It was wonderful

Mother's day weekend.

Spent hiking with my mom and kids on Saturday. And hanging out with the kiddos on Sunday. Unfortunately Ryder had to work both days. 

But we still had fun. :)

Never imagined how full and wonderful my life would be. I feel so thankful every day. Even on the rough days. Granted on those days it's usually not until late at night, after they are asleep and look like little angels. ;) The children spoiled me on Mother's day. They all sat quietly with me in church instead of going to their Sunday school classes. It was so nice as I often sit alone. Then we went shopping, and I splurged a little bit. Then we went to a plant nursery and I splurged a little more. Maybe my husband shouldn't leave me alone on Mother's day. ;) He did make a yummy dinner when he got home, even though he was beyond tired from working non-stop. I'm a lucky gal. I was spoiled with gifts, and Leiella in particular had a whole bag of home made crafts/cards for me. She was so excited to give it to me as she had apparently been squirreling it all away for some time. All in all it was one of the most wonderful Mother's days I've ever had.  

Thriving

Garden is in full swing again, and ever changing.

A game of catch up

Well once again I'm scrambling to catch up. But at least I'm blogging. :) Now that school is sort of out for the summer (we keep doing a little bit here and there so it stays fresh) I should have some more breathing room!

So now for a little bit of randomness...

Ira finished up a great baseball season, he's really good! Super intent and focused, a real pro in the works! He will probably play for a league next year instead of the city. It's been fun for him, but he needs a bit more. :)

That kid never ceases to amazing me, he's so good at whatever he puts his mind to!

I took an all day wild edibles class, and then on a whim jumped into an herbal apprenticeship program. It meets up once a month for an all day class. So far it's been amazing, although figuring out childcare for my brood has been a bit stressful. :/ I knew it would be though. I also knew it wasn't really the right time in my life to start something like this. But it's a passion of mine, and it just felt right and makes me feel excited to be learning something that I'm so interested in. Feels good for the soul. So I went for it, regardless. :) Plus I didn't have to pay full price, because of taking the wild edible class, so that made it more affordable, I just couldn't pass it up! I haven't had to pay for childcare yet, but I'm sure at some point I will and that, for all four, is a pretty penny!

My children hunting for sorrel, one of their favorite wild edibles. :) 

We've been spending a lot of time at our favorite spot. Looking for wild edibles, bird watching, playing at the river on the sandy beach, you name it this place has it. ;) And it's right across the street from our  house. We are so lucky. Love my little adventurers.

Nettle pesto, harvested at our favorite spot! Love this stuff! My kids just gobble it down. They now point out when the nettles pop up so I don't forget to harvest some. ;)

And because I don't have enough to do ;) the kids (and my bonus kids) and I are volunteering at a community garden at a local church. We get this garden bed all to ourselves. Which is not as awesome as it sounds, since it's plagued with horsetails. Ugly little beasts. If I had to battle those in my own garden I think I would cease to be a gardener. :( I wasn't expecting to take on such a task, but the person who use to garden that section asked me to take it on because they have some health problems. So once again I'm in over my head on accident. ;) It's been okay, I just wish I could do more. It's hard to garden with a baby and five kids "helping".

We also took a really awesome birding class that was enjoyed by all, but especially Atty.

Well that catches up a bit of randomness, now for some more focused posts. ;)

Easter

I like taking pictures of the calm before the chaos. :)

 These kids were super excited for Easter morning. Leiella said thank you a million times. :)

They got up way before me but they were good little kids and didn't touch their baskets until I awoke. They are really just the sweetest!

 My beautiful butterfly. :)

 She was also very excited to go egg hunting, ha ha! 

 I think in the end she did find the most out of everybody, that's a first.

 I of course had to take a few pictures of the garden! :)

 I tried to get some cute pictures of the kids. I should be more specific, I tried to get pictures of the kids where they were actually all looking at the camera and smiling. Not. Going. To. Happen.

 And this is the point where I gave up, ha ha! You can tell who the trouble maker is right? Being a ham just comes so naturally to him, he can't even help it. ;)

It was a beautiful Easter, spent with family (minus Ryder who had to work!) and a gorgeous day. 

Texas!

WE WENT TO TEXAS!!! Finally…

You might ask, what is in Texas?

Our best friends! They have been gone for about three years now and we figured enough was enough. We packed up and headed their way. :)

I was a little nervous about taking all my kiddos through crowded airports, so I dressed them all in super bright orange, including hats. Yes I'm that sort of mom. ;) It worked really well though and definitely made me feel less anxious about the whole thing. Although we got so many comments that I sort of regretted it at one point, ha ha! Apparently these are Broncos colors, so we got scolded in Seattle. That didn't cross my mind at all since I DON'T CARE ABOUT FOOTBALL! Shesh.

I have to say that before we got there check in and security had me the most freaked out, but when we got there it was a piece of pie! We were fast tracked through and everyone was really helpful in the Seattle airport. In fact we ended up being super early because everyone told us to have a few hours cushion just in case, but it was a breeze! So there was a lot of sitting around waiting. Which in the end is better than freaking out about missing your flight, ha ha!

It's always good to read the emergency manual before take off. ;)

First flight ever! And they were soooooo excited!

I promise he was as well, he just likes to mess with me now when it comes to taking his picture… :/

Leiella and Teressa are both buckled and ready!

I was not a fan of take off, but came to find out I'm even more not a fan of landing. :/

My daughter was so sweet. She held my hand at both take off and landing because she knew how nervous I was. I had already told my kids they had my permission to push/pull me onto the plane if need be. ;) She kept telling me she would help me be brave since I always help her to be brave. Melted my heart! And I of course had to put on a brave face for that!!!

Window pictures! Ha ha! It was a beautiful clear day for the most part so that gave the kids plenty of distractions. :)

They were soooooo good on the plane! Each of them had a backpack to carry on and a bag filled with stuff to do. We only did carry on so we wouldn't have to worry about baggage claims. I also printed our boarding passes out on line, and I highly suggest that! Made things so easy! :) They kept themselves entertained with coloring, pipe cleaners, and travel games, and of course lots and lots of snacks. ;) The boys were all in one row together so they rotated seats every half hour or so. That way they all got time at the window. :) Lucky Leiella was sitting with mom and dad so she got a window seat the whole time. :)

Oh and we did non-stop flights, no way I wanted to figure out switching planes with all my kiddos!

I was so ready for drinks by the time we landed safely on the ground and made it to the rental. ;)

Reunited!!!

We left our house at 7:30 am and got to our rental around 6 pm, it was a long day. But my dearest friend had food for us, ready to make (she did the menus for the whole week, taking into account all of our food sensitivities, that is no small task! I can not even fully express how wonderful it was not to have to plan the menus!!!) and we all settled in. The time difference is about two hours later than ours, so that was interesting. Plus the time change was the day before, spring forward, so we were totally thrown for a loop! The kids stayed up late, but in reality they were going to bed at there usual bedtime, 7:30. That worked out well. ;) Of course that did not translate into them sleeping in in the morning, but it never does, so no surprises there!

Story time with Auntie Iva!

This beautiful man finally gets a week to lounge and relax. :) He was working non-stop weeks and weekends up until we left. 

I thought the ceiling in our rental was pretty cool! :) We rented a house for the week, because with all our food sensitivities eating out is rarely an option. So we needed a full kitchen. Plus hotels with kids just aren't much fun, it nice to have a yard for them to run around in. This place had a pool, hot tub and a play yard with play equipment, super kid friendly. And for how many of us there were it ended up being way cheaper than a hotel anyways. :)

We chose not to get a rental car, because we wanted to mostly just hang out and let the kids play and relax. At one point we walked to a skating rink with the kiddos and they had a blast. :) None of the pictures in the rink turned out though, oh well. 

Girls! Leiella was in sister heaven. All that sisterly love!!!

I was fascinated by these spiky looking puff balls on the branches, some sort of moss.

We had a bit of drama while we were there. Or at least my husband did. On his way walking home from the store he saw a little dog get hit. So sad. It was hurt pretty bad and couldn't move. The people that hit the dog stopped for a bit but ended up taking off. Another stranger stopped and she was a doggy angel. She was in the whole dog rescue loop so she started networking right away to see if someone would take on the responsibility of a hurt dog and foster it. She was on her way to work though and so she asked that we keep the dog until she got things figured out. We were just getting ready to head out but put our plans on hold. Ryder sat up front for about two hours waiting with the dog to see if this lady would indeed do as she promised. She did. :) She came back and picked him up and later reported that the dog got the surgery he needed, was recovering, and had a foster home set up. :) The dog had no collar/tags and was not microchipped so there wasn't anything else we could do to try and reunite it with the owners. We were told that a dog hurt that bad would probably just suffer for a while at the pound and then get put to sleep. :/ Didn't want that. Anyways I love my husbands caring heart. :)

These girls were absolutely adorable! The best of friends right off the bat. Like they had never been separated. It was the sweetest! They could hardly have remembered each other from before, but you wouldn't have been able to tell from the comfortable way they related with each other. Two peas in a pod. Her friend was their in the room when Leiella was born, that's a bond you just can't break. ;)

Waiting for the bus to take us to the river walk in San Antonio TX!

Checking out the river when we got there...

It was a long, fun, tiring walk. :) I of course ended up a wee bit sunburnt, even though it wasn't very hot outside. I couldn't tell how bad it was getting until it was too late, because there was a nice breeze cooling everything down. We ended up coming to Texas during a time when they were having uncharacteristically cool weather. Mid 60's for the most part, warmed up to low 70's the last couple of days we were there. I didn't mind it, but I know the kids were hoping for warmer weather because they wanted to live in the pool while we were there. 

Riding the bus was also exciting according to the kids. ;)

Back to the house we go!

Finally some pool time!!!

Leiella was not having it the first time around, wouldn't even hardly put her toes in. But eventually her big sister friend talked her into the pool and walked around with her until she got use to it. Then she didn't want out, ha ha! Such a great big sister. ;)

This beautiful man. Enough said. ;) I took lots of pictures of his half naked self relaxing in the sunshine, but I won't be posting those on the interwebs. ;) Be still my heart!

These girls are the silliest. Sharing a floaty. :)

One...

Two...

Three...

Jump!!! :)

Warming up in the hot tub, because it really wasn't pool weather. Tell that to the kids, ha ha! In fairness to my little Washingtonians though it felt pretty dang warm. ;)

Last day at the rental, with the sadness of knowing that all too soon we would be on our way...

My sister from another mister… and mom… ha ha!

Soul Sisters!!!

We went on a great walk to kill time in between check out at the rental and our late flight back.

There were some shops and a restaurant at the end of the trail. We did a little shopping and even ate fries and a fruit bowl at the restaurant. :) We ate outside and got to see a male and female cardinal. That made Atty's day. :) Wish I'd been able to get a picture of them!

This made me so happy, these two friends talking away, just enjoying each others company. They've been friends from the beginning, going on ten years now! Distance has not taken that away. :)

The Washingtonians marveling at the patch of cacti, ha ha!

Saying goodbye is hard to do.

Especially when you have to say good bye to your soul sisters.

It really was so hard to say goodbye, mostly because we don't know when we will be able to see them again. I'll admit I cried… a lot.

Ugly snotty tears on the airplane. Good thing my husband loves me any ol' way, because I'm sure I was a mess. ;)

I think he was worried for a minute that visiting them made things worse instead of better. But it wasn't that. I'm so thankful to have been able to visit them and to see my dearest friend. I treasured every moment of it. I just needed a moment to be sad. I've found it's better to let it out than hold it in. 

We all felt like this on the way home. ;) We didn't get to our house until 11:30 pm, 1:30 am Texas time. We were exhausted!!!

So all in all it was an amazing trip. We hit no snags on the airplane ride there or back, everything was smooth sailing. :) In fact it went so well I don't think I'll ever ride in an airplane again, because it couldn't get any better than that. ;)

And if you think this was a lot of pictures you should see how many I actually have of the trip, ha ha!