*sighhhh* back to real life

My parents are on spring break. (No, they aren't another "babies having babies" statistic - they both work in the school system. That way they get to have spring breaks *for life*.) Even though my brother just got home on leave from Iraq, they sacrificed a few days of seeing him to make the trip out here to visit us.

We met them Saturday for a late dinner at Cracker Barrel and spent the next three days packing in as much time and memories as we could. We sat up late talking Saturday night, did church (+Easter musical), lunch out and yummy beef carnitas Sunday, picnic at the park and fabulously delicious pot roast on Monday, then we were planning on a full fun-filled day today. But when we woke up, it was cloudy. And gloomy. And we just couldn't work up the enthusiasm for a full, busy day at some exotic locale.

So we toned our plans down and decided to do something simple. We took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Now before you think I'm being all sarcastic about CEC being simple, listen to this bit of brilliancy. We drove a little further out and went to the nice CEC. We got there the minute the door opened and we spent the next 2 hours as the only customers in the place. The girls had a blast picking whatever game they wanted and the grandparents and I got to join in the fun since we didn't have to keep the kids in sight every second. After all, there was no one around to cause problems and we could generally hear them. We weren't overwhelmed with all the clanging and whistles and screaming and it was a very fun, relaxing morning.

After that, we headed over to the outlet mall where we wandered around until we found a new, bright, shiny, beautiful, HUGEMONGOUSGINORMOUS Children's Place. I looked through the mall entrance and was blinded by the heavenly glow of discount children's clothing.

Then I realized, the store went all the way through to an outside entrance and it was just the daylight coming through the windows. And that angelic choir? Overhead speakers playing musak. But you would've been fooled, too. Especially after you saw the racks of fleece pajamas for $2.99! Tops *and* pants together for that one ridiculously low price! And it's the ones K's been lusting over for 2 years! I got the girls each a pair and Grandma loaded up on some for the grandsons as well as a supercute fleece jacket and pants set for each of the girls.

After that, my feet were screaming in protest over my not-quite-so-comfy-for-a-100000000-acre-mall shoes, so we headed back toward our car with the obligatory stop on the way for some yummy treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. A detour through Sonic, a stop at Target, dinner at Pei Wei, and our fun-filled day had come to an end. Back at our place, the parents packed up everything they were hauling back to Texas and started on their long westward journey.

As soon as we couldn't see them from the window, K got all gloomy announcing that she missed her grandparents already. Don't worry, K. 3 more months and all the summer plans we made together will kick off, but that's another post.