Our Pod With 2 Peas: July 2014

Picture a car, filled to the brims with stuff for 4 people, a dog in his dog bed, toddler twins strapped in their car seats, and the sound of Raffi singing "Stinky feet, P U!" on the speakers, while putt-putt noises from tractor videos play on my husband's cell phone and the said toddlers making mooing noises every time they see a cow out the window. All at the same time.

Video: Where are we going, Owen and Aaron? (I know, the pacis. Don't judge me. They only have them at bedtime now. And yes, Aaron has an enormous bonk on his head. Sheesh...Mom of the Year over here!)

This was our road trip to South Dakota over the 4th of July weekend.

We of course packed enough snacks and toys to keep an entire preschool occupied for the 5+ hour journey to Dan's hometown of Canton, SD. The boys did surprisingly well, as this is only the second time we have road tripped with them, and the first time we have traveled as far as we did.

We left home after dinner because I was thinking that the boys would fall asleep in the car at their normal bedtime. But I forgot that it doesn't get dark out until much, much later, so the boys were still awake 4 hours into the trip. I guess they wanted to see how many barns and farm fields they could count before they fell asleep.

The little cat naps were enough to give the boys some major energy once they woke up when we arrived at Dan's parent's house. They literally bounced around the house and jumped on and off every bed, couch, chair and pillow visible, yelling "my yee yah---my yee yah" (ya, I don't know what that means either!) over and over and over again.

Our 4 day stay was filled with what every little boy dreams of: tractors, trains, 3-wheelers, more tractors, and fields to run in, as far as the eye can see. And more tractors.

The highlight of the trip was spending one of the days with Dan's entire family including all his siblings and their families. It has been a long time since everyone was all together. It was also a celebration of the 100th birthday of Dan's childhood home, which his parents still live in. We took some family photos and the house and acreage proved to be a beautiful backdrop for the photos.

We are so very grateful for the memories and special time spent with Grandma and Grandpa Schultz.

Dan's dad's model train set...definitely a sight to see. Glad Papa Schultz could share it with the boys!

O waiting for the train to come around the tracks

How 'bout you guys sit in those chairs so Mommy can take your picture? Or not.

We celebrated the boys' 2nd birthday with a train themed birthday party. I didn't go overboard with the decorations like I did last year, but it was still fun to plan and think of train ideas! Dan and I got the boys a train table and some basic wooden train sets. They were excited to have Papa Schultz come and help them set it up for the first time! The boys weren't super into opening their gifts....Dan and I looked at eachother at one point, wondering if we should just open the gifts by ourselves, since the boys seemed more interested in playing with the balloons! It was a great day spent with family and friends. Read here for my other thoughts on the boys turning 2.