Easter + a Spontaneous Staycation

 Michael was on call this week and got hit SO hard. Some weeks aren't too bad, but this trauma call week was pretty rough.

I took the boys to the library on Monday, then on Tuesday we ended up deciding that morning we needed to get a hotel for the day/night because of the toxic fumes from our insulation installation in the basement. I packed up for all 6 of us during the get-ready-for-school window of the day and it was a little crazy, but we made it work. So we dropped the boys off, then Camden and Asher and I ran errands (recycling drop off and book shipments -- we do these errands soo much), then we went to playgroup at a friend's. Then we grabbed lunch, and went to our hotel. It's kind of hard to check into a hotel with two tiny kids and bags and a pack n play, especially when you're room is on the third floor and not close to the elevator. But, mischief managed. Then we got Asher down for a nap and he was so happy to finally go down. Camden and I had a good afternoon of Paw Patrol and Comma meetings.

Then we picked up the boys, I checked on Luna girl, and packed up for her dog class that night, and grabbed pizzas for dinner. We met Michael at work and he took the boys back to the hotel for swim and pizza and I took Luna to her class and then we all met back at the hotel for hot chocolate and bedtime. Michael went back to the house to let Luna out one more time. We kind of loved waking up in the hotel and eating a hotel breakfast together on a regular old Wednesday right in Fort Collins :) The boys ate sooooo much, they are crazy. So many people were sweet to them during breakfast.

Michael had surgeries scheduled on Wednesday. On Thursday morning Camden started soccer and it was one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed. All the boys had to come to swim on Thursday night because Michael had a meeting, but Camden and Asher are really starting to have fun together so they were really easy while Westin and Bennett had their lesson.

Saturday was soccer game morning, easter egg hunt mid-morning, lunch, monster truck afternoon, and then Michael and I went out for Vietnamese food and to Home Depot for some basement stuff. On Sunday we had a wonderful Easter Sunday! I love our annual neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. The Easter bunny heard that it was kind of driving me crazy to think of "big addition or subtraction problems -- like five digits!" for Westin while I cook dinner, so there was a big old math book in his Easter basket of just huge addition and subtraction and he liked that very much haha. Bennett and Camden got some detailed coloring books and Asher got some birthday cake bunny crackers. Sweet boys. We had Easter dinner outside, which was the first time we've eaten out there after this long, cold winter and it felt great.

 I loved this weekend. I love these boys!

Story time -- they love when the tunnels come out

Our impromptu hotel lunch date when we realized we couldn't be in our house for a long time during our basement insulation process, because of the toxic fumes... Asher took a nap, Camden watched Paw Patrol while I had a Comma meeting on my phone. It was actually a great afternoon!

Hotel baby after a swim

Hot chocolate after a swim. I missed the pizza and pool party because of taking Luna to her Tuesday obedience class, but it was fun to do hot chocolate together when we were all done.

Watching Paw Patrol until school. I wanted to just drive them straight from the hotel so I didn't have to get everyone out the door more than once. I really love our late school start but once in a while it just feels so late!

Watching the little crane bring in all our drywall

Ready for soccer!

My friend Diane texted me a picture of her rocking her Taylor concert t-shirt and I happened to be wearing mine the same day and sent this right back to her. Though this is an Amazon version because.... those merch lines were miles long!

Swim lessons set up a new little kids corner and these two loved it.

Another year of using this spinner to decorate eggs rather than dye and I'm a huge fan.

Westin's Saturday soccer game

Took the boys to a local church's egg hunt, they loved it last year and now when we drive by that church Camden always says, "There's the candyland church!" Just because he remembers all the candy from the egg hunt. So we had to go again :)

Monster truck time!

Camden has talked about monster trucks so often ever since Michael took the boys last year. So this year I took them while Michael was home with Asher.

Sitting by him at this monster truck show will forever be one of my favorite memories. Throwing his hands up in excitement, laughing, looking shocked at the motorcycle tricks... just absolutely adorable.

Easter Sunday with my sweet crew

We did Easter cinnamon rolls because the boys were sad we didn't do them on conference weekend since I was out of town. They tasted just as good a week late :) Yes Asher is crying for one in the background. This kid and carbs. He's my worst eater as a baby, but, he'll get there.

The Easter Bunny brought Westin a math book and he was thrilled. The Easter Bunny predicted this. Bennett got an adult coloring book because he absolutely loves the detailed pictures and spends hours on them, a trick we learned from grandma. They did so many pictures at her house.

Annual neighborhood egg hunt!

I loved when Camden got a dollar in one of his eggs. He knew he should be excited about it but wasn't sure exactly why. "Whoa, look at dis! I got a dollar! What the heck do I do with dis?" Hahaha.

Easter piñata too.

Easter dinner! I'm not a huge ham person... we did pork chops, asparagus, potatoes, and an Easter egg fruit pizza.

This was fun and easy to make. And was more delicious than I expected.

Jamie made the hunt so fun for the kids. We have such wonderful neighbors.

That Taylor Swift Weekend

This week was good but this weekend was so great... just the best!

Westin started soccer this week, and sweet Bennett's team was dissolved because of no coach. I started working with a new Comma client this week and loved having some writing to do. Michael took Camden on a little Sonic date (mystery shop, of course) on Wednesday and they both loved it. I started taking Luna to a class to be a good dog. She's so good at certain things and just...... so much to learn in other ways. We're working on it! Apologies to all neighbor children she has jumped on. She has learned to not jump on my kids but she seems to learn person to person, not overall principles. Oh boy. I took Camden and Asher to story time at the library Monday and to a park on Thursday. Asher still struggles not having a morning nap but working hard to get him to just one. 

On Friday, I woke Asher up to nurse him around 4am before I left for the airport. I flew into Dallas and Emily and Ginny picked me up and it was SO FUN to see them. Such sweet forever friends. We ate lunch at Cava, got Sprinkles cupcakes, then got ready for our weekend's main event... Taylor! I had the biggest headache trying to get Taylor tickets. In the end, Ticketmaster sent me a weird email saying I could buy two Denver tickets if I wanted them and they ended up being reallllly good seats, which is so fun! But we were trying to plan a girls trip and had to shift gears since in the end I could only grab two. Then Emily kept watching Dallas tickets and finally found a decent deal on some that weren't behind the stage... ha, this tour is in high demand. So we jumped on them and made a halfway spontaneous weekend happen!

We had fun dressing up for the concert in our mom version of a Swiftie outfit. People watching at this concert was incredibly entertaining, people are going all out with their outfits to this show. And Taylor put on a totally entertaining 3+ hours... I do not understand how she is doing this multiple nights a week, week after week after week. We were in heaven singing her songs the whole night and our 2am bedtime didn't even feel too bad after all that concert energy. And Dr. Pepper. So fun! I will relive that night for a long time :)

The next morning we did a day trip to Waco and saw and ate all things Magnolia! That was fun to see in person. Chip and Joanna are fun to follow along with, they have really transformed parts of Waco and created a whole design Mecca. It was so much fun, but truly the best part was being able to just laugh and catch up with Ginny and Emily. We dropped off a bench at Emily's house that night before dinner and seeing her girls made my heart so happy! So did seeing Banks, but I just can't kick calling her kiddos her girls! I love that he joined their cute little crew and shook things up. But seeing them also broke my heart a little, because they are just growing up!! And I know my kids are too but when you see them every day it just hits differently... sneaks up on you, where seeing friends' kids less than once a year hits you all at once. They're such sweet kiddos.

The next day my flight got delayed, and I didn't want to make Emily shuttle back and forth to DFW all day so I just hung out a bit longer at the hotel and watched a session of conference by myself. I also ate Shake Shack for breakfast, because... it was there, I was there, it just needed to happen.

Michael took the boys down to Denver for the day on Saturday and they had a great time with Katie's family and Diana's family. He even brought Luna along for her first day trip. She's getting so big! Still not very trustworthy at all though... needs a full-time chaperone if she's in the house, so she's spending 95% of her day outside. Westin had fun seeing his North Carolina cousin that he doesn't get to be around very much, Ethan knows all things planes and is a fun older cousin to the boys! They also all loved hunting for Easter eggs at a neighborhood hunt and going on a little hike together. I was sad when we found out everyone was getting together that day and I'd be out of town, but I was happy the boys had a great weekend together while I was gone. 

Asher did pretty good without me, he's still hit and miss with sleeping through the night and doing a bedtime and morning feeding still. Michael said he did great Friday and slept through just fine, and Saturday woke up SUPER sad in the night and Michael ended up feeding him a whole yogurt, and then he fell back asleep after 10 minutes of crying. He nursed right when I got home and we'll work to drop his night feeding this week. My heart loves to see my family doing more together and breaks to see my last baby leave his baby days. It's so hard to believe. But life is good and we had such a great weekend all around!

I take a picture of him every time he's in here, doesn't get old :)

He closes the door, not me :)

There are too many pictures in this post of Camden and this muffin batter situation, but I swear I'm already mourning him turning four. Three-year-old Camden has been an absolute, heaven-sent, joy of my life experience. So I decided to not delete any of the pictures :)

Grabbed lunch and then.... found that cupcake ATM asap!

We're Ready For It

We had a definite mom vibe, we knew that All Too Well

Just so much love for these girls.

This concert. Three of the best hours of my life... Taylor Swift is the soundtrack to my last 15 years and I just will always feel like I grew up with her and Harry Potter. I didn't. But I did.

Then, to the Silos! I was so excited to see all things Magnolia.

This girl. I still can't believe we were randomly placed in the same apartment freshman year at BYU, then randomly placed in Fresno for a few of the same years.
I actually think there's nothing random about it, and I will love her forever.

These biscuits are the star of the show when it comes to all the food at Magnolia. So good!
Maybe I should be serving multiple butters on a regular basis, this seems like solid logic.

Lemon lavender donut holes.

The sign they picked me up with at the airport haha...
I'm smiling so big just remembering it.

Meanwhile back at home, Asher was a little out of sorts during the dad and boys Denver day.
Michael and the boys went down to be with his sisters and they had so much fun Easter egg hunting and hiking and playing with cousins.
Asher did take a nap, which is good, just doesn't look like a very comfortable one!
Haha, sweet boy.

The church they redid and moved in Waco over to Magnolia. 

My flight got delayed 5 hours so I ended up listening to a session of conference by myself in the hotel and it's the most I've gotten out of conference in many moons :)

Annnnnd then I had Shake Shack for breakfast, which was also spiritual.


Best. Weekend. Ever.