So we just said goodbye to Nana
after spending a long weekend with her and I have to say this was one of the most
fun visits we've had with her! It was VERY busy, but with lots of fun stuff. So
here is a long recap of the time we had with her:
Thursday
 |
| Trying on fun headbands at Kohls |
After visiting with her for a bit,
we left to meet up with Larry at Red 8 for dinner. I've been talking to my mom nonstop
about this place since she missed her old Utah Asian food restaurant and we've
become obsessed with this one. Their orange peel chicken is seriously the
best!!
While we were eating, mom realized
she needed to get some pants because she only packed some shorts and tank tops
and we were due for some chilly weather so we made plans to take Cara with us
(Larry took Gwen since he had the other car seat base in the red car) to Kohl's
since Mom had some coupons for there. I tell you - I wanted to spend SO much
money here, even though we weren't there for me, but I walked through the
women's section (I officially feel either old or like a mom since I used to
shop in the young section, but that stuff is just too young for me now) and
found so many cute tops, but the best part was when we went to the clearance
section I found shirts that were in the women's section, but for only $3.60
(why they were in both sections, I don't know, but that's a steal of a deal)
and I found a couple sweaters that'll be so cute this winter - all 4 shirts for
only $24 (they said I saved $158 when we checked out). I was SO excited for that.
Once we got home, we just relaxed
until the bedtime. Mom was tired when the girls went down so I was able to
still get my work out in without feeling like I was missing out on time with
her.
Friday
 |
| She LOVED the carousel! |
 |
| If this isn't frame-worthy I'm not sure what is |
Friday was day at the zoo. I was
expecting us to leave early in the morning (around 9:30), but Mom wanted to
wait until after Grandma's dermatologist appointment, so we left a little later
than I had planned. Unfortunately, we ended up hitting the worst traffic ever!
It took us 90 minutes to get there and by the time we got parked and through
the ticket line (which was really backed up!) we had to eat lunch and missed
seeing the whole giraffe area.
We quickly realized we were going to
have to get one of those backpacks with a leash for Cara, which I'm not
against, but knew we might get some judgmental looks. Luckily, we found a
monkey one that was cute and since it can hold snacks or fun little activities
(like books or small toys) for her in it, it really worked out well. She kept
it on and even though she didn't love having only a small area to walk around,
she learned quickly that when it was tight she had to just turn a different
direction. That with the carrier (for Gwen) and stroller made it an easier
visit. I made sure to put Gwen in the carrier when she wasn't napping so that
others (we had a ton of kids with us) could ride in the stroller if they were
tired and Gwen could get out and see more. We also took Cara (and the older
kids) on the carousel, which Cara LOVED. She kept saying "yee-hoo"
and waving to everyone on the outside. Right before we did that, we were
walking past the amphitheater they do the bird show in and some white doves
flew out and almost ended up flying right into us. Cara thought that was funny,
but the rest of us were ducking and screaming a little bit haha.
At one point we got some ice cream.
I just got one to share with Cara and I ended up letting Gwen taste some (which
she ended up loving so much she kept grabbing for it). I was sad when I had one
last bite left (in the waffle cone - which is my favorite bite) and I went to
let Cara take a little bit of it, but she ended up taking it from me and
walking it off and finishing it on her own - guess that's #MomLife haha. Luckily,
she got to see a lot of the animals (including some cuddling crocodiles).
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the playground area all the kids were SO
tired and getting cranky
We got home around dinner time
(there was still a little bit of traffic on the way home) and we visited with
Larry (he stayed home). I asked him how it was having a whole day to himself
and he mentioned he almost had too much free time without the girls there.
Saturday
Saturday morning we had pedicure
appointment so we left girls with Larry and left to pick up Rachel and go get our
nails done. We all got pretty designs, talked the technicians’ ears off, and the
massagers felt great (except in the bum...according to mom). We finished
earlier than we expected so we decided to hit Ross before lunch (Mom liked a
jumper Tanny was wearing that she got from Ross, so she wanted to look for one
for her).
 |
| The only pics I got of pedicure time |
 |
| Mom hard at work :) |
 |
| I really like how hers turned out...isn't that how it goes? |
Ross had some great deals and I
ended up finding a couple outfits for the girls (I didn’t even go there to look)
and felt bad I didn’t get Larry anything so I found some candy that was near
the checkout that sounded good so I got that for him to share with us haha.
We finished there and headed to Red Robin
for lunch where we ate way too much. In my defense I didn’t have time for
breakfast because I was getting the girls taken care of before we left so I
loaded up on everything (including a shake, unlimited fries, and mom and I
shared two entrees), but it was so yummy and worth the after-lunch waddle haha.
Andy was getting a new car and then ended up at the wrong location, so he didn’t
show up until we were all done, but it gave us more time to visit (plus his new
car is really nice!). I thought we were going home after that, but they ended
up wanting to walk through Bed Bath & Costco, which was nice to help walk
off lunch, but I was getting antsy to relieve Larry with both girls. Luckily it
gave us an excuse to stop off at Dough Co on the way home for our Saturday night
dessert.
Once we got home we had just enough
time to rush to Lowe’s to find a grill (it is technically mom’s Father’s Day
gift to Larry, but since I want it more, I’m calling it a house gift haha). We
got that (more fun posts about new grilling adventures to come), rushed home,
grabbed some snacks (our dinner since we were still full from lunch), and then
Mom and I had a Paint Night “appointment” that was my Mother’s Day gift to her.
That was fun, but the instructor wasn’t as helpful as the other one I went to. We
had a butterfly in the picture and she started doing it without letting us know
how and when someone asked how she only told us “very carefully”. It was still
a fun Mother-Daughter date night and our paintings turned out cute still.
Luckily, we got home in time that
Larry and I could still do our Saturday Movie Date Night (we watched Radius on
Netflix – decent movie, but could’ve been longer to explain things more). It
was a good ending to a nice relaxing day…for me.
Sunday
 |
| We made it! |
Sunday we had plans to hike to the
Y. I was so excited because I had heard a few things about this hike and was
happy to get our first (and hopefully not last) hike of the year in so early in
the summer. We, of course, stopped at Smith’s on the way there to get lunch makings
(I love eating on hikes when you get to the end), let the girls nap on the
drive, got sunscreen applied and went on our way. I carried Gwen the entire
time up and down (she was facing forward and loved reaching out to feel the
tall grass), which made me feel like super mom, but poor Cara was getting beat
up a bit on the hike up (she kept trying to collect rocks and then would fall
and had too many rocks to put her hands out to stop herself) so Larry had to
carry her more than I expected (there are some STEEP switch backs on that
mountain). Even though we only made it to the bottom of the Y there were still
some great views and it felt good to be in the mountains...even if everyone
else cancelled on us. It felt good to take a break, eat our lunch (with some
yummy watermelon – the perfect hike snack when you are sweaty), fed Gwen, got
our pics, and headed down. Gwen ended up falling asleep on the way down (I
think she liked facing me, didn’t hurt she could rest her head against me). Of
course, going down like that your toes get squished towards the front of your
shoes, which hurts, (you remember me saying there were steep switch backs
right?) so Mom and I were both worried about our pedicures – lesson learned: do
pedicures AFTER the hike haha).
After the hike we went back home,
got the girls down for a nap, Mom showered and napped, and Larry rested as
well. I just ate what was left of my cookie dough while watching YouTube videos
on my phone. It was SO relaxing and peaceful (I don’t really like napping these
days so I usually find something else to do during nap time) and a great way to
unwind from the hike.
We finished Sunday with Dinner at Grandma’s.
Some people bailed, but it left more pizza for the rest of us (Gwen even got to
try tiny bites of ours). Abby decided to turn on the sprinklers so all the
young kids ran through those (makes it easy when you can just strip them down
and let them have fun). Cara LOVED that part and Gwen got to sit on the grass (just
out of the spray zone) with her toys to watch, which I think she really liked
as well (everyone was holding her for a good portion of the start of that visit
so I think she liked a chance to sit on her own). She’s such a happy, easy
going baby (when she’s not hungry). We even had some yummy cookies Cindy made.
It was the last family night so we did get some pics of the people who showed
up.
Monday
Today I woke up feeling sore all
over (just me though, not Larry or mom), but still grabbed Cara and went with mom to walk South Towne mall. Normally a
mall walk is just a “whatever” kind of way to spend time, but this time it was
more fun than usual. We got to the mall too early so we had to take our time in
the new Home Goods store, which is HUGE and had amazing things (good thing I
left my wallet in the car)! In the mall we walked through a few stores, but Bath
and Body Works was the most memorable to me. They had some great scents out and
inspired me to want to throw away all my lotions and body sprays and start over
(I think I need small bottles rather than the larger ones). They also had some
really good candles, so I think I'm going to be lighting candles in the home
more. After walking around, we ended at kid play area...Cara loved that she
finally got a place to play there but hated that she couldn't stay longer than
15 minutes to head to lunch.
We met up with Grandma at Zupas for
lunch - our tradition with Nana visits. Since I just had Cara with me
I let her play around, eat too many pez candies, snack on her lunch food, and then
just watched as she chugged my soda (root beer with raspberry flavoring). After
a while I realized she chugged too much and took it away, but apparently not
soon enough. She was making a very pained facial expression and was rubbing her
belly so I assumed she had a big bubble in her stomach. I pulled her to me to “burp”
her and she ended up throwing up all over me! Like projectile vomit! It smelled
so awful, but her pained face before it and then that being her first throwing
up incident EVER made it hilarious!!
After lunch I drove Mom to the
airport (random note: we saw a truck that tipped over on the way there) and said
our goodbyes. It’s always sad when the visits are over, but she'll be back in
November. On the way home saw another car tipped on the freeway and that was
backed up for 3 exits so apparently it was a bad day for cars on the road. I
ended up having to drive around since Cara fell asleep and she was too tired
for me to move her to bed for a decent nap, which meant sitting in thrown up on
clothes for longer than I wanted to, but worth it for her. Luckily my next
laundry load was one the clothes could go into, so I was able to wash them
quickly.
We had such a GREAT visit - I
genuinely can't wait for the next one. I even told her we might make a trip out
to her next year, depending on how the road trips go this year (we'd definitely
have to drive to her rather than flying).
No comments:
Post a Comment