Our time with grammy.

Yay we had a great time with grammie. Nobody got a stomach flu can you believe it? She split her time between my sisters family and ours.

Mother's day weekend we planned to meet up in Fort Collins. We had an itinerary! a plan! an arrival time! All very dangerous for the Boyd family. In typical Boyd style it started with an adventure.

On our way out we had planned to stop really quick at Emma Crouse's house to see her parents Doug and Stefanie. It was supposed to be in and out, hello and goodbye. 5 minutes.

Our "5 minute" visit was indeed short. They didn't open the door. They were sleeping in.

So we hopped back in the van... and the van didn't start. We were stranded in their driveway.



So Matt walked across the street and bought a battery, installed it, and the van didn't start. Eventually people started waking up. Doug and Stefanie Crouse woke up and came outside, to the Boyd van and family in their front yard. The pastor came over too, and then Mr. Klein, and then Doug's dad who has car experience. They discussed batteries, alternators, jumper cables, wires. whatever 5 men and a broken car talk about. Despite their best efforts, the van refused to turn over.


At one point, the plan was to tow it.



Here is Doug thoughtfully contemplating the problem. Did I mention it was freezing cold out and super windy?



The kids and I hung out in Emma Crouse's already crowded tiny apartment. Doug was super helpful as obvious in this picture. ; )



We sat on the stairs.



Her grandparents, mom, dad and sister were there along with the Boyd 9. Emma's husband never came out of his bedroom. Probably a good idea. : ) It was about 9:30 in the morning and they had come home in the middle of the night after graduation.

The van never started that day so we towed it (with the Suburban) all the way across the street to the Lagrange Garage. And still made it to Fort Collins! Just 2 hours late. So long arrival time and itinerary.


Here's the family. My mom rented us a hotel suite. It was bigger than our house and had a jacuzzi tub in our room.



She left us there to party and went to my sisters house to rest. We had so much fun with the Auchs. We got to swim together and then went ice skating.

Part of the Boyd's life is Matt's insistence on adult education. He has been going to school his whole life. He had a final project due. 6 math problems. not too bad right? except they took 5 hours each!!!!!!!! Needless to say he didn't get to participate much in the fun stuff. He did swim and loves to play with the kids in the pool.

After swimming we went ice skating. Ice skating with Matt is only fun for those ice skating with him. It is hysterical. Its the funniest thing. Plus he cracks me up with his jokes while he is slipping and sliding around the ice. Kelly and I were really disappointed he had to stay at the hotel with Abbey and do homework.



Here's Sam tearing it up.



Titus taking a rest break. The last time he went ice skating he was wearing diapers.



I don't get to take many pictures of a candid Elijah, but this is one of them. If he knows I'm taking his picture he gets a really serious look on his face. So I caught him on camera actually having fun! : )





Sam.



Ugh pictures of us?? Why would we do that?



"Fine, if I die the kids should have a picture of me." We'll take one of us.

The Auch family and Elijah and Luke ran in the Old Town Marathon the next morning. They did a 3k. They had so much fun. Elijah loved it and wants to run another one. Luke has loved to run his whole life. He is a speedy little bullet and never never gets tired. Kelly said he kept asking, "Can I run full speed now? Can I?" They were running all together so nobody got lost. Finally at the end he got to run "full speed". He ran the entire 1 mile race.

I'm not that slow of a runner and one day Luke and I raced to the post office and back and Luke beat me. I was running full out. Luke beat me going both directions. On the way back he was even carrying a box on his head and beat me. It was humiliating.

We didn't go to the race because, oh yea, Matt still had 24 hours of final project to do. We spent until 11am working on homework. Then we had to check out of the hotel. We needed internet for him, an outlet for the laptop, and entertainment for the kids. Ah yes, the library. Fort Collins has very awesome libraries by the way. We had to move quickly. The boys and I cleaned up the room and loaded the car. Matt came out last with laptop and book in hand. I did a quick walk through of the room, but definitely not my thorough look through.

And he started up his homework at the library.



Sam in library heaven.



Here is Joe on the second floor reading his book on the window seat.



I love what is happening here. Gideon was trying to move a chair to the children's book section. He got his body stuck in between the legs of the chair and couldn't get out. The following shots were taken in absolute silence - as we were in a library - absolute silence except for my uncontainable laughter at watching Titus try to free Gideon from the chair.







He is still stuck in the above picture.





Ah success. Titus was so proud to be a helpful big brother.



We all met up in the library after the race. Then we split up. Matt Auch and Matt Boyd aka Matt A and Matt B took all the kids except for Abbey to a buffet where they absolutely gorged themselves. When they came out of the buffet, the Matts found 4 of the kids lying on their backs on the sidewalk. The dads then took them to Fossil Park to run off the calories.

My mom, sister, Abbey and I went to East Moon Asian sushi and bistro. 10 small pieces of rice and seaweed. But it was really good. And we didn't overeat.



After that we took my mom shopping. Target! She looked great in everything she tried on. I think we spent 3 hours trying things on her. She came out with some nice work outfits that fit! and some exercise clothes. She has dropped several sizes by eating healthy food and swimming in the morning before work. She looked so good.



Matt wanted to go with the family that weekend instead of staying home to do his homework because he doesn't want his schooling to keep him from family stuff. Also because he likes to have me sit there while he does his homework. It helps him to have someone to have to explain the problem to and think through it with him. We still had 3 problems to go (or 15 hours left). It was due at midnight and it was 8 pm. not lookin good. I settled down for the long haul. Other computer, headphones, coffee, snacks. I could barely keep my eyes open. Around 10:30 Matt says "I finished." Usually that means he finished the next problem. but he had done the whole thing!!!!!!! He was very comfortable with last 2 problems and finished them in record time. Ah bed. even with 2 cups of coffee I crashed. It was great.

The next morning Matt couldn't find his car key. Remember the VW key and the manure story? I had last seen it on the wet bar counter of the hotel room that I did not thoroughly check when we left. The hotel did not find it. Matt took the suburban to work. I looked through all our stuff. no key. I began to research what I knew was coming. Going to the dealership, 2 hour drive, ordering a "fake key" towing the bug to the dealership, $$$ later a new coded key. ok. Take a deep breath.

I stopped by the LaGrange garage to check on our van. It had started right up for the mechanic. : ) He couldn't get it to break.

Matt and I prayed and readied ourselves to do a deep look in the suburban for the key. Kelly drove over to the hotel and looked in the bushes by the parking lot. On Matt's way home from work there was a faint glimmer in the Suburban windshield of something shiny. He reach up to see what was causing the reflection. He stuck his hand down into the heater vent on the dashboard and pulled out the VW key. God had made the sun light be in the perfect angle to shine down into the vent, hit the key, back up, hit the windshield, and then over to Matt's eyes.

: ) A True Boyd Weekend.