on the road. And two of the three promptly fell asleep

11:00 First pit stop of the day

12:00 Look at these fun travel conditions! We had originally planned to leave Sioux Falls around this time, but the weather changed our plans. Thankfully we didn't need nearly as much extra time as we gave ourselves, but better safe than sorry

1:00 Lunch stop (we may or may not know all the restaurants with play places between here and Minneapolis)

2:00 On the road again (and yes, we did spend an hour at McDonalds to let the boys play at stretch their legs)

3:00 Ah, Minneapolis. Thanks for the traffic so we could be sure to slow down and really enjoy our drive through you #not

4:00 At my aunt and uncle's house just outside of Minneapolis. I'm pretty sure William looks forward to going to their house only for the train set, but whatever. It got him excited to get on the road this morning (so excited, in fact, that he wanted us to take two cars so that he didn't have to "waste" time stopping at the toy store) and it made him listen really well whenever it was time to leave our stops (although we did have to convince him to stop in the first place--he kept insisting that we didn't need lunch or didn't need to use the potty because we just needed to get to Tom and Rose's house).

5:00 William may get excited to go to Tom and Rose's for the trains, but I get excited for the food. Rose always spoils us with an extravagant meal whenever we are there (and this is the Rose of the famous sticky rolls, so you know the food is always top-notch)

6:00 Too busy stuffing my face with food to remember to take a picture #sorrynotsorry

7:00 The aftermath #stuffed

8:00 Of course, there's always room for an ice pop

9:00 Bedtime for my boys--and apparently bedtime for these big kids as well. So technically, Tom and Rose are my great aunt and uncle. And these are their grandchildren, which makes them I have no idea what to me. They're family, which is all that matters. Family that I am so grateful to have in my (and my boys') life--I remember when all these kids were born, and now they are in middle school and high school and get to play with my boys like I used to play with them--when they aren't sleeping or on their phones, of course!

10:00 A full day of travel tomorrow to get to Atlanta requires prep the night before, especially when our flight is over lunch time!

11:00 Time for us to head to bed (although I'm certain we don't look as cute sleeping as Connor does!)