Our trip home

I need to blog about this before I forget! After we left Denise and Nick's house, we stopped at a thrift store that they had told us about, that was about 20 minutes from their house and on the way to Janine's house, where we were headed to get CUP. This is one of the reasons it took us so long to get home. I think we spent about an hour in the store and then we had to go to another store to use the rest rooms, since the thrift store didn't have any. We got some good bargains, including paperback books for me at only $1 for 3. That is even better than my usual bargain price of .50 each. Mike got one and I got 11. I also bought one hardcover for $1. Shauna got about 5 shirts and 4 of them were 50% off. Alex got about 4 shirts, I think only 1 was 50% off. The others were Hollister brand, which he has always wanted, so I figured full price was still a good buy. Hannah only got one shirt because I had already gotten her a ton at the thrift store I went to with Nick. I also got a salad spinner almost just like Nick's for only $2.99. Alex already used it yesterday to dry the scallions for chipped beef dip.

After shopping, we went to Janine's to get CUP. Janine saw the thrift store bags and asked if we had gone to the one near her house. I thought that we had, but after I got home and took a closer look at the bags, it turns out that there is another location, even closer to her house. If I had realized that at the time, our trip home would have been even longer! I'm going to start saving up for the next trip and hit all the good thrift stores, since I haven't found any good ones in VA.

Speaking of Janine, thank you for letting CUP stay with you! Please thank your parents for me, also. He had a great time. I know he has really been missing spending time with his friends in Chicago since he moved back home, so the trip was good for him. Now I'm sure he is refreshed and ready to find a job!!! Right, CUPSTER???

Okay, back to the trip. We left Nick and Denise's at 11:00 am, only about an hour later than planned, which is good for us. As we drove, Mike suggested that we could try a different route home, that took us through Annapolis, instead of DC. I said that was a great idea, the change of pace would be nice. Ummmm, not a good decision! We never did see Annapolis and ended up going way out of the way, making the ride REALLY long. Oh, well, live and learn, I guess. Next time we will plan that out in advance and not make spur of the moment route changes!

About 5:30 pm I announced that I was "done" with this trip. Unfortunately, Mike didn't think just stopping in the middle of Waldorf, MD was a good idea, so he suggested stopping for dinner instead. We had brought sandwiches and fruit to eat on the way home, but since the trip had stretched out so long, we now needed two meals. We ended up going to Red Robin (thank you, Nate, for mentioning it!). We haven't been there in well over a year, so we all really enjoyed it, even though it is incredibly expensive there. The Red Robin character made the rounds a couple of times, which made Hannah a little nervous, but she didn't dive under the table as she has in the past, just another sign that our baby is growing up! The food was really delicious and we were all stuffed by the time we climbed back into the van to face the remaining 3 hour drive home.

We finally arrived home about 9:30 pm, tired and happy to be home. Whenever I go away and come home, I am reminded about how much I love Williamsburg. We had a good trip and a wonderful time at Nick and Denise's, but it is still good to be home.