Whirlwind Weeks

Wow - has it really been a week and a half since I last updated this blog. It isn't because of a lack in content...just a lack in time! So, what have we been up to?...

We traveled to Washington DC the weekend of the 15th for my grandmother's burial in Arlington National Cemetery. This was Rhea's second flight, but first time at the airport since she started walking, so the wait for the plane was a whole different experience. She spent her time either walking around the airport checking things out or standing on a chair, waving bye bye and blowing kisses to out the window at the planes! It made our hour long wait go by pretty fast.

She did well on the plane down. The plane was half empty, so they let us bring her car seat on instead of checking it by the plane, so she spent the entire hour in her seat and even slept for about a half hour.

Our time is DC was a mix of sadness at saying our official goodbyes to Grandmom and enjoyment of getting the entire family together again. Rhea seemed to love all of the attention she got...after getting comfortable of course. The first night we were there, Rhea's cousin Jessica showed her the cooler with the ice in it and Rhea spent at least a half hour taking pieces of ice out of the cooler. I was afraid her hand would freeze, but she thought it was the best thing to play with. At one point, Rhea's little cousin Arwen wanted to see what all the fun was about and she pulled herself up and was trying to hold on to the cooler, but Rhea would not let her. She would take her hands off of the cooler and try to push her away! What a bossy baby she was! I'd never seen her like that!

Sunday was a day with no plans, so we thought we would spend the day seeing the sights of DC, but Rhea woke up with a fever and it didn't break until 3ish, so instead we spent the day in our hotel room watching football, while Rhea slept. Once the fever broke, she was back to herself and we were able to join everyone for dinner that night, which was nice.

The flight back didn't go as smoothly as the way down. Rhea was fine for about a half hour, but after that, she wanted to get down and walk, which she obviously couldn't do and then she wanted to pull at the seat in front of us and even tried to grab the guy's hair in the seat! Yikes! I was so happy to land!

We got back last Monday night and the rest of the week was uneventful for Rhea. For me, I had a very busy work week and Friday at 10:30 pm, when I finally wrapped up the week, I was so happy for some time to relax...until the next morning when we packed up the car and headed out to see my family again. This time, we went out for a benefit and a surprise birthday party.

The benefit was impressive - there were so many people and they raised so much money for someone who really needed it. And while we were at the benefit, Rhea spent her first night at her Grandma and Grandpa's house. Rhea was completely comfortable at their house. In fact, she was so comfortable that she slept until 7:15 on Sunday morning! Everyone at my dad's had a great time and I enjoyed a rare night out.

On Sunday, we celebrated my other grandmother's 85th birthday with a party at my aunt's house. She was surprised! Rhea had fun playing with her cousins who were there: Cody, who's 4; Ben, who's 3 and Katie who's 2. The three older kids were very attentive to "the baby" as they kept calling Rhea, even though little Isabel is the real baby. It was fun to watch them all play - Rhea and Katie rolling the ball to each other or Ben, Rhea and Cody playing football.

As I write this, I am getting ready for yet another family gathering this week, which doesn't leave a lot of time, but does give us a lot of great memories.