The fact that it was the first week of March the last time that I wrote about our latest happenings is a great indication of just how busy we have all been. It’s been a busy past few months, great months the majority of the time but taxing ones at times too. Before I even get to our wonderful adventure to the Big Island of Hawaii and my parents visit to date, I’ll just summarize what was keeping us so busy before that.
Firstly, it was birthday party season. I think we had, at a minimum, one birthday party for five weekends in a row. That keeps you additionally busy when you have activities up the wazoo during the week as well. We have two more birthday parties coming up so of course that fun is never over.
On top of gymnastics twice a week, swim class, and dance class, we added Reese’s soccer, and me as coach, back to the mix. I also have my soccer games most Sundays that I try to squeeze in with the help of Bryan or with the girls tagging along with me.
Bryan and I are fully into training for the STP which takes a lot of time. Having trained for a half marathon in the past I’m used to committing time to training for something but training for a bike ride takes that much more time. I try to get in two rides during the week of about 20 miles and Bryan and I each really need to get in at least one long ride on the weekend. That wasn’t working out so well before but now that my parents are here, we have high hopes of getting in a few long rides together, which is just so much more enjoyable to do together.
Bryan and I had two more ski days on our ski pass to use for the year and after not having our car for a month while it was in the shop we had to squeeze them in when we could. We were able to get one exceptional day in mid-March where we had wonderful fresh snow, really got our workout in, and even ended the day with enough time to get a margarita and chips and salsa at the shores of Lake Washington before getting the girls and taking them to the annual Ivar’s Birthday dinner. Our third day of the year was less than desirable conditions but still fun to do together, ended the day on the slopes earlier to come home and relax some and then got to have a date night at Daniel’s Broiler thanks to our new date night swap with our friends.
We took the girls to Snoqualmie Pass twice (well, once for Brooke) to get them out on their skis and Reese loved it. We still have stuck to only the magic carpet with her this year but I think with her enjoyment of it and need for speed she will be ready to get to some faster terrain next year. I think Brooke likes snow and likes ski outfit best. She basically yelled at me her times down the bunny hill, even though I was holding onto her backpack handle the entire time. The thing she is not ever going to like with skiing is Reese being out in front of her. She gets really upset if Reese gets too far out ahead of her with skiing, biking, walking, scootering, etc.
Enter April and April just came and went. First, Bryan went down to Phoenix to spend a weekend helping and visiting with his parents. He was there over a weekend where literally one thing after another happened, many things awry but also very wonderful moments with the girls as well. We had some wonderful weather that we took advantage of with enjoying an early Easter Egg Hunt at Madison Park with Brooke’s buddies after dance class and visiting one of the girls’ favorite parks for box sledding on the Yesler Terrace Park grass before getting dinner in Pioneer Square and took Georgie with us to go watch the NCAA Regional Gymnastics Tournament held at UW. But I was also taxed from all of the going ons and after glorious weather we had truly miserable weather for that Sunday for a not-so-fun soccer game in the rain. I nearly choked at Guest Chef Night, my new bike radar fell off my bike while out for a ride that Friday, thought I had completely lost my work phone and credit card come Monday morning, and just general challenges of solo parenting.
I was relieved to have Bryan back for about 36 hours before I headed down to Phoenix myself for a Structural Engineering conference at their convention center downtown. Bryan was in full solo parenting mode for the next three days while I was able to get a bit of reprieve from responsibilities, soaked up some sun, and enjoyed some of my coworker’s company.
Then we left for our 8 nights in Hawaii…with everything leading up to this trip it did definitely sneak up on us but fortunately it was wonderful and relaxing for us all! More to come on that soon.
—
Chelsea
