I read an article earlier this year about living far away from your good friends - it basically boiled down to the fact that of course it was hard to miss birthdays and children being born and all the big stuff, but you would underestimate how hard it is to miss the everyday things. And how when you got to visit them, you just want to hang out and see how their life is on a daily basis. It really rang true for me and how I miss taking the random road trip to spend the weekend with my bestie. So I made sure that apart from the awesome girl's weekend, I would get time to just hang out with her and the family.
The only thorn in this plan was that Josh and Anna were headed off to Gilmer before I was getting back. I was super bummed about missing my super awesome god-daughter who has gotten so entertaining to text with. Luckily, it worked out that Theresa and I got to go have lunch at school with her on Monday. She didn't know that we were coming and was so excited that both her mom and Aunt Jen were there. It was awesome!
I didn't take my fancy schmancy camera in the school, so an iPhone selfie will have to do! :)
Back to the present! I may or may not have planned my route down I-35 just to stop and get kolaches in West, Texas. I think Rachael thought I was a little crazy to risk the awful traffic to go there, but the gamble paid off and there was no crazy traffic. And the Czech Stop gives free cookies to kids! Except for the chocolate smeared all over Henry's car seat, it was win-win!
The only fail? My kids wouldn't eat the kolaches this morning! Thomas wouldn't even try them!
I am unclear on whether or not Henry tried them, but I doubt it. How could he not wolf them down if he had tried a bite of that delicious strawberry filling?
I worry about my kids sometimes...
Wallace made me feel a little better in the fact that he wouldn't eat it either. At least it was a trifecta failure... "/
Whatever - more for the rest of us! :)
We debated what to do on our day of hanging out and the most ambitious thing we decided on was going to the . (Also a last minute HEB run sans kids just to make me super sad about the grocery stores in Alaska.)
Meredith was much happier and not stuck to her mom's side today. As a matter of fact, this girl is a runner! It took all of us to keep her close by. She would just bolt off at a moment's notice. Luckily, the playground was pretty big and not at all close to the road. So it was more of an exercise issue than a safety one. ;)
I was so worried about my boys being outside in the Texas sun with their super pale Alaskan "tans". I made sure they had hats and sunscreen while totally forgetting both for myself. Sounds about right, huh?
They had the same freeform green blob merry-go-round like the park near our house. I think it's supposed to be safer - maybe? Anyhow, Meredith was all about it!
Henry wasn't quite as sure about it...
And Wallace *hated* it!
Haha - there's no pleasing everyone!
Justin was actually the one who mentioned the park as a possibility, so he met us up there with James and Lauren. (Poor Rachael had to work and missed playground time!) You can see that James is not super excited about the fact Henry had his ball. I can neither confirm nor deny said ball was stolen from James, but I did make Henry return it.
You can also tell from James' outfit that we were expecting some water time. The park has a splash pad, which sounded just perfect for the heat. But either it was broken or none of the adults were smarter than the splash pad - we couldn't get it to turn on. I think we were more upset about that than the kids were.
Lauren was the easiest one to keep tabs on, she was more than happy to just hang out in the shade. She only complained once when she got hungry. And Justin was Super Dad - he was prepared for every possibility with the kids and even had extra snacks and water bottles for sharing. Which was great considering I had not packed anything for mom or myself.
Sigh... I'll learn one of these days.
Wallace was much happier playing on the slides than the merry-go-round. :)
But the happiest person by far was Meredith when she plopped herself down and started throwing dirt everywhere. Maybe this girl has a future in geology - dirt is really just eroded rocks! ;)
Thomas was again showing off his super awesome climbing skills! I'm not sure I could manage a climb with the equivalent span... So I think he's a brave and agile little guy! :)
James was not so into sliding down the slides, but he loved playing catch with any willing adult. He would bounce that ball down the slide and laugh hysterically as we had to chase after it.
What a cutie patootie! I feel like Meredith is the one kiddo I just don't know all that well, so I tried to hang out with her as much as my boys would allow. Luckily I still had help, since my mom is nicely tagging along this whole week! :)
Back at the house and eating leftovers for lunch. It was a new recipe that we had tried out the night before and all of us were super excited for the leftovers. I need to get that recipe from her!
The rest of the day was spent with my boys fighting naps followed by the chaos of kids happily running, chasing and playing all day. I tried to get as many photos as I could, but this one was by far my favorite. I totally messed up the camera settings and this photo came out completely black. When I pulled it in to Lightroom to see if it was salvageable, I realized I caught the moment Henry had totally crashed and burned - ha!
For the record, he was fine and it did not deter his enthusiasm at all.
Also for the record, I am amazed at how much detail was in a totally black photo! Go D750!
Theresa had tried a few Blue Box meal / food deliveries and I was pretty intrigued by the whole concept and how good the recipes actually were. Of course, no meal delivery services are available in Alaska, so we decided to make one of the meals while I was there. And I have to say, it was pretty delicious.
Sigh - the never-ending hardships of living in Alaska.
And of course, Henry never all that far away when food is involved so he helped me make dinner. And by that I mean he happily gnawed on all the corn cobs after I cut most of the kernels off. That boy...
After dinner, the bike gang got a little crazy. And more adorable in their pj's. :)
That is until Meredith commandeered the iPad and suddenly all of the kids were clustered around trying to play the same game. Well at least it's not just my kids that are a little *too* interested in electronics. ;)
Play-doh time this morning! Henry found it in the cabinet and suddenly everyone wanted to play with it. I have to admit that my boys don't get much / any play-doh time at home. It just seems like such a mess and I have enough OCD that the colors being mixed makes me want to throw them away.
But the boys had such fun playing with it. Thomas was telling me all about this snake he made. Maybe I will change my mind on the play-doh.
Maybe...