Unexpected Travels

Grandma was babysitting this weekend and when everyone got too fussy, Baby Einstein to the rescue!

Alex loves his first pumpkin

Ella loves her pumpkin too

Helen is getting ready for Halloween

Everyone wants to play with the pumpkin

Cecil in his military best at the wedding

Ethan - one of our cousins - quickly identified me as a sucker for kids. He attached himself to me and followed me everywhere. I loved it! I danced almost every dance with him and he would not let me sit down. The poor kid had a meltdown when I insisted on dancing one dance with Cecil. Everyone kept saying taking care of Ethan was good practice for me except that I would have three. I said, I know and I can't wait!

Christina and Ashton walking out of the church through the saber guard

Ella got a bath in the sink while we were gone

Grandma took everyone out for a walk and it is getting cool enough to need jackets now

My mom came into town this Thursday to help out with the kids for the weekend. I had a conference in Portland scheduled and Cecil was going to a family wedding. Thursday afternoon we went shopping for clothes for the kids (I know, they do not need any clothes but it is one of our favorite things to do). In the Carter's store, I saw a woman with infant twin boys. I went up to her and asked if they were twins. She instantly got this fleeting look on her face that said "Yes, obviously they are twins and I'm kind of busy with them at the moment." I recognized that look because I'm sure it has been on my face many times. I love to talk about my kids and love having people gush over them, but I often feel like wearing a shirt when I'm out with them that says "Yes, they are triplets; yes, I have my hands full; they are 11 months old; and it is two girls and a boy." I immediately explained to the woman that I had triplets and then her look changed to one of empathy and kinship.

Friday morning I got up at 4:30 to get to the airport for my 6:40 flight to Portland. We were 45 mins late getting out of Jacksonville because of bad weather. That caused me to miss my connection in Atlanta. When I found out that I was going to have to wait 8 hours for the next flight out and I realized that I was going to be traveling longer than I would be at the conference, I decided to head home. So I got a flight back to Jacksonville and had Cecil wait for me to go to his cousin's wedding in South Carolina. In one day I went to Atlanta and back and then drove up to South Carolina. It was a long day but I'm really glad I got to go to the wedding. Our cousin, Christina, married a man who is in the Army and deployed in Iraq. They had the wedding during his mid tour leave. Since it was a military wedding, Cecil got to wear his "mess dress", i.e. military for most fancy uniform. I have to confess that I did get a little proud when I saw that of all the military people there, my husband had the most do-dads on his chest (i.e. awards).

I missed the kids terribly while I was there and was very happy to have Ethan to hang out with. I wanted to wrap him up and take him home. He grabbed onto my hand and did not let go. And I kept thinking how great it will be when all three of ours are that age (remind me of how great I think it will be when they all start running in three different directions). It was nice to get home on Sunday and see that they had not grown up too much while we were gone. Thankfully I do not have any more trips planned for awhile so we'll get to hang out more on weekends.