Day 1 Barbie Jeep Adventures

Okay, day one's adventures actually included much more than a Barbie Jeep, but the Jeep was definitely one of the highlights as far as the kiddos were concerned. It also happens to be in almost all of the photos from Tuesday, so I think the title of the post is going to stick.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we started the day off at our usual 7:20am.... even though we didn't get everyone to sleep until around 2:30am. The girls were a little cranky, but not terribly so. We were able to go over to Scott's grandparents house late in the morning. We tried to stay long enough to have lunch, but by the time we sat down to eat the girls were pretty much melting down. The great-grandparents graciously offered to pack up lunch so we could feed them once they woke up from their much needed naps. Back at Gamma's house the naps went off without a hitch for the little girls... down without tears and up 3 hours later. Ella pretended to be interested in watching a DVD on the portable player and managed to squeak by without a nap on the first day.

Everyone was in great spirits late in the afternoon, and we were fortunate enough to have an invitation over to Marty and Charity's house for a relaxing evening of grilling out and letting the girls run and play in the yard. Scott and Charity are cousins, though I'm not sure whether 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or what because both Scott and his mom are only children, and the extended family still is pretty confusing for me! Marty & Charity are the parents of 3 year old AnnMartin and ~12 week old baby Leila.... of course I didn't manage to get any pictures of Marty or Charity, but here's one of Ella holding Leila with Gamma supervising, and AnnMartin is the little blond beauty in lots of the jeep pictures.

They were too kind to have our entire rowdy crew over.... and on the night before Charity had to return to work from maternity leave, no less! We are so grateful that they did, though, because the girls had a great time playing with AnnMartin and her Barbie Jeep, and as always we enjoyed catching up with the grown-ups.

Although I'm not eager to make the drive down there again anytime real soon, I hope that they'll consider coming up here sometime because it was so nice to spend time with them. Ella has mentioned AnnMartin and Leila (and all her cousins from later in the week too) in all of her prayers since we've returned home.

Overall, our first full day there went much better than I had anticipated. They were filthy and exhausted when we got back to Gamma's that night, as were their parents.... sure signs of a day well spent!