Vacation

Riding the Elephant
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma.

We had a lovely vacation and I've uploaded some pics. This one is from the zoo today.

To start with some background, last Thursday I came down with a horrible cold. I was super congested and stuffy on Thursday and Friday. Friday we closed early and after leaving around 3:00 p.m., I came home and started packing for our trip.

Saturday morning we got up early and left for the airport around 7:00 a.m. My head was starting to feel better, but I now had a cough and was losing my voice. The flights were fairly uneventful. The first leg was from Columbus to Minneapolis and Grace napped about an hour. We had about a 3 hour layover, so we took our time walking to the gates and had a leisurely lunch at TGI Friday's. The second leg got us into Des Moines at around 2:30 p.m. (central time). Mom, Dad and Jeremy met us at the airport. From there we split up. Eric went with Jeremy and they stopped by an army surplus store to get camo's for a paintball game. Grace and I went with Mom and Dad and we made a stop at a Super Wal-Mart on the way back to Pella. At Wal-Mart we stocked up with groceries for the week plus some essentials we decided not to pack (diapers, baby soap, baby shampoo, swim diapers, etc.) Grandpa also got a little carried away and got Grace lots of toys to play with at their house. We got home, had dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Sunday morning we all went to church. After church, Eric and Jeremy headed to a paintball game/match that Jeremy had organized with some friends of his. The rest of us, went home and took a bit of a nap. Grace and Grandpa also played in the pool and played with bubbles outside. The boys got back in the late afternoon (Eric complete with bruises) and we headed over to the church 4th of July picnic. There had to be at least 200 people there, and it was a good time. There was lots of good food and some fun things for the kids. There was a bouncey castle, temporary tattoos, necklace making, not to mention a playground and a horse! Unfortunately around 8 pm it started to rain and the fireworks got cancelled. We headed home and put Grace to bed.

Monday, Eric got his fishing license and spent a good portion of the day fishing. I ended up going to the doctor about my cold/sinus infection and got an antibiotic that helped clear me up tremendously. I can't remember what else we did all day, but it probably involved another trip to Wal-Mart. Also, in the evening, Eric and I took a drive on the 4-wheelers. It was lots of fun.

Tuesday was the 4th of July. We had Grace take an early nap, so she'd be ready for the festivities. After lunch we headed downtown in Pella. They had lots of activities in the town square inlcuding mini-golf, a frog-jumping contest, and more. The main event was the parade. It lasted about 2 hours, but we had a really good time. Grace figured out that they were throwing candy. She had so much sugar! She drank almost all of Grandpa's strawberry smoothy. She had parts of at least 3 suckers, 2 tootsie rolls, plus some of Grandma's cotten candy. Wow! Once the parade was over, we went home and let Grace take an afternoon nap, so we could go watch fireworks. We went to a friend of my parents house and watched them. Grace was up late that night!

Wednesday we stopped by my Mom's office to see her coworkers and a Christian book store. In the evening, Eric went fishing again, and Mom and I went to her weekly bible study. Grandpa stayed home to give Grace her bath and put her to bed. I think he was a little nervous, but it all turned out all right. She was clean and asleep when we got home!

Thursday morning, Eric and I drove to a neighboring town rented some clubs and played a round of golf. I haven't golfed with Eric since college and it was really nice to get to play 18 holes with my hubby. My Mom watched Grace and we just enjoyed ourselves. It was a little expensive by the time we paid for the cart, clubs, and green fees, plus balls and tees, but totally worth it. I love golfing. Seriously, I could play a couple times a week if I had the time. We got home around 1 p.m and took quick showers. Grace was napping. Around 2 we left on a double date with my Mom and Dad. We took Grace to one of the teens from Mom and Dad's church to babysit and we went to Des Moines. We watched Superman Returns and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We got home around 9 pm and found that Grace had been an angel. Awww.

Friday, I slept until almost 8:30 am and then had to start packing. It took me almost until 11 to figure out how to get all of our stuff back in the bags and I ended up having to borrow a bag from my brother, to get it all in. Funny how you always come home with more than you take. We left around 11 for the airport and Grace took a little nap on the way. Our flight was supposed to leave at 1:30, but was delayed until 2:25. After fighting sleep on the plane, Grace slept for the final 45 minutes of the flight to Detroit. Our delay, shortened our lay-over to only 2 1/2 hours, but that was still plenty of time to get a nice dinner at Chili's and walk to our gate. Grace ran around for a while, I think she had to keep moving, so she wouldn't fall asleep. She was very good on our short flight back to Columbus. We got in around 8:30 p.m. and by the time we collected our baggage and Eric got the car, it was after nine. Grace didn't get to bed until almost 10 p.m. She was such a tired girl.

Today, Grace slept until after 9 (thank you!). After she was up and dressed for a while, we decided to go ahead and head to the zoo. We were planning on meeting Will, Samara and Ava, after lunch, but Grace was dying to get out of the house, so we left early. We visited Asia Quest, took a carosel ride, and grabbed some lunch before meeting up with friends. Once we met up with them, we did another carosel ride, and visited some more animals until Grace finally fell asleep in the stroller around 3 pm (hmmm, maybe because I didn't give her a nap!) That was our cue to head home and she napped until 5 pm. After that, Grace and went to the grocery store then came home and had dinner. By 7:30 p.m. she was acting very sleepy, so we headed up to bed.

Tomorrow we have church and a softball game and then it's back to the real world. I really needed this time off and had a great time. Next week will be totally crazy. Monday I have a 9:00 internal meeting, a team lunch, a 2:45 p.m. Dr. appt, and class. Tuesday I have class again, and then Wednesday and Thursday I have a business trip to Milwaukee. Back to the grind!