The Pioneer Woman Weekend

Brace yourself people, this is going to be a long post!

This past weekend Nic, Remy and I ventured down to the cities for an overnight trip. The reason being; The Pioneer Woman, who recently had a book come out and is on a book tour, was going to have a book signing at the Mall of America. Both of my sisters, along with myself, love her blog and although my sister, Anna, had a less than successful attempt at meeting The Pioneer Woman at the Denver book signing (lets just say it involved her two little boys and a very single, very childless, very rude lady at the event) Tina and I were determined to meet The Pioneer Woman. I didn't actually have a book to sign but I thought I would just get a piece of paper signed or something...more on that later!

This is the first overnight trip we have taken since before Remy turned 1. In the past he has been a horrible traveler. He generally does ok in the car but refuses to sleep anywhere but at home, in his own bed. Because he is 16 months we were hoping it would go better.

So with hopes high we set off around 5:30 Friday night. Remy screamed the whole way to Alexandria. I kid you not, THE WHOLE WAY. Granted he had a rough day, I left him at his aunt's house for the morning, he had a super late nap because I didn't get home until 1:30 and he woke up only 45 minutes before we had to strap him in the car seat for the long drive. But he had just eaten, he had plenty to drink, we had all sorts of fun toys for him and still screamed. the. whole. way.

In desperation we went to Walmart in Alexandria to get some kids DVD's. We had along the portable DVD player so that we could play Remy's bedtime music but we had no DVD's along. I had thought about bringing some but we have absolutely no kids DVD's because Remy refuses to watch tv for any amount of time. But, since he was strapped in the car we thought he would have no choice but to watch a DVD and hopefully it would keep his screaming to a minimum.

At the Super Walmart in Alexandria they have a game area.
Remy drove a car beside an incredible creepy monkey.

Here he is looking innocent. Like he is incapable of screaming.

Long story short, he watched a DVD, slept part of the way and then proceeded to not go to sleep until midnight after screaming for 45 minutes straight and a drive in the car. He woke up three times in the night and was up for the day at 7. I'm guessing we haven't hit the age where traveling is easy with him.

We stayed at Scott and Wendy's house. They live next door to Brett Favre, we didn't see him but I guess he borrowed their ladder to decorate their Christmas tree or something.

Remy had lots of fun playing with Wendy

and with all of the My Little Ponies.

After a quick trip to Ikea (where I got the most amazing deal EVER, more on that in another post!) we headed over to the MOA to meet Tina so we could stand in line to meet The Pioneer Woman. Nic had agreed to watch Remy, despite the fact Remy (and Nic) were running on very little sleep and it was past dinner time and nap time. Yes, I know, I am lucky! So while Nic went off to find some food for Remy, Tina and I met up with Molly and Melissa to stand in line.

This is a fraction of the people there.

Ree walked right past us and I got a very fuzzy picture of her walking out of the hallway with the security guards who were filming for a reality show. Since the picture didn't really turn out and I have an intense loathing for the security guards (more on that later) I posted this one instead...Look its her hair!!

Here she is answering questions.

She was very sweet and funny although a lot more subdued in real life than on her blog. I'm assuming that is because she was talking in front of hundreds of people.

When Marlboro Man showed up with her two little boys you should have heard the ladies scream!
I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but her little boys started choking each other.

Here are the little guys signing books.

They were adorable!

And Marlboro Man signing books.

While we were waiting in line (5 hours people!!), little Micah kept us entertained.

Isn't he adorable?!! He cuddled with me which made me so incredibly happy. He spent the better part of the last few hours we were there projectile spitting up on Tina. Other than that he was an extremely content baby and I can't believe how good he was!

I think Tina will be expanding more on this story, but at some point during the wait I went to get a diaper bag a poor lady had left on the bench by where we were standing. She had two or three little kids with her so I offered to go get it and the security guards jumped in my face and yelled at me because they were bringing a bomb sniffing dog to sniff it. Stupid reality shows have to create so much drama.

Meanwhile Nic has been watching Remy for the last 5 hours, although Remy did nap for a little while, and he brought Remy down to me when we got close so that I could have him in the picture with Ree. This whole time I have been standing in line without a book of my own to sign. I did have an extra book that Melissa had brought because you had to have a book to meet her, but it was not for me. Nic felt so bad that I spent that whole time waiting and did not have a book of my own so he surprised me and bought me a copy!

Here I am meeting Ree, I immediately launched into the sad story of Anna not getting to meet her.

She apologized and said the room in Denver had been really small and that she was so sorry she didn't get to meet her.

I took away Remy's nook right before the picture.

He was not impressed.

After the book signing we went to Chipotle for supper, stopped at Cabela's on the way out of town and Remy slept the whole way home!

The last two nights he has been waking up in the night. I'm not sure if its because he is teething or because he is still traumatized by the trip but I am hoping that he will stop that soon.
Really it was a fun trip, Remy did AMAZING for the amount of sleep he had and Nic was so sweet the whole time I couldn't have done the trip without his help!!