Vacations, Houseguests, & Birthdays, Oh My!

I have found that for me at least, the rule for vacations is: it takes just as long to recover as the vacation took. That means it takes 3 days to get back into my groove after a long weekend, and 3 weeks to get back into it after along vacation. This is also true for other exciting events. The last 2 weeks have been CHOCK FULL of cool happenings. Truly something (or several somethings) every day.

We have had houseguests. Both the "Yay!They are finally coming!" kind, and the "Yay, they are finally leaving!" kind. With that said, all the visits were neat, and the one that I had been dreading was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be--we were both on best behavior, and once again, good manners saved the day!

In my mind, I picture myself with a fabulous guest room--bright, spacious and airy, with thoughtful amenities that make the guest feel loved and cared for (a water glass on the nightstand, a thick fuzzy robe and towel set, a basket of toiletries, thoughtfully chosen books in the nightstand). Yeah. Well, I'm not there yet. If you come to see me, the airy guestroom is still in my head, but you will be loved and valued, so I guess that counts for something--even if the only shower is down in the corner of the basement and may or may not have a few little spiders in it (@#$% spiders!).

We had a wonderful Easter. I love celebrating not only spring, but truly the most important part of the gospel--the Resurrection, with other believers all over the world.

We went to Kirtland, which will be another post.

We talked, we visited. I seriously think Heaven will be enough time to finish all the exciting conversations that we started here! How I love spending time with my family.

I love the flexibility our school has--infinite! When cousins come from far away, they get to be our first priority--we are not on someone else's schedule of what is important.

LargeBoy has been planning his birthday party all year. It wasn't even really that close to his birthday, but it was when we could get all the cool people here!

All he wanted was to have his Uncle R (age 16), his various big guy cousins (ages 20, 18, & 14)and his two best friends to go play with him out in the fort in the woods. We are blessed to have such great guys in our family. When I think of what selfish, self absorbed jerks most guys that age are, I am even more grateful for these strong, kind, loving examples of manhood that my son idolizes.

They had a cookout and threw marshmallows at each other, and a great time was had by all. Super easy on me too!