We took a short (24hr) trip to the southeast part of the state a few weekends ago for a family reunion of sorts on Aaron's mom's side of the family. We try to make it down there about three times a year, I believe we've been 2-3 times since having Gemma. Anyways, she was a FABULOUS traveler. We left Saturday afternoon after her nap and she was just a "gem" the whole way down. Here she is with her dear dolly, getting gas at QuikTrip before heading out.
Eating her snack. 
The main "event" was a gathering at Aaron's aunt and uncle's house where we had a fun pool party. Gemma was pretty excited to swim in a "big" pool. She's been in the one at Genesis a few times, but this was outdoors and with lots of people. She did great (mainly played on the steps).
Her favorite thing, by far, was this little "game" she invented. It was apparently about the coolest thing ever, because I think she did this for about 30-45 minutes straight. Let me walk you through it:
Step one, climb into pool with plastic cup.
Step two, climb out of pool with cup filled with water.
Step three, walk down sidewalk.
Step four, find the "perfect spot".
Step five, gleefully and excitedly dump water.
Step six, repeat. Over and over and over. I kid you not, it was too cute. She was so content just to do this again and again.We stayed with Aaron's uncle, with whom he lived during his under-grad. They live on probably 10-20 acres, so Gemma had fun running around outside and checking things out.
In the house they had this fake life-size collie. Craziest thing. Oh my goodness, Gemma loved it. She would talk to it, and pet it, and touch its eyes and nose and tongue. She had a blast. Best pet ever, apparently.
We went to Mass Sunday morning and got to see our dear friend Fr. Carney. Then we headed to Aaron's grandparents' farm for a bit and hit the road about 30-45 minutes later than Gemma normally goes down to nap, hoping she would fall right asleep in the car. And she did! We weren't five minutes down the road and she was out, just like that! She slept for just under two hours and was a sweetie the rest of the trip. Here she is snoozin' with her beloved blankie.
I am so glad Gemma is a good traveler, but there certainly is no place like home!! Here is a family picture of us at the farm.
Well, better late than never, right?! We took a trip to Kansas City last weekend for Aaron to attend a seminar, and were able to stay with his aunt and uncle, Rita and Matt. I was a little apprehensive about traveling with Gemma, namely since we haven't traveled much at all with her. Well, all my fears were allayed the morning after we arrived when I was quite sure we had a good, no, GREAT little traveler on our hands. The trip up didn't go quite how I expected. I had all these flowery visions of her dozing off peacefully not far down the road, sometime around 8PM. HA!!!! That little girl had to say, "hiiiiiii buuuuusssss" (everything bigger than a car is a bus, currently) to every truck, semi and camper we encountered. On the turnpike. Yeah. So, she finally fell asleep about 1/2 an hour out of KC when it got dark. Oh well!! Once we got there Aaron went in ahead of me and set up her bed and that little girl was so conked out I carried her in and put her down and didn't hear from her until the next morning. And thus went the rest of the weekend...she did a great job playing nicely with the few toys we brought along. She was an angel at Mass, ate well, napped well, slept well. I am so proud of my little girl!!! Here are some pics of the weekend.The little rockstar all ready to go, all decked-out in her jammies and daddy's sunglasses.
She thought it was so much fun playing in her car seat while waiting for daddy to load it in the truck. She probably sat here for 15-20 minutes. So silly!!
Reading her book after breakfast Saturday morning.
With cousin Isabelle.
So happy that Aunt Rita had a little rocker, too!!!!
Silly girl waiting oh-so patiently, sitting in mommy's suitcase. She got in and then she couldn't get out without help!! The look on her face says it all.
Gemma with our gracious hostess, Aunt Rita.
Our good little traveler on the way home. Lately she loves sticking her fingers in her ears and then making noises while moving her fingers in and out. I think she must like how it changes the sound.
So that was our weekend. And as nice as it is to travel I tell you, there is certainly no place like home!!! Thanks, Aunt Rita, for making our stay so nice and comfortable.
So, the hubby, the daughter and I took off Saturday afternoon for a (brief) weekend in southeast KS. What a fabulous time we had!! This was only the second time we've traveled with Gemma (the first was also to SEK back in April) and she did just great!! I was so proud of her, she took her naps, went to bed well, and was pleasant and sweet when she was awake. She was such a trooper with the time in the car on the way there/back (most of which she slept, as it was during afternoon naptime) plus the time we spent shuttling back and forth to various places down there.
We stayed with Aaron's great uncle Bill and his wife LoraJean. Aaron lived with Bill while he was at Pitt State (Bill was a bachelor then). Aaron did most of his cooking, plus just kept him company, as his first wife had died not too long before Aaron started college. The two of them have such a special relationship, I think it's really sweet.
Gemma had all kinds of fun. She got to visit the cows at uncle Bill's farm. Her ornery dad kept on saying, "Gemma, what do the cows say? Cows say neigh. Say 'neigh' for the cows, Gemma." What a goofball.
Here is a picture of Gemma and me and the back of Uncle Bill's house. It is a huge ranch built in the late 70's on several acres just outside of Pittsburg.
Here she is with Uncle Bill's puppy dog, Shad. This is one fat dog, let me tell you. Too much leftover fried-chicken, methinks.
And here she is showing off her newfound crawling skills down the long hallway.
We went to Mass Saturday evening at Our Lady of Lourdes in Pittsburg and got to see our good friend Fr. David Marstall afterwards. And Gemma was so patient during Mass. His aunt and uncle like to get there about 1/2 hour before Mass starts. Nothing wrong with that, but an hour and a half is a looong time for a wee-little one to sit on mom or dad's lap, face the front and be quiet. She got restless after about 45 minutes, but really did well all in all. I only had to stand up and go to the back with her once.We had to skip Barto's Idle Hour (best fried chicken and polka dancing ever). It would have been too late, too loud, and too smokey for miss Gemma-goo. Oh well, such is life, I'm sure we'll make it back there someday. And we have lots of fun memeories of Saturday evenings spent there...eating fried chicken, having mixed drinks, and dancing with a bunch of people twice our age. Good times. We did order out from Chicken Annies, which is right down the road from Uncle Bill's, and that was quite the tasty treat. Can't go to SEK without eating fried chicken...I think that's some sort of law. Anyone who's had fried chicken from SEK knows it's something special. And if you haven't had it, I'd highly recommend it.Sunday lunch was also something I had been looking forward to since we decided to go down this weekend....the home-cooked turkey dinner at St. Michael's in Girard. We just happened to go down on this same weekend last year too, and just happened to go to the dinner, and holy cow...GOOD STUFF!! We're talking turkey, dressing, green beans, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberries and homemade pie. Full meal deal. It. Was. Awesome.
Gemma camped out in her umbrella stroller and just took it all in while Aaron and I were eating.
We stopped by his grandparents' farm in St. Paul briefly on the way back (see pic below of Hofer g-parents), and got home around 4PM yesterday. Aaron mowed the lawn and we ended the weekend with a family walk with the boisterous dog who was quite glad to see his family after 24 hours away. Good times.
Oh, and one last picture I have to post. When we were about to Andover, we noticed something very odd on the semi-trailer about 3 cars in front of us. We couldn't really figure out what exactly it was. It was blue and big and had some sort of tail sticking out of it. When we reached Andover and a stoplight, Aaron pulled up next to it and this is what we saw. It was pretty funny, I just had to take a picture. I guess they are amusement park rides. Still, it's not every day you see the four bears (yes, there were two sets of these) driving down the highway.
1. Vacuumed the house while wearing my (20lb) baby on my back. WOOT! (Thanks for the inspiration, Mary Elizabeth!) 
2. Got our weekly Scripture verses (typically the Responsorial Psalm) that we hang on our fridge and try to recite throughout the week written out on color-coded papers from now through Palm Sunday. If you're not familiar with it, the USCCB has a great section on their website with the daily Mass readings. 
3. Survived our overnight family trip this past weekend, with a feverish Kolbe to boot. (He started running the fever after we'd already gotten to our destination...I don't make a habit of dragging my children places when they're sick.) And we all had a really nice time (Aaron and his dad hunted, the kids and I spent the day with my MIL and her parents). I am a home-body through-and-through, so this is big, people! ;-D We had fun and made it home safely and with our sanity intact, so I consider that a success! 
