Last weekend in June - just what I needed!

After a not so fantastic Thursday I was sooooooo ready to get out of dodge for a while. I packed up my car for the weekend, left my computer at home, and headed for Anchorage. I planned on spending the night at my gparents and then we were going to head for the Iditaord BBQ for Volunteers and musher sign up on Saturday (blog about that coming later this week).
The drive up was pretty uneventful, and I made good time even with a pitstop in Girdwood where I ran into my friend Paul who was headed down to Kenai for the weekend. Go figure. After we exchanged the "stay away from these sections of anchorage/once you hit the sterling hwy it won't be as crowded" information we took off in either direction.

The drive was uneventful until I took one of the curves to find a ton of parked cars in an area you don't normally see a large congregation - there were sheep on the side of the road. So I joined the growing group of parked cars and grabbed the camera and giant lens. I spend at least a half hour shooting photos until the crowd grew to a size that made the older of the two sheep very aggitated. So I moved on and headed to the "big city".

Met up with my friend Angie for dinner at Ling and Louies. We both had their Mongolian Beef and it was super tender and yummy. I want to go again and again and again! After catching up I was off to visit the gparents. Pretty much an uneventful evening that went way too late.

After not getting enough sleep, grandpa asked me to follow him out to Wasilla for the BBQ (as I said, I will blog about that later). A drive that normally takes 40 minutes tops, took close to two hours. We went no more than 40mph on the Glenn Hwy. Not fun.

After the BBQ I headed a little way down the road to Juanita and Haille's where I was going to spend the night. I hadn't seen them since January - very bad, I know - and I was missing the kid something terrible. After getting directions I made a quick drive over and met a giant of a girl! Haille is up to my chest and is only age six! Her first words to me after I commented on her height was "I'm tall enough for EVERYTHING at Disney." Dang it. LOL

We decided to go to the movies that night so off we went, she gave me the wrong directions ("Aunt Toni, I'm SIX, I'm going to make mistakes!") but we finally found the theater. Got our tickets, our soda and popcorn... and she proceeded to spill a full (thankfully small) soda all over the theater stairs. So out we went to get another soda. Back in and sit down. We, of course, saw Brave (review to come later, hopefully), and when the Disney logo came on Haille proudly proclaimed "I've been there." Yes, yes you have.

After the movie it was home for a bit of fun before bed. Sunday we spent at the Park and then DQ before going home. Just spending time with Haille was a joy, even when she put her stinky, sweaty feet in my face, and was a general six year old. She is just so much fun. And so stinkin smart it isn't even funny.

At one point she told me, "You know what, Toni? My gramma spoils me. And my dad spoils me. And my mom spoils me. You need to spoil me more." Gee, thanks kid. LOL

Sunday evening I drove home. Now it's just maintaining until I head down to California for my cousin's wedding next week!



Haille's not a little girl anymore! *tear*