February Break

We made the best of a lame situation and ended up having a great time staying home for our week off of school.  While Randy and Marcus slaved away in Costa Rica, we did a little staycation that wasn't too bad.  

We spent a couple days at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Washington.  It's a hotel with a huge indoor waterpark in the middle of nowhere.  The last time we went was ten years ago and if we ever go again, it won't be until Henry is ten years old, or maybe never. 

Ironically, our good friends were also there which made the whole experience better since I still can't submerge my leg in water. Their son, Jack, is Henry's BFF so they learned how to do all the water slides while I sat in a chair with my leg up (the story of my life lately).  

Five minutes into our trip and Ethan said, "I should've stayed home."  Five minutes after that a couple cute teenage girls asked for his number and then he wasn't as disappointed about things.  Luckily Ethan channeled his inner twelve-year-old self and hung out with Landon and Parker and their friends.  Ethan showed them how to break all the rules without getting caught.

We were at the hotel on Lindsey's birthday and to honor Linz, we left packages of Oreo cookies at random hotel doors, knocked, and ran.  ALL the boys loved it!  They felt so sneaky.  They even wrote cards that said "Life is better with cookies.  From ?"  This is definitely a tradition we will do on our future hotel stays.  It's really fun to race back to the elevator and close the door before getting caught.  A true adrenaline rush! Watch a short clip of the action here.

The rest of the week we spent at home.  I let the boys have one entire day of screens.  We didn't even get dressed and wore our Christmas pajamas all day.  It actually felt a little like Christmas--lazy and relaxing.  

We also took care of my friend's dog for them.  My boys were so excited until she ran away and we had to drive around our neighborhood looking for her that Parker said, "Now I get why you don't want a dog."  Tillie was such a good dog though and it was fun and work to have her.  I haven't changed my mind on the dog issue but now it's only Ethan who is begging for one.  

Landon and I made sushi rolls together.  He's been begging me to do this for a couple of years and I finally bought the ingredients to make it happen.  It turned out so good and was so easy to make that we definitely won't wait another two years to make them again.

For our last staycation activity, I took the younger boys bowling.  Can you believe they have never been??  At least not that they remember anyway.  I think the last time we went was in Rhode Island.  They loved it!  

Conveniently, The Shake Shack was only a few minutes away from the bowling alley so of course we had to stop there for lunch to make the adventure complete.  

Can I just say how awesome it is hanging out with my younger boys?  Less arguing, less grunting and more conversations, and an all-around good time had by all.  Teenagers are great but it's sure fun to do stuff without them!

Oh, and I painted the den.  It looks so good!  Now I need to get some desks and cupboards installed and it will look less like a disaster from remote learning.

The after…I used Retreat by Sherwin Williams and I love how it turned out!

Boston Marathon and More

We hadn't cleaned up or recovered from hosting our big Easter celebration but I didn't care.  I packed up the boys and we drove into Boston to watch the marathon at mile 19.  Even with my careful planning to navigate through the many road closures and detours, we missed seeing the first runners sprinting past by seconds.  Nuts!  That's the best part.  Those guys run so fast it is hard to believe even as you're watching it.  Did you know they run too fast to run on tread mills?  Wish I had that problem!  This had to be the safest race ever.  Policeman were everywhere!
The rest of spring break flew by.  We had sunny weather so the kids were able to play outside most of the time which meant I didn't have to entertain them. We drove over to the Navy base to meet up with Randy to go bowling on the one rainy day we had.  Randy and I did the ultimate nerdiest thing so far and pulled out our very own bowling shoes back from our Seattle Bowling days.  The boys had a great time and of course I felt bad for the old people who had to bowl next to us.  Landon actually helped himself to a drink from their pitcher of soda.  I was so embarrassed and had to buy them another one.  I bought a kite for the boys to fly, thinking that would provide an afternoon of fun.  It cost ten bucks and lasted about ten minutes before they got it caught in the neighbor's tree.  They tried desperately to free it but got yelled at by the neighbor so they came inside in tears.  I took pity on them and let them watch TV after that.

The first runners after the elite men had passed

The crowd goes nuts when they see people like this and it always makes me cry. 

So inspiring!

A marathon on crutches, wow!

36,000 runners this year

 My dream is that one day one of my little dudes will run the Boston Marathon

That's Parker playing with Donnie Osmond's son.  It's a small world when you're a Mormon.

My friend waving to her kids.  Usually she runs with the elite women but she just had a baby and had so slow down.  She still ran it in 3 1/2 hours which is really fast.

Bowling and eating pizza = a really good time

The winner for the slowest rolling ball.  His bowling name:  Carlos

The happiest bowler you'll ever see.  His bowling name:  Bob

Playing outside on Bean's new bike and his bowling name: Donkey Kong