A whirlwind of a week!

To say that we had a whirlwind of a week last week is an understatement. Two Fridays ago I left in the early hours of the morning to head to New Jersey to present preliminary findings from my dissertation at a conference at Rutgers University. It was a great conference and I left feeling really good about where I'm at, although there's A LOT of work yet to be done!

During the Q&A

While I was at the conference, Mark and Grace headed down to Indy to play with the new baby, visit with the greats some more, golf, shop, and go to a pumpkin patch.

Grace with Brent and Elizabeth Borlik (Uncle Greg and Aunt Amy's niece and nephew)

They headed home Saturday night and I arrived home Sunday night. Mark and I were home together for a whole 1/2 hour before he had to pack up the car and head to church for a meeting followed by a trip to Cincinnati for the week for a work class. Luckily, my mom arrived a few minutes before I did and hung out with me and Grace for a few days. Then Mark's mom came on Wednesday night and stayed until Mark got home on Friday. That was especially helpful since I ended up getting sick Thursday and spent most of Thursday and Friday in bed fighting a fever. Grace had fun with both of her Grandmas and I think they enjoyed the time with her. It was definitely a joyful reunion though when Daddy walked through the door though! She missed him so much that she would even hug his picture during the week!

Here are some pictures that I took on my phone to send Mark throughout the week:

Halloween shirt!

Grace fell asleep on our bed and was sleeping so hard!

Happy girl in the outfit she wore for her school pictures Wednesday!

Potty time before bath

We had one night at home and then we were on the road again...more on that in the next post :-)

A visit from the Greats

A few weeks ago Grace's GiGi and G2Pa were in Indy to visit the newest great grandbaby. They treated us to a trip up to West Lafayette and we were thrilled to see them! Grace even took them to one of her favorite places in town--the Columbian Park Zoo.

"Hmmmm...not sure about this!"

"Okay, that's better!"

"If mommy is holding another baby, I must be right there!"

Unfortunately, Grace woke up a little under the weather the next day (too much fun, perhaps!) so we kept her home from school and had a snuggle day. I don't know who enjoyed it more--her or us!

Sunday Best

We took these pictures before church a few Sundays ago. I think she looks so grown up in them!

Girls' Weekend

The first weekend of October, Grace and I met my mom in Kalamazoo for a sleep over. KZoo is about half way between our houses and we wanted to do a little shopping so we decided to meet there. We had way too much fun! We met Friday afternoon and it was a gorgeous day so we headed to Gull Meadow Farms, which is an apple orchard. Growing up, my mom would always take me and my brother to Bintz's Apple Orchard during the fall one day after school. Although it wasn't Bintz, it was still fun to share the apple orchard experience with Grace.

Waiting in line

Gull Meadows had a huge play area with different activities. Grace had just woke up from a nap in the car so she wasn't totally into it but we did have fun!

They had this little train that was pulled by a tractor. Grace acted so excited to get in it but that didn't last long...

You can't see her face very well here but she is in full out cry/scream. I had to chase after the train to get her out!

Big chair

Perhaps the favorite activity was the huge slide. There was a big hill to climb up and then you go through the tube slide. The look on Grace's face says it all!

After going once with grandma and twice with me, Grace and I attempted to go up a third time when she stopped, put her hands up against me, and said "No, no, no! Stop Mommy!" And then she went up the hill herself. She decided not to go down the slide on her own though and below is her coming back down the hill :-)

Chasing grandma through a maze

Hayride

Enjoying a doughnut and apple cider snack

Headed into the apple orchard

Picking apples

"There's one I can reach!"

"Success!"

"Delicious!"

"Let's get another one!"

Sleep over time!

Shoe shopping the next day--Grace found these great yellow flats that matched her vest :-)