Road Trip to Grandpa's!

My dad lives several hours south of us on a large plot of land on a river. He's working on building a house there, so he conscripted his gaggle of kids and our spouses, along with some of his friends, to come and help dig the foundation. Or something. I mostly wrangled kids.
I packed lunches for the long drive, to avoid unnecessary stops along the way, and to make sure we'd have safe options without any food dyes, gluten, or dairy!

My dad eats gluten-free for health reasons, so I knew he'd have many safe food options, plus we brought a cooler of other foods for us to eat for the weekend. Good to go!

Lunches for the Girls

GF ham and goat cheese sandwiches; organic tomatoes, carrots, strawberries

Saturday, 9/6/14 - I had to pack fast, since we were trying to head out early to get more foundation-digging in for the weekend. So I went simple and easy with these lunches.

Lunch for Mama

GF PBJ, mini Ocho Peppermint bars, organic grapes and strawberries 

I'm not a fan of ham and cheese sandwiches, so I made peanut-butter and jelly for myself. Yum! I also front-loaded on fruit instead of veggies. I'm the Mama. I can do that. (Plus they'd be in the back seat, and not influenced by my veggie-less example!) And gave myself some yummy candy treats. Did I mention that I'm the Mama?

Tools of the Trade

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Z mostly ran around the farm with her older cousins (7 and 9,) and they mostly played in and around my dad's camper and the big dirt hill near where all the other adults were digging. I took charge of the two little ones, E and my niece (4,) who wanted to explore the giant "marshmallows" in Grandpa's field.

While my dad's property abuts the river, it's difficult to access. But just down the road is a little beach next to a bridge. My sister and I took the kids there to play for a bit. Z loved splashing and wading through the water, but E is a bit more squeamish! She pretty much stuck to the dry sandy area!

When it started getting dark, we all set up tents to camp out overnight, to continue the digging (and child wrangling) on Sunday. The girls were very excited to camp out in their sleeping bags on inflatable mattresses. Or in E's case, to sleep in MY sleeping bag with me. Whoo-ee, she releases a ton of heat! Hahaha! But it's a great way to wake up!