Whew, keeping up with this blog is getting to be difficult! Of course, it doesn't help that we've traveled lately. Everything gets put on hold when we're gone, then we have a bunch of stuff to catch up on when we return. So here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to lately. Sorry, no pictures, but maybe next time!
On July 21 we drove to Denver, Colorado, a 750-mile trip, and yes, we did make it in one day. It took 12 hours, which was not bad considering Arden said he had to go potty about every half hour. He seemed to figure out quickly that if he announced he had to poop, we'd be more likely to stop! No poops the whole way, but no accidents, either. Kenna was not a happy traveler, possibly due to the altitude changes along the way. Charis and Tobin are at great ages for traveling, as they enjoy reading on their own or coloring. I did purchase a magnetic Mighty Mind, which Arden enjoyed playing with during much of the ride.
We arrived at Grandma J's house for a late dinner of KFC, which Joel and Sarah brought. Yum! We headed to bed not long after this, as we were all beat. The next morning we went to church together after our traditional Sunday morning pancake breakfast. I napped in the afternoon and Charis went to Joel and Sarah's house. Later the boys went over, and finally the rest of us grown-ups plus Kenna made it over. Shortly before we arrived the boys both got stung by a rogue wasp that managed to make it into the house. Arden was sitting passively on the couch watching a movie when we arrived, but Tobin was attempting to let everyone in the city know about his pain. Granted, the poor guy did get two stings compared to Arden's one, but this is also the boy we've dubbed the Drama King. After making sure that there was nothing else we could do--Sarah had treated the stings well, having gotten one herself recently, and no signs of allergic reactions were appearing--I sat with Tobin on the couch for a bit and he actually fell asleep. The rest of us were then free to eat dinner...though I did have to get up to be with Tobin or Kenna at various points of the evening. Still, it was a gorgeous evening to enjoy a taco salad on Joel and Sarah's newly finished deck, and Tobin did get some sleep, which was a relief for all of us! He is NOT a good patient!!
The next day we went to the Children's Museum, which was lots of fun. About four years ago we had taken Charis and Tobin, so it was fun to be back there now that they were all old enough to enjoy some of the other exhibits besides the toddler area! The kids had a blast, and we stayed for several hours.
The next day Ted took Kenna and me downtown to meet Mimi, my dear friend and upline with Stampin' Up! We stayed at a hotel a few blocks from the convention center and enjoyed our annual SU! convention. Two other friends joined us in our hotel, and I think there were a total of about 15 ladies from our group all together. As usual, I came away with my brain spinning and ready to hit the ground running with my business!
Meanwhile, Ted and the kids had a packed schedule with Grandma and Uncle Joel and Auntie Sarah. Their activities included Chuck E. Cheese, bowling, a picnic in the mountains, the museum of natural history, and an attempt to see the Rockies play baseball. Unfortunately, it ended up being the only game in the last 3 years to get rained out, so the boys returned disappointed but with new Rockies' baseball hats.
The drive home was also about 12 hours long, and we listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and part of Pinocchio on CD. Having never read a translation of the full Pinocchio story, I was a bit surprised at how moralistic and, frankly, inane the full story truly is. That, plus the CD being scratched tremendously, led Ted and I to decide to chuck the whole experience. However, we enjoyed the Chocolate Factory so much that we rented the movie to see for movie night last night. The kids hadn't seen it before and were highly amused by the Oompa-Loompas.
This past week the kids pretty much ran wild. By that, I mean we did no home school, and I worked frantically to organize things for my new catalog open house and retired merchandise sale, which I had this morning. Next year I will definitely make those things two separate events. Lesson learned! It was semi-successful in that I did unload quite a bit of old stuff, but I didn't get any new shows booked, which was my main goal for the event. Oh, well. I'll just have to start asking people to help me out!
Anyway, we are for SURE doing school next week. The kids have now had two weeks of break time, and we are all craving the routine. As if I needed any more proof that behavior issues are at a maximum when there is no structure!!!
Let's see. In other news, we started Kenna on rice cereal a couple of evenings ago. Probably partly due to traveling and all the excitement of Convention, she was beginning to wake during the night again. Honestly, this child has been the most inconsistent of our four when it comes to night time sleeping. We were so proud of the fact that Charis slept through the night at 5 1/2 weeks old, and both boys around 9-10 weeks. They did great, but started waking just before we ended up giving them cereal, and once they were on cereal, they went back to sleeping 10-12 hours at night. While Kenna has been known to go 9-10 hours on occasion, it has certainly not been an every-night occurrance, and more often it's more like 6-7 hours. When that stretch BEGINS at 8 or 8:30 p.m, that means Mom and Dad are getting up much sooner than they'd like to be! I think that now we're back in our own home and she is getting some cereal in her tummy, we should start seeing some better progress. Another lesson learned...don't be too proud of one child's accomplishments, expecting the same thing to work with the next!! Kenna is now 5 months old, though, so I know she is fully capable of sleeping longer stretches. She may well do a long stretch tonight--we took the kids to the new Y about 3 miles from our house for an afternoon of swimming, and Kenna got her fair share of water and sunshine. She's sacked out now, but we'll be sure to wake her for one last feeding and some cereal before bedtime.
Well, I think those are the highlights. I'll try to download our pictures so I can post some next time. I'm pooped from a long day and a short night!
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