Busy Nights and Girls Weekend

Westin and I came home Sunday evening and we were so excited to see everybody. Sweet brothers.

Monday morning Camden and Asher played at their beloved Sister Bailey's house and I met up with my friend Christian from Jerusalem for breakfast. He was visiting his brother in Boulder and it was really happy to catch up. He even came to Camden's soccer practice and game with me after and Asher loved telling him all about how much he loves baby wolves.

On Tuesday Michael went to dinner with a new oral surgeon in town that he actually has met a few times during their interview days, and on Wednesday he took some of the boys on a Texas Roadhouse mystery shop while I took Westin to get tacos plus a lot of bananas for his science fair project (just the bananas, not the tacos). Then Thursday Michael had a dental meeting so basically, very few regular family dinners happening around here this week!

And then Friday, I left right after work to run away for one night with some friends. One of my friends got a girls night away for Christmas and so we had so much fun having a quick getaway together! We stopped at Buc-ee's, went thrifting, stayed up late making dance videos and playing games, chatted about everything, and just had a fun time being away for a bit! We kept laughing at how capable our group was --  normally we're all taking care of a bunch of people on vacation but this was a little trip full of moms who were just professional get-things-done people and it was a happy experience. I just love Fort Collins and I really love the people here.

Michael skipped trying to sleep with everyone in his bed again this time though :)

The next day we got home mid-morning and we had a low key Saturday together just getting the basement ready for Kindal and Rosie. We have been looking forward to their visit so much! They got into town just before dinner and the boys had such a blast with Rosie. Camden told Kindal at one point, "We love when you're here. Thank you for bringing Rosie here -- I don't have a sister." Um, melt my heart, Camden. And it's all so true. We love having them here and the kids had such a fun time.

Westin opted to watch the Super Bowl with friends this year while Kindal and I were working on her thank you cards, but we still had a very Super Bowl food dinner and had the game on -- not the same without our Westy boy around, though! Even though football is kind of a ride, it is really fun when your kids just genuinely love something. It's just a little hard to keep up when one year he's completely invested in the Chiefs winning and the next year he just totally wants them to lose... fourth grade boys are fickle creatures. But I sure love mine. 

Any moment that's bearable outside, find us out back!
This winter has been totally manageable.

Christian came to town!
Loved our catch-up breakfast. 

Bennett leveled up to the yellow stripe belt!
He has loved starting karate.

I came downstairs on Michael's day off,
and saw both boys literally dancing on the table and backyard music blasting.
Life is just a party when dad is home.

Ran away for like 20 hours with these sweet friends!
Buc-ee's first :)

These cards, I can't get over them.
Spoons, but make it crazy.

Spotted some buffalo at the nature preserve by us!
Ironically the same spot Michael took the boys to last weekend.

Stopped at the thrift store for $1 sweater day.

I tried on something yellow because I own nothing yellow, 
but did not buy something yellow.

Did we make a glow stick dance video?
We did.

Came home from that quick girls trip to welcome THIS girl to Colorado!
So very very very happy to have Kindal and Rosie here for a few days.
My heart has been looking forward to this so much.

Westin and Quinn, rooting for anyone-but-the-Chiefs.
The Fickle Hearts of Fourth Grade Boys.
I don't quite understand it all, but he was passionately rooting against the same time he was passionately rooting for last year. Gotta keep up.

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.