Welcome, Summer!

Angela painting the paint bottles. I tell ya, you turn around for ONE MINUTE...

Memorial Day weekend was great for us. Micah had an off Friday that I spent having fun in Orlando while he stayed with the kids. I drove up Thursday night and went to the temple, stayed in a hotel and then returned to do some more temple work Friday morning. It was the first time I'd been to the Orlando temple and the first time I'd participated in temple work in about 8 months. It's tough to figure out a way to go more regularly. With the 90 minute drive each way, we would need someone to babysit the kids for almost 6 hours if Micah and I tried to go together. Anyhow, glad I got to go. My hotel was awesome and had the greatest included breakfast I've ever had. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4 am and couldn't fall back asleep with the strange absence of a 4-year-old foot/knee/elbow in the butt/back/face.

After the temple, I did a little shopping and then checked out Epcot at Disneyworld. I didn't think it was that great, but I hardly went on any rides because the lines were so long. Epcot seems to be mostly about spending a ton of money on foods from various countries, but I am anti-buying-overpriced-food-at-Disney, so I didn't enjoy that. I did happen to hit the tail end of the International Flower and Garden Festival, so that was neat- tons of topiaries sculpted like various disney characters and displays on various types of butterflies and flowers. Then I tried out the coaster at Animal Kingdom- Everest- and it was pretty crazy and did me on for the day, so instead of staying for the nighttime show, I drove home before the kids went to bed Friday. Disney is officially not that fun alone. Maybe I should have gone to Ikea instead!

 On memorial day, we met up in Orlando with some friends who were in FL for memorial day weekend. We knew them from Atlanta-we had been swapping babysitting from the time Natalie was 9 months old. Unfortunately, Natalie was a little odd that day and didn't play with the other kids that much.

We spent the day hanging out at the pool together. It was really nice to catch up and revel together in the joy of having husbands no longer in grad school.

That evening we popped into Magic Kingdom before heading home. We had planned to just do a couple of rides, but lines were surprisingly short so we spent a few hours doing the kids' favorites, since we can't go back until August with our passes black-out dates.

This is Natalie washing dishes and it is literally the best thing ever.

In spite of our challenges, out garden is mildly productive. The melons didn't make it, but the tomato worms are gone now- whether it's too hot for them, or the wasps and other bugs that have come out for the hot season have eaten them all, I'm not sure. Just grateful to enjoy a bunch like this every few days! I've made salsa and pasta with them, but mostly I eat a lot of em just like this.

School is out now, which means that there are lots of fun cheap or free activities for us to do with the kids, like going to the beach, programs at the library, free kids movies at the local theater, even a program for kids to bowl free at the local bowling alley. The only downside is that we have to compete with lots of older kids and everywhere we go seems busy with families trying to stay busy.

I'm beginning a Zumba group at church. My first class went well, but was sparsely attended because of girls' camp. Hopefully I can get more ladies out to join me so I can be in practice next time I have an opportunity to audition for an open position at the gym!