Everything Since

The trip home from Seattle was long.  We left my parents' house around 6am (everyone was very sweet about getting up and seeing us off!) and got to stand in line for security for forever.  I realized that I've gotten spoiled with the Charlottesville and Richmond airports being so small!

That's how I feel about standing in lines, too...

Camille took a nap on the first flight

Our first flight to Dallas was fairly uneventful, and then we had a two-hour layover.  I was glad for that, since we'd have time to get food and let the kids stretch their legs.  But then that flight got delayed a bit.  And then that "bit" of a delay turned into nearly an hour.  And then we boarded the plane and the captain decided the brakes on the plane weren't good enough for the short Richmond airport runway, so we all had to get back off the plane and wait around for them to find another one before we could get on our way.  So that took at least another hour, probably longer...

Ready for blast off!  (I feel the need to point out that normally I wouldn't let my kids be this crazy out in public, but since I knew they'd have to sit still on another plane, I was pretty lax here.  Don't judge.  Well, judge all you want, but know that I don't care!)

Colton and Daddy are both napping here!

All this resulted in us landing in Richmond around midnight, and getting home around 2am.  Ugh.  Suffice it to say, I did NOT wake the kids up for school in the morning.  And it took us at least two weeks to get back to feeling like we were on east coast time again.  I have GOT to stop going to Seattle during the school year and finally take the kids for a nice, long summer trip!!!!


Since then, we've been busy, busy, busy.  I somehow scheduled all our dentist and orthodontist appointments the same week that we returned home, so the kids were only on time to school like once that whole week!  Oops.  (In my defense, I think I made those appointments before Tracy got engaged...?)

We've also been building train tracks...

Lamenting the fact that Craig's car got a flat tire...

Enjoying everything blooming....  This is one of the largest flowering dogwoods I saw around town!

Running through the sprinkler...

I love this picture so much

Also, Craig and I finally got to do one of those escape rooms with our friends the Patchetts!  I've been begging to do one of these ever since I noticed the place on the downtown mall.  We managed to finish it with only 40 seconds to spare.  And perhaps best of all, Craig enjoyed it so much that he could hardly wait to do another one!  I win!!!  

Craig and I are matching-- how cute

Our primary Easter egg hunt was delayed when the primary president had to be in the hospital, so this happened after our Seattle trip...

Everyone has been picking dandelions for mommy...

We've been getting ice cream and balloon animals at the downtown mall...

And holding sibling book clubs...

 

And dressing up in matching shirts!

Craig has been hard at work removing some dead trees from our property (dead trees not pictured). 

All the leaves popped out in about one week, and it's all so lush and beautiful I want to cry.  Unfortunately it's also taken its toll on my allergies, which are TERRIBLE (despite faithfully taking Allegra AND Zyrtec this year!).  Poor Colton has spring allergies, too, and the two of us are a mess.  It's supposed to rain on Saturday and I'm hoping that will clear out the worst of the pollen.

It's so weird to have a season that I love so very much and that apparently hates me right back.

Speaking of allergies, that was another thing we did was to have Kendra and Colton tested for various allergies.  They did not test positive to the things I thought they were allergic to (raspberries for Kendra, peanuts and seasonal stuff for Colton), but we did learn that Kendra is allergic to dust mites and cats.  (Not bunnies, thank goodness!)  They did further testing with Colton and still came up with nothing, despite the fact that he was clearly sitting there sneezing and rubbing his eyes.  The doctor recommended Claritin (and gave us several samples so I could figure out if he preferred the liquid form or chew tablets) and that helped quite a bit until this week.  Now he's a sniffing, eye-itching mess just like his mother, poor kid.

The nurse was super impressed with how well Colton (and Kendra) handled all the testing.  For a kid who gets extremely nervous about getting shots, he barely batted an eye when he actually GOT them.  Colton is much braver than he thinks he is.


I know I'm forgetting all kinds of important things, but this is what I've got pictures of!  I'm sure I'll fill in the gaps in the weeks to come!