It's off the Charts!

What is off the charts you might ask? Well, for one, the weather. It's 100 degrees out here and we are baking like "toasted cheesers" as they say in "Sandlot." Lathargic, dehydrated, agitated...this pretty much sums up how we feel when we aren't in the A/C or wet in the little pool or "poodle" as Ella STILL calls it. The other thing about charts, we finally finished marking all the days and Gramma Paula is HERE. Last week we picked her up in Harrisburg and took a trip to Costco before driving home. It has been nice to have company since this has been a very long week of work for Andrew. The kids are enjoying their time with her as well. We took a trip to Wilkes-Barre since Andrew was working up there for the weekend and got to swim and do a little shopping. It's always nice to have a free night in a hotel! My mom took the kids to Target yesterday by herself since I had a meeting in the morning. My friends kept telling her how brave she was for doing that :). The kids had fun and even helped her with the directions to get there. Yes, my kids know the way to Target and McDonalds. We had a thunderstorm yesterday, planning for another one tonight (we'll see), and other than trying to stay cool, we are heading to Chicago tomorrow morning. Yup. Going to a place where it is EVEN hotter than it is here. I will get to see and meet more of my extended family on my Mom's side as well as my Aunt Carol and Brother will be there. 10 hours in the car. Pray for us. We got new tires today on the van to ensure that we do not break down on I-80 in the 100 degree heat due to worn out treads. So, while at Wal-Mart, we got hungry and decided to walk to Panera. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but it is a big parking lot, a little road and a hill to Panera. We walked the cart over there and parked it in the back of the lot. A man who was letting his dog run around smiled at us and my mom said, "Getting the tires done at Wal-Mart, so we brought the cart over." He smiled again and said, "Well, it's good lunch." Yes it was, it's just that I felt totally ridiculous wheeling our cart all the way over there and on the way back, all the kids were hanging off the cart and my Mom could not stop laughing. Where did that leave me? Pushing FOUR people's weight back up and across the parking lot while listening to Peter whimper thinking a car was going to hit us while they swerved around what may have appeared as the "Beverly Hill Billies" in a shopping cart. We made it, the van was done, our tummies were full and we even got a couple cute shirts to boot. (Yes, you can find some cute stuff if you just look deep in the Wal-Mart women's section). ;)

 Fun memories. 

I will not do that again. 

Come to think of it, our stroller was in the trunk of the van the whole time. 

There we are. Cart and all.
While walking back out to the parking lot, we laughed since our "cart" was the only one of its kind parked there.