Reunion weekend, and cinnamon rolls.

When we were young and in love, we thought nothing of spending most of the weekend driving hours upon hours to see each other, we loved discovering new places, and we made spontaneous plans at the drop of a hat for things like a concert in another state or a friend throwing a theme party at the last minute.

Things have definitely changed. We've been on the road nonstop for over a month of weekends now, and Finley's been an absolute trooper about it. She's really taken to mornings in hotel rooms, in fact, where she likes to demand an early breakfast in her PJs and then roll around on immaculate white sheets with dirty fingers.

But the late nights (we have to drive while the little car seat terrorist sleeps) and early mornings and living out of suitcases has taken its toll on all of us. We're swimming in laundry and Finley's off her routine in a big way. She wailed for breakfast at 5 this morning and smashed blueberries into the carpet before crawling back into bed with Dad. Must be nice. Some of us had to clean up said blueberries and go to work.

This is Finley and Seth Thursday morning after a long, trafficky, late night haul up 95 for a long weekend of West Point Reunion Fun. 

It was Seth's ten year, and plans had been in the works for months. We had been on the fence about taking Finley but had read that the event was kid-friendly. It was. Ish. I'm still not sure whether taking her with was the best plan, and both Seth and I definitely had to do a lot of juggling, but she did seem to enjoy herself.

Seth spent most of the weekend drinking copiously, golfing, and catching up with friends and acquaintances. He did make time to address the prep school, which I thought was pretty cool. 

I was not thrilled to essentially have fulltime baby duty but tried to be good-natured about it, as the big guy doesn't get the chance to hang out with friends (or other adults) very often these days. That and a ten year reunion is apparently a pretty big deal at West Point. (Did USC even have one? I seriously have no idea.)

Finley and I had a lovely day of hiking and picnicking at Bear Mountain, the site of many happy childhood memories (and also my first ultramarathon). We made a pilgrimage to the Walt Whitman statue for Mom and ogled the snakes at the trailside zoo. Finley, for some reason, loves snakes.

And I got my fall foliage! Which basically salvaged the looonnngggg weekend for me. Well, that and the gorgeous (and kid-friendly) lakehouse we were staying at with friends. I got in a beautiful run around the lake on Saturday, Seth and Finley enjoyed breakfast with a view Sunday, 

and somewhere in there we even got in a little bit of family time, during which Finley got to try her first power wheels 

 and watch her Dad go for a swim.

Thanks in large part to the Army Football Club's "A" clubroom in the stadium, home of beer, delicious brownies, and places for babies to crawl on the ground, we all survived Finley's first Army football game too. (In bonus news: it was a win!)

She was still a handful.

The reunion survived, we eventually had to leave our idyllic lakehouse behind (Finley and I want one!) and tackle the long drive home. Of course we made a long stop at a Children's Museum. Finley decided that she much preferred the Virginia version to New Jersey's. We concur.

And now we're tackling a new week. Seth has a midterm Wednesday and we need to nail down details of his promotion ceremony next week. Our house is basically covered in laundry- mostly clean- and the grocery situation is pitiful. We're definitely ready for the upcoming weekend- finally!- at home.

In the meantime, there are two photos of the week. The first one is of a hilarious hotel room incident Thursday morning. We were both exhausted and trying to muster the energy to get up with Finley, who had just finished wreaking havoc on the Holiday Inn breakfast room and throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her have a cinnamon roll. I set her down on the floor for a minute, she crawled around to Seth's side of the bed, and things suddenly went silent. I assumed that she had found a shoe or something to play with. I heard Seth, who I thought was sleeping, chuckle, and jumped up to find that Finley had grabbed the cinnamon roll I had brought him from the top of the nightstand (somehow) and stuffed it in her mouth. Icing side first, naturally. It's hard to tell from this picture of the aftermath, but it was hysterical.

 The second one is funny only because it is so ridiculous. It is of Finley, pretending to be a good baby in the car. This did not last long.