reunioning part 3

You thought you'd get away with just two family vacation/reunion posts?

While I appreciate your optimism + rosy outlook on life the answer is a cackle and a no.

But this blog is in luck, because I'm a little weary of the reunion recap (as manifest with part 2...I lost steam.) And I have other big things to blog about but it's a whole time < blogging equation. So I present to you a photo dump of last night's family reunion revelry complete with wordy and mundane captions. Have fun! 

We arrived a day earlier than the rest of my family so we took the opportunity to visit the Boulder Children's museum. I went with great trepidation, mostly because I can barely make it through a grocery trip with some of them contained so I can't really imagine a museum situation (Rad is a runner and does not care if I'm out of sight for an eternity) and the last (and only) time we went to the children's museum last year the kids proceeded to get more sick than they have ever been. Three weeks of super sick and super hell that left me with a bad case of children's museum PTSD. But this place was AWESOME. It was essentially two really large rooms with a few smaller rooms branching off of them but the museum founders and packed a punch in every square foot.

I (momentarily) lost Rhett when he wandered off to play with something in the the second big room. I searched EVERYWHERE for him and asked the employees and other parents if they had seen him, and the natives of Boulder were so kind offered to help as I frantically searched for him. I knew he wasn't in danger, but the panic I felt at not being able to find him almost made me cry. I told everyone that he was wearing a cream long sleeve shirt and jeans (totally nondescript I know) so when a cheetah ran past me I was embarrassingly surprised and relieved to see that it was Rhett. Unbeknownst to me, he had found his beloved favorite animal in costume form and donned it. Lesson learned, and I made him tell me before he changed personas.

Rad was much easier to spot.

Master Chef Junior contender.

Sampling his culinary masterpiece. Obviously he was totally fine with eating the large plastic fish. But in real like anything related to a fish must also be related to a cracker or else no go on the eat-o.

Tip: If you name a kid an adjective, family will buy you anything with that adjective on it. Thanks Aunt Jane!!

Rhett was curious to know how flowers pooped, naturally.

Rad gives off the cute vibes in the early hours but be warned...usually his pants are completely saturated with yet another casualty of overhydration by diluted juice baba.

The game lasted about 19 minutes before Rad melted. It might look like he was being cute and bashful in the bottom photo but he was really mid-tantrum because sharing isn't his current favorite jam unless you want to share with him. 

Fostering the wildest imaginations is clearly one of our parenting talents...manifested by Rhett stalking his "prey. " Yes fostering imaginations, because otherwise it looks like we're fostering ferrel traits.

One of my favorite traditions...Minute to Win It! Thanks to Kate the Great for always leading this healthy competition. :)

I wish I had thought to take pictures of our cabin because it was super cozy, (fire place and claw foot tub!) but it came with two full beds and there were three of us. The math isn't complicated but the sleeping arrangements were. 

The night began like so: 

Rhett with Rad

Julia alone

Moved Rad to the porter crib...he freaked. 

Moved Rhett to the porter to crib...he was Goliath in a shoe box.

Rhett came and slept with me. 

The night ended like this:

Sleeping Rhett's feet propped on sleeping Julia's face.

Rhett's bodily fluid all up on Julia's side of the bed.

Rad laying in the crib.

Other bed all alone.

And night #2:

Eight rounds of musical beds that ended with Rhett getting a bed all to himself and Rad scoring himself a solo snuggle with Mom at 4:55 in the am. We kept working on our co-sleeping skillz the rest of the trip. Practice makes mediocre --- > Miller mantra.

It was a really good weekend. One of those weekends that I was nostalgic about before it was even over because my family always does a great job of getting everyone together every other summer and providing endless amounts of food, drink, and a smile in the direction of even the moodiest great grandbaby (pointing all fingers lovingly at you Rad Aaron Miller) but it was still the classic reunion with lots of food, jokes about reunions past, games of murder in the dark and free babysitting. (Thank you saintly family!) Rhett just thought that he had made a lot of "new friends" but by the end of the weekend he thought everyone was his uncle or aunt and when he woke up on Monday morning to find that everyone was leaving he had a big little breakdown. 

And now...

The End.

Forever.

Well until summer 2017.