Staycation

For the last month or longer, Robert and I have been bantering about going on vacation. I have just been desperate to get away. The kids have been off-track for three weeks and I had all the glorious plans to go to Disneyland the first week of May.

However, since Robert has been extremely busy at work, we decided that wouldn't be the best plan In a down economy, when he is being thrown projects, now isn't the best time to up and go away for a week on short notice. Plus the fact that Robert doesn't do well with spontaneity. When I really got to thinking about it, I figured that going to Disneyland in six months would be better because Amberly will be walking, done nursing, and probably down to one nap a day.

So for the past three weeks we have basically hung out at home, gone to the park a lot, and played with neighbor friends. My kids are pretty content to just be near home. I always feel this need to go on a field trip, to be moving and going. I am finding that nobody else feels that is a necessity and I certainly don't need the stress.

The second week off, Robert was out of town the entire week. That Tuesday, I completely abandoned everything and left the house in ruins. We head over to Grandma's for a while and ate popsicles and play in the yard. Then we went to the park for a while after which we headed to the new conservation garden in South Jordan. My kids thought it was so fun, as did I. I got a lot of great ideas about how to save water and cut down moving in our yard.

We then went to an early dinner at Golden Corral. You would have thought I had taken them to Disneyland. The fact that they could pick any food they wanted and eat as much as they liked was so wonderful to them. The great thing was that the kids were all so well behaved! I had an elderly lady approach me and tell me what great kids I have. That was one of those Ahh!! moments you don't often have as a mom of five kids.

After dinner, we rented "Bedtime Stories" and snuggled on the couch. It was a perfect day. I went to bed with my house still in shambles, but I knew I could face it the next day after a quality break!

Last Saturday, Robert and I went to the temple TOGETHER for the first time in probably six months. That afternoon, we flew kites with the kids at the park. Christopher and Matthew are quite the expert kite flyers. They even helped mom and dad get their little brothers' kites up in the air. The weather was perfect for kite flying.

We did have one scary moment where two kites flew over the river and Christopher and Ethan started running head long towards the river to save their kites. We safely retrieved the kites and no one ended up in the Jordan River (which is currently very gorged and running swiftly).

Today, we took the boys to see "Night at the Museum." It was a fun show and a nice quick break. Tomorrow, we will go swimming, maybe go downtown to the Gateway mall and see a show called "Sea Creatures 3D" at the Clarke Planetarium. Matthew also wants to go feed the fish at Cabela's. Simple fun.

On Monday, we intend to go see "Up!" Robert always is game for whatever new Pixar film is out. We will probably go swimming again and just chillax--the new catch phrase.

We talked about going to St. George this weekend, but once I thought through spending $180 per night on a hotel, not to mention a six hour drive, eating out, gas, etc. I decided we could do some fun and relaxing things here at home and get just as much benefit from it. Plus I might get some of the home improvements I am waiting for if we saved just a little bit of money.