A Birthday Visit

After crying periodically during the day after dropping my mom at the airport, I pulled myself together enough to blog about their visit. For Emerson's birthday we were lucky enough to have Grandma J, Grandpa J, Uncle Brad, and Aunt Steph come visit. They arrived on April 1st (no joke...haha) and Grandma J stayed for a whole week, while the others had to leave on April 5th. We had such a wonderful time, it was hard to see them go!

4-1-09
My family pulled up in front of our house with a Sam's Club size bag of Cadbury eggs and Reese's peanut butter eggs (my favorite!). I knew they loved me. What a way to start out the visit. :) We started out the visit by going to German Village and eating at Schmidt's Restaurant. It was really good if you like German food....and we all do. The giant cream puffs were divine. After the restaurant we browsed around German Village and visited the Book Loft which is a bookstore that has 32 rooms of books and is a couple of blocks long. It was pretty cool and we kept worrying that we'd lose each other in all the different rooms.

Emerson and Uncle Brad at German Village

E smiling and waving at the cars driving past

4-2-09
The next morning we started the day out right by visiting the Waffle House. It's a very quality establishment, and we WILL be going there with whoever comes to visit. So buckle up. It's really quite a dive but the food is good and nothing beats the stories that the waitresses are bellowing about domestic abuse and such. It made us pretty grateful for our family situation although I did notice they are hiring so maybe that would change if I took a job there. After Waffle house we drove to Dayton to visit the Air Force Museum. There was definitely a lot to see and Ben, Grandpa, Brad, and Steph took the tour of the Air Force One hangar while Mom and I stayed with little E while he screamed his guts out battling sleepiness. He finally lost it and slept for a while in my arms (and yes, they were about ready to fall off by the end.) We saw a lot of interesting things at the museum, but we were ready to be finished by the end and I think all of our legs were throbbing from all the walking. Ben had planned ahead nicely and packed a delightful lunch for us to enjoy at the pavilion outside the museum and we tossed the frisbee around afterward while E laughed at us. Apparently frisbees are hilarious. Brad accidentally tossed the frisbee on top of the pavilion twice and Dad and Ben had to stealthily scoot the picnic table so that he could climb on top to retrieve it. It was pretty risky considering we were on a military base. We finished the night out with The Italian Job while eating Italian Ice.

E laughing at all of us throwing the frisbee

Ben and Steph

Brad and Dad

Ben and Mom

4-3-09
Little E's birthday! We decided it would be best to make sure he had a good nap before leaving on our adventures because we didn't want a repeat of the air force museum. We played The Office dvd game while waiting for Emerson to wake up from his nap. We decided to have little man open his presents in the morning since he's more of a morning person. He got so many nice presents and was thrilled in his own Emersonian way to have so many new things to play with. We spent the afternoon at COSI and Emerson enjoyed the water exhibit and the frog exhibit. We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for E's birthday dinner and it was delicious. We came back and sang to him and watched him eat his cake. Ben and Brad stayed up in typical fashion to watch a movie until very late while the rest of us went to bed.

E having a shoulder ride while enjoying COSI

Another shot of E's bulging belly and happy face

4-4-09
We started out the morning with some gourmet baked french toast and then headed off to Amish country. It was about a 2 hour drive and it was beautiful country. Everyone loved Heini's Cheese Chalet with all of the 50 varieties of cheese to sample. We all ate a piece of colby-jack in honor of Natalie. :) We went to an Amish bakery and then ate at what we thought was an Amish restaurant. It had a lot of German food too and wasn't authentic Amish like we thought, but it was still really good. Before the boys headed off to Priesthood meeting we stopped at Al's Gourmet Popcorn and each got some delicious popcorn. They have some pretty interesting flavors and they're all really good. The girls watched a chick flick while the boys were gone.

E during his big Amish day. Of course he didn't sleep during either of the car rides.

He slept at the restaurant like this for about half an hour

After he woke up he spotted some more cake in the display case and crouched down to get a better look.

4-5-09
We had a breakfast of German pancakes and watched conference (and little e). Then, sadly, Dad and Brad and Steph had to catch their flight. It was so sad to see them go and I think E missed them and that they missed E. I was glad that Mom got to stay until Wednesday so I didn't have to be sad all at once. We watched the last session of conference together and then watched The Ultimate Gift. And, miraculously, mom and I BOTH stayed awake the whole time!

4-6-09
Sadly, Ben had to go back to school. (I guess he IS in medical school and should study sometime. :) He works so hard. ) Mom and I relaxed and were entertained by E. He had his 12 month well-child visit and got all his immunizations. The little guy is 29 inches tall (25th percentile) and weighs 19 lbs 14 oz. (10th percentile). I was surprised at his weight because he looks like such a solid little guy with all of his thigh rolls. Mom and I went to lunch at Panera and then made a trip to Babies 'R' Us to get all kinds of stuff for Emerson. I took Mom with me to get Panera bread that night because it's a once in a lifetime experience that I thought she should have. Then we watched Planet Earth and saw a spore thing grow out of the head of an ant. It was crazy.

4-7-09
Again, Ben was at school all day. Mom and I got ready for the day and conversed while getting ready in different bathrooms and laughed when we realized we both had our hair dried and were holding our respective tubes of mascara with our makeup partially done. We laughed even more when we both finished getting ready within 2 minutes of each other. What else is there to say but "like mother, like daughter"? We froze our little tushes off when the gas pipeline people came and turned off the gas while they worked without telling us and shivered as we made our oreo truffles. Then we HAD to go shopping for a new Easter dress and shopped 'til we dropped. E was such a trooper the whole time. We finished out the night with another episode of Planet Earth and went to bed.

4-8-09
Mom packed and watched E while I made a trip to the grocery store and then I had to take her to the airport. :( Emerson craned his little head to look for her as we drove away and cried the whole way home. (Well okay, both of us did. I'll admit it.) It was sad to come home to an empty house with Ben at school and me being so used to having company all day and someone to talk to. It was a great visit and we can't wait for them to come visit again. Ben, Emerson and I already miss you. You're all precious! We love you!

Thanks Uncle Scott and Aunt Ashley for the cool new shirt!

Even though we're sad you're gone we'll be ok. See? :)