Monday, August 25, 2014

Weekend with mom and dad

Mom and dad were here for the weekend and it was perfection. They got here around 4 on Friday (with balloons in tow... princesses for abigail and sports balls for brady) and we hung out and then went to the Hilliers for Nate's birthday dinner. Delicious steak and potatoes for dinner and make your own pies for dessert. Hanging out was so much fun. Especially seeing Steph. And at the end when dad was helping Klaudette with her phone and "hallie" and "bongo."

Saturday was a day of work. My parents earned their keep this weekend... Especially Saturday.  we did have an amazing breakfast.  christopher made us french toast and we topped it with some delectable peaches that mom and dad brought and added cream cheese to the mix.  along with the regulars... butter, syrup, powdered sugar.  it was heavenly.  but after that it was a whole lot of sweat and hard labor.  mom and i worked in the yard pruning and hacking at dead branches and pulling out bushes and tree stumps and just totally going through the backyard.  we made three enormous piles of branches that dad and christopher hauled down to the tall grasses near the water retention area.  it was amazing.  dad also fixed our upstairs toilet that would sometimes run too long and dad and chris [with quite a bit of trouble] managed to reverse the doors of the fridge/freezer in my garage since they opened toward the wall and it was tricky and annoying to get to things.  we started working sometime around 10am i think and we didn't stop working til late afternoon around five or six.  brady was a gem and slept in til 1pm.  so it was super nice to have that uninterrupted time to work in the yard and not worry about having to put him down for a nap.  the kids just kind of floated around the house while everyone was working and it was all great.  we went to texas roadhouse for dinner and then chris took the kids home and got them to bed while mom and dad and i stopped by home depot for a few things (spider spray, caulk and gun, razor blades, and a saw).  after the kids were in bed, we played sequence and ate kettle corn.

sunday was great.  we had ward conference and i didn't even try to put brady in nursery.  i just took him with me to second and third hour and i loved actually hearing lessons in sunday school and relief society!  amazing!  after church, we came home and binged on random food from the fridge and later, honey grilled hamburgers for us.  as mom and dad loved to comment... we ate a whole lot of red meat that weekend.  our adventure of sunday afternoon was that abigail's balloon escaped to our great room ceiling.  dad and abigail had this plan to turn on the fan so it would fly to the side of the room closer to the stairs.  well, it just got tangled in the fan instead.  luckily, my dad can solve anything and devised a plan that involved hockey sticks ("double hockey sticks" as he liked to call them) and masking tape.  it worked like a charm and with mom dashing to the rescue, we were able to secure the princess balloon once again.  fun was had by almost all.  ; )

monday, we woke up and got to work.  mom and i did some sorting of boxes in the basement to get a bunch of stuff together that we could throw out with recycling.  dad's big project was my master shower.  out with the old and in with the new.  old caulk is a disgusting thing.  i would never have been able to stomach that by myself.  also, the drains for my master shower and sinks... they're perfectly clean now.  i spent most of my last hours with mom and dad convincing them that they needed to come back before and after their conference trip.  they're such lifesavers... it would have taken me absolutely forever (if ever) to accomplish all of this stuff without them.  it makes such a difference for my mood being able to knock out some of these big/long standing projects that i've had on my mind for the longest time.

so yes, it's a little sad we didn't get to go to the pool or go on bike rides or go hiking or see the chihuly exhibit at night or do any of the other fun activities we thought of.  just call me crazy, this was just way more satisfying.  i gave a talk in church recently about what i learned from my parents growing up and i focused a lot on my dad and how he was always working and getting things done and being productive and enjoying it and now i didn't enjoy it as a kid but now i do.  well, this just sealed it.  i'm a convert to the pleasure of a little hard work.

crossing my fingers they come back next month.  ; )

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