The Sixth Day

On Saturday night as I drove us home from our date night (dinner at Blue Adobe Grille and stake conference), I told Ryan that today was a fantastic day.  I loved it, loved everything about it, but it sure seemed like it had been going on forever.  I was so exhausted my eyes were blood shot and on fire and the lids were begging to shut.  And it was only 9:15. 

I was hoping that when we got home, the house would be sparkling (OK, maybe not sparkling but at least tidied up), and the kids would have all made it through the wash & rinse cycle and be ready for bed.

Wishful thinking.
Actually, they usually do pretty great on date night.  I rarely have any complaints.

But this Saturday, all but one of my offspring looked exactly like they had when we left them at 5:30. Still wearing the same, dirty play clothes from our crazy busy fun Saturday, still with hair disheveled, not all the dinner mess entirely picked up, and some sort of minor tornado remains in the family room.

But they were happy.

The babysitter offspring, to her credit, had been sidetracked by her grandma's new iPod Touch that she was setting up for her and had sort of forgotten about the kids and the house I'm guessing.  Good thing they are pretty self-sufficient on date nights.  Really, since we have the TV-ban in effect Sun-Thurs, date night is often supervised TV or movie watching for our peeps.  Not really a tough gig.

Just wish they would have bathed.

Anyhow, back to the fantastic day, quick version:

• Left the house at 5:55am for an incredible run.  Amazing red sunrise, felt like a champ, chalked up 9 miles
• Said goodbye to Ry & Barrett at 7:15 as they headed out to Quail Run for her softball games.
• Transported the 3 youngers to Quail at 8:15-ish and spent the next three hours watching the tourney in the most wonderful Saturday morning weather.  Barrett's team won the first game 10-8, and barely lost the second 6-5. She played well both games and was hitting the ball hard.
• Squeezed in some errands and solo shopping (my favorite kind of shopping) for family birthday gifts while Ryan took the peeps home.  Ended up browsing at Kohl's for a little too long and ended up with a few new things for me :)
• Home for a fun afternoon with the peeps.  Everyone was outside all afternoon...scootering, bike riding, skateboarding.  Lots of trips in and out for snacks and water.  The kitchen floor needs a serious mopping.
• Bribed Easton to get back on his bike again (he learned to ride a year ago but had a couple bad falls and has done everything in his power to avoid the bike ever since).  This time, the bribe worked, and he picked the dollar store for his reward if he would get on and ride.  He said, "Can I get six things since I'm six?"  Sure.  You bet.  Just ride.
• And he did.  I helmeted and padded him up (just in case), but as the old saying goes, "It's just like riding a bike."  I ran behind him for a few streets, thinking maybe he needed me, but not even close.  Not even for a minute.  The kid was flying all over the place, up and down the streets with ear to ear grin, not wanting to stop. He was a riding machine.  So after getting completely winded sprinting after him for no reason, I decided to get on my bike too, and all the kids and I enjoyed a family bike ride.  Ry sat in the driveway trying to repair the scooter and change a bike tube since he's still on the DL.
• Then the dollar store.  I was hoping to put it off til Tuesday since I needed to get ready for our date, but the whole instant reward motivation thing was nagging at me so we went.  Hauled all the peeps plus one neighbor friend to one of my least favorite places and let the kiddos pick out their dollar store gems.  Easton ended up buying six stuffed monkeys with velcro hands that can hang on anything (and have so far).  Bunk bed rails, ceiling fans, necks, door knobs, bicycle handle bars.  I guess it was $6 well spent since the boy has been loving his new monkey pals and he's loving the bike.  Finally.

Stake conference was great - all about the family.  My favorite subject.  Speakers were great.  Music was too.  I cried.  That didn't help my red tired eyes at all.  The visiting and pie afterwards were even better.  So many great friends and family to visit with.  Loved it. The night ended watching a movie in bed with Ryan, but I didn't even come close to making it to the end.  Ryan caught me up on the second half on Sunday morning when we woke and it turns out it wasn't that great a flick anyway.

Great Saturday. And I loved that my kids loved it.  Afty told me as I tucked her in that she was so happy today.  She told me that she loved that we just spent the whole day together as a family and that she was glad that she hadn't played with friends because she would have missed out on all of that.

Awwhhhh, how sweet is that?