I think I've mentioned already (once or twice) that I had a BUSY week. Now that the new week has started I feel a little more grounded and can revisit the events that transpired (as promised--albeit a little later than I thought).
I think we'll just start with
Tuesday.
I've already gone through most of the details of what we did on the 4th. In the morning, we went to Holmes Lake Park for a breakfast and "parade". This picture is of Carl leading the kids in our wagon. Caleb jumped out as soon as they passed me and then Eva rode around solo for the rest of the parade.
After the parade we spent the afternoon watching the World Cup. The next door triplets came over taking cookie orders and then came back with some really cute red, white and blue cookies. Can you tell which color Caleb got?
That evening we went to a friend's house for burgers and fireworks. We stayed for some of the daytime fireworks but left before it got too dark. Those kids were in need of rest (or so we thought). We got home and Caleb and Eva would not go to sleep! So, we stayed up watching fireworks on tv and the kids marched around the house to all the patriotic music.
Wednesday
Wednesday started out like a normal day...except Carl didn't go to work. He was going to but he was working on my computer. That was the day that my remote blogging ended. YEAH! We spent the morning cleaning up the house and the afternoon watching World Cup. The World Cup part probably doesn't surprise you...but why were we cleaning? We had houseguests due to arrive that evening and I couldn't have the house be super messy. They did need a place to sleep, after all.
Our friends, Jen and Cory Thompson (and their 3 kids--all under 5...and their golden retriever), were on their way from Indiana to their new home in Colorado Springs, CO. We had a nice dinner (that I frantically cooked for their 7:30pm arrival--which didn't really take place until just after 9pm). Then, we chatted and got settled in for the night and went to sleep around midnight.
Thursday
We woke up early to see off the Thompsons but they didn't get on the road until after 9am. It was a pretty hectic morning, to say the least. But...we were so glad they came and stayed here! It was nice to see people from Indiana and catch up on where some of our other friends have gone.
This day was Carl's 30th birthday. I didn't get him an actual present because he said he didn't really need anything. He's been buying stuff for himself for the past couple of months and that could count. Not to mention we were going to shell out a fair amount of cash for our "date" later that day.
After the Thompsons left, Carl went to work in Omaha. I got the kids ready for a day long outing and left around 11:30am to meet Carl in Omaha. The kids slept most of the way. I picked up Carl and I had to make a trip to the yarn store. I wish yarn stores were more kid friendly (but, I understand why they aren't--it's the nature of the beast). I can only go when I have someone that is willing to sit in the car with the kids and the only person willing (to be bribed) is Carl. I didn't take too long. I knew what I was after. I bought 1 skein of Cascade 220 and 3 hanks of charcoal sock yarn (all for Christmas gifts). I went to String of Purls. It was my first time there and they have the store arranged by color. It was really pretty but very hard to browse if you're looking for a certain type of yarn. You can't compare it to the other colors unless you carry it all around the store. Back to the main story...
Once I was done shopping, we went to the zoo. It was a really nice day (mid 80's) and the kids were looking forward to it. Every day since then Caleb has been asking to go and see the animals. Here are some cute pics of the kids.
They love the aquarium. The sharks and sting rays are always a big hit because you sit in this tunnel and they swim all over and around you. Sitting in there gives me a headache. But, they love it so we stay in there for a while. Last time we went the penguins were the favorite attraction. We saw a little bit of them but they had the lights off in the display so we could only see the ones swimming close to the glass. It was still a big hit with the kids.
Caleb's obsession with Mary Poppins made it impossible to leave the zoo without riding the carousel. I'm standing behind the zebra (yes, I'm that short). Carl wasn't willing to shell out the $1 for Eva to ride. So, he spent the whole ride with a crying girl. Ha ha. Serves him right.
The zoo here in Lincoln is kind of piddly and not worth the cash. I'd rather hoof it on up to Omaha to go to the zoo there. It's really worth it. And, just to prove that we saw some animals...
After the zoo, we dropped off the kids with the babysitter (Carl's grad student that lives in Omaha). I think here would be an appropriate place to mention that Caleb didn't have a single potty accident that day! Carl took him to go before we dropped him off and it was the first time he actually went in a toilet that wasn't in our house. Big deal for us and him! YEAH CALEB!
Once we dropped off the kids, we went to eat at Wheatfields. This restaurant is definitely one of a kind. They have a 6 page menu (filled to the brim) and a bakery attached so their dessert menu has almost as many items as the main menu. They had crepes, fondue, wraps, quesadillas, casseroles, steak, seafood, sandwiches, etc... I always get a little worried in restaurants like that because I wonder how they could really be good at producing so many different types of food. Carl got the first thing on the menu (so when we come back, he'll remember what he ordered and can just move down the list). It was a casserole with blue cheese, asparagus, eggplant and some other stuff I would never eat. I got Scampi Scallops on a bed of mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. Their salads are awesome! They have their own dressing and they use real bacon and gruyere cheese! Mmmm. Their butter rolls are also really great. Carl got peach pie for his birthday dessert and I had a caramel apple crepe. We had a hard time walking out of there because we were so full. Carl made me drive the rest of the night so he could "digest".
We headed over to the temple after dinner and did a session. There were a lot of people from our ward there because we had temple cleaning duty that night. After the session we changed into our scrubs and started cleaning. I was the chief feather duster and Carl was the mopper. We were all trying to get our dusters dirtier than the others but to no avail. We found no dust in that whole place. It was the cleanest place I've ever had to clean. But, we did it anyway...and had a good time in the process.
By the time we picked up the kids and drove home, it was almost 1am before we got to bed.
Friday
This was the day that we accidentally slept in until 10am. It threw my whole day off. I think the kids were a little confused, too. But, we managed.
This post is getting long enough and I've got to get some stuff done around the house before Caleb and Eva start to demand things like clean diapers and breakfast. I'll cover the weekend later today or tomorrow.
The Week That Would Not End
http://craftyconservative.blogspot.com/2006/07/week-that-would-not-end.html
I can't deny all of my fabulous blog readers the pleasure of knowing what awesome event we have going on in Lincoln right now. It's the NATIONAL FIGURE ROLLER SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS! I know, I know. If you were me, you'd be there EVERY DAY! But, alas, I could only afford one day. Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures of the skating. I had one or more kids on my lap for the majority of the time. Here are the pictures I did take. 
Caleb did eventually take his hands off his ears. It was a good thing, too. Otherwise he would have missed the Pirates of the Caribbean music that every other skater decided to choose for her routine. I was pretty good at guessing the music based on the costumes. Red and black? Why, it's a Paso Doble! Neon w/ a flower in the hair? That's gotta be a merengue beat. There was one girl that had on an interesting outfit. Based on that, I thought her number was going to be Gladiator Disco. I was so close! It was Egyptian Disco.
The actual skating wasn't that impressive. Okay, I couldn't do those things. But the "best" part of it was when they would fall and Caleb would say, "Are you okay?" or "Oops!". There was a lot of falling.
