Short Drive

Hanging out with Jen and the Baby

Civil War Fun

Lunch in Fredricksburg

Outside the Cafe where we ate lunch

Justin had Spring Break last week and we took the opportunity to head down to Jacksonville to see John. We loaded all four of us (yes, four, including Jasmine) into the car and we hit the road Friday after work. My original "plan" was to head out and get as far as I could that day. Auntie Jenny called to see if we would be driving through Maryland and I said, "I'm doing whatever my navigation system tells me." After laughing at me, she pointed out that I-95 was probably the road I would be taking and that her house was about 5 minutes away. She graciously invited us to stay with her on Friday night and that's what we did! She took us in when we arrived around midnight and then treated us to a fabulous breakfast in the morning. (She has a personal chef on staff these days).

The kids were very excited to see Auntie Jenny and Uncle Matt. The highlight for Justin was playing his DS with Uncle Matt and he let me know that "Uncle Matt really doesn't know what he's doing but I didn't tell him that." Justin also confirmed with Auntie Jenny that he would be a cousin to the baby. He was considering being an Uncle but decided against that when he learned that he would have to give presents if he was an Uncle. It's much more fun to be a cousin because the only requirement for this is to be able to play.

When we left on Saturday, Auntie Jenny gave each of them a gift bag. Let me tell you...

In Justin's bag there were cologne samples that came conveniently in spray form. Every 15 seconds or so I would hear the familiar sound of him spraying the dumb thing and I begged him each time (through teary eyes and cologne particles tickling the inside of my nose) to give it a rest. "No problem Mom!" That worked for about 15 seconds until we started the process again. The problem with Big Ben is that he has a significant amount of freedom because he sits in the very back seat where he is well outside of striking distance.

In both of their bags was an abundance of candy (and the wrappers that come with the candy) but the coup de grace was the little packet of RED kool-aid that could be added to a water bottle. Annalise was under the false impression that this was a "Lick a Stick" type candy. I had no idea that this was going on and when I looked back at her I saw that her face was bright red. Confused, I checked her to see if she had a fever or was overheated. Out of slight concern, I pulled over to check on her. This is when I discovered the little blue wrapper and figured out that a Baby Wipe would take care of it. Oh, sweet revenge...

We stopped in Fredricksburg to wait out the traffic, clean Annalise's face, and hide the cologne spray. We had a great lunch and we shopped for Civil War toys while we waited out the traffic. We found a great little ballet store and Annalise tried on several leotards before settling on a cute little blue one. Justin patiently hung out with us and told her each time she modeled a new one, "Annalise! That's beautiful!" The staff got a kick out of them and told me what sweet children I had which made me smile for the rest of the trip.

With a new Civil War plastic soldier collection and a blue leotard in our possession we jumped back in the car and, after close to 1200 miles, we finally made it to John's hotel late Saturday night.