So Saturday was a fantastic day. The kids slept well on Friday night and I woke feeling like a new person.
After getting the kids dressed we borrowed a stroller from one of Dave's cousins and took them for a walk. The college was just down the road from our hotel and there were these great stone buildings and walls everywhere! I brought my Nikon with me and was wanting to get some pictures of the kids so we headed that way. On the way we got distracted by some horses grazing nearby....
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| In the stroller wearing the adorably silly hats that Nana brought for them... |
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| Aunt Deb and Poppy being silly |
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| I just love this picture. |
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| These horses came right over to see us when we walked up... looking for treats, I'm sure... but the kids loved it! |
After we walked back to the hotel, we loaded into the mini van and headed out to the local elementary school where there was a fantastic playground. Seriously. It had the coolest things I've ever seen on a playground! Allie must not have had enough sleep, though because she fell asleep in the car on the way and stayed asleep the whole time we were there. Dave and other family members were kind enough to stay with her and let JD and me go play and take pictures!
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| How cool is this slide? It wasn't really a slide.. it was a bunch of rollers and you more rolled down than slid down. |
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| JD loved it.... |
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| Uncle Mike loved it too! |
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| Sweet Allie just napping away in her car seat... |
However, this led to less strict supervision on my part and Allie took full advantage!
After her nap in the car she must have been feeling good. Remember the bear she was holding in a picture a couple of posts ago? She handed that bear to me on Saturday afternoon and it was soaked. When I asked her how her bear got wet she responded "pally"... which is how she says potty! Apparently she thought the bear needed a dunk in the potty. A little while later we watched Allie disappear into the older kids room with JD and Kate. They failed to reappear and when Dave went to check on her she was standing in the bathtub. In about 4 inches of water. With her shoes on! Thank goodness for the fireplace in the room.... that's how we got her shoes dry enough to wear on the flight home the following day! And as if that wasn't enough.... A little while later we found Allie splashing in water on Nanny's bathroom floor. She had put the entire roll of toilet paper (not even unrolled.... the tube and all) in the potty and flushed. She thought it was lots of fun! That's what happens when you don't supervise your almost-two-year-old closely enough, folks!
Later that night we had babysitters! Yes, Dave's cousin Rebecca arranged for two very sweet girls to come to the hotel. One was assigned to my monsters and the other was assigned to the twin 13 month old boys. The other kids were old enough to just do their own thing. They were wonderful! Once I was able to wrench the kids off of me, the adults went down the hall to the hotel's lounge where Dave started to build a fire (remember the fireplace he and Allie were standing beside on the Thanksgiving Day post??). The girl working the desk told him not to because her manager told her there was something wrong with the fireplace. So Dave stopped what he was doing and we all just hung out for a little while. Well, another person in our group went to talk to the girl working the desk. She explained to her that we really wanted to sit by the fire on our last night there and we would test the flue before lighting the fire to make sure it was working okay... also that we would take full responsibility if anything were to happen. Around this time one of the babysitters came to get me because Allie was having a meltdown so what happened next is only what I've been told. Dave lit a piece of paper and held it up to make sure the flue was working, and it was... so he lit the fire. Apparently - because, as I was hugging the kids and about to return to the party, the fire alarms went off - the room immediately filled with smoke. So Annie and I are running around with the babysitters trying to get shoes and coats on all of the pajama clad children so we could evacuate while the fire alarms are blaring in our ears!
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| Feeding Uncle Mikey! |
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| Who, me?? |
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| Playing with Kate |
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| This one cracks me up. Dave walked in our room and found this. Kate playing with my iphone, JD playing with his iphone and Allie looking at them like they're crazy! |
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| More iphone fun... |
We get outside with all of the kids and see the firetrucks - not one or two, but three fire trucks - come wailing down the road and park near the front desk. We knew the place wasn't on fire, just filled with smoke, so we walked the kids up to the front of the hotel to see the fire trucks.... the manager was nice about it. He said the fireplace is tricky. That the flue needed to be thoroughly heated before lighting a fire in order for it to draw properly and that it happened all the time.
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| Dave building the infamous fire |
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| Let's go see the fire trucks! |
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| Dave explaining and demonstrating to his father how he tested the flue by holding up a piece of burning paper... |
Unfortunately, JD was up most of that night coughing but they both slept until after 7:00 Sunday morning.
Sunday we packed up our stuff, put Allie's slightly damp shoes on and headed back to the Albany airport where we embarked on a very long and tiring travel day. We were all very glad to get home on Sunday around 6:00 PM.
It was an amazing trip. Dave's cousins planned this weekend down to the tiniest details. Right down to having the rooms assigned perfectly, giving us information packets complete with a map of the town, an itenerary and even menus for every restaurant that we ate at. We really enjoyed seeing everybody and really, really enjoyed the fact that JD and Allie got the opportunity to play with cousins that they rarely see!
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