Spring Break in a Nutshell

Last week was Spring Break. (Apr 9-13) and boy were we ready for it! On Monday, the kids and I got up and cleaned up our house. I call it "the after the weekend cleanup." I don't know about you but it seems like over the weekend we get a little lazy when it comes to picking up. So every Monday I do the usual after the weekend cleanup. Then we just sorta hung out for a little while. Then we packed to spend the night at our family's cabin. We were completely ready to go as soon as Bret go home. We stopped for gas and an ice cream cone and were on our way. We ended up being the first ones there, so after we unloaded, Bret turned on the power (heat) and water and I built a fire to speed up the heating process. Then we played around for about an hour til Bret's sisters and parents arrived. For my girls and I, we hadn't been to the cabin since August of 2009 so it was great to finally be there again.The driveway is a pretty steep incline and it was muddy and partially covered in snow and Bret's sister got stuck. With the angle of her van and the rocks that line the driveway, she was stuck pretty good. But thanks to a lot of thought, work, effort and fancy maneuvering, we got her out. That was fun and I'm not being sarcastic. It was kinda fun.
     On Tuesday, we got up and had a yummy breakfast and then played games, watched movies, visited - just hung out. Our family came home that afternoon. Everyone else stayed up there. After we unloaded and showered we just played around as a family.
     On Wednesday, Bret went back to work, but my mom didn't. So after doing a few loads of laundry and the kids doing their chores, we went to the Discovery Park. We LOVE that park. The girls had a blast. Buddy didn't play - he still wasn't feeling well. (He missed 4 days of school last week with some virus or something. I took him to the doc on Thursday (April 5) and his fever was 102 and he had a terrible cough. Strep was negative and the urine test was fine. Since there was obviously something wrong, his doc put him on an antibiotic.) After the park, we dropped Lewlew off at a birthday party and then we came home and did some more laundry. Then we went to pick her up, we stopped off at the store to pick up a few things. Then we came home and made dinner.
    On Thursday after chores, we went to the Bean Museum. Buddy loves this place. He practically gave us a tour - he's that knowledgeable about those animals. The museum has changed a little bit since the last time we were there. It was fun - especially for the kids. Then we got lunch and brought it home for the kids and then my mom and I went to Olive Garden. It's been a really long time since I've had lunch with just me and my mom. It was...quiet! :) Then we picked up the kids and went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few necessities. Then we came home fixed dinner for Bret and the kids (I was still way too full from Olive Garden.)
     On Friday after chores, we tried to see a 1:00 movie - it was sold out. So we bought tickets for the 3:00 movie and ran some errands. I picked up some printed scrapbook pages (like 60 of them) then we went to Barnes and Noble to get a book for Bret. We felt bad he was missing out on all this "fun." Then we got a snack for the kids and headed back to the movie. We saw Journey 2. The kids liked it. For me? It was ok. Then we came home and grilled hamburgers. After dinner, I scrubbed the grill down. It was getting pretty gross. Now it's pretty again!
     On Saturday, we pretty much hung out at home and finished up some odds and ends. I cut out most of Buddy's quilt - I hoped to get it started this week.
     Through this whole we, wanna know how many pictures I took? None. Zero. Zip. Why? I have no idea? It completely slipped my mind! I'm really starting to lose it!
     So tomorrow it's back to school for seven weeks and then summer break. For the first time ever, Noodle isn't excited to go back. In the past she didn't really have an opinion. If it was school she went. Whatever. But she has actually voiced that she doesn't want spring break to end. Lewlew doesn't care. She's like Noodle was in years past. Buddy? He absolutely doesn't want to go back. But whether they want to or not, they are.

Decided...

Several weeks ago Bestie and I decided that over Spring Break we would "camp" in her 5th wheel on "de side of" her house- just for a couple of nights. We decided to bring the grill over and the fire pit and the table and chairs. It wouldn't be real camping, but the kids would love it because of the camper. We decided to have hamburgers the first night and hot dogs the second. With of course Smore's. Bestie has the best way to make Smore's, so we decided to use her "recipe." Which is: use fudge stripe cookies instead of chocolate bars and graham crackers. It's really yummy! So she and Taylor (her nephew) got things set up. So I got there and decided to start dinner. It was a little breezy but not too bad. I had 16 hamburgers to cook. After I turned the last of the burgers, the grill decided to run out of propane. But not biggey, the burgers were done. Then the wind decided to pick up. And pick up it did. It picked up the plates, the food, the umbrella, etc. So we decided to move into the camper. The wind decided to whip everything around, including the camper door. Then Buddy decided to put his thumb into the hole between the hinges of the door when the wind decided to gust, causing the door to close on his thumb. Ya, that kinda hurt. But he was tough and didn't cry, but it hurt. So we decided to put a movie on for the kids because we decided we weren't going to to do Smore's. Bestie and I played a couple of games and kept laughing every time a gust of wind would come up. There really wasn't anything comical about the situation, but some how it was funny! (That's us for ya!!) Bestie and I needed a couple things in the house so we decided to brave the element and head inside for just a few minutes. Of course the wind decided to rock at just the same moment I opened the door and it blew out of my hands. Well it bend the door and we could no longer close it tight. About 9:30 Buddy had had enough and was ready to go home. So my mom came and picked him up. Then it was bedtime for the girls. At some point Taylor and Tanner decided to come back and we started playing card games. What a hoot that was! Finally at close to 1 Taylor and Tanner went inside and we went to sleep - amongst the camper rocking and the wind blowing - and we froze!!! It was so cold! At 8:30 we got up and went into the house. It was so warm!!! We decided to have pancakes and I packed us up and we came home. We were supposed to sleep there Thursday night, but we decided against that idea! All in all - it was certainly memorable! We went over to Bestie's Thursday night for our "camp" dinner of hot dogs and smore's. The wind decided to let us do this. The girls and I decided to stay and play games. I won both games of Ticket to Ride (BooYa Taylor!!!) Then we came home. It was great! By Friday, Buddy's thumb was still sore, but feeling better. He didn't complain about it but he favored it.

Spring Break

Last Monday and Tuesday, the kids and I just hung out around here - played, housework/chores, played, lazed etc. On Wednesday, my mom took the day off and we went to the Discovery Park in PG. The kids really liked that! It's a great park - different from the same ole, same ole parks. Then we had a late lunch. When we got home we "packed" to go camping in Bestie's camper. (More on that in another post). On Thursday we finished up laundry and messed around, had dinner and Smore's at Bestie's. On Friday we went to SLC with Hubs's family. On the way up there, we stopped at my grandma's house. Her husband died Wednesday night. It wasn't a tragedy, it was a blessing. It was really good to talk to her. We stayed about an hour. Then we met up with Hubs's family at the Gateway. We messed around there for a little while then checked into our hotel - The Little America. We called to get a roll away for Buddy but they don't have roll aways. WHAT??? So Taina was in the predicament we were in so she volunteered to run to Wal-Mart to get a couple of Twin air mattresses. Bless her heart. As soon as we were in our room, the kids wanted to go swimming. Gratefully, all the adults wanted to go too. But I stayed behind in the room to rest. I wasn't feeling well and was worn out because I hadn't eaten anything all day. As soon as they got back we went to dinner. It was yummy and the kids ate really well. After dinner we went swimming again. When we got back from swimming - about 9:30, we got the air mattress set up and were waiting on bedding from the hotel. After waiting more than 30 min, I just decided to use the sheet Taina got for $1.50 and the top blankets off each of the other beds and make Buddy's bed. We called to cancel the bedding. The kids went to sleep VERY fast. And Hubs and I fell asleep not long after they did. On Saturday, we had breakfast at McDonald's and then everyone but me went to the Gateway Discovery Museum. I went to the viewing of my step-grandpa. It was very nice. There were a lot of people there - which was nice for Grandma. She was having a harder time than I thought she would. My Aunt Laurie was there with her and was going to be there for her all day. Which I'm grateful for! Afterwards, I met up with Hubs and the kids. Everyone else had had enough of the museum and wanted to shop some more. Our kids had a ball showing me everything I missed at the museum. Bless Taina's heart - she had a family pass for the museum and gave it to us. Thanks so much!!! So we played around the museum for a while and then came home. Everyone had a great time! So now it's Sunday and back to reality tomorrow. I'm not sure who it's going to be tougher on, me or the kids! I have a lot of catching up to do so I'm looking forward to not having kids underfoot, but at the same time, I do enjoy them being home - most of the time...