Originally we had planned to visit family in Louisiana, but that plan got derailed so we decided to still take vacation at home. So for your pleasure, a day by day recap:
~Monday~
On Monday the kids had swim like every other Monday, but this time was special because daddy got to come watch. Fritter (who is my fish) is doing great, but the real treat this time was Ladybug. This is a child who was terrified of the water. She is doing so good, and the instructors are so patient and well trained, I am told next week she may actually graduate to the next class!
After swim we headed to the Science Center where we have a membership. Dan and Fritter got tickets to watch a tornado movie in the IMAX, while the rest of us saw what they had to offer on the second floor until they joined back up with us. The place is huge and since we have a membership, we limit it to just one floor at a time.
We got home in time for naps for all and had a nice evening with the family.
~Tuesday~
Tuesday was our eighth wedding anniversary. Neither of us had forgotten (we had made plans for the evening) but we DID forget to get each other so much as a card. We were both good with that though (aren't we romantic?!) and spent the day rearranging the house. The girls' room got moved around, which will work until Sunflower gets a big girl bed. We haven't decided what we are going to do at that point.
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| A little messy, but you get the point. |
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| Sorry about the cell phone pictures. The camera batteries are dead. |
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| On a whim I made the girls a baby blanket out of some scrap material. |
The biggest project, by far, was changing the playroom into a school room. I don't have any before pictures, just the one "in transit" unless I dig. We wanted to utilize our storage options in the house better and having the computer in the tv room was driving my husband batty. So while Dan worked on moving the computer and desk, I worked on transferring our school stuff from the "learning closet" to the new school room. We have gotten rid of so many toys that having a bonified playroom didn't make sense anymore. Plus the baby sleeps in the room right next to it, and I was forever shooing the big kids out. Want to take a tour?
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| "In transit" |
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| This armoire used to house our tv and videos and after that was put in our bedroom to hold books and sewing material. It's real use has been found, however. |
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| The shelves perfectly hold our books for school this year (most of these are just for reference, we don't actually use that many books for first grade), along with our hands on projects and drawing and coloring supplies. |
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| The puzzle drawer. You can see they've already gotten into them. :) |
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| The bottom drawer is perfect for all of our painting supplies and paper. |
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| The play area. |
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| Not totally finished. The chalkboard still needs hung up and I don't really like the spot for the musical instruments, but it's coming along. Want to see what's written on the chalkboard? |
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| I've waited a long time for my kids to be big enough for copy work. :) |
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| My husband set up a pretty slick system. And then I went ahead and (using his words) "filled it with stuff". |
It was a big project, but Dan and I were both satisfied in how we spent the day. That evening we hired a babysitter and went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Being the gluttons we are, we both ordered TWO slices of cheesecake. One for now and one for later. I had mine for breakfast on Wednesday. :)
After dinner we played a round of putt-putt golf. There were three different courses, so we chose the "Princess Path" complete with a castle. That is where we found a little desert toad. Thankfully I didn't have to kiss him, since I already have my Prince. (Ahhhhh :)
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| My prince. |
~Wednesday~
We headed south for a day trip to Mt. Graham. This is one of the tallest mountain in Arizona, and is the location of the Vatican Observatory. We went to the very tippy top of the mountain (at about 10000 feet) where there is a nice little lake for fishing. I had gotten a day license as well, which ended up being a waste of money, since I spent most of my time chasing Sunflower and keeping Froggy happy. But it was a beautiful drive and overall a fun day. On the way down we saw a few deer, bounding across the winding mountain road, which served to keep my focus away from the sharp cliff out my side of the van.
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| Keeping her contained. |
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| Keeping him happy. |
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| Fritter caught his first fish! Can you see it at the end of his line? |
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| They carry things around just because they can. |
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| And Ladybug found a mushroom. After she picked it, she got a little upset and wanted to know where the gnome was going to live now? |
~Thursday~
We spent the day recovering from our trip and hung out here at home. Relaxing is an important part of any vacation.
~Friday~
Friday we finished up the playroom/school room transition. And I got caught up on the laundry that had been neglected all week.
~Saturday~
Saturday was dubbed "Family Fun Day". My dear husband tested the limits of patience of the adults in the house when he allowed the train tracks, Mr. Potato Head, and the doll house to be set up in our front room. We all worked together to set up the house and a pretty fancy track, and then we played together. I'll admit that I was the first one to get overwhelmed and sit on the couch, but eventually, my fun loving husband did too. The funnest part was picking it all up again!
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That evening we went to a friend's house for his birthday dinner and thoroughly enjoyed the company.
There you have it, folks. Staycation 2013.
2 comments:
wow! you got to wear sweaters!
I know! We were very excited. It was COLD (for us) on top of the mountain, especially because there was a bit of a breeze. The thermometer on our van read 52 as we were leaving at dusk. Brrr.
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