September 12, 2010

September 12, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Here is a quick recap of our week. Monday was Labor Day. We spent some of the day at the pool, and also worked around the house on various projects. I woke up feeling pretty miserable with a case of pink eye. Later that day we all went to the ward Labor Day picnic held at a local park. The party was very relaxed and low key. We all had a good time. We then came home and got everything ready for B-man’s first day of school. We were all excited for his new grand adventure.

Tuesday morning we were up early and going. I had to wake up B-man, but he was a good sport and didn’t complain. In the mornings we try to get all of this accomplished, feed the boys, dress B-man (maybe J) make bed, brush teeth, make B-man’s lunch, morning prayers, and a family prayer. All of those things are super quick, but for some reason we need an hour to get it all done. I then walked B-man to the bus stop, and sent him off to school. He was so excited! All day it was a little strange to have him gone! But it was nice to run some errands with one less person. When I picked him up from school he reported that the day went great and he had a good time. He said his favorite thing that he did was P.E. He’s been really excited to go to the P.E. class this year. We had a snack and then got to work on his homework. That night was also a big night because he had soccer practice. It was blazing hot, but he didn’t complain and just ran and ran. He had such a great time. After practice he came home and got cleaned up before heading to bed.

Wednesday was more of the same. I had a doctor’s appointment, and ended up taking J. Thankfully it went well and he was a good sport. After the appointment I ran a bunch of errands that were near the doctor’s office. It was extra far away so I was happy to get it done in one trip. Later that night I also had mutual. I wasn’t feeling great. In fact I was feeling pretty crummy with a combo of pink eye/cold, but the Beehives were in charge so I really needed to go. We had a farewell to summer combined activity and took the kids to an indoor pool and rock climbing wall. They had a great time, and we want to do it again sometime when we aren’t so limited by the time.

Thursday I had another doctor’s appointment. Everything looks good with the baby. Now we just wish we had a crystal ball so that we could know when he will come. M will be out of town up to pretty close when this little guy is supposed to come, and I asked a few questions to see if the doctor could give me any advice about when to expect going into labor, but sadly I got none. Just advice to avoid overdoing it, and staying hydrated. After school that day we took B-man back to practice. He had another great time, and is excited for his first game.

Friday was B-man’s birthday! To make it even more fun M had the day off from work. He took charge of the breakfast and went and got some delicious breakfast burritos that we all enjoyed before school. Then while B-man was at school we had a good time working on some projects and watching “Lost.” We did take a break to take lunch to B-man. Our entire school district has banned any food being brought in for birthdays, but we are allowed to bring in lunch and eat lunch with him. We got brought him a “Happy Meal” and he was so excited. I had visions of us eating at a little table with just our family, but instead we had to sit with the rest of the class, and there was even someone sitting in-between us. Oh well. I think he still had fun. He really wanted us to see where he plays after lunch and so we stuck around until the teacher came and got the class to take them to recess. Later that afternoon I also went to get my haircut. It feels great to have some fresh ends on my hair!

That night for his birthday we had pizza, his favorite meal. We also ate on the deck. He always wants to eat on the deck, but we rarely plan ahead and so we end up inside since the table is cleaner. He was so excited to eat outside, and the weather was very cooperative. After dinner I hurried upstairs and wrapped his presents. He opened them up and was appropriately excited for all of them. After the boys were in bed I ran to Costco with a few other women to plan our breakfasts for an upcoming trip. Then when I got home later M and I watched some more “Lost.”

Saturday morning I got up and went to garage sales with a friend. We hit a community garage sale in a really nice new section of town. It was in an area I don’t normally go, but it was worth it. There were a log of sales, and not a lot of people. I got a few very fun things for J and B-man. I also found a mattress for the bunk bed. That means that we can finally get the bed set up on top and let B-man sleep there. We haven’t had time yet, but he is very excited. After I got home we rushed to get ready for B-man’s first soccer game. There were only four players that came, and one ended up running off the field and getting sick. That meant zero subs for our team. B-man didn’t complain though and he worked hard all through the game. They got creamed, but B-man did come close to scoring a goal. It also made it obvious to the coach what they needed to work on… The rest of the day we spent getting ready for our trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It is a narrow stretch of land that extends up the North Carolina coast. We organized food, M made and froze our dinner and we tried to get as ready as possible that evening.

Sunday morning we were up and going early. We finished most of the packing and got ourselves ready for church. M went to his meetings, and then I drove the boys to an earlier church time so that we could get on the road a little earlier. M met us at the chapel for the Sacrament, before leaving for the rest of his meetings. After church we went home and started packing all of the cold food into the coolers. We then met up with one other family and drove about thirty minutes were we picked up another family. We then split their stuff and them into the two cars that were caravanning and hit the road. The drive took less than six hours, and really the kids did very well. We did make a stop to stretch in Norfolk, VA and decided that we didn’t ever want to live there. The weather was just slightly cool and rainy making it easy to avoid going to the beach. We made it to the beach house in the early evening and quickly unloaded the car, organized our food, assigned bedrooms to families, and then worked on dinner for the boys. We rented an eight bedroom house that was only two blocks from the beach. It was clean and comfortable, and because we were doing it after Labor Day it was also super inexpensive. We were all really excited. B-man was thrilled that the house had a pool and a hot tub too. He was pretty much in heaven. We got the kids in bed, and waited up until the rest of the families arrived in the night.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J