It's a long way down the Holiday Road, oooooohhhhh

Ok, I think I can manage to put together a post now. Not that i've had any rest, more like i've just had more time to think about what to write! This could get rather long, so if you have been easily bored by me before, you can leave now, I won't get upset. Go on. Really, it's ok.

Ok, anyone still here? Great!!! I guess I should start with last Wednesday. Wow, over a week ago! That day was our last day of MOP's/mops party, and JAycee's last day of preschool party. And, of course, these 2 things were scheduled to happen at exactly the same time. So my plan was to go to JAycee's party for the first hour, then to the mops party. Well, it almost worked! We ended up a little short on childcare at mops, so I had to stick around a bit to make sure all the kiddos were well taken care of. When releif arrived, I snuck out to Jaycee's party for a bit, and managed to catch her trying to sack race. It was hilarious! Then I sent her off with the rest of the MOP's kids and headed over to the meeting. I managed to make it in time to socialize a little bit! The only problem was, that even though I went to 2 parties that had food, I still managed to get nothing to eat! How does that happen??

After all that, it was time to head down to Becca's! Becca has been my friend for many years. Since 6th grade I think? She is one of the sweetest and strongest people I have ever met. She has overcome more challenges in her life than anyone should ever have to, and she always makes it through. I love spending time with her. Oh, and she's an awesome cook! When we were younger, we would always watch sappy chick flick movies and eat death by chocolate ice cream. Now that we are old mommies, we can't stay awake long enough, lol. We had a blast staying with them for a couple days. She took us to see the new house they are building which is going to be gorgeous! We also took the kids to eat and play games at chuckie cheese in Little Rock, where Joslyn decided she was going to hold herself hostage in one of the plastic tube playthings. Becca managed to get in there and pull her out. Then we went to babie's r us to drool over adorable baby stuff. I am such a slacker and didn't even get any pics of the 3 girls together! Becca's daughter Jaelin is 4, and she and JAycee are just 3 months apart in age. All 3 girls love playing together, and we just laugh at them. Oh, and did I mention she's pregnant and having a baby boy??? I can't wait to meet him. I can share a pic with you that relates though! This is Becca and Jaelin last spring. We were eating at a restraunt before taking Jaelin and Jaycee to Disney on ice:

And the girls:

They have changed so much since then!

Justin called me Thursday and said that he thought he would actually be getting done with training early, and might be home at noon on Friday! So Friday morning we said bye to Becca, and headed back home. Sure enough, he got home early! And we realized, that this was the first time in months that he would have a whole weekend off, and thought we needed to take advantage of it. So we made some plans to go to Hot Springs for the weekend. This is a pretty special place for us, as it's where we went on our honeymoon! We also went back for several years after that on our anniversary, and we went right before he was deployed to Iraq. We thought it would be fun to take our kids to a place that was so special to us. We didn't end up leaving untill after 5 on Friday night, then of course ran into all of the traffic from people trying to get to the lake! But we finally made it to our hotel. We unloaded the van, and saw that there was still enough time to take a dip in the pool. So we went for a little swim, and Jaycee thought it was so awesome that she didn't have to wear suncreen, hah!

Girls on the hotel bed. This was their first time in a hotel!

And this was so funny. Since they only had rooms with one bed, we had to figure out where for everyone to sleep. Joslyn slept in the paknplay, and I thought we could just get a rollaway bed for Jaycee. But my husband, being the McBride that he is, wasn't about to pay 10$ for that! So he loaded Jaycee mattress and bedding in the back of the van and we took it with us! Thankfully it's just a toddler bed mattress, so it fit between the wall and bed. But she thought it was just the neatest thing ever!

Sat morning we were ready and raring to go. After hotel breakfast and a quick walk of the dogs (oh yeah, did I mention the dogs had to come with us? yup, all 6 of us on vacation, woot woot) we were off. Our first destination was the alligator farm. The kids weren't as impressed as we had hoped, except for by the turkeys. They thought they were great. Oh and they liked petting the baby alligator. Joslyn filled the back pocket of the stroller with rocks during the feeding show, if that gives you an idea as to how impressed they were.

Daddy and girls seeing the turkeys :

Jaycee was at least sort of interested in the gators:

After that, off to lunch indoors to cool off and re-energize! Girls afterwards waiting on daddy:

Then it was off to the Mid-America Science museum. As a child, my mom and grandma took my older brother Jay and I here several times, and I had great memories from it! I knew the girls would just love it, and they did. Well, most of it. Joslyn was totally terrified of the dinosaur exhibit! She screamed like she was being tortured!

I love this picture. This was a thing that sort of showed them how gravity worked, but of course they had no idea and just played. But it captures their personalities so well!

Girls and daddy helping out with an experiment:

Mini golf at pirate cove. Justin and I went here on our honeymoon, and have pictures in the same spots. It's really awesome to see how much our family has changed.

After that, back to the hotel for more swimming, and then put 2 exhausted babies to bed!

On sunday, well I was a total ditz and didn't bring the camera with us when we went out, oops! We went to a little aquarium, then for a walk around downtown to look in the shops. Then we ate some lunch and headed home! The kids and I slept most of the way, at least untill we saw the familiar blue lights in the rear view mirror. I told Justin I think that from now on, anytime we go on a trip I need to budget in the cost of a speeding ticket, b/c it just seems inevitable that he will get one. Sigh.

Monday Justin had to work, and the girls and I were so worn out that we pretty much didn't do anything! Tuesday, I had lunch with mom, b/c I felt like I hadn't seen her in forever. Then we went to flame gymnastics to sign Jaycee up for summer classes. She is so excited! She was upset when we were there b/c she thought she was going to start classes that day. I told her sweetie, you don't have class untill Tuesday! She said, I can't go on tuesday, I have to go on threes-day b/c i'm 3! This kid, I tell ya. Then we went to get her a leotard, and she's so tiny that even the smallest ones were baggy on her! But we got it anyway and hopefully she will grow into it.

Yesterday, I drove to magazine to pick up my grannie. She has been sick lately and had an appointment to see her oncologist up here. This woman is 85 years old, has had cancer twice, a house fire, was unable to have children, her husband passed away 20 years ago, and yet she is still going. She amazes me sometimes. She stayed here at our house and had dinner, then I took her to the store and to mom's. Today, mom took her to the Dr, and she eneded up having to be kept there to get IV fluids, so mom and I went to lunch with the girls. Then, I had to drive her back to magazine, and come home and get together the meal I had put in the crock pot to take to our mentor mom from mops. Mr's Harriet is so sweet, and she and I share a love for reading. Several times after mops, I would run into her at the library and we would talk about the books we were getting. One of the first things she asked me when I dropped of her meal was "what are you reading now?" She seemed to be doing well and she and her husband were greatful for the meal, though it wasn't much! Since was had a long day, I threw a roast and some veggies in the crockpot this morning, and then made a loaf of bread in the bread machine. It did smell good! And I took the kids with me to drop off the food, and it seemed to cheer Mr's harriet up to see them. It made me feel great to help out Mrs Harriet and my grannie today. To give myself, my time and energy, was not easy but so rewarding. Acts 20:35 says
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” And I do feel blessed today.

Ok, well, if you read all of that, you deserve a cookie or something. Unfortunately, I live with 3 cookie monsters, so have none to give, but it's the thought that counts right? We are headed to Tulsa this weekend to pick up Justin's brother, my awesome brother in law chase! I am excited about his visit. Stay tuned!

Love to all-Jasmin