Visiting Grandpop & Quilting Lessons

I had no excuse for missing the gym after Grandma called asking to watch Ellie during my workout. She said that she doesn't want Ellie at the gym because "there are too many germs there." She then asked when I was going to the gym again - next Monday? Um, hopefully sooner.
I tried out the BodyPump class which was the same class I had done when I was a member a couple years ago. Ellie did well for Grandma and Grandpa and they said they switched back and forth with her. When I started packing Ellie up Grandma asked if I wasn't staying for lunch. Free babysitting and lunch? This is the life. Kelly and Clark showed up and Grandma treated us all to sandwiches, pasta, cake, and cookies.
Ellie took a brief nap on Grandma's bed. She woke up after 30 minutes probably because she was laying on her back. We went home and she took a nice long nap - about 2 1/2 hours. I was working on my Bible Study homework and cleaning up the house a bit. My piano lesson came at 5:00 and Ellie behaved, sitting in the exersaucer most of the lesson. When Jon came home we grabbed some crackers, cheese, and green tea and hopped in the car.
We have been planning to try to visit Jon's maternal grandfather, Grandpop, since Christmas. Jon had bought him "Unbroken" and we finally set up a time to visit. It worked best for us to arrive after dinner so we came at 6:30. Grandpop had forgotten about our scheduled visit (we had called over a week prior) but it worked out fine. They were in a gathering room, almost like a large living room, so we joined him and about six other ladies. A concert by the AmeriKids was scheduled to begin shortly.
Bringing a baby into a room full of older women is like bringing a basket of candy to five year olds. They were thrilled! Ellie was on her best behavior throughout the concert and in between songs when Jon was holding her while standing up and walking a bit back a hallway, Grandpop would ask where he went with the baby. He told us that Ellie was his ninth great grandchild! Following the concert Grandpop asked us upstairs to his room for some drinks.
We spent a while catching up before heading out at 8:45. Grandpop said goodbye to us and smiled at Ellie a bit more before walking us to the door. He asked us to come again soon.
Since we only had snacked on our way into West Chester we stopped by On the Border for dinner. We were the only people in the restaurant when we walked in but we did not feel bad after two other parties came after us. Jon and I split the Big Burrito (it's delicious) and Ellie sat very quietly in her seat. Dinner hardly took any time and we were home shortly after 10:00.
Today came the first of my highly anticipated quilting lessons from Mrs. Saint. Mrs. Trevino was also there for her lesson since she purchased the same package as me. Today was an introduction to all the elements of quilting: the needles, thread, fabrics, lingo, and so forth. It lasted through the morning and Ellie took a two hour nap in Mrs. Saint's crib. I actually hung around after the lesson waiting for her to wake up (Mrs. Saint insisted I did not need to wake her up). I really enjoyed learning from her but have a lot more reading up to do before our next lesson!
After lunch Ellie took another sizable nap - one and a half hours - causing us to be a bit late to Brooke's lesson. Brooke never seems to mind and was once again gracious. Ellie hung out with Aunt Carol and didn't cry at all, fortunately. We had planned to stop by Grandma and Grandpa's before the lesson but Ellie slept too long so we stopped by afterwards. They had been watching Clark while Kelly and Josh went to Josh's Pop-pop's funeral but he had gone home by our arrival. Grandma wanted to get some cuddling in with Ellie before we left.
Ellie and I arrived home at dinner time and I cooked up the sausage I had defrosted earlier in the day for spaghetti. Jon came home relatively late (5:45) and I realized how wonderful it is that he works close to home. After dinner Peter and Brittany came over and we watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey. They bought Season 3 on DVD so we are currently ahead of what has been shown on TV in the US. Ellie watched the first episode with us after a failed attempt to put her to sleep before we started but then fell right to sleep with attempt number two. We watched two episodes and are saving the others for this weekend.

Ellieisms:
Ellie has become noisy. During dinner she kept chatting but stopped when I pulled out the video camera. How does she know?
She has started a new pattern of sleep at night. She wakes up around 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00.

I know Ellie's blurry but I like how Grandpop's smiling at her

Hanging out on his bed