Last week our kids got MORE cousin time! We met up with Rachel in Burley on Wednesday. After dinner at their house, we went to Hudson's soccer practice and played at the park. On the way home, we grabbed ice cream to share and I got myself a milkshake from a local drive in Rachel suggested. Yum! Chase got home later that night and we chatted away until almost midnight.
Excited to see Hudson and Sloane!
Passed out 30 minutes later😂
Uncle Keaton would be proud of their hill rolling.
Thursday we had a slow morning until it was time for Burley Baby Animal days! We took the kids amid 60 mph winds to different stations featuring all kinds of baby animals, including a station of reptiles that Emmett was going absolutely bonkers over. We had to make sure he didn't take the liberty to open the snake bins himself before the handlers came to do it properly! Both boys especially liked that station and the fish station. It confused Emmett that they were two separate stations because "Mom - fish are reptiles," and why weren't they with the other reptiles? 😂
This makes me wish we were getting baby chicks!!! So cute! Definitely gives me a good idea for a future brooder.
We took off for home after that to pick up our lumber/hardware order from home depot for our chicken coop! Lots of talk and now it's finally here! I found three chickens for sale that I hope to adopt next weekend, pending the coop building goes well this week. As much as I would LOVE to raise future flocks starting with chicks, that is not something I want to take on during this season of life. Maybe (probably) next year. (Didja read that Justin? 😅)
Friday we had our track meet at Challis. Only five teams present made for moving through events quickly, and I was thankfully on my way home by 7:00. My 4X400 girls team is doing great! Two of them PRed with 1:08 and 1:02 splits which was so exciting! Another gal PRed in the open with a 1:07. I'll bet the 1:02 girl gets it under a minute by districts.
Hello 30 weeks - I have a feeling Ima get HUGE!
Sometimes I take the kids to the track for my walks so they can play around the bleachers, grass, etc. The pirate ship is always fun to play on.
Saturday promised wind gusts of over 20 mph, so Justin got an early start on our chicken coop while I went for a 45 minute walk. I have been in quite a bit of pain this pregnancy pelvis-wise. It's made staying active tough! But so has the horrible winter cold, so now that the weather is nice enough to be outside, I am determined to walk 2-3 miles a day. I told my chiropractor about it and he worked a miracle on me. I am SO grateful a Webster certified (AKA - trained to work on pregnant ladies) chiropractor comes to Arco! I can do a lunge now without any pain, and I walked 2-3 miles almost every day last week. It's marathon prep time! The things I try to do every single day from now until the birth are 1.) walk 2-3 miles (30 minutes minimum) 2.) eat 7 dates (softens the cervix) 3.) do 100-300 squats 4.) drink my NORA tea (nettles, oatstraw, red raspberry leaf, and alfala for the calcium and to tone up the uterus). I also shoot for 100 oz of water and of course, taking all my supplements and tracking my protein. Phew! Is that all? I take my birth prep seriously!
Justin worked on the coop all day and I helped where I could measuring out where to cut. I'm hoping he gets it finished in the next couple of days. I'll be buying the final things we'll need on Tuesday while I'm in I.F. for my midwife appointment. He's making my dreams come true!
Pregnancy update: I'm 30 weeks this week. A couple weeks ago I passed my gestational diabetes test with flying colors. I found a great alternative to the typical glucola drink used to test for GD with this glucoganics drink. Only three ingredients and bonus: it comes in glass, not plastic! After my test I was feeling fine so we took the kids to the museum and hit lunch on our way out.
With Justin at this appointment he got to film Logan helping Tabitha
eating ice cream 💗
Hello 3rd trimester (28 weeks)
The kids insisted on playing at the park. I insisted on supervising from my car😂
Christy reached out with an idea to meet up in McCall for the weekend. It was very last-minute, but we had to go to Boise the following Monday to catch a flight anyway, so we decided we were game to join the fun! We rented a house for the weekend that came with a huge game room, a pool, and enough bedrooms to sleep half the Beals (okay, maybe 1/3 of the Beals). Emmett and Logan were totally taken by their cousins. They had a great time, and we managed to keep the kids safe around that dang pool.
Colin and Emmett are two month apart in age. They became quick buddies.
The kids played in this room the majority of the time. They built some pretty amazing forts.
Gabe and Christy treated us to pizza Saturday night and it was ah-mazing! I can't wait to go back this summer and order another "popper"!
Sunday we headed back to Gabe's. They agreed to host us for one additional night since we had a flight to catch the next morning. The weather was almost hot, it was so nice! The kids soaked up one last day with their cousins.
"Daddy, I so hungry. Pwease pwease pwease?"
Monday came which finally meant Grandma time for my kids! They've been looking forward to this since we purchased our tickets. What they can tell you about their Grandma Rose is "she lives SO far away." Indeed. The kids were troopers in the airport and on the plane. We managed to pack everything for the four of us into one checked bag, so that certainly helped make things easier. We got to Jon and Judy's and immediately the kids had an Easter egg hunt. We went to Jon and Laura's for an Easter dinner complete with another Easter egg hunt.
I used some "busy toddler" plane ideas for the short hour-ish flight.
Anytime Emmett sees any flower, he has to pick it and give it to me 💗 it's my favorite thing!
Emmett was feeling left out when we snapped the pic of Logan passed out in the car - clearly he needed one too.
Tuesday Jon and Laura took the day off for us to play. We went to Olympia for their huge indoor trampoline park. We went to a random farm to let the kids look at some animals, but the weather was not great so we promptly headed back to Puyallup. That night we celebrated Clara's 8th birthday. Judy let Emmett and Logan help her frost her birthday cupcakes. After dinner, Jon had a bunch of activities for the kids in the backyard - and also for the adults 😂
Wednesday we spent the whole day with Grandma and Grandpa. We had Clara and Eleanor with us much to my kids' delight. They ate up their time with their cousins. We took a ferry to Vashon island and drove to the lighthouse for a picnic. The kids were totally engaged playing with the driftwood. Justin got some good quality time with his parents. After taking the ferry back to the mainland, we got ice cream on Ruston Way and let the kids play at a park on the waterfront. The view was amazing and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Jon and Judy babysat our kids that night so we could go to dinner with Jon and Laura. We ate at "Cactus" in University Place and I had their fabulous carne asada.
Vashon Island directly behind them. The ferry ride took about 10 minutes: that's my kinda ride! You can see the ferry behind Emmett's shoulder.
The ferry is between Logan and Eleanor
Mt. Ranier in all her glory is behind my shoulder
Just a rock nerd checking out the sediment 😂
Don't ask me how Justin got this pic 😂
Thursday morning we caught our flight back to Boise, but not before one last Easter egg hunt for the boys before we left. Logan fell asleep after takeoff. He was a monster when he woke up, but after he peed all was well. Driving the three hours home after that was rough, but soon Idaho Falls will have direct flights to Seattle so that will be nice. We spent the rest of the night recovering from our travels
Best part of flying to/from Boise/Seattle is this view😍
Friday I spent the day helping Justin get ready for the Easter egg hunt we decided to throw for the community. At first it was just for our ward, then I included the kids from both preschool classes, and then we opened it up to anyone that wanted to come. Arco and Mackay cancelled their hunts so we wanted everyone to be able to join the fun who wanted to. We stuffed close to 2,000 eggs with candy - I am NOT exaggerating! Ask Justin how much he loved stuffing the "glitter" eggs that were donated😂 We had plans to set up the hunt that evening, but Dad called and said he was worried about stupid teenagers vandalizing it overnight, so we waited for Saturday morning to set it up. Our neighbor Houston was thrilled to be able to help us as well.
After the morning conference session, we headed over for last-minute set up. We had a great crowd and it seemed like the perfect ratio of kids-to-Easter-eggs. We asked people to empty their collected eggs and put them in a bin before leaving so we could use them all again next year.
Christy gave us the idea to have prizes for the older kids. Justin hid 10 golden eggs, each filled with a number which corresponded with a prize bag. Maybe next year we'll get businesses to donate BIG prizes.
Granny out there in the bright blue looking for eggs in the trees with Logan.
After the egg hunt I had Emmett help me make my lemon cheesecake to share for Easter.
Cozy boys
We started looking at the scrap wood left on the property to use to build our chicken coop.
For Easter Sunday, Mom and Dad had us over for dinner with ham and funeral potatoes. Justin made deviled eggs and we had my cheesecake as well.
Logan snuggling the baby
Emmett was proud of his cutouts from his conference packet
He helped me add the finishing touches to the cheesecake
yummy deviled eggs
Yesterday was a cold, windy, overall miserable day which led to us waking up to snow this morning. Thankfully today is warmer. I had Urban and Sloane today to give Lacy a few hours to work on her sewing. She'll watch my kids on Friday when I leave for the Challis track meet. The kids played well together which allowed me to focus on typing this up!
A cold day calls for warm, comforting butter chicken with naan. Mmmm
