Somewhere Over the Grapevine

Yes I did sing the title of this post in my head to the tune of "Somewhere over the Rainbow".

Don't judge.

While Kel was away, the boys and I were fortunate to have an impromptu visit with Nana. It was very last minute, and could not have happened without the help of my wonderful aunt. One minute I had the idea in my head, struggling to find a way to make it happen and the next I was packing up my aunt's car. It was a long night Wednesday, trying to make sure that I had everything on my own, and didn't go to bed until close to one in the morning. Waking up at five was not as hard as I thought it would be. I had the excitement as if we were going to Disneyland for a week. I was that happy to just be getting out of the house. I thought for sure the boys would sleep the majority, if not all, of the car ride there, but I believe that they were as excited as I was to be getting out of dodge and onto greener pastures. Even for one night.

 We arrived at Nana's house a little after seven in the morning. We scared Nana. Apparently, I am not known to be a morning person so am not expected prior to ten. Sigh.  The boys ate breakfast while I guzzled sipped my coffee. Nana and I thought to take the morning at a more relaxing pace while D had other plans. Going back and forth between the bathroom Nana was getting ready in and the bathroom I was getting ready in, D was heard saying "come on let's GO!" and "Nana you aren't taking me anywhere today because we haven't left yet." Four year olds and their patience. Or lack thereof.

 We started the day off with an early lunch at a lovely food court. The boys had fun playing hide and seek behind each of the pillars, running along the storefront playing tag, and trying to see how many stores they can get into before I stopped them.

After lunch we treated the boys to a strawberry milkshake at Johnny Rockets. In D's words it was "Delicious and Delightful!". Man, I love my boys.

We stopped by the fountain before we left to try and take some pictures. While it wasn't exactly what Nana and I had hoped for, I still snapped a few cute ones.

We tried taking the boys home for nap and "rest" time after lunch. That was a disaster. Which really surprised me as D was going off of four hours of sleep and C always has at least one nap during the day, by his choice not mine. But alas these boys were OVER tired and bouncing off walls, whining by the door, and head banging into Nana's bed. Silly boys.

To save great papa from the rambunctiously, overly tired, too loud, crabby Walker boys, Nana decided to take us to her new Target. Of course, a block away I glance back to find both boys are fast asleep. Little stinkers. We waited for about ten five minutes under some shade and decided that we were just going to wake them up and see what happens once we get into Target. Nana had promised D a present if he took some pictures with her (which I think turned out really cute but am forbidden to post). We gave the boys some time to wake up and shared some pretzels, slurpees, water, and a Java Chip Frappacino (Nana and I shared the last one, not the boys).

Target was fun, as all Targets are. But our adventure in the wading creek behind the Target was the highlight of the day. And of course I didn't have any type of photo taking device with me. Boo. It took D a little bit to warm up to the water, but C was once again my fearless boy and jumped right in. We played for an hour, splashing each other, wading down the creek to join some other kids, and having mom turn into a personal twirl-a-whirl. This was a definite favorite among all of us and we can't wait to go back there with Dad one day. What was interesting was finding the boys covered in gold dust once we were able to drag convince them it was time to head back.

The night at home was relatively quiet. Some dinner, a little coloring, a few TV shows, and a lot of fighting sleep (thanks C). We wore Nana out with all of our running around, so D kept her company while showing her some of his favorite shows while I tried to wrangle C into his play pen for the night. It was a long night for mommy, but both boys were finally asleep by midnight.

Only to have C wake up the next day at four thirty. AM. Sigh. We made a quick morning of it. Had some breakfast and driving time (D loves to pretend to drive Nana's car) before going to the post office with Nana and heading home. It was a great trip, if short, and I hope to go back soon.