Dreams 4/5

I was home (but it was Mom and Dad's house), and we were noticing that things kept changing around when we would leave the house, leading us to believe that someone was breaking in, or worse, living in our basement.  I had noticed some weird movement in the cracks of the floorboards (it was a dream-- my mom and dad don't have cracks in their floorboards!), so I asked one of the Cederlund girls who were there to go down there and walk through that area so I could see exactly where someone would be if they were moving around down there.  Haha, sacrifice the 10-year-old, I guess!  Then all of a sudden, I was at the top of the stairs with all of my Preston cousins and Shay, trying to figure things out, when we noticed a man coming through one of the basement windows.  Everyone bolted upstairs except for me and Shay, and I had something in my hand that I chucked at the guy, hitting him right in the forehead.  Then he was coming in through another window, and had a gun pointed at Shay.  I screamed, then all of a sudden he was behind me, lifting the back of my shirt up with his gun.  I thought for a second, then swung around and elbowed him right in the gut!

Then I woke up, only to realize I had (in real life) just elbowed the snot out Skip's forehead.  It was hard enough to wake him up yelling "Ow!", and you know how hard it is to wake Skip up.  I felt really bad...

Went East to visit relatives, both present and in the beyond...

Skip and I had talked about trying to get out to see his grandma and grandpa Cerow sooner rather than later (they are pushing 90 and not in the greatest health).  Well, I was talking to my mom and she said that she and my dad had a road trip in the works to go out to Buffalo and Seneca Falls to visit where my dad's family had lived, so we decided to combine the trips and go together.

Saturday the 26th, Preston and I got up and finished packing while we waited for Skip to get home from work.  He got home, showered, then we stopped first in Sturtevant to drop Scotch off at the Meshenkys.  We are extremely grateful that they offered to watch him for the week, especially considering I have been blogging and Facebooking about how evil Scotch has been lately.  We dropped him off, then went to CL to meet my parents.  We were "officially" on the road by about 12:30.  We planned to make it to Toledo that night, which we did by about 6.  Mom had brought steaks which we cooked up for dinner, then a little swim and bedtime.

On Sunday we got up and headed to Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and museum, which was a special request of Skip's.  It was actually a really cool museum, and the building itself was a work of art, right on the shore of Lake Erie.  Preston was really good throughout the museum as well-- you can tell there's music running through that boy's blood!

The museum.  Pretty cool.

Our little family.





The boys at the R&R HOF museum

We left the museum and made it to Buffalo that afternoon.  Dad had his heart set on the Buffalo Brew Pub for dinner, after having eaten there a few times in years past.  Apparently we had eaten there as a family after a couple of the funerals out there, but I don't remember that... Anyways, the meal was great, and we got to taste Yuengling beer for the first time, which was cool (not to mention the home-brewed beers of the pub itself).  The Buffalo wings were pretty darn awesome, and the Beef on Weck was waaay salty, but good beef.  Preston had ketchup for dinner...

Monday we had a leisurely morning, then got on the road for a few stops in Buffalo.  We visited my dad's great aunt and uncle's home where he used to spend time as a kid, then drove past the convent that his other great aunt used to live at.  We have some affectionate funny stories from that convent.  What is it with our family and knowing so many nuns?!  We also went to visit the cemetery where all those old relatives are buried, which was sufficiently morbid, but neat to see where they all are.  Anyways, we had lunch at Jacobi's, a really good little Italian place we had eaten at for the various visits in the past, and it was really good.  Great pizza, ravioli, and wings of course.  We got back on the road, and stopped through Seneca Falls to see my great grandparents' old house.  My dad said it hadn't changed in the almost 30 years since he last saw it.  Pretty cool.

Preston looking for headstones



Sister Mary Thomas, my dad's aunt (she was one of my favorites when I was little)



Skip: "Are we done at the cemetery yet?"

We got to Syracuse that evening, and all needed a little detox from the Buffalonian food we had been eating, so we found a Chinese-Japanese buffet restaurant in town.  Sounds gross, but it was $9.99 for all you can eat Chinese and sushi-- can't complain about that! Oh, and $.99 beers, so that was pretty perfect. 

Tuesday was "Visit the Cerows" Day, so Skip, Preston and I drove up to Watertown while my mom and dad stayed back at the hotel.  We had a wonderful visit with Grandma Alice and Grandpa Bob, along with Skip's uncle John and aunt Ellie.  They are really all the sweetest people, albeit very quiet and conservative.  It was nice to have Preston to keep the mood light!  After a couple of hours, though, Preston started to run a fever (we had seen this coming with a cough for the past day...), so we needed to head out.  It was sad to leave the family, because we really aren't sure if we will get out there again to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but I know they loved the visit.  And I was glad that they got to meet Preston (and me!).  It really was special.  Not going to lie that it made me miss my grandparents who Preston never got to meet... :(



John, Ellie, Skip, Grandpa, Grandma, and a very tired little boy





John, Ellie, Grandma and Preston




Preston and his Great Grandpa (he was ready for a nap...and some tylenol)



Preston with his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa



Preston with John and Ellie

 We got back down to Syracuse in time to relax a little while before dinner, then met Skip's uncle Ron, aunt Beth and cousin Adam out for (again) Japanese.  We had such a great time out with them, they are wonderful folks (I have kept in touch with them a little more over the years since we have met them a few times).  However, as we were ending our meal, I was horsing around with Preston when all of a sudden he started throwing up... literally all over the place (i.e. my leg, Mom's shoes, the floor...).  He was totally fine before and after, but we think it was his way of getting all of the congestion up from his coughing.  Poor baby.  We got him all cleaned up, and still managed to close the place down-- we stayed 'til almost 10pm.  It was very fun, and wonderful to get a chance to catch up with the family.





Preston with Ron, Beth and Adam



Goofing with Ron



The whole group

Wednesday was just a driving day, broken up by another little baby-puking stint in Cleveland... poor guy.  This time was all over his car seat, though, so thank God we were staying at hotels that had laundry facilities!  (All Residence Inns... my mom got a bajillion Marriott points this week!).  We got Armenian food for takeout, and it was really good, since we were pretty much rich-fooded out.



We got back to Crystal Lake on Thursday, then packed our car to go get Scotch.  Meshenkys said he was really great all week, and that he was a test for them to see if the kids could handle a dog.  Hey, I say if anyone can pass having Scotch for a week, they can handle anything!  We got back up to MKE by about 5:30, and just vegged.  It really was a great road trip and I'm glad we got to visit with the family (both alive and dead...).  I hope we get a chance in the relatively near future to get out there again!