Weekend Fun

The past weekend held several landmark happenings for the Federockos. First of all, Kirby took a 3-night trip with his Nana (my mom) to go to California and visit my dad and Great Grandpa. It's one thing to have your baby spend the night at a friends house, or to go away and leave your kids for a few days...it's an entirely different feeling to see your 5 1/2 go off on an airplane without you! Of course, my mom would have sooner jumped out of the plane than let anything happen to Kirby, but still, it does take a sort of "letting go".

Kirby's trip was a huge success. He had a great time playing with his 6 girl cousins, visiting his aunts and uncle, gathering eggs and seeing baby birds at Great Grandpa's house, fishing and driving the golf cart with Grandpa, sitting in the hot tub, riding a train along the American River in Sacramento, and lots more. It's safe to say he didn't miss us very much; he never cried to come home, and was incredibly distracted whenever we spoke to him on the phone. But, we did all get huge hugs when he got home on Sunday, and it thrilled me that the first thing he asked was, "Where's my brother?". I'm so thankful to both of my parents for being the kind of people they are and showing him three days that I know he'll never forget.

Connor seemed to thrive during his 3 days of being an only child. The first day it dawned on me that I'm not very good at entertaining Connor; I've never had to do it. That's pretty much Kirby's job. His request was that we go to the "Dinosaur Museum" (the Museum of Nature & Science) to see "the thing chasing the deer". I realized that it was the first time he had ever had the opportunity to make big choices without having them contested by his older brother. I allowed him to lead me to the exhibits he wanted to see. We had a nice lunch there and spent at least 20 minutes in front of the ancient wild hog exhibit (the "thing chasing the deer") while Connor got up the nerve to stand by it and have his picture taken with it.

First Connor made me stand in front of "The Thing" while
he took my picture - I guess he wanted to make sure it wouldn't eat me...

After leaving and returning, and watching "The Thing" for 10 more minutes,
he got up the nerve to stand close enough that I could squeeze them into
the same picture. You can tell by the smile that he doesn't fully trust
that he won't be eaten at any minute!

Saturday night Stephen and I enjoyed his company's annual banquet at the Omni hotel, where we met up with lots of friends from his work, and the girls and I spent the day sipping cocktails by the pool. While I always enjoy the banquet, and the chance to have a great overnight date with my main squeeze, this year was extra-special because Stephen won an award that is more prestigious than he lets on to others. It's always nice when our hard work is acknowledged by others isn't it?

So...that's it. The end of our summer as we knew it. Today marked the start of my semester. I'm feeling excited to plug through this next school year. Each week brings me closer to my goal and now that I'm past the half-way mark, I can just taste it!

Kirby holds up eggs he gathered from Great Grandpa's Kirby's first time actually catching fish - 4!!!
"Urban Farm" (as I like to call it) He and grandpa caught a 15" catfish.