The Daily Hailey

I try so hard to stay positive, but Brady and I had a bit of a heart to heart and decided that, unfortunately, last week was just really hard, and really bad. For lots of reasons, it was just a sucky week, and I’m have some anxiety about the week to come. I had some lovely plans to disappear and run a few errands on my own this morning, free of anyone who screamed, argued, or even talked. Just me, to get in a better headspace. But as plans tend to do, they changed. While a break would’ve been so useful and appreciated, I knew my family could use the outing just as much as I could. So we all went.

As per usual, it was a bit busy and chaotic getting out the door in the midst of Rowan melting down and Solly crying over his poor little teeth. He cracked a molar in the last few days, and cracked another a week or two ago that’s still only halfway out. Along with those, I can feel three more teeth that are pushing, and who knows how many are moving and hurting him that are still lower in his gums? Poor kid is working hard these days!! But we finally managed our way through all the pep talks, medication, and shoes, and everyone made it out to the bus.

We only had three places to hit, and they all had nice short lists. We did Superstore, and picked up a few things, but didn’t get cookies at the bakery. We then stopped at another place, that I’ll tell you more about in tomorrows post 😉 But our last stop was Costco, where the kids got their cookies, and we stocked up pretty much all of our staples. We were out of milk, yogurt, apples, bananas, coffee, and cheese. That basically boils down to the apocalypse around here, but we got all set up with our necessities as well as a handful of other things. At both grocery stores, we were able to walk right up to the till and get ourselves through and paid up in no time at all. The man who loaded our cart at Costco just chatted with the little boys as they sat in the cart, watching intently. Neither of them really responded to him at all, but he just rolled with it and kept “their” conversation going. I loved that 🙂

Upon arriving home, Brady took on the task of getting the kids lunch, and I unloaded the van quickly before disappearing upstairs to get ready for the afternoon. My mom and I made our way to a baby shower for one of my cousins, and spent a few hours reminiscing with family, talking about babies, and her future plans. It was exciting to just be around that again. Someone have a baby already!! Lol! Maybe I’ll be so classy as to throw myself a baby shower, haha! Its been a while, so that would make sense right?? 😉 I tease. They’re a lot of fun, though. It was nice to be able to chat about babies again and “Ooo” and “aah” over baby clothes. How is it that light grey makes babies even softer than they already are?? Eek! I want one!

I’m home for the day now, and the kids will be in bed in about an hour. All in all, I can safely say its been a nice day, and I have some hope for the week ahead. I want to try hard to keep a positive perspective, but please be gentle with me if I get a bit down. These have been hard hard days, and hard stages for the kids. I am feeling so drained, while anxiously waiting for that promised “second trimester energy” to strike me. Bring it on!! Trimester #2 started tomorrow and I am SO ready for it to make good on some of its promises!

Brady began his second deck build of 2017 as he and my dad took on the job of my parents deck. Its been in the works for a while, but the quote came in, the order was placed, and everything was dropped off a couple of days ago.

Praise the Lord the weather cooperated today and the boys didn’t get rained out. The weather was actually a bit foggy and cool in the morning, but the sun moved in for the afternoon.

I had a super weird, unsettling, broken sleep, but when I woke up, my mom had texted and offered to come by and do the morning with us. So she came and hung out with us, and helped with breakfast and helped us get out the door. We headed right over to her house, where the kids settled in really smoothly. Its been a while since we’ve just spent a day playing over there. Meanwhile, the boys had just about finished up all of the tedious work of placing the patio blocks, levelling the gravel underneath, and sloping some dirt away from the house. When that was finally done, the real building began.

The work hit a few snags and my dad had to make some quick trips to nearby hardware stores, but things kept moving and I’ve got to say, they made it pretty far for their first day!!

I mean, it helps when you had an audience as cute as this.

I like them a lot 🙂

Brady and I are quite wiped out after today. He is wiped out in the rewarding, successful way that you feel when you’ve gotten a lot done. That sore ache that’s kind of satisfying. I’m wiped out from the kids, lol! They’re just in a really tough stage right now, and there is so much screaming in a day. By the end of it, I’m just finish.

After supper, Brady and my dad went and loaded Brady’s tools back up in his van, and we were off. We plucked Rowan from his 20 ish minute temper tantrum and hauled him out to the van (left it running with a/c, of course) and then followed right after with the other kids.

Ro went right to bed upon arriving home, and while Brady tucked him in and I changed Solly’s diaper, the big kids got on tidying up the few toys they’d spread out in the morning before we left. It was an efficient system, and bedtime went fairly seamlessly, for which I am thankful.

Now, I’m in bed. I don’t plan to leave, haha! Well, I’ll leave for a bath. But that’s it. Now I snack and sleep.

Happy weekend, all!!

The weather has been so unpredictable these days, but also predictable in the way that we know its going to be all over the place and to basically stay inside, or bring jackets and be ready for anything.

Last weekend, we had some good hail come down and ding up our bus, as well as many other people’s vehicles, obviously. What can you do, right? Since then, it seems like we’ve had a fairly consistent low rumbling of thunder, along with power flickers, full outages, LOTS of lightening, and general grey weather. Luckily, I don’t mind storms. In fact, I super like them.

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of visiting with a friend who I almost never ever see. It was just a shorty visit (we’ll have to make them a bit longer in the future 😉 ) but we got to talking a bit about storms. We both love storms, which I feel not everyone understands. But they’re SO exciting and unpredictable and LOUD and dramatic and just fun. Its so nice to find other people in my life who love a good storm 🙂

Now that we have our new house, and our master bedroom is above the garage, it physically shakes when there’s a good crash of thunder. Its such a new feeling, and I really like it, though its a startling way to wake up in the morning!! Haha! No lie. Almost scared me out of my bed this morning! Almost 😉

Moments after my friend left, the clouds opened up and out poured the rains!! And WOW did they pour! Within seconds, the hail came flying down with it! Thankfully, the hail wasn’t as large as it was during our last hail storm last weekend, because I had to run out in it and open one of our downspouts! But it didn’t hurt me too bad, just got a little wet, which I can handle. Again, I love storms, and the rain, and everything that has to do with it. Yes, even the wet clothes afterwards. I’m even ok with those. So I wasn’t too put off.

The rain is still coming down, but the hail has given up for now. I opened a window to listen to it, which is one of the BEST parts, but I got cold really fast and closed it up again. Brrrrr! One day, I won’t feel sick 24/7, and then I likely won’t get chilled quite as easily. I anticipate that day.

I feel like I have been anticipating our family trip to the lake for SO long! And let’s be real. It has been a long time! If I remember right, we booked our August trip back in February!! Time has been creeping by ever so slowly, and I’ve been resisting the urge to plan too terribly far ahead.

We leave on August 5th, so thats in 16 days, I believe. I think I’m allowed to start planning now, haha! If I didn’t see these next two weeks filling up fast, I probably would still restrain myself, but there is lots to do and I don’t want to end up scrambling. Plus, when I have lots of time to get organized, I can get SUPER organized, and that makes for a breezy packing experience, which is not always the case when packing for six.

On our day trips, we’ve been able to pack a pretty full diaper bag, a bathing suit/towel/set of comfy clothes for each person, a cooler bag of snacks, the camera, aaaaand that’s pretty much it! But five days away will look a lot different!

I’m so thankful we booked in advance because we were able to nail down our ideal place. We’re staying in a two bedroom condo-ish-type place, with a deck, bbq, full bathroom and kitchen! Having lots of space makes it easier to grossly overpack and be ready for anything, by default. We’ll bring both strollers, and at least one high chair. We’ll be able to bring food for most days so we aren’t left eating out for every single meal. We’ll bring a playpen for Solly aaaaand I’m not quite sure what we’ll do for Rowan just yet 😬 We can bring jackets and hats boots and shoes and sandals and everything we could possibly need, as well as far more sand toys than we’d actually ever need to bring. We’ll likely bring disposable dishes, just for ease. Ssshhh! Don’t tell the environment! Seriously, though, we will PACK.

I need to make detailed lists, and maybe even a really basic meal plan with really simple food. Not only will that make it so easy, but it’ll also be food that the kids for sure enjoy and maybe, for five sweet days, we won’t have to force anyone to eat anything they don’t like. What a relief!!

As I think about this, I’m remember we had a master list on our computer, at one point, for packing for a road trip. But I’m pretty sure that was long before Solly was born, and possibly before Rowan was born. No point in trying to fuss with that list now! Time to make a new one!

What could you never leave at home if you were going to the lake for a week? What can’t I forget?? Help!

One of my pregnancy tracking apps told me weeks ago already that my hormones are probably starting to level out. It is wrong, and they are not. I’m still struggling quite hard with my moods, feeling overdone very early in the day, impatient, and ready to cry at the drop of a hat. Its not unheard of, obviously, and without complaining about my situation at all, even a lazy day around here is pretty busy. So I’m tired and grouchy a lot of the time. Just trying to be honest.

After yet another restless night, I made a very real effort to be positive this morning. The kids all woke up happy, and then we didn’t eat breakfast for sooo long because Rowan was a total snuggle bug and I ended up laying with him in Dekker’s bed and just cuddling, giving lots of smooches, and identifying facial features, haha! It was SO cozy, and very distracting. But eventually, we got up and the kids demolished their breakfasts of apple jacks.

Except Solly.

For some reason, he was not having it. I couldn’t tell you why, except maybe teething. He wouldn’t eat much at all, and just cried and cried and cried. That is NOT like Solly. He is so content and relaxed, so when he does that kind of thing, I don’t argue with him. He just wouldn’t settle. So I tricked him into eating his yogurt, and let him be done. But toys wouldn’t do it either.

Dekker finished his breakfast and took it upon himself to work to get Solly settled and happy. He played with him and encouraged him and distracted him like crazy. It was SO awesome. I thanked him over and over, and he just assured me that he knew Solly would be happier if he had a friend to play with. He’s so right. Yay for siblings!

It was pretty on and off all morning, though. Rowan was so screechy this morning, and would scream over anything that didn’t go exactly his way, including duplo not clicking together exactly how he wanted it to. It was so annoying. I would remind him he could ask me for help, he would, I’d help him, and he’d be happy. And then scream five seconds later. Over and over again.

In amongst all of these things, I had this brief moment of reassurance in my head that said “This morning wouldn’t be as overwhelming if not for my crazy hormones. It’ll be easier once they level out.” Now this is something that I know, from experience and also logic. But I really felt it today, that this morning isn’t actually that bad, and that I’m just overwhelmed and tired and it’ll all feel a bit more handlable (yup, its a word) soon enough. I feel like that’s just a glimmer of hope that maaaybe that time is coming. If my head is clear enough to see this, probably its clearing! Right? Haha! Maybe I’m just hopeful and naive. Who knows. Hopefully I’ll know soon! If not, please love me through my crazy!!

Brady had a chunk of time off last week and yesterday, but today, he was back to work, which put me back in my usual morning routine of getting the kids up and fed, and everything else that goes along with that. This morning was no different than my usual mornings when Brady’s at work, but its been a little while since I had to do a morning on my own, and truthfully, I felt SO overwhelmed.

Once again, I didn’t sleep well and had a rough time getting out of bed. But thats nothing new. The kids were cute, chatting together, but all tucked into their beds still. It was quite endearing, until they opened their mouths. Each one had one story or another of how someone had wronged them or broken a rules or whatever else. I shut it down right away and said its a new day, we won’t worry about those things, let’s just get breakfast going. Dekker and Laela ran to get the table set up while I changed Rowan’s diaper. Ro had a pretty rough evening yesterday, and we were kind of recapping what he needed to try to do differently today, but while that’s going on, Laela and Dekker began screaming at the top of their lungs.

I went to figure out what the deal was in the dining room, and it was (as usual) an argument over colors of dishes. I really wish Ikea would make those exact kids dishes but just in one color. Just one. Like a whole pack of yellow everything. It would just make my life so much easier, haha! So I stopped that and we all decided to be happy with the colors that we had. Screaming started back up again over the presence of a fly in our house, but once again, we just had to let it happen. Once everyone was settled and eating, I got up and went to tackle the dishes.

For whatever reason today, I just couldn’t get over myself. The dishes weren’t even that messy. A handful of usual dishes, plus pots and such from last nights supper were on the counters, in the sink, and on the island. Once I started handling it, everything with sticky and gooey and so smelly, and I just wasn’t handling it well. I also knew in the back of my mind I had to pull out chicken before it got too far into the morning so I could get supper into the crock pot on time. But the thought of handling chicken wasn’t especially appealing to me either, with my hands already covered in spoiled milk and congealed gravy. However, it had to be done. So I went to pull out the chicken and put it in the sink to thaw for a little bit. I burned through the dishes as fast as I could before going to the table and helping the little boys get their yogurt. Of course, with every step I took, I crushed Cheerios under my feet. I was just SO over the mess and grossness of my house, and I was in such a bad mood.

Dekker: Has this been a good start to your day, mommy, or a bad one?
Me: Its been a bit hard. Not bad, but a bit hard.
Dekker: Why has it been hard?
Me: I didn’t sleep very well, and then you guys were all angry at each other right away, and now our whole kitchen and dining room is messy. It feels like a lot of work to do when I’m tired. But its ok.
Dekker: Thats too bad. Maybe if I vacuumed, that would help?

This kid. He offered to help, which was so lovely. And he made good on it, too. When everyone had finished breakfast and cleared their dishes, Dekker pulled out the vacuum and got on it. I moved the chairs for him, but that was it! He did the rest all on his own.

Once the work was done, he put the vacuum away, and I put the table back together. Then, Laela invited the boys to join her in their room, and they hauled in a ton of books, and read stories for probably close to an hour. It. Was. Awesome.

Of course, I spent that hour on my butt, resting a bit and eating cereal. My chicken spent that hour “cooking” on the “keep warm” setting of my crock pot. Sigh. Can’t do it all, I suppose.

Thank goodness, we survived the morning, and lunch, and now half the gang is napping. I can’t figure out what to eat so I’ve got a small plate of baby carrots and ranch sitting beside me. The big kids are playing Lego and we’re taking it easy. Despite the rough start, I think its been a pretty nice morning.

It is mind-boggling to me that I’m 12 weeks, all of a sudden!! I love that my dates changed 🙂 It was a pretty serious upper from last week. Obviously, since then, I decided to shift the day that my I’m posting my series, but it feels so much more organized in my head this way. (Oh gosh, I wrote that it felt more organized in my heads. Sooo maybe I’m not as together as I thought!)

Shall we begin?

Comparison/Size: My baby is roughly the size of a toy soldier, though likely not as skinny or as green. According to the ultrasound, the baby was 4.13 cms, crown to rump. Even though the baby is small, it appears that they need a lot of extra room to move around, because guys, the bloat is ON! But I’m thankful for it, actually. Through my first trimester, I have been fairly consistently nauseous, but I’m actually strangely happy to report than I gained weight!! I don’t think I shared numbers or anything back in the day, but I will say I have gained four pounds from my first weigh in around 6 weeks until now. I started this pregnancy actually a bit under the weight I was aiming for, so I’m happy to have gained a bit, rather than losing a bunch thanks to the constant nausea. I feel very well taken care of in that way.

How am I feeling mentally: Honestly, I feel pretty good. Probably the best I’ve felt yet. I feel some good reassurance that the baby in my womb is growing and thriving. As Theo’s due date comes closer, I’m definitely feeling more sadness and mourning in my heart. But I have learned as the days roll on that I am capable of missing my precious Theo, and wanting him to still be with us, while I celebrate the new life that God is growing in my body, and anticipating another little person joining our family. I was trying to organize my thoughts a while back and someone had said something that had really cleared up how I was feeling. Long story short, she told me that option 1, having Theo, would’ve been amazing. Truly wonderful. He would’ve been a perfect addition to our family. But option 2, having the little papoose, will also be truly wonderful. I didn’t have to choose, and the outcome was completely out of my control. And while I LOVE baby Theo, I also LOVE this baby. So I’ve been able to sort my thoughts out a little bit again, and remember that losing Theo was so so hard, and I wish he could be here with us, but I have been fortunate enough to be given another little baby to carry and love on, for which I am very thankful. So honestly, emotionally, mentally, all the ways, I’m feeling pretty good. Pretty hopeful.

How am I feeling physically: Eh :/ Same old, same old. Still pretty nauseous, and actively on my medication. I had my first bout of crazy right leg pain the evening after our lake day, which I was a bit discouraged about. If you’ve been around here long enough, you know my right leg gives out on my pretty early in pregnancy, to a point where any amount of walking will suddenly leave my leg in so much pain, it can barely hold my weight. In my pregnancy with Solly, it got to the point of crawling to the bathroom in the night, or hopping on one leg. It was the closest I ever came to thinking I needed to ride the scooter through the grocery store because I just couldn’t walk it all. With the first bout of it having reared its ugly head so early, I think I’m going to head to my physiotherapist sooner than later and see what she can tell me and how I can cope through it. The right leg and pelvic pain are what make my pregnancies challenging, so if there is any way to curb at least some of that pain, I want to learn how!

Appointments: YES! You may have already read, but I had an ultrasound on Wednesday, and a prenatal on Thursday! I learned that my baby is measuring according to the original dates that I had come in with, so that bumped me a few days further ahead in my pregnancy, which was so exciting. The baby was so active, moving all of its limbs, bouncing around, etc. We heard later at my doctors appointment that everything looked right and clear and as it should. Beyond that, I got my physical and entered in all of our family history information. All the details are in order, and my new due date is on record. We picked out the student doctor who would be following us this time around, but we won’t actually see him until the fall. I’m fine with that 🙂 I love appointments with my doctor on her own when I can get them. The best! The most exciting part of last weeks appointment was hearing the heartbeat. A nice strong beat, hanging out in the 150-160 bpm zone. The baby was sitting higher up in my uterus higher than either of us were anticipating, which is why it took so long to find, but I’m so glad we did. Got it on video and everything! It was a great, encouraging appointment.

Buys/Wish List: I finally bit the bullet and ordered some shorts online the other day. Mine are just pinching and hurting and uncomfortable, and finally someone pointed out that the tight tight shorts are only going to make me more bloated, which is correct! So I’m rocking some really old, out of style bottoms while I wait for my new ones to arrive. I really hope they fit!! Would love to just have some comfy bottoms!

How are the kids feeling: They’re happy. Dekker is probably the most talkative about the baby. He mentions it pretty much daily, just wondering how big it is, what its name is, if its a boy or a girl, etc. The kids have also been consistently praying for the baby before bed, which I like a lot.

The BEST thing about being pregnant this week: I think its pretty obvious. The very best thing was our scan, and the reassurance gained from it. Seeing the baby so active and SO developed already was amazing. That scan showed us as slightly past 11 weeks. My last 11 week scan had revealed to us that our baby had died, and coming off of that, this one felt like our very first ultrasound for our very first baby. It was all so brand new and exciting. I cried. It was just awesome to see life growing in my body. Unbelievable. Miraculous, no matter which way you look at it. I’m so thankful.

Anything else: Ummmmm…I don’t think so. I think I’ll start a gender prediction tally soon 🙂 feel free to wager a guess in advance, but I understand wanting to give an educated guess as well 😉 I feel like I know which way the scale will be weighted though, haha! We shall see!

Pictures: First, some ultrasound photos. The best of the bunch. I love that my ultrasound place has gotten past only giving out one picture! I got eight this last time!!

You can see both of little papoose’s hands here!

A footy foot!!

And that bumpity bump again! Its getting round! 😳

Part of me is shocked to already be showing, but hey, I’m 12 weeks! So I’m actually really happy about it. I’m looking forward to being super noticeably pregnant so no one has to wonder 😉

This was just such an uplifting week for me. I feel like I’m in a better space than I have been leading up to this point. I hope it just keeps getting better and more encouraging and exciting. Oh and hey, if anyone wants to pray for something specific, please join me in prayer than the baby’s placenta implanted behind the baby. My last three babies have had their placenta on top of them, and it takes so much longer to feel movement when the baby has to kick through a big slab of meat, basically. I want to feel that movement as soon as possible, and gain that reassurance that comes along with it. I know it seems like a small thing, but it would do a serious favor for my heart. So if you want to pray for a detail, there’s a little one 🙂

I hope you all started off your work week right! Enjoy the sunshine and avoid the tornados! ☀️🌪️☀️

Alrighty! Here goes another post of pictures of a day at the lake! 🌊 I don’t think we’ll ever NOT love going to the lake. This season, the kids only love it more and more. Driving home from the lake, they’re already asking to go again tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to our vacay in a few weeks!!! And obviously, so are the kids! I should really make sure we have life jackets for everyone, though, in case they do get brave enough to go further out. I think we have something for most of them, but I think Dekker may have outgrown his. 🤔 I’ll have to do some looking around and planning.

The BEST pictures we got of the kids were right at the beginning of our day, when we had bought some treats from the bakery and went to eat them in a little sheltered cook shack to get away from the wind. Though I feel like I need to preface this by saying that Dekker was SO BUSY on our day away that he was almost impossible to get a picture of! So if there are less photos of him, its not because we love him any less. Its because he would much rather jump around and explore than pose for a picture or even show his face, haha!

With it being windy and iffy out, we didn’t pull out the sand toys after all, and stuck to the playground. Some kids even joined Dekker on the teeter totter! I thought he’d have a conniption with how high up that older girl kept bumping him. SO high up, and with SUCH a hard bounce. But nope, he handled it. Way to go, Dekker!

Solly was also SOOO CUTE!!!

Beyond that, we did some more touring the town and walked over to the pier to see the water.

It was so dark and wavy, but SO gorgeous. I would’ve loved to just jump right in!

They tried a hill along the way, but the little miss got stuck <3

It was a fairly short day at the lake this time around, but again, I’m so glad we went 🙂 It just gets better and better.

I can’t wait to go back!

I’ve had some feedback both ways, and I decided to move my blog series to Monday. I could just roll with the series as is, but honestly, for my memory, I would rather do it on my roll over day. While I love not having to think too much on a Saturday, and just be excited about my pregnancy, but that’ll be almost nicer on a Monday, when reality hits again and its often a very tired day. Monday will be good. So I’m SORRY about the switcheroo, but thinking totally selfishly, I’m changing it to Monday because I want to. Just me 🙂

So since we’re NOT talking details on the baby on today’s post, I was planning to post pictures from our lake day yesterday. However, thanks to our lake day and thanks to the baby, I am completely wiped out, and haven’t loaded up the pictures off of the camera, haha! That might be a post for tomorrow. Don’t judge me. It’ll happen, I promise.

Today has been a pretty busy day, actually! Brady set his alarm for 7:00 to prepare for the day, and once again, I didn’t sleep well and was awake and disoriented long before then. I dragged my sorry behind out of bed not too long after he did, once I caught wind of the fact that he couldn’t locate the permit and information we had about our basement development. By the time I came down to help, though, he had recovered it from who knows where, and the plan was fine and in motion. Shortly after 8:00, his friend from work showed up and they began the tedious process of measuring out the basement, placing the interior walls, and finally, building them.

While that all played out, I was upstairs, feeding the kids and spending the morning with them. They’re all grossly overtired from our day away yesterday, it seems. Laela felt super sick first thing this morning, but perked up a bit. Rowan was super on edge, as was Solly. Dekker seemed to have it together pretty well, which I am thankful for. That makes one of us! But we rocked a very low key morning. I had planned to take the kids out while the work was going on, but the first cut of the saw didn’t seem to bother anyone, and we didn’t manage to get our hands on the ram set we needed to hammer into the concrete, which eliminated the super loud part. Dekker commented, after the saws and compressors had begun making noise “Hmmm, that’s not too bad. I must be a bit older now…” He’s correct, lol! The friend who came to help could only stay until 1:00, so we just rolled with the semi-noisy morning, and everyone lived. No biggie. Thank goodness.

I started to fade hard coming up on noon, so I dragged myself up off my butt and got the kids some lunch. Solly was resisting his food in a pretty big way, and whatever food I could get into his mouth, he’d remove with him fingers, check it out, and put it back in if he desired it. And then his gooey hands would rub aaaaall over his face, into his eyes and brows and nose and all the places. And WOW did that turn my stomach today!!! I could barely handle it! I admit, I put both he and Rowan down for their naps still sticky. I was so very tired, and so grossed out, and so so sick. It was just over for me.

The basement is on pause for the day, and I’m BUSHED. I’m heading to bed to rest. I’m out a bit this evening and at this rate, I will not be fun, so I’ve got to sleep a bit or doze or something. Wish me luck!!

And seriously, hopefully switching up the series doesn’t mess with anyone’s heads too much. I will just be so much easier on my mind this way.

We spent another day at Waskesiu. The forecast was for BEAUTIFUL weather and for whatever reason, the actual weather was somewhat disappointing :/ All morning, it was VERY windy, and rained on and off. The water looked amazing, and as a kid, I would have been all over that, but it would have frozen and terrified our kids. So our plans to actually get the kids in the water this time didn’t exactly pan out. Merp.

But it was ok. We rolled with it. While we waited for the rain storm that followed us to town to decide what it wanted to do, we grabbed cinnamon buns and found a cook shack to eat our treat in. Once we figured the rain had moved on for at least a little while, the kids busied themselves with the big playground on the beach. It was more chaotic this time, with obviously many more people around, and all three of the big kids running in opposite directions. But Brady and I just kept counting to three, playing with Solly, and praying for some sun.

The sun did come out after a while, and the kids were positively loving standing up to their knees in the lake and getting splashed around. They probably would have loved to get into swim stuff and get wet, but sadly, at that point, it was getting on in the afternoon and Solly was SHOT and desperately needing a nap. Rowan wasn’t far behind him in that department either. So instead, we said goodbye to the beach and the playground, and went for a walk around town so Solly could rest in the ergo with me, and Ro could ride in the stroller for a bit. (Jami! I stuck my head into your store but you weren’t there!! Booooo!)

We found a little play structure tucked away by the community hall, so the big ones played there while I worked to get Solly to sleep. No dice. That poor kid went from total stillness to crying and twitching back to staring blankly. He just couldn’t get there. He needed a drive.

So once again, instead of going to one of the fun local places for supper, we headed out a couple of hours earlier than anticipated, and drove to PA for supper. All four of the kids slept on the drive there, and were nice and refreshed in time for supper. Win win.

We’re home now, and everyone is tucked in for bed. I admit, my body is CRYING. Its so silly. We walked the loop of the town twice. Thats really all we did for exercise today. Maaaybe a bit more. I did run to and from the beach to the van a couple of times to get things, but it was a pretty low key day. But my legs feel like I’ve been running and running and running. They can barely hold me up anymore. My lower back hurts and my arms just want to hang there. I wasn’t even that active!!! Its pretty brutal, and annoying, honestly. I’m not pregnant enough to feel this wiped out, and I wasn’t busy enough to feel this wiped out, so I guess I’m just a wimp :/ Don’t love that conclusion, but I’m a bit of a loss otherwise.

I’m bushed. I’ll post some pictures soon. Not today. Another day. The kids were far too cute not to post. But it just cannot be today. Tomorrow is busy too. We shall see!