First Week of School

Michael:

had his first days off in two weeks so we were grateful for Saturday and Sunday. We ran away to Pismo Saturday in hopes of recreating our magical day there last August, when we saw tons of whales. But that was just another lesson to me on not having expectations -- no whales, crying from Bennett on the drive (normally they do so great on drives), lots of whining, slow day, clam chowder that just wasn't as magical as our last Splash experience, a stop at Avila beach that included lots of sand in eyes and more whining... guys, it just wasn't a win. But we did it and we tried! And the views were beautiful, and Westin woke up Sunday and said, "That was so fun we went to the ocean yesterday!" So at least he only remembers positives :) Michael mowed our lawn and went to an early stake meeting Sunday, and played with the boys so much this weekend. We love when daddy is home. On Friday we had a date set with some friends to go to the temple to the 6:00pm session. Michael has not been home before 6pm at all during this rotation, so I was anticipating possibly just showing up by myself. In the end we took separate cars and because of some stuff that came up with the kids, and stuff that came up at work, we both made it to the temple just 5 minutes before our session started. I had Michael's church clothes with me but he didn't even have time to change, and just went in Scrubs carrying all his things. We were quick though and barely made it to our session, and then had fun going to Cafe Rio with our friends after.

Maddie:

just feels like all of life's basics take so much time and energy lately. Each morning we fit in a walk, a workout, gardening, breakfast, The Friend, some chores, some tv time, some playing, getting ready, and then getting out the door. And right now waking up to that to do list has felt like so much. I need to start my day earlier and get some of it done before my kids wake up. Is that just always the goal but so hard to do? I think it will make a difference but it just feels so hard to actually do. My free time lately has been spent planning our upcoming trip, finishing up some cross stitch orders, researching how to best organize my photos and videos and decide what to do with my videos (advice??), and just trying to stay afloat around here! On Sunday night we had family home evening with friends so we could have a Temple Preview meeting with our primary's only 11-year-old this year. She is such a cute girl and I loved talking with her about the blessings that attending the temple can bring to your life. There are such awesome kids growing up right now.

Westin:

started school! He was so excited. We actually had a really hard day Tuesday morning before school started and I realized that I just overwhelmed him. For some reason he handled it all really well until I pulled out some new shoes for him (his old ones have holes in them so I thought it was high time to pull out the next size up I had grabbed on sale a while ago) and that was just the straw that broke the camel's back (which I didn't know was breaking, so it was all so sudden and random to me). He lost it and just wanted his old shoes and everything fell apart fast. I realized that between Back to School blessings, talking about school, trying to prep him in random ways, cutting his hair that day, getting a new lunch box and then new shoes, suddenly he just kind of hit his limit. I realized I was so excited for him that I had unintentionally stressed him out... but we figured it out and by the time it came to actually leave for school he was so excited again. He did great and loved it! Neither of us cried, we're just happy he gets to have such a good time two times a week. Tuesday is gym day for part of school and Thursday is music class for part. He already knew 3 little friends in his class and it sounds like he's having fun making more friends. His teachers are so sweet and he's going to love it.

My favorite random Westin quote this week came when we were driving Sunday night. Sometimes he builds a "phone" out of his legos (which is probably so sad) and he said, "Can you guys be quiet for a second? I need to make a call." Then he said, "Ok, hey. How are you. So, I'm just calling because, you're a firefighter. And I know you fight fires. But you need to come spray my house. It's kind of dirty outside and you should come spray it with your hose. How are you doing?"

He's so funny and we love him.

Bennett:

was so sad when we left Westin at school! I think he thought we just forgot him there or something. How do you explain drop off and pick up to a little guy? And he also really wanted Westin's backpack, so I put a little backpack on him that Grammy Sally gave him last year when we visited her house and he was SO happy. He has worn that backpack for almost all waking hours since we first dropped Westin off at school. He even cries when I won't let him sleep with it. Bennett is such a sweetheart and I love when he wakes up and carries all his blankets and stuffed animals. He tells me almost every time he goes potty so I think we need to think about potty training soon... yikes. Not mentally ready for that. Both times that we picked Westin up from School were so cute, because Bennett marches right into the room (the parents line up outside to pick up their kids) and hugs his brother and stands by him in line to leave. He's so sweet. He loves to wear hats or sunglasses (or backpacks) and he has the funniest little laugh. On Sunday morning he was so sad when daddy drove away after breakfast (for his church meeting) and I knew he was thinking he was going away all day for work. Then when daddy walked in the door two hours later, Bennett was SOO excited and kept yelling Dada over and over and just climbing all over Michael. I wish they could see him more during these days! But making the most of the time we do have is still really fun. 

This is also the first week that the 10-day forecast had no triple-digit days and we are feeling ACCOMPLISHED over here for conquering another Fresno summer. It was our best yet :)

FHE with Friends

Stake Conference

Avila Beach

Avila Beach

Temple Date night with the Wrights and Tuckers

Dinosaur Park at Pismo

Dinosaur Park at Pismo

Dinosaur Park at Pismo

Music Class

Meals with his Backpack

This face melts my heart

Watching this pup for a week. Her name is Sky and she's a sweet dog.

Backpack at Chick Fil A :)

Brothers

Driving those paint tape roads

Watching mom water plants is hard work. Usually they come inside and watch Daniel Tiger after while I workout.
They've got a rough life :)

Marci is still having a rough time adjusting to her new home, poor girl.

Westin and the ladies! I told him I didn't know any of the boys in his class, just some of the girls, and he said, "You know one boy's name though!" And I said, "Really? Who?" And he said, "Westin!" And I just laughed because he got me there.

Gym class at school

First day!

Seriously, I love his lunchbox. I want to pack my own lunch in it on the days he doesn't have school.

We walked to the fruit stand by our house and Westin picked out some plums and corn. He actually wanted to get the bag of eggplant but I don't know what to do with eggplant besides eggplant parmesan, which puts me at an eggplant quota of about 1 per year. So a bag of 6 overwhelmed me and I talked him into plums instead.

Coco and popcorn, Sunday night vibes.

Last Week of Our Summer

Michael:
was living in a combination of dental school and residency life this week, which is a terrible combination. He has 12 long days in a row right now because his Saturday and Sunday was spent at an Advanced Trauma Life Support course, and the little while leading up to it has meant studying when he gets home from work around 8pm. It brought on flashbacks of those weeks in dental school when all free time was dedicated to an upcoming test and I do NOT miss that life. I'm excited for him to get home tonight and have his first real free time in a long while. He's going to fall asleep probably 10 minutes into it, but still. :)

Maddie:
is craving our fall routine (maybe I have a color-coded weekly schedule in the works? Don't judge me...) and so excited for Westin to start preschool on Tuesday. Monday is also his first weekly swimming lesson. August has felt longer to me than all of June and July combined, and this week has kind of been a struggle. Too many long days without dad in a row, too hot to get out as much as want to, too much lack of energy around here (but not from the toddlers ... never from the toddlers). I'm in a cooking rut too and we've just been kind of surviving. Time to get it in gear again! On Friday night we took pizza to Michael's work and it was fun to eat with him and see where he's spending his days during this VA rotation. The boys loved running down the halls.

Westin:
loved meeting his teachers and seeing his classroom at Back to School night. He was ready to go to school right away and wasn't too happy about having to wait until Tuesday. He was also SO good in church today. Michael was working and I had to teach Sharing Time, and Bennett still doesn't do nursery without us so I knew it was going to be a lot. But he was so reverent through sacrament meeting, and loved making eye contact and smiling and shaking his head with me when Bennett was less than reverent :) Haha he felt big being my helper for the day and was great in primary too. He also even sat quietly by himself in sacrament meeting all while I went and changed Bennett's diaper, threw it away outside, and came back in. When I came back in the chapel and saw him sitting there I just felt so proud of that sweet 3-year-old boy. He's growing up, and he's so good and sweet. I love him so much. He got a bloody nose before bedtime on Saturday night and it really scared him. He got out of bed an hour later (which he never does) and was scared it was bleeding again. He just had a little bit of sweat on his lip, not blood, and he was so so nervous about it. I suddenly remembered all these real feelings of being nervous about this or that as a kid and I just had so much love for him. He got up two hours later with the same thing and was just so nervous, but we told him his nose was all better and he didn't need to be scared of touching it anymore. He's always the sweetest in his tired state of mind, and cuddling him in those moments are when I feel like he's growing up just crazy fast.

Bennett:
Bennett did ok in nursery without us and ended up coming to my second sharing time but it's progress for sure! He loves to run up to Westin, wrap his arms around his brother, and pull him down on top of him like a wrestle-hug. He loves to bug Kitty until she swats at him. His favorite words are "nana!" (banana) and "Turtle!" He absolutely loved our zoo trip this week after our long break. It's so fun to see how much he loves animals.

Saturday morning cartoons. Daniel Tiger on repeat, actually... until anyone complains we're just going to keep shoving emotional intelligence at them during their screen time. We need all the help we can get around here :)

Where dad spends his days! Bennett found my sunglasses and wore them for the majority of the visit haha.

Fort time!

Westin got a sprinkle donut at Back to School night and he was extremely happy about it.
He said, "I wonder if they'll have chocolate ones next time?"
I had to break it to him that school didn't have donuts every day, but he's still stoked about going.

New walls to expand this turtle's home! We named her Marcel the Shell, Marci for short. (Thanks Ali!)
Westin wants to name her Ice Cream though, so, maybe sometimes she'll go by that.

Bennett needs all the things that live in his bed after every nap -- sippy cup of water, teddy bear, puppy, three blankets.
Then he throws his binky back in his bed and walks around like this for a few minutes while he wakes up. 

So many lunch dates with these two. And breakfast dates. And dinner dates! 

I know this picture isn't great BUT this has been what gets me through my days right now!
Fresh peaches, homemade yogurt, Trader Joe's chocolate granola -- my favorite.
Peach season, stay forever!

Westin's new lunchbox for school is making me a little jealous of him. Is it weird I miss school??

Matcher of socks!

His jobs around here are matching socks, emptying all his colorful dishes from the clean dishwasher, throwing diapers away, and helping to water the plants. He's a good helper!

Bennett wants you to know it's not easy keeping up his muscles.

Sea lions! We skipped the zoo for the hot months but it felt so fun to be back. We had one day this week that had a high of 98 instead of over 100, so we got there early and headed home before 11:30 and it didn't even feel too bad.

We always save our lunch to eat with the sea lions in their shady spot. It's one of our Fresno happy places.

Bennett says "TUR-TLE" in the sweetest way and it's my favorite word that he has right now.

This turtle was biting the other one's foot so hard so we tried to intervene... zoo life is rough.

Driving Habits

Michael:

Everyday: work. implants. commutes in the hot truck. falls asleep on the couch reading for a class/test he has to take next weekend.

Dreams of: kayaking. retiring.

Maddie:

Everyday: walks two miles. waters the plants. feeds kids. works out. reads to kids. feeds kids again. cleans up from feeding kids. takes kids adventuring. feeds kids again. naps kids. maybe naps. maybe projects. feeds kids again. cleans up again. checks 10-day forecast hoping for double-digit hope. bedtime. mom time. repeat.

Dreams of: date night. cross stitching while watching a movie (how old am I?).

Westin:

Everyday: wakes up too early. strollers one mile. runs one mile. waters the plants. eats. works out (this is a loose description). Legos. reads with mom. eats again. makes messes. cleans up messes. adventures. naps. eats again. Daniel Tigers. eats again. makes messes. cleans up messes. bath time. story time. bedtime.

Dreams of: preschool. swimming lessons.

Bennett:

Everyday: sleeps in a little (binky is back). strollers two miles. waters the plants. eats. Legos. reads with mom. eats again. makes messes. never cleans up messes. adventures. naps. eats again. Daniel Tigers. eats again. makes messes. gives so many hugs. chases Kitty. bath time. story time. bedtime.

Dreams of: dogs. cats. turtles. 

We are creatures of habit this week more than ever before. It feels like we're in a lull of residency and we need to kick that feeling! I took the boys to the car dealership this week for an airbag recall fix, and put their carseats in the shuttle to bring them home, and those are the worst mom chores. (Carseats are the worst part of motherhood!) But some friends came over to play and eat lunch with us during our stranded no-car day so it was really fun. Our routine keeps us moving through the heat but I'm so looking forward to when temperatures and smoky air doesn't keep us inside from 4pm-7pm. On Saturday we had a three-hour window free so we kayaked at Millerton Lake near our house. It wasn't our smoothest kayak experience (too quick, too many tears from Bennett, too much stress from mom because of our time crunch) but I'm still glad we got out. I'm itching for our busy fall routine to start but I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy August for what it is. These boys are more fun all the time!

Bananas for the road. We walk first thing then come home for our next breakfast courses :)

Westin runs an impressive amount on our walks. We had this Australian Shepherd for almost two weeks and he's the smartest dog we've ever watched. Bennett loved him so much.

Somebody found something...

That face when you've been caught with mom's secret Trader Joe's favorites stash.

Bennett has been attempting... break dancing? I'm not sure what exactly you'd call it, but it's entertaining.

Famous on that Kroll's Diner page from our North Dakota adventure ;)

When dad lets the 3-year-old write messages on his phone, haha. So many angry faces. Oh Westin.

Millerton Lake

These boys run straight for the water while we do all the kayak work. #childhood

Happy birthday Emma!

Bennett loves Andrew.

And Billy Jack. Bennett is just full of love.

We came home from Billy Jack's with.... a new little pet! Bennett still checks Mr. T's home almost once a day for him and it breaks my heart that he doesn't understand that he ran away. So, we've got a new little turtle lady around here! Tentatively named Marcel the Shell but I haven't cleared that with Westin yet.

I hope she likes our crazy around here.

I had to take paperwork to Westin's pediatrician and Bennett fell into a puddle in the parking lot after being dressed for like 2 minutes out in the world. Then he rolled over so both sides looked like this. And we proceeded to run all our errands anyway... one of those days.

Playing bumper cars all on his own.