Off to Grandma Swan's!

Dave was hoping to visit his Grandma Swan this past summer, but with Caleb's surgery, he ended up having to wait a couple more months. Everything worked out for the best in the end though. 

Initially, due to the expense of airline tickets, he was planning to take just one of the kids - Caleb or Hadley - while the rest of stayed behind. Thankfully, right before he booked a flight though, I spotted a "special" that Frontier was running like they did last year when we went in October. Instead of almost $200 a ticket, our round trip ended up being 26 bucks a piece! To make the deal even sweeter, Reid still got to fly for free since he doesn't turn two until next month... Of course, there's always somewhat of a catch....checked bags were $50, carry-ons $30, and there was an extra charge if you wanted to pick your seat. But, we packed lightly and still saved a bunch.

Since we were homeschooling, we had the flexibility to make the trip work at the last minute - even in September! The morning before our flight, we got our school work done early before we left the house on our adventure and took a few things with us to do while we were gone.

After our trip last year, we kind of had a plan for the whole airport run-around. Dave dropped Mom and I off with the kids and the luggage, we boxed up the carseats while he parked, and then we shot through the line to "check" everything. A little sweat and hard work but no hassles... Going through security was a breeze this time too. I was surprised to see that they didn't have heightened security since we were flying the day before the anniversary of the 9/11 attack, but they didn't even make us remove our shoes, take our laptop out of the bag, or do body scans. Easy.

We did have a little bit of a delay at the gate though. While we waited, we took the kids for a walk through the airport to stretch their legs and a lady from another airline gave them each a set of wings, took them to meet a couple pilots, and showed them through the window an airplane being checked over by their crew. 

Hadley was proud of her wings.

Reid kept pulling at his saying, "Pri - tee - pri- tee."

The flight went great thankfully with three little ones, and we made it to the airport in Memphis. Typically, we try to book tickets to St. Louis when we visit the Midwest, but this time there weren't any available. That meant our drive to Grandma's was a bit farther. After arriving around what would normally be the kids' bedtimes, we still had a three and a half hour drive.

A little mix up with the rental car put us even later getting out of there, but thankfully, the kids all fell asleep once we were on the road a bit which made things smoother at first. But, when Dave stopped at a rest stop to adjust Caleb's carseat so he could rest better, Reid woke up crying and couldn't get calmed down. We had to pull over again to let him out for a bit. Meanwhile Hadley woke up hungry because she'd been asleep when we went through a drive through earlier for dinner. Thankfully though, there was a McDonalds right there for us to go into for a bit.

When we came back out, things didn't get any better. We realized our van was FULL of mosquitoes that we must have picked up at the rest stop. The rest of the trip was pretty miserable as we were eaten alive for the rest of the drive. Mom and I tried to cover up the kids with a few jackets we had, but poor Reid kept crying "Bug...bite" over and over as they nipped at his feet. By the next day it was obvious that both Dave and Caleb got eaten to pieces too. Not fun!

Finally we arrived at our hotel and I was pleased to see that it had been renovated from last year and was in much nicer shape. While Mom and I stayed there, Dave and Hadley went to Grandma's to spend the night, so the rest of us didn't get to visit with her until the next morning.

Not long after we got there, Reid hopped right up in the chair with Grandma, wanting her to read to him.

That morning I bought a few toys at Walmart for us to keep at Grandma's since it is too hard to pack much. Hadley played a lot with the "girl" blocks.

Caleb spent most of his time building with K'nex - something a little different for him since we don't have these at home.

Later in the afternoon Friday, Dave's sister and her family showed up too. They had been planning to visit Grandma the weekend before but rearranged when they found out we were coming.

It is so funny to me how these cousins hardly ever get a chance to see each other, but they never take any time to warm up. Already snuggled in the chair together!

The next day, we took the kids to a nearby park to see if we could do a little cousin photoshoot. Wiggly bodies, bad lighting, and technical difficulties with our cameras caused some frustration in the process, but we got a few good ones.

It was a feat to just to get everyone to be still and look at the camera!

Good job, Amy, on this shot!

Then we let the kids play some before heading back.

Caleb was so impressed with himself for climbing this.

We had a picnic planned later in the day, and the younger kids had to get in their naps before we went. But, we did get in a little bit of play time at Grandma's before we were off again.

Aunt Amy knew that Caleb had started a seed collection, and being a fellow seed lover, she brought him a few packets to try to grow.

Both Dave's parents were only children, so he doesn't have any first cousins. However, his mom had a first cousin named Charles who has two adult children, and we had a little miniature family reunion with them while we were there at a park in Raleigh. The kids enjoyed the playground while the adults visited.

I was impressed with the height of this thing and was a bit terrified when Caleb climbed to the top.

Even Hadley and Reid were trying their hand at climbing.

Many of these family members I had never even met before, except via Facebook, so that goes to show you just how long it had been since Dave had seen them. 

Walt's wife Lauren, Grandma Swan, and Uncle Phil

Walt and his wife just recently had these two adorable little girls.

 

We were trying to get everyone organized for a family photo when all of a sudden we heard this loud THUD! Caleb had climbed up on top of the covering over the purple sidle and fell about 12 ft, landing on his head. Mom and I ran down there as quickly as we could, and once I got my mother calmed down, Caleb was able to explain what was hurting and what happened. While I just sat and held him for a while, it surprised me just how quickly he decided he wanted to get back up and play again. I just couldn't get over how blessed we are that it wasn't more serious of an injury.

Pictured here starting from the back left: Dave is holding Reid, his sister is Amy next to him, followed by his cousin Nancy and her husband Mark with their oldest daughter Corina to their left. Nancy is holding her two youngest - Evangeline and Wesley (who is named after Dave and Nancy's Great Grandfather Wesley - Grandma Swan's father).  Last in line is Walt and Lauren with their twins. On the front row is Nancy's middle daughter Gwyneth, then Lydia, Hadley, Caleb, Luke, and Nancy's second oldest daughter Aurora. 

Wesley, Luke, Hadley, Lydia, Reid

We spent a little time picnicking and chatting some more.

Here is Nancy with her three youngest - Wesley, Evangeline, and Gwyneth.  She and her family drove up from Tennessee to meet up with us. 

Mark and Dave

Good thing we had a picnic shelter! What a down pour we got! Good thing we played first...

It was so sad when the Tyndall cousins and their parents had to head out the next day, but Grandma was still a pretty good playmate. She read with Reid, let Caleb show her how his LeapPad worked, and helped Hadley find missing toys under the couch.

We had planned to go to church, after Amy's family hit the road, but I wasn't feeling well from a sinus infection and the kids were overly tired and cranky from all the traveling, late bed times, and schedule changes so we ended up deciding to stay home. Instead we just spend the time enjoying our last full day visiting. I spent a lot of the afternoon while the kids were napping learning about family history from Grandma. 

Later that afternoon we spent a little time at the playground again, getting out of the house a bit and in the fresh air. Then things got switched up a bit at bed time; Caleb got to sleep over at Grandma's that last night while Hadley went back with us which gave him a little extra special time with just Daddy and Grandma. The next morning, there the two of them were sitting in the floor playing K'nex when we arrived. I sure do wish I could take her home with us to keep everyone entertained. :)

Hopefully, Frontier won't wait another full year before giving us another amazing deal. We love visiting Grandma Swan!