Parties, Babies, Sushi and John DEERE

I am a bad aunt and a bad blogger. Because I've been hogging all of these adorable baby and kid pictures for almost a month now. This is the beauty of having a spouse that takes photos nearly all the time now. Over Labor Day weekend Joe and I took an extra day off of work and made a long weekend and traveled up to Madison to hang out with family, specifically Jim and Katy, Joe's brother and his wife, and their three kids, Connor, Jack and newest addition, whom we hadn't met yet, Tierney.

 

Tierney is adorable and sweet and I'm thrilled to get to be one of her godparents. And other than our auspicious/hilarious first meeting that ended with me stepping on one of her used diapers and aggressively washing my foot, it was after that a delightfully poop on foot free weekend.

  

We had three and half great days with everyone. Days filled with Jack's 2nd birthday party and the noise that only 12 kids riding plastic toys on ceramic tile can make. A trip to buy balloons, a John Deere cake, which is what Jack loves to shout from the backseat whenever he spots a tractor or mower, putting some serious emphasis on the DEERE part.  Dinner out at Bluephies Restaurant and Vodkatorium, yes, you read that right. Though I think we all stuck with soda. And I'm pretty sure our waitress forgot to place our order because she came back about an hour later looking guilty and making up some excuse about the kitchen getting backed up. The kids were more patient than the adults waiting. But highly recommend it, delicious.

Mostly we just hung out and ran around with the kids and jumped on the trampoline, (clarification: they did not us,) and got some free dental work and giggled and ate stuff and laughed and passed the baby around and took trips in pretend forts that acted as both airplane, bus, car and train and managed to get us all the way to Arizona (Arizonia in Connorese) in less than 20 minutes with all the important toys in tow.

It was one of those weekends that slips by in a blur. Especially looking back at these photos almost a month later and preparing to head up to Madison again tonight. It makes me thankful that we all get along so well. Thankful that while the three Sands brothers and sisters in law might all bicker and give each other crap and "argue", I think we have a damn good time together. I wish we lived closer. But at the same time, if we did, would we get these long swaths of time together running after the kids in our pajamas and bitching about who's going to make the coffee?

Jim and Katy are great hosts to let us come and stay at their house and eat their food and drink their beverages and let us play with their kids. Let us hang out while Jack tries to use his new toy to saw everyone's heads, or watch Jake the cat hop into the vibrating baby seat every chance he gets. Or share the communal bag of Garrett's popcorn that Jon brought from Chicago, a sharing made peaceful by the fact that

both Jim and Joe knew they had their own stash of Garrett's that they don't have to share. Very important with three brothers.

Our friends Kristen and Sean were in Madison visiting family, so they came over for lunch on one of the days we were in town. Their son Aedan and Connor ran all over, stirring up trouble and surviving camp chairs falling on them and jumping on that trampoline again. Tierney made a good showing by puking all over Jim at just the right moment before being handed off to Kristen.

After several packed days, we wrapped up the weekend with the traditional sushi feast and a movie. Even Jack gets in on the sushi. Katy stayed home with the kiddos since movies with costumes drive her insane, and we all headed out to the super swanky Sundance Theatre. So swanky you can buy a beer for your movie, and "I'm not taking about beer in no paper cup, I'm talking about a glass of beer." I had a Stewart's Orange and Cream and sat back for the action, revenge face slashing flick The Debt. Helen Mirren is still hot. Germany after WWII is grim and creepy, and I highly recommend the movie. If all of our crew liked it, you know it has mass appeal.

 

Monday morning we packed, loaded the car, and Joe got some great portrait photography practice and took these beautiful shots of the Sands family and Tierney. She's a doll. I can't wait to see her tomorrow, and her parents and brothers. We are heading up for the Wisconsin Nebraska football game this weekend. Expect future posts filled with tailgating, people watching, me pretending to be excited about the actual game and not just the people watching and nephews/neice, and plenty of giddy moments of kid induced ridiculousness, gossipy delightful conversations, with my sister in law, and hoodies and fleece in red or black depending on your team loyalties. And pumpkin beer. I'm getting a pumpkin beer this weekend. 

Majority of photos by the always amazing JOE SANDS! A couple by Jim or me, if Joe is in them, I think.