Julia and Grace's babymoon staycation of fun

Remember when I told you on Thursday that Simon's flight had been canceled from Newark to St. Louis because of "weather" aka construction on the runway aka the airline could not care less? Are you still on the edge of your seat? I knew it.

Well, sit back and relax. After talking to multiple unhelpful agents that informed him there were no flights to St. Louis until Saturday (yes, this is the year 2014 not 1932) he finally secured a late Thursday night flight out to Indianapolis, arrived at midnight, rented a car, and drove home to tuck himself into bed to the tune of 4 in the am.

He popped out of bed three hours later at 7, loaded the boys in the car, and drove the six hours into the wild wild west slash Wichita

Dad/husband of the millennium taking a 30 second sleep walking power nap before he got behind the wheel.

...to drop the men off with his parents before he headed down to Oklahoma City for an interview dinner that night and an interview the next day.

I'm not sure how he managed to form coherent sentences during his multiple views but .... we have different thresholds for terrible so ... I'm sure he did fine.

So that left me and Julia and Simon's (still pretty) car.

the click of the phone camera actually echoed throughout the house .... the house was eerily silent.

Which was crazy.
And nice.

We tore up the greater St. Louis metropolitan area by way of hitting up World Market, Target, Dunkin Donuts, Costco, the library, Mass, and a nail salon. And I discovered that when Julia doesn't have the boys around to talk AT ... she asks a million questions. Per minute ...

Where did Simon buy this car?
What color white is his car?
Do you think this car is as cool as I do, Grace?
(she's been calling us by our first names lately and I'm choosing not to pick that battle ... judge me good)
Is this car big enough for your tummy?
Is this car hurting your tummy?
Are we going to long church or short church?
How many sprinkles does this donut have?
How old was I when I was a baby?
Where did this building come from?
Who built this building?
Would you say this is an ugly building?
What do you want to name the baby?
When are you going to turn nine?
When will Simon and the boys come back?
Do you want to sleep in my bed with me?
Do you think I can watch a show?
Just one episode?
But just ONE episode, maybe?
Is Costco your favorite place ever?

And those queries just got us to the stop sign at the end of our street.

doing it right. matchy match.

Learning the moves to Soulja Boy's Crank That.
{just kidding, just kidding}

We ate the others on the way home .... self restraint and all of that.
And meanwhile over in Kansas with the grandparents ...

Sebastian softly sings Radiohead's, "creep" and Chevy be like .... NOPE, won't look.
And, according to Simon, shortly after this photo was taken ...

Sebastian popped a squat on the porch and Frankie (the dog to the right to the right) gobbled it right up. Yes, that kind of squat.
On Saturday night Julia opted to sleep right through her nap and continue on into the night even after my pleading to get up for frozen yogurt .... and there were about five brief minutes where I had this funny feeling that I can only try to describe as ............ boredom?!?!? I decided to bask in the foreign and I quickly got to work painting my nails the color of ... my nails and watched one of my favorite chick flicks. And you better believe that I'm going to tuck that memory away and bring it out to play for a chaotic rainy day in the near or distant future.
Simon and I always say we should take the kids out on individual dates but we only ever get as far as quick trips to the grocery store or to Lowes or someplace exotic like that SO ... it was fun to have crazy J all to myself for a few days. And it was great to go out in public feeling so foot loose and fancy free with almost no stares or comments from the general public. And from what I heard Sebastian was la-la-la-la-loving life outside the shadow of his master.

.
And that was that.
oh! I did catch Julia doing what she does best one evening. {it's 18 seconds long ... you have time to click ... you busy little bee}

(if you're reading this on Bloglovin' click here)

Performers gonna perform. Audience or not.