Family Travel

Saturday was a very busy day.  We spent Friday night with Patsy and Eddie in Kentucky.  On Saturday morning we drove to Burns, Tennessee to celebrate Nevelin's 90th birthday.  Nevelin was married to Trinity's Grandmother's brother.  Does that make sense?  

I do love any type of family event in Tennessee.  Everyone is super friendly and all of the tea is sweet.  

Genevieve cozied up to the birthday girl.  

Nevelin loves strawberries.  She had the best strawberry buttercream cake.  I ate 3 pieces.  

The party was at a fabulously cool venue called Old Stone Mill.  It was rustic and fun.  They served all kinds of bottled sodas that I had never tried.  Sun Drop, Ski, and Ne Hi grape and orange sugary beverages were a flowin'.

They also had a guitarist singing Elvis songs.  

That face of mine confirms my love of Elvis and orange Ne Hi. 

I look like I'm in a Mentos commercial, only this one would be for Ne Hi orange soda pop. 

We ventured outside.  The weather was stunning.

75 degrees and sunny!  

The food was set up under a Covered Wagon.  This was just another time I could chuckle over my 3rd Grade Oregon Trail escapades.

I managed to avoid losing two oxen in the river and instead got a lot of biscuits!

Here's our silly crew.  

They had peacocks!  

Genevieve was mesmerized and so was I.

I forced my peeps into the 12 South area of Nashville.  T and I have some great memories from Nashville.  He proposed to me in The Music City. I just adore that city.  Patsy and I spent some time in Draper James.  Reese was not there, but the darling salesgirl offered us sweet tea as soon as we walked in.  I found a dress on sale.  It was a fabulous shopping experience.  

Patsy took her first non blurry picture ever!

This happiness was followed up with more happiness.

Sprinkles Cupcakes is next door.  Y'all know I will plan a vacation to places based on Sprinkles locations.  They are hands down the best cupcakes ever.

Genevieve was completely over it by the time Pat took the picture above.  Trinity was wrangling her and she was screaming "Mama" from across the street.  My ever patient husband yelled across the street, "Betsy, get over here!  Get across this street now!!!!"  Our glamour shoot abruptly ended so I could get back to mother duty.  

On the way home Genevieve drew this picture of me.

I look like Donald Trump.  I have such angry brows.  I love it.  

I forgot to blog a few pics from when Genevieve stayed with Pat and Eddie over Spring Break.  

She visited Miss Kay and Mr. Dave's farm.  

She loves the South and so do I!  

Spring Break in Wisconsin!!!!

Spring Break in Wisconsin?

Say what?

Don't you know?  That's where all of the cool people go!

The 3 Hunt women traveled to the cheese state wearing our Nanook of the North attire.  4th Lady Hunt (Meg) could not attend due to work obligations.  Boo hiss.

Since my work involves long vacations, Mother does not work, and Katie can sometimes run her cheeseburger empire remotely, we were all able to travel.    I convinced them to go to The American Club with me, where T took me last year on Spring Break.

See the canopy?

When your packing list includes down vests and double layered yoga tops, you know you aren't going to get tan.

We stopped at Oak Brook to shop on the way up and ate at Seasons 52.  Mother and Sister are now gluten free eaters, which is a real pain in the a** to me.

Probably not as inconvenient for me as it is for them.

Mother has Celiac disease and Katie is gluten intolerant.  I had a blood test and my results encouraged me to continue to rage on wheat products.  

Don't mind if I do!

I had a salad so I fit in with the crowd but then was able to eat the bread basket without competition.  

We arrived in Kohler and checked in to our two adjoining rooms.

I was already the butt of many jokes from those pampered ladies before we even got to the room.  I'm accustomed to traveling with my husband, who is far more frugal than I.  He has trained me well, as I layered bag upon bag on my back like a sherpa so we didn't have to tip a bellman. 

My dear mother nearly lost it.

"Good Lord, Betsy, I'm 66 years old.  I'm not schlepping my own damn bag!"  Cue the bellman.  

Everything there is made by the Kohler company.  Except the beds.

They don't make beds. 

Neither do I!  

Now that was a good one.

I really don't make my bed, like ever.  

Here's a giant tub.

In case you want to be all judgy, I always use hotel bathtubs.  It hasn't killed me yet and I have no communicable diseases.

That I know of. 

After a heavenly night of sleep, I took the shuttle over to Yoga on the Lake for an 8:00 yoga class.

They met me for breakfast after.  

Katie again chided me for wearing my tank top at breakfast.

I assured her that I was hot after DOING YOGA.

Plus, I like my arms. 

We flushed toilets at the design center again.

I did dumb stuff just like I did last year.  I think I'm even wearing the same outfit.  That towel was glued to the vanity!  Glued!  Because if I'm going to steal something it's going to be a washcloth and not a $3000 farmhouse sink with a $1200 matte brass faucet.  

Next up we took to the waters of Kohler.

Katie was getting her scalp treatment (she had lice) while we ate yet another salad.

I'm kidding!

I did not eat salad.

No, I did.  I'm kidding about Katie and lice.  She got her head rubbed down with lots of Moroccanoil.

We did a lot of hot tubbing, magazine reading and other such nonsense.  Mother had a facial and all 3 of us had a hydrotherapy treatment.  Hydrotherapy is a nice way of saying, "We are going to charge you $110 + gratuity to take a bath."

Rub a dub dub

3 Giantesses in a tub  

We were actually in different tubs in different rooms.

Otherwise that would have been weird.

Katie wouldn't allow me to take off my swimsuit and get in the hot tub in the ladies lounge.  I really thought it would be funny to make other people uncomfortable.  

Mostly my older sister.

Easter

Last weekend YaYa came for a short visit.

On Saturday morning we attended our church held its annual Easter egg hunt.

Genevieve went straight for a face painting!

G and K were on the hunt!

We came home to Abby and Papi and lots of Easter goodies.  

Both sets of grandparents joined us for mass.  

Easter mass proved a little long for Genevieve.

We had to hang out outside and play in the mulch.

Genevieve wore the same dress that Caroline wore when she was the flower girl in our wedding.  

I brought Spring with some really pink pants.  

Uncle Kent and Aunt Cindi came by for lunch.  

We sent G home with Abby and Papi so my mom, sister and I could go on a Girls' Trip.  More on that soon!  

Caroline Visits

Caroline's Spring Break overlapped with mine, so we got her on Sunday for a two night adventure at our casa.  We went straight to the 100 Acres at the IMA on Sunday afternoon.  I thought it was going to be warmer than it was.  The girls did some swinging.  

There was bone climbing and heavy lifting.  

We ate an early dinner at Bakersfield and had chips and guacamole with our tacos.  

Here they agreed to try the guacamole.  Caroline was not a fan so G spit it out immediately to be cool.

She eats avocados every day of her life, but whatevs.  

Bath time was much more educational with Caroline.  I'm usually trying to coax Genevieve out of the tub with the timer on my phone as she slips out of my hands.  

On Monday we opened up the Monkey Joe's.  That place is so much better when I don't have to chase G or climb anything.  I perused Instagram and told myself no one could possibly snatch two children at the same time.  

We followed up that craziness with another failed attempt to see the Easter Bunny.  Genevieve is not having it this year.  I am sad.  She did run around Von Maur for a while.  

On Monday evening I impressed Caroline with my cooking skills.  We had fish sticks, macaroni and cheese and broccoli.  I apparently make these food stuffs better than her mother.  

On Tuesday Sister Katie drove to meet us in Bloomington.  We immediately rendezvoused at The Trojan Horse.  This restaurant was a common dinner spot when Jane and Bob came down to visit.  Many a Delta Gamma ate with the Hunts here!  

The girls had pitza, made with pita bread.  Oh, so clever.  

After our meal we walked to Wonderlab.  It has evolved, people.  Now this little gem was founded by my elementary education physics professor.  Don't be impressed.  I said elementary education physics.  I wasn't doing the real college level physics.  I struggled enough with making a damn mobile and solving problems that started with, "If you are 5'6" tall and you want to hang a 4 foot long mirror so that you can see the top of your head when it is hanging on a 10 foot wall, at what height must you hang the mirror?"

Uh, I don't.  I've got 5 more inches of Betsy to see in that mirror and I will call my brother.  He can measure and hang anything.

That class was one of the 3 times I have had a panic attack in my life.  I studied for the tests all semester and got As.  For finals, I decided I did not need to study since I had gotten As all along.  

Wrong-o.

I remember sitting down for that final and not remembering how to do anything.  Like nothing. Nada. Zilch.  I kept looking for a problem that I knew how to do but there was not one.  Plus, I had to show my work.  I remember not being able to catch my breath and sweating like crazy. I was able to calm myself down enough to pull out like a D or D- on that final.  I ended up with a C   for my course grade, which was I believe the only C I ever received in my life.

So back to why this story is relevant.  The professor made it a course requirement that you had to "volunteer" a certain number of hours at her Wonderlab.  You could not pass the class without doing your required hours.  So it was blackmail.  Or indentured servitude or something.  It was awful.  At 20 the last thing I wanted to do was wear a smock and man the water table with pint sized townies, or Cutters as we called them.

Just kidding.  No one called Bloomington natives "Cutters."  That was just in the movie.

Ah, Dennis Quaid when he gets that head injury.

I digress.

It was hysterical for Katie and I to be there with our daughters, 16+  years after we were tortured.  She did it too, as she also has an Elementary Education degree.  It has come in handy with her McDonald's ownership.  

This weird bird lovin' man gave a presentation that we paid $2 to see.  That's a pigeon G is petting.  

We departed due to boredom right before he fed a frozen mouse to a falcon.  

We wrapped up our visit with ice cream at The Chocolate Moose, a Bloomington institution.  

Good times!

We had 2 nights with Caroline and no one had a busted lip at the end.  Just kidding.

Since they are both only children they pick at each other like siblings rather than cousins.  

Genevieve can be very annoying.

Very annoying.