Catch Up

We spent today catching up with some of mom's high school and even elementary friends. Luckily, this also included fun play time for the kids in a pool and a basement with lots of toys. It was a crazy, but fun day!

Mississippi Fun

We spent the day at the kid's cousin's new house on a harbor on the Mississippi River. The kids spent a lot of time in their hot tub and taking golf cart rides.

The boys also had fun swimming in the harbor. It is only 4ft deep with no current (and on the weekend not many boats), so they could swim in it like a pool. Cousin Jack took them on several kayak rides as well, which they thought was s blast! 

The other highlight was going tubing out in the channel. Conner and jack went for a long time, and Conner loved it! He had Uncle Scobie go pretty slow, though. Gavin debated their whole ride if he wanted to go or not. Gavin got up the courage and went out on the tube, but he wasn't such a fan. As soon as we started, he just turned and gripped onto my leg and said, "all done". So, his rode was short lived. At least he tried! Unfortunately for Alexis, we are a little nervous about the cleanliness of the water with her ears and immune system. So, we made her skip the water and tried to do lots of golf cart rides. Needless to say, the kids really like their cousin's new house! 

One-on-one Time

With mom going back to work, there have been a lot of sitters the last few weeks. That combined with a couple weddings and a work trip means a big adjustment to Mom around all the time to little time. Although the balance should get better, it was a rough start, so today I promised each kid that they could pick an activity that they could do with just mom.

Gavin chose the park. He played for a little bit, but then decided it was more fun to just run around the park having mom chase him. This particular activity didn't last as long given that was the direction it headed. He had a blast, though. 

Conner chose to get ice cream. He had gone with Jack and grandma the day before to get ice cream, but was highly disappointed that the bubble gum ice cream did not have actually bubble gum in it. So, he wanted to right this injustice. He loved it, but all my attempts to interact was met with counting the number of bubble gums he had. At least he had fun! 

Alexis chose to get a pedicure. She also wanted her cousin Mallory to come with. The three of us had a blast and all got the exact same purple color. She had a smile on her face the whole time, and all three of us had a blast. 

The day was a success and nice for all of us to get a little one-on-one time. 

Grandparent time

The kids had a few days of grandparent time. Laura started back to work a couple weeks ago after taking off the last year to deal with our lives. As part of that, she had to fly out to headquarters for a few days for their yearly meeting. The kids stayed in Iowa with grandparents.

They got to go to the zoo for pony rides, feeding the parrots, train rides, playground, and lots and lots of sweet treats! They had a blast with this grandparents and mom is officially back launched into the work world.