Our extended weekend

We received bad news last week that one of Dave’s friends since childhood had passed from cancer.  We were planning on going down for the services.  We decided to go a little earlier, to make the most of our drive down.  Even though we were going for not so happy circumstances, we didn’t want the kids to know any better.  Dave did have a conversation with Brandon about what was going on, since he was old enough to understand.  We left right after work on Wednesday night.  In fact, Dave dropped me off at work that morning, and came to get me so that we could head straight out.  We made it out of my work around 530pm.  We fed the kids in the car (leftovers from the night before), that were warmed up at my work.  We had to make due with the containers we’d had, but the kids did reasonably well.  We did make two pit stops (making Dave wish we had left at our usual time of 8pm, to avoid all this mess, since all of us are usually sleeping).  We stopped for our fast food on the road.  Brandon always looks forward to his meal, since we don’t go unless we are on the road.  We got a hamburger, apples, and milk for each kid.  $10!!  Crazy.  It’s not so cheap anymore, especially if you make substitutions that are healthier.  What was the pits was that they forgot the kids’ toys.  Brandon looks forward to this the most!  He was so upset, coupled with the fact that it was bedtime.  We told him he’d have another opportunity on the way back home.  That was little comfort to him, but we told him he’d have to deal with it.  Soon he gave up his fight and went to sleep.  We got into the hotel around 1130pm or so.  Both kids got up a little, enough to take a bath, brush their teeth, and then go down without a fight.  Initially, I had Peyton on my bed, while Brandon and Dave shared.  I didn’t want to put her on the floor like we usually did on top of the duvet cover.  I figured she was old enough to not fall off, and for cleanliness sake, she’d sleep on top.  She was having a hard time settling in, tossing and turning, kicking me and talking.  Brandon was excited to sleep with one of us, and fell asleep soon after going to bed.  We got so frustrated with Peyton, we plopped her onto the floor, on top of the duvet, and she stopped moving right away.  It’s like the bed was too soft for her.  We got up around the same time, 7am, but the park wasn’t opened until 9am.  It allowed us to get to the store to buy some Cheerios for breakfast, and some supplies to head out to the park.  We couldn’t believe how cooperative the weather was!  I had packed for cold weather, with many layers.  It was only an afterthought that I packed some t-shirts.  Luckily I did, otherwise we would have roasted!  The first day, we only needed a second layer as we were headed out – at 10pm!  Even at home, in the middle of summer, we wouldn’t get that kind of weather!  We had our picnic lunch, and saw WOC for the 3rd time.  We had heard there were Tron tributes, and it sounded like a new show, but it wasn’t.  One good thing was that we watched the “early” show.  There was an 8pm show, and 915pm.  That’s the earliest we’ve ever seen it.  That meant that Peyton got to see it in its entirety!  She’s never seen the full show. In fact, when I told her, I said, “You’ve never seen this before!”  Peyton repeated, “I never see this before!”  We did still have crowds, even on Thursday, which we weren’t really expecting.  We figured it out that it was probably spring break.  Oh well.  We had fun entertaining ourselves but studying our alphabets (with Peyton) and with another letter game (with Brandon).  Brandon would call out a letter, and we would go back and forth coming up with words beginning with that letter.  I’m not sure if it was because my brain was too fried or if I was tired, but he was able to come up with words faster than I did.  He was shooting them out faster than I could think of them.  I think that particular letter was “B”.  Even after we’d move onto another letter, he’d still think of new words with previous letters.  Peyton would just watch us back and forth.  When I worked with her, we’d repeat the letters one by one, since with the alphabet song, she tends to rush.  I’d say “A”, then she’d repeat the letter in order.  We got to P, then she said, “P, like Peyton!”  Again, has to throw that in when mentioning the P.  To wrap up the night, we strolled out of DCA, and Peyton was poking Brandon’s head with a straw from the backseat.  They were both having so much fun, giggling and being delirious.  I looked over at another stroller (in embarrassment), and another kid was so entertained!  He was giggling, too, watching both of my kids be silly.  The mom and I had a moment, as if to say, “At 10pm, whatever works.”
The next day, we got to the park after opening, since it opened an hour earlier, since it was Friday.  I wanted to take Peyton to see princesses.  Dave didn’t want to wait, saying she didn’t know what it was all about anyways.  Peyton heard us talking, and she said, “What princesses?”  Haha…she knew now!  So we split up; Dave took Brandon on Matterhorn, which he had gone on with me the night before.  He handled the ride so much better with me than his first time riding.  He held onto the handles on his own, and instead of his “No, no, no…” from last time, he just squealed.  We found out Peyton is tall enough for the ride, but I didn’t want to subject her to the roughness or scariness of the ride.  It was only last year that Brandon was able to get over his fear of the ride.  He still won’t do Space Mtn.  I was informed the princess wait was 60-75 minutes!  Even at 10am.  I couldn’t imagine waiting that long by myself with Peyton.  I asked her if she wanted to go on Small World instead.  She nodded, and we parked the stroller and walked over.  She was such a big girl, wanting to walk all the way.  Only one side of the ride was open, so the wait was about 10minutes.  That’s 5 minutes longer than we usually wait.  Dave doesn’t usually like to wait, especially for that ride.  We waited longer during the holidays, but when it’s “off peak”, we won’t wait.  Peyton was okay until the very end, when they did open up the other line.  She got a little antsy, so I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.  Once we got on the boat, she looked around and said, “Where’s Bruddah?”  Funny that that’s what she was thinking when it was just the two of us.  I tried to take some pictures of the two of us, but the low lighting on my self-shot camera made it difficult.  Dave texted me while on the ride to tell me the line for the princesses was only 30 minutes or so, and asked me if I wanted him to wait in line for us.  I was surprised he was willing to wait for us.  Peyton was so happy on the ride, looking around and sitting on the seat all by herself, next to me.  After the ride was done, we went over to him, and we ended up waiting another 20 minutes or so.  I brought a snack for the kids, but didn’t want to give it to them too early.  I found a landmark in line, and told them I’d give it to them when got up to it.  I even remarked to Dave if he thought Brandon would remember.  As soon as we got up to the light fixture, he said, “Oh Mommy!  I’m under the light!”  I told him I was not under the light.  Finally, I gave in, after stalling as much as I could.  Both kids enjoyed their half of a granola bar, and were energized for their pictures.  Even with the princesses, she was shy.  She met Tiana first, then Ariel, and then Jasmine.  She only warmed up to Jasmine.  The others she only agreed to be in pictures when I picked her up to stand next to them.  We’d never been in there before, so we weren’t really sure what to expect. I felt rushed, while the princesses spent some time trying to get Peyton to warm up.  They asked her her name, her age, and asked for a high five.  The photographers took some cute pictures, and even one of Brandon waiting nicely watching his sister meeting the princesses.  The last, Jasmine, Peyton got the courage to go alone.  It helped that I was telling her that the other little girl did it on her own.  She walked slowly up to Jasmine, then turned for a brief picture.  Jasmine asked her, “Are you two?”  Peyton barely nodded; I think it was more of like her chin twitched down.  Jasmine responded, “Oh, I see.”  She was starstruck.  We walked out, and she was more relaxed.  She said, “I say ‘Hi’ to Jazz-man.”   We left the park, and went back to the restaurant we had eaten the night before for dinner.  It was a Vietnamese restaurant that Theresa recognized from a picture Dave took of our rolls that we each had taken a bite of (to show the insides).  Both times we went to the restaurant, Peyton was asleep.  On Thursday, we took a bench and laid her down.  On Friday, it was crowded and I had to carry her upright, asleep.  I wanted her to wake up and eat once dinner arrived (so that I could eat, too).  It’s too difficult eating noodles with chopsticks over a sleeping 2 year old.  She did wake up and wanted to eat.  We headed back to Dave’s parents house, as they had returned earlier that day.  We wanted to get the kids bathed and ready for bed, since they were going to have a long day.  In fact, Brandon had already fallen asleep in the car, and I brought him in (yes, crazy, since he stiffened up when I got him out of the car, and I had to convince him to hold on to me, while I carried 49.8 pounds into the house – he was weighed at the house).  I plopped him into our room, and he was out until the next morning.  Dave’s parents couldn’t believe he was out.  I told them he didn’t sleep at the park, and while it takes him a long time to fall asleep, once he is, he is down for the count.  He did let me brush his teeth, but he fought it a little.  After I was done, he curled back up and didn’t even wait for us to put a blanket on him.  Peyton had fun with all the attention she got.  We all went to sleep knowing the next day would be difficult.  The plan was that Dave would go with his parents to the services while I took the kids down to see Mike, Sydnie and Haylie.  Showshan was working that day, so I crashed Mike’s daddy day care.  It took about 45 minutes to get there.  I explained to the kids that Mommy was the only adult in the car, and that I needed to concentrate on driving.  GPS is great, but I still wanted peace and quiet (sometimes they bicker in the car, and steal each other’s car toys).  I didn’t want any of that.  Peyton was subdued, almost falling asleep until she saw a roadside cow. She perked up and said, “Oh, cow right there!”  There was a stretch of time when neither said anything.  I thought they were both asleep, but it turns out they were just calm.  I didn’t know that could exist for such a long time.  We got to Mike’s without incident, and Peyton was taking her time with her shoes and socks (her terms).  Brandon was out on the curb, and saw the girls waving at him from inside the house.  They looked so excited to see them!  We got in, and Peyton was the shy one of course.  Brandon immediately asked to use the restroom, and Peyton did the same (in the toilet!!).  After washing his hands, Brandon was off to play, while I helped Peyton finish up and wash her hands.  Haylie came in to check on us, and we all walked back together.  Mike asked if we wanted to go upstairs to play.  Brandon ran up with Syd, then Haylie followed, and Peyton hung back with me. Brandon made himself right at home.  She kept tugging on my hand to come with her, but I resisted, telling her to go explore on her own.  Turns out she and Haylie are very similar.  Both are spitfires, and definitely the pickier of the siblings.  All in all, all the kids had fun together, both upstairs in the playroom and downstairs in the play kitchen.  They played for about 2 hours, then it was lunchtime.  The plan had been to go to the park for lunch, but since I hadn’t heard from Dave, I accepted lunch for the kids from Mike.  He asked my kids if they wanted chicken nuggets.  Both kids’ eyes lit up!  All were hungry and started with a cheese stick appetizer.  The girls were gracious hosts, although Haylie didn’t want Brandon to sit in her daddy’s chair.  It turns out that she wanted Brandon to sit next to her.  So Brandon sat in between Haylie and Syd, while Peyton was happy to sit next to me.  Mike had steamed some veggies, and all the kids had their own special requests.  Brandon didn’t like cauliflower (but agreed to eat it with some ketchup), while Peyton straight up said, “I no like white broccoli.”  (I told her it was white broccoli)  After eating one, Brandon agreed it was okay.  Peyton kept asking for more broccoli, while Brandon asked for more nuggets.  I told him if he wanted more nuggets, he’d have to eat more veggies.  He agreed.  He even ate the carrots, which were cooked! Peyton asked for more carrots, while Haylie ate them, too.  Syd didn’t want the carrots.  Peyton said (with her mouth full of them), “I like carrots.”  She ended up eating more of those and only two nuggets.  By this time, Dave texted that was already on his way to the park.  We headed out after saying our goodbyes.  We told Brandon to hug Haylie.  He looked at both girls, and said, “Which one’s Haylie?”  I told him he was silly that they’d been playing together for all this time now.  Haylie hugged Brandon, then we asked her to hug Peyton.  Both girls just sat there; Haylie was more eager than Peyton.  Peyton ran in the other direction.  She decided to hug me instead.  Then I hugged Haylie.  Syd gave us hugs, and with one more potty stop (and diaper change for Peyton), we were on our way.  It was only another 20 minutes to the park, but both kids were exhausted and fell asleep.  Dave came out to meet us, and helped me out with the kids, chairs, and picnic mat.  It was much colder on Saturday, and we’d been jaded by our previous good weather.  I hadn’t brought warmer clothes, so we had to go ghetto and layer Peyton.  I brought extra clothes in case she got wet, so she was the warmest.  I only had shorts to replace Brandon’s shorts should he get them dirty.  Luckily, I did, as he got water on himself.  I was freezing, not having many layers myself, kicking myself for leaving both jackets of mine back at the house.  I couldn’t even drink water, since it was chilled.  Since our kids had already eaten, they just had some fruit.  I had a couple of tacos, fruit and a licorice stick.  I limited myself on sweets since I wanted to go get shaved dessert at one of favorite places in Dave’s hometown.  We celebrated Dave’s friend’s life.  Peyton kept asking me “Who’s party?”  I had a hard time explaining it to her.  Brandon had asked each family member where they were going in the morning.  No one would respond to him. Actually, I take it back, Dave’s dad played up to senility, answering, “I don’t know where I’m going.”  He was convincing enough to Brandon, as he stopped asking him.   I waited until they left before explaining it to him again.  I told Brandon not to ask again, and he never did.  After we said our goodbyes, we tried calling Debbie.  I had no agenda, since it was Dave’s time, but he decided to go back to the park.  Brandon had wanted a tortilla the day before, and we had stopped in the 10 minutes he was sleeping to get one.  Dave wanted to kill some time before heading back, so we stopped in for about 30 minutes. We basically went to get a tortilla, soaked up some more atmosphere, saw the crowds, and left.  One thing that was funny was the line for the rapids (water ride) was 80 minutes on Friday, when it was 80 degrees.  Brandon got to go twice with rider swap.  The line was 15 minutes on Saturday, when it was 60 degrees.  We met the parents for dinner, and got our dessert after.  The kids were so excited to get their mango and strawberry.  They even liked the red bean.  Unfortunately, the restaurant had pumped up the AC, so we ended up taking the rest to go, since we were all freezing.  We got the kids ready for bed, and Dave wanted to go to sleep early since he was driving the next day.
While we were getting ready for bed, Peyton said, “I two on January.”  I think she had heard us say that repeatedly to all the friends at the celebration and at Mike’s that she memorized it.  She was even able to get a second finger up (she’s only been holding up her pointer finger saying she’s 2).  We finished packing up, and all turned in.  Brandon was excited to go down for more grandparent time.  That meant bagels, fruit, and cartoons.  I had Peyton upstairs with me.  Dave had hopped in the shower, while we were still sleeping.  The shower noise woke her up, and she let out a little panicked whimper.  I popped my head up, and she calmed down and walked over.  She stayed upstairs for awhile, and I started getting ready.  While I couldn’t see her, I heard her trip over the suitcase, and fall down with a thump.  She said, “I’m okay!”  I hadn’t even asked!  It was just funny, like she was convincing herself that she was okay.
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We went out to dinner (although it was only 445pm).  It was nice and easy.  Peyton pooped right toward the end of the meal, so Dave finished up and went to change her in the car, while I got the rest of the food packed and got Brandon finished up.  I packed the rest of Peyton’s food that she had left, which turns out to be a good thing since Dave texted me to remember it.  When I got outside, he confirmed I had gotten her food.  He got her into the carseat and she started crying.  “I wanna go back in.”  Dave asked her if she wanted to go back in and eat.  She said, “Yes.”  Dave assured her that I’d pack it for her.  When we got home, Dave said he was going to wash the car to get the bugs off.  Brandon immediately offered to help him!  I went inside and started to unpack all of our things and watching Peyton eat the rest of her food.  Turns out she just wanted the sweet potato fritter that had come with my meal.  She ate it first, then said she was all done.  Turns out that she ate a few more bites, then she pooped again!  She was totally full of it since Dave had said it was a huge poop, and so was the one I changed.  She hadn’t really pooped too much during the trip, but looks like she knew she was close to home or at home.  We managed to get everything put away; Peyton helped by throwing Brandon’s clothes from his door way to me, at his dresser.  She really had fun, and got her exercise out of it.  Softball/baseball, here we come!  I showed Dave the video I took, and he needs to work on her footing.  I think there is a lag on the upload, I’ll have to link it later.  I had her bathed before Dave and Brandon came in.  It was then his turn, and we hung out a little before sending them to bed.  We were looking at the book club paper work from school.  She saw Dora and said, “Dah!” (mushing two syllables into one drawn out one).  Dave is catching up on his TV, while I’m typing this all out.  This will be our first full week in awhile, since Dave had been out of town prior to last week.