Fourth Annual Girls Weekend

We had our fourth annual girls weekend last weekend, and this year Sarah got to come for the firs time.  We've gone to San Antonio, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and this year we went to Omaha.  We picked Omaha so we could avoid traveling super far with Sarah and Bethany who is 30 weeks pregnant.  The five of us (Grandma June, Serina, Bethany, Sarah, and I) road in Serina's SUV, but next time we might need a van with Bethany's daughter!  Sarah and I drove to Kansas City on Thursday morning and made a pit stop in Bolivar to stretch out, change a diaper, and visit Memaw.  Always a treat!  This was my first long drive by myself with Sarah, and I was pretty nervous about it.  I've done the 45 minute drive from Springfield to Bolivar plenty of times, but this trip was three hours long.  Sarah was awake and happy from Springfield to Bolivar, and then she slept for the first hour of the next leg.  When she woke up she was fairly unhappy for the rest of the drive, but passing back Cheerios kept things relatively under control.  When we got to Serina's house we met up with June and Bethany as well and had a big salad for lunch - the only healthy meal of the weekend!

All of our stuff fit into the trunk thanks to the other three ladies each only bringing a backpack of clothing.  Sarah and I packed "light" with a full-sized suitcase, diaper bag, purse, plastic tub of toys, plastic tub of bottles, car seat, and stroller.  Sarah enjoyed having June and me as playmates in the back seat with her, but she did have about 20 minutes where she was fairly inconsolable.  I knew she was tired but wanted to play with us.  Eventually she gave in and rested.  Peace!  We took two stops during the three hour drive to Omaha, and now Sarah has checked off Iowa and Nebraska.  She's been to every bordering state to Missouri as well as several others for a total of 15 states.

Antique mall in Iowa

We got settled into the Marriott and headed to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  They gave Sarah complimentary bread and bananas which was a thoughtful touch.  I stuffed myself with cottage pie and red velvet cheesecake.  Yum!  We went back to the hotel to get Sarah ready for bed.  Thankfully, we had two rooms so Serina and June shared a room with one king bed, and Bethany and I shared a room with two queens.  Sarah was supposed to have a crib, but we learned that actually meant a pack n play which was a bit of a bummer, but she still slept really well!  I couldn't have asked for her to do a better job while away from home.  It took about 45 minutes to get her to sleep the first night, but then she slept for 11 hours.  Bethany and I were able to go over to Serina and June's adjoining room to watch the Olympics each night.  The first night Bethany got up to go to the bathroom at 1:00, and Sarah stood up and started tickling my feet.  It was pretty cute!  She went back to sleep, thankfully.

On Friday morning we walked to Paradise Bakery and had a very tasty breakfast.  Sarah enjoyed sharing my ham, egg, and cheese croissant.  The zoo was the main attraction of the day.  Our Dickerson Park Zoo pass got us two 50% off tickets in Omaha which was pretty sweet!  I'd never been to the Henry Doorly Zoo before, and it was awesome!  We could have stayed there longer, but obviously Sarah can't stand anything for too long, and we didn't want to get too exhausted, so we stayed for two hours.  The weather was perfect!  It had rained the night before, so it was cool (maybe 80 degrees), breezy, and overcast.  We couldn't have asked for better weather for a weekend in August.  Sarah liked watching the penguins and jellyfish.  I really liked the large indoor monkey exhibit.

After the zoo we went downtown and found a big slide and ate lunch at The Old Spaghetti Works.  We headed back to the hotel to rest.  Sarah didn't nap in the pack n play, but she did take some good car naps during the weekend.  Serina, Sarah, and I hit up the outdoor pool to get some wiggles out.  I had brought a lot of toys so the hotel room was a good playground.  Dinner was at Lolo's, and I think Sarah ate about half of my chicken and loved the zucchini and squash.  She even got her own little cup to take home!  Sarah slept really well Friday night, went to sleep instantly, and slept in until 7:45.  Success!

On Saturday morning we went to the same bakery again and then headed to the farmers market.  It was cute, and Sarah really enjoyed watching the workers demonstrating a big bubble wand.  We ate lunch in a mall  food court where Sarah had fun playing with Aunt Bethany's chopsticks.  We did a bit of shopping.  I wanted to get Sarah measured for Stride Rites now that she's walking.  We found out she's a 5 extra wide, which is a special order.  She has such round, chubby feet.  We'll see if the shoes fit when they arrive!  We hit up another mall, but Serina and June stayed in the car and relaxed while Sarah slept and Bethany and I shopped for maternity jeans for her.  We ate dinner at a pizzeria called Pitch.  The food was good, but Sarah was kind of antsy, so it wasn't relaxing.  Also, every restaurant, store, and establishment should be required to have a changing table.  Just saying.  We went to an ice cream shop, and I had a delicious cone with salted caramel ice cream.  This was Sarah's first time to eat ice cream, and I'd say she approved!  Sarah went to sleep easily again this night but woke up when Bethany and I came to bed.  I did a diaper change, bottle, and rocking, and Sarah went back to sleep after half an hour.

Sarah woke up a bit early at 6:45 on Sunday morning.  We got packed up, had breakfast at the hotel, and hit the road.  Sarah napped a lot longer on the drive back to KC so we only took one break.  When we got back to Serina's house Bethany headed home, June started her three hour drive back home, and Sarah and I ate a quick lunch and started our journey back home.  Sarah slept for an hour of the drive to Bolivar and then was awake but relaxed.  We stopped in Bolivar for an hour and a half to see my parents and Memaw and Pepaw, and then Sarah slept most of the drive back to Springfield.  We had to go immediately to church so that Robert could watch Sarah while I had a MOPS planning meeting, and then we had to go to the quarterly business meeting.  Sarah didn't get to go to sleep until 8:30, so she slept in until almost 8:00 Monday morning.

I've unpacked, sorted through mail, and done four loads of laundry, so we're back to the daily grind now.  I couldn't have asked for Sarah to be more cooperative this weekend.  She helped me be able to enjoy the weekend of sightseeing, good food, and rest.  It was fun to be able to add her to this girls weekend!