Beautiful Saturday

Yesterday was a really beautiful day. The morning was somewhat lazy in that we didn't have to get the whole family out the door for a morning baseball game. I did get up at 5:45 to take a friend to the airport, but even that wasn't bad. I ran to the store and got some milk for all to have a happy breakfast and then we just kind of hung out for a little while. I ran Maia to piano and sneaked off to the library BY MYSELF while she was there. That was criminally enjoyable.

Anyway, when Maia and I got back from piano, Michael wanted to go on a family hike. Now, normally, any family activity requires quite a bit of preparation from me: locating and filling water bottles, packing snacks, diapers, and wipes, etc. But for his hike, Michael did all the prep. I was impressed, shocked, and grateful. When I got home from piano, he hoisted his backpack on his back and said, "Let's go!"


We loaded up and headed to the trail. The hike wasn't long, but it was quite nice under the canopy of trees. We hunted for creatures and the children were all thrilled to spy a millipede, toad, butterfly, and beetle. We stopped at the Middle Patuxent Overlook and enjoyed Michael's backpack fare: leftover pizza, Gogurts, apple slices, and watermelon. He had even remembered to pack wet wipes so we could do some clean up! After our little lunch we walked back to our car (in an unusually anti-Mommy display, Mackenna would only let Maia hold her hand for the entire journey--"Maia, hold you me my hand?").When we got home we were quite hot so I turned on the sprinkler (I was ignorant of the current water restrictions--oops!) for the kids to play outside and cool off. Then, it was nap time for the little ones.

After naps, we headed to a graduation party for one of the teenage girls at church I used to get to teach. It was really fun. They had a giant inflatable water slide, so the kids all had more swimsuit fun. The food was great and it was just nice to sit and chat with friends while the kids ran around having the time of their lives.

When we got home, we divided the children between our three tubs and showers and scrubbed them clean. We did our bedtime routine and put them to bed. I was a little sleepy so I suggested that Michael and I lay down and cuddle for just a second before I had to go reclean everywhere the kids had been during the day. Ha ha. Good intentions. I do remember trying to get up at one point to put a load of laundry in, but Michael told me just to rest another minute. Then it was this morning! That's right, Michael and I went to bed at like eight o'clock. And boy, did that feel good. What better way could there be to end such a beautiful day?