Brian finally arrived upon the dreaded day and took his board exam. He survived and has had the last couple of weeks off. We've been trying to do some fun things together and have been pretty successful. Vacations are also always the time in which we have a new car that needs lots of fixing... Not to mention the long list of other assorted things that need to be attended to, so it's not all play around here, but it has been good. The girls have been able to go on several field trips with Daddy to various auto parts stores in the surrounding area. And once they even went to Wal-Mart to get some things on Brian's list, so I sent him with a short grocery list as well. I didn't laugh so that he could hear me when he called, but I sure did laugh after he hung up. I don't remember what he was asking but I do remember the sound of his voice and the sound of Rivers screaming in the background. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy the unhappiness of my children and I don't enjoy torturing my husband (well, um, not all the time at least, as far as the husband part goes) but I was enjoying the fact that my husband was getting a little first hand experience in the day-to-day joys of stay-at-home parenthood and the reality of fulfilling the domestic duties that go along with it. I was even more amused to hear that Rivers totally lost it at the check out stand and banged her head on the cart and the cashier was giving her everything and anything to try to get her to stop crying. Nice. I'm glad Brian had some good quality time with his daughters.
We have gone to the downtown farmer's market together, we went swimming at the Nyes' together, and we went to the Omaha zoo. I've gone grocery shopping by myself a couple of times and Cumorah and I went to the farmer's market yesterday while Rivers stayed home and helped Daddy work on things. Cumorah wore her bonnet and brought along her purse like Mommy and she held my hand and walked everywhere like a big girl instead of riding in the stroller with Rivers. Everyone thought she was just too adorable and she of course very coolly did not respond to anybody's compliments or inquiries. We're working on that. Cumorah and I thoroughly enjoyed our date and Rivers thoroughly enjoyed scattering Daddy's drill bits and un-sorting his screws. We even celebrated Pioneer Day by not turning the AC on. OK so that wasn't quite intentional but it did seem a fitting day for it and it has made me very grateful for our AC even if we keep the house warmer than I grew up with. The girls and I even wore dresses (the comfortable cotton knit summer play dress variety, not actual pioneer dresses) and our pioneer bonnets. We sang pioneer primary songs. We made butter and ate stew for dinner. Cumorah ate it because I told her she had to if she wanted ice cream later. We made homemade ice cream and turned the crank ourselves instead of plugging it in. Wow. That all makes it sound like we had a really pioneerish day.
Oh, and Brian and I went on an actual real date the day after his exam during which he held my hand and everything. And the girls had an actual real babysitter, as in a very sweet teenage girl from church whom we just adore. I think it was good for them and I know they had a good time playing with Abby. It took a little bit of explaining to Cumorah about how the whole Mommy and Daddy go on a date and the children stay home with a babysitter thing works. I thought I was all finished explaining it to her when she says, "Mommy, I just need to go with you." She wasn't whining or complaining, she was just pointing out that it was so much more logical for her to come with us than it was for us to have a babysitter come and stay with her. I just wasn't making sense. Cumorah and Rivers are always with Mommy and Daddy. Well, in the end she was fine with having Abby over for a little while. The date was good for Brian and I. We just went to the bookstore to look at cookbooks and then to a very yummy Italian restaurant overlooking the little lake next to the mall that we like to walk around with the girls. It was a sort of belated birthday celebration day. We had birthday cake with the girls when we got home that evening. I baked the cake and mixed up the frosting but Brian and Cumorah put it together and frosted it. Cumorah was very good at licking the frosting off of her spreading utensil. Auntie Lora would have not been able to eat my birthday cake. I get to pick out an Italian and a Mexican cookbook for my birthday. I still haven't decided which ones yet. (Besides, dinner and a babysitter was more money than we should have spent for my birthday already.) But I will decide and I will get them soon.
Soooo, back to the original planned content of this post. I guess it's been a while...
During the first week Brian had off we went to ride the Heritage Carousel together. Very fun.
The girls both loved it. OK, so Rivers actually not so much.
Notice the death grip on my shoulder. She did not want to sit on that thing. After the ride actually started she was OK. That happened the first time when I took them by myself, I thought that maybe this time she would enjoy it more. But this is the little girl who used to cry every time we were at our local HyVee's check out stand and she spotted Henry the Horse. Cumorah loves going to HyVee and riding Henry. Rivers enjoys the car carts at HyVee ('car cart' is in her rather extensive vocabulary) but she does not like Henry. She now tolerates his presence and actually is interested enough to point and say 'horsie' and 'neigh' but if I ask her if she would like a ride she immediately turns away from me, makes distressed whining noises and tries to climb out of her seat and away from me until I tell her that it's OK and she doesn't have to ride him.
Cumorah and I rode together a second time. She was so cute. She waved at everybody the whole way around and they waved back at her. Oh and yes, it really was that cool outside that the girls were wearing hats and a sweater. Crazy, huh? It was a record setting day for cool temperatures in July.
We played at the park for a little while before riding the carousel. My friend Sara introduced me to this efficient way of pushing your two little ones on the swing set and we have enjoyed it ever since. I was the one frightened to go down this slide, not Cumorah. It's pretty dang intimidating when you're sitting up at the top of it. You have to climb up the ladders of one of those big metal rocket play structures to get to it.
