October 10

I confess: I am exhausted.

We left Maggie's house this morning, spent seven hours on the road, got home, unpacked, then I made the meal list for the week, made the grocery list, went to the grocery store, came home, unpacked the groceries, realized Daisy was napping so we couldn't go out to dinner like I had hoped, made dinner, put the kids to bed, did laundry, then caught up on four days worth of blog posts.

It's been a long day, and off-schedule kids + long car rides + Caleb's fast-developing cold (again!) means the kids have been rough.

But I have a great husband who helped with a lot of the stuff we did today. And who makes the kids happy when I'm exasperated. And who does the dishes after dinner so that I don't have to.

And who took many of the few pictures I have from today...

(you knew I was mentioning all of that busy-ness to prepare you for a weak blog post, didn't you? You're so clever.)

(Now you know I'm trying to flatter you, don't you?)

All I have to show for today are these photos from our lunch break. The one lesson I've learned about car trips with kids is this: Anytime you stop for gas or food, ask the cashier if there is a park nearby. Inevitably there is, and a 15-minute play break at a park is much, MUCH better than a 15-minute play break at McDonald's.

Behold, our play break:

Can you guess what Daisy's doing?

If you guessed "Lounging in the shade", you'd be correct!

Reaching for Mommy. How sweet is that?

Gah. This was over-exposed, so I made it black and white, but you can't really tell what it is.

Sorry.

It's me, pushing Caleb in a swing.

He's having a great time, in case you can't tell.

And now I'm going to bed.