10 Days Away (well, 9 1/2) - Part Two

(You can read Part One here!)

Much of our free time at Grandma RL's was spend doing this...

To gain her trust...

And pretty soon, they were rewarded with this...

... which they were able to do pretty early in the week!

On Wednesday, we took it easy again.  We went to the local farmer's market - which boasts a drive through shed.  Personally, I think "shed" doesn't quite hit the mark as far as describing this place, but that's what the website called it, so I'll go with it.

The kids wanted to take a (huge!) watermelon back to Grandma's house.  We settled for browsing, talking about all of the fruits and vegetables for sale, and then buying some (hot!) boiled peanuts.  I also tried to drive the wrong direction on the one-way driveway, but we don't have to dwell on that.  This was the first time either of the kids had eaten boiled peanuts due to Miss M's previous food allergies.  It was only a little disappointing that she didn't like them, but Mister J made up for it with his enthusiasm about this bit of southern cuisine.

We are up to Thursday - the last day of VBS, the day of our semi-return home, and laundry day!  No, I'm not kidding.  We were set to drive home after the VBS wrapped up that evening, and leave for another state and another family reunion on Friday morning.  So on Thursday, we did laundry and packed.  Sorry, no riveting photos....

But then the final night of VBS began!  With a Western theme!  And horses!

And a campfire!  And an awesome dinner!  And all of the desserts you could ask for!

This was the second cone if ice cream.  The first was rainbow - see the blue on Miss M's face?  My kids will never choose vegetables over sweets again....


So, as I mentioned, we had a quick turnaround at home to sleep, get a bit of work done (me), and make room for Daddy in the mommy-van before we hit the road on Friday afternoon.  We had a few errands to run on the way out of town (like buying tap shoes), but we made it to our destination in time for a late dinner with Grandma and Grandpa R to keep us company.

Then it was Saturday again, which must mean it's time for a family reunion!  There was a thunderstorm in the morning, but the clouds moved on in time for our gathering.  The kids had a great time on the playground nearby - I have never, ever seen my children play that hard for that long!  I have also never had to scrub my child's legs and feet twice to get all of the dirt off - but that's not a bad thing. 

One of the highlights of this trip for Mister J was his first ride on Grandpa's motorcycle.

We told him to hold on....  Boys....!

The clouds were building up again towards the end of the reunion, and our motorcycle riders got a bit of a sprinkle on the way back to the hotel.  Still didn't dampen Mister J's excitement!

The next morning, we were back on the road toward home.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch followed by a game of checkers on the porch.  

It was a quick visit with the Grands, but we did follow them most of the way home.  The kids got such a kick out of watching them on their motorcycle!

These nine photos to wrap up our ten-day adventure!  This was the longest I've been away from home since before we had kids - in fact, I can't remember the last time I lived out of a suitcase for this long.  It was great fun, we have lots of great memories, and - believe it or not - I'm already thinking about when we can travel again!