A little time away

We took a 4 day trip to the Capitol last week for a little time out of town.  The first time, other than camping, that I've left our little rural corner of the world.  The travel was a little rough -see previous post.  And Ethan is already trying to come up with ways to stay home when we leave the country to have our baby in Turkey (we'll be gone for close to 8 weeks time) just so he doesn't have to ride on the road!  But the time in the capitol was so wonderful.

Lots of good family time.  We enjoyed multiple meals out; which for this mama a break from 3 meals from scratch/day was such a gift.  The guest house has a room with AC, and it's amazing how much better you sleep in AC!  There were many points throughout the time where my kids and Austin played around me, while mom crashed out (like mouth open, zonked out kind of crashed out) for a nap!  Didn't realize I was as tired as I was.

Austin and I snuck away for a 9 year anniversary dinner thanks to some loving teammates who came to town early just to watch our kiddos!  For Wichita readers, it was as close to a date at Il Vicino as you can get; minus the amazing Mango tea!  (Anyone know if they sell that stuff?)  It is refreshing for my heart to enjoy things that are aesthetically pleasing to my cultural eye!  I'm not even all out aesthetically geared, but I do notice and it does start to have it's impact.  The food was good, the conversation good.  And again, more air conditioning.

I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple of time together playing puzzles.  I think I shot the pictures . . . and then crashed out for a nap! :)

 

Brothers doing puzzles together!  Elias doesn't want to miss out. 

 

 Elli showing her "modern art" interpretation of Nemo.  Who says the rules of puzzle making are that all the pieces have to go together only one way?  This little girl has the drama pose down.  And don't tell me those eyes to say something!

We also got to see a Dr. and have a sonogram of baby E.  We were able to see the little heartbeat fluttering, which is so encouraging.  The sonogram gave us a different due date, with a month discrepancy.  But we are choosing to disregard it based on the quality of the technology used.  :)  Hopefully we'll head back for another sonogram the end of September; though Ethan will choose to stay home on account of the road.

All in all a great trip! 

First Haircut

She's been begging for a haircut.  I think because it's been really hot and her head just sweats.  And without the good ol' Kansas humidity her longer curls don't curl up, they just frizz.  So we tried to go to a salon in the Capitol last week when we were there. 

Probably Mommy's bad timing, in that we made the appointment for 30 minutes after we rolled into town from our 6 hour over the Mountains trek, in 106F plus temps with not much ac to speak of.  Kept thinking we'd stop in the shade and there never was shade to stop in.  Ethan threw up, Elli almost did and Elias just laid motionless in his car seat with the look of "Mommy, what are you doing to me."  Probably should have done chicken nuggets first, then the first hair cut. 

Anyway, she refused.  So we left the Capitol without a haircut.  (The trip back was MUCH better in the Pajero- with full functioning ac and amazing shocks)

So after some you tube research.  Mommy tried.

 And this is what we ended up with!

 

 So glad curly hair is forgiving.  It hides all the places it's not quite even. :) 

 The fun part, is that the cut really fits her spunky little spirit.  And our local friends like it too.