Making the Best of Alone Time

 This last week was both difficult and fun. It was lonely yet full of company. The hubby was out of town this week on business. I absolutely hate it when he's gone. With him away I can't sleep at night so that leaves me sleep deprived, which in turn makes me grouchy, which then makes the whole gang suffer. But we did what we could to make the most of it.

We spent a lot of time with friends and went on lots of outings to make the days go by quickly. We had a campout in the backyard one night. And my best friend Marie came over with her kids. We had tacos, did s'mores around the fire, and played on the swings. It was a wild night but the kids loved it. I took a mixture of shots. Some ended up being taken with my camera phone so that is why some are not as clear as the others. I love these two photos of Miss Emma enjoying her s'mores.

 

 

Here we are getting all set up to camp and the kids testing out the tents.

And here's the girl who helped me make it through the week! I am such a wimp with Dan being gone for just 1 week. She's had to be without her second half for a month and just found out she won't be seeing him for another 2 weeks! I love you Marie. You are truly the bestest friend any girl could have.

Getting to sleep was a bit tricky. The kids were too excited to sleep. We had our prayer, song, sharing what our favorite part of the day was, and then it was sleep time. YEAH RIGHT! The kids and I giggled and wrestled awhile and had fun taking silly pictures on my phone. The troops weren't asleep until long after 10:00. WHEW!

There's something about sleeping in a tent that makes the kids think that 6:30 instead of their normal 8:00-8:30 is the time to wake up. (insert tired moan...) That made for a challenge the next day but we still went for it!

We took the kids and their bikes to play at the park and had a picnic lunch of mac n' cheese, applesauce, and Ritz crackers. It was nice to sit and chat in the shade and watch the kids run around.

I love the Twinner vans in the background too!  That was not planned but goes to show you another reason Marie is my girl! We've got practially the same ride. Except mine is a Toyota and her's is a Honda.

We parted ways for the afternoon so we could get some laundry and housework done. I cleaned while the kids played outside with the neighbors. It was pretty hot out there so I turned on the sprinklers and let 'em at it. I love our neighborhood!

That night Marie and I got together again and we went to the YMCA for some zumba! All the kids got to go play in the toy room while Marie and I danced away our stress. It was a great ending to the day.

I am happy to report that Dan made it home this morning around 2:00 a.m.! I had just dozed off an hour before that. So glad to have my sweetheart back. He still had to go into work this afternoon to get things to a point where it's ok to leave for a week again. But this time we get to leave together. We're headed to the beach! It's our annual  Glenn family reunion. We're going to be camping for a week. Glad I did a test run so I could make some adjustments to our sleeping arrangements.But tonight I think I will enjoy a FULL nights sleep!

Trying Really Hard

This week I am trying really hard to keep my spirits up. I am trying really hard to find things to keep the kids entertained for longer periods of time. I am trying to count to 10 and keep my cool. I am trying really hard to come up with nutritious meals even though I have NO motivation to cook this week. I am trying really hard to pull this single parent thing off until Friday.
I have a real hard time getting to sleep at night when the hubby is gone on business and last night I didn't get to bed til 2:30 this morning! It is going to be a long day. I am hoping I can find a few minutes to sneak away for a nap. Maybe we'll put in a movie a little later. But it is so nice out and I hate to waste it since it has been gray and rainy all this past week. I'm trying really hard. Please Friday get here quick!

Moments Like These

 

Its moments like these that make everything worth it all! Ever hear the quote from Bill Cosby, "I brought you in this world, I can take you out!" That is how my day was today. It seemed like I tried everything to bring the peace, the calm, the sweetness out of my kids today. I read books with them, I drew with sidewalk chalk and played in the grass, I helped them make little foam bead necklaces. I really did try to make the day full of fun and happy times, but as soon as one project was over it was fighting, yelling, and stomping (mostly from me mind you). I just couldn't hack it. I was tired, bored of the same routine, worn out, craving some quiet time, and just not the nice mommy I wanted to be.

So tonight as everyone is asleep I've been going through pictures that I need to write up posts about and I found this one of me and Miss Emma when she was sick last week. She had had a fever all day and was hanging on me from the time she woke up to the time she went to bed. The other two had already gone to bed and I laid down on the couch to unwind. I was able to relax and hold my baby girl without any squirming, or pushing me away. She fell asleep on my chest, which is not something that happens everyday. I just closed my eyes and relished that moment. Dan took our picture while talking on the phone and I had forgotten about it.

It was in those moments that I got to breathe in my baby girl, I held her and was her place of comfort. I hope I can always be. I was her protector, and her security. I know she will grow up and I won't always be there to protect her. She will face a lot of scary things in her life but I hope she will know that I will always be there for her no matter what.

Its in moments like these that I am so grateful to be a mother. It really is the most rewarding job I could ever ask for. And it's moments like these that make all the messes, the fighting, the never ending laundry, the tantrums, the lack of sleep, the little things that push me to my limit, not as bad as I make them some days. I'd take them over and over and over for the moments like these. And that is what I do.

Picking Strawberries

You can't live where we do and not have the experience of going to the strawberry patch. It is one of our family traditions each summer. The kids love it, I love it, and I also love the photo opportunity it gives me. The above shot is of one of the full flat boxes we brought home. I ended up with two full flats and the berries are in the freezer now waiting for me to find the time to turn them into jam and other goodies. They make THE BEST strawberry smoothies! Here are a few more of my favorite shots from our picking this year.

Isn't he cute! I love this man!

 

The best part about the strawberry patch is that they actually encourage you to eat while you pick. Makes the outing so much fun and I don't have to stress about the kids eating before we pay. We might pay a little more but not much and these berries are sooo worth it too.

 Little Miss Em was in HEAVEN. This is what she looked like the entire time.

Kiera was good at helping Emma find some more yummy berries to eat. That girl didn't stop eating the ENTIRE time we were there. I was sooo sure she was going to get sick. She definitely got her dose of vitamin C for the day!

Ethan showing off a double strawberry

 I was taking pictures of everyone when Kiera came up to me and insisted that I needed to have my picture taken too. So, I handed her the camera and she took this one of me.

My little berry pickers. Although I am sure they ate more than they put in the crate

I think this was my all time favorite shot from the day! I am pretty sure I lost this boy a couple times because he was too busy sitting and eating. I just love it!

Final Boise Trip Post Milestones

During our Boise trip we reached two big milestones. Unfortunately I only had my camera phone to capture these moments, but at least I have something to document them. The first one was Emma finally taking to the water after dreading it for practically the entire trip. Here are a couple photos of her and I in the pool near my mom's house.

The second milestone was that Kiera, my sweet little girl lost her first tooth! She had ran into one of the neighbors while playing the week before and had knocked it loose. Dan was hoping her gums would tighten back up but there was no going back. The tooth was going to go. She ended up loosing it at grandma's so we had to call the tooth fairy to let her know she needed to make a special trip out of town to pick up Kiera's tooth. She didn't seem to mind though, and she left quite the surprise in exchange for this first tooth. Just check it out!

Since our trip, the tooth next to the one she lost has become loose as well. Kiera was pointing it out to me the other day. Hopefully we'll be home for that one so the tooth fairy doesn't have to make another special trip. We are going to be out of town quite a bit the next few weeks for some camping adventures and a trip to the Oregon coast. Can't wait!

And last but not least I wanted to share the view we found on our way home. Kiera had been asking to stop at a waterfall (a girl after my own heart!) And we found one! It is called Deception Falls. I don't know the history of it at all. We didn't stop for very long since we were pretty anxious to get home and didn't read any of the trail signs but it was beautiful! Waterfalls are the one thing that can bring me to tears just by standing and looking at them. Here are some of the shots I took.

It was a good family vacation and I am glad we went. It takes a lot of planning and can be tough driving for long periods at a time with little ones but the memories we make in the process are so worth it.

We are off to another adventure in a couple weeks for a Glenn family reunion at the coast. We'll be spending a week in a tent, in the sand, and hopefully some more sunshine. But sunshine or not we're looking forward to seeing grandma and grandpa Glenn and our cousins from Utah that we haven't seen since Christmas time. But until then I have some strawberries I need to turn into jam that we picked at our local strawberry farm. I'll post on that soon.

Boise Trip Part 3

The rest of our stay in Boise was spent playing outside and enjoying the sunshine! It was sooo good to get out of the gray, cold, and rain of Seattle. We went to the pool just about everyday. We had BBQ's, Picnics, and I even went to visit my Grandma Thornock (from my mom's side). I wish I would have taken more pictures but I was more caught up in being present rather than staying behind the camera lens. I still can't believe I didn't get one shot of us at the pool except for on my phone and even then it was only of Emma and I. But we had lots of fun and I enjoyed seeing my family, cousins and their families.  I think for this post I am mostly going to put up pictures from the trip and I will caption them as I see fit.

Went to a park and let the kids ride their scooters on the trail and play on the playground but it was a tad too hot so we sat in the shade and decided to head back to grandma's to get cool again.

At the splash park for a picnic and a community movie in the park night. Dan had fun trying to get me wet in the fountains. I got him back later by emptying the picnic drinking water cooler down his front. We both were soaked by the time the movie came around. Made for a chilly evening.

On this trip I got to meet my mom's husband for the first time. He is a great guy and I am so happy my mom and him found each other. And Kiera pointed out that now she has "two grandmas and two grandpas!" This is a shot of Emma letting Grandpa Clint hold her for the first time.

 Emma after the cousins did a number on her hair. They tried making her look like Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Suess. No one with golden locks gets past the cousins!

Kiera LOVED the splash park even with the breeze there was no pulling her away from the water unless it was absolutely necessary.

Emma wasn't quite keen on the idea of getting wet, and it was a struggle to get her to do anything in the water at all. But on our last trip to the pool she finally warmed up to the idea and got in the water with me! Again, that picture is on my phone. I'll have to see if I can add it later.

 

Kayla worked wonders and got Emma to touch the water without screaming! Way to go Aunt Kayla!

 

After a visit with Great Grandma Thornock, the 5 of us went out for lunch at Denny's. The air conditioning felt good.

Before we left we made sure we paid a visit to the new frozen yogurt shop "Yogurtz". Its a pay by the ounce, pick as many flavors as you want. then top it with anything you could imagine kind of place. They had a whole wall of soft serve machines that dispensed flavor after flavor of frozen yogurt. Then when you got to the toppings it was almost an all you could eat buffet in itself. They had anything from gummy bears, to pop rocks, to sauces, to wedding mints. The kids loved picking out their flavors and were hyped up on sugar for the rest of the day.

 Our last night we had everyone who could come over. My cousins, their spouses and kids, my aunt with her kids and a few others. It was the sort of family together time I have been missing. I love it when everyone gets together. It doesn't matter if we have anything planned, we just hang out and love being together. Here's a picture of a few of us throwing pop-its  before the kids headed off to bed.

And I just had to add this one too. Here's my cousin Courtney with her daughter Riley. Her and Emma are just a month a part. It was so much fun to see them together. They were just infant infants when they were together last.

I will post one more time about our trip and the site we stopped at on our way home, so stay tuned.