I'm Thinking of Something...

So, as I eluded to in the previous post, I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll start by saying that it was so AweSomE to have my parents here for the entire month of April. I miss them terribly. It was great to be able to visit and spend time with them. The month seemed to fly by (as is usually the case when you wish it wouldn't.)

My parents got here right before Easter. I had to laugh, being that there has been snow on the ground in Minnesota since November, Mom and Dad hadn't seen green in a while. In fact, my Mom was so tickled by all of the greenery and flowers in Laughlin (yes, Laughlin) as they were driving through, they decided to stay there an extra day!

On Easter Sunday, we drove up to the foothills and took this and the other pictures from the slide show below this post. The weather was beautiful. Everything was so green and the wildflowers were gorgeous providing a terrific background. It was really nice.

I hate to admit this and am now wondering if indeed I did "have a bug", but these pictures are (almost) the only photos I took the entire time my folks were here...How sad is that?

Very sad, but I am happy to say that instead of pictures, I have great stories to tell. : )

The week after they arrived, we left for the coast. We had the trip planned since June of last year and were really looking forward to it. When we arrived at the beach, we were all kind of surprised by how cold it was. Even the "it's 10 degrees but feels like -15 and I'm only wearing a sweat shirt" Minnesotans were FREEZING. It was a "wet cold" don't ya know? (I'm only teasing Mom and Dad, it WAS cold there.)We made the best of it though!

The day after we arrived, Franky and Dad went golfing while Mom, Alex and I went shopping. First we went to our favorite, "Birds of a Feather". It was as wonderful as ever. We found some very yummy Easter decorations there. Next we drove to the village of Arroyo Grande. There we went to Susan Branch's store which is just too cute. I found an adorable vintage step stool there. Alex really liked it and we decided that it had some pretty great potential as a "time-out" chair! jk

After all of that shopping, we rewarded Red for being so patient (did I just use Red and patient in the same sentence?!) with a sweet treat at his favorite ice cream shop. Mom and I watched as he ate every last drop. We were (and still are) Weight Watchers and managed to stay on track. I must say though, I really enjoyed watching Red really enjoy eating his ice cream. I guess it was one of those "living vicariously through another" moments. : )

We had decided to head back to camp and were driving through SLO. It used to be that there was a terrific little shop called Anthology that we loved to go to there. The last time we were in SLO we were disappointed to see it had closed. The owner had previously had a shop Lavender in Pismo that we loved as well. On a fluke, we drove down a side street on the way back to the freeway and happened upon a shop called Nest.

We were both so excited as we walked through the door, it was fabulous!!! The funny thing was, turns out the owner is Connie, the woman whose other two shops we had admired so much. It was like a reunion. We visited with her for a while. I found a couple of great old cameras, a vintage picnic basket and a couple of "nesty" things that are perfect in my scrapbook room.
We had a great time.

The rest of the time we were in Morro Bay, we walked along the beach, rode our bikes, ate wonderful meals, played dominoes and visited with my parents, Aunt Sally, Uncle Billy and their daughter Rachel.

Red had lots of fun. He did have a few periods of naughtiness. He figured out pretty quickly that if one person told him no or not to do something, he could find someone else that would swing his way. Actually it was quite hilarious how he worked his magic.

As we were packing up getting ready to head home, Alex was having a particularly naughty behavior streak. Just not listening, doing the opposite of what we told him to do, etc. Needless to say, he had been in time out a lot that morning. When we were pulling out, Red decided to ride with Mow and Papa. You see, they are WAY more fun and they have Bubble Gum... Since he had been in trouble earlier, I told Mom not to let him have any gum until he started behaving better. She agreed and we all left. About 15 minutes into the trip we had stopped to get gas my Mom comes to our car cracking up. She told me this story:

After they got into the truck and got Alex all buckled in, he asked Papa if he could have a piece of gum. My Mom tells Red that I had said that he couldn't have any gum until he started behaving himself. She suggested they not talk about it and when they stopped for gas, he could ask me if he could have some then.

Mom says about a minute passed when Alex pipes up, "I'm thinking of something... It's squishy, and it tastes good...and you can chew it..."

Mom tells Alex he isn't supposed to be asking for gum anymore. To which Alex replies, "I didn't say gum, Mow!!!"

Little Stinker!