A spontaneous day with the kids

Between work, kids and chores, Farmer Jake and I rarely spend more than 20 minutes in the same room (aka: chow time).  Well, that's not completely true.  At some point, he goes to bed, but I never see that actually happen.  Perhaps he's a vampire?  Oh wait, if he was a vampire, I wouldn't have to wake him up 3 times in the morning before he finally rolls out of bed ;)  

Today we both had a vacation day and instead of the usual:  "you take the kids from 9-noon, then I'll take them from noon/nap-5", we embarked on a family day trip.  I was ridiculously excited about this.  Life as a SAHM who babysits for friends and doesn't have a car means I spend A LOT of time in my house.  I love my house, but it's been driving me batty!

Farmer Jake DID have a meeting, so I guess it wasn't a complete vacation day, but that gave us our destination (about 1 hour away).  Stupidly, I just assumed the meeting would last an hour and found a near-by park for the kids.  After an hour and a half and two tree pee breaks for Hazel, I desperately needed an adult appropriate restroom.  

it took her awhile to warm up, but Heidi learned to love swinging!

To make a long story short, we then spend another hour and half killing time at the industrial complex where he was in his meeting.  I kept thinking "if I leave now, he'll call as soon as I get the kids into/out of their car seats".  Ugh, that was a long hour and a half.  The near-by Target really wishes I had known I had 3 hours to kill!

Then the kids were ready for car seat naps so Farmer Jake and I took turns running into one store each (he:  Lowes, me:  Kohls).  It was BLISSFUL to spend 15 minutes sprinting through the store.  I got FJ 3 new shirts, a pair of adorable silver sandals for Hazel, and for me...

SUNGLASSES!  Ok, I have to ask:  DO I HAVE A FAT HEAD?  It seems that every pair of sunglasses (I go for the plastic frames that make good headbands) press on my temples and causes headaches.  I never knew that I was a fat head :(

this pic was from last summer when I was in Pittsburgh for a bachelorette party.  we ate at Fat Heads...I should've applied for a job :)

From there, we followed some GPS coordinates to a cave that Farmer Jake has wanted to explore.  It kinda sorta doesn't exist, but we did find a different cave that we're planning on exploring on our next adult only date day!

So, what makes the perfect day with a 1yo and an almost 3yo?

• Meals of hot dogs, nachos, ice cream.
• Playgrounds  
• Lots of good baby naps in the car.  
• Silly conversations with Hazel to keep her entertained.  
• And best of all, a whole day with just my quartet!  Sooo long overdue!