Is It Naptime Yet

I’m not one to always welcome change. It can be fun and exciting, but then it can be really sad.

I have a lot of friends and family going through change right now, including us. All this change means we will probably see these people less, and have to work harder at keeping in touch. Our lives will still meet, but not as much. It’s wonderful to see all these new experiences happen, but so sad to know we’ll all be moving on to new chapters in our lives, and consequently, will not be as much a part of one another’s lives.

One change is bittersweet. A friend of our teaches Science Saturday at the Natural History Museum. I suppose really, she taught there and then became our friend. Jon first took Eden and Lilah to the activities while I had Wizard of Oz rehearsal, way back in 2009. They made a friendship, and she even came to the play Wizard of Oz to see Lilah. We’ve continued to go as a family to the classes, sometimes together, sometimes just one parent with the girls because the other had rehearsal, some big assignment, a lesson to prepare. She came to Cinderella and Seussical, was interested in our family vacations and little things the girls do, and honestly we saw her more than we saw either of our families. We’ve really grown to love this woman, and are sad to see her leave. It’s bittersweet. She’s moving on to a teaching position at a school she enjoys, with students she loves, and with much better benefits than what she was receiving at the museum. She’s completing her masters and moving on. It makes us sad to know we can’t go each Saturday and have a lengthly conversation with her, but I’m happy for this new part of her life.

Another change is my sister Andrea has moved farther away. When she live in Ely, she was just a mere 4 1/2 hours from everywhere, read Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, and we visited her once a year. We also saw her family throughout the year for holidays, or dentists appointments, when they would come to Las Vegas. Now her husband has been transfered to the big city of Elko, and will be 7 1/2 hours from Las Vegas, but still just 4 1/2 from Salt Lake City, where his family is. I’m envious that his parents will be able to enjoy the shorter drive to see them. While I hope to still visit once a year, I know their visits to Las Vegas will be fewer. Elko will be able to provide a lot more for them and they won’t need to go to the even bigger cities. I know I can call Andrea and talk and catch up any time, but I ache that the cousins will see less of one another. I really want Lilah and Eden to know Poppy and Zarina. I guess we’ll have to plan more camping trips together and they’ll need to stock up on chicken thighs.

Then there is the moving of my dear friend Sam. While she’s not moving far from where we are now, it makes me sad to see her go. I suppose it’s just the same manifest of emotions I felt earlier this year at the thought of moving away from her, as we first put an offer on a house. It breaks my heart that we’ll both find new friends to help with last minute babysitting, or ingredients that one or the other might need. I know we’ll keep in touch, and will continue to see one another, but sometimes it’s the little things that strengthen a friendship and being close really helps. It’s the small things that make me grateful that we’ve had each other these past few years.

We’re also experiencing change, but it’s not definite just yet. It’s been 10 months since we put an offer on a house, and while it’s finally moving along, nothing is definite till you have the keys. Some days I think we’re going to be moving, while other days it feels like it’s never going to happen. Today is a day that it feels like it’s never going to happen.

I think it’s interesting that so many people I know are moving and experiencing change in their lives. I am really excited for the changes, but really sad also.

Th girls both had ideas of what they wanted to be earlier this year. Soon after Eden’s birthday she had been beading anklets and decided she would be an Indian and wear all these anklets and bracelets she was making. Unfortunately she couldn’t find them, but decided glow bracelets would work well. She color coordinated the glow bracelets to her outfit, and I got to wear purple and pink on Halloween night. Eden was often mistaken for Pocahontas, but the girls have never seen that movie. I think at one point we just started saying, yes, she’s Pocahontas.

Lilah went back and forth a little more. She was thinking of being a princess, if Eden changed her mind to also be a princess, she has wanted to be a bird since last year, but the fabric for bird costumes is pretty expensive, not to mention stuffing it, so she finally settled on being a mummy. A friend had posted his mummy costume on Facebook and told me what he did, so I was able to make Lilah an pretty cool mummy costume. It was time consuming, but it worked out well and lots of people liked it on Halloween night.

We brought Britta to Carolyn’s Annual Halloween work party, and had her spend the night since she didn’t have school and next day.

Britta as Rapunzel, Eden as an Indian, and Lilah as a mummy.
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The girls checking out their goods after the party.
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Lilah carved this pumpkin at achievement days all by herself, with a little help for scooping out the guts. Because she did it all on her own, she decided she would carve her pumpkin for Halloween also. She drew out the design and figured it all out on her own. I really did very little except give directions on what to do.

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We were carving our pumpkins in our pajamas, with an old shirt over them. Hence the marvelous fashion statements.
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Lilah is actually posing likes she’s carving her pumpkin, because I forgot to get any action shots of her carving the face.
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Eden choose the Bat Cat from our pumpkin carving book, and so I carved hers for her. I’m not ready for both of them to grow up just yet.
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Lilah wanted the traditional Jack O’ Lantern. She did an awesome job on her pumpkin.

I’ll admit it is fun to see them grow up and see them enjoy holiday traditions on a new level of involvement.

This is our front window. Lilah made the decorations on the left, and Eden made the ones on the right. I made the BOO! and the skeleton is from a Science Saturday project. It was headless and missing one foot, and cut out and put together by Eden. Eden colored her ghost light green, so it would look like it would glow in the dark.
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The cousins got to see one another after we trick or treated separately.

Kristi got to my parents before me, and I had told my mom to let her go on without us. We both went over to the popular streets that go all out, but with the crowd it was c.r.a.z.y. My parents never get a lot of trick or treaters, but this year it was dead on their street and area surrounding them. Usually you see a few groups, but this year it was nothing until we crossed over to the popular blocks. Lilah and Eden wanted to go over there, so we did, and they enjoyed themselves and loved seeing all the decorations. I did not let them in the haunted house, but that was mostly because it was a crazy long line and I didn’t want to be out too late.

My dad said Henderson had made rule that trick or treating was just from 6-8pm, because of it being a school night, and I thought that was totally lame. Parents should be able to decide how late to be out with their kids and teenagers will always be out late no matter what. We were in just after 8, and the couple doors we knocked on after 8 gave the girls a lot of candy because they were my parents neighbors and I’m sure wanted to get rid of some candy with the night coming to an end.

We came home and Jon had given out all our candy by 9 pm. We get a fair amount of trick or treaters in our neighborhood. It was also fun because our nice neighbors have moved back, and they decorated and dressed up, because they were having a party, and gave out candy too.

I just love Halloween.

Last week I went to my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it, but it turned out to be lots of fun.

I went with my friend Tiffany Keegan because I didn’t want to buy two over-priced tickets that would pay for alcohol we wouldn’t be drinking. The joys of an open bar at events like these. Jon also thought I would have more fun without him, since I have a tendency to worry about him and how he’s doing at things like this. I asked around on Facebook and convinced Tiffany to go with me, since she didn’t want to go alone but wanted to attend. Tiffany and I have known one another since we were 9 and even though we haven’t been constant, close, friends this whole time, we didn’t even hang out in high school except when we had classes together, but she is definitely my longest friend. As we drove over to the reunion together, it was obvious time had past, but we also felt so comfortable around one another that it hadn’t mattered. We talked, joked, reminisced, and enjoyed seeing each other. I loved seeing here and hearing about her family that I was once knew intimately.

We arrived right on time, and finding out who to talk to was a little odd at first. Overall, the reunion seemed to be a lot of people I did not know well in high school, but there were a few gems in the crowd which made it all worth it and I enjoyed seeing people in person, rather than just seeing what they were up to over Facebook.

I would say the highlight of my night was seeing my old friend Royi Moas. Royi and I had a huge flirtation/crush on one another our senior year, but it never went anywhere. (I’m a sucker for intelligent guys who listen, and the summer before our senior year we hung out a lot when I was house-sitting and he listened to me ramble on about a missionary I was writing and I made it “painfully obvious” that I would not date Royi, or even if I did, I had this other guy whom I thought I would marry. So, I don’t really blame him for not dating me. I don’t think I’d date me either after I think about it.) I’m actually happy it didn’t go anywhere because there were no odd, old boyfriend vibes, just wonderful to see one anther vibes. His super sweet fiance later told me I was on his list of people who he wanted to see, so I felt special.

I also loved seeing and hearing what class mates where up to. It was interesting to see who they had become/ were becoming. One of my biggest surprises was a classmate who is now a server at Ceasar’s and married to a cocktail waitress. It’s not so surprising that this would happen, but I never imagined this guy, in this scenario. (Brian Kong is his name since I will probably not remember who later, and she was the cutest/nicest cocktail waitress I’ve ever seen.)

I didn’t take a lot of photos, but they had a photographer there so I was able to lift a few from her site.

Me in my dress with Lilah.
Story behind the dress: I needed something “formal,” but totally could have gotten away with my black dress, but now I’m prepared for a real formal, and I love shopping. I found this dress at Savers for $20, bought and made the bolero for $23, and had to clean it for $12. I found it ironic that a $20 dress started to add up so quickly. I like it long, but wish I had shortened it because I felt like a nun in my long dress compared to what other people were wearing, and might still do so. I am also glad I left it long because I didn’t realize I hadn’t shaved till I went to put lotion on that night. Yeah, that would not have been cute.
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Kristen Routh (one of our valedictorians), and her boyfriend Joseph Henle (an up and coming UFC fighter), and me. Never would I imagine her with a UFC fighter, which he wasn’t at first, but they make the cutest and most perfect couple.
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Adam Mills, me, and Tiffany Keegan. (I wish I had gotten one with just her and me at some time, but did not.)
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Me and Royi.
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This is Jeremiah, Stephanie Sandford’s husband, and Adam London, Alana Isbell’s husband and what happens when you ask a friend’s husband to take a picture? He takes a picture of himself and who’s by him. Silly Adam.
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Me, Allan Smith, Alana London, and Stephanie Sanford.
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Pictures the photographer took:

Stephanie, Me, Tiffany, Amanda Morrisey, and Katy Brown.
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The story behind me in the above picture.: So I was talking with some friends and a classmate hands me her camera as she pulls in two of the people I was talking to in for a picture. I was getting ready to see what she wanted me to take a picture of when a husband of one of the friends takes the camera from me and says I should get in the picture. Now I knew the girl, but I wasn’t close friends with her at all. So this picture is taken by a few cameras and the photographer that was hired for the event. Then the photographer is like, “Give me a cheer!” and I realized it was a picture of all the cheerleaders! What makes this picture even funnier to me is the one who had handed me her camera is actually giving me a side ways look, and is probably wondering what the heck I’m doing in the frame. I had the husband take one more without me in it, so the cheerleader had the photo she had wanted originally, and though the other pictures the photographer took were not as nice, she still got one that did not include me with all the other cheerleaders.
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Alana, me, Katy, Stephanie, and Danielle Henrie.

After the night ended I brought Tiffany back to my place to get her car. We talked a little longer then I changed and met some friends for karaoke. It was lots of fun, except all the smoke. It was a bar only, so it was full of smokers and I literally wanted to throw up afterwards because the smell was so bad. (It was terrible in the place, but for some reason it was even worse after.) I even took a shower at 2 am and if you know me, you know I hate taking showers only 7 hours later, since I had to take one before church, because the smell was that bad.

This video is probably only funny to my girls, and maybe Anna, but this is us as we prepared to cross the creek at Avalanche Lake. If you listen carefully you can hear Eden’s reaction when she decides to put her foot in, at 7 seconds into the video, and my reaction is at the very end, second 58. Kevin is pretty funny too.

If you’d like to read more about what this pictures are about, or whatever I decided to write about, you can visit Family Vacation 2011-Part 9. I’m also please to say I only have one more post to write, which makes me happy because then I can go back to my regularly non-blogging self, or post about things like the play and Eden’s birthday.

Enjoy.

Eden next to some Bear Grass, a flower Anna taught her how to identify, and she let us know each time she saw Bear Grass.
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I believe this is Lake Josephine, the lake we hiked too. It began to rain on us about 10 minutes later.
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I just keep thinking, “The ants go marching one by one,” every time I see this picture of us walking in our ponchos. This is before it began to pour.
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The view as we were leaving Many Glacier in Glacier NP.
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Our Junior Rangers saying the pledge, or taking the oath, or promising to be nice to the parks, at St. Mary’s visitor center in Glacier NP.
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Daddy being woken up from his nap.
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He had been sleeping until Lilah decided he needed some toys to sleep with. (Kevin took this picture for me.)
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I was able to actually look normal for one day, since we weren’t hiking. Lilah took this picture, and I’m not sure why Eden’s eyes are so wide.
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A spider on the tree outside of the cabin. We saw several that looked like this guy. Eden took this picture.
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Playing Uno and eating dessert.
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We regularly found the girls in positions similar to this in the morning, since they were sharing the bed. One time Eden had her leg over Lilah. They apparently are very heavy sleepers.

Anna and I had been going hiking at Red Rock to prepare for Glacier. Both our husbands are pretty fit, and she would have to carry Alex in the hiking carrier, and I wanted my girls to be ready for longer hikes. One week we had planned on going on a smaller hike, but ended up hiking 7 miles. We were wanting to hike to Iceberg Lake, in the Many Glacier area of the park and that’s what most of our preparation was for. The main problem being, Iceberg Lake would be at a incline the whole time and was still snow covered in some areas while we were there. The weather for Tuesday, or the planned day for our hike, was also not looking good, so we decided we’d just head out to the Many Glacier area, and do a small hike and explore the area.

We headed out on Tuesday morning, the 19th, and stopped to get gas, since we’d be driving the whole park, but a nice person pointed out that we had a flat tire, so our morning was greatly delayed and we left closer to lunch time since we had to get the tire patched.

It was already stormy looking at Many Glacier when we arrived, but mostly with cloud coverage, so we headed out on a hike that took us around one lake, I think Swift Current Lake, and then to another, I think Lake Josephine. As we were approaching the other lake, some of the hikers told us there was a grizzly on an opposite shore, so we hoped to spot it, but it had decided to go back into the forest. We hung out and skipped rocks and then some rain chased us away. We decided to take a different way back to the hotel, and it ended up being the longer trail, then it ended up raining and it even began to hail. Lilah thought it was great fun, except for her mom rushing her a long, and Eden got a nice piggy back ride because we had forgotten Jon’s poncho and the rain started to come down really hard. I’m pretty sure carrying Eden was the fastest way to return to the lodge though.

We eventually made it back to the lodge at Many Glacier and hide from the rain with all the other visitors. Anna and Kevin were waiting for us, because they had gone on ahead of us slow pokes. We decided we’d head down stairs to the cafe and bought some hot chocolate to warm up, where we also enjoyed some wonderful cinnamon rolls and a brownie in Jon’s case, for only $1 each, a steal. By this point the skies had cleared and beautiful clouds were the only thing that remained, besides it being colder and windier.

After we enjoyed our hot chocolate and snack we started back towards the cabin but we stopped first at the St. Mary’s visitor center to get their junior ranger badges. The main problem with returning home was the storm was right on the Going to the Sun Road, and that was our way back. One ranger said the road was fine, but another ranger said they had experience some fallen rock and heavy rain, and thought we should take a different route. We decided to take the route she told us too, but in some ways it was just as dangerous as the Going to the Sun Road. We drove a road that obviously was regularly washed out, and we had to drive really slow because of the curves and rain. It was beautiful and we were able to see more of Montana and pass through East Glacier, were we used the bathroom in a hostel, (I thought that was kinda cool.) but it also made us get home a lot later than Anna and Kevin.

We did get home safely and enjoyed a warm meal at the cabin that night.

After Glacier our plans were to hear towards Ely and spend a couple days with my sister Andrea and her family and visit Great Basin National Park. Sadly, while we were at Glacier, Brien’s grandfather passed away and the funeral was planned for the day we were to arrive in Ely. We debated on what we should do, and in the end we decided we’d stay an extra day in Hungry Horse with the Cotton’s, then head towards Ely as planned, but only stay one night and visit Great Basin on our way home. Our extra day in Montana was mostly used to decompress and relax. It was cloudy and rainy all day, so we did laundry, took naps and just enjoyed not doing anything or being anywhere. We organized our things and prepared to hit the road the next day.

Visit Family Vacation 2011 Pictures -Part 9 to view the pictures that go with this post.

Monday, July 18th, was the day we enjoyed going on Avalanche Lake hike with the Cotton Family. It was a moderate hike with a beautiful lake at the end. We packed a lunch and enjoyed eating it by the shore of Avalanche Lake. We also crossed a creek, or stream that feed directly into the lake. I know it might seem silly to most, but the fact that I crossed a natural body of water is huge! I’m not one for being in natural bodies of water, unless they’re crystal clear, and this stream was. It was also a big step for me as a mom to let my girls cross the stream. The day before I had let them put their feet in another creek, and that helped me be a little more laid back. It was a freezing cold stream, and the pebbles were very uncomfortable to walk on, but it was a fun little adventure.

After the hike we were all a little tired and unsure if we wanted to do another one, so we headed to Apgar and bought some ice cream and rested. After we had rested and mustered up our energy we went on a small hike to Johns Lake. Of course we chose it for it’s name, we also hoped to possibly see a moose, since it was close to Moose Country, but we were not able to see one. We did see the small lake and we did see lots of horses, since it’s a popular horse trail.

After this hike, Alex was a little tired and grumpy, so we took the opportunity to go exploring and visit some sites we had previously missed, while the Cotton’s headed back to the cabin.

To see the pictures that go with this post visit Family Vacation 2011 Pictures-Part 8.

We got into Hungry Horse, Montana kinda late, I think a little later than 8 pm, but since sunset isn’t till after 9 pm, it still seemed early. We called Anna as we got there so they could give us directions to the cabin, and I was surprised to find out it was in a Bible camp. For some reason that had totally slipped my mind, or not made an impression. (They own the cabin and lease the land from the Bible camp. Kevin’s grandfather and grandmother are who originally built the cabin, and now Kevin’s family uses it and his mother volunteers each year as a nurse for a short period of time.) Anna and Kevin had a delicious meal waiting for us, so we were able to eat and get settled quickly that night

I’m sure we stayed up late. With being at a higher latitude and closer to the North Pole, sunset take place later in the day. I’m not sure what time it rises, since we were able to kinda sleep in each day, or not have to rise at dawn. So the girls went to bed closer to 10 pm each night, and the adults went to bed around midnight, though I think there was at least one night we turned in early.

Our first day in Montana, Saturday, July 16th allowed us to do a couple things, laundry and showers were first on the list. Oh how nice it was to get everyone clean and to wash our clothes! It was nice to not smell like campfire and to look more like regular people while touring and hiking the park.

After we got settled and errands done we went to Glacier and visited The Apgar Visitor’s center in West Glacier. Jon and the girls had to get their junior ranger packets to complete, and we wanted to ease into the park and slight altitude change.

We first walked a part of Lake McDonald. The waters were so high that some stairs that normally lead to the waters front were covered with water on the first few steps. Of course every time we came near water the girls wanted to throw rocks in. I may have had this same impulse, though I was trying to skip rocks, but failed terribly.

We took a short nature trail, Trail of the Ceders, and enjoyed seeing Avalanche Gorge. The river and creek waters have a beautiful greenish tint, which comes from rock flour that the glaciers have ground up and is suspended in the water. The lakes have a turquoise coloring, and oh, it is so beautiful. I think Glacier National Park was my favorite park when it came to scenery.

After our short walk we stopped at some other places and then went home and enjoyed dinner and the company of the Cotton’s.

Just a quick thank you to Anna and Kevin for welcoming us into their cabin for the 6 nights. Anna has been inviting us to Glacier for a while and I’m so happy we were able to finally make the trip. It was a beautiful park to visit, and I’m so happy I didn’t have to camp out in grizzly country! They said that about Yellowstone, but it seems like there are even more bears in Glacier.

For pictures that go with this post visit: Family Vacation 2011 Pictures-Part 6.

This year Lilah turned eight. I’m still in denial about her being that old, I’m pretty sure she was just a toddler yesterday, but I guess the calendar doesn’t lie.

It was her turn for a low key party or gathering this year. We decided to do some swimming with her friend Britta, have a picnic lunch with some cake, then head home to get ready for the opening night of the play.

Sam’s neighbors are living away from their house, so they asked them if they would watch the pool for them and keep it full and in exchange, they could use it. (They still have a pool person coming by.) They said we could come over and swim, so we did! We also had the picnic lunch in Sam’s backyard. It was a fun a little gathering. Lilah chose bagels with strawberry cream cheese, watermelon, chips and lemonade, since everyone loves lemonade on a hot summer day.

I didn’t get many pictures of us at the pool, or of the day in general, so this is what I have.

A very long Eden on her daddy. (I’m also in denial about her getting so big.)

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Matilda, she was just coming back from stealing more grapes.

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Lilah was there, and she swam with noodles and stayed closed to the edge of the pool. (Sadly our swim teacher was doing lessons while the play was going, so we missed them this year.)

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Britta and Lilah like to stay close to one another.

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Like I said before, they stay close to one another.

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Cake! We sang to Lilah in the play house, because it was too windy in the yard.

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Due to time we came home to open presents.

We also too a quick trip to Pine Valley for Lilah’s birthday. I didn’t take any pictures though. Really, it was the only 24 hours we could get away, and Lilah said she wanted to enjoy the fresh air for her birthday, so we did.

So lately I’ve been spending lots of time with my friend Anna. We’ve just begun the sewing adventure that is costuming a play and so far I think we’ve only been annoyed with one another one or two times, maybe more for her….

Besides the shopping and planning for costumes, we also see each other on Mondays, since she teaches musical theater for my home-schooling co-op. I think her son is finally liking me, though it’s only when mommy is around. It’s amazing how little we saw of one another for a while, since we were both stay-a-home-moms and had nothing to do. Yeah, we were both pretty busy for the first 5 months of Alex’s life, and have finally started seeing one another regularly again. (I mean we saw each other, but not nearly as much as we use to see each other.)

Well, yesterday Anna had me come over to help with some of the costume stuff. I often don’t know how much of a “help” I am, since we have a tendency to talk and debate things, and talk. So yeah, I’m sure it’s more entertaining, but I’m also pretty sure it takes more time to have me “help” her. I often end up taking care of Alex, so I guess I’m at least helping in that way.

At first I didn’t want to head over to her house because it was her husband’s birthday, and as a school teacher he gets home early. She was saying we had at least an hour to do stuff before he got home, so I went over, since I’d be returning to an empty home for the evening, because Jon was on a work trip, and I didn’t really want to go home anyways.

We got a few things done, then Kevin came home. I was not wanting to hang out too late, so my plan was just till around 5, then I’d go so they could enjoy themselves. Since Anna knew Jon was gone she asked if I wanted to stay for dinner, but I didn’t want to intrude, so I said no. Then eventually she mentioned it to Kevin, and the girls and I ended up staying for dinner.

We ate outside then took a walk to a park near their house. This was to let the girls play, but also to get baby Alex asleep. We stayed till just before sunset and headed back to their house. Then it was time to pack up and go, after purchasing tickets for a play we’d be going to with them. Right before I left, Kevin gave a very sincere, “Lacey you are always welcome in our home.” and I no longer felt like an intruder upon their evening.

It’s funny because I welcome people coming into my house, but for some reason it can be harder going to a friend’s house. I guess it was more the spending time with them while the spouse is there, even if I’m friends with the spouse, I don’t want to be the 3rd wheel bringing along some spares. It was a good evening and I’m sure it was fun for the girls. They played outside, we all played Sorry while Kevin barbecued, and there wasn’t a grumpy mom in sight.

Once home, Eden went right to bed and Lilah and I stayed up waiting for Jon’s call. It was a little late that night since he had gone out with his co-workers, so we both got to spend the night in good company, even if it was separated from one another’s company.

I enjoyed my evening with Anna, Kevin, and baby Alex, and look forward to spending time with them and Jon, sans kids, in a couple weeks for our double date.

It’s nice to have good friends.