Thursday

We hung out at the resort. 

Maid service is my favorite. Temporary goodbye to OCD. I don't have to think twice about messes because I know they'll disappear in a few hours anyway. 

Getting to St. Thomas

Tuesday I had two goals. Spend quality time with my kids and get everything ready for me to leave for St. Thomas. I really don't like leaving my kids and with these two trips being back to back since I couldn't control the dates of either, I've been stressing about this for the last few months. I knew I'd need to do a lot of cleaning and several loads of laundry and some grocery shopping and unpacking and then packing myself and for the kids since they'd be at my in laws for several days until mom came to bring them back to the house. But my main focus was that my time spent with the kids would be positive and happy. It turned out to be an okay balance and we were all happy about it. 

We all left the house at 8pm and dropped the kids off at my in laws. I'd forgotten to eat during the day so my mil fed me lasagna and then I put the kids I bed. Abigail went right to sleep but Brady cried for a while so I got him up again. Not sure what Chris was doing during this time. Maybe work or talking to his dad. I've never seen him so stressed about work before leaving on a trip. He told me on the way to his parents' house that he wanted to call off the trip and not go. Poor guy. I'm so grateful not to be the sole breadwinner for my family. I can't even imagine how stressful that must be. 

Chris's dad is amazing and was full of comforting words as he took us to the airport. We left sometime before midnight and were in Boston by 5:30... Which was 3:30am MST. I kept thinking, "why do we do this to ourselves?!" Positively masochistic. It was 30* and snowing outside. I was freezing and exhausted since I was already sleep deprived from my Dallas trip. We found this nice bench in front of dunkin donuts and slept for a few hours until 9 when we went to get on our next flight. 

What's up with there only being four Doritos in a pack?!  Luckily the lady gave me two. 

And she gave me two apple juice cans too since they're mini. Thanks ma'am. I sure appreciate it. 

Getting close! I think we flew over Puerto Rico first. 

We made it to our resort and the lobby architecture was so similar to that of a cruise ship atrium. For some reason I thought that was cool. 

We went down to the beach and I fell in love. Chris says he prefers Hawaii because it's so jungle ish but I definitely prefer the gulf. The water is unreal. 

I love this resort. It's like a cruise and a resort meshed into one. You get your own beach and don't have the time limitations of docking or being back before the boat leaves and it's not enormous, but there are tons of fun activities you can do and it's all inclusive so you can eating whatever and whenever you want and stuff your face with daiquiris and frozen yogurt to your hearts content. 

We played ping pong and giant jenga. 

We keep saying "awww I wish Abigail was here too!  She would love this place!" And then we have conversations about how much of a pain it is to vacation with babies and are grateful Brady is happy at home where he can eat and nap and explore all day. 

We're having a blast but I already told Christopher I don't want to take any more trips without kids for a while. It's just too hard to leave their precious faces. 

Home again... with eggs

Monday, I borrowed aunt Mary's truck to go visit my dear friend Carolyn who happened to live only 30 minutes away!  

Like true friends, we didn't even skip a beat. 

Back at aunt Mary's, we had leftover pork salads that we enjoyed on the back patio. 

While we watched Marianne ride a horse. 

Dog, pig, goat, horse, all in a row. 

Matching polka dot shirts. 

Meanwhile we had a pig roaming at our feet. 

I packed two eggs in paper towels and played them in this mostly empty lotion container I'd brought. Sooo excited to bring home farm fresh eggs! 

 Saying good bye. 

Aunt Mary and Liza. 

Back in Denver without any problems or travel delays! Frontier is my least favorite airline. Just as an FYI. 

Honey picked me up with the kids in tow. He still was pretty sick but able to function. It was eight something at night. All three of them were in pjs. I held Abigail's hand on the way home and she drifted off so sweetly. She's so precious. 

With my three loves all in bed, I started unpacking, threw in a load of laundry, and made myself my eggs. I used the two I'd brought home and one from my fridge. Brown speckled, mint green, and stark white. 

The farm eggs had bright orange yolks. 

See the contrast?  The white egg is the yellow yolk on the right. 

I was sad not to be able to show the eggs to Abigail so she could share the excitement with me but I was glad to get to eat them all myself. I'm all for sharing experiences but don't ask me to share my food. 

Who's already ready for another sisters daughters trip?!

Sunday

Stake conference and farm tour

Sunday was Suzannah's talk at stake conference, taking Emmy to the airport, a tour around the farm, cafe rio pork salads, games, and lots of hanging out and family history stories.