Easter Weekend part 1

We had an enjoyable Easter weekend up in Etna with family. Mom & Dad's house was packed to overflowing with all 4 of us girls home, plus three husbands and 3 little boys! Every room was full...even the kitchen where Sarah & Dave slept on an air mattress the night they were up. It's the 1st time that the 4 of us girls had all been together since Carrie's high school graduation in 2003...and the first time we've all been together, including husbands, since Thanksgiving 2001! The family has been blessed with the addition of 3 grandsons since then. Joshua was thrilled to be up at Grandma & Grandpa's again...and wanted to stay longer. This was Nathaniel's first trip up there and he did quite well...on the trip up he slept for the first two hours...things were a little flustered for an hour or so...I got to ride in the back seat and fed him a jar of food while he thrashed in his carseat...and then sat on the floor inbetween the seats the boys were in and tried to play with him to get us through the canyon before we had to pull over, but no such luck. I'd wanted to make it to Dunsmuir before we had to pull over, but that didn't work. We pulled off before that so I could really feed him & change him. That gave Brian some time to stretch his legs and Joshua, too. Nathaniel fell asleep shortly thereafter and slept the rest of the way. The trip back was much nicer...he slept for 3. 5 hours of the trip...leaving us with about 45 minutes and he played for most of that.
We reached Etna around 10 pm....Carol, Scott & Geddy had arrived about an hour before us from Utah. It was Geddy's first big trip too...though there's was quite a bit longer than ours! The three cousins got to play together for a little while before we all went to bed way too late...Nathaniel & Geddy kept Carol and I up most of the night - each of us camped out in Mom & Dad's recliners. Brian slept through most of it on the couch & Carrie too on a futon in the living room where we all were. The second night was a little better and the last night was much better for me!
Saturday was a full day. Sarah & Dave got there around lunchtime. Grandma Darlene came up and was with us for most of the day. Joshua walked down town with Grandpa Bruce & Daddy...
and then later went back to town with me to see where I'd gone to kindergarten. He & I never get to do Mommy & Joshua time very much anymore, so it was fun for us. We walked around the elementary school and I showed him all of the different classrooms I'd had and where the music room was and where I'd played at recess. Lately he's been on a kick of wanting Brian & I to tell him stories about when we were kids, so I was able to do quite a bit of that - with visuals. Then we walked around down town a little and I showed him where Great-Grandpa Ken's grocery store had been & where Great-Grandma Darlene's ceramic shop had been. I probably enjoyed our time together more than he did, but it was fun.
Aunt Carrie helped him decorate Easter eggs and later I decorated a birthday cake for him & the boys. The little ones (at 8 & 7 months) didn't care and didn't get any cake, but Joshua was excited. For months he's been talking about wanting to have his birthday at Grandma & Grandpa's again. We told him that we were going up for Easter and wouldn't be able to go back up 3 weeks later, so we compromised and had a cake for him. He got a few birthday presents as did the little boys since we won't all be together in July & August for their 1st birthdays.
Joshua'd wanted a Star Wars cake and he wanted stars on it (because it's in outerspace, you know) and then he decided he wanted some colored planets on it - and one had to be blue because that's Earth and that's where we live. I did my best, but I've never taken a cake decorating class...thank goodness he doesn't care what it looks like - he always says it looks just like he wanted it.
I'll post more about Easter later...laundry calls now.