June 17

We had breakfast with Grandma this morning before hitting the road farther north to visit with my Mom's parents. 

You know I took pictures.

Grandma turned 96 last week, but still lives on her own and even drives!

John is my Dad's oldest brother, and he lives just down the road from Grandma. Lily thought he was hilarious.

Hi, Grandma!

Then we got in the car and drove about 3 hours north to the town where my mom's parents live.

It's a boring drive.

(Confession: I took the photo above after scrolling through my Instagram feed and finding that my dear friend Jessica was also on the road, and posted a similar picture of her and her husband. They have been in Florida for the past three weeks waiting for the birth of their son, then waiting for adoption papers to be finalized. They are finally heading home, but their drive is a lot longer than ours. I took this picture in solidarity with her. I can't wait to meet her sweet new baby!)

When we got into town, we headed straight to Grandma's nursing home for a quick visit before dinner. 

She was in such a good mood, and really perked up when she saw Mom!

Luckily, it was a gorgeous day and we were able to visit in an outdoor courtyard. The last time we visited, the kids were a bit uncomfortable in the nursing home, and I was worried that they would be too disruptive. Outside, they could run and play as they pleased. They were so excited to see their Great Grandpa, too!

Caleb showed Grandpa his new book about scary creatures, and they talked specifically about certain types of catfish. Grandpa was so kind and interested in what Caleb had to say.

I'm so glad I got these pictures, because Grandma really looks like herself in them.

This is Caleb's characteristic "explaining something" face.

We really had such a lovely visit.

The residents started filtering out into the courtyard for a special Father's Day meal, so we took that as our cue to head to our hotel to get checked in.

Grandma and Grandpa live in a small town, and the hotel options are either a really shabby Super 8 motel, or a fancy water park on the lake. The water park hotel is so expensive that we aren't able to visit often, but it really is a good fit for our family. This time, Chris and I splurged and spent an extra $20 per night to get a lake view room, hoping that once the kids went to sleep we could sit out on our balcony and chat.

My husband is a great man, so he took the kids to the water park while I unpacked, ordered pizza for dinner, and helped myself to a margarita (leftover from our visit with Tim last night.)

Every mom deserves an empty hotel room and a margarita while on a road trip.

Then the pizza arrived and the kids returned and chaos resumed. 

Pizza in pajamas, overlooking the lake. What a lovely dinner!

After we ate, we headed over to Grandpa's condo for a quick visit before bed.

These kids seriously love their Great Grandpa, and he enjoyed them, too. It makes my heart feel all warm inside to see how much fun they had with him.

Then back to our hotel room for bedtime! We had two queen beds and a roll away crib, so the older three slept sideways on one of the queens, and Chris and I shared the other. There happened to be a big country music festival happening in the park right outside our hotel, which we weren't expecting. The headliner came on right at bedtime, but luckily it wasn't too loud in our room.

Right before bed, I noticed a beautiful rainbow! Of course the kids all had to run out to the balcony to see.

We were so far north, and it's right at the longest day of the year, so it was still light out at close to 10 pm. Weird! Luckily, Chris and I had planned ahead. We got out a bottle of wine, headed out to the balcony, and enjoyed the music and the view while the kids slept. What a great day!