Quick Trip to Ohio.

Pat's last grandmother (his dad's mom) passed away and we made the quick trip to Ohio for her services on Mon-Tuesday. We are tired but it is always good to catch family. Too bad these trips end up being so short and spurred by funerals, but it has given us contact with family that we might not otherwise see.

Monday's departure time of 2pm became 4:30, and was postponed after our cat showed symptoms that required a vet visit before we left.

Uncle Mike, who is really Pat's great uncle on his mom's side, turned 80 this past year. He drove the 1 1/2 hours in and spent the afternoon with all of us, snuggling with Elliot and talking to him. I so wished I would have thought to bring out the camera for the interaction-- it was so cute. He is one of the family members who we rarely see, but because of the grandmas passing in October and now in March, we were able to catch up with him each time.

Elliot did pretty well, considering the jostling in and out of the car, the no-napping, and lack of play time. He got plenty of attention to keep his mood up for most of the time!

He did have one meltdown in the car, and we were on the Ohio Turnpike... next service plaza, 26 miles. This doesn't sound that bad, until you consider that I already tried a bottle and had sung Itsy Bitsy Spider plenty of times. I was relieved when I saw the next green sign until I read that it said 12 more miles! Really!? I started a rendition of 100 Bottles of Milk on the Wall, Pat joined in, it worked good enough, and we actually got down to 35 bottles of milk by the time the 12 miles were up. He just needed out of the car for a bit and Pat got him to eat.

Once again, we failed to get good photos of the cousins, etc. That's hard to think about at a funeral, of course.

Work starts in one week. I've got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.