Pretending to be Angelic

 

Spring Break

One sunny day over spring break, Sam emerged from his womb of a room and asked if we could go for a hike in the foothills. I quickly grabbed my shoes and even offered to stop for sandwiches after our hike. Michael was also able to go so out we headed.

We hiked up one rise and Sam was still game, so we spent a lovely hour wandering the trails around Hull's Gulch.

Sam really enjoyed finding the red rock cliffs.

 

I enjoyed finding this little lizard on a tree trunk. He even held still for his close up. 

On the way home we stopped at Albertson's for the promised sandwiches. It was a pretty perfect spring day.

In case you were wondering why Grace wasn't with us, it's because she was having a splendid week. She saved and borrowed enough money to fly to Delaware to spend time with Libby. Navigating airports alone was rough, but with many phone calls and a lot of deep breathing she managed to get on all the correct flights, navigate security, and arrive safely on both ends of her journey.

It was all she hoped for. Ocean, sister, shopping, sunsets, and food. What else can a girl ask for?

She returned to us a couple days into her scheduled spring break. She spent the days before school catching up on sleep and getting caught up on the schoolwork she missed. I was glad to have her safely home again, and proud of her for making such a scary journey on her own.

Easter

With half the kids having moved out, Easter felt a little quieter than usual. Friday we went to Michael's brother's house for the annual gathering, feeding, and egg hunting. The youngest child hunting eggs was 13 and the oldest was 21. The eggs were just a little bit harder to find than usual :)

But find the eggs they did. Grace brought her friend for the party. It was Lily's very first Easter egg hunt. We had to explain that egg hunts usually weren't held in the dark and the loot was overboard, so she didn't go forward with a false idea of what an egg hunt should look like.

On Saturday Michael and I took the boys to a neighborhood-hosted egg hunt and pancake breakfast. This boy found two eggs and was more than pleased with his bounty.

This guy only found one egg, but he still had a good time. His favorite activity was playing on the playground after the egg hunt, as is so often the case.

After the egg hunt we decided it was time to dye eggs. Ethan came over for the activity, which was nice as Grace and Sam weren't that interested. Cool whip, food dye, and boiled eggs. We made quite the mess, but the eggs turned out festive, clean up was fairly easy, and a tradition was fulfilled.

Libby wasn't able to join us, but the Easter bunny didn't forget about her. She was very pleased.

Family Outing

The same weekend as our anniversary, we got a phone call from my niece asking if we wanted to go out. They were taking the great-nephews to the World Center for Birds of Prey. It sounded like a fun activity, so we grabbed Sam (Grace was already at work) and headed to the outskirts of town.

We were running a few minutes late so as we paid, Michael asked the ticket taker if she had seen a group of redheads with two toddlers come through and she pointed us to their exact location.

We spent a lovely hour hanging out with my sister, her adult children, and the great nephews who did not belong to any member of the group.

There was a slight meltdown on the hike, but Uncle Mike was able to fix it. The five-year-old great nephew loves Uncle Mike the most, of everyone. So much love. I am barely tolerated.

The littlest guy was much more willing to hang out with anyone. He was even willing to check his wingspan with Sam. Sometimes I want to run away from Boise but then I get days like these. How could I possibly leave?

Anniversary

Michael and I actually started thinking about plans for our 22nd anniversary this year a good couple weeks before our anniversary. For the last few years, we've basically forgotten it was our anniversary until the day of. We talked about going out to a nice dinner and Michael bought tickets to a community theater production of the ribald musical "Avenue Q."

The night of our anniversary date, we were running low on time and energy, so we scrapped a fancy dinner. Instead we went to the Thai place right next the theater and had an excellent dinner, with a ton of leftovers. Seeing as we had walked to the theater, we didn't have a place to keep our food, so Michael went to check on our tickets while I quickly walked home to stash our curries. I made it back with a good six minutes to spare.

We weren't sure what to expect from the local theater as we had been to a pretty bad play there before. We were beyond pleasantly surprised. The casting was spot on, the singing was good, and the acting was engaging. We laughed more than we've laughed in years.

We then walked home under the full moon on a beautiful spring evening. We settled down with a dish of ice cream to cap a wonderful evening. Appa even willingly rinsed the dishes for us.

Really, I can't think of a better way to celebrate the passing of another year with the world's greatest man. (This sentence was a Michael's edit)

Snow Days

Christmas was over, New's Years had come and gone, the kids were finally heading back to school and life was starting to resume some order. Then the weather did what it does in winter and started dumping snow. Grace and Sam enjoyed a couple leisurely snow days, with a few begged rides to sledding hills. They spent a lot of time hanging out with friends, and I spent a fair amount of time digging out the minivan, as all the roads were just drifts of snow.

Michael also enjoyed the snowy days immensely. He still had to go into work but he was able to ride his fat bike through the endless of piles of fluff. He was a happy man. He left tracks all over the valley.

We all did a fair amount of snow shoveling to keep ourselves and our neighbor unburied. 

She (our unburied neighbor) felt so grateful for the snow removal that she baked us an entire Russian Honey Cake. I've made this cake twice and it is a pain in the patootie. I was so flattered that she made us this delightful cake. Even Ethan rushed straight over to grab a few pieces. I feel sorry for all those who don't have a neighbor to make and share such wonderful, complicated desserts with them.

New Year's Eve

We didn't do much for New Year's Eve this year. Ethan and Libby had their own adult(ish) plans, so we wished them a good night and let them know we were here, if needed. 

Michael and I settled in at home with Grace and Sam for a night of chips, dips, movies and board games. It was a great way to ring in the new year.

It was wonderful to just sit back and relax. I had a crazy week.  Once again I was in charge of a Noon Year's Eve Party at my library. Thankfully, I was much better about asking my coworkers for help this year, and we had a team of people working on it, not just my family of forced volunteers. It's a really good thing that it was a team event this year, because we had 3x as many people as last year! Over 160 people! Crazy!

My family still came, bringing the boys. But this year they were able to just be part of the attendees. Although, they were still very helpful. Michael wins the best vaccuumer award. He was amazing. Littlest Dude and Libby won the cutest candid photo contest.

Everyone partied their hearts out and we even managed to grab a quick photo before starting cleanup.

I do have lots of other photos that includes snacks, story time, homemade confetti cannons and egg shakers, bubble dance parties, and of course a balloon drop. Unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable posting them as they have other people's children in them. I'll be happy to show them to you in person, though! You'll regret ever asking.

Random Household Update

The biggest news is we have another gainfully employed teenager. Despite it being incredibly difficult to get hired at 14, Grace was determined. There were lots of applications and lots of frustration, but she finally landed a job. She is working at Jamba Juice, just like Libby did when she was 15. Grace loves getting a paycheck, but hates that she is only working a few hours a week. The good news is she now has the funds to start driver's ed and even fly out to Delaware to visit her sister! I do not have a picture of her to share, as she has reached an age where she does not appreciate me sharing many pictures. Just know she is cute in her uniform.

Gertie is still living her best old lady life, but does not approve of the cold temperatures or the fact Libby no longer lives at home to cuddle with. Life can be cruel.

See this beautiful cat? Not our cat. This is outside Sam's voice lessons. It's also not his teacher's cat. It is just an overly friendly cat that will cuddle with anyone and attempt to climb into our car. Sam loves this cat. This cat's dander does not love Sam. It's hard to be allergic to so many wonderful things.

Appa, like Gertie, also does not appreciate the cold. She does not understand why we live in such a freezing place. Her happy place is on a lap and under a blanket. She is even willing to help with the knitting if it means being warmer.

Even with Appa's help, I managed to knit this sweater for a baby shower. I have to put it on the blog because it's so stinking cute! 

 

Michael is still working at St. Luke's and riding his bike. He enjoys volunteering at the Boise Bicycle Project and is looking forward to real biking weather.