A Week Away

Last week I was away. I played. A lot. And by playing I mean lots of shopping, eating out, and talking with friends.

I drove down to Columbia, Missouri. All by myself. In one day. I was impressed with myself since I usually can only stand to drive about two hours when Hubby and I are on the road together. I listened to music and sang really loud, stopped to eat some ribs at my favorite BBQ place and listened to some CDs of Beth Moore. (The CDs were of her teaching at a weekend conference.) I got super tired when I was only two hours from my destination but just couldn't stop then.

The reason for my trip was to spend the week visiting with some friends who are missionaries in Budapest. They are in the states for the summer.  An added bonus was having my daughter meet me for a few days! Our friends have a daughter who is only 6 days younger than Megan and it had been a long time since those girls had seen each other. We also celebrated the first birthday of our friends' grandson.

This little guy looks so much like I remember his mama when she and my girl were babies. I couldn't decide if I felt old, or just happy to spend some time with friends we have known for 24 years. Both.

Aside from seeing our friends, I felt so blessed to be able to spend a couple of days with Megan. She and I had fun shopping (I love to shop with her...she looks adorable in everything she tries on), eating out and talking, talking, talking. Bliss. So thankful. She's grown in to a pretty terrific young woman. I like her. A lot.

Did I take any pictures of my friends? Nope. Silly me. Just pictures of the adorable baby.

 And of course I took pictures of food.

My friend and I went out for Sushi. I had never had Sushi before. This was very yummy! But I think it wasn't "normal" Sushi, so I'm not so sure how brave I will be to try it again.

Another highlight for me was shopping in three different quilt shops. So much fun to wander around. I had a long list of things I wanted for some projects I am working on and managed to get those and some extras because the fabric was so pretty and hard to resist. My sister-in-law told me about a quilt shop in Missouri (Missouri Star Quilt Company) that has lots of YouTube tutorials. Yes, I have spent a lot of afternoons watching video after video. On my trip back north, I changed my route so I could stop by the shop! It was a great shop and I'll have to stop again because the day after I stopped, they moved into a bigger building. And I need to meet the woman who does all the videos.

Hubby and I decided to meet in Des Moines for the holiday weekend. I was so excited to see him I actually did a real live happy dance when he got to the hotel we were staying at. :)  We spent Saturday at an Iowa history museum a botanical garden and even got to see a movie.

This collage I like to call Exotic Flowers and Plants of Des Moines:

 At the museum gift shop I saw this display of a children's show I watched when I visited my grandparents in the summer time:

Fun memories!

A pretty picture of the Iowa Capitol Building.

So, now I'm back home and all caught up on the laundry. Back to "normal" life. Sigh.

Gotta head to my sewing room to tackle some of those projects I bought materials for!