And then what happened?

My original name for this blog that I had in my head was "And then what happened?" because it seemed to me that in our life (especially after the kids came along) that our stories had a heightened sense of normalcy that always turned ludicrous at some point. An everyday occurrence went awry, if something could happen it did, and most of the time that was hilarious stuff. Except when it isn't. Then the "and then what happened?" takes a different turn.

I have vowed that I will not really share anything of consistent substance and meaning on this blog. I'll lightly touch on some subjects dear to me, or pour my heart out declaring my love for my family, but I don't feel it's a forum for sharing my innermost thoughts and feelings. My wish for this blog is that my kids can one day look back on it and it will be a chronicle of the everyday moments of their growing up years. I'd like it to be a photographic journal with some details of what our daily life and experiences were like. I don't need the "fluff" and I don't need to pepper it with my thoughts and feelings on the subjects that could cloud these beautiful gems in the everyday.

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. Jeremy and I jokingly called it our home make over weekend and just like those HGTV shows, we were on a strict timeline of trying to finish before we both head back to work. And while I am amazed at how much we got done (Lord knows how with the two littles needing  A LOT of problem solving minute to minute), I also had one of those emotionally charged, gut wrenching, take-over everything moments that threw me for a major loop. I downward spiraled for much of the rest of the weekend and sweet Jeremy kept righting my ship to keep me going. I'm heartbroken, trying to heal and forgive, and trying to wipe away the tears. A good friend advised me to do my best to choose joy. So, in this moment, I am doing my best. I will choose joy, but still feel free to work through my sadness and anger. And I'll do my best to see joy in this weekend I was looking forward to for so long. Choosing joy is hard, hard, hard sometimes. And not something I think I'll be able to do well for a little while. But I'll do my best.

 Joy in the form of new counters underway for the office.

 A joyful boy, proud of his clay creations.

 A little girl, overjoyed at "new" hand-me-downs. 

She HAD to put these on for lunch.

 A joyful, creative mess.

 Our lawn, which should be declared a disaster zone, but will surely provide some joyful moments this summer when it's healthier than ever after all the work Jer did on it.

 Two sweet kids who don't even notice the pouring rain. 

One is *possibly* dressed appropriately...at least for the water.

Their greatest joy right now is the mud pond they've created off the driveway.

Some joyful noise during a tickle fight.

~ Lord, help me to choose joy right now. ~

Today

Today, three out of four of us have spring colds (a spring cold is a way different from other seasonal colds because they rank a 3 out of 4 on the whininess scale, only to be beat by the dreaded summer cold). I've been saying it's just allergies for two weeks now, but I gave up yesterday. So today we hunkered down (for the morning) and played in our jammies. Everly is the furthest towards being on the mend, and hence I had trouble catching her because she could probably outrun, outwit and outplay me right now. Don't tell her.

 We played a little animal, veterinary, princess, fairy, 

everyone goes swimming in the pretend lake game.

 We hung out in the playhouse.

 Until Parker felt too sick to play and literally fell asleep on the roof.

 So I talked him indoors. His sister joined him. He was not impressed 

with her high level of energy.

So we painted her toes while he recovered.

Reunion

For ten years now we've been living our adventures on the weekends with our dear friends. We have traveled, camped, vacationed, gotten engaged, planned weddings, learned to ski, learned to boat, helped our families, worked, played, crafted, golfed and fondue'd together in our spare time. We squeeze as much as possible into a weekend or (hallelujah) an entire week off together. Spencer and I go way back to high school days, but our friendship really started when college was nearly over. It was love at first sight when the first time we all really hung out together was for an entire weekend of camping. We didn't even wait the cursory three days before calling each other when we returned to plan our next date. We were in love. All four of us. Add four kids, ten years and 152 miles between us and we have laughed, cried, and been with each other for some of the most pivotal moments of our adulthood, while being near and far away. Sometimes the word "friendship" seems like an understatement for what the four of us really share. Now that we live so far away from each other, we are trying to make sure we see one another a minimum of every few months. And when we do, it is an unabashed weekend of glory. Here's our time at Lake Philips.

 The alumni.

 The boys telling secrets by the fire.

 Two happy kids at the end of a day.

Le Artiste

As an art teacher, I have been pining for my kids to share my love of painting, drawing and all things crafty. While they possess the excitement, I am unsure of their passion for it when a fun afternoon of painting usually turns into swirling all the colors around until they make a goopy mud color. They are more "scientific experimenters" than artists. Then the other day Parker walks up behind me and says "I painted a fire engine for you." I expected the same soggy paper of brown paint smudged everywhere. A firetruck that may have been lost at the bottom of a mud puddle. A firetruck in the middle of a dark night. But imagine my surprise when I turned around and saw...a firetruck! A real, recognizable, imaginative firetruck complete with a green ladder, yellow seats and a purple siren. A creative firetruck, straight from his land of pretend where he is, in fact, a real fireman. And as always I said "You worked so hard on that! I love it. Let's hang it where we can see it every day." And so it went up next to the other muddy firetrucks where I can enjoy it every day.

Happy (belated) Easter!

A belated Easter post: I forgot to mention that we spent the week away, celebrated Easter on the morning we drove home, and then returned to a packed week where my computer was gone for a week. Now I can finally post the photos I downloaded and note how adorable these two were on Easter morning. Thanks to Grandma, they had Easter Baskets and eggs to find around the condo. They were ELATED. And then with some follow up at church this week, they were reminded that Jesus is alive. Honestly, we discuss it every year, read the story and it's like it isn't fact until the Sunday School teacher says it... :)

Making the most of our last day.

On our last day at Silver Star, we stayed late so we could watch the Dummy Gullunde. It's a race where people put together some sort of person or vehicle that races down the hill, goes over a death-defying jump and then the best crash wins. This was the view from our condo balcony. FROM OUR CONDO BALCONY! It was very, very cool. And very, very much worth making the 6 hour drive home at 4:30. And no, our kids did not fall asleep (they never do). And no, they did not like the snacks we packed (and we refused to pull over). And no, they did not complain. It may have been our easiest car trip ever. Maybe we'll start making a habit of skiing, packing, watching a show and arriving home at 11:30 with two exhausted and happy kids. And adults.

My personal fave. Check out the height on that guy!

I think this was the winner. The rockstar hair possibly bumped him up a notch.

Oooooh. This one got in trouble with a capitol T. The rules state the dummies may NOT light their hair on fire. :)

Little of This and That

We continued creating days of fun here at Silver Star by doing a little of this and a little of that. We went here, there and everywhere it seemed today.

Cute little town. We started out at this bakery this morning.

Parks and Evie enjoying their bakery wares.

Silly break.

Smile break.

Sliding down the banister. Of course.

The big chair.

Parker and I riding the T-bar for his first time. He kept looking up at me whispering "This is SO COOL!". To say he loved it would be an understatement.

And then we went innertubing. So.much.fun. Screaming down the hill in big group, hanging onto each other while everyone laughs and laughs and laughs...totally priceless.

Parker is in love with innertubing. However, he's also in love with skiing, chairlifts, hot tubs, snow, ice skating and snowmobiles right now. He's got a theme going.

And Everly continues to be in love with dressing herself.
Always the stylish one. Especially in public.

The Silver Lining

We threw caution to the wind and instead of trying to head someplace warm during spring break, or stay in town and get soggy in the never-ending northwest April rain, we decided to embrace the last bit of winter. We drove to Silver Star Mountain in B.C. for what looked like it could be an incredible end to the fabulous winter of skiing we've been able to enjoy. And it didn't disappoint.

Parks and Evie waiting for tickets outside the village.
A six seater chair. SO AWESOME. It is officially the first time the parents, kids and grandparents could all ride together.
Enjoying the ride.

Evie checking out the view.
Parks making some turns.

Evie proving she can keep up.

Always trying to head out of bounds. Always.

The happy boy.

The happy girl.

The cute grandparents.

One of the great things about this place is we have a hot tub on our deck for our very own. And because my kids are big fans of any kind of warm pools of water, we have been enjoying this thing morning, noon and night. We hopped in after a long day of skiing with a little glass of wine and sippy cups of juice and relaxed for a while. Five minutes in, amidst the sippy cups clinking (CHEERS! they would scream), water splashing everywhere, kids climbing all over us and me trying to decide if my chardonnay tasted more like chlorine and Jeremy looks over at me and says "This is so not what it used to be like". Before we had kids, that is. And despite the lack of relaxation in the hot tub, two kids who skied for 5 hours with no help (except lots of marshmallow treats) makes it all worth it. CHEERS!