A Brief Accounting of Our Week

Hyrum has been out of town for a week. He arrives home tonight, Hooray! Happily this is his last solo trip for a while. When Hyrum goes out of town it generally means terrible eating habits, a total disruption of our schedule and for the most part a lot of fun, though I never wish him gone. This week looked pretty busy as of last Friday when he left and I was hoping we would make it through.

By Sunday afternoon though, just about everything had cleared up nicely. Monday I had my last day of school to teach. That was a good experience but it has cured me of all desire to work outside my home for the time being. It is way hard to get four people, two of them little children, out of the door by 7:35 in the morning. Kudos to those of you who do. I picked the kids up in the rain and we just hung out and gave the apartment some tlc.

Tuesday, we did nothing. My kids and I didn't get out of our pjs until about 4:00 when we decided to see if any friends were at the park. It was a great day. I am working on a crazy project for the kids for Christmas this year and so I spent the entire day working on that. It was great.

Wednesday, we had a field trip for school. Hannah is in a little preschool with four of her friends. We, their moms teach and every six weeks we go on a little field trip. This particular trip was to the library. The kids were great about sitting for story time and Hannah was pretty excited to get her own library card.

We got home and while the kids ate I checked my email and found a wonderful thing. A friend had sent me an email about a place to take the kids to play with dress-ups, bounce house type things, paint, and all sorts of other things and I didn't have to pick it up. Best of all, Wednesday it was free. We grabbed a couple other kids and a mom with a van, I left Jonathan with a friend so he could nap and Hannah, Jarom, Ben, William, Reianna and I went to Jumpy Gym to play. The kids had a great time. When Hannah went to bed that night she slept like a log.

Yesterday we went to play group, had a friend over after that and then had some more friends over for dinner. Tonight we get to pick Hyrum up and see him again. We are all excited. We're glad to have him back. It's been a great week and now, I have to think about Halloween tomorrow. Hannah has decided not to be Superman or a bat--her most recent choice. We'll have to figure that out pretty quick.

Sorry there are no pictures but Hyrum took our camera to Germany. Have a Happy Halloween and a great weekend.

Babies

Today, Hannah asked me if we could get another baby in two weeks. First of all, two weeks? What a random number. I told her that is takes a little longer to get babies here and she proceeded to come to the conclusion that when Jonathan is three we will have a new baby. Works for me : )

Thinking

We just got home from a two week vacation to New York. We visited Grandma and Grandpa H. Never in all my life have I ever wanted to settle in the North East. I don't mind visiting but it was never the place I wanted to live, until now.

One day my mom, a friend and I were driving home after a wonderful kid free day of shopping and I was so caught up in the beauty of the drive. The air was full of the delicious scent of fallen leaves and chill but with a hint of warmth from the sun. Each time I went outside even though there weren't many apples around I could smell them and the decaying leaves. They are scents I love and cherish. I always have. It was wonderful. I love the fall. When I first moved away to Utah, I thing I missed most was the geese honking on their way south. I love a northeastern fall. It is an experience.

We had a wonderful trip and one thing I know is that I hate being is far away from family. I love my parents and my siblings so much and as we all have to face life, I find that more and more I wish that we could face it together, literally side by side. Maybe in my perfect world.

Back to work I go . . .

Tomorrow I start a little job. I am teaching Math. You read right. I am teaching math for the next five days. I am really excited. I haven't worked outside my home for the last three years and two months. I am so excited to get out and meet some new people. I am grateful a kind friend who is watching my children for a couple hours each day. Except for my mathematically challenged brain, this should be relatively relaxed and fun. I'll let you know how it goes.

Summer Roadtrip 2009--The Conclusion

We had a great time on our trip. I've decided that the best trips are those you get to spend with people you love and that we did. We got to see our family and good friends too. We miss those we didn't get to see but, maybe next time.

We are so grateful for every chance our kids get to see their great-grandparents and their cousins. It means so much to know that everyone is happy to have us around. Here are a few more pictures of our adventures.