Goin to Kansas City

Kansas City, here we come! Well...Atchison, Kansas, at least.

The first week of October is always family week at Benedictine College. That just so happens to be where my baby sister, Mary goes. Mom, Dad, & James were already going, and since Mary wouldn't have been able to meet her new nephew until Thanksgiving, her wonderful and loving sister and her two boys came to surprise her (Luke had to work). I just needed to remember this is the reason we road tripped to KS with an 18 mo old and a 1 mo old:

Murmur, I must love you a lot!

The trip started out great! We were going to take my parents' suburban, but that decided to leak radiator fluid in our driveway, so we had to unpack it all and squeeze everything into the traverse. It was seriously loaded to the max.

Here's the back.

And here's the front.

The trip wasn't too bad. We had movies & books & food & great company to entertain us. Each time we stopped--which wasn't that much, actually--Lachlan kept wetting through his clothes. So much that in the end, he had to wear his uncle's pj pants to bed! Dad said it was probably because of the constant pressure, so we decided to double diaper him. This brilliant system worked well!

Torin did pretty well--he just wanted to suck, so I spent a good chunk of the ride like this:

And Lachlan spent most of the ride like this:

Not really the whole ride, but he did watch Nemo like this. I guess he wanted to cuddle the DVD case while he watched his favorite little fish. Oh, my little boy.

It was a beautiful sunset. (notice Torin has another outfit on--he leaked through too...)

A glowing picture of a glowing Grandmother.

We got to Mary's dorm, and knocked on the door of her room with just Torin and Lachlan in the doorway. She said 'hi Lachlan!' And then it occurred to her--wait, why is Lachlan here? She was totes surprised and so excited to meet her little nephew. She pretty much didn't let him go all weekend long.

Hangin out in Auntie Murmur's room: notice who has Torin??? : )

She did have to put him in his bucket so we could leave.

Since our car was jam-packed full, we had to be creative on our way back to the hotel, and yes, we did get buckled up!

We got to our hotel room only to have a not very good night sleep due to babies waking. In the morning we went to campus and checked it out. Went to the book store, saw where her mail box is, etc. On our way to lunch, we were serenaded by the funky drum line.

Somebody liked it a lot! (he's dancing)

We went back to our room so Lachlan could nap, when the real 'fun' began. He woke up and got sick. Yuck. Since I was there alone, of course I freaked out, as I had never had to deal with a poor sick kiddo before. So my dad came back and rescued me (they were back on campus with Mary). We called the front desk to get some proper cleaning supplies, only to have Lachlan get sick again. And by the time she came, he got sick again. The weird thing about kids getting sick (at least with Lachlan) he would run around as if nothing happened. You wouldn't think anything had happened. Grampa took him to go to the front desk for more towels. Lachlan ran down the hallway giggling, only to have my Grampa pick him up and Lachlan got sick right on the front desk counter. I suppose it was better than on the carpet! Oh those poor people at the hotel...All in all it was 6 times, I think.

Oh we are having so much fun in Kansas!

Dad, Mom, and James went to Mary's first pops concert performance that night, and then Mom & James came back and Dad took me to the concert. It was so fun to hear a choir again! And they were having so much fun! Can you find Mary?

There she is! Hey, Girl!

So then we bring some of her friends back to swimming and as we are all hanging out, James get sick--a few times. Goodie--I get to sleep in this room tonight. After another not-so-good-night's sleep, (I was so paranoid about all the germs in the room) I got Lachlan up only to have to pass him off to Grampa...my turn with the bug. I spent the majority of the morning lying on the floor by the bathroom.

Did I mention how much fun we are having in Kansas?!?!?!

The parents packed up while I was pacing myself eating an ice cube every 10 minutes. We went to say bye to Mary one more time. I was doing fine in the car as I waited for my parents and Mary to come back from her dorm...let's just say there is a place outside of her dorm that you don't ever want to walk across...
The ride home was miserable for me, but not too bad for everyone else. Lachlan was sporting some new Ravens apparel at a rest stop.

We had some fun and some not-so-fun memories that will stay with us. Even though the majority of my time there wasn't the best I have ever had, I needed to remind myself of why we were there in the first place:

And then it actually makes it worth it to me. Murmur, I must really love you!

Love ya, mean it
Be here now.