The Daily Hailey

I wish all weekend days went like today. Behold, the perfect day off, according to me, in five easy steps!

1. Brunch. We had my mom over for waffle brunch this morning. That includes waffles with whipped cream and other basic toppings, bacon, and coffee. It usually includes some kind of fresh fruit salad, but we were officially out of fresh things. And frankly, sometimes an indulgent treat works too. Mom came around 9:30, and the kids were so happy to see her! She was immediately hijacked to the couch to read stories and look at pictures they had colored. It felt normal, and homey. Waffle brunch with company is always a highlight!
2. Naps. Naps were different today, and actually pretty awesome! Dekker was having a pretty hard morning, and told me through tears that he hadn’t slept very well the night before. I told him I thought having a nap might help. I said he wasn’t in ANY trouble, but the rest would make him feel so much better for the rest of the day. To my surprise, he agreed! So ALL THE KIDS NAPPED!!! Brady and I ate lunch upstairs, in bed, and watched tv on the laptop. It. Was. Awesome.
3. An outing! The kids woke up in considerably better moods, and we told them we were going to head to the city for some groceries. You probably know by now, but our kids LOVE grocery shopping! Running errands is their jam. So that makes it fairly easy to take them out to those kinds of places. Right now, errands are also my jam because I love wearing Wavy in a carrier! They got all dressed while I fed Wavy, and off we went. We started with Costco and stocked up on fresh things for the week, as well as picked up a few staples and some things we need for next weekend. And miiiiilk! Does anyone else buy five jugs at a time? Just us? Ok cool. We made a quick supper stop and headed to Walmart for the rest of our groceries. We usually hit Superstore rather but we have our few select things we get from Walmart, and they have been waiting on the list for so long that they were the majority of our list this time. So we did that next. Didn’t quite get all we came for, but we did ok. We headed home and made it home before the kids bedtime!
4. A visit 🙂 I LOVE how many people have been coming by to see Wavy since she’s been born, and today, she got to meet yet another admirer/friend of hers! A friend who is rarely nearby happened to be this evening, and timing worked out perfectly!! It was SO nice to have a visit, albeit short, with friends who I never, ever see. In person is just so much better than online, but I’ll take what I can get. Not to mention, she brought us the AMAZING gift of some freshly butchered lamb and a big garden zucchini! Food gifts, guys. These are some of the best kinds of gifts for us!!! But besides the gift, its such a treat to chat with good people about real life stuff while passing a baby around.
5. A soak in the tub. No day is complete without one, you know 😉 It is truly the best way to finish the day off. Possibly with snacks. I’m still loving the fun cheeses we bought for Wavy’s party. Also plain Lays chips. And fudge from the lake. I should probably eat less directly before bed…

I say it again. This kind of day just flows SO nicely. I LOVE when days go like this. When we have stuff to do, but not too much, and no one is bored. When the food is good. When the company is loving and warm, and go out of their way to come. When the kids can wind down to music videos before bed, because they earned them. When the house is a nice temperature to fall asleep in. When your family is happy and thriving. These are important days to remember, especially on the days when all you can see is chaos, stress, and absolutely nothing and no one is cooperating. I am SO thankful for today and everyone who played a role in it.

Jerilee came over for a bit today for a goal planning chat. It was SUCH a nice thing to do together! I’m feeling goalish (goulash?) since entering a new decade of life, and she is feeling goalish as her year of work closed off and a new one begun. So its a natural time for all the reflection.

She texted me when she was on her way over and offered to grab me a coffee. Tims or Starbucks? Wherever she was heading already. Starbucks it is! I ordered a vanilla latte, please and thank you.

“Thats a boring drink” she goes.

And she’s totally right! I love the weirder, fancier, sweeter, more complicated drinks. Starbucks is fun for me! I don’t too often order a plain old vanilla latte. That drink always stirs up memories for me.

Its been almost one year since we lost our little Jamin. Being in the hospital had never been as difficult as it was over those two days. Waiting to deliver a baby that I knew I wasn’t going to get to bring home sucked. It was quite a time. Not many people knew we were there, and those who did wanted to badly to help somehow. They didn’t know what to do and neither did we. It was just a bad situation all around. One particular person sent a Starbucks gift card to my phone, saying she knew it wasn’t the “right” thing, but that was all she could think of to do in that moment. It actually was quite perfect. Our baby was born early the next morning, and I was allowed to eat and drink again. After a while, Brady offered to go use that card and get me a coffee. In the moment, as you can imagine, my brain was mush. I couldn’t think of what was on the menu, much less what I liked from there. I stammered out something about a vanilla latte and Brady trucked off to fulfil my request. Pretty sure he was feeling helpless and just needed to do something.

My coffee was obviously far from my priority, but I remember being pleasantly surprised at how yummy it was. It was weirdly cleansing and fresh and just exactly bang on. It was probably the only thing I consumed that day, and while a big cup of coffee doesn’t healthily sustain a person, it worked. It didn’t make me feel sick(er than I already did) or sit like a rock in my stomach. It was just the perfect boring choice.

I was tired today. We all were.

I was cold. Short tempered. No nonsense. Not the best Hailey I’m capable of being. Tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t rock every single day! And I couldn’t think of any other drink option off the top of my head! So, a vanilla latte it was. And it was yummy! And this somewhat insignificant memory came back to me. And I’m kind of ok with it.

I miss Jamin so much. Its all still so fresh in my memory. Literally down to the coffee I drank that day. I hope that memory never fades. I have no idea how long it’ll be before he and I are reunited. It will be an amazing day!

I’ll willingly admit that I am one of the people who was absolutely dreading turning 30. I’ll also admit that I wasn’t especially rational in my thinking. I would look at myself as a person, and the beautiful life I have, and would think “What have I been doing for the last ten years?!” Which I know is foolish, trust me. My last ten years have been BIG! Brady and I got married. We moved a handful of times, and had a house built for us. Brady started his own business and has been successful! We’ve been pregnant seven times, and brought home five healthy, delicious children. That equals 52 months of pregnancy! We’ve made many friends, and learned about being good friends to our friends. Its been a FULL decade. Yet somehow, I’ve anticipated turning thirty as being some kind of indicator of how little I’ve done. Typing it out even feels stupid now…

Lucky for me, I can now see how ridiculous those feelings are. Thirty can bring it on. I’m not afraid of it. Of course I’m thirty! If I weren’t aging, I wouldn’t have who I have, or be who I am!! And ever so slowly, I’m starting to like me 🙂 Hailey is not all that bad, turns out.

I do feel, however, like this birthday is comparable to everyone else’s New Years. A restart, kind of. And in my heart, a few new goals are brewing. “Hopes,” maybe, is a better word than “goals.” Though does “hope” take away the action part of the word? Hmmm… You get it, right? Many of these goals require me to be braver, so any and all encouragement and prayer is needed and coveted.

I want to be braver in my kitchen, and try new recipes that take more time, even if it makes me feel scattered, if I flop them, or if everyone hates them. That is worth the risk. Goodbye to (most) convenience food, and hello to fresher, healthier things that actually sustain us.

I want to exercise juuust a little. As in going for more walks and little things like that. If I’m unhappy with little things here and there on my body, the only person who can change them is me! If I don’t end up working on these things, I won’t complain about them! And thats ok, too! Simple as that 🙂

I want to change some things up here on the blog, and make some attempts to actually grow my audience! This feels like a SUPER vulnerable one for me, for some reason. My list of goals focusing on and around the blog is my longest list! I’m on the market for a cute little book/calendar to plan blogs out and write notes, and I’m still looking for a nice chair for my gorgeous new desk (that is currently heaped to high heaven with laundry baskets)

I want to, at some point in the coming year or two, find an avenue that can actually help my family financially. Nothing big or crazy, but I’d love to be able to offer something that people need/want, and do it well. I want to learn a skill that matters. I have an idea or two brewing in that department, but again, vulnerability sucks.

Like I said, guys. Bravery. Courage. Confidence. These are things that I lack, but I think they’re things I’d really love to have, that would better me as a person.

Its recently been brought to my attention by more than a couple of people that perhaps my expectations of myself are a touch too high. I’m not sure if thats true, or if perhaps I’m just motivated? I don’t desire to be supermom, but I do desire to be the best version of myself. I want to be the woman God has in mind, and I’m trying to figure out who that is.

I’m so thankful to have had thirty years of life under my belt. I pray I have more years ahead to chase after God’s ideal Hailey.

How has it already been a month since this glorious day?

I flip flop on how I feel about time passing. On one hand, I feel like she was just born. I remember the details of her birth so clearly still. She still feels like a newborn in my arms. I’m still in total bewonderment at the sight of her. Yet she fits in SO perfectly, I feel like she’s always been here. But thats not the truth, because I also very vividly remember all that happened before she came along. I’ll go a bit more in depth on that another day.

Our one month with Wavy has been a total whirlwind. We have been doing SO MUCH, and she has been the perfect sidekick!

I don’t have all the little bits of info people usually like for baby updates.

I don’t know her weight or height.
She has no real schedule or routine yet to share.
There aren’t many (or any real) milestones to track at this point.

There is so little I know about her, to be honest, but here is what I do know.

Wavy is so mild mannered, content, and peaceful. The picture of low maintenance. She doesn’t ask for much, so when she does, I listen. She hardly cries.

She follows me when I walk around her and talk to her.

Her curls have stuck around! So far, anyway!

She wakes up twice at night at the VERY most. She eats great in the day and like garbage at night, so I’m hopeful she’ll sleep through sooner than later.

She fits newborn sizes still, but its getting a bit tight, length wise. Three month clothing, however, is still huge.

She’s getting more and more smiley! I can’t wait for her social smiles to really kick into high gear!

She hates farting. Because she’s a lady, and ladies aren’t supposed to do things like that. #lies

Above ALL of that, though…

Waverly Violet is truly loved by SO MANY PEOPLE. It is amazing how many people are invested in her life, from our friends and family, to a whole host of people I don’t personally know and haven’t ever met. I’ve joked around about how she is the worlds most anticipated baby, but I think there is some very real truth to that. I can find peace in the fact that she has been SO covered in prayer, and is exactly as she should be, no matter who she is, what she does, and what comes up in her life.

And for that – for her – I praise the Lord.

Thank you, Jesus, for one full, delicious, healing, exciting, tear-filled, celebratory month with Waverly.

Sleeping in our own bed felt SO GOOD!!! I love Waskesiu, and the place where we stay is totally comfortable, including the bed. Truly, I don’t feel like we have to settle at all. But home feels just bang on. I love it here.

I’m a tad bummed that Brady is already back to work today, but I’m very grateful he has work. I wish we could’ve had one wind down day together before he went back, but there was just no way. He’s even working this coming Saturday :/ I say again, I’m happy he has work. And hey, being back to a routine is always good, so we’re just doing that today.

Thanks to our lovely friend, Cher, who hung at our house while we were away, the place was in far better shape than how we left it. I’m so relieved not to have to clean up a mess before the mess of unpacking! However, we do still have the unpacking mess to deal with. Brady tackled a ton of it yesterday, and everything we need for daily life is organized and where it belongs. Cher did our dishes and tidied and wiped down seemingly the entire house (woot!) so all thats really left on me is figuring out fridges and what fresh groceries we need to catch up on, and laundry. LAUNDRY!

You may have seen on Facebook or Instagram that Waverly wasn’t having it this morning. She is not a big crier at all, so when she does cry, I listen. And this morning, all she wanted was to be held, whether she was awake or asleep. So I held her. At one point, I admit, I put her down and ran downstairs to sort through the mountain of laundry and get it at least started. This is what I faced for loads of laundry.

1. Dekker & Rowan’s clothes
2. Laela, Solly, and Wavy’s clothes
3. Solly & Wavy’s receiving/snuggle blankets (used more than average of those at the lake)
4. Brady’s work clothes & our jeans
5. Brady’s & my other clothes
6. Swimwear & my menstrual underwear
7. Towels
8. More towels (Read: beach, bath, dish, other)
9. Bedding

I think thats it…

So you see why I couldn’t just leave this all completely for another day. Its a LOT. Even if I started first thing this morning, I couldn’t actually finish in one day. So I sorted as fast as I could, and it seemed to go pretty quickly, which is almost never the case. I was feeling good about myself until I realized I missed an entire garbage bag of laundry from our trip. Whoops. So I got back to it, sorted some more, and then I threw in the first load.

I got back upstairs, and of course, Wavy was crying. She settled the moment I picked her up. Actually, really, the moment I put my hands on her. Very much like a “There you are! I’ve been wondering…” type of recovery. Almost nonchalant. Little princess.

She’s so great.

Now that lunch is done, nappers are napping, and Dekker is legoing, Wavy drank some good milk and is now sleeping in her rocker. Not sure how long that will last, but I did get a second load of laundry in! Two down, only seven left to go!! Wish me luck!!

We are officially home!! We LOVED being at the lake, and while a part of me is always aching to go back, I’m so happy to be home. I love my bed, and my tub, and being able to control the temperature of my house. I LOVE the lake, but I LOVE our home. Two wonderful places that both have such warm, soft places in my heart.

We woke up a bit earlier this morning in an effort to pack and get out the door at a good time. Around 8:00, I bailed on Brady as he packed and Jerilee and I walked to the bakery for breakfast. We got our round of baked goods and brought them back to an eager gaggle of children. Everything was delicious and it wasn’t long before breakfast was all gone and packing continued. My mom and Jerilee had their unit cleaned out and their vehicles packed long before we did. When they were done, they came and retrieved our kids so we could finish up without having anyone to wrangle. By that point, everything was already organized, tubbed up, and ready to be loaded into the van. However, the loading of the van isn’t exactly the easy part. Brady took that task upon himself and I went to hang with the others. Wavy wasn’t letting me be helpful anyway.

He made it happen, though! Right at 11:00, checkout time, our van was full and kids were getting shoes on to go. We figured we’d attempt one more outing with them before we left town, since last night had ended up being indoors with the cold rainy weather. We loaded the two littlest into the stroller and the rest of us walked, and we made our way to that little side beach to search for more rocks and treasures. It was SO beautiful!

But it was windy as all get out and I was FREEZING. Wavy was in her seat under her cover but was crying and gasping, so unfortunately we didn’t last super long. But it was still fun 🙂 I’m glad we tried that one last time with everyone.

Our last plan in town was to grab some food at the local asian restaurant. We had a gift certificate for $50, and I was SO anticipating the cantonese chow mein! Aaaaand the sign said it was only open at 5:00pm. So, instead, we left Waskesiu and began our journey home and planned to stop for lunch in Prince Albert.

We got our McDonalds on for a pretty late lunch, but the group was happy, albeit sleepy. Our three vehicles – ours, Jerilees, and my moms – had been convoying up to that point, but we all said our goodbyes there. Jerilee was going to split off and go home, we were actually going to duck into the city quickly for milk before going home, and mom was heading home.

Upon hitting the city, we drove to our ultrasound place and FINALLY got to introduce our beautiful little Waverly to the tech that kept my sanity functioning for the first half of my pregnancy. It was a sweet little reunion. I’m SO glad we went! It seemed kind of funny to choose today for that visit, but with all the holidayin’ and all of Brady’s work looming, today kind of had to be the day! We visited for just a few minutes before we ducked out, bought milk, and went home.

Home was wonderful. Everything about it. My mom brought supper over, for one thing. We picked up the mail and in it was our letter telling us that Laela has been placed in the kindergarten class that we had hoped for! We also received mail for Waverly, making her officially official! She now has a birth certificate, a health card, and a SIN number. Woot! Our house had been cleaned and beautifully cared for by Cher, who house sat for us while we were away, and there was a trail of balloons through our house that spelled out a birthday message. There were a couple of cards/gifts that loving friends have dropped off, packages brought in, etc. The whole vibe upon arriving home was just SO filled with love and comfort. I’m SO happy to be here.

Tomorrow, Brady is back at it at work full time, and he’s even working Saturday. I’m trying not to already be discouraged about that, but I’m SO thankful that he’s coming back from such a long holiday to a solid work load!!! So we’ll roll with it. He’ll go to work, and I’ll work around here. While we are already somehow almost already completely unpacked, there is laundry coming out the wazoo, and THAT will be my day tomorrow!! Wish me luck!

I feel SO fortunate these days, you guys. SO many of you have reached out and blessed me in the recent days and weeks, and I am quite undeserving of it all. But I’ll take it! I’m SO thankful for you!!

Its good to be home.

Today, I’ll admit, was quite up and down for me. In case you missed it, today was my thirtieth birthday. I’ve not been looking forward to it, and was hoping that being at the lake would be a great distraction. It was, and I’m so thankful I’m here! I have my husband and kids readily available, plus my mom, and Jerilee even came for the day! What more could I ask for?? I have some fun new goals and ideas brewing, and some high hopes for the coming year, and hopefully long after that. So, lets hope I have the gumption to get on them, the help I’ll inevitably need to make things happen, and the years of life to live them.

We started the morning off with another delicious breakfast at my moms unit. We ate very well, and took our time. When we did finally get moving and get outside, it was already fairly close to lunch.

Our first move after getting outside was to go to the candy store! A friend gave each kid a $5 gift card for Pine & Fancy to buy some treats at the lake. SO thoughtful! The kids loved going in and picking treats 🙂 Laela insisted on buying me a treat for my birthday, and spent half of her money on me! So I am the proud owner of a pink squirt gun currently filled with gum balls <3 She is SUCH a sweetheart.

After they hauled their candy, it was clear they needed to run it off!

We hit up the playground on the beach for about a half hour. The kids were so happy to be there, running around in the blazing sun. Rowan lost his footing at one point and was hanging onto the top bar of a ladder for dear life. I ran for him as fast as I could, Wavy in my arms, shouting for Ro to hold on. He tried, but couldn’t quite save it, and took a good spill. He was scared, but not hurt, thank goodness! He landed exactly right, and was completely unharmed. I passed Waverly off so I could check Rowan over and snuggle him for a minute, and the moment I stood up with him, he grabbed the bars again. I put him on the ground and he climbed right back up the same place and ran off. How amazing is that??

We didn’t last too long at the playground before walking over to the bakery and getting some lunch. Everyone made their pick and we headed back home to eat. Not long after we sat down, Jerilee arrived!! It was SO lovely to have her join us!

We spent the kids nap time chatting and trying to stay cool on this HOT day. My mom was doing a few things back in her place and invited Dekker to come play games with her for a bit, so Brady, Jerilee and I just caught up through the afternoon. When the others woke up from naps, it was coming up on time to eat supper.

My mom had asked previously what I’d like to eat for supper on my birthday, and she had brought along all the delicious things that I had made mention of. We had barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. It was amazing!!! One of my favorites, for sure! Drumstick cake for dessert, also! Have you guys had that? It tries to pass as ice cream cake, but its creamier and smoother! Ice creamier cake? Yup. There it is. Again, amaaazing!!!

Our hot sweaty day turned into a rainy one, so sadly, we couldn’t go out in the evening like we had hoped to. But once the kids were in bed, the four of us adults (and Waverly) sat together in the living room and chatted and laughed and had SUCH a nice evening together. We pulled out some whine, cheese, cherries, fudge, etc. and treated ourselves and each other. I really really enjoyed spending those hours with some of my favourite people.

However, it is now LATE, and the time of birth thirty years ago has passed. I am officially thirty. I’m so thankful to have spent the day with people who mean so much to me and who are present and invested in my life. I am so fortunate to have everyone and everything that I have.

There are many more pictures I’d like to add to this post, but it was a full day, its late, and lots of the other pictures were not taken by me, and therefore are not in my possession. Maybe another day 🙂

This was the best way to spend our last full day here at the lake.

We kicked off today at my moms condo, which is just next door to ours. She made use a HUGE breakfast of sausage, hashbrown casserole, waffles, and fruit. It. Was. Amazing. We ate until everyone was solidly full for the morning, and headed off to the beach to take advantage of the promise of a bright sunny day!

The weather man delivered! It was beautiful on the beach! We swam, tanned, snuggled the baby, built sand castles, dug holes and then simultaneously filled them with water. We don’t have as many pictures from this one because we were just too busy playing.

We planned to eat snacks on the beach to prolong the morning out, but we decided to quit while we were ahead and brought everyone back to our unit for a nice snacky lunch. We needed to get those little sweeties out of the sun.

Lunch was delicious, and Brady, mom, and I spent the nap time hours visiting in our sitting area in the dark. We closed everything up and blasted all the fans in an effort to keep it cool. The only light was a lamp that we set up on the table so Dekker could color. (Just wait until I show you guys the booklet he’s making about our trip. ALL his idea! He’s SO cute!) We chatted about the year to come and some goals we have. It always feels good to run ideas and dreams by people you trust at a time when you’re feeling vulnerable.

When the kids finally started to lull, we decided on our supper plan, which was that we wanted to go out for supper once with my mom. So we hit the nearby restaurant again!! However, it seems we didn’t quite get Solly out of the sun early enough, because he was wildly off his game, didn’t want to eat, etc. Pretty clear he had at least some heat stroke. But we powered through it, and once we got some supper into him, he perked up a bit.

Ice cream for dessert!

The sugar picked the kids up significantly, so Brady ran back to our place for the stroller, and we headed back out to the side beach to throw rocks and find some treasures. I could do that every single day, and thank goodness, the rest of my family loves it too. I swear, I haven’t changed a shred since I was five.

Getting everyone home and to bed was less dramatic than it’s been thus far, and soon my mom will come over for an evening chat. I love that part of the day. Chatting with my husband and my mom while Wavy lulls a bit on the bed. Tomorrow, Jerilee will join! I can’t wait!

Last night with Waverly was definitely better than the one before, and though we were still quite tired in the morning, it was a tad easier to get up and get the day going. I continued my newfound tradition of bringing the kids to the bakery in the morning, this time taking the three oldest with me, and Brady keeping Solomon and Wavy. Trust me, I offered for him to take a turn going with the kids, but he was happy to get some little milky snuggles in with the little girly and chat with Solly one on one for a bit.

Breakfast was delicious, as always. The kids love getting to choose from the bakery for themselves, and they ALL got cherry danishes, while Solly rocked a cinnamon bun, and Brady and I had cream cheese pockets like we have been all week.

We got off to a slower start, and with the short bit of the morning that we had left, Brady took the kids into the courtyard to blow bubbles.

I brought Wavy out, too, but we didn’t last long in the blasting heat. We hung out in the living room instead and enjoyed the fan and some good music. Our summer jams are currently The album “Sing it all Away” my Walk off the Earth. A lot of gooders in there. We also are liking “Better when I’m Dancing” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” which we all lovingly refer to as Wavy’s song, among a handful of others.

Delicious snacks for lunch happened yet again (I could get used to this!) and then naaaaaps!

While the kids were down, my mom showed up! She’s now in the unit next to ours, and will be hanging out with us for the duration of our visit. Woot!!

In true mom form, she insisted on bringing all the meals for everyone, so supper was at her place today in the form of spaghetti and meat sauce, and honey carrots. The kids ate lots happily. The food was delicious, but the kids were also eager to get outside for a bit in the evening.

We took grandma to the beach where the kids throw rocks, collect treasures, and splash around a bit. It was SO nice. SO bright and SO hot.

Wavy was getting pretty sweaty and while the kids were doing decently well, we wanted to try for that sweet spot and get them home and to bed before it all went downhill. And we hit it! Or at least pretty close! Kids are tucked in now, most of them happy, and I was even able to clean up a good gash on Laela that was loaded to the gills with sand. She was freaked but she handled it!

Was a lovely end to day six! How is it already day six?!?!

Last night was our roughest night with Wavy by far. I say “night” loosely, because it wasn’t so much the night as the lead up to the night. Waverly woke up yesterday evening after supper, and had some awake time, as tends to be her routine. However, she stayed awake almost flawlessly until roughly 1:00am. We. Were. Exhausted. As was she. She would cry and cry and cry, but was noticeably unsettled. Her diaper was dry, she wasn’t too hot or too cold, and she was fed. She just needed to sleep. But she wouldn’t!! So we’d make her some milk, and she’d snort all over it like she was starving. She’d appear to be drinking from it for a solid 10-15 minutes and make NO progress. But it wasn’t plugged. We checked it multiple times. But then she’d be out cold. So we’d lay her down, and she’d wake up all in a tizzy again. After hours and hours of this, we felt even worse for her because she was very likely legitimately hungry from not actually consuming any of her milk, and she was obviously incredibly overtired. As were her parents. That last time I checked her bottle, it was completely plugged. She screamed as I made her a fresh bottle, which she promptly demolished and fell asleep. Oh. My. Gosh. Brady and I flopped into bed and slept through until she woke us up around 6:30am. So she gave us a great stretch of sleep, but we earned it!!

Brady has started reading us random facts to fill some time as we’re falling asleep or waking up slowly. My favourite one is that the space between ones eyebrows is called a glabella. Guys, I have no idea if its true or not, but I LOVE it. Also, I have hair on my glabella.

So after a pretty ridiculous night, we actually had plans to drive to our friends campsite at a nearby lake. I didn’t know at first if we’d be able to make it.

It took a bit to get up and at em, but it happened! I took Rowan for a little walk to pick up breakfast, which was so nice. He is SUCH a sweet treat! He is the first kid who requested a longer date, so we took a bit more of a round about way back 🙂 We ate a yummy breakfast before packing up, getting into swim stuff, and heading out. Even with keeping our morning simple, we got to our friends place right around lunch.

Pizza bush pies were delicious, as you’d expect. The kids were already happy and filthy and cute. A few friends left after lunch, and the rest of us meandered down to the beach.

We spent the afternoon sitting in the shade on the beach while our group of kids played happily in the sand, rocks, and water. Four adults and eight kids. It was a good sized group and we had the beach almost all to ourselves. They spread out well and enjoyed the sun! It was SO relaxed. Very much our speed.

Things got a bit iffy as the afternoon rolled on, however. Solly had napped on the drive over, but Ro had not. Ro is a bit older and is fine being nap-free from time to time, but my goodness, he NEEDED one today! He and Solly started to lose their marbles right around the same time, and it was clearly time to head out. But first, Dekker and Laela had their first ever boat ride!!! They even each got to DRIVE the boat!!

They were hesitant, and then super pumped 🙂

Leaving was a bit of an undertaking with two tearful boys who I work HARD not to call Frick and Frack these days, but we got everyone strapped into the van and on the road around 4pm, and Ro slept the entire drive back to Waskesiu. One of the two isn’t bad.

Macaroni and wieners was supper, because easy food that no one fights was just so necessary. After supper, Brady played some guitar and I fed Wavy while the kids played. Bedtime was routine, and I’m hoping my bedtime isn’t too far away!!

Its been so relaxed and nice. I’m so thankful for today and how its gone.