Aug 3 - stretched somewhat thin

We headed off to the 100th birthday party; it took some organizing to get out of the house. Wayne and Mary rode with Jim and Sheryl; we didn't exactly have any spare room !  Sheila came over before we left, picking up the two dogs ... I think that they missed Sandy-doggie and Abby !

It was actually an easy drive there, for us.  We opted for 15 and 20; Jim opted for 15 and 10 ... we got lucky; they didn't.  Leaving 15 minutes ahead of us, I think that they arrived 15 minutes afterwards.  Them's the breaks.  There was a lot of construction on 10.

There was quite a crowd, easily a couple of hundred people.  Bev was up from Florida; Carol and Alister; Glen and Eleanor; Daryl and Diane (they're not together any more, but both were there); Aunt Vi, Michael, more that I'm missing.  Dennis was the only Wallace representative, surprisingly, at least from our generation ... not sure about downstream :).

There were lots of downstream in a party representing four generations. 

Emma eventually found a group of kids that she played with.  I told her afterwards that they were all cousins ... she had no idea she had so many cousins !

Sandy got to do a bit of visiting; I mostly followed Zoe around.  She walked and walked and walked, holding up remarkably well considering that she skipped her nap time.  She did get that nap, however, on the way back to Sheryl's.  Typical of Emma, there was nothing on the lunch spread that she wanted, other than some white bread rolls.  A-typical of Zoe, she didn't want anything.  Later on she dug into oatmeal raisin cookies;  Emma found blueberries and ice cream ...

There was beer, some punch (don't think that it was alcoholic) and water.  Oh yes, white wine was also in attendance.  That food spread was all home made, I think -- excellent !  They barbecued two small pigs and the pulled pork (well, not really pulled) was great.

We'd talked about heading north to the cottage early as that seemed to be the easiest for all concerned.  The traffic would be light, the girls would sleep, easier on the adults.  The original plan had been to drive up today, Monday.

So ... when we got back to Hemmingford, I started packing the car, aiming for an 8pm departure.  We made that and the NAV said that we'd arrive around 4am.  We beat the NAV time since we only stopped once, at the Tim's in Mattawa, arriving at 3:35 a.m.  Nothing ... absolutely nothing was open.  It's a good thing that I get good fuel mileage !   

It was an hour before we had the car unloaded and the girls settled down.  They'd slept almost the entire trip so it's hard to get back to sleep again.  We worried about Zoe but she's adjusted so well to the two of us that I could manage her while Sandy got the Pack-n-play organized. 

I then squeezed in three hours of sleep; Sandy a little less.  She's napping now, as is Zoe.  Emma is watching TV. 

The first order of business this morning was building barriers for the deck so that Zoe can be let loose.  She's already covered much of the property here and next door, but of course that's with accompaniment.  Jason and Lo have a gang in but that crowd will thin by end of day today, Civic Holiday.

The driving went so well with the girls coming up that we'll probably do the same heading back to Reading.  I90 won't be quite as empty but the girls will sleep.  Emma has no problem keeping herself amused; Zoe does. 

Zoe is a light sleeper so she's occasionally wake up on the trip last night and either be silent and fall back asleep, or we'd hear "oh no" (Zoe's favorite phrase) and then she'd fall back to sleep.  Even when we stopped she didn't fuss.  Perfect.  No crying.  For about 15 minutes at the beginning of the trip she was experimenting with every possible combination of sounds that she could make.  We worried that it would degenerate into crying, but that never happened. 

I could so easily have a nap right now ...

Onward !