Overload

We were away from home for 14 hours today. We spent the first 3 hours at a delicious breakfast my Dad and Mimi hosted. It was a burrito bar, mmm, and they even sent me home with a jar of my favorite salsa in the world (a homemade chipotle sauce). The kids had a fun time playing with their grandma/grandpa, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends. It was a little chaotic at times, but everyone really enjoyed it. Chris and Grandpa even vacuumed out my car! Athena said her favorite time was when she practiced reading with Mimi and Oli. Mimi gave her this very cool book that has a little wheel you turn to make a new word (like a word family thing b-ug, m-ug, d-ug). Athena is very good at reading those kind of words now, kind of amazingly so since I have never really sat down and worked with her on it. I think she could be reading independently if I actually practiced with her a bit as she is reading so many isolated words on her own right now as it is.
After breakfast, we headed up to the OC to visit with more cousins, Aunt/Uncle, and Nana came too! The kids had the best time at this park there with dirt trails and little hills (reminded me of my childhood at Lakeside ditch, but not as fixed up). Rowan loved riding around on a big kid bike with training wheels (we had to push him), but he was not about to ride his trike there and get laughed off the course. Athena had a blast riding through the mud, and took a short spin on her cousin's bike without the training wheels. She definitely has a ways to go on that but it seems to be the kind of thing that when she decides she is ready to have them off, she'll figure it out in a day. I let go of her a couple times and she can balance, she just gets scared or even worse, let's go of her bars to scratch an itch. It was still fun though.
We later took a trip to Native Foods, and filled up on tasty vegan eats. The kids devoured their kids meals. Athena loves their chicken free nuggets and Rowan had the pizza. I got my standard order, the something or other chicken run ranch burger with a salad. It did not disappoint. After dinner, we headed back to play with the cousins some more. The kids were just having out of control fun and we could hardly leave the place. Sometimes I felt like Rowan was meant to have been my Bro/Sil's 4th child (they have 3 boys). Rowan fit right in and was not shy at all, just chasing his cousins all around, having a dance party, and loving all of their toys. It was an awesome day, but I'm glad we have tomorrow to recover and get ready for the dreaded Monday...