Spring Break at the Park

We're on The Lime's second week of spring break and, unfortunately, we spent a majority of the first week inside watching YouTube videos (thanks to rain every.single.day). Thank goodness, the sun decided to shine on Friday and to the park we went!

The boys saw another group of kids create a little obstacle course and The Lime had to follow suit. It was hard to capture these boys in motion because they're so dang fast but they were sure having fun!

I captured this next photo of The Lime and was immediately taken back over 6 years to another visit we took to the park.

He can't seem to have fun without sticking his tongue out :)

I love that, even though he's almost as big as me, The Lime still loves to play at the park, especially with his little brother.

I was trying to get the boys to leave when we saw our neighbors from down the street walking towards us (the same ones we ran into at Disneyland last spring break). The kids immediately started playing together (even their cute 12 year old daughter) while the mom and I chatted. She's one of the nicest ladies but our relationship has been pretty much say hi at school or wave as we pass each other in the neighborhood.

I overheard her talking one day at school that she quit her job and started working in the schools. Then The Lime came home from school one day and said she was one of the new yard duty ladies. I asked her how things were going and she expressed the same financial frustrations our little family is facing. We both want to help contribute to our households but have the opportunity to stay home with our kids. Thus resulting in not as much money as we once had. She said we were both meant to go to the park that day so we could vent to one another :) It's comforting to know that although some people look like they have their crap together, we're all probably dealing with a lot of the same issues.

As a result of our conversation, she dropped by yesterday to give us some passes to laser tag that we're going to put to great use this weekend!

The weather is even more beautiful this week so we planned to visit a new park with our dear friends, the Swyers. We were the first ones there and the kiddos played hard. We brought soccer balls, basketballs, Frisbees, sidewalk chalk, and they brought their scooters. There wasn't a second where they all weren't having a blast.

Two sweaty hours later, we headed to Taylor's for milkshakes. When we walked in, we saw several missionaries but a bunch of them left while we were in line. After we got our shakes, we went to the patio where two elders were still hanging out. I took a picture of our group when one of the elders asked is he could take a picture of all of us.

"Are you guys members?" he asked. My small clan didn't give it away but our friends have six awesome kids so it was a given. The same elder asked all of the kids' names and asked if we were German. I told him I had ancestors who came from Germany and he said he would have guessed I was the one who immigrated. Bless his heart :) They sat down with us and the kids shared some of their missionary moments. Before they left, the elders asked if we could take their picture and text it to their moms. My friend and I have been talking a lot about technology and our kids, and how we as parents need to cut back when it comes to using our devices. As the elders were walking back to their car, one of their moms responded to the text and asked us to tell them how much she loved them. "That's one of the blessings of technology!" I told my friend. We also knew we were supposed to stay at the park a little longer than we anticipated so we could be at Taylor's at the same time as these elders and share that experience with them.

The park wore us out today so we came home and parked it in front of the TV and watched Toy Story 3. We needed that rest since tomorrow is going to be busy but awesome!

Things I Want to Remember

One of my goals for 2018 was to blog more since this is what I use as our family journal and I want to be able to look back on it in 5, 10, 20 years and see all of the great stuff we did. But clearly, I'm failing. Maybe I should have been better at doing my Personal Progress as a teenager and then I'd know how to make goals and stick to them (totally being sarcastic) :)

We have found ourselves in the same position we were in exactly 5 years ago; trying to find a place to live. Except this time, it's not something we wanted to do.

Last year, our landlord threw around the idea of selling our house but later realized he'd be paying enormous amounts of taxes and changed his mind. We quickly signed another year lease to ensure we'd have a place to live. Well, we received a letter in the mail last week that he decided to go through with the process this year. Houses in our neighborhood are popping up for sale every week and we weren't surprised by his decision, just sad.

We believe in miracles so I sent our landlord, who we've never had any contact with, a letter explaining how much we love this home. Before we moved up here, we prayed harder than I think we've ever prayed for anything else that we would find the perfect home for us. And this has been it. We love our neighbors, its proximity to The Lime's awesome school and his friends, how close we are to the baseball fields, and simply the house itself. I also included a photo of our family with the letter, hoping to tug on his heartstrings extra hard. We aren't holding our breath that our plea will change his mind but we aren't completely dismissing it either.

In the meantime, The Lime is playing baseball again and landed on the same team as his best friend (who also lives down the street from us and they're in the same class at school). Both boys are the oldest, tallest, and most experienced. The rest of the kiddos have either never played or this is their first year in Farm. We're hoping The Lime will polish off his skills with this level and be ready to go for AA come next Spring.

Speaking of baseball and our awesome neighbors, I think I've mentioned before The Lime's infatuation with a kid named Hank that lives across the street. Hank goes to school in Sonoma but his younger brother, Joey, still lives at home. Both Hank and Joey play baseball so when it came time for The Lime to sell his coupon cards as a baseball fundraiser, I suggested going to Hank's house to see if his parents wanted to buy one. Joey opened the door, The Lime nervously said his spiel, and without hesitation Joey said, "I'd love to buy one!" Holy melt my heart. I get teary-eyed just thinking about his willingness to support The Lime. How many teenage boys are so stinkin' kind and wave to 8 year old kids when they get home from school/work? This right here is one of the reasons I don't want to leave our home!

Also speaking of The Lime, LaVor got tickets for his birthday (which I need to blog about) to see Chris Stapleton in concert come July. The Lime was at school a few weeks ago when a girl was talking about going to the Justin Timberlake concert. "My dad is going to that one!" The Lime told her. He came home from school that day and told me the story. I nearly fell on the floor, dying of laughter. I suggested he go to school the next day and tell Kinley right away that his dad was going to see Chris Stapleton, not Justin Timberlake :)

Our little Doodlebug is quite the character and keeps us laughing all.day.long. His facial expressions are to die for, his dance moves are the best, and he still lets met hold him (even though I'm trying really hard not to encourage it since he will be FOUR in 2 months). He loves going to church and comes home with the juiciest Sunbeam gossip you've ever heard. Mainly it's about one of the little girls who disrupts the class and finds herself in timeout every week. Even though he takes one look at dinner and says it's gross and then spends the next hour slowly eating it, he always finishes. He loves to "nuggle" (snuggle) but only with LaVor. I don't think I'm cushy enough. Actually, our whole family loves to snuggle and we've found ourselves squeezing onto our queen bed and falling asleep together these last few months. It wreaks LaVor's poor back but it makes for happy memories.

LaVor is killing it at work and I'm getting fat (not pregnant...I blame it on the lack of sleep and copious amounts of treats).

The boys are way more interesting than we are :) I just need to post more to prove it.