Last sunday I had a feeling I should write a blog post a week early because I knew if I waited my usual 2 weeks I would end up with a HUGE post. But I didn't. (I want to say I went to bed early or something responsible like that, but honestly I can't remember what I did last Sunday night.) So here we are with a TON of stuff to re-cap.
We did a lot the last two weeks. We celebrated my 34th birthday. We celebrated Valentines Day. We had snow days and sick days. We went sight seeing. And we did a little bit of job searching. That's on top of our usual routine of school and work and more school and work. In short, we have been busy.
So lets get started.
Every morning I have great plans for getting up before the kids wake up and doing magnificent things like reading my scriptures, exercising, or writing. I hardly ever do that. 1. It's too cold. 2. It's too dark. and 3. If somehow I muscle past the cold and dark I usually make too much noise and wake up the kids and then they want breakfast and what's the point of waking up early for piece and quiet if you don't actually get peace and quiet?
Lately I've realized that I do like to stay in bed and read stuff on my phone for about 20 minutes before I get the kids up. I've subscribed to some news e-mails and those are fun and informative to read. I also have zillow home alerts that send me new homes in the areas we are considering moving to and those are fun to read and dream about. And of course I spend time on Facebook.
So that's what I was doing on Tuesday morning when I noticed a Facebook post from the school district saying that it was a Snow Day. This was the second one of the year. A few minutes later I got the automated call and e-mail from the school. I was pretty happy. This was my day off. My kids could have a snow day from school and I would be home to enjoy it with them.
The snow was pretty bad in the morning, but it was gone by mid-morning. We needed to go grocery shopping so the kids and I ventured out. We had a lot of fun shopping together. I think it's been over a year since I took all four kids with me to the store. It was an experience. The kids were mostly helpful, but they also ask for a lot of things now.
We let the shirts dry overnight and then the kids wore them to school on Wednesday.
Thursday February 7th was my 34th birthday. And once again I probably would have forgotten all about it if my kids hadn't kept bringing it up. They were all so excited for me. Brandon had been working on surprises all week and every time I came home from work Veronica would say something like, "We can't tell you about the surprise." And then Charlotte and Lydia would have to hurry and shush her.
I was doing my reading in bed routine again when another snow day phone call came in. I couldn't believe it. This was the third one this winter! But I couldn't stay home this time. Some of my co-workers were at a conference and so I had to go in to make sure we had enough coverage. So the kids enjoyed some time at home while I got ready for work. Then I dropped them all off at the day care. The roads really weren't bad by the time we were out. They must have been really bad earlier though.
On my lunch break I decided to run over to the daycare and hang out with the kids. I borrowed Veronica from her 4 year old class and took her down to the school age room where Derrick, Lydia, and Charlotte were.
Charlotte showed me a big card type thing she'd made for my birthday.
Soon I was back at home. My parents were waiting at the house when I arrived. Brandon and the kids weren't home yet. He'd taken the kids to the dollar store to buy me flowers. (I've decided I don't like really flowers because I don't like watching them die.) They came home and Charlotte handed me the flowers. Everyone had picked out a different bunch of flowers.
After eating we went back into the living room and I opened my presents. I got FOUR books. Brandon bought me Enough As She Is. My parent's bought me Something Other Than God. They also bought me two other books that I didn't ask for, but that they thought I'd enjoy. I was so excited to have all these books. Why have I never just asked for books before.
And then it was time for cake. Brandon and the kids had been working on this for a while. This was the big surprise that Veronica couldn't ell me about. Here's the video of everyone singing happy birthday. Lydia filmed it.
And here's the cake. It was a chocolate ice cream cake. It was amazing, but I think I died halfway though my piece. I hadn't had much junk food since New Years.
So instead of contacting our friends in Logan (again) and planning to meet them after visiting the ranch (again) and then having the trip get cancelled (again). I decided that'd we'd just to a quick surprise visit to Utah. The weather looked like it would be good enough for a quick trip down and back. If we didn't make any other stops besides Hardware Ranch we should be able to avoid snow.
So we got up in the morning and drove down to Hyrum which is south of Logan. We'd planned to bring movies for the kids to watch in the car, but we'd left them on the piano. So instead we played the alphabet game and just talked. I think the 2 hour ride down to Hyrum was the longest trip we've every taken without a movie.
We made it up to Hardware Ranch and went into the visitor center to buy tickets. Tickets were $3 for kids ages 3-8 and $5 for adults. So we only paid $22. That's a screaming deal compared to the Elk ranch in Jackson Hole. That ranch costs $25 for one adult. (Hence why we went to this one.) We looked at a few of the displays in the visitor center while we were there.
There was a window with four pairs of binoculars sitting on the ledge. The kids loved using those to look at the elk down below.
About halfway back to Pocatello it started snowing. It wasn't bad, but it did make me glad we hadn't dilly-dallied in Logan.
That evening Brandon put up another birthday present. A few weeks ago I'd had all the pots and pans come sliding out of the cupboard and land on my foot. I turned around and told Brandon, "You know what I want for my birthday? I want you to make me somewhere I can hang all these stupid things!" So he set to work designing and building this pan rack. I knew he was making it so it wasn't a surprise, but it is so wonderful every time I look at it.
We had the kids take baths to get ready for Sunday. Brandon was playing with the kids after they were in their pajamas. The game evolved into what they call the Shocky Game. I had to take a video of it.
On Sunday we walked to church and the skies were their usual grey. When we came out of church it was snowing huge puffy snow flakes. I was glad it was a Sunday and we didn't have to go anywhere.
Brandon and I usually like to celebrate Valentine' Day by making a fancy dinner at home. We decided the best day to do that this year was Sunday. I put together the food and Charlotte and Lydia set up the table. After they were done they disappeared. I went into my room to get something and I found them sitting on my bed with the guitar and ukulele. Lydia was showing Charlotte some strumming patterns. It was so cute. Charlotte says she wants guitar lessons now.
On to week 2.
I'm not exactly sure what day this picture was taken, but I am very impressed by Veronica's magnet building skills.
On Tuesday Veronica and I ran a couple errands, went grocery shopping, and stopped at the dollar store to buy Valentine's Day balloons for everyone. Then we came home and set up a fun little table for our annual Valentine's Day party. I LOVE Valentine's Day and I love celebrating it with my kids.
We stuffed ourselves on goodies and played a round of green thumb. Lydia had her ukulele lesson so I took her to that. When we came back we had home made stew that I'd had simmering on the stove all afternoon. It was probably the best batch of stew I've ever made.
We had a lot of fun with our family party. My mom says we should make sure to do this every year. It had been the highlight of her day.
Wednesday could have also been called "The day that went nothing like planned." I was supposed to go to work as early as possible so I could make it to part of our staff meeting. (Staff meeting starts at 7:00, but the kids get on the bus around 7:25 and the daycare doesn't open until 7:30 so my co-workers have never expected me to make it to staff meeting unless Brandon is out of school.) We've had a lot of changes lately so I wanted to get there this month, but I knew I was going to be late.
Staff meeting days are the only days everyone in my office is there on the same day so we were going to celebrate my birthday at lunch. We were also having lunch brought in for us. After work we were going to go to Lava Hot Springs as a way of finally celebrating Jen's election victory. Meanwhile Brandon and the kids were going to go to go to a free movie at ISU. They were watching Ralph Breaks the Internet and everyone at the daycare had a flyer that got them into the movie for free.
Well earlier in the week my co-workers and I had had to re-schedule the Lava trip due to weather and some other un-foreseen circumstances. I was okay with this because it meant I could go to Wreck it Ralph with the kids and Brandon.
Then Lydia woke up sick Wednesday morning. She's been sick off an on for something like a month so at first I didn't think anything of it. But then I realized that she'd been sick off and on for something like a month and I realized I should probably take her into the doctor see if there was anything serious going on. Honestly she seemed more sick than she had all winter. She said her body ached. She didn't touch her breakfast. And I thought I could hear a wheeze in her cough.
I ran all the scenarios in my head of how to have her stay home without me having to miss work. But none of them were good plans. I realized that I didn't want to miss work, but that this was actually a good day to do it. All my other co-workers were at the office. There would be plenty of people to pick up my work for the day. So I texted my boss and told her the situation. She said it was okay.
I also made a same day appointment for Lydia. We dropped Veronica off at daycare and headed to the doctor's office. I was almost certain we were in for a repeat of a pneumonia diagnosis that Lydia had had in Alabama. I was preparing myself for nebulizer treatments and a run to the pharmacy.
When we met with the doctor she listened to Lydia's lungs - they were fine. She looked at Lydia's throat - it was fine. She looked at Lydia's ears - they were the best ears she'd seen in two days. Everything was fine. Lydia was just dealing with a cold.
Well I felt stupid. But at least I had peace of mind. (And I wouldn't feel bad making Lydia go to school the rest of the week no matter how much she protested.) We went back home and I made Lydia take a 90 minute nap. I told her if she took it easy and rested the rest of the day she could go to Wreck it Ralph that night. And that's what she did.
In the afternoon I picked up Charlotte, Derrick, and Veronica at the daycare. When we came back home Derrick and Veronica started having hysterical melt downs. I put Veronica down for a nap, and sat with Derrick on the couch while he cried. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to the movie. But the kids rallied again at 6:30 and so we mad it to the movie. All the kids bought cotton candy with their own money. Derrick just held his the whole time. He called it, "Coppin candy."
We made it home a little after 9:00 and put the kids right to bed. I thought they'd have a hard time waking up the next morning, but I'd underestimated how much they were anticipating Valentines Day. When I went downstairs to wake the kids up Charlotte zipped out of bed yelling, "IT'S VALANTINES DAY!!!"
We'd made sure to pack the kids Valentines day boxes and treats in their bags the night before so they were all good to go in the morning. Getting ready went super well. It was such a nice morning.
At work Jen had brought in a big veggie tray and other healthy snacks for all of us. That was really nice of her. Plus there was the left over lunch from yesterday. I basically ate salad and veggies all day.
When I got home from work the kids had their Valentines spread all over the floor. They were happily eating them all.
I had no idea it'd been that long. We've each had our separate nights away from the kids for various things. But we haven't gone away together in four years. So we were both looking forward to this little trip.
Brandon had class in the morning and I went to work, but we both got off at 11:00. I'd dropped off Veronica at my parents house before work (When given the choice between going to Daycare or going to Grandma and Grandpas Veronica decidedly told me, "I want to go to my Grandma and Grandpa's house. I don't want to go to school.") The kids would ride the bus home after school. So I didn't have to worry about picking them up.
Brandon and I met up at the house and then we stopped at A&W to pick up some food for the road. Then we were off.
We had so much fun just driving and talking about what ever. We talked about our least favorite classes in school, our worst days of school, embarrassing moments, awkward dates, and other silly things from high school.
We also admired this crazy cloud up ahead of us. We knew it was a storm cloud and we prepared for some crazy snow, but it really wasn't that bad when we got into it.
The tour was great. There were a lot of corporate and private jets being worked on. I can see why Brandon wants to work here. It was a good visit.
Then we drove out to Nampa to the Precious Memories B&B I'd found online. Brandon and I haven't stayed at a B&B since our Honeymoon. This place stood out to me as I combed through all the hotel listings. It seemed cute and we wanted to do something different on this trip so I decide this is where we would stay. I'm glad I picked it because it turned out to be really charming.
When we got to the table we told our waiter we wanted dessert first and he said, "I like you guys." We ordered the brownie lasagna and split it. It was heavenly.
I had the Shimp Scampi and Brandon had the Tour of Italy. Both were great. Brandon and I talked all through our meal. I thought we wouldn't have much to talk about, but instead we just kept talking and talking and talking. It was so fun to have conversations that weren't related to the day to day grind of school and work and kids.
After dinner we were so full. We were at a shopping center type place so we wandered over to a Michaels Crafts and then a Bed Bath and Beyond. We talked about the things we want in our next house. It felt like we were newly wed college students again.
We planned on just watching TV when we got back to our room, but when we walked in the door to the common area Brandon noticed a pool table. He asked me if I knew how to play pool. I said no. He said he would teach me. Guys, I've been married to Brandon for almost 12 years and I had no idea he knew how to play pool. But he does. Apparently he did this a lot in high school. (This was also news.)
He taught me the rules and helped me understand how to hit balls to make them move a certain way.
Neither of us were amazing players, but we had a lot of fun. We played four games and I improved each time. I can't believe we've never done this.
Then we went upstairs and watched the re-make of Overboard. I thought it would be a dumb re-make, but honestly I loved it. They did a "gender-swap" so in this version its a rich guy who loses his memory and is taken in by a poor girl. The guy was hilarious. I highly recommend it.
In the morning we went downstairs and had a yummy breakfast. I didn't get a picture of the dinning room at breakfast so here is one from the night before.
I did want to spend a little bit of time in the Twin Falls area. I'm currently writing about that area on my travel blog and I wanted a few extra pictures and a little bit for info about the area. Our first stop was Malad Gorge. This is what it looks like from the Interstate.
Finally we found the right road and we were not disappointed. There were little springs lining the side of the grade as we drove down into the Snake River Canyon.
We crossed a small bridge onto Ritter Island and then walked on a slightly muddy path.
Here's the waterfall up close. We could have walked on a trail right by it, but my hips were sore from walking around in my "cute boots." (I'd forgotten my hiking shoes). So we decided to save that for next time because we will definitely be back here again. (Twin Falls had so many interesting things and I feel like I've only seen half of them. There is still a lot of unexplored potential in this area.)
We made it home a little after 6:00 and were greeted by children who half heartedly said hi and then went back to watching Incredible 2 that we'd picked up from Red Box for them to watch while we were gone.
My mom and dad filled us in on the weekend (everything went fine) and then they left (probably to go sleep for 12 hours.) The kids finished their movie and I told them about our weekend. I said we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and Lydia said, "oh that's like on Ground Hog Day."
After the kids were in bed Brandon and I rounded out our weekend of romance by Watching Crazy Rich Asians. It's funny and cute.
Today was probably the most low key day we've had in a while. We went to church (I wore the comfiest clothes I could find because my body was still in vacation mode.) After church we enjoyed being home as a family.
But the fun isn't over yet. Tomorrow - if the weather is good- we are going on a drive to check out another potential employer. And this one is in Southeast Idaho. Our Number One Job pick changes on a weekly basis. This job is our current Number One. And we are really hoping it works out because we would love to stay in Southeast Idaho.
As always I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?