A Getaway

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent last week at my parents' house.  The girls were amazing during the 10-hour drive, both on the way down and on the way home.  I do love the portable DVD player for a long road trip!

We had a great time visiting with my parents.  As usual, the girls were mesmerized by my mom.  She's the Baby/Toddler/Preschooler whisperer, I swear.  Lass didn't even need any warm-up time this visit, which made it even more fun.  We made a few trips to the library where my mom works.  The first trip was so I could get on the internet for a bit to check out some restaurants and hotels in nearby Nashville (more on this below).

How cute is this little one typing??

The second trip to the library was for story time.  The theme for the week was the letter "P," so my mom read "The Princess and the Dragon," we did puzzles, ate popsicles and pretzels,

and played with puppets.  There was even a Puppet Parade, which really made an impression on Lass, as she continued to grab my mom's puppets and say, "Mach, mach, mach," repeating the parade over and over at my parents' house for the rest of our visit.

The girls had a blast with these ancient laundry baskets.  The things Grandma comes up with...

And I captured a few photos of their attempts at making pouty faces.

The weather was beautiful and warm, so we got to play outside.  The girls loved picking up rocks, examining moss on the ground and playing in the leaves and dirt.  Lass may have even eaten a little bit of dirt.  But just a little.

She was very interested in the birds.   She kept saying, "Buhdie!  Buhdie, ah doo? (Birdie, where are you?)" and looking in vain for some birds to fly by.

Miss found this rock and named it her "Little Cutie."  She insisted we bring it into the house and then that we bring it home.

It has been carried around with other important friends like Oopsie Bear, Toodie, and Twinkers.

Very special indeed.

One of the best things about our trip was that my husband and I actually left the girls overnight with my parents one night and went to Nashville for an overnight date (hence the internet search mentioned above).  We got a nice hotel room in Downtown Nashville, went out to dinner, sort of slept in (only until 7:15, but my mom said Lass was up at 6 that morning), lounged around and got an awesome room service breakfast, and then went to visit my brother and his family for a bit, including my brand new nephew who is just 4 weeks old.  It was such a relaxing little getaway.  I have never left the girls overnight before, except Miss when I was in the hospital having Lass.  It was kind of weird, but also kind of awesome.  My husband and I both agreed that the next time we are ready to do it again (in another 18 months or so!), we should go for two nights.  I agreed, though by the time we were getting ready to go back to my mom and dad's, I was really anxious to see the girls.  I missed them a lot.  So we'll see about two nights.  But the one night we got was fantastic (thanks again mom and dad!).  And apparently, my girls barely even noticed we were gone.  What a great practice run for when I am gone to the hospital to have Sis.

It was, again, as always, a wonderful time with my mom and dad.