The Reason For Our Trip

I wrote last week about our experience coming home from our trip, but I never got around to writing about WHY we went on our trip. 

We went to Illinois to help Gramma celebrate her retirement.  She spent 20 years teaching mostly 3rd grade.  Whew.  And.  Hip Hip Hooray!  Camdyn and I flew in at 3:30 that afternoon, and by 6:30 I was dolled up and enjoying adult conversation in an upscale banquet room.  And for the first time ever, Camdyn was enjoying one on one time with her other set of grandparents.

Here Mom is beaming after receiving her certificate of excellence, or completion, or both!  I like to think that she is smiling because she knows she's going to get to spend more time vacationing at our house now.

I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this blurry photo, but I had to.  She is looking at my Stepdad and just finished reading the card he gave her.  I don't know what it said, but it must have been pretty sweet, cause Momma's about to cry.  He then followed that up with an Ipad 2, so she wasn't teary for long.

Then we woke up to a Saturday morning, with a wide open schedule, and chilly temperatures.  We didn't know what we were going to do with the day, but we did know that we wanted doughnuts...and coffee.  Well, the local Dunkin Doughnuts was closed, but as we were driving aimlessly in search of another doughnut shop we happened upon Dandy Doughnuts.  We pulled in and thought we would give it a try.

It turns out that this is no ordinary doughnut shop...it's special.  Special in that it serves Mini-bite sized doughnuts that are virtually calorie free.  I'm not lying here...only 185 calories for a half dozen of these scrumptious little bites of heaven.  And that's not the only bonus, they are fried in soy bean oil, so no trans fats or cholesterol.  Can you hear angels singing?  I can. 

So, we bought a dozen and grabbed a table toward the back of the shop.

Each table has a game on it.  Cam grabbed a deck of cards are we started playing Go Fish.  I didn't even know she knew how to play Go Fish with a deck of cards, but she does, and this game took us nearly 45 minutes.  45 minutes that I got to spend sipping coffee, nibbling angelic doughnuts, and enjoying the company of my 5 year old who is growing up faster than I care to think about.

The doughnuts can be pre-dipped with cinnamon sugar, or you can buy a sauce and dip them yourself.  Cam was a big fan of the chocolate sauce.  She's totally my kid.

We spent about an hour and a half in that little doughnut shop that morning.  It was the perfect start to a day that had nothing but unscripted good times lying ahead of it.  Don't you just love it when you do something unexpected and it turns out to be so much more fun than you had ever thought?

That was this particular Saturday...and it started at Dandy's Doughnuts.

~if you are ever in the neighborhood stop by and support this family-owned small business.  There is no better way to spend your hard earned dollars than in support of the American Dream of the small business owner.

Our next stop was to the local museum...