Homage to the Sloan Homestead

Matt and I took the kids and made a quick overnight trip to Columbia yesterday.

Just to take a shower.

Not really.
Matt was meeting some friends from college, but it doesn't make as good a story.

But seriously. At Matt's parents house they have the best shower in the world.
You scoff?
I think this shower might be the source of all our water shortage problems in the world.

Really.
Children in Africa don't have water thanks to what is happening at a certain house in Columbia, South Carolina.

It is like taking a shower underneath a fire hydrant.

Your skin actually squeaks like a tupperware container fresh from the dishwasher when you get out of the shower.

Also, the Sloan's have their water heated by the lava sources...so it is delightfully hot and tremendous.
It is like a day at the spa when you get the joy of staying at their house.

About a year ago, they updated the shower and we were all fearful of them replacing the showerhead with one that was more "water conserving" and "green" of which I am usually a fan.

Thankfully, they didn't fall for any of that nonsense.
The hydrant is here to stay and it stripped my hair of all impurities this morning.

I've never looked better.
It's much cheaper than a day at the Grove Park, I'll let you know.

Don't Mind If I Do

This weekend, I packed the kids up and went to Columbia to visit with Matt's folks and the kids cousin's.
It could have been fun if Asher hadn't decided that he needed to pay me back for the past three years of being a delightful child.

Everytime I turned around, he was throwing a fit, yelling "NO!" or being awake at 4am.

The first night there, he fell out of bed four times. Between 2am and 4am. And he couldn't/wouldn't get back in bed without my assistance.

So of course he was exhausted and cranky the whole rest of the next day.
The next night, I was putting the kids in bed when Lucy thought it was a good idea to figure out how to escape out of the pack and play. I put them in bed, was relaxing with the in-laws when Lucy came running into the living room. Fantastic.

So I put her back in and she got out three more times.
Ugh.

Finally she goes to sleep and Matt's mom, Linda tells me, Buffy, Jeannie and Mary Lane to go out and have a girls night. So fun to hang out with my sisters-in-law!

I come back and go to sleep. Somewhere are 4am, Asher comes to me and tells me, "I'm awake mom." I tell him, "no you're not." and we go back to bed. 45 minutes later, he is screaming in the hallway.

Let me break this down for you. In the house, with rooms that all adjoin this particular hallway are Mark, Linda, Buffy, Maggie, Zoe, Tori and Lucy. That is SEVEN people whose sleep is dependent upon Asher shutting his trap and going back to bed. So, I pray for help and then try to decapitate the child. That doesn't work, but he does go back to bed. I wake up 20 minutes later and hear Lucy talking. It is now 5am. I walk into the hallway and the light is on in the bedroom. Asher turned the light on and is playing blocks while Lucy watches from the pack and play. I remove Asher from the room, put Lucy back to sleep and give Asher the "river city" talk.

The "River City Talk" is a Sloanism for don't make me take you down to "River City" which I am guessing is a reference to the Music Man. But I have no idea.

He goes back to bed and sleeps until 7:30. But of course, I ran into Mark in the hallway after putting Asher back in the bed and he was on his way to doing what most people do at 5am, unload the dishwasher.

Wanna know what we had planned to do in the morning? Pictures in a studio with all eight grandkids. Thankfully we cancelled the appointment and decided to wait until David and Mary Lane's baby gets here.

I want to say, I had a GREAT time with Matt's family. I love them like my own. Asher was the problem and I could have drop kicked him back to Asheville and Lucy and I stayed the rest of the week. But that was not in the cards.

So we came back home after a few hours at the lake yesterday. But I got lost and somehow managed to go in a big circle back to Columbia and a 2.5 hour trip took 4.5 hours.
awesomeville.

Columbia...again

We went to Columbia again this weekend and although we didn't get much time to play with cousins, we still had a great time. Our kids had a blast at Watt's soccer game, we managed to scrounge up a babysitter and attend a family friend's wedding and Matt got to help fix up his grandad's house.

The weather is simply amazing in Columbia this time of year. Picture of the weekend? Here it is:

Yes, that is Asher's hand holding a caterpillar. He found it and was brave enough to hold it still long enough for me to snap this picture. He was very proud of his find.

More pictures are to be found on flickr! And just to get you to go, here is my mother in law running my kids down a hill in a wagon! Wonder why they have so much fun at Gammy and Docs?

Cousins Make Everything Better

We got back this afternoon from Columbia and we had what you can only hope for during such a difficult time. It is a great reminder what a blessing Matt's family is and how much fun we have with them. Since we were all there for their grandmother's funeral, we surely were not planning on having a good time!

But the truth is, whenever your entire family gets together...bad things happen and frustrating moments occur.

Except this week.

Seriously.

The most frustrating part of the week was that Asher would not go to sleep easily. He kept escaping from his room at Jeannie and Kelly's house. We would put him to bed and a few minutes later, he would appear somewhere else in the house. At one point, we heard him break into Nate and Watt's room and say the words, "You guys are sooo CRAZY." oops, he sold himself out and had to go back to his room.

We really had as lovely a time as you can have when you are mourning and sad.

By Friday however, the children had experienced enough life hanging around with each other and we needed to get them out and about and so we planned a trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. I know that I blogged about it last year, but it really is a great zoo and we had an awesome time.

Blogger is being a PITA and so you just have to click on flickr to see the pics...

Finally

This past weekend, the whole family went to visit Matt's parents in Columbia. This time of year in South Carolina is AMAZING and this weekend was no exception.
75 degrees, sunny and beautiful. Gah, can Spring please hurry up and get here? This weekend totally gave me spring fever. I can't wait!
Anyway, we had a great night on Friday night celebrating Matt's birthday/setting up the Sloan's new in-house wireless network! Hooray for an escape from Dial-up! Early Saturday morning, Matt and I headed to Five Points to run in the Run for the Green 5k, I ran a personal record, 24 minutes and Matt finished a few minutes behind me at 28 minutes. We were both EXTREMELY happy with our times. Give it up for my husband on his birthday (today) for having lost four-inches off of his waist since this time last year! Woah. That is serious weight loss people.

Anyway. We left the 5k and went to watch Watts (our nephew) play in soccer game and score a goal! Woohoo! It gave me soccer fever, watch out world! Asher Sloan is going to be eligble to play next fall!

We pretty much spent the rest of the weekend playing with Nate and Watts at the church Easter Egg hunt, the backyard of the Sloan's, at the McCormicks and back to the Sloan's. Asher slept very well once we got home on Sunday night. I didn't take very many pictures, but those that I did take are on my Flickr page. Take a look!
Here is my favorite:
I told Asher I wanted to take a picture and this is the pose that he struck. No lie.

And We're Back! No, not really

Well, we have internet access...so we are back in the able to receive and send emails as well as blog about all of the interesting and amazing things that we are doing! HAHA

We had a crazy Christmas at Matt's parents house. It was really fun, but I will give you the rundown:

8 kids under the age of 5

6-month old twins

4-week old newborn

6 kids on medication for their various ailments

4 kids on antibiotics

1 case of strep throat

2 hospitilizations (Matt's mom on Christmas eve and our newborn nephew Sam with RSV), both very scary...both healthy and fine now.

We didn't spend two nights in a row sleeping the same place for six straight nights.

One cancelled flight to Denver, one rescheduled flight to Denver. 24 hours of trying to rebook the flight in order to land one hour earlier in order to make it to club. 

Instead, we drove through blowing snow on the "Kenosha pass" which is one of the coldest, darkest and scariest roads in America. Especially when you are driving in a front wheel drive car with two kids and six hundred pounds of luggage in the back. 

But ahh, we made it to Young Life's Trail West. It is our first time here and I have to tell you, I love it. It is truly a GIANT lodge with so much to do and see. Plus, there is about a foot of snow on the ground, a great fire in the fireplace and all the hot chocolate that you can stomach. I can safely say, I would recommend this trip to anyone with kids. Who are over three. 

The ski slopes that are nearest by were freezing. I am not lying when I tell you it was 20 below with the windchill by the end of our time there. 

Lucy's glove would not stay on and she nearly lost her hand to frostbite by the time we got from the lodge to the car. Not really, but she acted like her hand was about to fall off for a good 45 minutes.

 

It is beautiful here and we are so happy to be in this lovely place for the next few nights. I will take as many pictures as I can! FYI: It is easier to upload to flickr, so click on my badge in order to see more complete pictography of our travels!

Away at the Moment

Hi everyone! Don't fear, I haven't disappeared off of the planet! I am just at my in-laws in Columbia for a few days and internet access is iffy at best. So I might be able to blog, I but I might not! I'll see what I can do! Ciao!