Amber and Dan's Blog: End of January

Our grocery buddies were busy on Monday, so I took Jack and Candy shopping with me. They needed to play in the afternoon, so we walked to the park closest to our house to let them get their wiggles out. Candy ran almost the whole way there and home again--she took a good nap that day! Jack fell asleep on the way home. It was warm and sunny and very nice. Our kids loved FHE that night because Grandpa and Giagia had left us with some blue bell after family dinner last Sunday and that was our treat.
Tuesday I had joy school here in the morning. It was all about the difference between rules and decisions (like it's a rule that we don't hit but it's a decision what color shirt to wear). The kids liked it, especially because they got to make decisions at snack time. Our toy room was a big mess when they arrived but I put those poor joy school kids to work--it took us like 25 minutes to clean up! Tuesday night we went to the T's house for cake for Beckett's birthday. The kids ran wild and it was fun.
Wednesday we had playgroup at the library. We just went there for story time. Jack and Candy had fun picking out books afterward. I helped teach first aid basics for babysitting to the older activity days girls that afternoon. They were pretty funny, one kept asking worst case scenario questions like, "but what if the kid falls and isn't breathing and has a concussion, then what do I do? " Um, you call 911. We reminded them that emergencies are rare when you are babysitting, thank goodness.
Thursday was joy school again. The kid who said the prayer said he was thankful that the toy room wasn't very messy that day :). Dan's sister picked Dan up from work Thursday so they could begin their drive to Utah in her car that she wants to sell there. They drove all the way to Amarillo that night. This was also the night of Carrie's softball game (I'm sure she filled you in on her broken ankle).
Friday was pretty open and I wanted to go see Carrie. I dropped off little gifts with my visit teachees first. My phone was ringing a lot from our siblings and Dad. Shad said he and Amy were heading to the zoo and were also picking Carrie up from her appointment. So I said I'd meet them there. I parked at the zoo and then Shad called to see if I could just come pick up Amy and Molly and Ellie. So we went to get them and Amy and I and the kids walked around the zoo for a few hours. When Shad came to pick up his fam, I took Jack and Candy to Carrie's house to check in. We stayed there for a bit and came home to pick up Megan and Brookie from school. It was another warm and sunny day (in the low 70s), so we played at the park with friends after school and had dinner at chick fil a with 2 friends and their kids (there husbands were out of town too). Dan and Ali made it to Bountiful around 8 pm that night.
Saturday we spent the morning cleaning up the house. Then we went on a nice bike ride (it was almost hot--near 80!) and came home for naps. We had babysit swap here that night with the Tracy kids. Dan went to his Grandma's 90th birthday party in Salt Lake (the other reason for driving out there).
It was a good Sunday today. After church, Ali's husband and her kids came over for dinner and they stayed with my kids while I picked up Dan from the airport. It's good to have him home.

Sneaky boy on the counter this morning. The black cylinder is an Amazon Echo (it's kind of like Siri and has a speaker, it was a Christmas present from Dan's parents). Jack kept climbing up and turning the sound WAY up on our Sunday music.