Monotony or fun day?

**Please excuse the picture quality. Both of my cameras had dead batteries, so these were all taken with my cell phone.

LOVED playing with the boat. This was the spot she continually went to again and again.

Ever have one of those days where the morning starts just like every other morning and you look at your "to do" list to see what's on the agenda and stare down at the rest of the day and are just bored with the monotony? Yeah, that was yesterday morning. Actually I started feeling it the night but figured I'd just go to bed and all would be well in the morning. Not the case. In fact, it only intensified and it almost felt suffocating. So, I threw it all out the window. Okay, not exactly all of it. I had one errand that was not local, which kind of shaped our impromptu "Fun Day".

So we headed off to the jewelry store (our "must do" errand) and had it all taken care of in 10 minutes. (As a side note, how irritating is it to live in a place that doesn't have THE store you HAVE to go to, with the nearest one being an hour and a half away and it only takes 10 minutes to do the REQUIRED work?) Anyway, I took it as a good sign that the kiddo was totally diggin' the kiddie area and didn't want to leave.

After the jewelry store I decided we needed to grab some lunch. I saw a plethora of options on our way to the jewelry store and hadn't yet decided on which one to go to but knew I needed to turn around at the next light anyway. What did my little eye see just before our u-turn? A Panera Bread! I was excited to say the least considering I haven't eaten at one of these since our last trip to Colorado in February. No question, we ate there and we had quite a fun little mommy and daughter lunch date.

Another unexpected little stop was the Trader Joes just a few stores down from Panera. I haven't been in one of these since our days in Ohio. This store was itty bitty in comparison. It was kinda bizarre but enjoyable. After getting a few requested items for a friend a few items for ourselves and one quick stop at TJ Maxx, we were finally on the road to our real fun destination...the Children's Museum. I was totally psyched about going here with the kiddo! To top it off, my timing worked out beautifully in being just long enough of a drive--especially with the big city traffic combined with construction that the munchkin fell asleep for her normal car-length nap of 45 minutes. Considering it only took me 20 minutes to get there, it gave me the chance to talk to my love for the remaining portion of her nap. I couldn't have worked it more beautifully than it worked out because just as I got off the phone, she woke up!

Construction girl!

Anyway, because of an AMAZING deal for military members and their families that is nationwide, we were able to go to this museum for FREE! (Check here to see what's available in your area, but act fast because it is only available until Labor Day.) We had a bit of a slow start until she was able to get her bearings...then she had a ton of fun. In fact, we closed the place down! It was so hard to tear her away from the place and it was fascinating to watch her learning. Literally, you could see that her experiencing things was just opening up the world for her just a little bit more. Absolutely fascinating.

She loved playing and splashing in the water...

...so much so that she got drenched.

After that we piled into the car, stopped for dinner at Bob Evans, and then continued our trek home. Definitely a fun day and most definitely not monotonous. Whew!

Playing in the train.