It ended up being anything but that, and it was a wonderful week! I am finding myself sad that it is over. It was a great week.
I think a lot of the reason for the week being so good, was due to the amazing weather. It has been in the mid to upper 60's all week, with the sun brightly shining, and we have literally been soaking it in every day. My body, that is low on vitamin D anyway this pregnancy, felt like a sun sponge, and all week I have been finding any and every reason to be outside. I just relax and smile as I feel the warm sun on my skin and the lifting of my spirits it brings, and see the happy sun kissed cheeks of my children as they build forts, ride bikes, collect rocks and bugs, and play, play, play.
We went into the week with a few things in mind to do, and left the rest open. It ended up working out great.
On Monday, we went to my cousin Heather's funeral. It was a little bit of everything. It was sad, hopeful, hard yet uplifting, inspiring, heart breaking, and full of faith and love.
It was a good experience for my children to be surrounded by a family so full of faith and love and hope, during a hard and sad circumstance. I love that they are exposed to that, as I was, at a young age. It really does affect a child. It was nice for me to see my cousins and family and to catch up a little as well.
It opened up a lot of opportunity to talk to my children about the Plan of Happiness that we believe in, and how families will be together for eternity, death does not do us part.
While we were at the cemetery, Ben had a feeling that his family was there, and was able to find his relatives graves. It was very neat, and special.
Tuesday was a beautiful day! We went to the gym and got a good work out in, then met up with friends at the park. It was fun to be with friends, and let the kids play. Of course, Luke ran all over, and I spent a lot of time chasing him, but it was still fun. After the park, the kids and I worked hard and did some spring cleaning. The kids also did some of the chores that they can earn money for. Mary deep cleaned a bathroom completely by herself for the first time, and did such a good job that I didn't have to do any touch up. Awesome!
I also taught Sam the wonderful joys of washing walls, baseboards, the banister, and doors. He wasn't too thrilled about it, but I think he FINALLY understands why I don't like it when he literally walks up the walls with his hands and feet, and slides down the railing. He got to wash off the wonderful black marks it all leaves behind. I loved the extra hands, and he loved the dollar he earned for doing more that what was asked. There is something rewarding about teaching your kids how to work. They are much more capable that I even realized, and it saved me a lot of work doing it all myself.
Mary had an extra tumbling practice in the afternoon, due to the State meet coming up in a week, and the rest of the day was spent playing outside in the sun with friends, the kids leaving a huge black ring in the bathtub (which for some reason I find amusing, and fulfilling) and having a family movie night that evening.
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| Luke and William love to "go on a drive." Poor Luke had the sun in his eyes. |
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| Brothers |
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| William always keeps his arm around the back of Luke's seat. I think it is so funny! |
Wednesday Ben took William snow skiing in the morning, and then Mary and Sam in the afternoon. Gorgeous day for skiing! I did some more spring cleaning, and also did some shopping in Park City when I drove up to "swap kids" at the ski hill. Again, the weather was gorgeous! We came home and had a barbeque with our neighbors here in the cul-de-sac. It was so nice to sit on grass, chat with friends, and pretend it was summer. We lost Luke at one point, and found him on a completely other street across the neighborhood, in a strangers garage. And what was he doing...he was playing with the vacuum in their garage of course! The kid is truly obsessed with vacuums and almost gave us all a panic attack while looking for him. That kid is seriously going to put me into labor early with his constant running away in a split second tactics.
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| Mary, Noah and Bailey. Best friends up in their second fort. |
Thursday morning we went to the gym again. The kids played outside with friends, and then in the afternoon, Ben took the older 3 kids and some friends to the swimming pool in Kamas. I stayed home with Luke and followed him all around the neighborhood, and took him on a big walk. Everyone came home from swimming happy and full of stories, we ate dinner, played outside some more, the kids are working on a big fort, left another black ring in the tub, watched a movie and went to bed.
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| Sam, Blake and Shae. |
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| of course |
Friday was a BIG cleaning morning. Our basement is unfinished and is the home of all of our boxes we didn't need to unpack and tons of random toys. During the year we have lived here, the basement has truly been destroyed. It looks like a toy and random things volcano erupted down there. Boxes rummaged through and ripped open, toys literally everywhere, forts made and ruined, paper plates, garbage, and so on. I just quit going down there months ago, because the mess truly depressed me.
I woke up Friday with a serious cleaning energy bug (thank you second trimester energy), so I grabbed the kids, and we worked and worked and worked, extremely hard for the next 3 hours. It was a huge project, and overwhelming at times. I was a sweaty mess, and the kids were working so hard they just sat during the breaks I gave them. But, we carried on, and we actually completely cleaned the basement. I am talking, brand new looking again, clean. I was completely exhausted when it was all said and done, and we had about 15 garbage bags of trash and broken toys to haul upstairs and outside.
Once the basement was done, I took the kids to 7/11 to get a well earned slushie, paid them for their cleaning overtime, and then they played with friends. I worked on my sun tan while following Luke all over the neighborhood. We had dinner in Park City and went shopping for soccer cleats in the evening, and then played outside until the sun went down.
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| our entire cul-de-sac has sidewalk chalk on every driveway and also the road. All of the kids made their own city and they ride their bikes and scooters around in it. |
Today we went to the gym, and then Mary and I got our hair done. Oh, it felt so good to get my hair done! Pregnancy can really leave me feeling frumpy, and it feels good to know that my hair is all beautified. Mary loved getting her hair done too, of course, and it looks great! She keeps looking older to me, and it is crazy.
After our hair was done, we all went to Hogle Zoo. We got a front parking spot! Incredible, seriously. The weather was cooler and great, and the zoo was not crowded. All of the animals were out, and most of them were active.
Aside from Luke literally running everywhere and exhausting Ben and I, it was a really fun trip! Mary walked all over with a notebook, documenting everything, and Sam went nuts in the reptile building. He loves lizards so much, and they had so many awesome lizards there. William loved the huge tiger, and Luke thought the monkeys were funny. Probably because he is one.
We grabbed dinner, Ben met up with a kid to get a new fork for his mountain bike, and now we are home. I am hiding here in our bedroom listening to the absolute chaos going out in the living room where the kids are eating too much candy, having a "late night" with friends and watching Star Wars, or supposedly watching Star Wars. Oh, to be a kid again. Good times. Sounds like WWF going on out there instead. At least they are laughing, and nothing sounds like it is broken.
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| Bubbles! |
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| Did I mention the HUGE rock removal project going on in our yard. Mary and Sam moved approx. 900 rocks out of our yard this week, and Ben has done many, many more. We are hoping to have them cleared in another week, so we can FINALLY bring in the top soil and prepare for grass! |
So there it is. After tomorrow, Spring Break is over, and we have a very busy week ahead of us. Soccer games start for Mary and Sam, cheer starts, tumbling practices and a big State meet for Mary, karate practice, homework, preschool, Easter, and everything in between. It will be a very fun week, but pretty busy. It's a good life.
I am so grateful for this spring break, for sun kissed cheeks, black tub rings, fun family time, sunshine, friends, and how rejuvenating and fun it was for all of us!
Welcome Spring!
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