M.E. PATERNOSTER: The one with the best Spring break weather ever!

The kids had spring break a couple weeks ago, and as my blog post title implies, we had the most fantastic weather! We didn't do anything too exotic, but I did make sure we had every day filled with fun adventures and outings. Of course I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we made some fun memories.

Monday I had big plans to take the kids to Discovery Park and head to the beach to fly kites. If you are familiar with Discovery Park, you know that it is a HUGE park...I'm talking MILES of hiking. Not your typical average park. Anyway, our friends came with us (Whitney, Carson, Taggart, and baby London). So we parked, loaded up all our stuff and kids and started headed to what we thought was the beach. After walking for a bit, we decided we had better ask someone how exactly we get to the beach. Lets just say the lady we asked kind of laughed at us and said we had a long ways to go. Great. So we headed back to the start/parking lot where we could grab a map. Apparently both Whitney and I need to brush up on our map reading skills. We chose the route we thought to be the quickest and it ended up being quite the little hike! Uphill, bumpy, etc. Fun times, especially for Whitney who was pushing a stroller! lol And did I mention that it was super warm? Well, warm for us at least. About 70 degrees! Our kids were not used to it. We finally made it to a big open meadow/grassy area where we decided we would stop our journey (the beach was still a couple miles off). So we busted out the kites only to realize there as NO wind. And...I am huge and pregnant and Whitney has a baby strapped to her chest. Who did we think was going to get the kites going?! I took the challenge and walked up a hill then attempted to run down while trying to get the kite to fly. Needless to say, we were laughing hysterically. And the kites never flew. But the kids ran around for a bit and rolled down the hill, then we started the trek back. Luckily we found a quicker route (much to the delight of the kids, who were by this point, exhuasted). We made it back red-faced and sweaty, and with a great story to tell.

Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment, so Nicole and the kids came over for a play-date and watched the kids for me while I was gone. They had a blast playing together, as always. We had lunch and played some more, then it was time for them to head home. That night we had a movie night with popcorn and treats.

Wednesday we headed to Gig Harbor! The Baker's just moved there, so we made the jaunt over to play for the day. The kids had a blast playing outside, having an Easter egg hunt, eating home-made pizzas, and I had a blast hanging out with Toni. Of course we HAD to hit up Sonic on the way home for milk-shakes and cherry limeades.

Thursday we headed out to the beach/sound for REAL this time. (the Oneill's came again, so fun!) We went to Lincoln Park. The park area there has a fun zip-line that the bigger kids LOVED! That thing goes so fast!! We will definitely be going back so I can give it a try sometime. After playing at the park for a bit and eating lunch, we went down to the beach. We were having beautiful weather, but it was still only about 55-60 degrees. We told the kids over and over, don't get wet! But of course, they all did. My kids were so wet they had to take off their pants and underwear! for the car ride home. But they had a blast throwing rocks into the water, building sand-castles, and jumping over waves. Thursday night, I got a babysitter because we were having a surprise baby-shower dinner for Ali at Tutta Bella. Erik was able to break away from work for a bit to eat as well. She was definitely surprised! The look on her face was price-less.

Friday, I packed up the kids and went up to the Tulip Festival! Alexis and her kids came with us too, so that was super fun! We also took along Carson, which was great for Troy. On the drive up, the boys were sitting in the back, singing the songs from Frozen. So funny! As always, Tuliptown was a hit, and we had great weather! It was so fun to be there with friends too. When we got there, Savannah was SOAKING wet! (she was wearing a pull-up). Luckily, she had twisted my arm into bringing her Rapunzel dress-up. So I stripped off her pants and she strutted her stuff in her dress-up and rain-boots. She was thrilled of course. She, as always, kept us laughing all day. After seeing all the tulips the kids wanted to see, we ate lunch in the car, then since we were going past the outlet mall, we stopped in to find new shoes for the kids. Bad.idea. The kids were all exhausted, I was exhausted, and Brooklyn is the pickiest person ever! We ended up finding shoes for Troy, but no luck for the girls. Then of course we hit heavy traffic. Needless to say, we all came home and crashed! It was a great end to a great spring break.

Saturday, Erik went hiking early with some of his coworkers and bosses. Apparently, their CFO wants to make it a monthly occurrence and build up to hiking Mt. Si in August. I wish I could do it with them! That afternoon, Erik told me to go have some alone time...ummm all I could think of doing was some errands I needed to run. So I ran to Target, grabbed what we needed, then took his advice and went to Panera for a little treat and magazine read. All.by.myself. Ahhh, that was much needed. That night we were all exhausted from our busy week, so Erik and I sent the kids to bed early, and enjoyed a relaxing evening at home. All in all, it was a great week! And I really enjoyed spending so much quality time with the kids. It made me really excited for summer!