A Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

Elsa and I (and Merckx) spent the last few days up in Charlotte with my parents while Jarrett was away on business. As we both had colds, it was nice to just get away and not worry about all there is to do around our own house. Elsa enjoyed seeing her grandparents and her Uncle Billy, and I enjoyed being able to relax (and of course see my parents and brother as well). Because my parents were working, we had our mornings pretty free, so I decided to take Elsa out one morning and watch the airplanes take off and land at the nearby airport. Unfortunately I could not find the park my parents and I visited in years past (perhaps they have done away with it?), so after much driving around, we settled on a fine parking space at a fast food restaurant and were able to get pretty good views of the airplanes coming in for their landings while Elsa enjoyed her snack.

On Tuesday after my mom got off work, we did some shopping with a family friend, who was able to get us some great deals (thank you again, Linda!), and then we all met up with my dad for a very yummy Mexican dinner -- a day early since Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo. But, really, who needs a day reserved as an excuse to eat Mexican? And, if you do, then Tuesday was Jarrett's and my eighth wedding anniversary, so I was celebrating that... sans my beloved husband.

Here is Elsa running around Belk:

And here we are at dinner:

We headed home Wednesday, making a stop in Gastonia to eat lunch with my dad. We could not leave, though, without me getting some video footage of Elsa with the big stuffed tiger my mom won at work a couple of years back. Here she is saying goodbye to it yesterday morning.

We made it home in time to go to music class yesterday, and I'm glad we did. Elsa really started showing her true colors in class for the first time in a long time. She started out really shy, as usual, but it didn't take her long to be up traipsing around, beating on drums, waving "flags" (wands with ribbons), and chatting away. It was good to see her have fun again now that she has her cast off.