Goodbye Wisconsin-giggles

We took our time getting to the airport in Minneapolis today because our flight wasn't until 7p.m. I packed our bags, and Tim repacked them again; then we headed off. Aoife was a little bit more fussy this time, and we had to stop a few times to change her diaper and feed her. She got pretty fussy when we got to Pepin, WI, so we stopped for a while. I took Aoife out, but it took her a while to quieten down. We decided to take a look at the museum in Pepin that was dedicated to Laura Ingles Wilder, the woman who wrote "The Little House on the Prairie". It was interesting to see the old artifacts. They had a replica of a river boat and Gramma Rachel climbed the stairs and had fun being captain at the steering wheel. We went into another museum, but Aoife got fussy, so I left. We decided to continue our journey even though Aoife wasn't very happy. Gramma and I took turns vibrating the car car seat so that Aoife could sleep. We made it to St. Paul where we went to a tea shop that Grampa Steve likes. We had some iced tea and Steve bought some teas that were on sale. We were shocked at how late it was, so we quickly went to Chipotle for burritos. Our original plan was to go to Minnehaha park and have lunch there, but it was too late. Steve drove us to the airport. People let us cut in at the security line so that we would make it to our gate on time. thank God we did because we would have been late for our flight. We made it on time, and we had the very last row on the flight with an extra seat available for Aoife. This was much more comfortable for me. Aoife didn't enjoy this flight and was pretty fussy, but I manage to calm her down and miraculously I figured out that horse lips makes Aoife giggle. On the ride up, Rachel and I were talking about how Aoife was getting close to giggling. She giggled a lot!!! Then, Tim joined in the fun, and we must have looked and sounded pretty strange to other people, but we couldn't believe she was giggling. It was so funny. Our flight wasn't as long as I thought it would be, and we grabbed our luggage, and we headed back home on the BART.

Aoife's first hotdog roast.

Rachel and I went to the store today to buy some "yipee" hotdogs and ingredients for soap and smores. We made soap after we had taken naps which turned out really well (see below) Tim's family has a tradition of roasting hotdogs over a fire on their land. Luckily it was a beautiful day, and we set Aoife out on a blanket to enjoy the leaves blowing on the trees. The hotdogs were delicious, but the smores were better. Smores are an American camping treat where one melts a marshmallow until it is barley hanging on to the stick then it is sandwiched with chocolate between two graham crackers...yummy!!! I really enjoyed that afternoon. It is by far my favorite time that I have spent with the in-laws.

We left my family at 9:30am for Morrison, Illinois. It took us a long time to get there because the freeway had some major construction going on. We got to Morrison later than we had hoped, so we were glad that we left early. We made it to the nursing home and almost got blown away by the wind. We had remembered where Mary's room was and while making our way there a lot of ladies kept approaching us admiring our little Aoife. We finally found great-grandma in her room reading a book. She looked very happy to see us, and we let her hold Aoife. She sang a few lullaby's for Aoife while Aoife looked out the window at the leaves. Great-grandma told us that Vivian liked to look at the leaves blowing on the trees. Aoife smiled at Great-grandma, and great-grandma would say, she didn't remember any of her babies being that little. We then said our goodbyes and great-grandma told Aoife to always be kind and good!

We traveled onward to Great-uncle Eldon and Lisa's house. Tim tried to remember his way to their house without Google maps and did pretty well. Eldon greeted us and showed us inside where Lisa and Leah Grace were waiting for us. The last time we had seen Leah grace was when she was about Aoife's age at Christmas time. Leah Grace was huge! She greeted us with a massive smile which went ear to ear. She was very excited. Lisa had prepared a fruit salad and some lemonade for us. Great-uncle Harvey also came to visit. After finishing our food Lisa and I went to the other room to nurse and try to get the babies to sleep. Leah Grace was being a cheeky monkey for mama and was quite distracted with having Aoife in the room. Lisa and I talked "baby talk" while the men talked politics and stuff! I'm so happy that Aoife has a little cousin her age to spend the summers with. I'm sure they will be good friends when they grow up. When we were leaving Aoife was crying and that would make Leah Grace worried, and she would cry with Aoife. It was so cute to see Leah so concerned about Aoife's well being. It was getting late, so we decided to leave.

We were pretty tired, and I mostly stayed in the back of the car to keep Aoife companion. We drove up to Wisconsin via Boscobel, the town where I went to highschool. To get there we drove through Fennimore to take a picture with Igor,the mouse. Great-Aunt Elaine would always stop there with Uncle 'Topher and Tim to take their picture. We went on to Boacobel, and I gave Tim the "grand tour" of my school and our church and old houses.

We finally got back to Holmen at around 10pm. It was a very long day, and Grandma Rachel had stayed up to see Aoife again. She spent about an hour with her before we all collapsed into a deep sleep.

This morning we woke up with the thrashing of rain and the trembling rumbles of thunder. It was so powerful that the house shook. Aoife didn't seem to pay any attention to it though. Today was pretty fun because Erin and Michelle stayed home from school, so I got to spend more time with them. Tim and I took Michelle to get her a birthday present and some cotton material to make some stuffed toys. By the time we came back, Aoife was still sleeping, and Erin had just woken up.

We spent most of the day talking while Erin made a lizard and Michelle made a monkey. "Lady Mike" came to visit Aoife for a little bit; it was nice to finally meet her.

Mark called from the court and told us that everything was okay, but we had no idea what he meant by that, so we had to wait until they got home to hear the details. The suspense was killing us. Apparently, he has to agree to voluntarily leave the country by July 31 and not return again until September. He's hoping to get a religious visa to come back and live and then reapply for the green card again. He seemed relieved to have it over. So, we had a relaxing evening and last supper before we once again head off.

Tomorrow we are going to see great-grandma and Tim's uncles in Morrison, Illinois.

Great-Grampa

Today, we had lunch with Fr. John. Fr. John is the priest that had helped my family move to America and with many more things since then. He is basically family to us. He was so happy to meet Aoife and he was able to say her name properly after much practice. He cooked us Morel soup and cold sandwiches. Afterwards, we took a walk around his farm to see what he had fixed up. I've always enjoyed rummaging through the farm buildings looking at the old stuff. He also showed us his garden and his potato patch which he planted in an old silo foundation. After visiting Fr. John, we went home, and my dad and brother left for Minneapolis for my brothers' immigration court date.

Gramma Moose

Today, we took off to Sullivan, Wisconsin to see my family. No sooner had we pulled into the garage when my mom, dad, and brother ran over to the car to see Aoife. They were so excited that I think they forgot who transported her to see them! My parents fell in love with her instantly. My dad couldn't get over how tiny she was and was quite shocked when he held her to feel the bones in her spine. My brother was also very excited and was so gentle with her. My mom spent every spare minute as she could holding her and taking care of her. She was really good and patient with Aoife. She help her for hours helping Aoife get up burps and rocking her and putting her to sleep. But for some reason, nobody wanted to change her diaper. My sisters came sheepishly home after school and stared at her. I think they were not yet prepared for her lack of development in social skills, so they admired her from afar. Michelle had shot up a foot since I last saw her at Christmas, and Erin's spunky personality is starting to shine. It was great to be back with my family again because I's missed them all so much.

Tim's uncle John and aunt Mary Ellen came to visit today. Mary Ellen knit Aoife a beautiful outfit that will probably fit her when she is about a year old. Aoife seems to be sleeping a lot here. It seem that she wakes up, gets fed, gets changed, gets played with by Gramma and then is ready to pass out into a deep sleep again. I wasn't expecting to have so much time on my hands, so I buried myself in some craft books. Hopefully we'll be able to get some things done while I'm here. Rachel wants to paint walls to give them some texture. She also wants to make a wreath out of wild grasses that she dried, and we'd like to make soap. I'm excited for the soap part.

Today, we had gramma'pa's old neighbor come to visit. Grampa made his famous sour dough waffles and I helped Rachel put together a feast of delights. Lorraine and Charles, the neighbors, were great fun to be with. Lorraine told us stories of her life and Charles told us about conspiracy theories. It was a pretty interesting morning. In the afternoon, we took a walk to see the fish in the pond that Grampa put in. There were a lot of fish about six inches long. There were also a lot of tadpoles. Aoife got a bit hot in the sun so I had to take her back up. Later that night I gave her a massage to cool off, and Gramma played with her.

Crusty-Bun

We spent most of the day hanging out with Gramma and catching up on things. It felt really good to be back in Wisconsin again. I especially like being on the farm. Tim's parents custom designed their house which has a wonderful character. It's also very relaxing to be there. Gramma Rachel attacked Aoife's cradle cap with a comb and managed to get most of it off. She was starting to turn into a fish with all those scales. We waited for Grampa to get back from work to meet her for the first time. We were all excited. Grampa to a great likin to the "little pixel" as he calls her; appropriate for her generation I think!

Wrecked Bun

Traveling with Aoife was not as bad as I had imagined. We left pretty early in the morning without too much trouble, and took the BART to SFO. She slept the whole way there, and even though we left early enough, we just made it to the gate in time to board. The plane was packed with people, and we were seated toward the back by the toilets. Aoife slept on the take off, but soon awoke before drinks were being served. It didn't take too long to get her fed, changed and settled into a sleep again. Then, she slept for the rest of the flight. We managed to watch an episode of House M.D. I got very excited as we arrived to Minneapolis airport. We called Gramma Rachel when we arrived, and she told us that she'd be arriving shortly. We were waling to baggage claim when Gramma jumped out at us and scared the living daylights out of me; it was so funny. She was way too excited to see Aoife and had come early. We drove the three hours home. Aoife got a bit more fussy towards the end of the trip, but when we got home she collapsed into a sleep as much as we did.