Trip to Springfield!

On Sunday night we left at bedtime to drive to Springfield to see my Auntie Gracie, cousin Stacy and her girlies! When we were little we would always meet in Springfield (halfway between us), so it is so fun to do it with our kids now. Auntie Gracie even made puppy chow.

Last time we met my cousin Emily we drove at bedtime and Elise slept the whole way. She has since decided that she does not like to sleep in her carseat, so we eventually gave up and just entertained her until we got there. She did really well, and even figured out how to use my mom's ipad... sort of.
[P.S. to Grandpa: Elise needs an ipad for her birthday. Just an idea. kidding.....]

We had SO much fun! Elise just loves her cousin Maddie. As soon as she got there Elise had to give her a hug. Maddie even gave her bites of her blueberry muffin.

We even attempted taking this crowd out for lunch. It was pretty successful overall and so fun!

Elise LOVES swimming. She was in there for hours. She is even a little bit braver than her bigger cousins Elle & Lola. They had more fun playing with cups. Aren't these girls just the CUTEST??

Look at all these redheads! That's a little crazy.

Our ride home was pretty interesting too. Elise slept the first 30 minutes, and then decided she was done with that. We figured out she has about a 30 second attention span so we were constantly giving her new stuff to play with. Our last resorts included letting her go to town on a few dum dum suckers and playing with the ice from our drink cups. She was pretty damp and really sticky when we got home.

She did so well, and after about three hours we stopped for gas and a snack. Elise had JUST fallen asleep and we heard a really loud POP. Yep. The tire. Poor Elise woke up and our tire pressure slowly went down to nothing. We pulled over to a gas station where Elise and I walked around in the store while my mom tried the fix-a-flat. Got back on the highway and the tire is still losing air. Of course we couldn't pull over at just any exit - we had to find a Panera. I'm freaking out, and my mom is looking for a latte. At Panera we waited for AAA, who pumped up our tire enough to drive to the nearest Chevy dealership because our car does not have a spare tire. (What kind of car doesn't have a spare tire??). We arrive at the dealership at 4:59. They close at 5. They were kind enough to fix our tire, and a half hour later we were back on the road. Sweet Elise was so great. She was just happy to be out of her carseat I think.

One of the ways Elise entertained herself for awhile:

Untitled from Rachel Goote on Vimeo.