We are getting up later and later, which concerns me because we go back on Sunday and the kiddos return to school on Monday. I'll have to start getting them up earlier so that they are more used to the time schedule from home than the time schedule here.
Reagan and Cole ate breakfast and did homework and then watched their iPads for a while. Steve and I caught up on some e-mails and phone calls. Then, he went to work out and I went to shower. The kiddos and I headed for the pool where Steve met up with us. Turns out he was working out with Bill and Pat (Tammy's parents and the owners of the resort). They chatted and worked out. Bill told him all about building this place and some of the challenges they had to overcome.
As soon as Steve showed up at the pool, Reagan and Cole begged him to get in with them. They threw the football around forever. At one point, Reagan wanted to blow up the floating crocodile. She went to the Activity's Hut and had them blow it up. They played on it with Steve (having him dump them off of it) for a while and then an employee came over and told them they had to get it out of the pool - it was too big. Clearly, it wasn't too big - this is a 350,000 gallon pool. I think that what he meant was that it was a safely hazard. We've had that complaint before - if a lifeguard can't see beneath a raft, there is a risk that a child could be under there and unable to get up for air. He didn't say that and - actually - there aren't any lifeguards here anyway, but.... we will comply.
So, the crocodile came out of the pool and Reagan and Cole went right back in - this time with their snorkel gear.
Then, they all hit the slide. Again, they tried all sorts of poses until the employee told them just to sit and go down feet first.
We ordered lunch by the pool and while we were waiting, we saw Bill and Todd walking around. We chatted with them for a bit and then ate our lunch. The kiddos barely stopped chewing their food before they jumped back into the pool.
Today has been our sunniest day (I joked with Bill that he brought the sun) although it was almost too hot and I had to worry about Reagan and Cole getting too much sun. I think I'll take the cloudier days over the sunny ones :)
Eventually, they persuaded Steve to join them again and they all hit the hot tub and the slide as well. They swam for SO long!
By 4pm, we had to drag them out of the water and head back to the villa. We ate some sandwiches for dinner and then watched Christmas Vacation - love that show, but we have to watch it on tv so they edit out the bad words - ugh! It was fun! The kiddos fell asleep shortly after that and Steve and I hit the sack as well. We are half way through our trip and need to start getting up sooner so that the time change doesn't hit us too hard when we get back. I'm going to try to get everyone up at 6:30 tomorrow and gradually earlier each day. (We'll see how that goes.)
The kiddos weren't up quite as early this morning, but they still were able to get some homework done and watch some iPad time before breakfast. We got caught up on some emails and church assignments from yesterday before Steve went to work out and I got ready.
Even though there was no rain predicted for this morning, it started to pour. Oh well - we'll just stay in our beautiful villa and watch the rain. Reagan and Cole were anxious to get to the pool so, they got dressed and waited... and waited. Eventually, the rain stopped and we headed for the main pool. Reagan and Cole played with these pool rings my parents gave them years ago. We haul them to Hawaii every single trip and they always play with them. One throws and the other has to find them or they race to find them. Whatever works.
They also played this game where they would sneak around the base of one of the waterfalls and try to tag each other. One would go one way and then double back around to catch the other one. They played that for a long, long time.
After a while, Steve returned from working out. He changed into his swimsuit and played with Reagan and Cole in the pool. They threw the football back and forth forever. They had friends join them for a while and then leave, then another friend would come and stay for a while and then leave.
Before we knew it, it was 2:00 and everyone was hungry. We headed back to the room and ate. Steve showered and then we watched some tv and worked on our computers while the kiddos did some homework and read.
Then, the cleaning people came, so, we decided to take a drive. We didn't bring Steve's foam roller and he wanted one. There wasn't one at the gym here and we couldn't find a local gym that had one we could use, so, we drove to Walmart and bought one. We also picked up some more groceries and then came back to the resort.
I was fighting a migraine, so, I decided to lay down. Steve took Reagan and Cole out to the firepit where they were roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. After that, they put their feet in the pool and hung out for a bit when they ran into Bill (the owner) and Todd (the manager). They chatted for a bit and then came back to the villa.
The kiddos watched a show while Steve worked on his computer. Then, we hit the sack - another lovely day in the books.... wish I could kick this migraine though :(
Steve played around a bit more with the Portrait setting on his phone - cool features.
Reagan and Cole were up early again today and were able to get some more homework done and they watched some iPad as well. It's Sunday, so we got up and got ready and headed to church. It was almost a 25 minute drive to church, which seems like a long way. When we walked into the building, the greeters asked us if we were part of the 66 people here from Utah. Um.... we are from Utah, but not part of a group. Interesting. We found a seat (next to some people from Kaysville on one side and some from Canada on the other side) and the meeting started. It was great - being the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the topics were gratitude and one's worth. There were great speakers and the intermediate musical number was a lady who played How Great Thou Art on the ukulele and sang half of the song in English and half in Hawaiian. It was so beautiful!
I guess the manager of our resort is in the Bishopric here. Steve's brother told him that, so, we decided to go and introduce ourselves and to thank him for the beautiful, upgraded room. He offered to help in any way. We thanked him and headed out. We met a family in the parking lot who are part of the "Group of 66". Apparently, a couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary and they decided to bring all of their children and grandchildren to Kaua'i to celebrate with them. There were 66 of them. Love that! They were from Utah as well. It was super windy and rainy off and on.
When we returned to the villa, we sat down and had some lunch and then we watched Back to the Future, which was on tv. That's one of our favorite shows. Later in the afternoon, we headed to the pool and Reagan and Cole swam for a couple of hours.
Steve brought the football and was throwing with the kiddos. I was nervous because they kept almost hitting people and/or splashing them. Ugh! Reagan was so cute to always apologize and to thank people for returning the football to us while Cole would duck behind a bush or wall in the pool and avoid any confrontation whatsoever .... woosie!
Once in a while, some other kiddos - or even adults - would come by and join in their little football throwing game. Then, they would go back to their group or party and it would just be Reagan and Cole and Steve. Every once in a while, Steve would throw it at me (not to me mind you) while I was taking pics of them or reading :)
They had a great time on the slide. They would come down in all kinds of crazy poses. Cole's favorite was to come down on his knees until the employee at the top of the slide told him that he couldn't do that. Bummer.
Again, it would be perfectly sunny and then ..... raining like crazy. Like yesterday, we would duck into the grotto and Reagan and Cole would remain unaffected by the rain.
Eventually, we dragged the kiddos out of the pool and headed back to the room to watch some tv before crashing into bed after another great day in paradise.
We received our new iPhones only a few weeks ago, so, we are still trying to become familiar with all of the tips and tricks of it. One feature we love is Portrait Mode. Basically, you can take a picture and then make all sorts of lighting and effects changes to it. It is really cool. Steve was playing around with Portrait Mode and took some pics of Reagan. They are all so similar and yet so different.
Yep - we had a great Sunday here and are ready for another great day!
As has been our tradition, the day after Thanksgiving, we jetted out of town to Hawaii. This time, we decided to hit Kaua'i. We haven't been here since I was pregnant with Reagan. I'm not sure why we haven't been back - maybe because this is a pretty quiet island, maybe we just didn't have the right deal, maybe we just loved the other islands so much. Regardless, here we are. We took a 7am flight out of Salt Lake and into Phoenix. We had a 2 hour layover in Phoenix and then were on our way to Lihue. Well, the Phoenix to Lihue leg of our trip seemed to take forever! I was thinking about it and I believe the reason for this is that usually, we fly from Salt Lake to somewhere on the west coast (LA, San Fran, Oakland, etc.). This time, we basically flew south - and didn't cut into the distance from where we were to Hawaii. At least when we fly the 90 minutes to LA, we are cutting 90 minutes off of our trip. This time, we still had the full 6.5 hours to go and they were long. Reagan and Cole were great flyers, as usual. They used their iPads to watch movies and play games, they slept and they watched the movie on the airplane. They didn't fight at all, despite being in tight spaces, until we arrived in Lihue. Then, it was like they immediately needed their own space and couldn't stand it one more second :)
We picked up our rental car (booked through Costco by the way, which I never knew was an option. Our SIL Tammy told us about it and not only was Costco the cheapest, but they have added benefits like an additional driver for free, etc.) and we headed toward Poipu. Like I said, we haven't been to this island since we were pregnant with Reagan. Funny - I remember finding out that we were expecting right before we left. I hurried to the book store and bought a bunch of books about pregnancy and how to be healthy during your pregnancy and what to expect. We were so excited. It seems weird that we haven't brought Reagan and Cole to this island before. We spent a third of our honeymoon on this island and had a great time. I guess we love Maui so much and we were offered great deals at other resorts on other islands. Kaua'i is a pretty quiet island. Oh well - whatever the reason, we are here now and we are excited!!!!
Right when Cole stepped off the rent car bus, he jumped back on and said "Mom - it's a wild turkey!" Oh yes - I forgot about all of the roosters wandering around Kaua'i. I corrected him and said "Not a turkey" to which he replied "Oh right - chicken!!!" I laughed and said "Rooster!!!" He rolled his eyes "Rooster - that's what I meant!!!" He couldn't believe that there were like 20 of them wandering around the Budget Rental Car facility. He kept taking pics of them and following them and talking to them - this boy cracks me up.
We picked up our SUV and stopped at the Costco along the way to stock up on food. We have a kitchen in our room and want to have some staples so that we don't have to eat out every single meal. We drove the 30 minutes or so to Koloa Landing and checked in. What a surprise - we had originally booked a studio (using our certificate that we received when we transferred all those Marriott points into the Southwest points) and yet, we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom villa. Whoa!!! Steve's brother, John, married Bill Child's daughter and this is Bill's resort. John was kind enough to call the manager here and request an upgrade for us if it was available. Upgrade indeed - the room was amazing!!!!! We had to call and thank John for making the request. It makes such a difference for Reagan and Cole to have their own room and area and for us all to not have to be on top of each other 24/7. Plus, the villa has two bathrooms, a full kitchen (dishwasher, dining area, SubZero freezer and fridge, etc.), a laundry room with washer and dryer and a gorgeous lanai. We are in heaven! Thanks John and Tammy!!!!!
We unpacked, ate some cereal or something fast and just crashed. After all, this mama got up at 3am to get everyone ready and packed and out the door. We had intended to walk around the resort and see the workout room and the different pools, but we crashed. Oh well - tomorrow is another day.
The next day, Reagan and Cole were up before 5. Yep - it's 8 at home and that is the latest they sleep. They watched some iPad and did some homework until Steve and I got up and got going. Reagan and Cole did their homework and reading out on the lanai - it is huge and so beautiful. Of course, you can hear the roosters sounding off to wake up the world :)
After breakfast, Steve took them to the pool while I got ready. They were playing and having fun and then it started pouring. So, they ducked into the restaurant by the pool and had an omelette.
When I arrived, it was sunny, they were in the hot tub and Steve was still in the restaurant but watching them. It started to pour - like really pour.
After a bit, we moved to a bigger table and we ordered hamburgers for lunch. Even though we shared 2 burgers, we were full. They were big burgers and were so yummy. Reagan and Cole added chocolate smoothies to the order and then they were leaving us to return to the pool.
When we researched this resort, it said it had one of the best pools in Hawaii. It is gorgeous. The main pool has water slides, a huge waterfall off of a rock formation that you can swim under and it has a grotto there. Then, it has an infinity pool and hot tubs around the area. Reagan and Cole were in heaven.
It rained off and on all day. We would be just sitting in the sun and then all of a sudden - it would pour! We would duck into the grotto under the waterfall while Reagan and Cole would just keep swimming and having fun - they were already wet and didn't care that it was raining.
They swam and played games. They made up a little swimming routine that I filmed. They are so funny.
Of course, they found friends at the pool. They had chicken fights with one on the other's shoulders and they made up this game where one would stand out of the pool and listen. If they thought one of the others was swimming across the pool, they would turn around. If they were right and one of the kiddos was trying to get across the pool, they had to jump in and tag them before they got to the other side. If they were wrong and all kiddos were right there at the edge, the one outside of the pool had to take a step away from the edge and try again. They did it again and again and again. They had a great time!
After 6 hours of swimming, we headed back to the villa. I swear, they could have stayed there until the pool closed (that's 10pm ya'll). They LOVE to swim.
Steve actually went to the grocery store to get a few of the things that we didn't get at Costco (things that we didn't need a Costco size supply of). We watched the BYU game (our nephew in law's last game for BYU) and the Utah game and we were thrilled that both teams won! We had dinner and headed to bed.
What a great, first day!
PS - just a note - we booked our return flight on United over 6 months ago. We found a daytime flight (granted 2 stops, but it was worth it to avoid that red eye) which was worth booking early and paying more. We didn't even know our departing flight, but we knew our return flight. The redeye is hard on all of us and it wrecks Reagan and Cole for a couple of days. Leaving at 11 in the morning and getting back at midnight is rough, but not as rough as the redeye. A few weeks later, we booked our United departing flight, which had a 1.5 hour stopover in San Francisco. About two months ago, we received an email that said our flight had been changed and that we now had a redeye. Not ok! I called United several times to try to remedy the situation. I was always routed to India and had a person on the other end of the line who was just reading a script - "I'm so sorry Mrs. Petersen, there is nothing we can do." I pushed for any way to avoid the redeye - nothing. I pushed for them to put us in First Class so that we could better sleep - no deal. I just would not let them change our flight - I told them to leave it and I started looking for other, non redeye, flights home. I was coming up short. Eventually, I answered a phone call from a number I didn't recognize (which I usually don't do) and it was an English speaking guy who could actually help us. He explained that the new non-redeye leaves Honolulu at 8 am and that he simply couldn't get us to Honolulu from Kaua'i that morning early enough to connect to that flight. I offered to fly to Honolulu the day before - or even the day before that. Whatever it would take to be able to fly home during the day. He was totally fine with that and booked us on Island Air Friday afternoon (we leave for home on Sunday). We were good to go. Until....... we received another email from United that said that our departing flight was now going to have a 5 hour stopover in San Francisco, rather than a 1.5 hour stopover. Again, I called United and could get no relief from anyone. Eventually, I found an American flight that had a 2 hour stopover in Phoenix, so, I told United to cancel our departing flight and we booked on American. Then, a week before our trip, we received an email from United that said that Island Air (the carrier taking us from Kaua'i to O'ahu) was out of business. This time, I didn't make any calls.... I waited... and answered every phone call that came to my phone, even if I didn't recognize the number. Yep - a lady from United called and said "We're going to put you on Hawaiian Air, leaving 30 minutes later. Great! Perfect! So, although we had quite a time getting the right flights, but we avoided that darn redeye and that was what meant the most to us.
Cole's friend Ben (our carpool, school and church buddy) is way into yo-yos. He bought one or was given one and he is trying to perfect a bunch of tricks. Well, apparently, he got a new yo-yo and his old one was "rubbish", so he gave it to Cole. When Cole came home and showed Steve, Steve picked it up and schooled Cole on several tricks. Cole took a little video and sent it to Ben and said "My Dad is the yo-yo master!" Gotta love it. I really am amazed that Steve can pick this thing up after what? 20 or 30 years and do a bunch of tricks and show off his skills. Way to go Master Steve :)
Happy Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Steve's youngest brother, Brett, and his family invited us to join them, along with Steve's parents and Brett's MIL, for Thanksgiving dinner at their house. This works out perfectly because Reagan and Cole LOVE to play with Drew - and Meg who is older, but puts up with the little ones :) Plus, since we are leaving tomorrow, it is super easy for us to bring some food, leave all the leftovers and not have to have our house ready to host a group of people.
We had a delicious dinner and Annie's table was just beautiful. It was unseasonably warm for Thanksgiving (I think it broke a heat record of several decades), so, why not play outside after dinner, right?
Cole brought his hover board to show Drew and well, everyone got into the fun.
Brett, Drew, and Megan picked up riding the hover board super fast - I don't know how they do it. (I haven't ventured an attempt yet).
We had a huge dessert, buffet table and enjoyed chatting with everyone and just being together.
We are so very blessed and LOVE being able to spend today being thankful with those that we love. I was reflecting on our list from last year - our 1000 things we were thankful for. Truly, I know we express our gratitudes each day in our various prayers and when we think about something in particular, but I'm so glad that we went through the exercise of naming 1000 things we are grateful for. Of course, there are many more, but when you are making a list, you think of smaller, less significant things, but you realize that we are blessed every day through big and small things. Our Heavenly Father has richly blessed our family and we need to always remember to express our thanks to Him and to others. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!
We love our pediatrician. I mean love Love LOVE!!!! We love his nurse just as much!!! Steve's brother and SIL referred us to him when we were pregnant with Reagan and that recommendation was seconded by several people in our ward and neighborhood. We met with him before Reagan was born and just loved him. He is no-nonsense, smart, kind, clearly loves his job and obviously loved our children from the day they were born. He and his nurse have talked me off of so many ledges, have calmed me when I was scared, have explained the most detailed of instructions to me and have helped me know how to keep Reagan and Cole healthy and strong and on target development-wise.
A couple of years ago, Dr. Schmidt went to part-time, which meant only 3 days per week. Hi son joined the practice and I think most patients transferred over to him to have a doctor who was available every day. Not us - nope. No problem - we can only get sick on those three days. I promise! Then, his nurse - Melissa - decided to take more of a managerial position in being the liaison between the doctors and the patients - especially when it came to special needs patients. Well, we didn't care - we would still stop in and give her a hug and a treat each time we went to the doctor's office.
We went in for Cole's well-child visit right before Thanksgiving and we saw Melissa first. She looked at me with a concerned face and said "I was going to call you, but I saw you on the schedule and I figured why ruin her week before she comes in." She told me that Dr. Schmidt had decided to retire and would be going on a mission with his wife. He would serve as the medical expert for the missionaries in the south western states - mostly Arizona. I gasped - I expected him to stay in practice until Reagan and Cole aged out and turned 18. I was just so sad. We love him. He has been amazing and has helped us in so many ways. He has called me at home to check up on Reagan and Cole or to tell me of something he learned about a topic we discussed, he has hugged us every time we have come into the office. I just don't trust anyone as much as him. In fact, as we were driving to Cole's appointment, Reagan asked what doctor they would go to when they grew up. I told her that I had no idea - I don't have a doctor for me that I like and trust anywhere near as much as I trust Dr. Schmidt. I love my OB, but as for a general care doctor - nothing! I haven't seen anyone that I feel is as sincere and as knowledgeable as our pediatrician. Ugh - well, it is what it is.... right?
So, as we were sitting there, waiting for the doctor, and Reagan looked around and said "Mom - please take a picture of these pictures on the wall. They've been here since we were born." I explained that even though Dr. Schmidt will be leaving, those pictures will still be on the wall. She didn't care - she wanted a picture anyway. So, I obliged.
Then, the doctor came into the room. I was near tears and he just hugged us all and told us about his mission. He leaves in January and I guess the office is going to have a farewell reception for him. He made sure to have us put our name and address on the list for invites. Then, he requested his nurse take a picture of us with him. We had to include his old nurse - Melissa. We are all a team to keep Reagan and Cole healthy. I guess I'll have to find some new team members. We are sad, but excited for this new chapter in his life. Good thing I have Melissa's cell phone number :)
Note - I remember after Reagan was born (over a month early) how Dr. Schmidt came to the hospital and checked her out each day we were there. Then, he said "I'm discharging her as soon as she can pass her car seat test." Wait - what?!? I was terrified. Don't get me wrong - I had babysat almost my whole life. I knew how to care for a baby, but this was scary. She was little - 5 pounds little - and she was early and she wasn't nursing well and..... ugh! He suggested I read the books on the table in my room. "Already done." I said. I needed more information... more help.... more direction. He said "I'll see you in 2 days at my office. If you have any questions - call Melissa." I thought "Who's Melissa?" Geez - I had no idea how much I would "call Melissa". I would call if the children's temperatures were too low, too high, if they turned color, if their poop turned color, if they were coughing weird or breathing weird or acting weird. She knew EVERYTHING!!! Sometimes she would have to ask the doctor, but most of the time, she just answered my question and reassured me that I was doing the right thing. One time, Cole had a bad, bloody nose - like crime scene bloody. I guess some blood went down into his intestines and slowed everything down. He was in pain, but not able to make things move through the intestines. The doctor saw him and prescribed an enema. He was telling me what to do and all my mind could do was go to the worst possible scenario. I asked "Is there any way I could possibly screw this up and hurt him?" Melissa just rolled on the ground. She said "Trust yourself - you can do this and no - you can't hurt him." She talked me through the entire, gross process and it worked just like they said it would. She taught me how to give different medicines at different times, how to cure a diaper rash, how to get them to eat different foods, how to know when a sore throat meant come in to the office vs staying home and monitoring it. The first time Reagan needed shots, I couldn't bear it. She held Reagan while the other nurse gave her the shots - I just cried. The next time, she helped me do it.
Dr. Schmidt was just as great. He reassured me when Reagan would have these little seizures. He said they were normal even though they scared me to death. He taught me how to monitor her feedings and her BMs and her temperature. She was SO stubborn and he just rolled with her - he loved bantering back with her and trying to get her to do what he wanted. I remember trying to potty train Reagan. I had read that it should happen before age three. Well, I tried everything. I tried a boot camp a friend told me about, reward systems other friends told me about, a potty watch to remind her, pull ups, princess underwear.... everything. I was a wreck. We went in for her three year old well child visit and I was expressing my frustration to Dr. Schmidt. I said "I don't understand why I can't do this. I just can't get her to potty train." I detailed all that we had tried. Finally, I said "I've successfully argued before the Utah Supreme Court. Why can't I do this?" He just smiled and looked at me and said "You need to back off!" He told me to give it three months and then try again for one day. If it didn't work, give it another three months. I did as he said and .... voila - potty trained. By the time Cole was three, I didn't even try. I realized it was more about him than me and that when he was ready, he would train. Yep - it was a breeze. Dr. Schmidt knew it. I just didn't. I remember - about three years ago - we stopped at a grocery store on our way home from Cole's soccer game. Steve saw a sign in the pharmacy about flu shots. He signed us all up - we usually got them at our pediatrician's office, but we were there, so.... we decided to do it. Reagan refused... like SERIOUSLY refused. She said "We don't know them. I'm not going to let them give me a shot. Only Dr. Schmidt or Melissa can give me a shot." I explained how it is the same shot and it is regulated, etc. She said "You would NEVER take medicine from a stranger - why would you let a stranger give us a shot?" I had to admit that her reasoning was sound, but .... she needed to know that I was in charge. I HAD to win that battle. Luckily for both of us, the pharmacy was out of the flu shot and couldn't service us anyway, but whoa! That girl had her mind set - only Dr. Schmidt or Melissa would be giving any of us a shot. Crazy girl. When we told Dr. Schmidt of the story, he just laughed and loved it!
Yep - we owe these two so much! I hope I can write a note for his retirement reception that will adequately express my love and appreciation for all that he has done for us. He will be missed and this is a sad, sad day :(
I've posted before about how our piano studio holds Performance Classes before the recital. Well, we have missed so many classes from being out of town and from having conflicts on lesson night and practice times, that I wasn't even sure I wanted Reagan and Cole to perform in the recital. Turned out that the recital is scheduled to be while we are in Hawaii, so, we were going to miss it anyway.
Reagan and Cole did play at the Performance Class, but they could have done better. Sorry - I know that sounds less than kind, but it's true. Reagan was playing I am a Child of God and there is one part that she gets messed up on. Just earlier that day, she messed up in this, same part. I asked if she wanted some help. She insisted she did not, so, when she was performing .... it happened again. She messed up at that same place and then, I think she struggled to get her composure back. She finished ok. I tried to use it as a teaching tool. I'm no piano teacher, but I play enough that I could have helped her figure out where she was going wrong on that song. She didn't want my help and she ended up making the same mistake again. Oh well - lessons learned, right?
Cole played Dust in the Wind. He has practiced this a ton, but he still needs more practice to get those fingers to strum fast and to smoothly move his fingers on the frets. He played pretty quietly as well - he will have to learn how to make it be louder when he is performing.
So, even though these aren't the performances we would want the world to see, they are good learning experiences and every bit of performance practice that these kiddos can get is more and more help for them. Thanks to their teachers Jessa (for Reagan) and Lindsay (for Cole). Way to go Reagan and Cole - let's keep up the practicing!
I've posted before about Cole and Steve throwing the Slime Ball around the house. Then, there was the baseball they threw. Now this..... I don't even know what to call it.
Steve takes the "Indoor Snowball Fight" snowballs that we were given to us by our friends last Christmas and he lobs them at Cole using one of our ..... I don't even know what they are called. Let's go with "handle things". He lobs them at Cole using the handle thing and Cole tries to hit the ball using either a racquetball racquet or a tennis racquet. These two!!! How many sports can we combine into one activity? Geez!!! Oh well - as long as they are having fun, right? (Truly - I'll take these indoor snowballs flying through the air and hitting things over that baseball any day. Ugh.)
We wanted to get together with the Shapiros before Thanksgiving. We had to squeeze in a dinner right after Steve had to go visiting for High Priest's.
After we ate, Cole pulled out the hover board. Everyone had to try it. They picked it up really quickly - I was impressed!!!
Then, the kiddos disappeared and the adults just chatted and got caught up. After a while, the kiddos came out and.... whoa!!!!
They had been putting chalk color into their hair. The girls took strands of hair and made them colors. Cole went with another strategy - more of a total coverage thing.
Reagan's pink barely showed, but Cole looked like a smurf :) They both had to shower to get that stuff out.
I won't even tell you what our bathroom looked like. The white rug by my vanity was more of a blue hue and there was chalk all over the counter. Oh well - a small price to pay for the fun that these kiddos had tonight. We love the Shapiro family!
"Mom on the Run" is the title that best describes me these days. After practicing law for 11 years, I had two little ones and am now a full time Mom and loving it. With a 14 year old and an 12 year old, life is full and crazy. Each day we "run" whether it is to the gym, shopping, guitar, karate, piano, school, lunch with friends, institute class, family activities or church functions. Reagan and Cole keep me crazy busy and we have lots of fun.
Steve (the love of my life) and I have been married for sixteen years and we live in Sandy, Utah. Playing with the kids is our most enjoyable hobby these days. We also try to fit in snow skiing, walking and hiking, and playing in our yard. We love to spend time with Steve's three daughters (and their spouses/kids). We traveled much more before we had our kiddos, but still try to travel when we can. If we are away, we can most often be found on one of the Hawaiian islands and we love to spend time at the beach.
