Minnesota? Okay!

I must preface this story with a little background on Greg’s work schedule. He’s an attorney, we all know that. And we all know that attorneys work crazy hours. His schedule is nothing short of crazy, I assure you. About 90% of the time, he works a standard a-little-more-than-the-average-work day, about 5% of the time it’s coming-home-after-2am-MADNESS and then there’s this glorious 5% of the time (that usually immediately follows the madness) where it’s extremely flexible. This is the time where he gets dental work done, oil changed, and as many fun activities with the family as possible. It was during this glorious period that the following story takes place.

Wednesday morning, around 8:15am Greg was heading out the door. I was the kids were giving the usual “don’t go,” so he said, “okay, let’s do something fun this morning.” He calls his mom to see what they were up to this weekend and she said that all of the family was going to be in town and that we should join them (Another side note, in our 8 years of marriage, Greg’s whole family has never been in Minnesota at the same time (and a final side note: Greg’s dad racks up oodles of frequent flyer miles and he was kind enough to share them with us)). We looked online at flights and saw that one was leaving at 10:45. By this time, it was 8:36 (I checked). The twins and I were still in our pjs and Drew was still asleep and would need to nurse when he woke up. I’ll let you imagine in your minds the chaos that then ensued in this house for the next hour. If you imagined clothes flying, random things being thrown into suitcases, unfolded, children picking out their own mismatched outfits and dressing themselves, me sitting on the couch nursing, while Greg is running like a chicken with his head cut off taking orders... then you hit it spot on. At 9:20 on the dot we were out the door (the airport is 15 minutes away) and I’m happy to report that we Greg did a mighty fine job packing. The kids did splendidly on the flight considering we didn’t pack anything to keep them occupied and we had a FANTASTIC time in Minnesota. See for yourselves.

I guess it should be noted that 95% of the clothes worn in this picture were purchased while we were in Minnesota. Although I’m not sure what would be more impressive- all bringing clothes that matched, or rounding up matching clothes for 14 people in one day.

lots of Packers

Some dear friends/cousins of ours came to Houston this weekend and we were lucky enough to monopolize their Saturday and Sunday mornings. Since the weather wasn’t ideal for... anything... we took them to the downtown aquarium.

Stopped for refreshments at Greg’s office.

Then took a little walk through the city.

Thanks for stopping by, Packers. Please come again!

4th of July

Cue: Sentimental Lauren. I love the 4th of July. It’s my favorite holiday, no doubt. Besides the food (which, as you know, is what usually validates any other day/holiday), it’s a day to celebrate this country that we live in, the freedoms that we enjoy and often take for granted, and the people who have made/continue to make that freedom possible. I have never in my adult life stood for this flag at the beginning of a parade, with my hand over my heart, without a tear shed. I love this country.

End sentimentality.

We kept it pretty light this year. There’s only so much sweat one family can handle. Parade at 10am sounded pretty painless. And it was. Even better than expected. Greg clued the twins on to the fact that if they wave their flags, they’ll get candy thrown to them. They waved those little flags like it was keeping them alive.

This question is open to the public. Why in the world do the Shriners feel the need to drive around small vehicles and wear Arabian hats in parades? No complaints here. They are the highlight of many parades. Just wondering.

Enjoying the one piece of candy they actually ate during the parade.

I was mostly sitting in the shade with Drew while Greg took the kids to the front line. I asked him later how much candy they ate (in approximate poundage) and he said, “one piece. I didn’t let them have any more.” That guy. My hero. I would have caved. I guess they were just as happy to pick up all the candy as they would have been to eat it.

Case in point.

Drew kept surprisingly cool (in temperature, temperament, and social standing)

Pooltime

I didn’t anticipate how rough going to the pool was going to be this summer. Drew can’t be in the sun and the twins can’t be left alone (yeah, I don’t know how I didn’t clue in to that earlier, either). But swimming on a random Friday evening means Greg can be there to help, there’s no one else at the pool, and the sun’s not too strong for Drewman. Rest assured, his dip in the water was nothing more than 4 minutes tops. (But don’t tell him that, he’s been telling everyone who will listen that he’ll be doing laps by the end of the summer.

Drew, trying to impress the ladies.

The lady.

We just might have to try this whole evening swim more often.

Cars 2

Quite the experience bringing 2 3-year-olds to a movie. We’ve been talking about the new cars movie to come out for at least 6 months. They’d put enough stickers on their chore chart to not only go, but each pick out one of the new characters (who obviously had to come along). They were stoked. But they’re not the movie theater veterans I was at their age. They each spent time sitting on both of our laps, looking through my bag for snacks, climbing on the rail in front of us, etc. No doubt they had a blast. No doubt it was worth the 15 bucks. But no doubt it will be a while before returning to the big screen.