Granny comes to the Borough

For my Mom's Christmas present, she was gifted a trip to come and visit us in New Hampshire. I've always felt like it was an extra Christmas Present for me, this year, it was like 15 Christmas presents, plus Birthday presents for the next 50.... I'll get there....

Granny flew in on a Wednesday. Due to the fact some sweet Bostonians blocked us into the Cell Phone lot, she was standing out on the curb waiting for us when we got there.  Thanks a lot, stinker pots! (Just before arriving in the lot, Lacey informed me that Elena had stuck her gum in her hair. UMMM!!! What?!?! That was a first for us. Sadly, I did not get photo documentation.) The kids were nervous she was going to board her plane and head back for Idaho, but as luck would have it, there she was, and boy were we ALL excited. The kiddies talked her ear off while we drove an hour north to get out of traffic and eat some grub. When we were seated in the restaurant, my Mom asked our waiter for scissors and we cut the huge chunk of gum off of the left side of Elena's forehead. Thankfully, her right side is still pretty receded and unless you knew, (now you do) you would never really notice the damage done.  

** Back Story** A few weeks before my Mom got here, one of my friends, Sara, invited me to join her in a winter triathlon, (1/2 mile snow shoe, 2.78 miles cross country ski, and 1 mile ice skate) naturally, I sent my Mom a- "Call me as soon as you can! No, it's not an emergency!" text. (Cody hates those!) Of course she was as excited as I was. The second the kids boarded the bus, we jumped in the sub and ran to get our skates sharpened. We spent a little time doing laps around the rink. Thanks to Elena, we didn't get in quite enough practice, but enough so that we wouldn't look like crazies on the ice.  When we got home we had one hour until it was time to pick Lacey up from school so we threw on our snow shoes, thew Elena in the tobaggan and headed for the back yard. Due to the fact we have a good three feet of snow in the back yard, Elena wasn't able to stay upright in the sled, her little hands in big gloves provided her no way of holding on. After dumping her out three or four times, my Mom threw her up on her shoulders and we headed for the brook. Elena was all smiles and almost giggles the whole time. Until we got to the edge of the brook, I lost a snow shoe and turned around to get it when she started whining, I turned back around to see that her head had bumped a branch on a pine tree and her neck/back/hood were filled with snow. I brushed her off, the smiles returned, and my Mom and I decided to walk the bed of the brook. The only problem, It was super-d-duper steep getting in. I held Elena in my arms and slid down the side wall into the brook. I took a few steps out and my Mom came in behind us. On her second of third step her snow shoe broke all the way through the ice. We tried a few more steps, but due to the luggage and the amount of rocks and the cracking ice, and the shortage of time, we decided we better head back. My Mom took a few steps up the wall of the brook and sat down near a tree where she had good traction. I quite literally, threw Elena up to her. My Mom turned her around and sat her on her lap and she had the biggest grin on her face. I then climbed up behind my Mom and in an attempt to pass Elena over her shoulder, Elena ended up in a back flip and I caught her by the ankle with one hand and the bottom of her coat with the other, just before her head went in the snow. Again, when we lifted her up, she had a great big grin on her face. We then hiked back to the house and went to get Elena. It was quite an eventful morning, filled with lots of laughter, as you could imagine. 

The next morning was my birthday. 2-9! Yikes! 

Cody was working from home, so as soon as Kevin and Julia were off to school, Mom and I went to rent her some Cross Country Ski's, and our plan was to head out on the lake for some practice. It was wicked cold, -6 cold. The friendly guy at the ski shop told us of a cross country ski trail just 1/10 of a mile from the ski shop, so we hit that up and went 2.25 miles. We were pretty pleased with how quickly we completed and figured we had the cross country portion in the bag the next day.

When the kids got home from school we fed them a snack and headed off to go bowling. Our bowling alley has candlestick bowling, which is with smaller pins and ski-ball sized balls. It is perfect for little kids. All of them, including Elena were able to bowl all by themselves. It was tons of fun. I sort of love bowling. Then we went out for Chinese. YUM!! 

The next morning we were up and going early. We got to the ski hill about 8:00 to check in for the race. It was f-f-f-f-f-reezing! It was -10 when we left the house and -5 when we started the race. We got all of our stuff staged and spent the next few minutes trying to warm up our fingers and toes before the race began. We had never been to the hill where we were racing, otherwise we would have known that the 1/2 mile snow shoe was 1/4 of a mile STRAIGHT up hill and 1/4 of a mile STRAIGHT downhill.  Although our lungs were a BURNING, we finished in good time and were about halfway in the pack of people. Then we started the cross country ski portion. I swear 83% of it was uphill and I thought I'd surely die. A few funny things happened along the trail. My Mom and I both fell, which was funny, but on one of the down hill sections, I had stayed in the grooves and my Mom had gone to the side in we both tucked-in to gain as much speed as we could, when we came around the corner to a discombobulated skier who was taking up the entire track. He was side ways trying to gather all of his equipment after what must have been a crash, when all of a sudden I hear my mom gaining speed on me and her hollering, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!' I don't know how to stop!" She barley missed wiping out the poor guy and I'm almost certain he will have nightmares for his entire life. It was so blasted funny. We were only passed by four people, but we at the end of the ski, we re-passed two of them. We were super pleased with our time, once we realized, we had only been at it for one hour and ten minutes. I swear that last mile felt like it took 3 hours. Not kidding, I was shocked when it had only been a little over an hour.  We then found my friend, Tricia, who had also joined us, standing at the end of the ski with no equipment. Poor girl had rolled her knee and had to walk back. :( Sad day! We ran in and put our skates on for the mile loop on the ice. Things were going well, but two laps in a row I caught my toe pick in the same spot on the ice, barely saving myself from a fall. There were deep grooves in the ice from all of the skaters following the same path. The third time around my luck ran out and I fell hard, in a beautiful superman slide, but it was HARD. My knee and elbow are proof of how terrible hard I hit. I slid quite a distance and jumped back up. I wanted to cry, but the entire boys hockey team was leaning against the glass watching me, and I heard my Mom say, "you can do it!" so I skated on with a smile and finished. And I still, four days later, can not touch my right elbow or knee without wincing.  My Mom finished a few minutes after I did. I'm so so so so glad we did it. I really hope my Mom's trip next year will fall at the same time so we can go for round two. I think now that we know what it is like, we will do so much better. It was still wicked fun. Just for the record, the fastest person finished in just over 29 minutes.

 (WE DON'T STAND A CHANCE!) 

We had big plans for Monday-Wednesday, Museums, skiing, and a trip to Boston, but sadly, Sunday afternoon Elena fell victim to the flu. Not just any old flu, but the throw up every 15 minutes for 15 hours flu. It was terrible, awful, no good, very bad. I stayed out on the couch all night with Elena, and just as she drifted off to sleep at 2:00 am, Julia came up and threw up all over our bedroom floor (bless you hardwood floor!) Cody was on clean up for that mess. We spent Monday cleaning up throw up and doing 20ish loads of laundry. Mom and Kevin did go out and sled for a little bit outside, but it was still frigid, in the negatives.  Sadly, Tuesday didn't look any better. Kevin started complaining of stomach pains and we spent our day watching the Lorax, playing games, and doing more laundry. Tuesday, late night, Kevin started throwing up and Wednesday morning was spent letting each child soak in a warm bath, administering fever meds, disinfecting, and bleaching, and lots of snuggles. I'm super bummed Mom's trip ended this way, but honestly, the fun the first few days was so worth her trip and I'm so glad she came. Not to mention all the help doing load after load after load of laundry. (PS-Lacey had thrown up twice earlier in the week, on two different days, but never really complained of any other symptoms.) 

That was Mom's trip---'Twas fun, I'm looking forward to the next, I've already got most of it planned!

But, FIRST, we need Dad to come. He would love it here, so much!!!  I have a whole different trip planned for his arrival!!! :) 

Thanks Dad, for giving up Mom for a week so I could enjoy her. I love you!