Whirlwind Weekend

We are all so tired after having a wild weekend.

Friday night, Bruce took Clay along with him on a church youth trip to Knoxville to see the Ice Bears play hockey (Bruce was a chaperone). Clay's buddies Ben and Tyler went as well. Bruce said he actually did very little with Clay once in Knoxville because Clay was chillin' with his buds. They got home after midnight.

Saturday, Bruce took Spencer along to Clay's Upwards basketball game while Allison and I stayed home and cleaned house. We were having company that night and had big plans for the kids.

Our youth minister, Kurt, and his family came over, along with our friends, the Heltons. Kurt and his wife Bicki are waiting for their third child to be born... any day now. They have a daughter named Hailey who is in the Sunday school class that I teach with JoElla. And their son is Clay's friend, Ben. The Heltons (JoElla and David) have two kiddos: Lydia is Clay's age, and Heath is Spencer and Allison's age.

I made several crock pots of soup, and a cheese dip to go along with some chips, and JoElla brought a salad and her specialty - chocolate cake with chocolate chips. We all ate good.

The kids were then supposed to watch a movie I rented called "The Game Plan"; however, they actually spent more time bouncing back and forth between their rooms upstairs, the den and the downstair's playroom. It was a mad house, but they had fun.

We adults played Bible Baseball. That is one challenging game. Bruce thought he was so smart to suggest that we play girls against guys. Hailey played with JoElla, Bicki and me, and she pretty much ensured our victory. Oh yeah!

When it was time for everyone to head home, Ben and Heath stayed the night here, and Allison went with Lydia to the Helton's house. It was Ben's first time to sleep over here. Clay has had lots of sleepovers, but neither of the twins have. Poor Spencer is the epitome of a tag-along, following Clay and his friends so much it drives them nuts. So Spencer was allowed to invite Heath to sleep over, and it was his first sleepover as well, with anyone but David and JoElla's family.

When everyone was leaving, JoElla and I joked that it could be a long night if either Heath or Allson reneged, and we could conceivably see eachother twice more between then and church the next morning.

But everyone did great. Only a couple itty bitty hitches. Spencer cried after he realized that he didn't say goodbye to Lydia or Allison. He ended up sleeping with a picture of Allison to calm him down. (Never in a million years would I have guessed that he would be the one to cling to her. Vice versa? Yes, that I could see. But Spencer? He just loves his siblings so much!)

Sunday morning as I was getting out of the shower, there was a knock at the bathroom door, and I asked who was there. Here's the rely I got: "It's Spencer. Where's Heath? I can't find him anywhere."

I paused. I panicked. I thought to myself, "Ohmygoodness, I've lost my friend's child!" But those words didn't come out of my mouth. These did: "Wake your daddy up right now!"

The night before, all four boys had decided to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor in the playroom. After Bruce got up, he looked first in Spencer's room, thinking Heath may have woken up first and gone to Spencer's room to play. When Bruce and Spencer got all the way downstairs to the playroom and had searched the whole house, they found Heath. Curled up a little deeper into his sleeping bag than Spencer could at first see. But the other boys all slept through our little bit of hoopla, thankfully.

At church the next day, JoElla and I swapped stories.

Evidently Allison was wired as tight as could be when she got to their house, with all the new toys for her to investigate. Finally, after midnight, JoElla said it was time for bed. Allison said she wanted to go home. I had already told JoElla that if she did that, she would be very easy to re-direct, and that proved to be true. JoElla had the girls sleep in sleeping bags in her den, but told Allison she'd sleep down there with them so she wouldn't get scared. We're all pretty sure that JoElla fell asleep before Allison did.

At one point, Lydia told David and JoElla, "I think Allison is nocturnal."

That is so funny to me. Allison is our best sleeper, and usually is out long before the boys, and then sleeps later as well.

Sunday, we only went to Sunday school and skipped the morning service to drive to Knoxville to see baby Ava. Here are a few pictures. (I didn't hold Ava because I have a cold. Allison did not want to hold her. She has never been as big on babies as her brothers. My kids are strange!)

First up, my sweet hubby. This is the guy I fell in love with. He gravitates to babies, and the first time I saw that, I was hooked.





Spencer had been looking forward to holding Ava from the first morning I told him about her birth (he takes after his daddy!). A little crying on her part didn't phase him one bit.



This next picture is of Clay and Ava's hands. He was completely captivated with how small her fingers were inside his.



When we piled in the van to go home, Spencer said what a sad day it was. I said, "Sad? How could it be sad? We got to see Uncle Bryan, Aunt Alondra, Madison, Colin, Joshua and baby Ava?" Spencer said, "Well, I just wish I was their son." I chuckled a little and said, "Really? Why is that?" And he said, "Because that baby is just so sweet."

There has never been a little fella more perfectly suited to being a big brother. And still, there's never been less a likelihood for that to happen than in our family.

On a completely different topic, our family is impatient to go camping again, and the closest I can get to that right now is planning our summer vacation. We're going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina to camp at the beach. We haven't been to the beach in years, and we've never been to the Outer Banks area.

I'm hoping it'll be less crowded than Myrtle Beach, which is where we usually go. This is going to be the first beach vacation that we've taken during peak season. We usually go after school has started, but all three will be in school next year, and we just pulled Clay out before Christmas to go to Disneyworld. I don't want to make a habit of that.

This summer, we're working vacation around Bruce's school schedule. He finishes his MBA in August.

Oh, August, how I love thee... let me count the ways!!