Harrisburg Trip Highs and Lows

This weekend was Josh's birthday, and the kids also happened to be out of school Friday and Monday, so we made a quick trip down to Harrisburg for the long weekend. I was going to post some pictures tonight, but between watching the Grey's Anatomy I missed while we were gone and editing photos, I've been looking at this screen for so long I'm going cross-eyed. So instead I'll just offer up some highs and lows, with a couple of pics thrown in for good measure.

The highs:

1. Shopping. I'm the not-so-proud owner of those new jeans I so desperately needed. And approximately 87 other things. What? I only went to Target four times in two days.

2. Eating. Red Lobster. Chik-fil-A. Bruster's. I really wanted to get in another restaurant while I had the chance, but considering how much of #1 I did, I tried to keep things under control.

3. Granddad's garden. Okay, so this was a high for the kids and not so much for me, but it makes me happy to see them so delighted.





(They picked all of these peppers, many, many green beans, and even an eggplant or two, I think.)


4. Carving jack-o-lanterns. The best part about this is that it didn't involve me at all. I was - where else? - at Target shopping while David and his dad took the kids to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins and then took them back to the house to carve them. And clean up the mess. Awesome.





5. Traveling with great kids. This was the first time I can honestly say that traveling with our kids was pretty easy. We did have to make several more bathroom stops than seems humanly possible, but the kids were generally good. Which is even more impressive considering that the video-player in the van doesn't work. Yeah, that's right, no movies. Go us.

The boys are old enough now to entertain themselves with sketch pads and tic-tac-toe games, and Lauren is old enough not to cry and shriek every time she needs something. (Though she did ask if were were almost there about 739 times. Sweetly, she would supplement it with, "Because I NEED to see Grandmom and Granddad.")

I think we have reached a real milestone here. I traveled with my kids and didn't hate it.

6. There was also bowling, birthday celebrating, and a stop at ReptileLand on the way home. I'll save those pictures for another day. I know you'll wait with bated breath. Especially for the reptile ones.

The Lows:

1. Discovering that the cigarette lighter in my van doesn't work. You know how I love those Camels. Okay, not really. But, I do love to listen to my ipod via a radio transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. I thought my transmitter was broken, but upon buying a new one which still didn't work, I realized that the problem is my van. Which makes me sad because that's a lot less simple to remedy.

2. Carsickness. The roads between here and there are slightly curvy. And mountainous. Yuck.

3. Shopping with my mother-in-law. This is not because of any ill-will toward her or any trouble with our relationship. We get along fine, and she's a great person. It's merely because of the conversation we had while shopping for those much-needed jeans.

MIL: What size do you need now?
Me: Six.
MIL: Really? You were smaller than that?
Me: I've been a four for a long time. Right up until about six weeks, or several cartons of ice cream, ago.
MIL: You were a size four? I never thought of you as that thin.

Thanks. Really, I would much rather be a larger size and have people surprised because I look thinner than have people be surprised at my small size because I apparently look fatter.

Maybe sweet tea and leftover chocolate frosting wasn't an ideal lunch.