Majoring in Genius: August 2015

Last week, a major event happened at our house. And by a major event, I mean My DAD!!!!! There was much rejoicing.

Dunkin is the primary reason why he came.

His flight came in late that Friday night, so I told the hooligans they couldn't go with me to get him. But I did tell them he was going to be here, so early the next morning . . .

Yep. Not a hooligan on this earth can resist the urge to play with Abuelo.

We had been talking about going to the beach that day, but we decided to just hang out. We did end up going to see Shaun the Sheep, which was fun. Josh climbed up on Abuelo and snuggled in, and Abuelo got a nice nap.

Several things happened during the week he was here: lots of playing outside, lots of Dunkin Donuts, lots of stories and snuggles, lots of shenanigans, and NO SLEEP. He'd stay up talking to me and Mike, then get woken at the crack of dawn by a pile of hooligans.

He's probably glad to be home. At least there everyone knows how to get their own breakfast.

One of the biggest adventures that came about was when Abuelo took Mike and Katie to a Cubs game! It was quite exciting. Katie even got to stay up late to go, because the only game they could go to started at 7. They packed snacks, got their hats and shirts on, and set off!

They got nachos and what they thought were hot dogs (actually sausages, not even Polish sausages). They even found a place where you got a cool "First Cubs Game" certificate with a picture of the Wrigley Field sign. Katie even made it all the way to the 6th inning before she decided she was too tired! No meltdowns or anything! She's such a trooper.

Meanwhile, the hooligans and I watched "the Puppy movie" (101 Dalmatians), ate yogurt and animal crackers, and wore awesome hats (well, at least they did).

Then the hooligans went to bed and I lay on the couch feeling super chill and not worrying about anything except my baby girl getting mugged or murdered in that scary place downtown full of super drunk Cubs fans. You know, no big deal.

Then, at 10:30 or so, my dad and Mike carried Katie's unconscious carcass upstairs to her room and then came down and proceeded to geek out about how much fun they had. And tell me secretly that next time they won't bring Katie.

Of course, Abuelo also came bearing gifts and such. He kept joking about my mom trying to stuff jams and jellies into his suitcase. But he did bring some pretty awesome stuff for the kids. I didn't get a picture of Katie's awesome CTR necklace (with a red stone for January, her birth month). But I did get pictures of my boys. "Mom! We're missionaries!"

No pictures of them together, of course. That would be way too much to ask. (And since you probably can't read them, they say "Missionaries in Training")

The hooligans sure knocked 'em dead at church that Sunday. And I may have gotten a little bit emotional thinking about my hooligans being missionaries.

Continuing the tradition

In the couple of weeks before my dad came, Katie made an actual list of things to do with Abuelo (she lost it before he got here). But the only thing we didn't get done while he was here was go to the beach.

This is from one of our other trips.

One of the primary activities on her list was to go outside with Abuelo and play baseball! (She knows her Abuelo very well.)

See that form? Abuelo taught her how to actually throw, and I think she actually hit the ball (with an adult sized bat, by the way) 3 or 4 times! I think they both had a great time. If it hadn't been so humid outside, they would have played all day.

Of course, they couldn't ONLY play Abuelo's favorite game. They had to play Katie's too. Oh hello there, Pretty Pretty Princess.

Look how lovely!

Of course, it didn't take very long for Abuelo to acquire new members of his super-fan club. I think it really started when he showed Joshy the "Shipoopi" from The Music Man. Yeah, Josh is still singing it.

"Shipoopy poopy!"

There was a lot of this all week.

The only other big outing that week was to the zoo. Because, duh. There were a lot of jokes about making sure we got the kids safely out of the monkey house because my hooligans could easily be mistaken for Chimps.

See what I'm saying?

We had a great time taking Abuelo to the zoo. And he spent most of the week taking pictures of everyone and everything. And I won't embarrass him by telling the story about how he tried to email all the pictures from Sunday and Monday to my mom and then delete them off his phone, but ended up deleting them before he found out that none of the emails went through. I would never tell that to everyone.

On Friday afternoon when it was pretty warm, we got out a pretty decent water balloon making thing that was quite efficient and rather messy, and got into a huge water fight in the driveway. When we ran out of water balloons, we broke out the squirt guns.

"Hey Katie, wanna play catch?" *Insert maniacal laugh*

Peter figured out how to squirt people by just squishing the balloons.

In case you're ever in a fight with him: Josh is RELENTLESS.

I should really just learn my lesson and put them in swimsuits no matter how much or little water there's going to be. And of course, when I turned off the hose and told them to just run around and play, Josh decided it was high time he learned to ride a bike.

I think he totally could have done it if his legs were slightly longer.

It was a pretty awesome time. Everybody got soaked (even me, even though I was sitting in the corner in a camp chair holding all the cameras).

The thing my dad got all excited about was doing all these little home improvement projects we needed, like fixing the door to the garage that had just broken before he came. He had a whole list of things he wanted to do that didn't get done because he was always covered in hooligans. (He did fix the door, but I think that was it.)

He did, however, get to cleaning out and helping me organize my pantry, including moving a bunch of stuff downstairs that was supposed to be food storage (something I have been wanting to do for about three hundred years). The boys took it upon themselves to be in charge of getting canned things out of the closet.

It was pretty hilarious. They lined the cans all the way across the kitchen, then building them up in a few places. They told me they were building a castle.

The rest of the week was basically just living life like a boss, with an Abuelo to make it way more exciting and fun. He came to watch Katie's swimming lessons, made awesome pancakes, and totally bought our groceries at Costco. What more could we have asked?

Stealin' Abuelo's super cool sunglasses.

Abuelo made her a super cool friendship bracelet at Girls' Camp.

My little fishy princess

Yogurt-covered hooligans Skyping Grandma (with Abuelo taking pictures behind the laptop).

Getting Dunkin to take home to the pitiful uncles and aunties.

Right after we dropped Abuelo at the airport.

When we dropped Abuelo off on Saturday afternoon, there were many tears. I don't know if Katie will ever forgive either of us. As a distraction, Mike and I decided to take the hooligans a few more miles down 294 to see the temple!

The temple was actually closed all of last week for cleaning, but we decided to just go walk around and show the kids. We talked about what we do in the temple, what the Angel Moroni statue is for, and how much we love the temple. The boys were like, "Whatever." But Katie took it in pretty well.

Although I think she might have been the most excited when we went into the distribution store to get a couple more maternity garment tops and Katie saw the long white temple dresses.

Touching the temple

They were all enraptured by the fountain.

It was a pretty fantastic week. We were all a little strung out, and I think Abuelo went home and slept for 48 hours straight to catch up, but it was so much fun. Today at lunch, we heard a plane going over our house, and Josh said, "Abuelo is coming back on an airplane!" I had to tell him no, Abuelo was staying home for a while, and there was a lot of pouting. But they're okay.

Now here are a few more pictures of the hooligans that I just loved.