Brasel Buzz: Heading East in Search of Reinforcements

What's a mama to do when faced with the prospect of being outnumbered two to one for a full work week?? Pack up what seems like half the house (thank goodness for the minivan!) and head for the hills, a.k.a. Mimi and Pa's house, where there is guaranteed to be grandparents to share love with the kiddos, different toys to inspire hours of play-time fun, delicious Mimi-cooked meals, and two more adults to tip the scale back to avoid a zone defense.

Unfortunately, the kiddos were so excited about the visit that they wanted to maximize ALL the potential available fun time at Mimi and Pa's, resulting in many night-time wake-ups (ahem, Evelyn) and rising with the birds at the crickety-crack of dawn (yep, Eli, you got that covered). Thankfully, Mimi and Pa are superheros (also very patient...perhaps it helped that they knew our visit did have a specific end date...), and the week really did fly by way too quickly, filled with the simple joys of playing at parks, visiting with relatives, and helping Mimi in the yard.

One of the most exciting activities from this trip, at least to a certain toddler, was a visit to Pa's office, where Eli could have easily spent HOURS chatting with Pa about all the tools, what they do, and why, why, why! Eli helped catch Daddy up on what he had missed by reenacting essentially the entire trip to Pa's office (Eli's room was Pa's office at our house) when we all reunited at home; clearly we found the must-see attraction for future visits!