on the road again

the time came for the dreaded business trip.  that's just part of daddy's job, though, so we try to figure out how to make the best of the situation.  we just feel lucky that this time we get to tag along as far as papaw and mamaw's house!

plans and more plans were made.  mama started to pack the bags.  then, plans changed and we left 3 days earlier than we had originally planned.  packing became a little more intense, and we tried to knock last minute things off the list as quickly as possible.

mama had 2 awesome little helpers gathering this and that for the bags.  a little incentive never hurts, and thing 1 knew that as soon as things were packed and loaded that we'd head east.  they were soooooo excited to spend a couple days with papaw and mamaw - without mom and dad.  actually, thing 1 was VERY excited, and thing 2 thought she'd rather go with mommy. 

i hear that there were trips to the "orange pop store," and mama got to do a lil solo shopping:

 i ended up with the gray ones, and they are soooo comfy!

this mama found that she has learned to shop in high gear with munchkins in tow, so the easton mall was completely covered in just a couple of hours even with no kiddos.  i had a really hard time slowing down and just relaxing, but it was great to just bop into a fitting room and try something on without handing out snacks, picking up trash, finding a toy, settling a squabble... 

the outlying stores were fun too, and it was wierd to be out shopping during naptime.  a good kind of wierd.  :)

because i was such an efficient shopper the previous day, and i had seen an archivers - that became my new plan for my second day.  i had planned to do a little scrapbooking in the hotel room, but archivers is my favorite scrapbook store EVER!  their workroom is free if it's free there's no class in session during the day, so i settled in for a few hours.  ahhhh.

and what a treat to have lunch w/ the hubby!  he picked me up and we had a pretty awesome lunch at the mall.

in the evening, we enjoyed dinner with some special friends at a downtown german restaurant followed by a walk to a nearby book store and thru the park.  that book store was like no other we'd ever seen, and we brought home a new copy of the little engine that could for thing 1.

even though being apart can be rough, it's good for all of us.  well, maybe not daddy.  he's working a bunch and probably not having that much fun.  but right now, i'm just going to be glad i got to spend some time with him and the kids got to have some special grandparent time. 

we'll see how these next few weeks go, and how thankful we all are at the end of it.  :)