My sister Melanie, who lives in Washington, has felt a little homesick lately so my parents looked at their schedules in hopes of possibly making a trip to see her. Gratefully their schedules worked out that they could go up the weekend of their Primary Sacrament Program. Melanie has followed in our Mother's footsteps and is currently the primary chorister in their ward. My parents thought it would be so fun to attend Melanie's program, which of course would include two of their granddaughters! Word soon got out that they were making the trip and then my sister Emily rearranged her schedule as well to join them. As for myself, well I was still scheduled to work a couple of the days that they were planning to be gone and my family honestly thought it would be crazy for me to be traveling a 14 hour drive while being so late in my pregnancy.
Well me, being the type of person I am, thought more about the possibilities of going and made a list of things I'd have to do to be able to go. And if for any reason, none of it worked out, I wouldn't go. Plus I figured this really would be my last chance to go with my parents and sister anywhere because it would be too tight of a fit and hard to travel with two kiddos the next time they go off on an adventure.
So first off, would the hubby be okay with it? Of course he was okay with it. I asked him and he wasn't skeptical at all, I'm sure in the back of his mind he was a bit worried but as long as my doctor was fine with it he was fine with it. He really is more of a laid back, easy going type of guy and had no problem whatsoever with the thought of me taking our son on a road trip with my sister and parents. I hate having to leave him behind but he would miss too much work if he tried to rearrange his schedule as well, plus we have a dog. Oh the joys of a dog. We love him but he can really put a dent when it comes to taking a trip somewhere. Luckily Emily has been a huge help in that department of our dog situation since she lives with us now. She's been great about staying home with him if Jackson and I ever had to go somewhere.
Anyhow, so now with having my husband approval it was time to ask the doctor. I had a doctors appointment just a couple weeks beforehand and his exact words were, "You can go anywhere up to 36 weeks of pregnancy." Meaning until I hit 36 weeks, I can still travel. I would be 33 weeks the weekend of our trip. I was a little shocked with his approval and even told him how far of a drive it was and with no hesitation he said that it was completely fine. Wow, maybe I was meant to go on this trip. Now all I had to worry about was my work schedule. I was scheduled for two days of that trip that I needed to see if someone would trade with me. It's usually really hard to find a trade so I figured if I couldn't find a trade after asking a couple of people I wouldn't bother. Well lucky me, the very first person I asked was totally fine with trading! I was a little shocked at how easy it was to make the trade. And Ta Da! That was it; the three things I needed to accomplish in order to go had been accomplished. As much as I would LOVE to not work, I'm just so glad that I could be blessed with a great flexible job that has great benefits and pay at this time in our life. Most importantly, this job still allows me to be that "stay at home mom" with my son every single day, which is very rare for most working mothers.
Anyhow, moving forward with our fun last minute trip to Washington! We left on a very late Thursday evening and arrived in Washington Friday afternoon. Melanie and her hubby knew we were coming but didn't tell her kids. We sure do love surprises!
We had Braxton go knock on the door before us, I'm sure he was pleased to be out of the car after our long road trip. We are super lucky to be blessed with such a good kid that travels long distance so well.
The kiddo's faces!
After arriving, the kids showing us there pet guinea pigs!
Let me tell you, after being there for a few days and watching these girls take care of these guinea pigs, I think it is a TON of work to have a pet guinea pig. I honestly think it's worse than having a dog. I watched what these girls had to do everyday and holy moly, I'd kill the little things. It has to be fed a carrot three times a day with lettuce somewhere in between. Then they have to clean the pee and poop out of there bed after each feeding and stick new bedding in it. That in itself sounds exhausting, but more power to them. I do think pets are fun and it was fun for Braxton to be around a smaller type of animal other than a dog. :)
Feeding time!
Braxton found their piano and probably drove the girls crazy. Because anytime one of them would start to play the piano, Braxton had to jump on in and join them. They were such good sports about it though.
Another toy Braxton found that he enjoyed very thoroughly was their princess kitchen! He truly does love playing with kitchen sets. In fact we ended up putting this large toy out in the living room so we wouldn't have to keep running to the girls bedroom to check on him. I'm glad Santa's on the ball with knowing what Braxton wants for Christmas!
Time to go to the city school trunk or treat! Melanie told me ahead of time that we would be dressing them up so I brought Braxton's costume with us. It really was so much fun to do a mini "trick or treat" session with the girls.
The costumes!
We have Elmo, Belle, Perry the Platypus, and Ruffnut!
Standing in line at the school, there were a lot of kiddos there.
I tried really hard taking pictures of them getting candy, but my phone isn't the best at taking pictures of people moving plus it was pretty dark in the hallways. This was honestly the only one that turned out. At least you can see all four of the kids.
Melanie's decorated house at night.
Time to relax and eat dinner back at the house after trick or treating.
Braxton enjoying a sucker.
This picture below was more fun than it looks. Braxton thought it would be fun to make Grandma Hawkins into a slide. So he sat on her lap and started sliding down her legs. Little shortcake soon saw the joy Braxton was having and had to join in. They literally slid down my mom's legs for at least 15 minutes, if not more. Such a good sport that Grandma was!
Found the piano again!
Bedtime stories! Braxton had his share of stories before these pictures.
The next day Braxton was at it again, the human slide!
While I was downstairs getting ready, my dad yells for me to come up and see what he was doing and this is what I found. Such a clever resourceful idea and Braxton loved it!
We got to go on a ferry ride to Seattle!
Us driving onto the ferry.
It was a bit rainy that day as to be expected in Washington.
My mom was such a good sport, Braxton wanted to investigate the ferry some more so she took him outside in the rain to look around. Needless to say, her beautiful curled hair that she worked on that morning got very wet and flat. It was so funny to see her come back with wet hair. Melanie and I had a good laugh. Grandparents doing anything for their grandkids. I never could get a picture of my mom's hair without her noticing.
Just sitting around waiting to get to Seattle.
Getting closer!
Riding the rides and playing the games.
This truck was one of Braxton's favorites. He loves pretending to drive cars.
He really wanted to ride this horse too that was way to big for him.
Luckily Grandpa was there to help keep the horse moving.
Luckily Grandpa was there to help keep the horse moving.
How many people can you pack in a van?! Quite a few! (There's a picture of my mom's hair! :)
Just a little side note. Before Braxton and I left Jackson to go to Washington, Jackson, out of the blue, asks me a few days before if there was anything the girls pet guinea pigs needed. He said he wanted to use his discount to get their pets a gift. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever of him to want to send a gift to the girls to give their pets. So a few days before we left, the three of us went to the pet store and found these cupcake chew things for their guinea pigs. I told Jackson I would make sure they knew it was from him and that he was thinking about them. Such a sweetie! :)
Here is one of them enjoying their new treat!
Another evening relaxing around the house!
The next day after church, we decided to carve pumpkins! Melanie had it all planned out for us to do that with them and even picked up a couple extra pumpkins for us to carve as well!
Braxton was quite observant at first as to what we were all doing.
Once he saw what the girls were doing, he picked up a spoon and dug right in!
Mother dear faithfully pulling out all the pumpkin seeds for us!
Grandpa decided to help Braxton finish scraping out his pumpkin. Just fair warning, PICTURE OVERLOAD!! I loved watching Braxton get so into it! Oh how I wish Jackson could have been there with us. I sent him pictures ... lots of pictures of us all carving pumpkins that night.
Loved this face I got!
And he's saying he's all done with the slime!
This little 3 year old was so determined to do her pumpkin all by herself. In fact she was pretty persistent in not letting anyone help her. Luckily by the end of the night she gave in and let her mom finish Hello Kitty's broom. We could have been there all night waiting for her. Never seen a kid so dedicated in her work like that.
After Braxton had his share fun of the pumpkin carving, he started to dance to the Halloween music which then made Grandpa want to join in with him. They were dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at this time.
And he's resting now!
Grandma still faithfully picking out all the seeds.
We were a bit limited to carving utensils. So Emily used some type of power drill that belonged to Troy. She eventually learned that she needed goggles, quite the mess it made!
Braxton found his costume sitting by the side of the couch and took it to Grandma to put on. How can you resist the desire of dressing up from a cute kid. So he put it on and sat on Grandma's lap for awhile.
Later on, my mom started to get cold, So Braxton saw her covered up with a blanket and took her blanket from her to use as well. The blanket was a bit small, but luckily one of the girls noticed and stocked the both of them up with blankets. It was cute to watch them sit there all bundled up in blankets.
And they're done!!
It took quite a while to finish them but they turned out awesome!
I had to jump in the picture too since I helped with the Elmo.
I for sure thought Braxton would sleep in the next morning due to staying up so late the night before. Nope, he was up at 6:30 AM! He never gets up that early, even now he sleeps in until 8 or 9. I think he would have fell back asleep eventually if he didn't know how to get out of the pack n play that he was sleeping in. Either way, lucky for him his cousin woke up soon after and joined him for breakfast.
Always insisting on "helping" to do the dishes.
Game time with the girls.
More dancing.
Later that night, we had a mini Halloween party and had Halloween food for dinner that Melanie thought up and made.
We played a few games as well. This one below was glow in the dark ring toss ... by far everyone's favorite I think.
Because Emily wasn't feeling so good health wise along with other things, we felt it was necessary to drive through the night to get her back home to see a doctor the next day. So these last few pictures were taken while we were packing up the car.
Braxton being involved with the guinea pigs third meal of the day.
Now that the air mattresses have been packed up, he found something he loves to do, read BOOKS!!
He also found the little toddler bed that was hidden behind the air mattresses. He laughed and thought it was just perfect for him to sleep in. We have a toddler bed for him that we've been waiting to give him, but after seeing him get all cozy with this bed, I'm thinking he'll be going to a toddler bed himself pretty soon.
What a fun trip it was and I'm so glad that Braxton and I were able to tag along! I do fear that it will probably be our last time going on a road trip with my sister and parents now that our family will be expanding. As short as it was, it still was a fun get away. Thanx for having us over Melanie! And thanx to my parents for letting my 33 week pregnant self tag along. Only 5 more weeks left!
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