STAYcation Day #1

Because Mom is in her third trimester of pregnancy this summer, we thought it best to stay close to home with our activities instead of going on a long vacation like we normally do.  This year, the girls and I decided to plan a "STAYcation" which would enable us to have fun activities to do closer to home.  Today was Day #1 and we called it Getting to Know Your City Day.  We have lived in La Grande for five years but we have never really taken advantage of some of the local shops or restaurants.  Our first stop this morning was "The Potter's House."  (Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture there).  The Potter's House is a gift shop where local artists can sell their crafts.  Plus, the owner does his own pottery which is beautiful.  We came out with some Wild Huckleberry muffin mix and a couple of new cookie cutters that the girls picked out.  Our second stop was to a local book store called "Sunflower Books."  Emma and Sam both love reading and couldn't get enough of the children's area.  If they had their way, we would have bought out the whole store.  They really enjoyed sitting and reading some lovely books.  Unfortunately for them, Mom is a big believer in utilizing the local library instead of buying brand new books.

Next we walked downtown a bit and we decided it was time for a mid-morning snack.  We stopped at a cafe called "Joe & Sugar's."  It was a cute place to sit and relax and fill up on some yummy goodies - a cinnamon roll for Emma, a muffin for Mom, and a giant cookie for Samantha.

Well, it just so happened that right across the street from the cafe was another local bookstore - "Looking Glass Books."  This was a very large bookstore that also sells used books and the children's area was great fun.  Here is a picture of Emma playing with a train set.

After we left the second bookstore we headed on over to the library.  Now we are frequent patrons of our local library and this summer the girls are participating in the summer reading program.  This week is week #2 so we needed to go and exchange our books for new ones.  Sam read 13 books last week and Emma read five.  They filled up their book bags and we even picked up a free pass to the Children's Museum in Pendleton that we can use later in the week!  After the library we knew it was time for a good lunch so we walked across the street to "Mamacitas."  This is actually a personal favorite of ours and since it wasn't very busy, they let us pick where we wanted to sit.  The girls decided they wanted to sit downstairs where all the art work is and it is much quieter.  We really enjoyed ourselves and lunch was delicious!  (Samantha is always hamming it up for the camera.....)

After lunch we headed home for a short break.  We were very tired and needed to check the time for when the trolly was going to be running.  We stayed home for about 45 minutes and then headed out again.  Here are the girls waiting at the trolly stop.  Unfortunately the trolly was about 15 minutes late and ended up ignoring us at the stop.  We were too hot to keep waiting so we packed it in for our next stop.

Our final destination was "Faerie Beads."  It is a bead shop where you can go and pick from thousands of different beads or charms to make your own jewelry.  The girls had such a hard time deciding between all of the beautiful beads that were there.  We finally came up with a simple plan, thanks to the owner of the shop, and came on home.  We haven't had a chance to make our necklaces yet, but we will definitely do it later in the week.

It was a great day and I especially just loved spending time with my girls.  Hopefully they enjoyed themselves as much as I did.  Tomorrow for Day #2 we are heading to Catherine Creek and Daddy is even taking the day off of work to join us - WOOHOOOO!