Slumber Party with the Grandparents

Our family had been hoping for months (literally) to have the girls go up to Grandpa and Grandma's so Matt and I could have a much needed mini-vacation here at home. We first tried back in January, then I got the flu. We tried the next weekend, and Anna and Matt got the flu. We tried another time in February (I think) and someone got sick, again. We were thinking that it just wasn't meant to be. And then ...

It was! Maple syrup season was supposed to be underway (but the weather didn't exactly cooperate) and so Adam was also planning on flying out for the weekend; then Matt had to be in Minneapolis on Monday so we decided to stay a couple of nights, too. Friday morning I drove the girls half-way and met up with my mom. We did the exchange and then Matt and I headed up after church on Sunday. (Silly side note: we didn't tell the girls until they woke up on Friday mainly so that they wouldn't be too excited and would actually get a good night's sleep the night before. It worked! Anna even said on Friday morning "Thanks, Mom, for not telling me last night. Then I was able to sleep well!)

From what we've gathered, the girls (and grandparents and uncle) had a great time. They did lots of fun stuff outside doing chores with Grandma and cleaning up from the syrup season that wasn't, went for Kubota rides with Grandma and Grandpa, played around on the deck, watched a VeggieTales video, ate lots of great food, and slept relatively well.

Matt and I also had a wonderful time. We went out to dinner, ran some errands (after 7 p.m.!), cleaned the house, split and stacked more firewood, watched a movie, went to church, and just enjoyed being able to do whatever we wanted :) I think one of my favorite parts (and I know this is really lame and says a lot about my current stage of life, but oh, well) was being able to really CLEAN the house and know that it was going to stay clean for a few days :)

Once up at my parents' on Sunday, we continued to have fun. While Matt was in the twin cities, we putzed around in the morning and then went to a museum in Eau Claire. Kate was extremely clingy to me the whole day, but I guess that's understandable for a two-year-old who just had her first overnights without mom or dad.

Matt got done early with his work, so he was back in time for dinner. Then he took Tuesday off (since we'd have to travel home anyway) and made a morning stop at the Eau Claire Children's Museum before heading home. We were even home early enough yesterday to be able to get some more firewood split! That's partly due to the fact that Kate and Anna were SO excited to just play with their toys again that they didn't need anything from us most of the afternoon/evening.

We didn't take any pictures and my mom only took three, so maybe that gives and idea of how much fun people were having :)