Break!

I going to touch on some simple stuff, and then we are just going to skip to the good stuff this week.

We mainly stayed busy with our usual stuff, execpt for school. The kids had the week off. Mornings were less busy, but we'll be back in school next week.

Tim has been without a counselor in his presidency for a few weeks as one of his counselors moved. A new counselor was called this past Sunday. They have been getting organized, and he arranged a couple of blessings this week, which is not an uncommon occurrence, especially because members from other wards in the area may end up at the hospital so they will contact him to arrange a blessing. He has otherwise started writing his bike–just a run-of-the-mill mountain bike–for some exercise. He does not do any trails but gets a little exercise and has enjoyed it. I have managed to continue walking or doing other basic exercises, which has been good. It has been a while since I have exercised this late pregnancy. Only 2 months left, crazy! I guess we need to settle her name at some point...

The highlight of the week was a simple get away (see below for pictures). The goal was in part the destination but more so to get out of our routine and really focusing on family memories. We deliberately went the weekend after Labor Day weekend so it hopefully would not be as busy. He went to the city called Hot Springs, Arkansas. Population 37,000. I certainly do not know all of her history, but they have a few touristy things. They do have a water park/theme park that we did not do this year, but maybe will do that in the future.

We headed out Friday morning. The drive was just over 2-1/2 hours. It was very pretty with lots of greenery. We were very fortunate to have nice weather with cooler temperatures. It did rain a little bit overnight on Friday, but that just drop the temperatures into the 60s for part of Saturday, which was nothing to complain about. When we arrived on Friday we decided to eat the lunch we had packed on a road up the little mountain that overlooked the city. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs while enjoying lunch before the other festivities began. We then headed to the Mid-America Museum, which is a natural history museum. It was a good size but by no means was not huge. The kids were very entertaining with lots of their activities, and we typically had to pull them away from playing with one thing to see another attractions that we could work our way through most of the museum. We ended up doing a dinosaur trail outside where they simply had a nice little walk––a little more strenuous than expected for 32 weeks––with dinosaur models on the side. The kids enjoyed it, and I did not go into premature labor despite the labors of the walk.

We left the museum and solved a water bottle dilemma quickly at Walmart. After eating lunch we realized Owen's water bottle was lost, and we decided a simple replacement was better than driving up the mountain again. We had then planned to get a treat, but the parking was too hectic to battle on the main street with the shops and restaurants, and it was getting later in the afternoon so we ended up combining an afternoon treat with dinner by going to the World Buffet just before 4:00. Everyone ate enough dinner and dessert that we did not hear anyone complaining about being hungry later. Hyrum seemed to push his limit as he was cramping in the last sushi rolls because he felt bad throwing them away, but everyone survived some good fun and overeating.

We shifted gears after dinner and watched a movie with the kids that everyone could relax. They always get so excited to see big TVs in rentals and get their hopes up to watch some shows.

We may need to learn to pack alarm clocks. The kids did not know what type it was when they woke up but just decided it was time to come out and play the board games they had seen. Mom and Dad said no because it was 4:30 in the morning.... This was after Liam had already woken up and come into her room at midnight so I guess the kids are just trying to retrain us on sleep deprivation prior to the new baby coming.

We had a relaxed morning on Saturday because the alligator farm and petting zoo did not open until 10 AM. The kids fed the cereal they provided to goats, black sheep, donkeys and emus. They then went inside the pen to pet the goats and then into another pen with rabbits. They were not as shy as they typically are, but I would not still stick with his strategy of sneaking up behind the animals and patting (not petting) quickly before running away.

They did have some small alligators that were a part of the petting zoo. Everyone but Owen took a turn holding an alligator. I cannot say I blame him for not holding an alligator. It seems like a good survival instinct.

After the alligator farm/petting zoo, we sat down for pizza for lunch. Lila got to choose lunch because it is her birthday this upcoming week. After lunch, we hit the road and got home and time to start some laundry and get started on dinner. I did not have plans set in place for dinner so Tim volunteered to pick something up while he was filling up with gas at the grocery store. We were all still recovering from pizza so he ended up just getting a wide variety of fruit for a "frutatarian" meal. The kids always like fruit so they did not complain about eating tons of pineapple, watermelon, mango, grapes, and oranges. It also made for a quick dinner so they can go outside and get more wiggles out after plenty of time in the car for the day.

We will leave it at that for this week. Until next week....

(the lookout over the city--better in person)