the Shaffers took a va-cay: part 1-the cousins' reunion

On the road again! What can I say, we like to travel :-)! This weekend, we went to the Spielman cousin reunion (my family) north of Chicago. This is the third year we've gone. It's fun to see some of my family that I only see once a year. This year, we trusted Google maps to direct us on our way. Google decided, the best way for us to go was on I-90, through downtown Chicago. Of course, we got stuck in some traffic, but had time to snap a photo of the skyline. Beautiful! I love Chicago!

We got to the reunion in time for a little bit of cornhole fun. (Andy and Joe W. playing)

We found out that my brother has a tattoo! (hope you know Mom)

The little "cousins" (really, I call all relatives that I don't know the exact title to "cousin") played some games-egg hunt, tag, water balloon toss, sack races. My Aunt Roseann (pictured) kept everyone rewarded with Tootsie Roll candy (since she works there).




Managed to snag a picture of most of the young cousins. In order, it looks like Xander, Joey, Marcus, Cale, Hunter and Ewan. Liam wasn't feeing a photo-he was kind of cranky the entire day. My actual cousin's (Megan) daughter Catherine wasn't in the photo, which was too bad. She is around the same age as Cale as was so excited to see him again. I guess she was talking about how much fun she had playing with him last year and couldn't wait to see him again. Isn't that funny? I mean, they only see each other once a year and just for a few hours and she remembers him. Cute.

The "cousins that came". The Spielman cousins that is-Megan with Natalie (4 mos.), me and Jim (with his tattoo)

So we stayed till around dinner and then left for the hotel, an hour south of the reunion. Andy got a killer deal on Priceline-$30 a night for 2 nights at a Courtyard Marriot. It was a toss-up whether we would get a suite or a regular room. We got a regular room and had to make up a place for Liam to sleep. I got this idea from another blog I had read once. I stored it away for future use.

We brought a sheet and a nail gun and stapled the sheet to the back of the thing in front of the drapery-I can't remember what it's called. It's kind of like we made a tent for the pack-n-play.

Liam did great with it. And, because he was so tired since he hardly napped, he was asleep in ten minutes. I put Liam to bed while Andy took the other boys swimming. They came back, watched a video (I swear, the portable DVD player is the best invention in the world!) and fell right to sleep.

End day 1.

P.S. One funny story that had Andy and I laughing so hard happened on the way up. We had just left a McDonalds and gotten on the interstate. Andy had just taken the boys to the bathroom-we were not stopping until we got the the reunion. I'm not kidding, 2 minutes into the drive, Cale says "I have to go to the bathroom!" We say, "Cale, you just went!" "I have to poop now!" Marcus looks at Cale and says "Just suck it in!" We cracked up! Where did he learn that phrase-not from us! We did stop soon after at a rest area for Cale.