A trip home and St Patrick's Day

Last week Shortstop and I decided to go visit Grandma and Grandpa for a little while.  Mark had to work and was so supportive of me just taking off and going.  It seems whenever we go to Twin Falls there is a holiday or an event or something so this was nice to go just for fun.  And fun we had!  The drive up and back were amazing.  Shortstop was so good and we never had to pull over for anything.  I had all his snacks easily accessible, books ready for him to read, the iPad just in case (which he only needed for a half hour!) and he was so fun to talk to.  I am still amazed I drove 8 hours total and he was perfect!
Of course I did not take one picture but there weren't big things to take pictures of, really.  I learned how to make my mom's AWESOME bread from homemade ground wheat.  Now I can finally use the wheat grinder she gave me a few years ago!  I went shopping with my sister and mom and spent a lot of time visiting and just hanging out.  I also went through all my boxes in the basement and took quite a trip down memory lane.  What was I thinking with my makeup and hair?  And clothes?  Ewww!  How awesome the 90's were.  I brought most of it home and Mark humored me and let me read him old journals, papers I wrote, show him pictures and things I made.  He got a kick out of "little Jacque" as he lovingly refers to the scrawny creative girl I was.  I even had joke books and poetry books that I wrote.  One day I might share some with you.  They aren't too bad if I do say so myself.
Shortstop loved all the time with cousins and seemed to grow up a lot in that one week hanging out with the older kids.  He did fall down the stairs once but they are carpeted and he was fine.  How I was is a different story but I have a wise sister and wise parents who told me he would probably never do it again and it will only make him tougher. :)
I love being home and as much as we missed Mark I would not have minded staying a little longer.  If only we could have figured a way to get him up there too so we did not have to miss him!  Thankfully my sister is having a baby soon (eek! and yay!) so I will be heading up there again to love on that little boy or girl.
I came home to a very giddy husband who had missed us terribly, a spotless house, flowers, a candy gram card, candles and my book ready for a bubble bath and dinner delivered.  Do I have the best hubby or what?

I got back the night before St. Patrick's day and had grand plans for the following holiday.  It is a big deal around our house so I wanted to do something special, like I do every year.  But I woke up on Saturday pretty sick with a nasty cold.  We have some cute little decorations which go on our holiday shelf that have been up all month.

Mark did take the "leprechaun" job of dying the toilet water green and hid the gold coins and leprechaun for Shortstop to find.  We had green pop up pancakes and green syrup but I was not up to making the corn beef and potatoes for dinner.  Sad.

And of course we wore our new shirts.  I know mine is yellow but it is still for St. Patrick's Day.

Can you even stand how cute my little leprechaun is?  I love the suspenders on his shirt!  He was pretty mischievous that day...he must have known something was in the air.

I am happy we were able to do some things but bummed out we did not do them all.  I already have next year plans forming and can't wait to make a leprechaun trap with Shortstop and have rainbow projects to do!