with the 'long' weekend we discovered at the last minute on the calendar, the girls and i decided to head to camp nannypapa for the weekend. camp nannypapa is almost the equivalent of disney world in our eyes, as it often times is seen as 'the greatest place on earth'. the girls are enamored with my mom (nana - lovingly renamed 'nanny' by riley, sometimes to my mom's chagrin :-) and dad (papa), and the 'new toys' that are there every time they visit just delight the heck out of them (yep, you guessed it, just recycled toys from our house - the same ones that have been there for a few years now). they get to watch 'new' movies, hang out with papa, visit their sweet friend madolyn, and oftentimes cook with nanny in the kitchen.
i, on the other hand, get the bestest (yep, new word in my book) gift of all. SLEEP. i manage to sleep in to the sinful hours of 9 and even 10am on some days. because my parents simply ROCK. no matter what time they go to sleep (or what their day has been like), one or more of them tend to get up at 5 o'freaking something-or-other on that first morning there. an hour where i am not even breathing, much less coherent (i'm an extreme night own most of the time). my mom (bless her beautiful heart) gets up with them and stays up. she feeds them wonderfully healthy breakfasts (we're lucky if i manage to shove a bowl of pinky-glee-sugar-bombs (otherwise known as 'hannah montana cereal') at the girls on our way out the door in the mornings), plays with them, lets them destroy the house (as if there were an option otherwise), and reads to them. she is truly a God-sent angel to us. :-)
this weekend, however, i had another plan while we were here. my friend beth wanted me to come and photograph their 3 dogs (LARGE dogs i might add) as a gift for her husband's belated birthday. i thought this was a super fun idea (i've photographed her kids on a few occasions as well), so we set it up for saturday morning. we had to do this at their house (due to the exuberance of the dogs - trying to take them somewhere would have been entertaining at best), and due to the direction of the lighting we had to do this out in front of their house (translation: no fence out front). they have 2 ginormous golden retrievers, and 1 (also ginormous) black lab. these medium-sized horses (also known as dogs to them) are VERY excited to be around people, and had the energy of a caffeinated dinosaur troup (even after having been run ragged that morning in an attempt to tire them out). as we tried to get started, and were having a hoot of a time watching the dogs tie themselves in knots, the two retrievers took off. and by 'took off' i mean they RAN AWAY.
bye bye. down the street. 153 miles an hour.
so beth takes off after them on foot, while i hang out with kayla (the black lab). i get some wonderful shots of kayla (who, by they way, is the only GIRL of the three), who is content to do just what i tell her. after a while her husband, jeff, comes out and takes off to help in the car. i put kayla in the backyard and go in to play with the kids a bit until they get back.
time passes. they stop by to see if the dogs by chance have come back home. nope.
more time passes. i'm beginning to feel a 'movie of the week' scenario come on when at last they pull into the drive with dogs racing out of the car. the story gets funnier as each day passes, so i'm sure within a week or two beth might feel it's as funny as i do. i'm just glad they FOUND the dogs - i would have felt SO incredibly TERRIBLE if they'd been gone for good. i can't even imagine.
so after we spend time getting some rather humorous shots of each dog, we call it a day and beth goes in to wash up (and hopefully have a stiff drink). the girls and i headed out to wal-mart after that to give my mom some downtime (remember that 5 o'freaking whatever wakeup call she received?), and ended up taking a drive so the younger two could nap for a bit (they seemed to realize then that the o'dark thirty wakeup call was a tad bit early too). wal-mart is the big excitement in sallisaw, so we headed north on 59 to see some scenery. it's also curvy enough to put them to sleep. :-)
mom made one of my all-time favorites for dinner - roast - and the girls and i inhaled it. after church today, mom had made chicken spaghetti (another fave), and i'm thinking the girls are starting to realize i should cook more (or more than mac-n-cheese that is). we spent the afternoon shopping in fort smith, and now i'm contemplating getting to bed AGAIN before midnight. this would be 2 nights in a row - something that is rare in my world.
jim is heading to austin today for some hands-on training for a few weeks. he heads to orlando the first part of march, then back to austin to finish things up. he'll be gone 4 weeks in all, and i must say i miss him already. :-)
sorry for the short novel, but as most of you know i like to talk. a LOT. so i thought this would be a fun break in the blog to give you a small glimpse into my little 'mini-vacation' of sorts.
have a beautiful evening!
peace and popsicles -
jen :-)
