Best week EVER

Once there were three sister.  They had a Grandma who lived VERY far away.

 

 

One night she flew into town, and when the sisters woke up in the morning- she was there!

The first two days of the visit it rained and everyone stayed inside to read books and cuddle. 

So by Monday morning everyone was ready for adventure!

First stop was the Children's museum!  The girls had been talking about taking Grandma there since their first visit, and it WAS a lot of fun with Grandma along.

Baby Quinn was drowned in even MORE hugs and kisses than usual, and soaked up all the extra attendion. 

It was wonderful having 2 more hands and an extra boatload of patience for a week.

Tuesday was Zoo day!  And we saw EVERYTHING.

The mornings were spent on homeschool and the afternoons were for adventure.  5 hours at the zoo flew by and we were rushing to get out by closing time!

Someone is starting to get antsy and wants to jump out of the stroller and run after her sisters.

Grandma was always up for anything, which made the week extra fun and stress free.

The girls showed off their good behavior all week.  Unfortunatly they seem to have used up all their spare stores.

We ate lunch witht the baby sea lion.

There was lots of laughter.

It was too fun having Mom along, and hard to say goodbye when she left.

We got in lots of hugs though.

It was fun watching the girls show off their Zoo to Grandma.

We got a close up of the baby gorilla, and stood and watched forever.

Any place we find one of these contraptions, you can bet the girls are completely distracted by it and not paying ANY attention to what it would allow them to see close up.

Wendesday we left town on a hunt for some Geneology!  While Grandma was distracted looking through old tax records, the girls and I explored along the railroad tracks and played at a fountain.

They were completely distracted for 2 hours by a stick, some water and a caterpillar.

Look at those lovely lashes.

I experimented with the settings on my camera.

Rural Pennsylvania is a lot more charming than the big cities are.

We finished the day at an Orchard.

It was a magical place with delicious food and plenty to explore!

 

Alex had brought her quarters in case she found anything to buy.

Unfortunatly the one thing that caught her eye was the goat food.

I pointed out that there were plenty of goat pellets on the ground that they could gather and feed the animals for FREE.

This worked for a little while.

But we lingered too long,

and I'm thankfully ignorant to the number of Alex's quarters that were used to feed those overfed goats.

Once she was picked up, Quinn became as happy as a Jaybird.

I asked Alex and Heidi to both pose for pictures. 

Heidi refused and would only pose if it was with the donkey.

Quinn would only pose with Grandma.

If only you could hear the giggles.

We stayed and played and then went home with 3 of the biggest apples I've ever seen and some cider.

Thursday was "Heidi" day.  She had been begging to go to the castle park and also been begging for a legit picnic on a blanket.  So we did both.  I had spent the morning making pecan bars for a Relief Society activity, and it was nice to relax and spent the whole afternoon at the park.  The only downside were there number of stink bugs that would fly into my hair, or Quinn's face or crawl up your leg without warning.  At one point Alex screamed as though she were dying when one walked towards her. 

Quinn is loving rice cereal and applesauce.  Here we have one of the mammoth orchard apples.

After being given something so large and wonderful, a normal apple just wouldn't suffice anymore.

Friday was Rubber Ducky day!  We spent the morning doing this and that and then hit up the grocery store for a few essentials for the weekend.  We picked up Tyler from school and hurried to the river to catch a glimpse of the duck in action (Borrowing the Science Center's bathroom and parking lot in the process.)

The giant duck was an art exibit that had been all over the world and was making it's United States debut!  I was very excited.

I was lucky that everyone was willing to come along, it was fun having everyone there.

In my zeal to get there and get a good seat ( assuming that EVERYONE was as excited as me to see the duck travel up river, and there would be no room anywhere) we may have ended up arriving an hour or so early.

But it was all worth it to see a giant rubber ducky come around the bend!

I had to post this picture because of Heidi's face.  It may be the best one yet.  She tends to turn into a limp noodle (if not making a crazy face) when posing for pictures.  Here you see Grandma trying to prop her dead weight up while maintaining her own picture composure- she isn't strangling her like it may appear.

 

The girls were pretty excited for the first 5 minutes.  Then they found a lady bug and some real ducks and started to wander off through the crowd.

So we gathered our things and decided to follow Ducky up river along the beautiful path.  We walked to the first bridge and then ordered dinner at a grill and ate outside in the grass along the river. 

It was so relaxing and nice.  We got to see the city at night and visit a part of town we probably wouldn't have wandered to otherwise.

Saturday was boat day!   Tyler had found a flyer for a River Quest cruise the night before, unfortunatly he couldn't join us due to school, but we went anyway!

It was a really great cruise.  Not hardly as expensive as all the other river cruises and this one was full of educational activities!

We cruised around for an hour and learned about Pittsburgh and conservation.  The girls (with Grandma's help) even earned patches!

Since we had already paid for parking, we decided to go to the Science center afterwards!  It was really cool.  Heidi amazed us by answering questions during a homemade icecream demonstration, we saw a planetarium show, and saw all sorts of cool robot, fish, body science things.

We made it home just in time to get ready for the Relief Society  broadcast.  It was a treat to go with my Mom. 
Sunday was church and dinner and brownies and then Monday morning we drove Grandma to the airport and said goodbye.  Heidi cried, so I was of course helpless as well.  It had been such a gloriously fun week and I'm so glad we got to do so many things, but I think that even if we had just sat around all day and played dolls it still would have been a blast. 
   Thanks for everything Mom!  We love you SO much and miss you a ton!  PLEASE come again!

Of course after a week of leisure there was laundry and chores to do.  Heidi suited up appropriately as Cinderella and offered to do the dishes.

We promise just as much fun to anyone who dares make the trek.  We will even put you up in our 4 star toy room with a sheet door to gaurd your privacy.