Spring Break

Sara and I spent the first part of our spring break week in MN visiting Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie and Adam.  Guess who forgot to bring a camera?  That's right.  So until I get my hands on the pictures my mom took, I'll just have to tell you about our trip.  The weather was unseasonably beautiful: sunny skies, temps in the high 60s and low 70s ... this is pretty remarkable considering we're talking about a place full of people who wouldn't blink at three feet of snow in March.  We enjoyed hearing Stampede play, visiting the Como Zoo, making Easter cookies, swimming at the Y (just Sara and Grandpa ... no suits for this lady with a belly just yet), starting a new puzzle (that I sadly had to leave incomplete), and just relaxing (and possibly watching "Tangled" somewhere between four and six times) at G & G's house.

After their Christmas cookie baking spree back in December, Sara requested that Auntie make Easter cookies with her this trip.  As you can imagine, Auntie happily agreed and then promptly became responsible for the bulk of the work, but Sara enjoyed decorating and was quite proud of the finished products.  Melissa has always been the family baker, and I love it that Sara has made the association and knows it's special to spend time baking with her.

At one point during the trip, we all Skyped with Grandma Lou.  Someone made reference to Sara "dancing up a storm" at the Stampede show, and Sara's immediate reaction was, "What storm?  What storm are you talking about?"  It made us all laugh ... she doesn't quite have a handle on her figurative language yet, but clearly picked up on a word she knows in one context but didn't understand in another.  Throughout the visit, we also laughed frequently at Sara's references to Grandpa's lack of hair.  Driving to the zoo, she was sitting right behind him and piped up with, "Grandpa, you need some ha-er."  She said hair with such a funny emphasis, and since we all laughed and repeated her, she spent the rest of the trip randomly telling Todd that he needs "ha-er" (with greater exaggeration each time) to make us all laugh.  It worked every time.

Usually for the last 24 hours of any MN visit, I have a pit in my stomach about the impending goodbye.  It always just plain sucks.  (I don't like that word, but it works here.)  At the airport today I kept thinking to myself, I hate these goodbyes.  (Also not a nice word, but it is fitting here.  Sara is really into mean and nice words right now, and she would tell me I shouldn't use it, which might be why I'm having a guilty conscience about even typing it.)  Anyway, my mind inevitably drifted to the funny - because it's easier than the sad - and remembered Lloyd.  Now show me someone who doesn't laugh at this, and I'll show you a super boring person who obviously didn't spend most of the mid-90s watching "Dumb and Dumber" on repeat (with an occasional "Clueless" viewing thrown in for good measure) with their besties.

With part of our week remaining, the following items are on the agenda: a little exercise at the rec center, a severely needed grocery run, loads of laundry, a stop at Home Depot for paint samples for Sara's new room, a visit to Charming Charlie for inexpensive-yet-cute green jewelery to wear to a St. Patty's Day wedding, a St. Patty's Day wedding (obvious?), an OB appointment, and hopefully a trip to Half Price Books.  If we're feeling extra ambitious, we might throw in a trip to Rooms to Go, but I'm not counting on that.  It is spring break, after all.  Hope you're having a good one (if you get one), or at the very least, enjoying the beautiful weather that seems to be sharing its wealth a little bit of everywhere.