Quiet Decends Upon Darien As The Bissell Family Heads Home to Northern Virginia

Hot Fudge Sundaes For the Girls

Cold and Windy On Weeds Beach, Long Island Sound

It's 7:30 and all of us have been up for an hour.  Our daughter and her family, who have been here since late Friday night, left early for home, to avoid the big storm that is supposedly hitting the Northern Virginia area this evening, 8-12 inches forecast.  Wait, they are back because they forgot their sleds.  Now they are off again.

Making Buttermilk Pancakes With Evie

Sunday was a fun day despite the frigid temperatures here in Darien.  We started the day with lots of coffee and talk, waiting for everyone to rise before Evie made a mega recipe of her signature buttermilk pancakes, the favorite of our kids and grandkids forever.  So we filled up on them and satisfied for awhile, the girls went upstairs to Marisa's bedroom, to do their thing, whatever that is but they sure have a great time amusing themselves on the beds, talking, watching shows, doing up their hair, girl things like that.

Swinging In The Snow

After breakfast, Drew and I took the dogs for a walk and we returned, the girls were out in the yard, trying to sled but it was too icy.  So they played outside anyways, on the tree swing for a half hour until they got cold.  It was cold but sunny so it was fun to finally be outside for awhile.  The dogs loved it too, though Coco, the little guy, sunk into the snow up to his chin.

Big Guys On Weeds Beach

Early afternoon, the girls were begging us to go to Panera's in town, not our favorite place but Drew gave in, so Evie and I went along.  The kids all had bread bowls with mac and cheese inside or sandwiches.  I don't get why they like this place so much.  Anyways, afterwards, they gave in and agreed to do what I wanted, drive to Weeds Beach, on the Long Island Sound, about ten minutes away.  It was amazing, a brilliant sun on the Sound, a heavy wind, literally blowing us over, frigid temperatures, so they we could only stand the outdoors and the beach for fifteen minutes at the most. But it was worth it, to see the beach, sand and sun and the kids had a rollicking time, walking, then going on the swings and jungle gym.

We then came in and finally found a movie we all liked, another Jim Carey, Liar, Liar.  The adults had seen it before but not the kids, so we had fun watching this silly movie, the premise being that for twenty four hours, Jim Carey, a lawyer and negligent father, had to tell the truth.  Carey is fine in small doses, so after this movie, I  had enough, the kids too.

My Daughter Jill

For dinner, Evie and Jill warmed up the chicken pot pie and Shepherd's Pie, made a salad, blanched some broccoli and we had another Costco dinner.  Mitch had a friend over, so there were ten of us but we still had some food leftover.  We did not finish up with the kitchen till 8:15 and the girls wanted to watch one more film before bed. But before the movie, the  girls were a little crazy and started to leg wrestle on the living room floor, a game we used to play with our kids; even Evie got involved this time.   After they tired of leg wrestling, we were able to find another movie for kids and adults called The Great Outdoors, with John Candy and Dan Ackroyd.  It was barely watchable but it passed the time until bed.  I would not recommend it.  We did not get the girls in bed till 11:15 as they were fired up, silly, mostly the result of their Granny who tends to encourage this sort of thing.  And the girls love it.  So ended a great weekend with the Bissells.