To Grandmother's House We Go

We got home from Canada at about 11 o'clock Friday evening, and got up at 5 AM to leave for grandma Griffin's house the next morning. Another 3 hour car ride. I attempted to sleep the whole time, but Lilly's constant chatter was making that difficult. We managed to survive, thanks to the headrest iPad holder. Lilly watched Wall-E the whole time.

I was super excited for Lilly to get to see Grandma Griffin again. It took her some time to warm up at first. In fact, she was scared of her for the first little bit. It didn't take long for her to start playing peek-a-boo with grandma. As is tradition with grandma, she had lunch waiting. Lilly got to have grandma's homemade chicken barley soup, while we all had lasagna. Grandma's cooking is the best in this world, which is why I was sad I couldn't eat more...After a quick nap for dad and Lilly, we set off for Leavenworth. It's mine and Ryan's favorite place to visit on the side when we go to Wenatchee.

It's about a 40 minute drive to Leavenworth, but worth every second. The town is a small, Bavarian-themed town, nestled right up against the mountains. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was actually in the Alps. The last time we were there, we stumbled upon a toy store, and spent a good hour trying to figure out a puzzle. I was determined to find this toy store again. We found it, and we found the puzzles. I ended up buying a puzzle for myself, err, Lilly. I still have yet to solve it. You'll see what I mean below...

We spent a good hour or two in Leavenworth before heading home for dinner. Grandma spent all day making a roast, and spent all week making twice-baked potatoes and a pecan pie. Lilly ate an entire twice-baked potato all by herself (two halves). We enjoyed the company of Aunt Karen and Uncle Dan, albeit a very short visit. Later that evening, once Lilly was in bed, we got to visit with my cousin, Danny. 

We headed to bed early, since we had to be up at 4 to make it back to Seattle in time for Ryan's flight. Do you see what I mean about getting sick of the early mornings? Literally every day started far too early!

Grandma's reading Lilly the book she sent her last year. It just so happens to be Lilly's absolute favorite book. 

Believe it or not, I wasn't posing. Ryan was fiddling with the camera, so I just looked around. Apparently I'm an open-mouth ogler. 

The puzzle I got. Does anyone else remember these from their childhood? 

Leavenworth has lots of Christmas shops. There's one in particular that we love. They have hundreds of nutcrackers. Last time we found an adorable "Phantom of the Opera" nutcracker. This time we found yoda. I wish we could start a collection. 

Ha!

Playing peek-a-boo with grandma.

She really liked grandma's wallpaper. I always liked it, too. 

The drive to Leavenworth. I liked leaning my head on her chair, so she would pick my nose, stick her fingers in my mouth, and pull my hair. 

We finally made the mantle!

I had to chuckle when we showed up, and grandma had laid out a little bed for Lilly. She even put out the bunny that I always played with when I was little.

My babbling trip buddy