PAPA Fest and general travels

PAPA Festival. Yep. Went there. It was a 14 hour drive to East Tennessee on Thursday night for us. I considered it to be my last "hurrah" trip before I am unable to go anywhere and before we are parents of 2. Kindred did really well on the way down and the way home. We tried to break it up as much as possible so that he wouldn't get stiff and unhappy. I don't think he'd choose travel like this again, (he prefers airplanes), but I'm glad we went. We stayed with the wonderful Lafons, and we saw lots of folks we haven't been able to hang with in a long time-- some who have never met Kindred. We were bummed to have missed Verni and the Passionfish crew, but otherwise we got to encounter lots of really good people.

Kindred spent a good bit of time in the Children's Village tent while Michael and I went to talks and sessions. I was a little nervous because he has been getting into this habit of greeting other children by pushing them to the ground, especially if they are a little smaller than he. (When visiting my parents, he pushed the neighbor boy down-- Kindred is 2 weeks younger than this boy but about 2 inches taller-- and the poor little boy would run crying from Kindred every time he approached!) But everyone said he did really well and was a lot of fun to hang out with. (Don't the childcare workers say that to every mom?)

"Blasto" has had enough of traveling in the car. He is, according to the midwife, head down and his back is up against the left side of my belly. She says there's little chance he'll turn around. But someimes in the car it felt like he was just flipping and jerking every which direction and that knees and elbows were going everywhere. My butt is mad, my hips are mad, my back is demanding a visit to good ol' Dr. Z, and my child feels like he's hatching. I'm 31 weeks. Only 9 left. Hooray!

Here are some pictures of some of the activities in the Children's Village. The kids had drumming lessons by some of the Psalters, and they loved it. Kindred even enjoyed watching it despite his fear of loud noises. (He apparently felt safe in the arms of our friend John.)

These are the "Oreo" cows that are on the farm.

We left Tennessee on Saturday evening and stopped in a hotel in Marion, Virginia for the night. Then we left and drove (through the torrents of rainfall) to Fairfax, VA, to visit some long lost friends, the Fannings, and their bursting family. (They have 3 sons-- twin 2yr old boys and an 11month old boy!) That visit was wonderful but short. We didn't get to stay long with them, deciding to get on the road and get home around 10pm. It was a really good thing we did, because it turned out several parts of our route home were impassable by morning.

But here's Kindred wishing more than anything someone would just put him in his own bed. He loves Lamby, but there's a limit to how comfortable even she can make you.

In fact, he was so happy to be home that he had to be awakened at 11am this morning!