Just Us Girls

The girls and I took our first solo road trip over the weekend, and headed to Des Moines to see Grammy and Grandad for a few days. Aunt Mal had Friday off, so she met us there as well. Matt stayed here to work ridiculous hours catching up on some research and presentations so that he can feel more relaxed about our upcoming anniversary trip.
On Thursday, I picked Jillian up from camp and we hit the road. Adrienne unfortunately fell asleep on the way to get Jillian, so had trouble going back to sleep once we were on the road. Jillian watched some shows on the iPad, Adrienne looked at some books, both slept here and there, and they ate a snack. I put the pedal to the metal, determined not to stop, and we made it in exactly 3 hours.
On Friday, Jillian had a special afternoon with Grandad and Aunt Mal at a local water park. She had the time of her life splashing, floating, and sliding around the park.

When they returned, she took a little rest on the couch before dinner--you can see she was pretty much toast!

On Saturday, we headed down to the Des Moines farmer's market. It was by far the best farmer's market I've seen, with blocks and blocks of ethnic food, fresh produce, music, and handmade goods. Adrienne took it all in via stroller as Grandad pushed her among the crowds.

Jillian tried her hand at hula hooping, made a "grass buddy" at the Pioneer craft station, and cautiously checked out an enormous "puppy".

 When we were sufficiently hot and hungry, we stopped at one of G and G's favorite downtown lunch spot--a German brat haus. Grandad didn't mess around and enjoyed the foot-long brat.

We headed home so the girls could rest, and then Aunt Mal and I went out shopping together for the afternoon.
On Sunday, the girls enjoyed lots of time playing in the sprinkler and baby pool, and we enjoyed a great steak dinner. Adrienne became hooked on a post-dinner popsicle treat during our visit, and I took a couple cute video clips of her excitement.

We loaded up on Monday at nap time, and though the girls never napped at the same time (or for very long), we still managed to make it home without stopping and without much drama in the back seat. I'm so proud of them, and appreciate that they made the trip easy on me....we just might do it again sometime!

Before I forget--here are a few funnies from Jillian over the weekend:

-As I tucked her into bed the first night, she kept telling me she was scared, and was a bit reticent about going to bed in general. I reminded her she had her "friends" (the 2 stuffed animals that made the cut), and then told her that God was watching over her to keep her safe at night. She said, "Does God live here, Mom? I thought he lived at school". Me: "Why do you think God lives at school?" J: "Because the teacher said I was in God's house!" (preschool is in our church :) )

-Grammy and Grandad graciously let me sleep in each morning and took care of the girls. On Friday, Jillian determined I had slept too long when she said, "How was your day, Mom? You've been sleeping all day:" When you are up before 6 most days, I guess 8 a.m. really is sleeping the day away.

-After I put Jillian in her bed one night, I went back in the room to get my stuff to take a shower. She said, "Mom, you need to leave. I need my quiet time alone". Hmmm....wonder where she's heard that before??

-Jillian enjoyed reading some of our old books while she was there. One of them was on having good manners. At the end of the story the author asks if you can think of how to have good manners. Jillian promptly says, "Be Politeful".

-And my favorite...as she ran in front of a fan in the hallway to head down the stairs, I heard her casually say,  "Excuse me, wind".