This past weekend was Clyde's four-day break and the start of my spring vacation. What better way to spend our time than with a trip the visit the Nickoloffs? Their camping trip had been cancelled due to the bad weather so we headed out Saturday morning around 10. What should have been a 4 hour trip turned into over 8 hours in the car. Between the insane traffic on 95 and the tornado-like wind and rain, we had a great chance to see just how patient Zawadi could be in the car. This was her first long trip and she was a champ!

We finally arrived Saturday evening in time for a quick trip to the park to stretch our legs and then some delicious baked ziti to fill our bellies. The girls hit it off immediately, and Leah and I got scolded for getting a little too loud and excited to see each other. We woke up Sunday and headed to the zoo. What an amazing experience! Zawadi had never seen any of the animals in real life and took it all in. She was even brave enough to pet a bird and feed a giraffe!!

After the zoo the girls were exhausted so after they went down for a long nap, Leah and I headed out for a walk and the boys smoked a cigar out on the porch. After another delicious meal and a quick bath for Z, it was back in the car again. Luckily, our trip home was half as long as our trip down.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend and we are so thankful to the Nickoloffs for inviting us. We are looking forward to seeing them again in May, especially Zawadi. She points at the computer all the time saying, "Abby," and hoping to see some pictures on their blog. It's going to be hard to watch them move to Denver. True friends are hard to come by.

Let the yardwork begin!

We are slowly discovering exactly what being a homeowner entails. Mowing and raking and planting and weeding and watering.....oh my! We spent one of the recent gorgeous weekends raking up all of our pine straw and replacing it with woodchips. We completely underestimated how many bags we would need and made several trips to Lowe's before we were finished. It came out great and I am very excited to get some flowers planted. And I am less worried about keeping up with the yardwork after seeing what a great helper Zawadi is going to be. She loved digging in the dirt and had the hose mastered in a matter of seconds. She thinks pulling weeds out is a fun game, especially when we find earthworms to play with! Now if only we could teach her to run the lawn mower.