Back to Poland

Now that I'm a working woman, the only time we can go to Poland is on the weekends. Most of the shops aren't open on Sundays, so a few weeks ago we planned a trip for this past Saturday. We arranged an all-day babysitter, figured out who was going and who was driving and made our lists.

We woke up at 430 Saturday morning to get everything ready and get Hayden to Amber's for the baby sitter. He was not too pleased with being left with someone at 6am, but he's a trooper. We made quick work of the drive, and were delighted to find that many of the stores had later hours than earlier anticipated. We shopped and shopped, and again I got to shop for other people! We brought some new people along with us, who are already hooked. We also found a new shop and LOVE it! Such a fun day, despite the long drive and early wake-up.

My collection is nearly complete, and one or two more trips should do it! I love all my pieces. I finally got the canisters I wanted, scored an impossible-to-find muffin pan, an egg plate that matches my gravy boat and some great serving dishes. I also found most of the stuff I was looking for for other people. We left around 4, stopped to get food and added another passenger to my car from the other car, and were picking up our kids from the baby sitter at 9. Hayden ate TWO whole pieces of pizza at the bowling alley and did some great napping. Fun!

Today we're taking it easy and cleaning and making homemade vegetable soup and relaxing. Weekends are the best!

Poland

Last week we took another trip to Poland for more pottery. It becomes somewhat of an obsession after awhile! Hayden was a trooper, getting up at 415am and hanging in there with the rest of us for the first hour. He fell asleep on the way to Poland, along with the rest of my passengers and that first two hours of driving in the dark was tough! The sun comes up after 730am these days, so it went fast but man it was exhausting. Heather took over for a few minutes so I could catch a quick catnap, and we had a fun little adventure getting in to Poland since the roads are a little new since the last time we were there.

We arrived around 1030 in the morning and started shopping. Two of our shoppers were new to the game, so we showed them the ropes and they seemed to have an awesome time (they're ready to go back!). We had some shopping to do with other people's money, which is always the best kind, so we took care of that early on. We had enough time to check out some of the shops twice, and even went to a new store that was worth the drive to the middle of nowhere. Hayden has a hard time napping when it's light out, so when he finally conked out around 3pm in his carseat, I was grateful that he could get a little sleep. He definitely had his share (and mine) of snacks and attention and loved Misty being in the backseat with him

We actually got out of Poland around 4pm and made great time to Dresden, where we stop for dinner. It was a quick three hours home since Heather stayed awake to chat with me, and we made it home on the gas we got in Bautzen before we hit Poland...I love my car! We have a lot of pottery by now, so I didn't get a whole lot but I was excited to get a coffee mug for Jay as well as a spoon rest to go next to the coffee maker. We got some good deals and I was excited to open it all up once Hayden was fast asleep and I was wired at 1am. Well worth the trip there, and as always we've started planning our next trip!

An adventure with dad

One of the best things about Europe is our ability to travel. Having kids makes it a little more challenging, so when the opportunity presented itself to travel without them, we all jumped at the chance! We planned a trip to Poland to buy more pottery over a four-day weekend so the kids could stay at home with their dads and the girls would be on our own. This was Jay's first all-day alone time with Hayden, so we were pretty excited. We left bright and early at 6:30am, and wouldn't you know Hayden slept in until 8:30 on the day dad keeps him! While we were out shopping, the boys got together to tag-team the kids, and had a blast.

We enjoyed a day of no strollers, no missed naps, no bottles or burp cloths. It was amazing how much faster we could go in and out of store unencumbered by baby gear. We had time to visit all of our stores, many of them twice! It was the first time for some of my friends and it can be a little overwhelming, but we had a blast. We had time to take some fun pictures, and I got everything on my list. After three years here and several trips to Poland, you'd think I'd have enough now. But I already have a list forming for our next trip!

The town that we visit is Bolaslawiec, and other than pottery there isn't much to see there. But the pieces are beautiful and unique, and I can't wait to use them back in the states and remember all the good times we had. Some of the shops have giant pottery outside of them, so we had some fun with those of course! We knew this would be our only opportunity to go child-free before the guys deploy, so we took advantage of it. Next time will be quite an adventure, but we're always up for it!