Our Visit to Nana & Poppy's House

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and left the following Monday morning. It was a great trip. We managed to pack in a lot of activities while still affording the girls some quiet time almost every day.

Nana and Poppy both went to work on Wednesday so the girls and I were on our own. We ended up going to Target and then McDonald's so the girls could play on the outdoor playground. They really enjoyed it and the weather was beautiful. It was nice and hot. When we got back home my Aunts came for a short visit. Shirley and Donna are my mom's sisters. Sophia performed for them the entire time. At one point she was falling on the ground and Lilly was laughing her head off at the commotion. This continued for a long time..(smile)..making it hard to hold a conversation.

After they left I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but I quickly decided it was time for some "water play" - outside. What kid doesn't like to play in water? I apparently did... My mom saved my old sink (it's over 30 years old and she still has the Christmas photo from the year Santa brought it for me!) and the girls got to use it to wash my old, plastic dishes. They loved filling up two Nana's two watering cans using the outdoor spigot and dumping the water into the sink, or more honestly, on themselves. Once they were almost entirely wet I let them play with the hose and sprinkler. Sophia couldn't get enough!

The following day we went to Aunt Carole's pool. She gave us a tour of her new condo which is really nice. I absolutely loved the openness of the floor plan. After the tour we hopped in my car for a quick ride to the pool which, at the deepest spot, was 5 ft. Sophia could swim around no problem. Lilly liked jumping from the top of the steps into the water. Nana's arms were probably hurting after the day she had playing in the water. Aunt Carole prepared an awesome snack for us (fruit salad, Cheetos, iced tea, and Dots candy). I think Lilly ate half the bag of Cheetos! We stayed at the pool for a few hours that day and Lilly fell asleep in the car on the ride home. Boy was she tuckered out. It really was a lot of fun. We don't have access to a pool where we live so it was really nice to take advantage of Aunt Carole's pool.

My mom took the day off on Thursday and our plan was to let the girls play. We might have originally planned a trip to he playground too, but that didn't happen. Instead we had guests visiting for most of the day. My Aunt Donna and my cousin, Carly, came first thing in the morning. It was fun to catch up with Carly and get the scoop on her 17-yr old perspective. She's an amazing girl, smart, beautiful, athletic, etc. The total package if you ask me and this will be her senior year of high school. She's trying to decide on a college now. I should have plugged Allegheny.

Anyway, after they left, my mom's other sister and my namesake, Aunt Shirley, brought two of her grand kids down for some play time with Sophia and Lilly. Immediately after they left my mom's cousin called and asked to come over for an impromptu visit. We sure did get to see a lot of family in one day. It was early to bed because we had a big day ahead of us. Friday was Idelwild Park day.

I was excited to take the girls because it would be their first time at an amusement park and I was curious to see their reaction to all of it, especially the rides. When I was a little girl my parents took me to Idelwild. My dad also frequented the park with his parents when he was a little boy. Wow. I guess it's some sort of a tradition. Hopefully some day Sophia and Lilly will want to take their children to the park.

I thought both girls would be thrilled about the Story Book Village stroll. Maybe it's because it was the first thing we did and the girls were trying to overcome their confusion about where they were, what they were supposed to be doing, and why there were so many people milling around, but the girls didn't really care for this part. We walked along the path and saw the homes of The Three Bears, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood and walked by or in about 25 other nursery rhyme displays. I was certain the girls would love it. Shows you what I know. Sophia fained a bit of interest, but mostly acted bored/aloof and Lilly wouldn't get out of my arms to look at anything. I thought it was going to be a flop of a day, but it immediately got better when we rode the train and then went to explore other parts of the park.

I was a little worried that Sophia would be scared of the rides. I was actually prepared to spend all day in kiddie land (or Raccoon Lagoon as it was called) just to build up her confidence to ride some of the rides. I thought Lilly would be ready and willing to ride and I was right. She got right on and loved every minute of it. Smiling and waving each time she rode by. What I couldn't have imagined was that Sophia would also love the rides and would get so bored with the kiddie rides so quickly. Well, maybe I could have guessed it when I saw her mocking another girl holding her hands up in the air on the mini roller coaster. Oh my gosh! My head must have done a full 360 when I saw her. Was this child really Sophia? Was she seriously not holding on AND enjoying it? Incredible.

After that we decided to hit the adult rides in "Olde Idelwild". She was tall enough to ride everything with an adult and so was Lilly in some cases so all five of us eventually did get to ride a few things. As it turns out Sophia loves all the rides. She really doesn't have a preference between the spinning rides and the roller coasters. She actually rode her very first "Rollo Coaster". She sat in the very first car with Poppy. I sat behind them. After she tackled that one with ease, I took her on the Log Jammer. That was the last ride we did before leaving the park. I thought we would get really wet, but as it turns out only our legs got wet. Sophia jumped off the ride and shouted I GOT SOAKED! (Ha ha ha) We left the park around 7 pm and got home at 8:30.

Saturday was a lazy day. We let the girls play all day. They mostly played in the water - either in the sprinklers or with the play kitchen sink. Lilly also filled up the bottom of her stroller with rocks and pushed it around for hours with either Sophia, a baby or Lamby on board. Around dinner time my mom and I left Poppy in charge while we went to pick up fish sandwiches for dinner. We weren't gone for very long. When we left Sophia was worn out in the living room watching Beauty and the Beast and Lilly was outside having a tea party. Poppy was chilling in a chair in the shade. When we returned all three of them were in the exact same spots, doing the exact same things they were doing when we left. What a relief!

On Sunday afternoon my mom and I took the girls to the annual church bazaar that I used to love going to each year. I fondly remember the penny candy table which sadly doesn't exist anymore. The girls still managed to get their fair share of penny candy anyway. They also brought home 8 stuffed animals and two plastic necklaces. They literally won a prize for each and every single game they played. Sophia got balloons painted on her cheek and a flower tattoo on her arm. Before we left the bazaar we got to ride in a 1914 Buick that belonged to my dad's brother, Uncle Alan. Sophia loved the fact that the car didn't have any windows or seat belts.

We also briefly ran into Aunt Carole again, but we got separated in the crowds and never managed to hook back up. We bought our bbq chicken and then went home. The girls were completely exhausted from the hot sun beating down on them all day and from waiting in the long line for chicken. Sophia resorted to rolling down a grassy hill and got grass stains all over her pants and then decided it was fun to push Lilly down the hill too. A small price to pay for the hours of fun we had.

We had a great trip and got to spend some quiet time with Nana and Poppy. They loved seeing the girls and vice versa.

On Monday morning we headed back to Northern VA for Grancy's birthday and to see and congratulate Uncle Rob and Aunt Christina. They just got engaged and have asked the girls to be the flower girls in the wedding. I can't wait.

We're glad to be home and don't have any travel plans for a while plus school starts in three and a half weeks. Time for some back to school shopping....and time to sign off for the night.