Yes trip

I love spending one-on-one time with my kids but haven’t done it in a really long time. Adi is turning 13 next week, so we surprised her with a little getaway. I woke her up Tuesday morning and told her to get dressed and get brekkie because we were going on an adventure! That’s when she told me she was fasting for the people in Congo. A volcano erupted there a few days ago and I had showed them videos the night before since they are fascinated with natural disasters and our girl with the heart of gold fasted for them. 💕 I told her in the car what I had planned and that this was her yes trip and we could do (pretty much) whatever she wanted. 

First stop - the Charlotte Hall library! This cute bookworm loves any library and she knew right where to go. 

We stopped off for gas station treats which we super rarely do and we were intrigued by these Herr’s mystery flavor chips. 

My plan was to go to the mall at Arundel Mills and let her shop for summer clothes. We didn’t buy clothes last year and when we got out our summer wardrobe I found I didn’t have any summer hand-me-downs in her size, which was a surprising bummer. We saw this and had to get a picture. 

She is such an easy girl to love. She is fun and easy to shop with, tried things on with no complaints, spoke up when she didn’t love something, just all around sweetheart. We checked out the cool Bass Pro Shop fish and picked up a shirt for Matt for Father’s Day. I don’t think he’s we ever read my blog, so that’s safe to write here. 

The movies that are out right now are pretty slim pickings, but we found one that looked cute - Dream Horse. I enjoyed it and teared up several times, and Adi said she liked it. That theater is Egyptian style and so fun!

We had the hardest time finding swimsuits! We saw maybe 10 total adult swimsuits, it was so bizarre. We found a few at Carter’s where she can fit into their size 14’s, but when we got to the hotel they were a little snug. Long torso problems. We found new shoes, shirts, dress, shorts, pajamas and one swimsuit. It was such a fun day!

I reserved our room using our Choice hotel membership which is in Matt’s name, so they had to call him to make sure we could check in since he wasn’t there (🙄) and he hung up on them. 😂 He thought it was a telemarketer, so I had to call him and then he felt sheepish. It was kind of funny. The saltwater pool was supposed to be heated and I told myself I was going to be the fun mom and get in and swim with Adi, but the water was not actually heated and then she assured me she would love to swim alone and I chickened out. My fun momming has its limits. 

Adi took a shower and then tried on everything she hadn’t been able to try on at the mall. We’ll be returning some swimsuits and a shirt, but otherwise everything was great! I picked up dinner at Chick-fil-A and she enjoyed our cute room. We bought a bunch of snacks and wanted to watch a movie in our room but my old phone is lame and it wouldn’t pair to the tv to do screen mirroring. We found Guardians of the Galaxy on the tv, and that is always fun. And then she read her new book. So grateful to be this cute girls mom and for this fun time with her. She’s the best little middle/oldest child!

Meanwhile back in the 301, papa checked in on the girls and those lucky ladies got taken out to lunch. Not sure why she’s so pensive here, but I hear she enjoyed her Mac and cheese. 

And a froggy. Papa reports that bis Reuben wasn’t all that good, which is not surprising at all given that I’ve eaten reubens with him at what feels like dozens of places and he’s only liked one. Spoiler alert - I don’t think he actually likes reubens. 🤷‍♀️

He also checked in on and walked our inherited dog, which isn’t really a favor for me but does make overall family life easier so that was nice. It was a wonderful day all around.