Thursday, May 14, 2009

My Weekend Escape (part 2)

On Saturday night after the family party I hitched a ride with my dad & Ramona up to Logan. Originally I had planned to stay one day with our friends there, but a few weeks ago I decided to stay for two days so that I could help out a little more.

The one bad thing about traveling to Utah is the jet lag. I've started taking 1/2 of a sleeping pill every night that I'm there to make sure that I sleep past 5AM, but it was so late Saturday night that I decided I should only take 1/4. Bad idea. From 5:00 to 6:45 I lay in the bed feeling sorry for myself that I was tired and awake and away from Russ. Finally I got up, dressed, and took myself for a very long walk. I listened to lovely music, hung out with some cows for a while, and by the time I'd walked for an hour I was in a better mood.

When I got back a yummy Mother's Day breakfast was ready, and the kids (some of my favorite people in the world) had made me mother's day cards too. Abigail's card shows that she knows me & my love for the ocean well. She and I have shared many happy days at the beach, starting when she was a little girl.



Benjamin's card was a little more cryptic. I'm wondering if his dad made him make it??



Laura Kate (a.k.a. my favorite 2 year old, though soon to be my favorite 3 year old) wore her new pink polka-dotted dress to church. I was delighted to see that it was even cuter on her than I'd hoped.



I took lots of pictures of Laura Kate while I was there. She & I had a great time hanging out together.

playing with the camera, watching tv in her "boat"


playing the piano for family night, holding a strawberry almost as big as her face!

Monday was my dad's 69th birthday and I spent went up to his house for a visit. I got to take them some birthday cake, see all of their new projects, and mourn with them over the tree the city just cut down.

One of my favorite times to be at Katie's house is Family Night. Because Sean is such a musical person one part of their family night is that everyone picks a song to sing. One of the kids picked "Once There Was a Snowman," which they sang over and over again, faster and faster and faster. It was fun to watch.

Someone picked a hymn, and Abigail & Benjamin went to the piano because they didn't know the words. I thought this was a sweet picture.


Here is Laura Kate, singing with Katie. She is definitely her mother's girl.

You can tell that Sean is a gifted musician; he's able to play under all sorts of pressure!

Laura Kate picked Bananagrams for the Family Night game. We started her formal education by teaching her her first 5 ABC's. A for Abigail, B for Benjamin, C for Cindy, D for Daddy, and M for Mommy. She didn't remember the letter names, but she got really good at picking out a "mommy" or a "daddy"!

I was sort of dismissive of Bananagrams at first, since it's totally a Speed Scrabble knock off, and we've been playing Speed Scrabble for years and years. But it's actually really a lot of fun, and the next time we play Speed Scrabble I want to start with 15-20 tiles and see if it plays the same.

Sean played against the teams of Katie & Benjamin and me with Abigail. Abigail and I totally won. We were awesome.

After Family Night I finished up the rest of the cooking I was doing, and made a list for the fridge of the new meals in the freezer. (No map this time--I learned my lesson there last time!)

It was late by this time, and I asked Sean to add up the number of meals so that I could tell Russ how many I'd made. He said he was too tired and just took a picture to show Russ, saying Russ could add himself. (Although it occurs to me now that it might be self-incrimation to show this list to Russ--he might start to wonder why more cooking isn't going on at our house!)

Did you notice that my love notes to Abigail and Benjamin are still on the fridge from February? :)

When it was time to go I found another little love note in my suitcase from Abigail.



The feeling is totally mutual, Abigail!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for reminding me that I need to get your baked potato soup recipe! We LOVE the broccoli cheese. You are such a wonderful friend- I'm sure they appreciate all that you do- especially when you come through with that ever-elusive Panda Express gift card:).

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  2. I'd love for you to post your recipes, too. I'm always on the lookout for recipes that are easy to make & yummy to eat -- esp if kids like them. :D

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