Mike and Oliver Visit

Sunday night Mike and Oliver arrived all the way from Arizona with gram and poppy's moving truck. We spent the evening chatting with them and then they stayed the night at gram and poppy's house. I think they enjoyed having their own space and not having to share living space and bathrooms with my crazy crew all the time.

Monday Mike worked from home (from our parent's house) so for his lunchbreak, Oliver and Mike came to Scarlet's Park with me and the girls. The weather was really lovely and it was so good to get out. Oliver was nice and hung out a bit with Ruby- they both enjoyed the zipline and swinging together. Mike was nice and played some volleyball with Lucy. 

After Mike finished work we went to work unloading the moving truck for Grams and Poppy. Ben and Steven were big helpers and when Tyler finally got home, he was able to help too. Their home now seems extra full but I am sure once they get a chance to unload things and put them in their proper places, it will feel more like a home for Grams and Poppy. Ruby was very excited by the Paw Patrol Table they brought.

Monday night Ben was working at Dairy Twist so we all went to support him (and of course to get ice cream!). I was an embarassing mom and took his picture and shouted "hello!" to him. We all ate far too much ice cream but it was delicious. Steven got grumpy because they gave him his in a cone instead of a cup so I had to be the adult,lol, and ask for a cup. Such an easy solution.

Tuesday Mike was going to go in to work at the Proving Grounds in Milford with Tyler but Oliver had a rough night- his ear was aching- so Mike ended up needing to take Oliver to Urgent Care. Poor Oliver did end up having an ear infection and came back with some antibiotics. Meanwhile, I took Ruby to storytime at the library. She still is a bit naughty- not great at sitting- but she loves it and its a nice, free way to get her out of the house.

After storytime I had the joy of taking Ben to an orthodontist appointment and Ruby came with us. It was a long appointment because they had to redo one of his pictures and then had troubles getting it to upload. Seemed like they just wasted our time trying to upload that, but whatever. By the time they went over treatment and cost, Ruby was getting quite antsy and noisy so my focus was not quite there. I mistakingly got it in my head that the numbers they were showing me included the cost of Penny's treatment and was thinking "wow! the math ain't mathing but I love it!" ha! Of course it was just the payment plan for Ben's treatment. Anyways in the end I figured it all out and basically we are going to be in debt for Penny and Ben's treatment for the rest of our lives...or maybe just 4 years. So many other things I would rather do with money but at least they will have pretty smiles when all is said and done.

Wednesday Mike went to GM in Warren and Oliver hung out with us for the most part of the day. Oliver still wasn't feeling well so he mostly just gamed on his computer. He even said "no" to my attempts to bribe him with treats at the Dollar Tree. He said he had too much candy already. Such a good kid, lol. My girls took up the bribery and went with me though. They are so candy obsessed. I also needed to get Ruby sunglasses because ever since she went forward facing in the car, the sun has gotten to bright for her. 

Wednesday night everyone was busy with various things- a senior year mtg, an extra archery practice, church activities and volleyball. Mike and Oliver ended up going to volleyball practice with Lucy, Ruby and me. It wasn't the most exciting practice to watch but they were good sports about it ;) Tatiana was also there, Lara has practice right before Lucy. She chatted a bit with me about her upcoming move and her regrets about not being closer friends with me. We have always been friendly but we are also very different personality wise so I think it's ok that we weren't closer. Not everyone is a perfect fit for a close friend. I will still miss her family though, it will leave a hole in our already small Ward.

Thursday Mike was able to go to work with Tyler at the Proving Grounds in Milford and Oliver was stuck with Ruby and me for the day. We ended up taking him to the Michigan Flight Museum. A random museum I found through googling plane museums. It was about 35 minutes away and I managed to get us in free with library passes. I am not sure it would have been worth going there if it had cost money and been further away. It was a nice museum with some cool planes but it was not very big. Their was a cockpit Oliver and Ruby could sit in and Ruby did not like that Oliver was able to make her steering wheel move- it totally creeped her out. Ruby did like this little machine they had that sucked in balls and sent them flying up though. Oliver said there was a plane he had never seen before so I think that was his favorite thing. The bummer thing was that they had these flight "simulator" things but they were all turned off because they said they had a field trip coming. Lame. If we had paid for our tickets I would have complained.

After the museum we went and got lunch at Chick-Fil-A. They enjoyed their nuggies and then Ruby wanted to play in the play area. Oliver was nice and played with Ruby and tried to convince her to go down the slide. She said she didn't want to go down because she had poop- she was not lying. Stinky girl. 

Thursday night I took Mike, Oliver, Penny and Ruby to Chuck E Cheese. We had a coupon for a cheap pizza and Mike was nice and got a cookie pizza for everyone as well. They both cost a total of like $3 thanks to the coupon and membership. We really squeeze our membership for all it's worth. Oliver spent his play points really quick because apparently he was a fan of the "gambling" games ;)

Mike was working from my parent's house on Friday. After the girls finished their school work, I took Oliver, Penny and Ruby out to a car museum (Roush Museum). This was another museum I found by googling- this time googling for cars. It was free and only 25 minutes way. Once again, I wouldn't have traveled far for this museum or paid money to go there, but it was a nice for a free outing to see some cool cars. Ruby did not love that she could not sit in any of the cars (especially the small go karts that were there) so she was a bit whiney. But we were all a fan of the Bat Mobile car that was there and it was fun to see all the different ads on the race cars.

Friday evening Steven was working and Tyler had to take the other 3 to the temple for baptisms. That left me, Ruby, Oliver and Mike at home. We decided to go to Chuck E Cheese again. Oliver liked that he would get more play points this time. I also had another great coupon for extra play points, tickets, free dip n dots and 50% food. We all got some dip n dots and Mike got some churros and drinks. Oliver used the extra tickets to get some cotton candy on his way out.

It was a really nice evening until we got back to my house and realized the power was out because of the high winds we had been having that day. I had just sat down at the kitchen table with Ruby on my lap in our super dark house when she suddenly started vomiting. Everywhere. We had no lights, and no water and a massive mess to clean up. I was very lucky Mike was there to help out. It would have been so much harder by myself. We got everything cleaned up and then Tyler came home with the kids and was able to get the generator on. We all had a very cold night- the house was 55 degrees when we woke up, not my usual 70.

In the morning, Tyler had to leave early with Steven and Ben for the State Archery Tournament. Mike went with them. With sick Ruby I didn't want to head out too early so I was going to meet them there. The morning was a bit of a disaster. We all shivered as we got ready and then left...but then I had this thought that I should probably bring extra clothes for Ruby and plastic bags in case she was still sick (divine inspiration!) So we turned around- adding about 10 minutes to our drive, not bad. Then we headed out again but we were about 20 minutes out when Mike asked if Oliver was with us. Orginally he had planned to go with them so I had assumed he was with them. He was not. We turned around and added another 40 minutes to our drive. Now, with Oliver, we were on the road to Lansing again. It is an hour and 10 minutes to get there. We were half way there when Ruby threw up all over herself in the car. I ended up pulling off the highway to clean her up. It was cold outside and changing her clothes was not fun. When we finally got there, we picked up Mike and Steven and headed to Horrock Farmers Market. The kids love the candy selection there and spent plenty of time picking out treats (treats that Mike was nice enough to spoil them with). And then we all met Tyler and Ben at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

After that, Tyler and Ben went back to the tournament and the rest of us made another stop at Preuss Pets- just so I could feel like the awful drive out there was worth it. It was fun to see all the different pets and we even saw axolotls. They were only $50 so now it looks like that has just been added to my kids long list of pets they want. After that we drove back home with no incidents.

We came back to a cold house and hung out around the generators plug so kids could charge their devices and I could try to absorb some of the heat from a space heater. I do not like the cold. Then it was time to take Mike and Oliver to the airport. The moment we left, the power came back on. We were so glad we got to hang out with Mike and Oliver and hope they weren't scared away by my vomiting toddler and our power outage.