Bryans & Ryans: June 2012 ....the rest of the days of our visit

Well, we had some basic plans for this June visit together.....and while we barely were able to blog or write, mostly discouraged by the lack of internet at my home (I recently told my sisters that I am like the Charlie Brown of Internet Service Customers......woe is me), we did find that this visit did develop somewhat of a daily rhythm......perhaps one that we did not foresee.

If we had to give this visit a title, we think it would be along the likes of:

Naps & Nature Study

Okay, not very clever, but the reason for the naps was that we were both a bit on the tired side for some reason.......and as of this moment, I am too tired to think up a clever title.  Maybe it will come to me later.

(On second thought....I find that this title is more clever than I orginally gave it credit for......can you see the name of a blog with this title? So can I!

My fifteen year old son says the title makes him not want to read that blog.....)

(An aside:  when my husband mentioned that he hoped Willa had had a nice time whie she was here.......I mentioned that it was a quiet time.....and shared the above title with him, telling him that we both needed naps every day.  His response:  you are both getting old.  Haha.)

I think Willa got a nap every day.....even if it was only ten minutes.  I probably caught a nap all, but one or two days.  We tried to time the naps to coincide when we could both nap at the same time........so we would not be sleeping when we could spend time with each other. Naps were not part of our orginal plan for the week.....but necessary for coping, they were.  :) 

We did not even keep late nights.  Not really. Not this visit.  We were too tired.

Nature walks were definitely part of the plan, daily if possible.  We were just so surprised to find that for the first three days we had a nature walk each day.....but not one included the kids.  :)

We eventually remedied that situation and took them on two nature walks......while we got another one in by ourselves.  So, I think that ultimately, there was only one day without a nature walk. 

Not too bad. One goal met.

Another part of the rhythm that we could not have accounted for was the fact that my youngest made the All-Star team for his Little League Division.  This meant a practice every night, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.....or later.  Prime dinner prep and eating time.  We had to be creative about dinner every night.  Our plan was to keep dinner simple.......and this we did.

But when how to prep and serve was the challenge. 

I worked a few hours to half of a shift, three of the days Willa was here......that took more out of me than I realized......and accounted for part of the nap needs.

So, every day we had simple meals, chores, outdoor playtime for boys, nature walks and/or exercise walks, Wii time for boys, naps for moms, moderately acceptable bedtimes, quiet conversations.....yeah, it was not totally what we expected, but it worked. I love spending real-life time with Willa.  Such a blessing!

Our conversations were on the mild side....and many times we found ourselves "parallel playing"....sitting quietly next to each other doing our own thing. 

 Too bad it was not the blogging we hoped to find time to do.

One of our intentions was to post a daily blog post about our doings, thoughts and conversations.  We collected a few pictures of our daily life for each day to include in those posts. 

 I will just place them all in this post as there are not too many.

Maddelyn & Willa are collecting spinach for one of our dinners. 
It was the first thing harvested out of our garden after the radishes, which are simply a given, right?
The two of them also weeded one of the rows for me one day while I was at work.
Weeding my garden is something Willa and I do when she visits.....depending on the season.
Very soothing to the soul.

Every time Paddy sat down to eat.....he would run and get his Kindle! 
I cannot say that I blame him.
 I also must read when I eat......if I am not among others at the table. :)

Willa and her three youngest boys took a nature walk with me
while my youngest was at his baseball practice. More pics from that walk will be forthcoming....
.......I am loading them now as a matter of fact.

Every day the littlest boys would ask if they could play with the Wii. 
Willa and I made them run off to play for most of the day
and then we would let them play in late afternoon. 
But whenever the older boys chose to play, the littles would watch. 
I am simply unable to fathom how watching someone else play a video game is entertainment.
I wish I had videotaped Paddy playing the Wii. 
He was so active.......even though he was playing Super Mario Brothers,
 it looked like he was playing tennis.
Aidan found it entertaining as well.

Getting out The Marble Run was an excellent idea! 
Aidan played with it every day
and so did the little boys.
 I only found five marbles under the couch this morning.

We took a picnic one evening at a local park while Malachy was at baseball practice.
This was our view.

Willa with her two youngest boys, picnicking on soft tacos.
The weather was perfect.....till the sun went down.
And that was okay beacause the sun goes down late here in the summer......

The baseball field

Malachy is standing on the left in the picture.

My son, the Kitten Whisperer.
 The little boys played with the kittens every single morning.
Aidan went out to the garage to watch the kittens play...or sleep.

Willa and I had to find some internet for blogging while sitting in the parking lot at the libarary,
using their unlimited and free wifi. 
This is one of the pathetic things that I do....because of my limited internet problem at home.

My boy at bat during Friday night's scrimmage game.

One of the highlights of Willa's visit, especially for her boys, has to be that scrimmage game that Malachy's Allstar team played Friday night.  We had to drive to the town north of us by 45 minutes.....through blustery weather.  We went early in order to visit a local park for a nature walk (pictures coming soon)......stepped all around lots of goose scat.....got rained on....

Then raced to find the game, which was located on the opposite side of the town from where the coach had directed me. Dropped the boy off and then ran to get chips for our picnic dinner.

Laid out the picnic blanket just as the first rain started.  Not a sprinkling kind of rain, the heavy splatter variety.  That rain would come and go all night....perhaps twelve times.

Our chips got wet. 

Paddy's Kindle got wet. 

We got wet. 

(Andrew Pudewa would like my triple.)

My skirt and underclothing was wet for hours after the game.

 Willa eventually went to the car with any boys who wanted to join her.

I wanted to watch the game.  I needed to watch the game.

My husband was out of town......and it is my job to report every happening to him,

that involves his son.

Using my iPhone, I texted him the play-by-play, including a weather report.

For some reason, it was decided that these little nine and ten year-olds should play a nine inning game.

My phone battery actually ran out, just before the end of the game.......because the game, in the rainy evening, took THREE HOURS, TEN MINUTES.  For little babies. 

I sat on the bleachers for the last three innings (I am such a Word Geek, I just had to go look up the origin of that word, innings......doesn't it look like such a funny word, with no obvious reason for its use?  If you actually click on that link....tell me, I want to know who else is a Word Geek)

 joined by the 16 and 15 year old brothers.  Willa's two youngest were in the car with her.

I told Kieron......I bet Aidan is in the car with your mom making her crazy by asking repetitively:  How many more minutes of the game, Mom?

I so called that.

By the end of the game, Aidan was totally done with baseball.  :)

Good thing we played 9 innings!  Malachy's team took the lead in the 8th inning. 

And then won the game. 

 It was a good game to watch, these little boys (and four girls?) are just coming into their baseball skills.  Fun to observe. 

Malachy played third base for most of the game, pitched an inning and let no runs go by and
 had two excellent innings in the left field.
I knew his papa would like this photo...of him in the perfect stance in left field.
 I was right.

 I had promised the boys that after the game,I would take them by McDonald's for some ice cream. 
I had expected that to be by 8:30 pm, not ten pm!

So, I quizzed them, starting with Willa's boys: 

Do you think it is too late to go get ice cream??

Aidan & Paddy told me yes.

Haha.....I was only teasing them, but they tried to say what they thought I wanted to hear!

Finally, my 10 year old says:  No!  It is not too late.

Paddy then tells me he has reconsidered his answer and has changed it to "no.

I guess you had to be there......I like to tease...
......and most of the time I stay safe with my teasing.

It was fun to play with them.

They got their ice cream. 
Happy boys!

And I even used a few minutes of free wifi at McD's....
....reducing myself to more patheticness, in my effort to use the Internet.  :)

I teased Willa and told her we were dropping the boys off at home and going back to McD's to write blog posts for two hours.  Haha. 
Very tempting...
....but I think I will stick to my library parking lot plan.  :)

Photo taken after this little tiger kitten was rescued from a dark rainy night.

On the only night I stayed up late.....it was because one of my young adults called home
as I climbed into bed and we talked till 1am...
...and then as I was climbing into bed the second time that night...
...I heard a continuous chorus of screaming meowing.......
I headed to the garage where the cats live when I realized the meows were coming from the front door area.
I found this drenched little guy standing off the porch, meowing for rescue. 
He was so thrilled to see me!
I spent time comforting and drying him.
Such a sweetie!

When I took him back to the garage, I set him near his mother. 
He tried to get a latch while she was standing......so I kept petting her to encourage her to stay with him so he could nurse.  When I stopped petting, she shook him off of her teat and walked off.  Poor little man.
He was content to climb into the adult food bowl with his sibling.

These kittens are perfectly adorable.   Everything you wnat in kittens.

I love how Willa swoons at their cuteness.  :)

Another highlight of the visit was the night we went

to a late showing of the recently released Pixar movie, BRAVE

 

In the movie theater, Willa & my boys.....hard to see all of them...but Aidan's shirt is the brightest.
His mother is on one side of them, the two little boys on the other side. 
The two big boys are behind them.

The two little boys before the movie started.

Wonder how long we get to call them the little boys???

I will be so sad when we have to give it up.

 None of us get to the movies very frequently, so it was fun to discover the last visit to the movies for each of us.......

Our review of the movie?  Well, here is mine:

While this movie is about a princess, it is not about the usual: princess marries Prince Charming. 

This is about the mother-daughter relationship. 

 It is amusing to find it existing in auld Scotland....but still sad. 

Honest communication is so important.  Why does is have to be so hard?

The Celtic music was wonderful. 

The PG for "some scary action and rude humor" is legitimate.

There are scary bears........very growly bears.

The rude humor was probably bathroom humor.....cannot remember.

Her adorable little brothers are fun & goofy.

Even though there are problems with communication,

 I don't recall too much disrespect toward her parents.  Willa?

And there are "magic" elements....as you would expect in auld Scotland,

so if that is something you do not care for, be forewarned.

Enjoyable enough.....

.....but has enough scary elements that I would not take a toddler

or anyone afraid of growly bears or witches.   

=====================

Well, I think I shall finally close this blog post, the one I was going to quickly finish up and post, days ago.......but here I am, once again, writing an epistle.  Ah, well.  Just one of my quirks, I guess.

Thanks for hanging out with us!  In less than three weeks, we will meet again, when Willa arrives with her whole brood, I hope!  And my whole brood will be home, too!

Blessings on this beautiful summer day!

                                               Chari & Willa

wow............what a rambly post......hope it makes sense!