Conference Weekend

Okay, I promise a post about Rachel is coming. But first, I wanted to post about our fun family weekend!

Our weekend started with a soccer game, of course. We now have early games through the end of the season, so we were at the field by 8am. Jim left the house even earlier to clean the church building. Mimi's game was first and they played really well as a team. Miriam had a lot of energy through the whole game and did a great job. She even scored a goal!!! She has this great move where she just kicks both of her legs until one of them makes contact with the ball. It's very entertaining to watch. We had also brought snack for her team which is always fun (for whatever reason). Daddy also made it in time for the second half of her game.

Then we headed over to Lizzie's game. Her team lost a player at the beginning of the season, so they only have one sub, so Lizzie usually plays the whole game. She was a trooper and kept up with the action the whole time. Her entire team also played well. Lizzie found many opportunities to help her team and dribbled the ball up the field and almost scored a goal. It was really fun to watch and cheer her on.

We made it home and while the girls changed and rested for a bit, I got everyone packed up. We hit the road, really excited to see the Bowles family! We stopped along the way to get lunch and rewarded the girls' excellent soccer games with Happy Meals. We made it to Grandma B's house by about 2:30. It was so fun to see our cousins and Shannon and Ian. I visited for a few minutes and then ran to get my hair done. When I got back, the boys were just heading out for the priesthood session and the kids were ready to get into the pool. They had fun splashing and cooling off in the 85 degree spa.

After swimming, we went to McDonald's (again) for dinner. Even though all the kids had just eaten there in the past 24 hours, they all wanted to go back. This time we just bought chicken nuggets and fries for everyone and then let them play on the huge indoor playplace. They loved it. Back at Grandma's house, I got out the new PJs I bought for everyone. They all changed right away and kept playing until bedtime. Grandma put Lizzie on the top bunk, Davin on the bottom bunk, and Mimi and Weston shared the air mattress. I put Rachel to bed in the spare room until later that night.
Mom, Shannon and I quickly put together the souffle for the next morning and then made a Golden Spoon run. YUM! We were going to play some games, but ended up just talking and enjoying the company of each other. The boys had gone to a movie, so we had plenty of time for girl talk. That night, Jim and I took Rachel with us to a hotel to sleep. She was really mad when we woke her up and took her away from Grandma B's house, but she eventually calmed down and went to sleep.

Sunday morning, we had a yummy breakfast and listened to conference while the kids played. Then we bathed and fed them between sessions. After the afternoon session, we picked up the house and got ready for a little family party. Grandma and Grandpa Olson and Grandma Snowball and Rich, Joyce and Lance came over to celebrate Julianna and Grandpa Olson's birthdays. Mom made lasagna and Grandma made an awesome cake with marshmallow frosting. Yum! We had a great time visiting with everyone, but we were all exhausted by 7pm. We put the kids to bed early and just enjoyed a quiet evening. Jim and I left around 9:30. We were loath to wake up Rachel again, so we left her sleeping there. That backfired when she woke up screaming uncontrollably at 3am. I had to drive back to my mom's and ended up taking her back to the hotel with me eventually. Note to self: never vouch for a two year old!!!

Monday morning, we packed up and headed up to Port Hueneme with the Bowles! We were so excited to have them come play at our house. It drizzled most of the day, but in the afternoon it cleared up enough to play at the beach for a bit. The sun even came out to join us. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and my girls loved playing in the water too. Rachel ended up soaked, but still wanted more. We came home and cleaned up and the kids watched a movie. Then we went to the new Topper's Pizza for dinner. It's a beautiful restaurant that is right on the harbor. My favorite part was the awesome soda fountain that had just about every flavor of soda you could imagine!!! I had Raspberry Diet Coke with my garlic alfredo chicken pizza. Again, YUM! Then we went next door to Spudnuts for donuts. They still had a pretty good selection for 6pm and everyone got their favorite. We went back to our house and played for a little while longer before sending the Bowles back to Grandma B's house. It was so much fun to have them in our neck of the woods though.
Jim and I were pretty wiped by the time they left and we got the kids in bed. I managed to get the house tidied up, the kitchen cleaned and two loads of laundry going. Then I sat down and wrote out the primary program for this year. I have been procrastinating it for weeks now because I knew it would be hard and it was. But it's written now. My counselor is going to go over it with me tomorrow and we'll fix it up and make it awesome. I'm actually pretty excited to go through with it (now that the hard part is done).

It was a bit of a rough day today with everyone tired from the weekend, but I kept Lizzie home from soccer and we just focused on getting back on our routine. I feel terrible that I didn't take any pictures. I admit that I'm a slacker and need to do better. A big thanks to Shannon and Ian for provided a couple pictures to document the weekend!