The "Bus" Trip

So, way back in August, when I was returning from the Bee (annual Longaberger Consultant convention in Columbus, OH), I had this brilliant idea to organize a bus trip out to the Longaberger Homestead. I figured I knew enough people that would be interested and might really enjoy the trip - if nothing else, it would be a weekend away for them. SO, I made plans and I booked rooms and I made reservations and I sent out invitations and I talked about it to as many people as could stand to listen to me.....and no one signed up to come. Well, now, that's not true - my MIL and her mother signed up, but I knew they were coming from the get-go, since my MIL was with me in the van helping me make the plans!!

So, along comes the weekend of "The Bus Trip" and there's no one local planning to go with me, and my husband has this brilliant idea of me taking my DD with me. I think - wow, that really IS a great idea. But I have my reservations, cause see, in the last three weeks, I've spent almost 2 whole ones alone with the kids and I'm just a WEE bit tired of them ;-) But, I think to myself - "you can do this" and "she'd really enjoy it". So, I plan to take her.

Friday afternoon rolls around and it's time to take off. DH returns home from Arkansas at 1pm and I depart to pick up DD at 2pm. It's been nice seeing you, babe! We are on the road to Ohio by 3:15. It's a long drive. With no brother and dad to amuse her - it's all up to me to keep her entertained - and concentrate on driving - in the dark! Oye. I'm having second thoughts! We finally arrive at the hotel around 8:15pm. I prompty take two Tylenol PMs and get ready for bed. DD refuses to be left alone (not completely alone - Mimi was also going to bed at the time), so we ALL get into bed at 9:15 pm. OMG! It's a LONG night. DD slept wonderfully; the rest of us took turns getting up every hour. Ugh. DD is awake and ready to start the day at 6:30am.

We have breakfast in the torn up lobby of the hotel ("Please pardon our mess as we work to beautify our lobby and breakfast area for you" my A$$). Anyway. We are on the road to Frazeysburg by 9:00am. We spent all morning at the Homestead....shopping!! :-) About 30 minutes into the morning I am again having regrets about bringing DD - we are already on our second potty break (OMG!). But the day improves and we all have a really nice time. I even splurged and paid for DD to make her own basket (it's so cool!). Yes, we all made baskets while we were there. We're all such basket junkies!!

We headed to downtown Dresden around 2:30 and by 4:00pm we were done. It was rainy and cold and we were all pretty tired. So, we headed back to Zanesville and a yummy dinner at The Olive Garden. Then back to the hotel where we watched tv and got ready for bed. This time DD went to bed and stayed there with Mimi while MIL and I went to the lobby to read. Well - tried to anyway. There was some sort of meeting going on there, so we ended up reading in the pool area. But we got hot pretty quick, so we were back upstairs by 9pm. DD was out cold and Mimi was still awake, so we turned on one light and read awhile longer there. Got a better night's sleep last night.

DD let us all sleep in until 7am today (!) and we all took our time getting ready. We were finally on the road for home around 9:30. But the weather was bad (snow, rain, mist) and traffic was worse (I hate trucks!) and it took us more than the usual 5 hours to get home. We pulled into the garage around 3pm. Daddy was very happy to see us!

All in all, it was a great trip. DH is on the road now to Buffalo for tomorrow's game. He'll be home Tuesday afternoon and we will all be under one roof together for the first time in over a week! That'll take some getting used to! ;-)

Other pictures of interest:

DD wanted to get her picture taken with every basket she saw!






















DD made her own basket!