Girly Night

The evening following our arrival, it had been previously agreed upon to meet up and spend time with our two grandgirls over a dinner and shopping excursion.

One thing about living so far removed from our growing grandchildren is the simple joy when able, to spend any type of stolen moment with them, if only to become reacquainted - face to face.

Even at the best of times, it can often become truly difficult to gather with some of our family members when we venture west and plop ourselves into already existing and busy schedules, so we at least make the attempt to seek out availability and await responses for whatever time frame we can get, or not. Sometimes it isn't much, other times it's more, all depending of course on the time of year and the length of our stay.

On the morning of this "Girly Night", I wasn't able to attend our young grand-daughter's dance competition, the reason for her poofy and very fluffy hair here (grin). It was so great to receive a text message later in the day to find out that they had taken the gold for their dance. Yeah.

Instead I headed out deeper into the Valley for an impromptu yet prioritized visit with my mother in law on her exact birthday, which was wonderful, despite the fact she wasn't feeling her best. I'm happy to say after taking her to the doctor later on that day, all began to improve for her. So thankful! Happy Birthday again Mom B.

Heading back again later, off we girls went for our dinner and shopping evening.

What fun it was to catch up over dinner, chat heartily and giggle loudly while munching down our food.

We took our time and really enjoyed everything, including taking photos using my iPod Photo Booth App. (left photo here)

I was forewarned about how one was a super shopping lover. Oh, she isn't a shopaholic per se, she just loves to see what's out in the girlie world, and finds the simple pleasure of a window shopping experience fabulously enjoyable.

Her mother tells us she once tried on dozens of shoes, for fun. In my mind (and our daughters') it seemed rather fitting to take the girls window shopping just to see her in action. :)

Meandering through a few select shops and a bookstore, the ones they suggested visiting while talking about it over our dinner, I have to say I very much enjoyed the expedition myself, just allowing them to lead me on, showing me a whole host of likes and dislikes, favorite colors, assorted styles, favorite authors, certain hobby favorites and more.

Naturally, we were well prepared in advance to go ahead and plunge into that shopping abyss activity, mostly so I would become familiar with particular infatuations when wanting to gift them from the east.

True to their mother's word, all did in fact enjoy the parade through the fashion world thrills, especially with the youngest one whizzing through aisles so quickly. Once in a while she would stop suddenly and offer a "ohhhh, or an ahhhh", and then onward ho she continued to pace herself.

Wow, she was a "Fashionista Shopper" for sure! We often snickered and loved watching her enthusiasm, amazed at her energy and the way she just came alive in a shopping environment.

Simple pleasures, that's all this was for her.

Her favorite color is pink (you know that Nana, right? - LOL) and she had a glamorous way of trying things on like the glasses above, so fun to watch her.

And at such a young age, she surprised me by not asking for one itty bitty thing. What child does that? Not her. At least not this day, that is until near the end of the night.

Girlie Night Out

The girls knew that Nana didn't bring any gifting with me in my suitcase because I wanted this time to also pick something special with/for them during this outing. At the end of the evening, one ended up wishing for a new book to read, the other sandals for the summer. Pretty easy if you ask me...

Really you know, at the end of the night - our outing together had zero-nothing to do with shopping. And it wasn't at all about the dinner or the gifting either. It was all about time spent together, just enjoying their sweet personalities and reacquainting ourselves again in person. It was also about grabbing a small window of quality time with them, that is until they would again be available later the following week.

The other gals...mall photo booth hunters