Spring Break - part two

Grandma Nina wanted the girls to have their Easter Egg hunt while they were together.  They had such a good time.  Poor Elise had to wait for hours while Sophie had a marathon nap (she was sick) before they could begin.  But once she woke up, they were off to the races!!

All of my pictures were of Sophie's back side as she ran around looking for eggs.  when I stopped her and tried to force her to look at the camera this is what I got...

 

I did get her to show me one egg.

 

The next day Ann wanted arranged for it to be MY day without the kids.  So my sweet sister-in-law took me to lunch at Mimi's where I had a salmon and citrus salad (DELICIOUS).  Candice met up with us as well and brought with her a mystery envelope.  She SWEARS she doesn't know it's origin that it was just delivered to her desk at work by the receptionist.  It read, "Jessica's spending money" on the outside with $50 cash on the inside.  No one ever fessed up to giving me the money but whoever you are THANK YOU!!  So after lunch Ann and I went shopping where I picked up so fun new clothes and jewelry.  It was nice to get a break.  Thanks again Ann.

Also that morning my wonderful father called and said that he wanted to put new tires on our car before we left town.  He acted like it was something he was supposed to do, not a favor or a gift.  And would hardly accept our thanks, just said it was the right thing to do.  He told Dan that in our situation where we can't afford things like that we just have to trust the Lord will provide.  But in his position where he has more, it's his job to step in and help.  Our tires were bald and we REALLY appreciate your generosity Dad.  Thanks for always taking good care of me, I love you.

That afternoon we enjoyed a trip to an INDOOR (very important) pool with our good friends the Cieslaks.  Sophie is a little fish, or so she thinks... she can't swim but doesn't mind going under water and sinking.  She smiles the whole time she drowns.  Tessa was a little unsure about the water but never cried.  She was in the water for a total of probably 2 min before I wrapped her up in a warm towel.  Didn't even get her hair wet.

Notice anything strange about the names on this paper?  Well, besides the N I had to photoshop on for Candice? (It fell off.)  Look at the 3rd name down... Candice and I weren't in the mood to talk about politics one night so we ended up playing with these letters instead.  We couldn't find another D for Daniel, and decided Maniel was the best variation of his name.  Dan really likes it and thinks everyone should say his name that way.

I am happy to report that the drive went much better than expected! I feel a little guilty for assuming Sophie would be so terrible.  Because she did AWESOME.  Our portable DVD player broke before we were even out of Denver, during the introduction to WALL-E.  I wanted to just turn around and go home I was sure we were DONE for!!  But Sophie just played with her toys and didn't throw one tantrum!!  What a miracle.  It took us 9 hours with a 1 hour stop for dinner at McDonald's (yummy, I know).  Tessa just slept the whole time we were on the freeway except for right after dinner when she cried for about 30 min until she fell asleep again.  I was surprised, however, that Sophie didn't fall asleep until we were to Echo reservoir which is about 45 min out of SL at 11pm!  But at least she wasn't screaming.  Our timing wasn't quite as good on the way home so we had to stop twice to feed Tessa but still made it in 9 hours without any tantrums but with a new DVD player. :)

We are so glad we made the trip out, it's always great to see family and get spoiled a bit!  Visiting makes us want to move back home when Dan's done with school.  But who knows what we will do?  We'll just have to wait and see.  Don't you hate waiting?  I do sometimes, but at others I have learned to find joy in the journey.