A Visit With Frank

Well, apparently it's the near future, because here I am, with time to post, just as I promised. William is gone for a couple of days to the desert, so I am home alone with Arden and Molly. Today was my first day to have Arden all by myself with no one else around to help, and it went surprisingly well. We did our usual walk this morning with Molly, went for a 6 mile run before lunch, both took a good nap after lunch, went to the grocery store this evening, then had dinner, Arden had a bath, and then went to bed. It was productive and calm all at the same time! Phew! I do miss William though. When he's home, not only does it give me a break, but it makes the time go by a bit faster and of course, it's just always better when he's here!

Anyway, I thought I'd post about our surprise visit from Frank that we had a few weeks ago. She called me up and asked what we were doing August 19th through 24th, and when I told her nothing, she said she was buying plane tickets right then to come visit! What a fun surprise! She got here on Thursday afternoon. We picked her up from the airport and came home and just hung around the apartment for the evening. Arden thoroughly enjoyed her company and was excited to have a playmate. She showed him lots of fun videos on youtube while I made dinner.

Big hug! Loving on Frank

Ahhh, Silly Frank put my shorts on my head!

Just watching some YouTube

Mario Kart with Frank

On Friday, we went to the splash park in Simi so that Arden could run around outside and have fun in the water. We also attempted to remake some tacky thrift store dressed into cute ones, but after cutting too much off and not having the seamstress skills we thought we had, the idea as a bust. We watched a couple of movies and hung out until William got home. That evening we grabbed In-N-Out for dinner and took it to the park to have a picnic. That night we watched Invictus at home.

The "Before" pics of our dresses....unfortunately there are no "After" pics due to our lack of success! And yes, Arden and Molly are asking "Mom, what ARE you wearing?!"

Splashin'!

On Saturday we hung around the apartment for the morning and then headed to Zuma beach for the afternoon. Our church was having a church beach day so we thought we'd go see friends, and also just spend time on the beach. Em and I layed out for a while and chatted while William watched Arden and visited with our friends. Saturday night Em, I mean, Frank, babysat so that we could go to a going away party for our friend Amanda who moved to Oregon. After we got home, we played a little Mario Kart and just hung out for awhile.

.

Sunday we went to church and then on a picnic with some of our friends for lunch. After taking naps on Sunday afternoon, we went for a hike to Paradise Falls in Thousand Oaks. It was a fun hike and we got to play around the waterfall for awhile before having to hike back.

Paradise Falls

On Monday, Frank, Arden and I went to the Ronald Reagan Library here in Simi. We enjoyed a motorcycle exhibit, had our picture taken boarding Air Force One, saw some awesome Jelly Belly mosaics of Ronald, saw a miniature replica of the white house, and toured the rest of the museum. It was really cool and I'm glad we went! That afternoon we went to the candy store and walked around the town center a little while. We got sushi for dinner once William got off work, and then hung out and played a little more Mario Kart that night. We hung out for a little while on Tuesday before having to take her back to the airport so she could go home. We hated to see her go, but had such a fun time with her being here! It made the time in between trips to Memphis not seem so bad and was fun to have her on our turf this time when we could actually get out and do stuff! We hope she'll come back for more visits very soon....hint hint wink wink!! We love you, Frank and really are SO glad you came to see us!