Road Trip

Today we packed up the girls and the dog and drove to Palmerston North to spend the day with Dugald's parents. I always look forward to our visits there - I even like the two hour drive. The kids are usually good when we travel and it's two hours with my family without distraction. Plus the sun was out for most of our drive, a rare treat lately.

We arrived just before lunch time and the girls and Rico reveled in the freedom of running wild on the large lawn. It was sweet to watch them frolicking together. We closed the front and back gate and considered things fine as far as the dog was concerned. However, just before we sat down to the table Meggie and Katie came running inside in  a bit of a panic yelling that Rico had escaped out of the yard and they could hear him barking. I went outside and called for him but I couldn't see or hear him anywhere, so I told the girls if he didn't wander back we'd go look for him after lunch. The immediate result of that comment was that Meggie didn't want to eat. I wasn't in too much of a panic until midway through lunch when it hit me that we haven't had him de-sexed/neutered.  When I realized he might wander to nearby towns in search of love, I got a tad tense. 

Margaret and the big girls and I all set out to look for him, me yelling his name loudly - and you know I can be loud. Their neighbor came out and I asked her if she had seen a golden retriever around and she said she had and that he was tied up in her driveway because he was bothering her dogs. I found this a bit odd since we'd all called for him before lunch and the girls had even seen her son playing in the backyard and he hadn't said anything to them though they were calling for Rico. Oh well, she wasn't very pleased with us, so I apologized profusely and took Rico back where he had to remain tied up for the rest of the day. Poor guy, but at least we found him. Meggie's prayers were answered. 

Later in the afternoon, when the rain came, the girls got stitching lessons from Grandma. Here's a sample of some stitching daddy did when he was a boy:

They decided to start with some simple stitching of their own. Here's Grandma helping Meggie thread her needle while Meg prepares the edges of the cloth.
And then Meg started stitching away:

Grandma also generously offered to make the girls new quilts for their bunk beds and so we went out and picked out some fabrics last week and brought them to Palmerston to show her. Here is Meggie with her choices:
And Ellie with hers:

And Jo:
And Katie:
They had so much fun running around the fabric store like crazy people choosing what they liked best. It will be fun for them to each have their own personal expression of who they are on their bedcoverings, especially since they are all together in the same room, a little individuality will be welcome. I would have been thrilled if they'd chosen complimentary colors to each other, but you can see that wasn't a top priority.

Thankfully Grandma had her camera available because I had switched lenses on my Canon and unfortunately something has happened to the lens I put on and it wouldn't work, so I need to get a new 50mm. But I'm very grateful it's not the camera that is broken, which is what I originally thought and as I posted earlier that is one of my very favorite toys. Whew.

After a fun, full day we piled back into the van and headed back to Wellington. The girls are safely tucked in bed, Dugald is watching rugby and I'm going to have a bath and say my prayers, thanking God for the gift of family. Hugs to all!!