Survival of the Grandma, Part 2

I REALLY love my granddaughters, but what was I thinking when I decided to take the three oldest -- Emma (nearly 8), Abbey (6), and Caitlyn (5) -- by myself to visit Aunt Margo in Flagstaff 300 miles away? We left Tucson at 3:00 on Thursday with spirits high and voices loud. After an hour, there was the inevitable, "Grandma, I have to go to the bathroom!" in the middle of nowhere. I knew I should have brought my "port-a-potty" bucket.

What should have been a 4-5 hour trip up took 7 hours. I had to make a stop in Apache Junction to pick up some computer parts from Trevor and, of course, visit briefly with my two granddaughters there , Alexis and Kyleigh. It was nearing 6:00 and we were hungry. I accept total responsibility for my foolishness in spending way too much time trying to find a place to stop and eat. I thought every corner in a good-sized town had at least one fast-food place. Not so in A J. After almost 45 min, I got back on the freeway and headed north where I KNEW of a town with a McDonald's (E, A, and C's choice). A quick 30 minute stop, right? Think again. Little girls take so much longer to eat than boys because they have to visit. We finally arrived at Margo's apartment at 10:00. The girls wanted to stay with Aunt Margo so I had a peaceful evening alone at the motel.

Friday, the first day of Spring, was spent

1) walking around the campus of Northern Arizona University. Margo showed us where she worked and the buildings she had classes in






2) having lunch at Lake Mary.
When Rod and I were in Flag in
December, there was mountains of snow and the lake was partially frozen. It looked very different this time.

3) flying kites at Buffalo Park
Buffalo Park is not the ideal place to fly kites. While it has huge open fields, they are covered with volcanic cinders and rocks; AND, tiny cactus-like pods about the size of a large grape complete with very painful spines that got stuck in shoes. It was just windy enough to get some good flying done.

Then back to Margo's for dinner and a movie. Emma chose to keep me company that night at the motel.

Saturday morning we hung out at Margo's and decided to leave at noon instead of 2:00. Good thing we did. With no side trip to A J, it should have been a 4 hour trip back to Tucson. But, we had to eat. And get gas. And do the bathroom thing. Thank goodness I brought CD's with Disney movie songs. The girls had a blast figuring out which movie the songs came from and then singing along with them. And going and coming, they were well-behaved. I just had to asked them, repeatedly, to quite down a bit when they got loud playing with their Kid's Meal toys. Caitlyn came prepared with books to read, too. All 3 girls are excellent readers. It was nearly 6:00 when I dropped off Caitlyn. After getting Emma and Abbey back home safely, I topped of the truck with gas and headed home arriving there near 8:00. FYI -- gas prices ranged from $1.94 in Benson, $1.71 in Tucson, $1.83 in Phoenix area, and (GULP!) $2.09 in Flagstaff.
Will I ever do this again? . . . . . . . . . . . .
Depends on how much longer Margo is in Flagstaff. She is finishing up her Sophomore year and has been accepted into the College of Business.