Spring Break

Last week was spring break for the kids.  I thrive during weeks that we get to bust out of our daily routines, take a break from dropping off and picking up, appointments, etc and just have fun together as a family.  My favorite days are when we can just leave in the morning and don't have anywhere we have to be at any certain time.  We can just play.  So that's what we did.  

We spent time at parks, swimming, a hike, a lake, the movies, Skate City, indoor play areas, picnics, a piano recital, a new mall, and more parks.  We also got to have slow moving, no stress mornings which were awesome!

One day, the five of us drove up to Carter Lake to eat lunch and hike. I couldn't believe how well the kids did.  Smith sat down and gave up in the first minute and we thought we were doomed, so Zack carried him for a bit.  And then he just snapped out of it and went for it the rest of the time.  It was amazing to see Emmy, too, just going for it.  She was a trooper and made it the whole way, no problem.  Priceless family time for sure. 

 At one point, Emmy had a butterfly land on her hand.  It made her WHOLE DAY! She just couldn't believe the butterfly picked her to land on and wanted to stay there.  So much joy.

 Notice the butterfly on her thumb.  She walked with it for a little bit.

It was so beautiful outside!

 We stopped for a break at a perfect spot to relax and to walk in the water a little and of course, throw rocks in.

 Zane learning to skip rocks

 Em was the only one brave enough to get in barefoot.

 Smith did dip one toe in.

 These three...

 We started a new session of swim lessons.  Molly and Owen have them at the same time.

 Then, the next day we brought Grandma and Grandpa along to swim with us again. Smith is learning to open his eyes under water so he wants to wear goggles now.  All the kids are getting so good at swimming!  Zane is swimming laps, the long way of the pool now. Emmy is just almost doing it on her own but still needs a little help.  She can dive down in the deep end of the pool to grab dive sticks though, which is both amazing and terrifying.

 They were all trying to photobomb the others.

 We ate dinner at Judi and Bob's one night when Zack's had to work and went to rock climb at the rec center, one of my favorite things to watch the kids do.
I have to say, Emmy was really a star this day.  She climbed a pretty tough one and made it up after she had already reached the top another time.  She was really scared to come down though, which was a little rough. It took her forever to come back down bc she was so scared the rope wouldn't hold her. Cutie pie.
Here's two of my "tough guys!"

 Smith's a champ for how little he is, I think!

 And this guy is so sweet.  He doesn't give up very easily and also makes it to the top.

 People around me couldn't believe how good Emmy did!

 On one of my extra brave days, I decided to give Skate City a try.  Yep, I knew it was going to be challenging to help everyone by myself, but I had no idea just how almost impossible it would be.  Smith just absolutely could not get the hang of it and hated it so he sat out after one long, hard, long, hard, and did I mention long time around with me.  I was dripping with sweat afterwards. He sat where we could see him so luckily I could help the other two better. Poor Zane could not get the coordination together, but Em caught on pretty well. Luckily they used those "trainers" which helped a little bit.

We all got a ton of exercise and so we rewarded ourselves afterwards by going to the cheap theater to see Paddington Bear. We all liked it.

 These two liked watching the games. Zane almost talked Emmy into trying the Limbo. That would have been a sight.

This was Zane before he got the trainer to help (which really didn't help much).  He could NOT find a balance. LOL. And its super short bc as I was filming, Smith wiped out. Oops.

 We went to a few different parks during the week.  The weather was perfect.

 Zane also had his first piano recital.  He's only been practicing for a couple months.  We were so proud of him.  And most importantly, he felt super proud of himself. He's actually learned a ton in just a short time.