Hello!
I'm just back at 8:30 this morning from our 10 day trip to see 3 sets of parents (DH's parents are divorced and long remarried) culminating in a weekend family reunion with D.'s Mom, step-dad, 6 step-siblings, brother, and assorted offspring.
So...
We started off our drive in NH on Thursday the 19th, around 3:00. D's vacation started officially on the 20th, but as a pilot, as long as he didn't have a scheduled trip, we felt OK with leaving in the late p.m. on the 19th. It, of course, began pouring the moment we actually left.
So, it took us quite a while to get out of Massachusetts and CT. And, somehow we had that luck of choosing to go get gas, but finding that although there was a gas station on the info signs, it was 5 miles into town with 4 turns to get there. The night's drive all went this way. Oh well.
We drove through NH, MA, CT, NY (slightly), NJ, PA, MD (barely), WV (barely again) and into VA before stopping for the night in Winchester, VA. It was 1:00 a.m. by that point, and the boys were sound asleep. It took until 2:00 at least to get them settled back down, and then we had the alarm set for 7:30 so that we could keep on keeping on.
We arrived at my FIL & step-MIL's house outside of Knoxville at around 3:00 the next day. They had moved within the same town since we'd been to visit, and the new house is lovely. D.'s brother and his long-term girlfriend had arrived the previous day. We LOVE them, so that was nice. Step-MIL is a nice lady, but never had kids of her own, and FIL is her second marriage, as well. We have had some extremely rocky visits with her (or by her to our house) in the past. She keeps a VERY clean and decorated house, and doesn't appear to realize how much 8 people can eat. But, I'm almost disappointed in how well the weekend went, as I have no crazy stories to tell...
Otherwise, they have a pontoon boat, and we had a very nice weekend with two afternoons on the lake. Here are some pictures, first of Buzz & Woody on the boat:
And then of Woody with my BIL and his girlfriend. I don't think of D. & his brother as looking that much alike, but Woody is such a duplicate of both of them that it's kind of funny:
We then drove to my parents' house in Central Illinois. We were only there for 40 hours, but I was able to read the Harry Potter waiting on me, and also just plain relax. D. & I both feel that we could easily be there for weeks, as my parents are laid-back and there don't seem to be many demands. The boys had fun driving my dad's riding lawn mowers, eating pizza, and playing with squirt guns.
We then drove to the northern Chicago suburbs to meet up with my MIL and her husband. One of D.'s step-sisters (the one from my pre-TR who wanted to go with us to WDW, if you read it...) arrived from the Denver area the same day. We spent two days just hanging around my MIL's house with the family, eating, visiting Lake Michigan, etc.
We then traveled north to Lake Geneva, WI for a "grand gathering" of the entire step-family. There are 6 step-siblings of D.'s, plus us and his brother & girlfriend (previously pictured) and so it was a group of 27 descending upon the Timber Ridge Lodge. It's a lovely property with an indoor waterpark. The accomodations in that particular hotel are either a one bedroom apartment with a sleeper sofa or a two bedroom unit (also with the sofa) and so we actually had a separate room from the boys and a lot of our own space. The whole family gathered for dinner both Friday and Saturday nights, but the day on Saturday was up for grabs. We headed into the town, and the boys got airbrush tattoos!
My MIL had hired a local photographer for a whole-family pic Saturday night, and this guy was ODD. He was fairly angry, for a photographer. He'd yell at my neice (age 24) for giggling or at me for "smiling too big". Hmmm. We also have a 10 year old nephew who may or may not have some developmental issues, but certainly has parents who let him get away with murder. He complained the whole time, yet kept making faces so that we'd have to take another... His mother got mad at a 16 year old cousin who told him not to throw rocks at people - "I am his mother. I will tell him what not to do." Yeah.
But, there were no knock-down, drag-out fights, which I feared, so the weekend was fairly successful.
So...
We stuck around yesterday afternoon until about 2:00 and then headed out. We hadn't decided if we'd drive straight through (which we've done a few times) or if we'd stop. However, we wanted to get over half-way, and the kids were so asleep, that we decided not to go through the whole "wake them up and try to get them back to bed" thing, so we just kept going. I thought of
DM quite a lot as I drove past her exit at 3:15 this morning, but decided she'd be just as happy that I didn't try to arrange a DIS meet...
We actually got home by 8:30 this morning. D. & I got the stuff out of the minivan and got the kids breakfast and a movie, and then napped until it was tennis lesson time at 2:00. D. also had a dr.'s appointment - pilots have to have check-ups every 6 months to keep their licenses, and his was due to expire on Wed. He got a call just 10 minutes after we'd walked in the door this morning that he has an overnight trip tomorrow, so...
We decided to see Ratatouille tonight at a "Cinema Pub" that serves dinner, as a fitting end to vacation.
I missed you all very much and am trying to catch up, but D. is complaining that I'm DISing when he's leaving tomorrow, so...
Catch you tomorrow!
C.E.
Disney AND Tequila??? 
) and a big 
to get you through the in-laws!!!!
Makes me want to pull out my big shoes.
I flippin' love Pee Wee! Viva la Pee Wee!
