Lessons Learned in Hershey, PA

My sister-in-law Amy and I decided to throw all the kids into Vinnie (our trusty ol' mini-van that we've acquired. Will calls it the "vini-van"; hence, its name) and trek on down to Hershey, PA, to visit my other sis-in-law, Kasey, and her two kids. It was a fun and fast trip. We learned a few things, to say the least, traveling with all the kiddos. We learned:

1. Never, never put the two three-year-old boys all the way back in the vini-van because it will be impossible to reach their ever-so-needy-three-year-old selves. Seriously, mini-vans need a pulley system or something. And Amy, the copilot, got the workout of a lifetime, reaching back there to divvy out snacks, find trains, fix the DVD player and so on and so forth.
2. Never underestimate baby James. The thirteen-month-old was by far the best one in the car. He didn't cry, didn't really sleep, but did just sit there, happy as a clam for the five-hour drive.
3. Never make a stop at 5 Guys in Scranton, PA (yes, the Scranton of the Office fame). While the kids had been happy in the van, we decided to stop for lunch where they were decidedly unhappy--no one ate one bite of their food and tears and tantrums ensued.
4. Never sleep with Will on vacation (or anywhere else for that matter). Will slept with Amy, Sam and Baby James (I slept on the couch b/c I didn't want to wake everyone all the time with my innumerable bathroom trips) and he would wake up at odd hours of the night (or morning), jump around on the loud air mattress and then sometimes go back to sleep (or sometimes just stay awake). What a menace.
5. Never doubt your child when he/she insists it's wet, rainy and cold in the back of the car. Turns out the window was rolled down unbeknown to me, all amid a stormy, rainy day and Will's complaints were valid. Poor kid.
6. Do have fun with your cousins. These kids adore each other. There's nothing like cousins.
7. Do have a good time playing at Hershey park, visiting the infamous chocolate factory and throwing rocks at the duck pond.
8. Do stay up late, laughing and chatting and getting plenty of girls' time.
9. Do say lots and lots of prayers that trusy ol' Vinnie will make it home safely.
10. Do send Kasey a thank-you card for letting us come and crash her place and eat all her food. Or if you're far too lazy for that, do at least write a blog-post where you publicly thank her for her hospitality. Thanks, Kase! We had a ball. Until next time, right?

Now for the pictures. As usual, I didn't take enough photos and these are all at the duck pond on our way out of town.

All the cousins: Will, Grant, Sarah, Beth, James and Sam. This is as good as we could get.

This cute Will of mine.
Throwing rocks.
And I had to throw this one in. Will and Sam are only four months apart, but look at the size difference. But they don't let it deter them. They love each other.

Willy Will

I'm long overdue for an update. And though I have plenty to post about, I wanted to do a Will update before I forgot some of the funny things he has said/done. It's never boring around here, that's for sure. And I'm pretty sure no one, except perhaps grandparents, will care to read this long, long post, but write it I must, for the sake of journaling.

• We were trying to Skype with my parents one night when our computer was being so slow. My dad called, wondering what was going on and Will answered the phone. He told my dad, "We trying to talk to you on the computer but the computer is so dang, dang slow."




• We were reading our scriptures and I showed him a picture of Enos and I asked him who he was, to which he quickly replied, "Dandio" (the name of his favorite bull from one of our favorite books Toot and Puddle).




• We were driving in the car when the old country song, "Please, Don't Take the Girl" came on the radio. The part about Johnny not wanting the girl to come fishing played when Will asked, "Why he not want to take the girl?" When I told Will that some boys don't really like girls, Will said, "I like girls." I asked him who some of his favorite girls were and he shouted, "MAMA!" It melted my heart. He then proceeded to list all of his favorite girls: Beth, Amy, Kasey Mama, etc., etc., (all his cousins and aunts and grandmas) when he finally declared, "And Lucy! Lucy's a girl! I love Lucy!" (Lucy is what Will is insisting we name our baby girl). It was too precious.




• The vacuum was out the other night and Will was pretend vacuuming with it. He finished up and told us, "Now it's all clean. You can't come in here, 'kay?" Clearly, that's something he hears often.




• Now I can't remember all the funny things he says. Arghh. Pregnancy brain.

Now here are some of the things he's been up to:

Not enough of this (sleeping). He really and truly is done with naps (this picture was probably taken the last nap he took. He loves to sleep like this--like a frog, I say). Nothing, and I mean nothing, I can say, do, bribe, threaten, lock will produce a nap, so he's downgraded to quiet time. I don't really mind, except at 5:00 every evening when he falls apart until we put him to bed at 6:30 and then he's up at the crack of dawn. He just can't hold his bladder long enough. Is it wrong to put him back in diapers for night again? Just so he will sleep and not be a bear every evening?
Watercoloring......

in his underpants, of course. He rarely wears pants around the house. After he uses the bathroom he just takes his pants off and it is too much effort to make him put pants on again and again. Don't worry, though, I do insist he wears pants when we leave the house. This kid really does love to color, paint, draw, write. He'll sit and do it for a long time these days. And he's so obsessed with spelling and writing things and his alphabet and numbers. He's discovered typing names on the computer and it is fun (except when he can't find the q and he is shouting bloody murder at me to come and help him find the q).


Helping me sort through all of Lucy's clothes. This girl will never go naked, that's for sure. We've been given clothes by two neighbors and two sisters-in-law and, of course, I've bought a few things. Needless to say, she'll be decked. And Will thinks it's fun to try her stuff on. In this case, it's a robe. The best was when he tried on some 0-3 month pants.

Skewering. Will thinks kabobs are the best, especially when we grill pineapple. He mostly eats the pineapple straight off the skewer, but what are you gonna do? He really is, for the most part, a helpful little boy. He especially loves to help me bake. And he loves to throw things in the recycle bin in the garage. And he loves to clean toilets, dust, water plants, unload the groceries, and get the produce at the grocery store. What he doesn't love, however, is to clear his plate (it is a battle every time) and empty the silverware. Who knows why?

Riding his bike. He's been learning how to do it without training wheels. He can do it across the tennis court all by himself. We're still working on it and he's just discovered his new bike has brakes, so it is painful at times because he brakes, then brakes, then brakes, but we'll get there.

Assisting. He loves to help Josh when he has his tools. He is always this close when Josh has a project at hand. The best was when we were weeding the flower beds and Josh was kneeling down weeding, and Will just went and sat on his lap and started weeding. He just has to be right there.

Obsessing. Over that dang nigh-nigh again. It's always a battle on wash day to get him to get it in the washing machine. I always tell him, "Next load and it's the nigh-nigh." And he will sit there and cry, "I don't want my nigh-nigh to be washed. I like it dirty." Finally, the other day, we got it in the wash and ten minutes later this is where I found him: sitting on the washing machine, just staring at his nigh-nigh in the washing machine. I think we have a problem.

Creating. Josh and I were working on some projects around the house and Will was left to his own devices for a while. He'd found the masking tape and had taped everything in his bedroom. The best was the reason why he taped the basketball hoop: "I didn't want it to be blue anymore. I like white better." (And yes, he's wearing no pants, again).