This was my second year to take my niece Camryn to visit my parents, Nana and Pops, in Texas. We had an adventure filled-five days that included fever, no air, no hot water, and a hotel!
We arrived on Wednesday and really just ran errands, ate supper and then went swimming in the neighborhood pool. Little did we know that would be the only time we would go swimming there the whole time.
One of the top things on Camryn's to-do list was to go ice skating, so that was first on the agenda Thursday morning. As we were putting on the skates, she wanted to know where the wheels were. She had no idea what she was getting into. I, being a child of the 80's, must admit that I was super excited about ice skating. I had only done it once when I was about 8 or 9 years old, but I was a huge skater when I was little. I had a blast!!
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| Dressed up in layers for the occasion! |
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| Camryn stayed by the wall the whole time. |
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| This was her reaction the one time I got her off of the wall! :) |
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| After Camryn had enough ice skating, I stayed on the rink a bit more while she and Nana were a little cold on the bleachers. |
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Here is some more evidence of my 80's childhood!
Mom had these for Camryn to play with, and she loved them! |
After we got back from ice skating, we realized that the air conditioning in my parents' house was not working. :( Someone came that night from 11:45 until 2:00 in the morning to work on it. He thought it was fixed, but we could tell by the next morning that it was not. The air conditioning company couldn't get back to the house until that afternoon, so we stuck with the original plan and headed to Brenham to the Blue Bell Factory for a tour. Pops took the day off, so that was fun!
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| Ready for our tour! |
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| YUM!! |
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| This just made me laugh! |
On the way home, we stopped and ate at The Hill. Their sign just cracked me up, "HOME OF REALLY GREAT FOOD."
When the air conditioning repairman arrived, he realized the system was frozen, and they turned on the heater in the house to thaw it out. That's when we decided that a hotel was a good idea for Friday night. Camryn LOVED the hotel. She said it was so cool that she was in a hotel without her mom and dad.
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| This is not posed or anything...this is how excited she was to stay in a hotel. |
On Saturday morning, my parents had to get a whole new air conditioning system put in. :( So, our goal was to stay out until it got fixed and the house cooled down. Mom had already scheduled a hair appointment for me that morning, so Camryn got one as well. Andre did a great job, and Camryn looked so grown up with her hair dried like this!
After returning to the hotel, it was almost time to check out, but Camryn was getting very comfortable in the bed and was very tired. Nana and I realized that she felt warm, so we collected our things and went on back to the house so she could rest. By the time we got home and checked her temperature, it was over 101. She kept a slight fever the rest of the trip, so we stayed at the house for the rest of the trip. We still managed to have fun anyway!!
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| Saturday afternoon and evening, we got shirts ready to tie-dye and got busy. Camryn did a great job tying and dying! |
Sunday morning, Nana and I finished all of the tie-dye shirts and even went to the store to get one more shirt to do for Caleb because told us over Skype that he really wanted an LSU one like Camryn!
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| As you can see, she was very proud of her shirts! |
Baking was also on Sunday's agenda. It was supposed to get done earlier in the trip so that we could enjoy the treats, but we didn't turn the oven on for a few days with the air being out.
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| Mixing up cupcakes |
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| Pouring the batter |
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| There had to be pink icing, of course! |
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| She did a great job decorating. |
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I made Strawberry Cream Cheese Bars, a recipe I found on Pinterest.
This is not a good picture, but they were divine!! |
Camryn and I also worked on a puzzle that had been mine as a child. Mom had told me that when she got it out and opened it to make sure it was still good, the puzzle was in just a few large pieces so that it would presumably be easier to put back together the next time. We assume that I must have done that when I finished it last. After we finally finished the puzzle and showed it to Nana and Pops with pride, it was time to put it back up. Guess what Camryn wanted to do? Yep...she wanted to put it in the box is just a few big pieces to it would be easier to put together next time. Mom and I got a good laugh out of that one!! :)
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| The finished puzzle! |
Monday, it was back home to reality...what a fun time we had with Nana and Pops despite the unforseen adventures!
