Road trip to get some Cake; an update on the ghost situation.

This past weekend Matt and I loaded up the family truckster and went to visit Laura and her family in THEIR HOME! She's crazy, what can I say, inviting the 6 of us to come stay with the 6 of them. And what better weekend to travel to Connecticut than the hottest weekend of the year, right? It looked like we were going to escape the heat in Virginia, but apparently we took it with us all the way up the east coast. Until Friday I'd never actually seen the temp gauge in the van reach 107. It may have actually hit 108, but only briefly. And no, it was NOT a dry heat. Stifling. Anyway - from the moment we pulled into their driveway, we felt right at home. We were greeted by chalk art on the driveway, and Laura and her husband Nick had cold margaritas ready and waiting. Have you ever met people and felt like you've known them forever? Blogging is great for that.

Belle and Evie were so excited to meet - Evie'd heard all about Belle when Laura came to visit us by herself last November, and these two girls had chatted on the phone a few times, but still - it's like they have been BFF's all along. Peas in a pod.

Laura bonded with Jason on the carousel at the Danbury mall - or maybe Jason bonded with Laura's iphone, I'm not sure which at the moment...

I spotted Matt's long-lost twin brother riding the carousel with his son...

...and after spending way too much time at Game Stop, Build a Bear Workshop and riding the escalators at the mall (hey, my kids are from a small town and we only have a dinky one-story mall - escalators are RIDES!) we went to get some ice cream. There is NOTHING better than ice cream on a hot hot hot day. Except maybe air conditioning.

Laura pretended to be eating my ice cream for this picture. And I love Evie in this one....

We wrapped up Saturday night with a delicious meal while the kids tore up the other room...

Jason bonded with their cat....

Sarah finally stopped playing Webkinz with Annie & did some coloring...

Evie and Belle put on a play with the Potter Puppet Pals they made...

...and Jack performed Feasts Of Strength. It was almost like Festivus, without the airing of grievances.

For our part, I know our family had a fabulous time and I hope Laura and her family did too. The kids got along amazingly well, and I really hope this is just the first of many get-togethers. Even if they don't invite us back to their house because William broke Luke's bed by jumping on it :(

Read Laura's account of our weekend together by going HERE. She really tells a story much better than I do, and her pictures are fantastic :)

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So I'm sad to say I don't think we have a ghost after all! After hunting and hunting and hunting for the kids' DSs, I was talking to Matt about them as he sat at his desk, and lo and behold he reaches into his desk drawer, roots around, and pulls them both out from under the file folders. I've been tearing the house apart looking everywhere, and yes I'd looked in that particular drawer, it just didn't occur to me to look UNDER the folders. Apparently I'd taken them from the kids in a fit to get them to do SOMETHING besides play games, passed them off to Matt, and he stuffed them in the drawer. Which of course neither of us remember doing (although now that they're found, I do sort of remember that). Old age? or are we just harried? I'm not sure. Kind of disappointed we're not haunted though, and I'm guessing at this point I really did throw our passports out last fall. Sigh.