Thanksgiving Point

Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays during August so we planned to go down to the Dinosaur Museum. Fortunately the line for the museum wrapped clear around the building so we decided to check out the garden instead. I am so glad we did! Why have I not been here before? I loved it. I love a beautiful garden just about more than anything in the world and so this really hit the spot. It was gorgeous. The kids had a blast too. They got to run wild in the maze, play in fountains (next time we will bring swim suits), roll down hills, and run around. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. (I am afraid, however, that it made me long for Kew. How are you gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Paris?)

McCall Idaho

Last week we spent with Rob's family up in McCall Idaho. We rented a cabin near the lake and had many adventures. We biked, canoed, ice skated, kayaked, river rafted, explored, swam, hot tubbed, golfed, visited, ate, and had a great time. The kids had fun discovering the dirt bike trail and tree house in the woods behind the cabin. Although it was a titch on the chilly side we had a great time and here are way too many pictures to prove it:

(Lucy got tired of biking so she handed her bike off to Aunt Whit

and RAN the trail. It was impressive).

On Lunches and Marriage

Rob says when he pulls out his lunch at work people are so impressed with me. They must picture Rob living with a Donna Reed dream wife. He just smiles and kindly lets them think the best of me. He is a nice guy that way. He really is.

In twelve years of marriage I don't know that I've ever packed him a lunch. That would take planning and thoughtfulness. Neither of those are my strong suits. I mean really, it is about more than I can bear to think that in a week and a half I am going to have to start packing lunches for the kids again. Every single morning. For a whole school year. And now Anders will be going full day too, requiring one more lunch to be made. And honestly, I think I may have to train the kids to pack their own lunches, because I'm totally over it. Totally. I'm over lots of things. Like making dinner every night for a pretty unappreciative audience (what is this green stuff? sigh, sob, sigh) and spending a large portion of my day picking up Polly Pocket shoes and lego-man heads, and folding endless piles of laundry. I'm over it. And wiping pee off the seat. Argh! Completely over it. Of course that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing it, because sometimes when you don't do it and someone comes over and asks to use the bathroom and you cringe, suddenly remembering the yellow polka-dot seat (not to mention the yellow sprayed shower curtain) you are completely mortified. But I'm over it nonetheless. I've noticed that life tends to go in cycles. So sometimes I go through phases where I'm not over it, or at least I'm a little less over it than other times. Hopefully soon I can get into a "I heart housework" and "when we're helping we're happy" mode.

Anyway the point is, thank goodness Rob loves me anyway. Because he doesn't get mad or irritated when I am in an "over it" phase. Back when we were newlywed babies (and I mean babies. Seriously, I just saw the pictures. We were YOUNG!) I think I probably thought I'd make him a nice lunch to take to work everyday. But I never got around to it. But I love him anyway. And I love him because he loves me anyway.

Happy Anniversary Rob.

At Last!

He did it!  He finished!  Pretty Exciting.  Now all we need is a mirror!

Beach Day

We spent a few hours at the Daybreak lake with friends yesterday.  It was great.  The kids had a blast.  There are no pictures of Lucy because she was off having fun with Challey's nieces.  Thanks for the invite Challey.  Looking forward to doing this again.