A fast trip up to Martinsburg, WV came along in short time due to the need of daycare.. Airline tickets were being looked at and bought for a 4 day trip…Leaving on Thursday the 21st and returning on Monday the 25th…All I needed was a one-way to Dulles in Washington DC and 2 one-ways back to Valparaiso-Ft. Walton, Fl…I left for Dulles from Valparaiso, Fl at Gate A2…I had a quick layover in Charlotte, NC so it gave me a chance to grab a bite to eat before catching my next plane to Dulles International Airport… Arriving on Thursday night gave me 3 full days to visit with our daughter, Brandi and our 3 granddaughters, Kayla – Brianna – Lizzi…After Brandi picked me up at Dulles, we took the Dulles Expressway to her home but the first stop was at Kings Pizzaria for pizza, 2 subs (one was mine) and wings…We got to her house and dinner was served…All 3 girls wanted pizza and a wing or 2…Kayla was very serious about eating her wings…She actually cleaned off her wing bones just like her Poppy…Poppy would be very proud of her…Can you tell that these were chicken wings…
Friday the 22nd, Brandi, Brianna and I headed to a mall in Hagerstown…Along the way I got to see some snow that was still along the sides of the highway and in the mall parking lot…Our first stop along the way was getting the car’s oil changed…We were also looking for a Ross’…We stopped by the China Buffet in Martinsburg and had our dinner…It was a good day and Brianna was pretty good…Lizzi was in daycare and Kayla was in school…
After dinner, it was time to do nail painting…The grandkids wanted me to paint their nails and paint my nails so we all could match…Then they wanted to dress up in their princess dresses and act like little princesses…It was pretend and pose night…Kayla, Brianna and Elizabeth wanted to do some pretty poses…
What fun we had…
Can you tell which fingers belong to which girl? At least one thing I noticed after I took these photos is that they all have Brandi’s fingers…
Saturday the 23rd was going to be a visiting day…Our son, Josh, his fiance, Sandy, and her daughter, Mary, were coming to Brandi’s to visit…Josh and his new family arrived about 1 or 2pm and we talked and hugged…It was great to see them… After a while, Brandi turned on her XBox and put in DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)…The mat was hooked up and then she showed us how it worked…It looked easy but it really wasn’t…Brandi showed us a few workouts on it…Brianna and Lizzi wanted to participate in the DDR and have some fun…I decided to try it to a slow song…Let me tell you, it is not easy…First of all, depending on the song, the background layout is sometimes too dark to see the arrows to know which way to step on the mat…It was very interesting to do…Brandi then challenged her brother to do it…He kept saying NO WAY!! Then all of a sudden, all of us see him get up and get on the mat to pick out his song…Josh did pretty good…Brandi grabbed the camera and took his picture…The only one who didn’t do the DDR was Sandy… Even Mary tried it and had fun…Lizzi and Brianna were trying to do the DDR but their little legs could not reach the arrows but once in a while they would actually step on one of the arrows and and make some points…It was very interesting to watch and very funny…Kayla came out of her room and her mommy, Brandi, got her to show us how well she could do the DDR…Oh my goodness, can that girl work that mat…Brianna had a great time working on the mat and trying to hit all the arrows…Little did she know that she was missing most of the arrows for the song playing but what fun just to watch her…Elizabeth was having fun trying to get to all the arrows on the mat and trying to match the music…Kayla was very good and had fun with it…
I think Josh was having fun working the mat…He would never admit it, tho! *laugh*
There was lots of playing around, giggling, horse play and just plan fun…Josh and Sandy brought their mutt, Hershey…The last time I saw their dog Hershey wasn’t that big yet…Hershey is like a miniature pony…Brandi tried to sit Lizzi on top of Hershey as if she was riding a small pony but Lizzi didn’t want any part of it…For dinner I made my sloppy joes…This is Josh’s favorite and he wanted to see how I made it…Dinner went smoothly and a few hours later, Josh, Sandy and Mary had to head home…It was such a fun day and I loved spending the time with my family…
Here are our 3 princesses…Elizabeth don’t have a pretty little dress that she could put on and Kayla found her Cinderella dress that she wore at Disney this past April 2009 and Brianna found a pretty little pink dress that flowed when she was spinning around…All the girls had a blast just posing and sitting pretty but then they started to get silly and wanted to do gymnastic type stuff…They were very silly… Kayla loves to pose…She wanted to do this pose for the camera…I love it…
Brandi received a red/black couch from her dad and stepmom which looks better in her living room…She looks very comfortable relaxing on this sofa…
Brianna and my plane ride back to Florida was very eventful..Brandi dropped us off at Dulles International Airport about 8am…I proceeded to get our tickets, the ticket agent told me that our flight was cancelled…I was in disbelief cause I didn’t get any phone call or an email…She told me that we could get a flight out around 4pm…I told the agent that I had a 4 yr. old with me and that was way too late to get out…The agent looked more and then said that there was a flight out at 11am but at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC…I had to call Brandi at work, after she just got to her desk, and asked her to come pick us up and take us to Reagan…She got us at 9:05am and it was going to take an hour to get to Reagan…We arrived at 10am and had about 35 minutes to get through security and down to our gate…At 10:20am I was still standing in the line to go through security…Another line opened up and I asked the security lady if I could go ahead of the others cause my flight was at 11am..We got to our flight about 20 minutes before take off…Whew! How close but the day wasn’t over…Our layover was in Atlanta and as we landed on the tarmac and headed to our gate, we had to stop before our gate cause there was another plane at our gate…We sat for 20 minutes and now I had 15 minutes to get off of the plane and Brianna & I had to find out where our next gate was…We were going to be late and I had hoped we weren’t going to miss our plane…Luckily as we got to our gate there were lots of people waiting…I asked the attendant about the flight and we were fortunate enough for our plane to be maintenanced…Whew, once again…We were very lucky to be at our gate, waiting for the plane to be ready in order for us to arrive in Valparaiso, Fl by 2pm just as planned…What a day…But Brianna was very good…The one thing I didn’t tell ya was that Sunday night and Monday morning Brianna and I were sick all night…Poor Bri was sick Monday morning as we headed to the airport…I was so afraid that we both weren’t going to do well on the plane rides but we did…Was I ever glad to see Richard and be home…Thanks to whoever for letting us arrive safely home…