Vacation - Back to my Roots

I took Declan with me and we visited my parents in Illinois last week. I had to visit to do some legal/business stuff anyway, and my parents wanted to see their grandson. So I left hubby at home, where he could stay up late, sleep in, play video games and eat bachelor food.

Declan did really well on the plane flights. I really think that once he's strapped into his car seat, he knows he's traveling and he calms down. It makes carrying that car seat through the air port totally worth it!

It's been miserably hot and dry here in Houston. We're in an exceptional drought, the highest category, and it's routinely in the upper 90s. So what happens when I travel 1,000 miles north? They have their hottest day in 21 years! And they're in the middle of a 3 week drought. Maybe not as serious as the 7 month drought we have in Texas, but it's hurting the corn and keeping it hot.

We all went in to the band concert Friday night and partook of the ice cream social. Devon, my 10 year old nephew wanted to come with us. He, his brother Garrett, and their parents all adore babies and children. So I was asking my parents if he could come, too. It was great! He spent the whole evening watching Declan, helping he go run around the bandstand and play with the other little kids. All I had to do was buy him some cake and ice cream, then I could sit back and relax for the evening. Wonderful!

The Aflak duck:
My mom has a stuffed Aflak duck, and when you push a button in its belly, it squawks "Aflak, Aflak...AFLAK!" My brother's family came over one night and started playing with it with Declan, and Declan would just giggle hysterically on the last AFLAK. And of course people would laugh at his reaction. So he'd laugh harder, to get a bigger reaction. Before long, the entire room was in stitches. After about 10 minutes, I asked Declan what a duck said. His reply: "Ack-ack, ack-ack...ACK-ACK!" Which of course made everyone just collapse in laughter.

I took my nephews to see Captain America, which was a really good movies. Then the next day, Garrett volunteered to watch Declan while everyone else went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I thought it was a great ending to the series.

The last day I was there, we took the boat out to the lake. It took a couple tries to get it running. We had a couple problems with the lifting mechanism on the lower unit. But eventually we got it running. There was almost no one on the lake on a Tuesday afternoon. It was hot and sunny; a good day to be on the water. Declan was none too pleased with it at the beginning. Maybe it had to do with the baby life jacket I shoved him into. It probably made him hotter, and the boat was all new and scary. He really cried when I was driving the boat and we wouldn't let him sit on my lap. He refused to sit on Granddad's lap, and settled for standing next to me and holding onto my leg. Finally, he gave up and laid down on the bottom of the boat and just waited. I think he was sort of enjoying it by the end.

It was a nice trip, even if it was super-hot most of the week. There was one night where it cooled off enough to open the windows and listen to the night insects. I miss that so much. I hope my parents appreciate the beauty of where they live.