Pre-Funeral: Lots and Lots of Family Time

Sunday is church day. The first wave hit the early service. Carrie and I went to an adult Sunday school class in an attempt to avoid the noise, worship, and be home in time for Aunt Beth and Claire's arrival. 

It turned out it was an 'off' Sunday for the class.

Oops.

Going to church was still a community building exercise. We got to meet someone that Nana and Pop babysit for, at least. Shane's played with his daughter before (and maybe will again!). Who knows? Maybe we'll visit the class again next time.

We all met up at Nana and Pop's after service for Arby's. 

Shane has been fantastic with the cousins.

Saturday morning, it was just him and Aiden. Shane entertained the baby and "never once asked for electronics."

Shane would move to South Carolina without me if he could.

Pop picked Aunt Beth and Claire up from the airport.

They hung out and talked for a while before they left to meet with Kevin and Cindy for dinner in Gaffney. Kevin and Cindy took Beth and Claire home to stay with them before the visitation tomorrow.

Carrie had a work emergency and retreated to the hotel while we were talking. I found myself at Kathleen's house with the kids!

Tenley and Evelyn mostly played on their own and with Kathleen (They actually sat and colored!? What is this!?).

The boys were two peas in a pod.

I walked back and forth between the groups, but hung back and let the kids be kids. Evelyn was learning to drive.

Not well. She'll do better when she learns to let off the gas after she hits something.

Here's a picture from later on to show what some of our afternoon was like.

The boys had the tablet. Shane convinced Cole to buy Minecraft with a gift card he had.

The girls clung to Ka. They had some trouble sharing (both books and Ka!).

Stu disappeared for an errand, but came back later on. I think we spent about three hours at their house? I'm a little foggy on the time.

Apparently, that's a record for Cole. Normally, he doesn't hang around with friends past three hours. People are crabby by that time.

Not so with Shane. Their time is limited and Shane's so happy to see everyone things went well! I got a blurred picture of Kathleen trying to play Ghosts in the Graveyard with the boys.

Shane and Cole retreated to tablet land while the girls were put to bed and we waited for Carrie to come pick us up.

Carrie and I brought Shane back to Nana and Pop's about the same time they were getting back from Gaffney. The three days of fun took the sting out of the drive time, but tomorrow is when we'll get to our real purpose for making the trip.

Pre-Funeral: Saturday in South Carolina

Saturday was slow for us and exciting for Shane. Nana and Pop took Shane and the cousins to the kid's museum all morning without telling us. Carrie and I stayed in our room, played video games, watched TV, and rested.

There were no complaints from either side. 

We drove over to say hello before nap time. We played a quick dice game with Matt and Renee (iirc), and then we left for lunch and haircuts.

Slow day....and that's not necessarily a bad thing!

By the time we got back, Shane had vegged out, nap was ending, and it was time for the kids to go outside. Nana wanted to go to the jump park, but she switched to a more economical plan: Cole's school playground.

The boys didn't complain. The main complaint came from Carrie when Shane started to scale the outsides of the playground equipment.

I can see where it's confusing for Shane. Carrie is afraid of him getting hurt. I don't care if he gets hurt as long as we avoid a bill (it builds character).

Random: Nana asked me to take a picture of Matt, Renee, and Aiden. Their was a shadow on Matt's face or this might have worked.

Looking into the sun is not good for posing with your eyes open.

Can't win em, all.

When Shane played closer to ground level, Carrie got into it.

When he started to scale structures again, it was time for us to leave. Carrie has a lot of anxiety when it comes to Shane. She knows this, so she normally avoids playgrounds. It's a 'me' thing. She's happy to know I'm watching him, but doesn't want to know the details or see the pictures later.

I don't think it's a bad thing for Shane to learn how to code switch. He can be empathetic when Carrie's around and play it safe. When she's gone, he can give me a nod and do all the things I did as a kid that used to freak Nana out.

We found Carrie's rock, by the way. It's hard to get a great picture since it wraps around the stone.

We all met back up in the evening. Shane was happy to snuggle with Mom until there was a photo.

He jumped in and she jumped out.

Shane tried to make nice after ditching her, but the face was made.

Carrie and I returned to Walmart and the hotel to call it a night.

I guess we went to SC after all

One of my cousins passed away on December 30th. It was 'Little Matt." He was 24. I found out New Year's eve. We spent the week waiting on word of when the funeral would be held. 

When we did hear, my original plan had been to drive down with Patrick Monday morning and return Tuesday evening. I wanted to miss the minimum amount of work, because it was the first week back and SOLs were the week after. I, also, wanted to have the minimum impact on Carrie and Shane. I didn't think Shane would understand that I was going to visit Nana and Pop's for serious reasons instead of showing up to play.

Carrie insisted she wanted to go with me for support, though. She knew what it would mean and we drove down Friday to allow us time to be with family beforehand.

Matt, Renee, and Aiden were already there! Pop opened up the garage door when we walked up. He and Aiden were playing in the car. Aiden and Pop bonded while they were in St. Louis for Urbana and now he's the favorite.

Matt and Renee had planned on driving home after the New Year's, but chose to stay until after the funeral.

More family means more fun on my side of things!

Uncle Matt made sure to put in some bonding time with Shane.

Indy is always happier when more kids show up, too.

Kathleen brought her kids by, so that everyone could play.

Pop started teasing Shane and Cole right away.

The rules are a little different at Nana and Pop's than at our house. Furniture is climbable!

Evelyn and Tenley went straight to dinner. Kathleen had picked up bbq on her way over. Aiden joined.

Eventually, the whole clan settled in to eat.

The older boys just had to run off their excitement first.

I took a few pictures and gave everyone time to get their food before I put my phone away to grab my own.

We ran out of table space at the big kid's table, so some of us had to move elsewhere!

Shane and Cole hopped on the Switch when they were done eating. They played Splatoon.

Carrie and I said our goodbyes and went to check into our hotel after a while. Matt, Renee, and Aiden were still in the upper room and with all the comings and goings we decided a little quiet would be a good idea.

We stopped at Walmart on the way and found a nice outfit for Shane to wear at the funeral for about $20. I laughed and took a picture of a rack full of "Shane pants."

There will be time to mourn later, but for now it was all joy seeing everybody.

Audiobook note: One the drive down, we listened to The Wizards of Once, by Cressida Cowell. She's the author of How to Train your Dragon, so I thought it would be a hit with both Carrie and Shane. Carrie's pickier with audiobooks than Shane, so when I saw it was narrated by David Tennant? It helped keep us entertained for the drive!

One Last Trip to See Family.....

We drove by to see Kim and Ryan! It was our last planned stop to see family for the break. 

Kim and Ryan outdid themselves again with getting Shane Christmas presents. I never expect anything when we arrive and the next thing I know Shane is two Lego sets richer (plus a coding set, a Lego Technic set...). 

Gifts and wrapping seem to be a talent on Carrie's side of the tree. They got themselves some presents, as well. I haven't seen Deadpool, but the marketing for the character is hilarious.

I was just trading Office Space quotes the other week!

I know what Ryan's going to be doing if he gets any more snow days. Kim? She'll be working (the joys and pains of working from home).

Kim had to work the day we visited, so it was our job to keep Ryan entertained. He showed Shane his holiday train set in his 'office.'

Kim would pop by and chat whenever she was waiting for something to compile or in between calls.

It's funny how kids develop certain routines and expectations for different homes/people. Shane insisted we play Here, Kitty, Kitty!. I brought Stuffed Fables and some other games of ours to show, but Shane wanted none of it. We went out with Ryan for lunch, walked around a few stores, and then Shane came back to hunt the cats.

There was a Lego break at some point which let the adults talk.

When Shane had too much energy, Ryan asked Shane to run back the recycling. The yard was soup from all the rain, but a few laps up and down the driveway seemed to help.

It was good catching up. We might have ended up living closer to them if we hadn't closed on land around here! Kim's a team lead programmer/consultant and looking at switching companies. Ryan will be going into his fifth year as a band director which should forgive some of his student loans. Overall, things seem to be going well for them (minus the leak in the ceiling they had to fix! Home ownership, right?).

Ryan had an evening doctor's appointment and Shane had wrestling, so we said our goodbyes around dinner.

Creepy

Evil is out there. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded or high. Possibly both.

I try to be very aware of what I post, because of that. If trouble really wants to find you, it will. That doesn't mean I want to leave the door open and invite it.

Google analytics lets me periodically check on the traffic the blog gets. Normally, it's family, bot hits that get deleted later on, and the occasional random link to Carrie's "Choco-taco cupcakes" (That was back when I still had messages pop up when you put your mouse over the pictures). I write for my family, but the internet is the internet.

There were some real creepy searches out of Florida the other day. Someone stumbled across the blog and was typing things in the search field trying to see pictures of my kid exposed. They didn't find anything or visit the site again, but it was a sobering reminder to be careful.

The Year is Done. The Year has Begun.

Monday morning, we all drove out to Patrick and Shelby's. By 'we all,' I mean Kathleen, Stu, Cole, Evelyn, Tenley, Carrie, Shane, and I.

That's a lot of people in a small apartment! The SC bunch stopped by on their way home for a fun break.

Shane asked straightaway about Minecraft. We don't even own the game and he's addicted!

It kept him and Cole busy while everyone else talked.

Wave one left after a couple of hours.

Wave two stayed long enough for Gigi to think it was safe to come downstairs.

We spent a little over two hours in Staunton before dropping by a CFA on the way out (If it was public, I'd buy stock in the company).

The rest of our New Year's Eve was filled with rest and recuperation. We did laundry and cleaned up some after slacking off to adventure.

Shane asked me to wake him up at midnight (after I rejected allowing him to stay up). I took a break from folding clean clothes to say "Happy New Year's," but he didn't remember the next morning (I didn't even try to wake Carrie!).

New Year's Day started off quiet. Carrie was well rested enough to try an escape room in a box with me! We escaped the Abandoned Cabin.

Shane was really eager to be a superstar with his recorder. "You know this will take a lot of practice and patience to get good with, right?" I prefaced things.

One look at his face showed Shane didn't understand. He got frustrated fairly quickly, but kept at it for a few minutes with lots of encouragement and an audience from next door.

Then there was bike riding. Shane's wheels were flat, so he borrowed Will's pump. He got angry and claimed the bike was defective when Henry could make a hairpin turn he could not.

I pointed out Henry rides every day and Shane was out of practice, but that made too much sense. I offered to ride the bike to prove it could handle the turn, but that was out of line, as well.

I eventually got the bike and discovered three things. First, Shane only pumped up the back tire. Second, the turn was possible with an inflated tire. Third, I had all sorts of sore muscles from riding that tiny bike in spots I didn't think I was that out of shape!

We played outside for hours with Henry and Sam.

I loved it when Shane got creative with the chalk underneath the boys.

Shane would have been a fantastic older brother.

We didn't see Raheem, though. He dropped by when Carrie and I had just put Shane on the computer so that we could play our game. I told him we'd be out in a couple of hours, but he moved on.

Happy New Year everyone!