Bon voyage to my parents and brother

My parents and brother headed back to CA today despite the horrible weather. It's been snowing here for the past two days and doesn't seem like it's going to let up regardless of what the weather reporters say. I'm worried about them leaving in the snow because their car is rear wheel drive, but I'm sure everything is going to be OK. It's not like my dad is an inexperienced driver or something. They are going to have to go the long boring way down toward New Mexico and Arizona rather than head up toward Vail and go through Utah now because of the snow in the mountains. This only means another long drive with nothing to look out at. I hope the three of them don't end up wanting to kill each other again since it took them 18 hours to get here, and by then, they were finished with each other.

Our week with my parents and brother was less eventful than I had hoped. I feel bad because it seems like whenever my parents are here all we do are projects on the house, which I can tell my mom is getting bored with. I don't think my dad dislikes it as much because he hates just sitting around and is one that prefers keeping busy even on vacation. Plus, I'm always worried about all my guests and think I should be planning all these outings, but it's kinda hard since my dad doesn't like tourist-y things, my brother is on a budget, and my mom gets car sick (so much for taking them to Red Rocks or Lookout Mountain). My brother, mom, Inara and I did get some shopping in at the outlet mall. I also got to take them to 3 Margaritas, which they all LOVED, and The Counter, the build your own burger place. I was really excited the 3 of them went with Inara and I to My Gym on Thursday so they got to see all the new things she does like climbing all over the apparatuses. Of course, they also got to see how she hates sitting down for circle time and fights me because she wants to run and jump all around instead. I don't blame her. What 19 month old wants to sit still for 10 minutes? I know my dad and brother got some good pics and videos of her playing, so I hope to share them with you all soon.

Pop was quite the busy guy while he was here. First off, he painted the coolest mural in my kitchen. It says "The Kitchen is the Heart of My Home" and has various fruits and veggies in the background. It's awesome! Now my kitchen has some personality, especially since this is MY room and it was so drab before and didn't reflect my personality in my opinion. So thanks so much Pop for doing that. I know it wasn't an easy job. He hung two big lights in our garage, which was greatly needed since lighting in there sucked. He also helped with yard work (again!) and hung some pictures I really wanted up. Funny that they have nothing in them yet, but at least they are hung up and that was the hard part for me since I'm so darn short. Pop went with me when I bought our patio set since there was no way I could load all the boxes myself in my CRV. I can't wait to put it together and set it up once the weather clears up. He also went to Home Depot with Shawn to get our lawnmower and other odds 'n ends we needed. He also puttied the front walk where there was a crack between the house and the porch. That was really bugging me, so I'm thrilled it's fixed. He helped me spray paint the shelf for Inara's room and installed her curtain tiebacks. Another project I really wanted to finish was the wood bench in my foyer. I bought it awhile ago at a garage sale for $7. It was unfinished wood and needed a little cleaning up, so Pop showed me how to sand it and put a semi-gloss finish on it. Now, in Shawn's words "It looks like a $100 bench." I swear after my dad is here my house looks better and better every time.

My mom's big task was washing Inara's summer clothes. I got a box of clothes from a friend of mine back in CA and also went through all of Avery's 18-24 month clothes. Plus, I had bought some stuff at consignment sales and on clearance at Old Navy. My poor mom was doing laundry for 3 days I think. Given, she is very particular about the way she does laundry, so it does take her longer. But now Inara is set for whenever the sun comes out and the snow decides to go away. So many cute sun dresses. This alone makes me excited for warm weather.

Back to weather...I've been waiting for a snow storm like this all winter. Funny that we're getting it in mid-April. I begged Shawn to go outside with me yesterday to play. We threw snow balls at each other and my brother, who was a real sport about it. Then Shawn tried to show me how to use the boogie board in our backyard. I failed miserably and did a belly flop from hell. Think I bruised a rib even. Michael got video, so I'm sure he'll post it on facebook to embarrass his big sister. Inara in no way liked it when Shawn and I were playing outside. She cried pretty much the whole time. The girl hates the snow! My mom stayed inside with her since she wasn't about to go play in it either. This morning I even went outside and helped Shawn shovel snow. Now he can't hold that over me any more. My dad was out there shoveling too. I asked him if he ever thought he'd see me shovel snow. He said hell no. Too funny. I know some people hate the cold, but honestly, I love it!

Besides the horrible drive out here, the one bad day of my family's visit was Tuesday night when Inara decided at 10pm she didn't want to sleep any more and was up until 3am. Shawn and I were so frustrated and then got to the total exhaustion point and laughed about it all. I don't know what got into her, but Inara was wide awake and playing in the middle of the night, waking everyone at various times. Shawn even took her downstairs to the basement to play with her kitchen and new pots and pans that Grandma NeeNee had just bought her. When he brought her back upstairs to our room, we turned the tv on hoping that would relax her. Unfortunately, Barney was the only thing on, which drove me crazy. You just can't sleep with Barney on in the background. Then when Sesame Street came on, she was going "Uh oh" as loud as should could when Elmo was hiding. Ugh. Needless to say, Shawn and I only got a couple hours sleep. Poor Shawn struggled at work that day. He made up for it a couple other nights when he crashed on the couch though.

The best part of their visit though was getting to watch Inara interact with my parents and brother. She does love her NeeNee, Pop, and Paypee (Spanky). Everywhere she went, she would look for my mom and yell "NeeNee." When we were at Park Meadows mall, she walked with Pop along the waterfall area and even got to throw rocks in the water. She also loved doing her wood puzzles with NeeNee and Pop. Mom also got her to sit down quite a bit and color with her. Paypee introduced her to Backyardigans, which she really seemed to like, and chased her non-stop. On the downside, I think all three of them are burned out with watching Curious George cartoons every day. Hope they will DVR some for when we come out there. The girl cannot live without watching her "Ahh ahh ahh." I guarantee she's going to miss having the three of them around. Let's hope next time they come out we will have better weather and I can come up with more fun things for them to do so they don't get cabin fever and bored in the house after a week.