A Five-Star, Four-Day Weekend

I just told Dylan that this was one of the best weekends I can ever remember spending at home. Originally, Dylan was supposed to fly all day on Saturday, which is no big deal. But that trip cancelled, and being pretty burned out on life, he was able to put most work aside for the entire weekend. Saturday ended up being our best day of the whole weekend...fire station, Santa and the Christmas Parade.

Sunday was great, too! We stuck around here for the morning and took care of a bunch of chores before meeting up with some family at the Railroad Park. I had a couple extra tickets in my wallet from months ago, and when we showed up, there was no line for the train. So G and I took a quick ride and sent Dylan and G2 off to find the fam. Gavin remained sweeter than sugar and gave all my aunts, uncles and cousins hugs, even though I'm pretty sure he didn't remember who most of them were. Graham flashed a million smiles and went to anybody who wanted him, so he earned a lot of fans, too. He also rolled around in the sand and dirt, which everybody seemed to find appalling, but which I found to be completely normal. Since nobody has the capacity to host holidays for our entire extended family, which is about 1,000 little Italians, we try to meet up at a park every so often. Anyway, it was great catching up with everyone, and hopefully we will fit in another meet-up some time before the summer!

Lots of "Mommy, I love you," these days. I'm soaking it up because I don't know how long it will last!

A train full of family with a cattle car crammed full of our little ones.

While we were standing around talking, I noticed that Erin and Kristin were standing in front of this tree, and with the way the sun was coming in, I thought it would make for a really pretty picture. I enlisted my mom to take a few shots on my phone, and they turned out exceptionally well!

Well, actually, first I took a selfie.

I can't give this guy enough hugs. I've said it a million times before...but he is the sweetest thing.

This could have been such a good picture...

Monday wrapped up our Fairytale Fun-Filled Four-Day Weekend. The first order of business was Gavin's second trip to the dentist. He wasn't real happy with me when I told him where we were going, but when we arrived and he started receiving all kinds of individual attention and compliments on what a good, brave boy he was, he had no problems. He even interrupted the dental hygienist while she had the swirly teeth cleaner in his mouth to randomly tell her, "I catched some bugs in my bug cage." She was impressed, for sure. He got two stickers and a prize for being such a champ through his cleaning and x-rays, and we were happy to get a clean bill of health.

Super brave and cooperative.

At "The Cookie Store."

So, we went and got a cookie. Very counterintuitive after coming from a teeth cleaning, but I didn't care. We love cookies! Once G2 woke up from his nap, we reunited in town with the other half of our family and took a ride on the green belt with a stop at The Vig for lunch. Rarely is it worth it to go out to eat with two small kids, but both boys were as perfect as can be, and it was awesome!

This guy mowed through 27 pounds of food and was happy as can be.

I don't remember Gavin being upset about anything...but this picture is so funny!

Dylan spent all afternoon playing with the boys while I was ultra productive around here, and we finished off with dinner at home as a family. It's early bedtimes for everyone so we can get back to the grind tomorrow. Luckily, our grind is only three days long...but right now, that's three days longer than I want it to be. Why am I such a wimp? I'd be happy if the rest of my days played out like the last four did. But, such is the way of the world, and grind away I will because next weekend promises to be equally as superb!