Wrap it up

This is it, the last post about our trip back to Illinois. Once you're done drying your eyes, continue reading about a few funny/fun little things that I can't forget to mention.

Liam and Dash were so happy to fly on an airplane again. They react to flying very differently though. Liam's all excitement and loves to peer out the window. Dash gets a little nervous, especially the big noises and demands that the window shades be shut. My dad used to tell me to run in my seat to help the plane take off, so we tried that with these boys- Liam was all for it, Dash refused. They're not always identical, are they.

The older boys kept impressing me this trip. My parents have a "No Soliciting" sign in a window by the front door that you can see through from the inside, although it's backwards. Dash pointed at the first word one day and said "on." Well, "no" backwards most certainly is "on." Smarty two-year-old. Liam brought over a bottle of water and said "ice." I thought he wanted to put ice in the bottle until I realized he was pointing to a printed word "ice." No adult admits to pointing out that word to him. How in the world did he know that?

My parents bought the boys winter gear but the gloves accidentally got thrown out in the bag. So we taught them to put their hands in their pockets. Good idea until Dash walked onto the sidewalk, tripped, and sported a huge scab for a week.

We were in Illinois for three Sundays which means we went to church there three times which means I went to Relief Society three times. Serving in the Primary in our Texas ward, I don't think I've been to RS that many times in the last two years! Plus, Sean took Grey for that hour, so I was completely responsibility-less. It was so strange. Also, one week, Liam and Dash were the only ones in nursery. They really liked all the attention.

The back half of my parents yard is a hill that's covered in bushes- guess who liked to explore in that mini-jungle? My boys are such boys. They also discovered this little passage behind the shed and thought they were being sooo clever hiding back there.

Liam and Dash had a cold to start out the trip. So while we had been going without naps, often times they'd fall asleep in the car, so we'd just let them sleep more after we carried them back into the house. And then they would even fall asleep just sitting on my lap. I thought this was because of the cold but it kept happening even after they'd gotten better. So we've decided to reinstate naps and I'd say it's successful two out of three days. Ah, what a wonderfully complicated age.

I don't know what it is about Thanksgiving but I never take pictures to document it. But Sean snapped one with his phone while we were at the dinner table. I wish I could eat Jello with my hands.

I forgot to put this picture on the Township Park post. Mom was very excited to have everyone have a moment with the elephant. Can you see the little girl hiding in there? She followed us around for quite a while, friendly and as talkative as can be. Dash either ignored her or looked at her funny. Liam was a little hesitant but sometimes took her to be rather intriguing. That's exactly how I'd expect them to react to someone so uber friendly.

They made a habit of waking up so very very early, so we put a gate on the stairs to keep them from the non-toddler-proof house. One night, we forgot, and I woke up to Liam playing the piano. I went down to fetch him, looked around and determined it was just him and started toward the stairs... and then I heard a sneeze. After some serious hunting, I found Dash hiding VERY well and very quietly behind a sidetable. Another morning my dad found one boy stuck under the gate. And another morning he found one boy hanging on the opposite side of the gate. Well shoot, you're not supposed to climb it!

And that's all I got.