1000 Words

I actually don't know how many words are in this post, I just forgot my camera this weekend and the "picture is worth a 1000 words" thing has been going through my head. So in lieu of photos, you get my descriptions of what photos I would have taken had I had our camera. Thanks in advance if you decide to plow through to the end.

photo #1
Lauren Cramer, my travel buddy. It would be a picture of Lauren smiling her sunny smile, or being a bit goofy, because that is how she is. Lauren and Adam donated some frequent flyer miles to me so I could fly down to Utah for Women's Conference at BYU last week. At the beginning of the year I was planning on going but then decided against it because it made me exhausted just thinking about finding care for my kids, the ones left behind and the one I had to take with me. But how could I refuse a free ride -- and it is really hard to say no to Lauren because she makes everything sound so great. So I found friends to take care of the children here and family to take care of Sommer and it all worked out. Lauren is great company, she is energetic and bubbly but not so much that you want to get away from her because she is also very real. Thanks Lauren, it was just what I needed.

photo #2
Nellie (as in Kent's girlfriend)
I got a message from Kent saying that Nellie, his girlfriend who everyone, even my dad, just adores, was at women's conference with her mom and her sisters and maybe I could find her -- just keep an eye out for a girl with two sisters and an older mom. Hmm, just about everyone walking around campus fit that description. But get this, Nellie found me! Kent was giving her a hard time about not finding me even though we had never met but she walked by and thought
"that looks like a Sommer" and she was right! How crazy is that? I was so impressed by her finding skills and then it turned out that she and Lauren lived in the same condo area for some time while at BYU. Small world. Nellie has a very happy countenance, great hair, and she is pretty. She seemed like an all-around great gal and I hope that soon "we shall call each other sister" and I write that even though I know that Kent is oh so sick of everyone asking him about that part of his life. She's a keeper.

photo #3 Aunt Sara
That is Sommer's Aunt Sara, my sister-in-law took care of Sommer one of the days I was away. I was worried because I had never left Sommer with a sitter for that long but she did great and of course Sara took wonderful care of her. Sara's home is very peaceful, no wonder Sommer was so happy. Thanks Sara, I actually only worried after I dropped her off, once I was at BYU I didn't think about her because I knew she was in good hands.

photo #4 Chez Blaser
I stayed at Sally's house for a couple of nights and Sally took care of Sommer on Friday. Sally also cooked me gourmet meals both nights and delicious breakfast on Saturday. I was so spoiled! Sushi and soba noodle toss and fresh fruit were awaiting me on Thursday night and Friday manacotti with fresh tomato sauce, garlic bread with artisan bread and asparagus. It was all so delicious to the eyes and palate. So I thank Sally for taking care of me and my baby.

photo #5 New babies
I had a free day to visit a friend and relation who just had babies. It was so nice to see the wee ones in person. Mindy's sweet little Lillian is just beautiful, like her other girls. I've missed Mindy a lot since she moved away and it is always so great to see my old friend. And Cammi's baby Max is already a perfect boy, in disposition and looks. Cammi has great music on her blog, dance away.

photo #6 the Equinox
Eric's mom was out of town and let me drive her fabulous car. I don't think I'd want to share it if it were my car so I was really grateful that she let me drive it around during my stay and saved me the trouble of getting a rental. If we could fit in one I'd start bugging Eric for a new car, I liked it that much, and I am not particular about cars at all. (I just want mine to be cleaned out and washed for me, yet another hint hint.) Marc and Cammi told me that there is another GM car like the equinox that seats more people but now I can't remember what it is called, just that they started making them in '07.

So if you read all the way to the end, you must like me a lot. Thanks. I like you a lot too.

Roozengaard

It was Cannon's idea to pose like that.

Roozengaard is a tulip garden about an hour's drive north of our home. This marks the fourth time we've made the tulip trek and I never tire of wandering around, taking in the beauty. Seeing all the color is such a wonderful contrast to the gray skies above. And the color combinations are so inspiring, so delicious to the eyes and soul. Chad and Angie joined us this year and made the trip even more fun. Check out their blog for more pictures.

Get outta town

Friday I opened up my Travelzoo weekly email and saw this incredible deal --

Hawaii -- 5 night vacation with air for $555.

I was so close to booking that ticket. The catch was that the travel had to be between May 1 and 21st and we just couldn't make it work. We even texted my sister Linds to see if she would go with me. My sweet husband was all ready to send me off to Hawaii without a second thought. A different set of weeks might have worked out. I thought of all the friends I'd love to go with but thought of excuses for each of you, and for me too.

So next time something like this comes up I need to know, would you consider it? Are you in? Because one of these days something like this might just work out. Got to keep thinking big.

The rest of spring break

Forgot my camera on these outings.

Day 4: trip to DI to donate and to buy a few new-to-us treasures.
late afternoon outing to Richmond Beach
(since it was our warmest day of the week at 55ish)
we just played in the sand and Eric brought us McDonalds when he got home.

Day 5: outing to the Scratch Patch to sift for treasures.
It was a little crowded since it is spring break, but the kids really enjoyed the experience.

Eric has to work tomorrow but I didn't plan for a Day 6. This week has made me realize that I need to start making plans for our summer right now! And it has made me see the wisdom in the summer organization my mom did for us while growing up.

Spring Break: Day 3

Sommer standing at the backyard "balance beam" that Eric made. Enjoying the sunshine and being outside like the big kids.
The big activity of Spring Break day 3 was to meet up with Eric after work and head down to IKEA. The boys needed dressers for their rooms. This trip went well enough. We've had worse trips to IKEA. I could have and would have liked to have spent more time and money in the store. We did find the dressers, a new duvet cover for Ridge's bed and a place to store shoes and coats for behind the front door.

The earlier part of the day we went to the park, sunny and cold here again, watched the first half of Enchanted again, played outside, made messes inside. Regular routine things.

Spring Break: Day 2

Day 2 of spring break was April 1st. Cannon's trick, with Eric's help, was to turn the milk blue. He was excited to drink it, Ridge refused, and Laine didn't care as long as it was chocolate flavored.

We headed to the Reptile Zoo in the morning with some friends. The "Reptile Man" did an assembly at Ridge's school and we saw him last summer at a park production. It is better as an assembly than actually going to his zoo. He does a great job of explaining the reptiles and telling jokes and this "zoo" isn't one of those where they worry about keeping the creatures in their natural habitats, it is full of cages with hardly anything in them. The kids enjoyed it well enough and it did get us out of the house. I was glad I had a coupon for one free admission.

After the zoo we drove to a shopping center that houses the Hanna Andersson outlet. The kids didn't cooperate for this store but then I bribed them with Cold Stone as a treat if they were good in the OshKosh outlet store. They were, which was great because we found Ridge the pants he needs (he has outgrown all his pants and they all have holes in the knees) and we found a few other things as well since they were having a great 70% off sale. I really should go back and get more sweatshirts for the boys for the fall. Oh, on the way to the outlets I recognized where in Woodinville we were and realized that there was a fun park nearby so we stopped there and played first. So far this week has been sunny and cold.

Eric was scheduled to get home late that night so the kids and I had a movie party and watched Enchanted for the first time. We all enjoyed it very much. It was a fun day.

Spring Break: Day 1

For our first day of spring break we finally decorated Easter eggs and had our hunt. I postponed our Easter, all the non-religious parts, until spring break so to give us something extra to do and in hopes of some drier weather so the kids could hunt outside. This also meant that I could buy the candy for 1/2 off at Target the day after Easter. (I kept a bag of dark chocolate peanut m&ms for myself and have been self-medicating with them.) I went a little overboard but at least we have candy for the week.

Ridge was in charge of sorting the plastic eggs and getting them matched up. He then decided to make a chart of how many of each color for each child. This took a good part of his time, he wrote out a list for each of them, but then when he got out the door and started finding eggs he threw the list on the ground and just went for all the candy he could get. If I had known he was going to do this I would have hidden them better. That was our main activity of the day, the rest of it seemed to be spent messing up the house and I was quite exhausted by the evening.