Mother/Daughter South Carolina Tour

Aaron had a big job in Tennessee and was out of town for 2 1/2 weeks.  We really missed him and had to come up with some things to do to pass the time.  So we took a mini road trip through SC.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't that glamorous.  One Monday evening (June 11th) we drove to Tutu & Rara's house in Columbia.  They live there since Rara is serving in the Temple Presidency for the Columbia, SC Temple.   (For more info about LDS temples click here.)  We spent the night with them and Nora got Tutu all to herself Tuesday morning while I went and cleaned the temple.  It was a great experience for both of us.  Tuesday we ran errands with Tutu until the afternoon when we continued our road trip down to Summerville.  In Summerville, we spent the rest of the week with PeePaw & Uncle Xan.  

My stylin' co-captain

Shortly after we arrived in Summerville Nora hit the backyard running.  It was time to see Chip & the other chickens.

Loving the puddles

Learning to throw scratch

Watching the hypnotized chicken

Every morning she would get up {extra early} and feed the chickens with PeePaw and play with the dogs.

We spent a lot of time hanging out, like we try to do at PeePaw's house.  (It's what he likes to do so we go there knowing that's what we'll do.)  Nora kept me extra busy.  I brought some of her learning time things with us (abc coloring, play doh, paint with water, etc.) to make sure she'd stay out of trouble and have some okay things to get into.  FYI:  mission failed. 

A little info about PeePaw's house:  There aren't any 'extra' bedrooms.  One is Uncle Xan's.  The other is my sweet step-sister, Ashleigh's.  Often when we visit Ashleigh is at her Dad's house or graciously gives us her room and stays in the living room.  Xan's room is also known as the gun-building and/or computer room.  PeePaw has a desk with all his gun-building tools, supplies, & parts in almost half of the room.  The other half is Xan's computer lounge, if you will.  This is another reason we often stay in Ashleigh's room.  Her room, of course, is full of her stuff.  Most of which is very appealing to a two year old, unfortunately.  This trip she proved I can't take my eyes off of her...even while she's napping.  She also proved that if G.Viv is out of town, don't leave it up to PeePaw to baby proof!  =)  The first day's nap she found a pen beside Ashleigh's bed.  She did not destroy anything that wasn't hers.  She didn't even get out of her bed.  She merely tattooed herself from head to toe.

The next day (Thursday) we went to the farm.  We got to see the chickens that live there.  They live in the woods but have an electric fenced in area with their coop, food, & water.  At night, they fly over the fence (to come in) and are safe from predators.  These are pictures of them in the woods and their home base.

After playing hard on the farm, Nora was ready for a nap in her favorite Ashleigh's bed.  I moved everything I thought she could reach from the bed.  I didn't want to dig through Ashleigh's things, but anything I saw that could be tempting...I moved.  I also checked on her periodically through her nap & stayed in the room next door so I could hear her as soon as I heard her.  I hadn't heard her, but decided to check on her.  Mission failed.  Again.  She found a jewelry box type container with nail polish in it.  Not just any nail polish...black and fuchsia.  I guess she figured go bold or go home.  Miraculously, she did not dump or spill any.  Instead she painted herself literally from head to toe.  I count my blessings that she didn't get any on the furniture or carpet.  She did get some on poor Ashleigh's bedding.  Nora knew she was in big trouble as soon as I walked in.  Talk about feeling bad.  Both of us.  To say I'm not getting Mother/Step Sister/Daughter of the Year is an understatement.  I'm sure this happens to others, but I sure have felt horrible about it!  The good news is Ashleigh gets to pick out new bedding!  The other good news, that I keep trying to remind myself of, is that it's just material things and at least no one was hurt.  We do love Ashleigh though & hate this happened to her innocent bed!  Quickly, I went off to Target to get Nora some more things to play with & a big bottle of nail polish remover.

Before

After.  Hours of cleaning later.

On Friday she wasn't allowed back into Ashleigh's bedroom.  She had to take a nap in the sunroom.  After over an hour of watching the chickens & playing she finally gave in & took a short nap.  Technically that's a mission accomplished because she didn't destroy anything, but a fail on the nap front. 

Nora's favorite things at PeePaws are:

Riding her horse

She got her new kitchen from her birthday!

Playing outside with PeePaw & his chickens

Making Xan watch Dora or saying his name over & over

And being the center of attention!

Before we left we squeezed in a trip to IHOP to celebrate Father's Day early with PeePaw.  {And Tractor Supply which may quickly becoming Nora's favorite store.}  We had a great time!