Week after the trip

Mon. Aug. 1--we leave Bountiful by about 4:40 am to head to Amarillo.  Dan's sister Ali and her fam caravan with us.  So we waved at them a lot through the day.  We get to Amarillo around 6 pm and have dinner all together at Cracker Barrel, yummy and fun for the kids to play together after all day in the car.  We go to bed around 10 after a quick scripture time and group family prayer with the cousins at the hotel.  

 

Tue. Aug. 2--We all sleep in a little.  We have breakfast at the hotel just before 8 and hit the road about 8:30.  We get to Jamie's house at 1:30 pm and let ourselves in to swim.  Julianne gets home at 2 and says hi.  (Jamie had taken the rest of the kids to Houston so Shad could do Catherine's braces).  We leave at 3:30 pm (and Jamie got home at 4!).  We get back to our house around 8:15 pm and unpack the car and get the kids to bed.

Wed. Aug. 3--I run to the store in the morning while Ashley watches the kids.  Then I ignore the piles of laundry and take the kids to playgroup at the pool.  After most of our ward was gone for July it was fun to see everyone back home again.  We play and play and come home for naps.  

Thu. Aug. 4--We meet the Tracy's and our cousins at the 50 cent movie.  The kids loved it.  Then home for lunch and naps.  We meet cousins at the pool after nap time. My niece Whitney was so excited to do a swim lesson with me (she's 6) that they could barely get her to the pool!  (haha, I made her swim with me at Jamie's and she knew what she was in for!).  It was a pretty rough 20 minutes with that stubborn girl, but we got through and by the end she was great!  Swimming about half a length on her own.  We had a RS Ice cream social that night after dinner and after that I went and got most of the school supply shopping done.

Fri. Aug. 5--Ashley and I trade kids for shopping again--this time not for groceries.  It's the tax free days and it let me finish the school supply shopping and get some shoes for my school girls.  They all picked to use their birthday money on cowgirl boots since I was making them buy running shoes.  They are cute boots though!  Dan and I went out for an early birthday dinner to Chuy's and saw a movie while our kids were at babysit swap.

Sat. Aug. 6--Despite being a billion degrees, Dan mowed and edged while I weeded our front beds and then we cleaned the van inside and out.  It was HOT.  I took the kids to the pool after quiet time (my niece Whitney happily met us there and swam great--we are over the hump!) and we watched the Olympics in the evening.  The kids loved watching the swimming.  Haha, they also loved the women's weight lifting event that we randomly watched.  

 

Today, Aug. 7.  Dan had early meetings but got to come back home for an hour from 7:30-8:30 before heading back.  Our ward was at 11 and it was a nice testimony meeting.  Brooke bore her testimony--all on her own since Dan wasn't with us and I was in the mother's room feeding Emily!  But I heard it on the speaker in there and it was short and sweet.  My lesson today was all about Helaman 5:12 and building on the foundation of Christ.  It went pretty well and I enjoyed teaching after having been gone.  I got a nice quiet time after church while Dan got snacks for the kids and got them to quiet time and then we all napped for a bit.  We had a yummy pork chop and cream of mushroom soup over rice dinner.  After scriptures and daddy-flip-all-the-kids-over-and-over time, we taught Megan and Brooke how to play Settlers of Cataan.   We all had a great time playing.  We were nice to them and helped them avoid mistakes, but they got the hang of it and it was a good game.  Dan won, Brooke got 2nd, Megan got 3rd, and I played too :).  

It's nice to be home after being away and it's nice to have some time to enjoy our last days of summer!  School starts 2 weeks from tomorrow.