Our Day Trip

On Tuesday evening, I surprised my sister + brother-in-law by taking the kids to meet them at the airport. They weren’t expecting to see us until Wednesday morning. On the way back to my parents’ house, I was trying to get Kiera to sing a song for Art + Jenene. The conversation went like this:

Me: Kiera, can you sing Amazing Grace?

Kiera: No, I can’t sing Amazing Grace.

Me: I think you can.

Kiera: No I can’t.

Me: I’m pretty sure you can.

Kiera: No Mom, I’m pretty sure I can’t!

I just burst out laughing! Her sentences are incredible! I would say she’s definitely been talking like a 3-year-old for the past several months.

2nd conversation:
Me (to my Mom): My sister-in-law and brother-in-law bought a shih-poo (a shih tzu poodle).

Kiera: Did she poo?

Ha ha!

So anyway, on Wednesday, I went with the kids, my Mom, Art, and Jenene for a day trip across the border. My Mom gave me a bunch of cash to spend on clothes and that was my birthday present, which was exactly what I wanted! I haven’t bought any nice winter clothes in 3 years, since I was pregnant with Kiera! I have a hard time spending money, especially on myself. The kids + I slept in that morning on purpose, since we had a late night on Tuesday. We left at 11:15 a.m. and got to our destination around 2:00, including a stop for gas and feeding Blake. All the way down, Kiera was obsessed with seeing tractors. She would see one and then after we drove by it, she would say, “I wanna see another tractor! I wanna see another tractor!” That was pretty much how she was the whole drive there. We got to our destination and the first store we went to, I ended up buying 7 shirts for $100! It was all covered by my birthday money, except for one shirt which my sister bought for me for my birthday.

At 4:00, we went for a meal, since the others had a small lunch in the van on the way there and I had a late, filling breakfast.

We did some more shopping after that. I’ve been looking for shoes for the kids to wear to my sister-in-law’s wedding and I’ve had an especially hard time finding little white shoes at this time of year. I also wanted Blake to have black shoes that he could wear with his shirt/vest/black pants outfit but that weren’t overly dressy so that he can wear them with jeans, too. I found shoes for both kids at Payless Shoes and they had buy one pair get the 2nd half off, so the total was $22!

We were done shopping shortly after 7:00 and then Art fed Blake some baby food in the van. We hadn’t even left the mall parking lot yet and Blake was fast asleep! Both kids did SOOOO well despite not having any naps. They were happy almost the whole time and it was so much more relaxing for me having extra hands to help. Blake slept most of the way home and Kiera talked and talked and talked. The only time she was quiet was when she was pushing the buttons on the toy tractor my Mom bought her. It makes loud noises and lights up when the buttons are pushed. I timed Kiera and the longest she stopped talking for was 30 seconds and it was a 3-hour drive back home with a stop for gas. No joke! I think the drive there was about the same. Some kids fall asleep in vehicles, but not Kiera, unless she is exhausted to the max. We got to the border and I said to God, “It would be really nice if we wouldn’t have to pay taxes and duty.” Altogether we spent $250 between the 4 of us adults, so I was fairly certain that we were going to pay. We pulled up to the border guard and he was asking questions and Kiera was chattering away. She had a toy cowboy and said, “He has a blue shirt on!” The border guy said, “Ya, I have a blue shirt on, too!” He had to repeat a question or two because Kiera wouldn’t stop talking. Then he said, “It’s ok. I’m the 2nd oldest of 26 first cousins. We’re a French Catholic family.” He was SO nice and funny. He was filling out a form as he was asking me questions and then at the end he said, “You know, once a day I give someone a break. It’s almost the end of the my shift and I haven’t given anyone a break yet.” He ripped up the form and said, “Don’t tell anyone because we have a reputation to uphold here at the border. Have a nice evening.” I was grinning from ear to ear and said, “Thank you! Bless you!” That was totally the grace of God. We would have owed between $40-50 worth of taxes and duty. It was the perfect end to an almost perfect shopping trip! When we finally pulled onto the driveway at 10:30 p.m., we unloaded the van and the whole time, Blake was still sleeping! He normally wakes up as soon as the van stops.

 

He only woke up once he was actually almost inside the house. He was pretty done. We were all very tired, but happy with how the day turned out!