Last month, I went up to for Will’s Graduation party. Solo. In a hotel room. By myself. It was lovely. I suggested to Ryan that since my Ireland trip got cancelled, I should have 7 separate one night stays away. Lisa, Amy, and I went out for dinner in Lisa’s jeep and I don’t know what it is about a Jeep, but it makes you not feel like a tired, worn-out mom.

I met them at Lisa’s house and before leaving, Will walked in the room and said something to Joe about getting an email from his fraternity. All three of us girls yelled “oooooooooh!!! What did it say Will?! Tell us! Oh my gosh! How exciting!” All of us, at once. And it must’ve broken something in Will’s head, because he told us to stop. That our voices hurt his ears and that he can’t stand it. That it’s like having 3 moms.

WelI.

He must not know his Aunt Carrie very well, because that just makes me wanna double down. So I said I was SO excited to visit him at his frat house. “Oh no, please no Carrie.” No, don’t worry Will. I’ll ring the bell and already be in the handstand position. “Oh gawd.” Yeah, and you just roll the keg out and lift me up on it. “Just stop.”

Before leaving he told Lisa that we could do so much better. Oh Will! You’ll love us in ten years.

At the party the next day, we saw our Uncle Gary who we hadn’t seen in ages. Still funny as ever and looks the same.

A picture of us probably around 1982. In front of the van my mom couldn’t drive because it was a stick.

We were organizing books for the upcoming school year and Ruthie asked, “Remember when I drew boobs on my English book?” What?? No!

But here they are.

We took our first adventure with the camper. And despite a series of mishaps, we still had a great time with our friends who now live in OK. There’s always a point in our visits, usually after a couple drinks, that I must tell them how easy they are. Because they are. And funny and fun. We’re so thankful for them.

Heading out – the rain finally stopped on the way and we ended up having great weather the rest of the the weekend. This campground had a floating obstacle course as well as a water park with slides. No need to entertain the kids!

The first morning in our camper. 

At one point, all of us sat around the campfire telling embarrassing stories (Annie’s FAVE thing to do).

Gertie’s a champ like always. She loves being outside, the fire, the water… everything. 

She even went down the waterslide with me!

The sign of a good weekend.

Annie conquered her fear of see-saws.

The day before Amy’s wedding we went to Science City. It was fun being a tourist in KC. We normally just hunker down with mom and dad but ended up staying in a vrbo near Lisa.

Ruthie grabbed my phone to take a photo of the clouds. So pretty.

Just a few from the wedding. I’ll add some official ones later, but these are from Ryan’s vantage point. Gertie clapped through the whole thing.

Seeing the twins for the first time. 

Ruthie just loves to cook and bake. She made us stewed beef the other night along with (instant) mashed potatoes and peas. I honestly didn’t know this was gonna happen so soon, but I’m digging it. And all those times of messy messes are hopefully paying off. The stewed beef was great – a new meal to put in the rotation. Here are some of her soundbites during the meal:

“Wow, this is the first time the WHOLE family likes the same meal in a long time.”

“I don’t see anyone drinking, they’re just eating.”

“We’re gonna have full bellies in bed tonight!” (Or something like that)

I looked at her and asked how did I birth my father. Then she tried pound cake and it tasted like scrambled eggs but she needed that humility, ha!

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They love looking at the books I printed off from my old Instagram and Facebook account. Ruthie wanted to recreate this photo of Ryan and Gertie.

We all passed around a summer cold last week (which you can’t even admit to anymore) and as we were feeling better on Friday, I said we should go for a drive in the car and look at lake homes, just to get out. The girls decided to dress up, we grabbed Wendy’s and cruised for over an hour pointing out styles we liked and didn’t like.

l drove down our old street to silently apologize to our old neighbors because the new owners have stuff all over their yard and don’t mow. But this was the first time that seeing the house made me nostalgic and sad. Time is flying.