Spring Break

We had a wonderful Spring Break!  Robert and I were in Texas and the kids were in Carey.  How did that end up happening?  Well, my brother Caleb wanted a sprinkler system and "hired" Matt, Luke, and Robert to help him install it.  My mom stayed in Carey with all of the kids, 6 under the age of 9.

Our trip started on Friday.  We loaded up the van and left around 4 p.m.  Driving all night, we stopped in Bloomfield, NM to have breakfast with some people that Matt knew from his mission.  They were super nice and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs and biscuits and gravy for us. Then, back on the road.  We finally got to Caleb's house around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.  After sleeping for a couple of hours, we got up and went to church.  Sunday was super relaxed.

Monday, the guys jumped right in on the sprinkler system.  I won't give a day by day account, mostly because my days get all mixed up, but I'll give you the highlights.  The guys had some problems with the trencher, so that ended up taking longer than expected, but I didn't hear anyone swear.  That could have been because I was inside, though.  Robert spent most of his time either outside in the yard, or at the sprinkler warehouse picking up parts.  I got to have a great time with my sisters-in-law.  We made jewelry.  I made myself a necklace and earrings, and bracelets for my girls.  We went to the library, and shopping.  I got to read lots of stories to my niece and nephew and do a lot of visiting.  One day we went to the park and while Rebekah and Nicole ran, I played with the kids.  In case you didn't know, I don't like sweating, so I had a much better time pushing kids in the swings than running around in circles.  We also went out to Galveston and I got to wade in the sea.  I miss the beach.  I did find some sea shells to take home to the kids.

On Thursday, we went to the Houston Temple.  We met up with some friends from college and lunch before going to the temple.  It was nice to see them again after so many years.  The Houston Temple is really pretty and I loved being able to go with family.  Thursday was also Nicole's birthday so we had cake and ice cream after dinner.  The guys needed to finish a few things on the sprinkler system, so the girls got to watch a chick flick without anyone complaining. 

Friday we left around 9 a.m.  We stopped in Ft. Worth to have lunch with one of Robert's mission companions.  It was nice for me to be able to put a face to the name.  Then, back on the road.  We made it to Carey around 3:30 on Saturday.  We wanted to make sure we were back for Michael's birthday on Sunday.  We won't actually celebrate it big until this weekend, though.  We did have cake and ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Newey's after watching General Conference on Sunday.

What a whirlwind trip, but I had a great time.  Next time we make it to Texas I hope that Robert won't be so busy and we can do more fun things.

What were the kids doing during this time?  Well, I will tell you what I know.  Taylor got very good at the Bop It game.  The newest version has a setting where you go head to head with someone, and she beat both Grandma and Grandpa numerous times.  They made bubbles one day, and kites another.  The weather was rainy and windy a lot of days, so they ended up spending a lot of time inside watching movies.  Micheal finally had a boy around, and the two of them delighted in making the girls scream.  On the nice days, they were outside playing on the swings and slide, or jumping on the trampoline.  They got to have ice cream floats and stay up late.  All of the kids camped out in the living room.  They brought sleeping bags and pillows so that they could all sleep together.  When they would call us at night I'm sure they missed us, but with all of the fun they were having they seemed to be too busy to miss us much.

Of course, if you play to hard you run the risk of getting sick.  On Monday the girls all came down with coughs.  They had slight fevers and runny noses, but by Tuesday seemed much better.  Michael started coughing Tuesday, but for the most part they are doing better now.  We still have a little cough hanging on and Lindsey has a stuffy nose, but nothing too bad.  I'm glad for that because the other kids ended up with the flu.  Lindsey has had a rough week, though.  She also had her back and hip go out on her.  Tuesday she was in so much pain that she couldn't sleep most of the night.  So on Wednesday we took her to the chiropractor.  He put her back and hip back in and she was good as new. 

It's been hard getting back to normal, we all had so much fun.  We are trying, though.  I've gotten the laundry all caught up again, for the time being.  I pretty much emptied the fridge before we left, so I had to get food to put back in so we could eat.  Things are settling back into place and we are getting back into our routines, but once in a while it's good to do something completely different.