sweet home: Long weekend get away

I am attempting to blog while vacuuming. I am having trouble getting the posts to actually publish, so hopefully this one will work. The kids didn't have school Monday for Colombus Day and Tuesday for parent teacher conferences, so we decided to hit the road. Jackie and Brian and their kids have just moved to the area so it was the perfect excuse to hit the road and make a visit to our old stomping grounds. We left Thursday after school and arrived at around 11 pm, the drive was about 9 hours.

Friday we met a bunch of friends for lunch at Little Donkey. It was delicious as usual. Then we had to make a stop at Steel city pops to try the new fall flavors! Pumpkin was the winner. We visited friends in the afternoon and aiden got to go to one of her old soccer team's games. They were so excited to see her and so surprised. She got to warm up with them and sit on the bench for the game.

Saturday morning I got up early to run long. I went with my friend Lisa who runs with a group. It was nice to have company on my long run and to have water stops along the way. I wish I could run with her more often but I am way slower than her. Later in the morning we met up with friends at Edgewood Elementary to play. Court brought Emi late and she came with pizza for everyone! It was great and everyone got nice and dirty. Jackie and Brian were able to go look at some houses while we played and then met us at home with yummy food from Saw's soul kitchen. I had what is probably my favorite thing ever: pork and greens. It is cheese grits topped with turnip greens then topped who BBQ pork and onion rings. Amazing.

We all enjoyed our time with little baby Caroline. She is the quietest, sweetest baby. Reminds me of cate.

Sunday we went to church at our old ward then got together with friends again for desserts that evening. It was so fun. I really love and miss my Birmingham friends.

Jackson enjoyed playing camp director as he and Abby lined up and ran down the hall over and over again. He would show her right where to stand, yell "g. I. Joe!" and race down the hall. It was so cute, they just laughed and laughed.

Monday was a holiday so j and b went to look at some more houses. I took the kids to get lunch food at Walmart and didn't get any advice or comments, many stares though!

Then we went to a park and played until lunch time at Hall kent. A was looking forward to lunch with her old pals and we almost didn't get to go. There are lots of new staff who do to know us and said she couldn't go on her own. Luckily, j and b got done early looking at houses and I went with a to lunch.

After school we took a to Caroline's house to play and stopped by the melby's on the way to say bye one more time.

While a was with her pal we went for a hike and ran the last of our energy out.we headed out early Tuesday morning in order to get home in time for parent teacher conferences. It only took us 8 1/2 hours to get home.

It was such a fun trip! We loved seeing our cousins and friends in one stop. I didn't think my kids would ever want to leave. And the didn't, but we had to go.

The only bad part about our trip was that my eyes got swollen again! And even my max dose antihistamines did nothing. Here they are Monday morning: