Birthday Celebration Weekend - Part 2

Friday morning we woke up and got moving. We discussed some possible plans for the day ahead - it was a completely unscheduled day which is very rare when we visit family and the possibilities were endless.

We decided to make a trip to the Outlet Mall for a little while. With the kids in tow we knew we wouldn't have too much time but it would be fun none-the-less. Just as we were in the final steps of getting ready, my sister called and asked what we were doing with our day. I told her of our plans to hit the shops and she very graciously said "Why don't you bring the kids here?" Seriously?!?! I'm all over that! A chance to go shopping with just Dakota rarely presents itself so I was all too happy to agree.

We headed down and dropped off one very excited boy and one slightly apprehensive girl. Well...she was slightly apprehensive by the time we got there. At my brother's house she was in full 4 year old glory with her cries of "I don't want to go there! I want to be with yoooooooooou! I'm scared of Aunt Lannon!!" We reassured her that she was not scared of Aunt Lannon but if she decided that she wanted to come with us, that was fine. It went back and forth that way until I finally said, in no uncertain terms, that we were done talking about it until we were at Aunt Lannon's house.

Once there, of course, she was perfectly fine and we left to a chorus of "Get out of here! Bye! Take your time!"

We drove the short distance to the mall and happily started going in and out of shops. Ever on the look out for a good deal on Dansko shoes, the shoe stores are always a must. We didn't find shoes (which is ok since we both found a few pairs the weekend before) but we did manage to find a few things for ourselves and a couple things for the munchkins. Kaylen is absolutely no fun to shop for since she has a bazillion clothing issues (sensory issue related) but I did find one dress that would work for her. (And bonus: she loves it!) It makes me a little sad to look in stores packed with darling little girl clothes because I know I can't buy 99.9% of it. That worked in Kelton's favor though when we picked him up two pair of shorts and a t-shirt for an amazing price. :)

During our shopping trip I couldn't help but notice that an infection I had brewing on my thumb was steadily becoming more and more painful..and moving down my thumb. I had a hang nail that I yanked out the previous weekend and I noticed on Tuesday it was a little sore. I soaked it and put Neosporin on it. By Wednesday it was worse so I repeated the soaking and medication. Thursday, while it looked ugly, it felt like it was getting better. I continued with the remedy I use that usually works. Friday morning I thought it was even better but by afternoon there was no denying it was worse. When I took off the band aid both Dakota and I looked at it and knew it wasn't good. We finished up shopping and picked up the birthday cake for Saturday and then we headed over to my sisters with a game plan; I have Kaiser which has a reciprocal agreement with Group Health (the HMO in the area) so it made sense to head over to the Urgent Care Clinic to have it looked at. Not exactly what I wanted to spend time doing but well.....it needed to happen.

As the plan went, Dakota would stay at my sisters to be with the kids because by then we knew Kaylen would probably be done having us gone.

We walked in the door at the same time the cousins were just being dropped off for the play date we had arranged earlier in the week. Our kids looked at us and both groaned and demanded we leave. Easy enough! After checking in with my sister and telling her the plan of Urgent Care we headed out in the hopes of being first in line when clinic started seeing patients at 4:30.

And first we were! We were in and out with a prescription for antibiotics in less than 20 minutes and back at my sisters front door before an hour was up. And we were just in time for dinner!

We had a nice dinner and then helped clean up. We were going to be leaving Kelton behind for a sleep over with his cousin, Mikayla, which was all fine and dandy...in theory. In practice a little girl had a complete meltdown over leaving her brother behind. Poor little thing. :( We finally calmed her down enough and were able to get out the door.

Forty minutes later, we were back at my brother's house and little Miss Kaylen headed to dreamland.

Phew! What a day!

Still to come: Birthday party day...plus photos! :)