We flew up on Wednesday evening 8/1 from Orlando to Boston on Delta. We flew Delta because I had frequent flier miles but the one drawback I had failed to remember was that EVERY TIME we have flown on the last flight of the day on Delta at this time of year, it is delayed. This time was no different. We were supposed to depart at 7:30 but didn't leave until 9:15. Fortunately the flight wasn't full so we had two full rows to ourselves. On the down side, Brady was a pill and only slept off and on. We couldn't land soon enough.
My mom worked on Thursday. We picked her up mid-afternoon and took off from there. Last year we stopped in Bangor at Shawn and Camille's but they were already up in Nova Scotia since Shawn was speaking at Pugwash (campmeeting) that week. No stopping this time. All went smoothly until about five minutes before we reached the border. It was just before midnight and Duncan was driving. I handed him the passports as we were stopped at our usual Irving gas station at the end of the airline. He flipped through and when he got to his, exclaimed, "My passport is expired!" Sure enough, it expired in January and we had totally forgotten. With little options at this time of night, we proceeded to the border crossing hoping that somehow he could get into Canada. The agent took the passports, asked the usual questions, gave the passports back and wished us good travels. Whew! We couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed it was expired since we assumed some warning or something would flash across his screen when he swiped it. As it turns out, it was really no big coup after all. When I went to the Internet the next day to look up some info, it's actually acceptable to get into Canada with an expired passport. Now all we had to worry about was getting back into the US....
This year we had 36 people. Not quite as many as last year since Jonathan and Marcela along with children Zasha and Luccia were not there and of course, the newlyweds, Rick and Ana weren't able to come either. All were missed! The cabin situation is still a little bit in flux but our understanding of things is that if we put in a new sewer system and a bath house, we can actually pass ourselves off as a campground. Whatever it takes, really.
Each year is always a question mark as to how the sleeping arrangements will work out. Last year it had worked out for us all to sleep in the cabin because Brady didn't go in there to sleep until late. This year the plan was for the girls to go to sleep in my parent's room and then we would move them to the cabin when we went to bed. Well, that plan went awry when we realized Finley was trying to go to sleep in the room across from my parents (they are still temporarily using the boys old room while their room is repaired from the roof/water damage). In the end, it wasn't a big deal for them to go to sleep in the cabin after all. They would be so tired out from the day (neither taking naps) that they would fall asleep in about fifteen minutes and didn't bother Brady at all. I wish I could say the sleeping went just as easily. The girls usually sleep like logs at home and indeed, Calleigh did. When we're away from home, Aubree, however, tends to cry out from time to time during the night and yup, that's what happened. I would say about half the time she ended up waking up during the night and wanting to sleep in our bed which we ended up doing. Brady would be fine until about 5:30 every morning and then he'd wake up, stand up, and cry to get out. So into our bed he would go too. Thank goodness we had a king size bed (my parent's bed we're borrowing until their room is ready) because it got pretty crowded in there.
There was only one time that Calleigh woke up during the night and actually it was about 6:00 am. I heard her coughing in her sleeping bag and then she came to our bed (the other two were already both there). I made a little spot for her and then she coughed some more which ended up turning into her vomiting. Over the next 30 minutes, she threw up a few more times. I thought our non-sick streak was going to end at 13 months but she went back to sleep for an hour or two, woke up and she was fine. So I assume it must have been something she ate. The streak is still alive!
When Aubree was the age that Brady was this year, she was absolutely horrible. She wouldn't let me out of her sight and would cry and carry-on every time I left the room with her behind. Fortunately I didn't have this same problem with Brady who, by the time we arrived, was pretty much walking full time. He did have his moments and often, those moments would end with him hurling himself backward in a fit. Most of the time his head would just hit into the rug behind him. I was curious to see if any of these little tantrums would carry over here at home but apparently he's smart enough to realize that if he throws himself backwards onto the tile or wood, it would be most unpleasant. Part of his occasional grumpiness I blame on the fact that his first molar was coming in.
Our days were filled with swimming down at the lake, hanging out at the ocean at the beach in Pondville, and just hanging out with all the cousins. The kids always had someone or something to occupy them. One of the big things this year was the "Nature Hunters" which is a name that Calleigh apparently coined for herself, Aubree, and Camden. They would run around outside looking for various points of interest which one time included a dead bat on the front of Devin's truck.
We left the evening of Monday (13th) to drive overnight to get back to Boston for our Tuesday afternoon flight home. We gave ourselves a little extra time since we weren't sure how things would go at the border. We got there at about 2 am and this was how it went down:
Agent: "Hello."
Duncan: "Hi, here are our passports. So, I have a little problem with mine. It's expired."
Agent (looking through Duncan's): "Have you renounced your US citizenship yet?"
Duncan (perplexed): "Huh?"
Agent: "Have you renounced your US citizenship?
Duncan: "No."
Agent (with a smirk on his face): "Then I don't really care!"
So, that didn't end up being a big deal either.
The morning in Boston wasn't without it's challenges. I drove the last few hours of the trip which found us arriving at a Friendly's in Saugas (15 minutes out of Boston) at about 6:15. My eyes started bothering me soon after we arrived and I had to take out my contacts. I had a little bit of the same problem at my parent's house and in Nova Scotia and thought it was allergies. However, within about an hour, my eyes were really, really itchy and I couldn't stop rubbing them. It was so bad, I had to just stay in the car with a wet shirt on my eyes while Duncan kept the kids occupied at a couple of playgrounds (that I found at a neat app on my phone) and then the Boston's Children Museum. It was somewhat of a challenge to find parking at the playgrounds since you're in the city but at one of them, we thought we were okay to park on the street. One side of the road said you couldn't park there on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month due to street cleaning. We figured it was just that one side and we were fine. Well, no sooner had Duncan gotten out of the car with the kids and I went to recline my passenger seat to rest, I look in the rear view mirror and see this huge street cleaner coming up right behind us. I made a mad dash into the driver's seat with my bad eye, lopsided glasses (Brady had broken them a few weeks ago) and no shoes, and started driving back around the block looking for some other parking spot. That was really fun.
By the time we caught our flight, my right eye was completely red and swollen and I would later self diagnosis myself with pink eye. How I could catch that during a road trip, I do not know. No one else got anything, thank goodness. I figured the flight was going to be torture with Brady but Duncan was a real hero and got him to fall asleep on his lap after about 30 minutes and he slept nearly the rest of the way. The flight went longer than we expected because we ran into rain and thunderstorms as we attempted to land and had to abort and take a detour over the coast. As we came in the second time, the plane was bouncing all over the place. I noticed Duncan clutching Brady but Calleigh was calmly watching something on TV and Aubree was squealing with delight and told me that it felt like the crab ride at SeaWorld. Ignorance is bliss they say! For the record, I am not a nervous flier so it didn't bother me either.
So, here is where I would say we are back to normal but of course, that's not really true. We're preparing to move out but still don't know where "out" is. I'm praying continuously that we receive some good news on the appraisal tomorrow.
I hope to post pictures tomorrow but in the meantime, here's a final quote from Aubree:
Aubree to me as I walk into their messy room: "Sorry, it's kind of like a pig style in here."
1 comment:
Loved your recap. Glad that Duncan didn't have any trouble at the border! Sorry to hear about your eyes - what is going on? Are you getting allergic to your contacts or solution?
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