A day off

Today was a nice summer preview. We changed our Frankie and Delaney's summer clothes and then met up with neighborhood friends on the green. From there we went to the Andrus' for some sprinkler and cupcake fun. Those girls are all super sweet, their husbands all work together, they all have one or two kids and their all skinny and pretty. And then there's me, the old mother-in-law! I was always the young mom with my big kids, so this being the old mom business is weird. I don't like it, but I do like where I'm at and how much better of a mom I am now. Life's about trade offs I guess. 

Matt picked us up from our water fun and we went to see Boss Baby as a birthday makeup for Frankie. Going to the movies is my fav and the movie was cute and silly. And yay, matt at least felt well enough to go to a movie, and I call that progress!

 

I finally unpacked and did laundry. Feels so good to get things done, but sometimes it's so hard to get started. Yesterday we had a volunteer appreciation event after school. Third grade lily took this picture, haha, none of us were ready. 

We've got an awesome group of volunteers. I love our school. The staff put on a really nice luncheon for us and gave us each a pretty metal keychain that said something sweet about volunteers. 

 

Then they asked the board to come up to be recognized. They gave each of us a personalized metal keychain which was very sweet. This pta board has weathered some major drama, including hurt feelings and drama amongst ourselves. But we've overcome and it's really been a great 2 years as treasurer. 

 

After the luncheon I dropped the gang at home, including matt, and headed to the aina's to drive up to the stake temple night. We picked up jen on our way and we all enjoyed visiting, plus it was nice to not have to drive. I was able to do ordinances for my great-grandpas grandma, so my 3rd great grandma from Sweden. I was really grateful to be able to do her work, and it was fun to see so many people from our ward and stake. On our way out we ran into the Martines and the Reed's and visited until the temple workers turned the lights off. And then on our way home we grabbed some Wendy's. It was a fabulous day. 

Delaney ordered some books with her birthday money from grandpa. Happy lady!

Addie had a wonderful time at A days and brought home this cute Impatient plant. Brenda does such a wonderful job, I'm so grateful for her!

 Lexi Lu sent me this pic. She'd come home to dinner on the table. That's one of my quick go to's,, and one of all the kids favorite meals. Polska kielbasa with white rice, yum!

 

Riding home from school one day. And Delaney modeled ournold balance bike so we can sell it. 

 

Delaney woke up with crazy hair one day. We love crazy hair. 

 

Morning cuddles with mommy and lovey. I will miss this kid next year!!!

The Finlayson's finished their coffee table and their couch finally arrived. Pretty cute!

We had a pta event on Tuesday, in conjunction with the book fair. We bought some plants from the plant sale first, and by the time we got into the library Delaney sat down and said she didn't feel well. This strep kicked her poor little booty. Thankfully daddy was home and came to get her.  

 

I presented he state of our pta budget and am that much closer to finishing my treasurer duties. I even met a lady today on the green that thinks she'd like to take over for me. 😬 bittersweet!

We did other stuff this week, but this is the 

Pre-trip

Sarah offered to watch our girls the Monday before we left (April 10). There was no school, so that made it nice. Initially I was just gonna keep them home, but then I got to thinking of how much fun they'd have at Sarah's, so I decided to drop them off. Best. Choice! Sarah even fed them dinner, it was sooo nice!

And they got to play in the woods and run all day. They all went to bed so easily that night too. I cleaned and did laundry and packed all day without any interruptions. Windows open, big soda to drink, it was awesome sauce. Our pairs - Addie & Abby, Delaney & Ellie, and Frankie & Adeline. 💕

 

Addie was a junior bridesmaid so we had to get her a women's size dress. Thankfully we've got a pretty amazing personal seamstress named Rose. She got the dress back to us in the knick of time!

Despite my wonderful day of cleaning and packing, I still managed to stay up super late getting things done. But we were ready, and on Tuesday morning woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed! We had a 12:00 flight, so we left at 8:00 to give us enough time to park our car and catch our shuttle.   

We were on our way!!!

 

Delaney had woken up warm and with a sore throat, but there was nothing to do but pack the Tylenol and push through. 

Our setup for our initial flight was me, D, A, then across from us was Frankie in the window seat, matt in the middle, and a nice gentlemen that became our friend sitting in the aisle seat. 

 

I gave the girls little surprise bags I made them with gum, snacks, and some little toys. 

 

Excited gals!

 

Frankie had started to get anxious about the flight. She kept asking how loud it would be and how fast it would go. We talked her through and she did great!

 

D started to feel sick after the flight took off. She pretty quickly laid down and went to sleep. 

 

Her lovey and her special Delaney blanket comforted her enough to sleep soundly. I gave her some Tylenol even through she didn't want it, and that helped. She threw up once, right into her bag, and that was that. She cried a little bit about her ears during landing and takeoff, but other than that she was fine. 

 

The girls took some time to read up on the safety features of the plane. Safety first, you know. 

 

We had a quick layover in Denver before our second short fligh to Portland. We switched up our seating that time. 

 

We'd been traveling for about 10 hours by that point and were feeling pretty cray-cray. 

 

We landed in Portland right around 5:00, which is 8:00 our time. Since Matt's sciatic pain has had him down and out for almost 4 weeks at that point, we decided that I'd help get the luggage off the carousels, get the gang situated, and then go get the rental. The on site rental place require a shuttle ride to get to it, so we made the right choice. 

We were able to get a minivan for the cost of what we almost paid for a midsize and we were so glad we did. We've never have been able to fit 7 suitcases, 6 carry ons, and 5 Rays into a midsize. And also, I seriously need to pack less. After I picked up the crew we headed to get some dinner and game plan for the evening. Phase 1 was done and we were in Portland!

In which the Finlayson's get crafty

Maybe real life doesn't start on Monday. At least not productive real life. This girlfriend took her first parcc text this morning. She said it was "fine." She looked so grown up playing after school today. And also, such a good helper girl. She's the healthiest of our crew and such a trooper. Except when she weirdly melted down yesterday and ramped her pest mode up to 150%. Other than that, awesome. 

 

Addie had a follow up appt at 8:40 for her ear infection of a couple weeks ago. I called as soon as they opened at 8:00 to see if we could do a swap-a-roo since Addie had testing and F and D were actually sick. They never did answer, but we showed up and they were willing to see both girls, where it was determined that both have strep. Stupid strep with no sore throat symptoms and stupid dirty airplanes. Sweet froggy and I took a nap this afternoon and she is still feeling pretty gross. Ready for those antibiotics to kick in!

8:20 Monday morning and driving the hot mess express to the dr. No tooth or hair brushing, D in her jams. Toot toot!

Speaking of hair brushing. This chic was a birds nest mess yesterday.  

I took these pics and we were laughing and it was funny.   

And then we put girls to bed. And d started wailing. 

She was so distraught at the thought of brushing her hair the next day that she couldn't possibly sleep. So we gently sprayed and brushed and sprayed and brushed. So silly. 

 

The Finlayson's and our boy got crafty. 

 They made this cute tv stand.  

And these cute night stands. 

 

And this cute shelf. Cute and thrifty and I love it!

 

One of Christian's classmates posted this third grade class pic yesterday. First of all, the photographer needs some training. This is about the worst setup I've ever seen. Chris' big head is right in the middle and directly behind Chance's big head in the blue. These kids have joined the military, are in college, and a few are parents. Pretty crazy!

 

And how about some comedy? Yes, I think so. 

I had ordered my mother of the bride dress from china. I didn't actually know if was from China, and it actually wasn't cheap, but from China it was. It was a lovely dress I thought. Elegant but not too oldish. And of course I ordered it in pale pink for Lexi's colors. This dress here:

And then as a splurge and in order to get free shipping I threw in this one:

 It didn't come and didn't come. Finally a week before leaving for Oregon I frantically went shopping. I shopped for about 8 hours and hit almost every clothing store in SoMd. Finally at Ross I found 3 suitable dresses. None I loved and I still had hope for my lovely dress to come. A day after the wedding I got a notice that it arrived, yay. I was excited to try it on when we got back home. And this is what I found...

It was the weirdest dress I've ever tried on! All lumpy and padded up top, like a football player! And it wouldn't zip up top! For a dress to fit me on the bottom but not the top is very unusual for me. 

 

Isn't this bizarre?!?

 

And then there was the bonus dress. This one also wouldn't zip and would fit someone around 6'2. Fun, huh? 

 

I was able to get a refund of everything but the return shipping. Which amounted to $50. Expensive and difficult lesson learned. 

The newlyweds are settled into their cute apartment, and the boy is settled into his new one. He's rooming with Sam and Robbie from good old SoMd. He captioned this one "Spring Semester Stunting." Oh be good, sweet boy!

 

We've had another rainy day of movies and resting. Maybe the week will really start tomorrow. We shall see. For now we've got some Mary Poppins to watch. 

Hot mess express

We got home from the grand Oregon wedding trip Tuesday after midnight. Since then it's been pretty much downhill. Everyone went to school on Wednesday, but that afternoon I started feeling achy. I took a warm bath and slept and slept. 

 

Thursday yuck hit around the after school mark as well, but not as bad for me. Unfortunately Frankie started feeling sick and came home early with a fever. 

 

Then as if a sick frog isn't enough, the bug started to feel sickey-poo too. 

 

We've not had a proper dinner since we got home, and even though I managed to grocery shop, I didn't manage to put groceries away for 2 days. Addie asked that I take this silly shot of her enjoying her ramen dinner one evening. And Sprite for upset tum-tums. 

 

On Friday we watched Hidden Figures, a new fav of mine, but not quite what the girls were ready for. It was the perfect sick weekend because it rained and rained. I ran Saturday morning, but that was the only time any of us left the house. 

 

We watched lots of movies, The Sound of Music, Winne the Pooh, and Hello Dolly, and read lots of books, Winnie the Pooh, I am Malala, and picture books. We ate lots of junk food and layed around and napped. I decided real life doesn't start till Monday, so there you have it. 

We administered lots of Tylenol and essential oils. Peppermint and On Guard for the feverish crew, Deep Blue for the sciatic pain crew, and lavender and melaleuca for me, the stye eye crew. Our bodies are pretty amazing in that they generally get us through what needs gotten through before they give it. We got through a wonderful trip, but not our bodies have given in to the stress. We're a pretty big mess and have a house to match. Only Addie and I made it to church today. 

Good thing tomorrow starts a fresh new day and week and we are ready for it. Plus also, I feel a blog marathon (slow and steady like) coming on.