Long Weekend Rewind

We were so excited to remember Matt had Monday off!  As a teacher, I usually had President's Day off when I was working, but Matt has never had it off before.  Even though I know he's really busy at work with some deadlines and projects coming together, I think the extra family day came at a great time.  It was refreshing for me to have an extra day with him (and I KNOW Asa loved it!) before a hard core week of making deadlines this week.  It filled me up in preparation for the long hours that are likely ahead of us the next few days. :)

The weekend was not without its surprises, but we'll get to those in just a minute. ;)

Last week had some glorious days.  The highs sometimes made it out of the 30s!!!!  WOO HOOOO!  I never thought I'd be so happy to see temperatures in the 40s!  :)  Days on end of snow as far as you can see sure can change a (former Floridian's) person's perspective. ;)  In anticipation of the beautiful weather continuing through the weekend, I asked Matt about going to a park with Asa on Saturday and to some outlets on Monday.  The plan was set, and we didn't really anticipate any weather complications (yes, that's foreshadowing). :)

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a great park nearby.  It will be only 3 miles from the new house!  It has a sweet little kid playground, a GIANT amazing big kid playground, and lots of fields and trails for walking, running, and playing.  We just didn't expect the temperatures to drop and the wind to HOWL in.  Oh my!  It.was.so.cold.  Asa really enjoyed sliding on the little kid playground, but Matt and I were just about frozen stiff.  We knew he wanted to run around, so before calling it quits we walked over to see some geese and give him an opportunity to run around.  Thankfully, we went down a small hill that seemed to block much of the wind after we were on the other side!  Asa was intrigued by the geese and made lots of bird sounds at them, mostly "quacking,"... so I guess we need to work on duck vs. goose. ;)

 

  

We made our way back to the car where Asa was very, very sad to be leaving the park.  He was tired, he loves being outside, Daddy was with us.  Who would want to leave?!?  But we did, and I worked, somewhat successfully, to keep him awake on the short drive home.  I took him straight upstairs to bed when we arrived at home, and he took a short nap.  Asa had an early bedtime as result, but at least he napped enough to make it til then. ;)

On Sunday we attended Sunday school and church.  Asa's separation anxiety, particularly from me, is peaking significantly right now.  He cries if I am out of sight for even a moment, so I was concerned how dropping it off at the nursery would go.  He started to get upset, but the teachers know him well enough that they took him into the room and got him engaged with something he likes before he actually lost it.  Praise the Lord!

Monday was our other big adventure outing day.  I found out there was a Gymboree outlet not too far away, and they were having a baby sale + President's Day sale over the weekend.  We had not bought anything for Anna Reaghan, and I thought it would be fun to let Asa walk around the outlet mall and maybe find an outfit or two that we really liked.  When I checked the forecast, it started calling for several inches of snow.  I was so disappointed, but Matt said we'd go anyway and the forecast had been wrong even a day or two earlier.  Off we went.  We went to Gymboree first, and Matt almost immediately spotted an outfit he loved.  I suggested some matching hairbows, and it was a done deal. :) 

I continued to browse and found an outfit of my own choosing that I loved.  Several years ago, Gymboree had a girls' line of clothes with a goldfish theme that I thought was adorable.  I was excited to check out the outlet, because I *thought* they brought back a version of the goldfish line to sell at the outlets RIGHT NOW.  And they DID!  How sweet is that?!?

We ventured into a few other stores.  Asa loved the Carter's outlet.  He scurried this way and that, looking at this rack of clothes and that rack of clothes.  Squeezing into tiny spaces between racks like he was hiding.  It was really cute. :)  He also really liked some puzzles they had in the store... that he already has at home. ;)  We looked in more stores, ate some lunch, tried a couple more places, and then picked up a soft pretzel before heading out.  Asa tried my cinnamon and sugar pretzel, and he liked it!  I have no idea how the likely dairy ingredients will affect him today, but it was worth the special treat on our special extra day with Daddy. :)  Of course it DID start snowing while we were at the outlets.... and not just a dusting.  It was SNOWING.  It became harder and harder to see the cars on the highway running right past the outlet!

This is really just the beginning.  We have close to 6 inches now.

Matt wonderfully navigated the snowy highway--nothing was plowed yet.  Praise the Lord we got home safely AND when we did as the snow continued to pour down!  We got the most snow at once in the whole time we've lived here so far!  Matt figured the roads would be plowed by dinner time and went out to pick up a bite to eat for us to cap off the weekend, but nothing was plowed yet after all!  He ran into roads blocked by spun out cars almost every way he turned.  Thankfully when he gave up and headed home, he got behind a salt truck and made it back just fine. :)

We packed a lot into our weekend, but we had time to rest too.  I love weekends and family time! :)  And next weekend is the beginning of the big move, so it was an extra blessing to have a fun-filled weekend right now. :)