life on the tundra

not a single picture of yesterday. but there isn't really a lot going on. trip prep and planning. eating what needs to be eaten and writing lists and gathering clothes and supplies. busy all day, but not the most fun. after gymnastics I took frankie and addie to buy Delaney's birthday presents. then books, scriptures, prayers and bed. normal, normal.

so I will do two trip days, Wednesday and Thursday. we moved the boy into his apartment on Tuesday, but I did take this pic Wednesday, so there. boys are so very different. he really wanted to take his lame wolf blanket and Maryland flag. looks like a boy room to me.

and midway through unpacking his closet. he didn't want me to help, so I just sat and watched.

little bathroom. he and cade are rooming together this semester. their apartment is 2 stories, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, with 2 boys to each bedroom.

our college boy!

to lexi's horror, he came prepared for the cold. he's got his carhartt and ski mask and gloves and wool socks. lexi swears no one really dresses like that. I don't see how they couldn't! it's bitter cold!

we dropped the baby boy off with his I-group for an orientation meet-up Wednesday morning. they took a tour and showed them some of the ropes and fed them lunch. after we dropped him off lu and I grabbed some mcdonalds breakfast. all of the roads in Rexburg are covered in snow, it's like they don't plow it, but lexi swears they do. it was crazy! I got pretty used to driving on the frozen tundra though and when my little sentra would get stuck i'd move the wheel back and forth just like Christian taught me. thankfully we had no problems!

one of the roomies brought these giant speakers and of course they have their gaming units set up. this is a terrible picture of the living/dining room, the kitchen is right behind me. this was after Christian had tried to call me for a ride (but i'd missed it) and lexi was sleeping and had missed his other call, so he had to walk home through the tundra. he wasn't super thrilled, but he made it!

after that we loaded up and headed down to Idaho falls to finish out our apartment shopping and hit winco. target is fun for all ages.

we grabbed the last few things we needed, then checked marshalls, and then on to winco for food. it's funny shopping with a kid for their first ever grocery shopping on their own experience. I kept asking, what do you plan to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what will you make with these ingredients? it will be a learning experience for sure!

when one would look at me the other would look away. it's like taking pictures of the little girls!

meanwhile back in the smc, addie and frankie went to Danica's birthday party. super fun. and because it was a last minute party she didn't mind that we bought her gift a week later when momma got back.

after a loud night sleeping in lexi's room, I decided to grab a hotel and have a slumber party wedneday night. one last night with the baby boy! the kids enjoyed the pool and I enjoyed organizing my traveling stuff. 4 nights, 4 different places to stay made for some disorganization.

cade left after the pool party and we had a nice little slumber party, even though the boys forgot the games. I enjoyed a quiet hotel breakfast and brought the kids waffles, cause i'm nice like that. we woke up to frigid temperatures on the tundra. I don't believe I've ever experienced temperatures like these.

chris scraped the car for me every morning, I raised him to be a gentleman and thankfully it worked. he brought the car around and heated it up before lex and I came out. you guys, there was frost on the inside of the windshield. inside. it was so crazy.

lexi took us to see the apartments she and cade will be moving into after they get married, very cute, and chris made his first Rexburg garage sale buy, this cute little tv. not necessary, but for $30, he was happy. and he's already a big fan of Rexburg garage sale, I can assure you.

Thursday was my last day in Rexburg and the feels were starting to get me. we went to café rio for lunch and then waited for lexi to get out of class so we could head to slc. chris and I visited with some of his roomies while we waited. they are all a little older, returned missionaries (yay!) and very nice. c's fav also wants to be a dentist and as they talked the similarities were pretty funny! he (and I) liked all of them, even the nighttime guitar player right above his room.

we took a few pictures before we headed on our way. love these two crazies.

and of course we had to get cade too. we had a fun few days together. I am so happy the kids are together and at byu. it's where I wanted them to go and I am so proud of them.

and then it was time to say goodbye to my baby boy. I remember an older and wiser mom once telling me that the kindergarten goodbye was nothing compared to the college goodbye. both are hard for sure. I hugged him and cried. it just feels so weird to have him gone, both of them. and not to be too dramatic, but things will never be the same. it's definitely bitter sweet. but like I did with lexi, I just kept telling myself that this is what we want him to do. we definitely don't want him to stay home forever.

thankfully the roads were clear and good. driving through snowy tundra was nerve wracking and I definitely white knuckled my way through the week. we took it slow and were super careful and I am so thankful we were safe. the girls flights were way delayed, so we got to the hotel and unpacked and relaxed, which was nice after a stressful drive and a busy few days. finally their flight arrived around midnight. they were starving so we found an all night taco bell and let the feast begin! and onto the girls trip!

of libraries and wedding dresses

yesterday we met up with aina's and darrows at the library. laney continues to not be the biggest fan of storytime. she likes the books and games, but doesn't participate in the dances. since we're not doing a sport (the ballet we wanted is only offered at night this time around) we'll keep trying.

she continues to be a big fan of the computers and ipads, not surprisingly.

these fun shapes have made a reappearance. i love when they play with educational toys. and don't mind the giant folgers coffee container. we bought them at a garage sale in said container and i've never switched it out.

i went to visit sister yorkshire at chesapeake shores after lanes went to school. she is such a sweet lady, but darn, getting old sucks.

after a complete dinner fail, (tried my hand at parsnips and even matt didn't like them, and he'll eat anything!) stressful church stuff, and several (and i mean several) mom blunders, i was ready to run away from home for awhile. instead, we went on a family run and i tried out the kicks the kids got me for Christmas last year. addie's second 5k training run and she's doing great. and it's a very good thing today is a new day. :)

aaaaand back to girls trip. friday was our wedding dress shopping day. autumn, jackie, and i got up early to enjoy our free hotel breakfast and talk, talk, talk. we made some wedding phone calls and crunched some numbers. wedding planning can be stressful and since the wedding will be in oregon, it's kind of difficult. i was so grateful for two good friends that love me and my crazy and being able to hash these things out.

we started our shopping at bitsy bridal, a pretty swanky little boutique where we were the only shoppers.

it was surreal to see my little girl trying on wedding dresses. i'm not even kidding when i say it looked and felt like she was playing dress up. i wonder when it will kick in that my kids are adults? or will it?

she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, and this was not it.

neither was this. she wants no lace at all.

and then we hit on this beauty. winner, winner, chicken dinner! we loved the simplicity of the dress, the gorgeous blingy belt and the elegant veil! i probs shouldn't post the dress she picked, but my readership is preeeetty small, so whatevs.

this is the one, but with long sleeves added. i think it's gorgeous! this super fancy dress, complete with a horse hair lined hem so that it lays just so, was over $2000. since that was a sizeable chunk of our wedding budget, that was a giant no-go.

first shop down, we stopped to get sustenance in the form of chips and sodas at the convenience store. yummy. we also tried, unsuccessfully to find the downeast outfitters outlet lexi and i had gone to on our first trip to slc. i was in the mood for cheap shades and undershirts, but alas, we ended up at the strangest warehouse full of discarded (new) personalized items. it's the place that unclaimed personalized pieces go to die. it was strange and disappointing.

next stop was the ever more affordable, david's bridal.

haha, nope. not even a little bit.

and the happy entourage.

getting closer to the sheath style she liked, but still not quite.

even though they weren't her fav's, trying on wedding dresses is still super fun.

 

while she changed, we looked through the catalog and found some dresses that we really liked, but like i said yesterday, they had all been sent to the bridal fair. we had decided the price was right, and that if the dress looked good at the bridal fair, we were good! still can't believe we found the dress and got such a good deal. super sweet.

i actually think this was the night we went to chili's for dinner, but i really don't remember. isn't that terrible? i'm pretty sure that was it, and then back to the room for movie watching and talking. i had picked up lots of snacky stuff, so we had plenty to do. i love our super simple girls trips. :)

thursday and saturday

last Thursday I took lanes to the library. it had been such a long time! she didn't want to go to story time, (since it's not her norm) but I managed to convince her and of course she had fun. the story time games are always a hit.

and so are the ipads. :)

after d went to school I got to torture watch this little cutie. she was kind of apprehensive from the get-go, but after I changed her diaper, it was on. she was not a fan of auntie michelle that day. come to find out, she doesn't like anyone but mom to change her diaper. had I known that, I probs would have just waited for momma to come home and stayed a fav. she wouldn't even take a green m&m from me afterwards, and that's sayin' something. she'll come around. they always do. ;)

this little cutie sold 52 boxes of girl scout cookies. and that's from for advertising only 3 days before due date, and weeks later than the rest of the crowd that's got their gear together. not too shabby.

Delaney is so smart. she had a packet of work to do over break (that we forgot about) that I found and took with us to gymnastics. so after frankie did her homework, I let her come do some. I thought she'd do a page or 2, but nope. that 4-year-old powered through the whole packet. and she'd have happily done more. they asked her to write all the letters they've learned so far. so after she did that I asked if she'd like to write all the letters, and she did. she wrote them all in order, upper and lowercase, and she did it happily. she's going to start guided reading groups next month and will for sure be a reader before kindergarten. she already reads 3 letter words, and even more impressive, can spell them. almost any 3 letter word (that can be sounded out) she will spell if you ask her to. she is a joy to teach because she's so easy and so quick to learn. that baby, I tell ya.

Thursday night was also fitness night at school.

rock walls are so fun. I would love to do this for exercise!

franks and coach cook. we sent this one to bubba.

ever since Delaney started school its been "brady this, and brady that." brady's mom was in charge of fitness night, and came to our pta board meeting on Wednesday and I finally got to meet her (super nice lady). so at fitness night we quickly found brady and these two hung out the whole night. they are sooo cute!

dancing 4-year-olds make me happy.

Zumba train.

addie and Danica were both too cool for school. they both wandered awkwardly and didn't really get into it.

frankie, on the other hand, was right up front. (Grey capris, purple shirt)

it's funny how different these little personalities are.

finally when ashby came, addie kind of got into it. just kind of though.

the big girls ran pacers, which was cute.

then I finally talked the littlest into it too. she was apprehensive, but she had fun.

aaaand back to girls trip! on Saturday we went to a bridal show that just so happened to be the same weekend we were girls trip/wedding shopping. it worked out perfectly. this is actually the dress that lexi bought, but long sleeves will be added. on Friday we had gone dress shopping (another post) but they didn't have the dress she wanted in store, because they had sent it to the bridal show. so it was good to see it there. it's very pretty and looks even prettier on lexi's petite frame.

it was such a winter wonderland! my California and Arizona friends were dying.

so fun!

from the bridal show we went to eat (chili's!) and then to david's bridal where lex said yes to the dress! I really can't believe we found the perfect dress that weekend, it was so lucky! the dress was on sale for $349, but at the bridal fair they'd given us a $50 coupon, and they offered a military discount! we couldn't believe it was so cheap!

lexi thanking her aunties for giving her the $$$ to buy the dress.

love them!

after the dress buying we went to see hidden figures, which was soooo good! I love going to the movies.

when we got back to the hotel (around 8, party animals!) there was some excitement. there was a tv crew filming some ladies. we went upstairs (to get to our room and not interrupt filming) and there was a lady that told us they were filming for a tv show called escaping polygamy. later we went up and talked to the lady again to get some more details, and actually met two of the sisters that star on the show, and a mother that escaped. she had 13 children and 2 adult daughters that had stayed behind. they were all very nice.

in the mean time, matt was working his navy gig. since we were going to get snow in st. marys county, he actually drove up and slept in the truck to avoid the bad roads. crazy man! the girls stayed the night at alecia's and enjoyed a fun snow day on Saturday.

that's a good friend that takes your kids out to play in the snow because every mother knows that's a lot of work!

lexi talked to cade for a long time that night (in the lobby) and when she came back to the room, Jackie had put out this cute gift bag for her.

super sweet. t'was a wonderful Saturday!