Home again, home again...

jiggity, jig. Yes. We made the long trek to VA and back this past week. Wow. Long drive! Actually, down was horrible (we decided to do it in one day YIKES!), but up wasn't too bad. The kids did sooooo well. I of course had a secret weapon. LeapFrog! I bought Connor the handheld version (he got the TV one from Nana and PopPop for Christmas). We broke it out after lunch on the way down. Connor was thoroughly entertained most of the trip. His greatest pleasure came from turning it off and on. Clara slept the whole way home. The trip down was rough for her... especially the last few hours. She was not loving life restrained in her seat. Poor kid. I decided we would fly down for future trips. That may be flexible (like I said, broken into 2 days it's a pretty easy trip). Thank God for my sister though. She flew up here to drive down with me. It gave Michael piece of mind and saved my sanity!

While in VA, I attended Stampin' Up! Regionals (so fun!) and my upline meeting. That was good for mommy sanity and inspiring use of the stamping supplies I seem to be hoarding. :-) I got to go to church, which was good. It was nice seeing faces I've missed. I really miss the preschool and nursery. Connor and Clara are so at ease there. Clara was exceptionally calm. I didn't get the usual anxious look from her. That was nice. Connor had so much fun! Other than that we pretty much hung out and, oh yeah, we closed on the house! Yay! No more worrying about a mortgage payment each month. :-D

We had a little fun by going on an "adventure" as we are now calling them. We visited the Norfolk Zoo. Last time I was there, I was working a USO event (military family day). That was a long time ago... they've renovated since then. It was a good trip.

My favorite animals of the day were the prairie dogs. We came up on the back of the exhibit, so the first thing we did were stick our heads up through the plastic domes in the exhibit. They were running all around us. It was impressive enough that Connor stood and watched for a whole 30 seconds or so. That is an eternity for him. It was neat.

Here is proof that I was actually at the zoo with my children. I'm in a picture. :-)

At the entrance of the zoo there is an awesome fountain that the kids can play in. Fortunately it was warm (almost hot, actually) so Connor, who had been asking all throughout the park, was able to play in the water. He was scared at first to go into the rushing water. After being encouraged strongly, and nearly thrown in by Neil, Connor made the plunge. This is him being talked down afterward. He was a little freaked out by getting so wet so fast. After he realized I was not going to be mad, he had a fine time with "Mo" (Neil). They were both soaked in the end.

And here are my beautiful babies. They tolerated one of mom's photo sessions fairly well.

I guess I should wake them. Nap time is a wonderful thing, especially on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but I guess it would be good if they were tired to sleep tonight! ~:-)