Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday

to little Miss KyKy. My big 3 year old! (one who would be content to stay in her jammies all day long!)

Ever try play

croquet in a yard that is unfinished...

full of ruts, uneven spots and contains obstacles like...little feet in flip flops...

while the grubby, scabbed spectators feast on ice cream sandwiches?

It's a highly recommended way to pass a gorgeous Sunday evening!

A letter to Baby June

(as we've been affectionately been calling our soon-to-appear Precious Bundle)

Dear Baby June~
As your date of appearance nears (4 days and counting), your father and I have it all figured out. We would like to request that you stay happily swimming in-utero until next Friday evening. (This will require us to change your name to Baby July) You should then make your appearance sometime next weekend. We have most of the details in place (including approval from the midwife) so how does that fit in with your agenda? :)

Speaking of happily swimming...I understand your need to practice your acrobatic moves especially since you'll need them when it comes to protecting yourself against the "hugs" of your two baby-loving sisters. But do you really have to practice your moves just as I'm trying to fall asleep at night? This tired mom needs all the sleep she can get. We both realize that space in-utero is slim to none so maybe we can work out a compromise. You can hop around all you want as long as you're done by 10 pm. Sound good? Thanks! You're so agreeable!

Your brothers and sisters cannot wait to meet you! (Neither can Dad or I) Everyday I'm hammered with questions and comments, "When is your belly going to pop?" "How many more days?" "Can we please have another boy?" "You should call the doctor and see if you're having a boy." "Whoa! Your belly is huge!" These are mixed in with kisses on my belly from your sister. Our current "baby" just stares at me as she tries to sit on my lap, only to be nearly booted off by you. She's pretty much given up trying to sit on my lap.

Seriously though, Baby June. We'll take you whenever you come. We'll love you no matter what. You already are the sweetest, cutest, most precious Baby June (or Baby July) there ever will be!

Love,
Mom

Progress Report

I've spent most of the last two days sewing. So relaxing! Here's a sneak peek... Plastic bag holders. This will be a new product for able mabel. Note the strings still attached. That is my project for tonight when I have my feet kicked up. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?!

Two different types of changing pads. One that is more deluxe with the pocket and the other just a simple pad for those that don't want/need the pocket. More strings here to cut.

I also made some key fobs and one lonely pouch.

Tomorrow I HAVE to get my house cleaned, closets shuffled, baby clothes washed, etc. If I'm fast enough I'll hopefully have time to pull the sewing back out again.

Kid Quip

I've been on the lookout for swim shirts for my kids. They spend so much time in the sun, whether it's at the beach or now in our own swimming pool at home. I'm a bit leery of smearing their entire bodies with sunscreen every day. Swim shirts will solve part of that problem. Much less sunscreen needed.

I do a lot of shopping online and today the boys' swim shirts arrived. After naptime my 4 yr old put his on. Drawing in a long breath, he said "Hmm. Smells like Old Navy in here." Right on, Big Guy! (Isn't his grin just the best?! How could you not help but smile when you look at him!) He then said a few hours later, "The Mail Lady is so nice because she gives us swim shirts." Ummm. Not quite. Needless to say, he's pretty pleased with his swim shirt.

Once Upon a Time

I was super diligent about scrapbooking most moments in the life of my kids. The first book I did for each kid had one page per month for the first year of their life. The second book always started out with the first page with all their nicknames on it and the rest of the book was filled with whatever moments I had photographed.

Sad to say, there is no "happily ever after". My poor two littlest girls have no books. Check that, my 2 yr old has her first page done. My baby has none, nil, zip, zero. Plenty of pictures but...

With able mabel occupying most of my spare time, the thought of trying to get back into scrapbooking is overwhelming...where or how to even begin.

Yesterday as I was reading my daily blogs, Kim had a link to Becky's blog.

I have always loved Becky's style of scrapbooking so I was thrilled to find this... Project Life

I love the mod look, the colors, the kit. Unfortunately, the kit is sold out but she offers a digital kit. Definitely something to look into more. There is also this site. How Fast Time Flies I found them thru Facebook (don't ask how because I can't remember). I haven't really looked into the particulars of this site yet either.

I am now inspired to make digital books for these two little Princesses of mine. I'm not going to stress about the fact that they're digital instead of "real" and be content with the fact they have a book of any sort.

It'll be a great project to work on as I mold my rear cheeks into the couch cushions over the course of the next few weeks.

If anyone knows of any other sites similar to these, please let me know.

The coolest thing since sliced bread

Have you ever met Torm? She is one of my cyber friends. I think I've linked her blog here before.

Torm's husband is an amazing carver (is that the term, Torm?) Torm finally got on the "ball" (haha, I'm funny, huh?) and opened an Etsy shop for his golf ball carvings.

Prepare to be amazed... Incredible!

Breathtaking!

Funny!

I absolutely love them!!

It's so cool that each one is unique and individual. He never knows which color the inside of the ball is going to be. Wouldn't these make a perfect gift for anyone?!

He also sells stands for displaying the balls.

Here's the link again to his (their) shop.

Also don't forget to check out Torm's blog. She has a great sense of humor.

Truly a Labor of Love

That would be our yard. It's not just a matter of starting over, it's first taking out the old before we can start on the new.

Much raking, weeding, hauling of rock, etc. The visual progress is slow but every bit is worth it.

Each and every available hand has pitched in so far. Including Baby Doll. As we put rocks in buckets to haul from one area to the other, she tosses them out of the bucket right back to where we took them from. So helpful. ;)Saturday morning, Hubby started setting up the "bribe" to keep all little workers working. I suppose this would fall under the category of teaching the kids "nothing comes for free" and "hard workers will be rewarded in some way, shape or form". It kept them weeding all morning long.

When the Littles went down for their naps, I found a way to keep cool by continuing to wash a huge pile of rocks sitting in our front yard. Washing rocks, you say? Get a life! It's a labor of love, alright.The rocks were taken from the beds along the sidewalk and stairs. Here is it before. Can you see the rocks? It's like looking at a Where's Waldo book.and after. Retaining wall done and straight, rocks sparkly clean. Looks so much better! Washing rocks is the perfect "belly proof" job for me. I perch on a little stool and spray most of the gunk off the rocks. It doesn't take very long and it's actually quite relaxing to go out most evenings and work on them for an hour or so.

A little story for you non-Facebookers...

I am married to a prankster. I try and try to always get him back but ultimately I end of receiving paybacks at least 10 times worse than I dished out. Still, I keep trying. As I was washing rocks on Saturday, I heard Hubby coming around the corner. I readied the hose, aimed and fired. He was quite a ways off so he only got hit with a few droplets. He still squealed in surprise and threatened to toss me into the pool. I just sat there grinning from ear to ear, knowing he would do nothing. First of all he still has a weight lifting restriction of 30 lbs on his knee (I think I weigh a bit more than that) and he knew being tossed into the pool, even fully clothed, would have been heavenly at that moment!! He went back to his work without doing anything...yet....I gloated in my glory for a few moments. Go me!! It's not too often I don't get an immediate payback. We'll see what's in store for me later though. Gulp. (it was worth it)

As I went back to my rock washing, I heard some kids squealing with delight. I assumed it was the neighbor kids. My kids? Squeal with delight? Hardly. ;) (just kidding) When I went to refill my water bottle, I was surprised to see it was my own kids....already swimming. They didn't care the pool was only half full at that moment.

So far the pool has been a hit! When Hubby has suggested purchasing it, I wasn't sure I wanted one more thing to take care of. However, the more I thought about it and the summer dulldrums that are sure to hit, I realized it would be the perfect way to keep the kids entertained most of the summer. (Keeping my fingers crossed.) It would also mean less trips to the beach for me. Who knows, maybe I'll get a wild hair and jump in at some point! I think I may wait until it warms up a tad.

Observations from a morning waddle

I woke up this morning to find my hips and lower back more sore than normal. I debated calling in the Beached Whale Rescue Team to roll me out of bed. As I lumbered down the stairs, the house got colder and colder. The thermostat declared it to be a balmy 58 degrees in the house. Instant bliss for me, not so much for the kids. As they shivered over their cereal bowls, bare feet tucked under them, I took pity on them and shut a few windows. I kept my bare feet firmly on the tile, soaking up as much of the cool as I could.

Knowing I'd be in the car most of the day (I am so tired of running somewhere every day, but I have no choice but to go again today.), I decided to take advantage of the cool morning and attempt to go for a waddle...aka walk. I took an easy loop, one without too many hills. My paunch doesn't seem to appreciate hills anymore.

• I left the house feeling very much like an over-ripe, over-stuffed, over-sized eggplant. Next time I won't wear a purple shirt.
• I tried to concentrate on not waddling too much. (Thighs and hips as still as possible)
• The first person I met said, "Almost time, huh?" Sigh. So much for that thinking.
• I passed a dad playing with his screeching son on the trampoline. He said, "See what you have to look forward to!" I smiled politely and waddled on. Little did he realize...
• I admired all the varieties of purple flowers in peoples' yards. Purple flowers would match our grey house. Love it.
• I passed some kids tenting out in their yard. I breathed a sigh of relief to hear them fighting like territorial cats under a full moon. Guess my kids aren't the only "equal opportunity fighters", not giving a thought to where, why or how they fight.
• I was 20 minutes into my walk before I felt my first twinge of discomfort. Not bad for 11 days before D-Day.
• I wandered by a beautiful bush covered with bright pink flowers. I found myself waffling (shocking, huh?)...purple flowers or pink flowers or a mixture of the two? Who knew some of life's meaningless decisions could be so hard? ;)
• As I continued on, I felt my brain clearing. Not once did I think about housework, laundry or the overwhelming tasks of raising kids. I was feeling last night like I was sinking faster than I could swim, unable to keep up with every day life. It was awesome to let it all go and feel rejuvenated again.
• I managed to sneak back in the house, unnoticed and stretched for a good long while.
• Most of my physical kinks are worked out but I did take a few moments to growl at my puffy fingers. (What's up with that anyway? How come fingers get so puffy when walking? I know I'm suppose to have my hands above my heart to avoid that but it's hard. I can just see the headlines now, "Neighbors Pause in Wonderment at Giant Purple Eggplant Wandering Down Street, Arms Raised High in Surrender!" They'd really wonder then.)

Now to tackle those errands. Ugh.

Bullets

• Today was the kids' last day of swimming lessons. My 9 yr old was so bummed out she didn't pass her level. It took me a while to talk her out of her gloom. She feels better now that she found out one of her friends didn't pass either. Better luck for her next year.
• I'm glad the teachers didn't let them pass if they didn't do everything right. I'd hate for them to move on to deeper water and panic.
• I had the best of all worlds today.
• A friend from MN came over for lunch. She left sooner than I thought so I was able to put my kids down for naps. Bonus sewing time for me! No complaints on my end.
• I had my "Mean Mom" hat on this afternoon and made my 7 year old take a nap. It felt weird but you should have seen the fuss he kept making over every.little.thing. He definitely needed that nap. He's still sleeping, several hours later.
• I still haven't gotten around to photographing my stack of finished sewing projects. This summer vacation bit sure is putting a crimp in my schedule. :)

Today I'm selfish

and I really don't give a rip.

As the kids came, shivering, out of the pool this morning after swimming lessons, a friend informed me that she was headed to the beach. I hemmed and hawed for about two minutes before wrinkling my nose at the idea and decided to stick with my plan of sewing this afternoon. For once this summer, I wanted to do what I wanted to do and not worry about what the kids wanted to do. (did you follow that?)

I was craving some quality time with my sewing machine. Besides today is on the chilly side so I'll save the beach for a hotter day. I, shamelessly, pawned the older kids off on friends (thanks Amy and Gloria!), put the little kids for their naps and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the afternoon.

My goal for today was visual progress. Mission accomplished!

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time perfecting a changing pad/diaper pouch. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and have turned down requests for them because I didn't feel like I had them fine tuned.

Here's what I came up with... The pad is tri-fold with a "pearl" snap closure (I still have to add the snap to this one.) I debated about doing a button closure but realized I prefer snaps over buttons. I'm always scared of buttons falling off, especially in the washer, even if they're sewn on 100 times.

When you open the pad, the inside is minky (although I'll do some with cotton too.). I'm going for comfort here. Most often the mess is contained to the diaper so it's not like you'd have to worry about it getting "goop" on everything. A newborn blow-out is already a mess so I'd feel like I'd have to throw a vinyl pad in the wash anyway. Might as well make baby as comfy as possible as you mutter thru a head to toe wet wipe bath in some strange bathroom.

A handy dandy pocket, perfect to store diapers and wipes in, folds out to one side. Most other changing pads, if they have a pocket, have it attached fully across the pad itself. I pondered this one over and over, debating what to do. I'm the type of person who likes things to be easy to use. If I have to pull out all the diapers and wipes out of the pocket before I can even lay Baby down for a diaper change, then I know I won't use the pad. I'm lazy that way.

The best part? When it gets dirty, toss it in the wash! Easy as pie!

I'm hoping that I'll have the first few changing pads listed tomorrow. We'll see....

Misc

It's beach season! My kids love the sand but I doesn't always like cleaning it up once we get home. I'll deal with it since our beach season will be cut short this summer.

Oh the life of a Gimp! Talk about service with a smile! He lays on the couch reading his book, with a cup of coffee and freshly baked caramel roll nearby, as his kids lotion his feet. Can anyone say "spoiled"?

It didn't take them long to figure out paybacks! There are perks to having Dad stuck on the couch!

A scene captured at breakfast this morning. So sweet! It's interesting...Little Miss Kyky has been using her left hand more often than not lately. Will we luck out and get two lefties?!

Post op

Let the recovery begin!

Believe it or not, Hubby's knee surgery actually took place today.

As I helped him into his ultra-glamorous light purple paper gown, I got the giggles. It was so nice to be the one, fully clothed, helping him into that hideous thing. He didn't see the humor in it. :) As he climbed into the hospital bed and covered his head with the beautiful "hat" they gave him (he quipped, "I better protect what's left of my hair, I'd hate to lose more than I have to."), I was wishing I had brought along my camera. I'm usually the one sitting in the hospital bed so it was sweet to get a taste of the "other side".

The surgery went well. We don't know exactly what was done but given his discharge instructions, we're guessing it ended up being relatively minor. I felt bad because they had told me to come back to get him after 2 hours and when I got back there after an hour and a half, he was already awake and ready to go home. I had missed the chat with the surgeon and Hubby had been too out of it to talk with him. Oops. We should find out the extent of it tomorrow when one of us calls into the clinic. We'll know then how long he'll be out of work, how long I get to play nursemaid and all that good stuff.

He's still on his post-op "high", no pain whatsoever thanks to all the drugs they gave him. I'm guessing tomorrow will be the rough day, or that's what we've been told by various people.

Wordless Wednesday

Exercise ~ It's so much more than looking good

Exercise has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom used to tell me how good it was for me even when I was a girl with stork legs and spaghetti arms. Naturally I thought she was just being a nag of a mom and didn't think I needed it.

Now I beg to differ.

Take today for example.

I woke up this morning to find my hands puffier than a tuba player's cheeks. 10 big fat sausages. Not a good way to start the day. I was cranky. I was frustrated. I was irritated. I was sore. I was feeling heavy. I was feeling bigger than a bloated beached whale. I was not fun to be around. I could hardly deal with my kids' excited chatter after swimming lessons. I couldn't stand the state of my messy house. I was feeling downright rotten.

I knew I had no reason to complain. I knew I have blessings on top of blessings. I knew my life is good. I knew I was being unfair to all those around me. (Thankfully I was sullen, not in the mood to talk so I didn't yell at anyone.) I knew I was being unreasonable. Yet, I couldn't help it. I couldn't shake it. I was downright rotten.

I put the toddlers for their naps, bit my tongue at my urge to tell my older kids to be quiet as they played their game without fighting (there's a shocker. A game with no fighting), and headed up to the exercise bike. I pushed myself thru a 10 mile ride. (I know they say you're not suppose to push yourself when you're pg but I'm all about listening to my body. Today my body said, "go and go hard", so that's what I did.)

When I was done, I felt like a new person. The cloud swirling about my head was gone! I felt like a spring chicken! I was happy! I felt free! I felt light! I felt lucky! I felt great!

After stretching for a good long while, I snuck into my bedroom to work on light switch covers. My 5 year old, who had been sleeping on my bed, woke up and came down onto the floor with me. She played with my stash of purse handles as I assembled light switch covers and we whispered to each other in hushed voices (we won't talk about the fact that Baby still sleeps in the Master Closet.). Both of us relished in our impromptu one-on-one time. I'm pretty certain that had I not exercised, that moment would have never happened.

It doesn't work every time to this extent but I really do hope that I'll continue to work exercise into my weekly schedule. As I tell Hubby, it's cheap therapy. So what if it takes 45 minutes to 1 hr out of my day, 3-4 times a week? It's so easy to be lazy and find a million other things to do instead but I'm a firm believer that if a person wants something bad enough you'll make the time for it. I sometimes think of how easy it would be to not have to exercise but at the same time realize that it's such an "easy fix" that I can't really complain.

The physical benefits of exercise are purely a bonus for me. I'll admit, if I pushed myself harder, I could look a lot better. I could be more toned and fit into smaller clothes, but that's not important to me. Sure, I use that to get me going some days when I'm feeling extra lazy but it's not the reason I exercise. It's the mental and emotional side of it that I love!

Does anything work today?

My cell phone won't work (or it's very spotty) when I need it most.
Blogger wasn't working.
Surgery didn't happen.
Facebook wasn't working.
Photo shoot didn't go too well.
Ugh. Anything else?

I'm seriously wishing I could do Tae Bo right now. It would feel soooo good. Instead I may have to settle for the exercise bike and hope it'll give me an attitude adjustment.

The plan for today was to take the kids to swimming lessons for 9:30, buzz to the grocery store while they had lessons to restock Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards, pick them up after lessons, pick up a sitter, race home, drop kids off, pick hubby up and then head off to surgery for his knee.

As I was convincing our 4 yr old that he did want to attend his swimming lessons (I knew he would be brave until we got there and then he'd throw a huge fit, I knew it, I knew it...yet I still signed him up. What a waste of time, money, energy, patience, etc.), Hubby called and said thanks to mis-communication between the docs and insurance and paperwork issues, surgery had to be rescheduled. Oh great.

I had been on the ball this morning and gathered all the necessary paperwork and put it in my purse so I'd have it when we needed it this afternoon. Now I had the paperwork and he needed info from it so he could get the doc's work order changed so he could go to work today. Just as I was about to give him the info, my phone battery died. (of course, no car charger to be found) Double grrr. I managed to get my phone powered on long enough to text him a fax number he needed.

Poor guy. We had no groceries on the house and all of his work clothes were dirty. Last night I had figured I was safe on both because he wasn't suppose to eat or work today. Sigh.

He got to work and found out the fax number I sent him was the wrong one. By then, my phone was charging but wouldn't accept phone calls. So frustrating. (What's the point of paying for cell service if you can't use it when you need it?) I'm still not sure how long he ended up having to wait for the Doc's orders, but he did text me and let me know that he's cleared to work again. Whew.

We've been trying to communicate back and forth today but my cell is still being iffy. It takes many attempts to send texts and keeps dropping calls. Double ugh. I can't even call for technical help. Guess we'll just have to do things the old fashioned way and talk about Plan B when he gets home tonight.

Now we wait for a new surgery date to be scheduled. The next available time is Thursday or else next Monday. We'll keep our fingers crossed one of those dates will work and the surgery will be relatively minor so he can be back on his feet in a shortest amount of time. They won't know the extent of the surgery required until they get in there. The type of surgery will depend on how long his recovery will be. D Day is coming awfully fast. This household doesn't need both of us down at the same time.

You'd think that I'd be overjoyed at this bonus day I've been given. But no, I'm crankier than all get out. Darn hormones (when in doubt, blame it on hormones.). :) I'm seriously hoping exercise will help me adjust my attitude. It usually works...

A little of this and a little of that

Hubby found out yesterday that he tore the meniscus in his knee and he does, in fact, need surgery. The actual surgery will flatten him for a week (no work) and he's not sure on the rehab. The surgeon was willing to do the surgery today, Hubby's supervisor wants him to wait a week, the Higher Ups at work want him to wait a month, his doc says he can do whatever works best for him and his wife can't decide what she wants so she'll go with the flow and let the experts decide. :) (He should feel honored so many people care about him. ;) ) He has appointments with this doc and the surgeon today so they'll come up with a game plan then. At least for his sake, the swelling has gone down and the pain has diminished.


This summer vacation bit has really thrown my able mabel creating time into a tailspin. So much for trying to stockpile a stash of products before Baby comes. Between appointments, out of town guests (no complaints there), trying to keep the house clean...there is just so little time to work. I was able to carve out an hour of light switch cover time yesterday. Who knows when I'll be able to finish those up.

In order to emerge from the summer with a tad bit of sanity intact, we need to make some changes around here.

• The kitchen will close for breakfast at 9:30am. The other morning the big girls were making breakfast as I was about to start lunch. Ugh. They had been up since 9 but were reading in their bedroom.
• The job chart will be modified to have these kids do more of the cleaning. Jobs such as washing the walls, knob and switches; washing the floors; washing the bathrooms; folding laundry; wiping down appliances (you should see the front of the fridge. blech). All things that multiply greatly in the summer. I can shout and holler until I'm blue in the face about walking outside barefoot and then coming back inside with dirty feet and it doesn't make a difference. I'm hoping if the kids can do things like wash the floor once a week, they'll think twice before making messes. A girl can dream, can't she?
• With the hope of cutting down on the grocery bill, which in theory should remain the same in the summer since the kids bring cold lunch to school but it doesn't, I'm trying to always have a stock of frozen veggies and some sort of baked good in the freezer. My kids will eat frozen veggies right out of the freezer as a snack, perfect for a hot summer afternoon. (I learned that one from JB) My kids LOVE cereal and would eat bowl fulls of it every morning. I'm taking my MIL's advice and only letting them have it twice during the week (we'll be flex on the weekend). Oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, eggs, etc. will fill in on the other days.
• I'm sure there will be more changes but we'll make them as needed.

I have a bee in my bonnet today

to start decorating my living room. I was going to wait until it got painted but I've come to the conclusion that will still be a while before it gets done.

Okay, so part of it is the fact that a friend asked me what my style was because I still haven't decorated my house yet. I get the hint. :) (in her defense, she didn't mean it in that way, it just got my wheels turning.)

The first thing I want to tackle is the wall above my couch. I currently have a set of 4 collage style of scrapbooking papers on 24x24" boards. I'm tired of it and want something a bit smaller.

I have 15x15" boards waiting to be used. I have to decide if I want to do a set of three or four. I'm leaning towards a set of three. The hardest part is going to be deciding on which paper to buy. I found this one at acherryontop.com

Birds and swirls may be "so last year" but I still like them. It would add "movement" to our living room that is full of straight lines.
Another set of papers that caught my eye was this one from frugalities.com. I'm not wild about all the prints but love a few of them. Being that my couch is magenta, I'm liking the orange and greens. Framed in black, I think they'd be stunning.

With so many papers to choose from, this may be a long process. Maybe I just need to buy what first catches my eye and be done with it. Paper is such a cheap and easy way to decorate, it will be simple to switch it up when I get sick of it.

What do you think? Have you found any cool papers recently?

Rolling with life's punches

Hubby sent me a text on Tuesday that he was sitting in the ER with a blown out knee. He had been crouched down working and when he went to stand up, he couldn't "unlock" it. After spending 3 hours in the ER, he was sent home without any relief and a misdiagnosis.

His knee had been sore since the week before when the same thing happened but he was able to "pop" it back to normal and continue on with life.

I spend the day today chauffeuring him around to his appointments. He had an MRI this afternoon and then goes back to see the doc on Friday morning for a diagnosis. Thankfully the doc he saw today agrees with us that the sooner we come up with a treatment plan, the better. Our family is set to expand in 4 short weeks. A mostly healthy Husband/Father is definitely a bonus. (Sorry Natalie, I thought I had texted you way back when. My apologies!) We'll keep our fingers crossed that surgery won't be necessary and he'll be good to go by the end of the month.

In the meantime, he's on "sitting duty" at work. The Safety Coordinator was teasing him today that he had already been warned that he'll have to staple Hubby to the chair to enforce the doc's orders. :) I was teasing him that now he knows what it feels like to be in labor. His comeback? "At least you get a great reward after your labor is done." This is true.

I'm thankful it's something relatively minor and not what some of our friends have had to go thru or are going thru. This type of issue, while inconvenient, is very manageable. I will do my best not to complain and help him get back on his feet.

Hightlights from the weekend.

This was the first Memorial Day weekend in many years we didn't go camping. We both had mixed feelings about staying home, but had decided to make the most of it.

On Friday night we got a sitter for the two little girls and took the older kids mini golfing.

I took the girls one way.

Hubby took the boys the other way.

This pretty much sums up the girls' golfing game. A big free for all! They haven't played much so we didn't bother keeping score. Thankfully we were the only ones there, so we could play however we wanted. The course is gorgeous! It was full of flowers and had streams and waterfalls running thru it.

The boys, of course, finished way before us, but they didn't mind waiting for us to be done.

We then headed to Dairy Queen, got ice cream and walked down to the river.

We sat on the steps and watched the paddle boarders and kayakers show their stuff in the rapids. This guy on the paddle board was awesome! He made it look so easy. I think he enjoyed showing off to our little troop.

We spent the day on Saturday taking care of things around the house. Hubby started putting the retaining wall back in in the front yard. It was tedious and there was very little visual progress. He had to chip all the mortar off each block, re-level the ground, etc. I started taking apart the wall on the other side of the sidewalk.

Our progress was derailed when a friend called and said his wife was admitted to the hospital with complications with her pregnancy. He wanted to drop his kids off so he could go be with her while they did some testing. We gladly stopped our work and took care of their kids for the rest of the evening. Long story short, she ended up being airlifted to Denver that night.

On Sunday we woke the kids up bright and early and told them we were headed to Denver to visit our friends in the hospital. Our two year old said, "Yay!" then she paused and said, "I can't go to the hospital because I don't have a big belly!" Apparently for her the only reason to go to the hospital is to have a baby. :)

Oops. Looks like we ended up at the zoo instead of the hospital.

Someone wasn't too impressed at the smell at this exhibit.

She is, by far, our biggest animal lover. She squealed with delight and jabbered at every animal! She got exhausted after lunch and slept in the stroller for a couple hours, something she never does.

We sat in a few shows. Our two "chickens" didn't like the noise level.

We stopped for a picnic lunch in the plush grass.

Who's checking out who?

We finished off with the seal show, which is always a hit. We left the zoo, tired and happy, and headed for the hospital.

I did a turbo visit with our friends while Hubby wandered the gardens outside with the kids. I was glad to be able to make it to see her. We're keeping our fingers crossed she'll be discharged today as planned.