By the time I got home at 5:30pm, I was exhausted. I walked into the house to discover that the reno had unexpectedly stretched into the kitchen. (They had thought they wouldn't need to touch the kitchen for a few more weeks but the plans were forced to change due to a wall that needed to come down.) John and I didn't want to complain as this meant they were moving faster than we thought. (Always a good thing!) We have been SOOOOO impressed with this renovation team and cannot recommend them any less!!!! I stayed calm and quickly decided to take the kids and our wwoof'ers to Wendy's down the road, We don't usually eat fast food so this was a HUGE treat. We'd actually never been in this restaurant, and it was quite funny to watch my kiddos try to figure out the straw and cup top dispenser worked.
Back at the farm, I started panicking a bit. I was due to leave the next morning to go out and see John's brother, Matt and his wife Danielle. I was taking Abigail and going to spend 4-5 days helping them with their newest little daughter, Kamryn, who had joined her two-year-old sister, Peyton in the world. In addition, my female dog was going into heat and getting VERY feisty with her boyfriend, Ritter.
The house was a WRECK but with the encouragement of John and Dad and Mom, I left. I thought about taking Hannah to try and alleviate the pressure at the house, but this had been decided weeks before. I was going to have some time just with Abigail, and when I got back, Dad and Mom would head to Columbia, SC to help them with the new baby. It wasn't fair to Abigail or me to change the plans now.
While it was so hard to leave the reno and the farm, I did it. I drove away knowing it would be harder with me gone but that Abigail and I needed this time. Danielle is one of my very dearest friends and this was a specially planned time for us. We also have a great wwoof'ing couple on the farm so I knew that area was taken care of.
I had SUCH a relaxing time. I helped Danielle with a few projects around the house but just mostly gave her an extra set of hands and the ability to run out without the baby (or take me for a few minutes of adult time while Matt watched the kiddos.)
I didn't get any pics of Matt and Danielle, but here are some fun pictures of our three girls:
It was a gorgeous few days -- even warm enough to get out and play in some water outside!! P.S. We KNOW that buckets of water and little kids can be unsafe. We did not leave the kiddos alone with this at all -- especially Peyton!
Abigail was totally old enough to hold new baby Kamryn (who is about half the size Hannah was at birth and under six pounds!!)
Abigail painted all of our nails and learned how to do a ponytail on aunt Danielle's hair!
Sitting around holding a baby -- it's amazing how relaxing it is when it isn't your own baby :)
I love this picture of Abigail. She was so proud and did such a good job!
There are a total of ten cousins on the Kitsteiner side now. Here are two of them: Abigail and Peyton. Peyton is very Hannah-esque in personality. She is a pile of fun!
We loved our trips to the park!
All done!!
I ended up coming home one half day early. JB was getting ready to go back on nights, and Hannah was really missing me. We thought it was better that Grampa and Grama didn't try to do bed time when there had been so much change. On our last day we went to the Columbia Zoo (it was AWESOMEeeeeee!!!) before heading home.
I can't tell you how much fun it was to just spend time with one of my kids. I was able to buy things and do things that I normally say no to. For example, Abugauk wanted a pretzel at the zoo. It was four dollars. I said yes! If I had all four kids it would be $16! Big difference. Just little splurges and a little bit of spoiling that I think we all need sometime in our life. (I can see how easy it would be to spoil my kids the fewer I have :)
A colossal thank you to my amazing husband and my unbelievably awesome in-laws as well as our wwoofer's -- Ivan and Uliana -- for allowing me this TRUE VACATION. Matt and Danielle may have felt like I was helping but it was way easier than my life back home. What a great time!!!!!
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