April

Let me tell you a story about what we did during spring break. If you detect a note of bitterness in the tone of this story, it's just your imagination.

One day about eight months ago Will was breathing poorly-oxygenated air, or possibly drinking some strange koolaid, and he decided it would be no big deal to take sixty middle school kids on a cross-country, eight-day epic journey to Washington, DC for their spring trip, which would coincide with the week of spring break. Fast forward to the week of spring break, as he was preparing to embark on his expedition. He then realized, from her generally icy demeanor and frustrated sighs, that he had perhaps not taken into consideration the delicate state of his wife's sanity, in determining to leave her alone with the kids for eight days, DURING SPRING BREAK. Unfortunately, he could not extricate himself from his commitments and had to go anyway. Also, he thought it would probably be pretty fun. (Spoiler alert: it was fun, but only for the people who went, oddly enough.)

So his wife made her situation sound sufficiently pathetic to entice her selfless mother to fly to Las Vegas to help her pile some stuff, and some more stuff, and then a whole bunch more stuff into the minivan for the long drive to Idaho. And once in Idaho, she enjoyed the plush accommodations of Hotel Hall. Free continental breakfast! (sometimes you have to make it yourself.) Free childcare! Hotel staff will change diapers! And even though she would rather have been chaperoning teens and pre-teens around our nation's capital (it really was a great thing that Will did for his students, they LOVE-d it) all the left-behind Daines-es had a great time in Boise.

Here are a few pics from the Idaho/Spring Break/Save Adri's Sanity trip:

I believe I specifically requested that they keep their mouths closed.
Either that, or they're just two peas in a second-child pod.
(I think it's the second thing.)

My sister and I had planned to take the cousins on an outing of the outdoors variety, something along the lines of Craters of the Moon State Park or some other wide open space where they could scamper about, but April showers ruined those plans. Instead, we took them to the gymnasium at my parents' chapel and let them scamper around indoors, and it was awesome. Because I don't know if you've noticed, but seven kids under the age of seven can get pretty loud and destructive when cooped up in small, enclosed spaces.

In between six-year-old drama, ball throwing, highly-competitive races and many minor injuries, we ate a picnic lunch on the floor.  The ladies chatted, the babies sat, and the kids shrieked a lot. A good time was had by all.

These two got the same memo about not showing teeth.

Eve and Baca, both looking a little camera-shy

Please don't anyone think that Antonia learned that pose from me.
I haven't stood like that since I was an 80-year old woman. 

Two cousins, Cameron and Eli, celebrated birthdays while we were in Idaho. Antonia and Charlie got to go to their first co-ed party of the cake and ice cream/games and prizes variety, and it was a big hit. Or so I heard. I wasn't there because my dad and I decided to go for a long bike ride in the rain, which was a growing experience, in that I grew to understand that I don't like riding in the rain.

BBQ tin foil dinners at the shorty table

I've met a lot of two-year olds in my life,
but this girl is hands down one of my favorite.
How can you not love someone who calls herself "Mim?"

Was there ever any doubt that light sabers would be a big hit?
Thanks, Baca, for making all that Jedi training feel like money well spent.

I captured this solitary picture of the Easter egg hunt before my camera battery died, unfortunately. But I can tell you this: tensions were running high this year among the six-year-old crowd. I was really unsure if we would find all the eggs without tears being shed over who was finding eggs and how quickly. Sheesh!

The Jovial One

Red Light, Green Light (Antonia played without regard to rules,
gleefully running and stopping as the mood took her.)

Here's how Easter went down this year at our house: the Easter Bunny thought Easter was a week early, and began to panic at Target on Saturday night a week before actual Easter. Upon realizing that the holiday was still a week off, the Easter Bunny purchased a small amount of candy, and promptly forgot all about it. The next Saturday found the Easter Bunny contemplating a very sad assortment of items for Easter Baskets, with no time or energy to go to the store for supplies. So she cobbled together some baskets as best she could, leaving barely anything for the mother of the house, some candy for the father, and nothing for the baby. She could only hope that the two children would not notice the injustice and determine that the Easter Bunny is quite a capricious creature. (Which, in fact THIS Easter Bunny actually is.)

It's not great, but it's the only official family Easter photo we have. 

I love how unexpected kids are. The above is a picture of the contents of Antonia's "purse," which is in fact the free bag that comes with a Subway kids' meal  (never mind that she owns several actual , much nicer, purses.) The contents are: wallet stuffed with glass pebble "jools," plastic set of keys, small stuffed dog wearing Cabbage-Patch sized diaper, bubbles, small heart-shaped crayon, plastic ring and bracelet. This is what she took to church with her last week (until I discovered that she was trying to take toys to class.)

Last summer, whilst strolling through the Bass Pro Shops (on our way to some free "entertainment" in the form of a large aquarium inside of a casino) I somehow let my guard down and found myself entangled in conversation with a representative of a time-share company offering vacation package deals to unsuspecting patrons. Actually, she was very nice, and her deal was too good to pass up. For $100 dollars, we received a two-nights' stay at a resort in Phoenix on the dates of our choosing, as well as a $100 gift card to the Bass Pro Shops (which we need some help in spending. Honestly, I already have enough camoflauge clothing, so what else is there?)  And the accommodations were very nice, indeed. The room was huge and luxurious and the pool area was delightful, although Phoenix in April was not quite warm enough for ME to want to get wet. It was a nice little weekend getaway, and we got to spend time with Will's sister, Clara, who lives in Chandler.

Right when we got to phoenix, we stopped for lunch and Antonia had this pink cookie.
I'm pretty sure she would have been perfectly satisfied
if we had turned right around and gone home. 

Antonia's idea of the perfect pool experience
is getting her entire body wet in five inches of water.
So, basically, a bath.

Warming up.

I can't decide what's more delicious unto me:
chubby thighs or mischievous grin

Still playing coy with the camera

Climbing on something Mom said not to climb on

Clara knows all the rad things to do in Phoenix. Last time we visited she took us to the Arizona Science Center (fabulous) and this time she took us to a fantastic museum that one would never expect to find in Phoenix, of all places: the Musical Instrument Museum.

Elk skin frame drum of Will's tribe (Tlingit)

"What's a glockenspiel?"

Other fun things we did whilst in Phoenix: 1.Ate at a Triple D ("Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives") pizza restaurant, which was good, but possibly not as good as this place; 2. Ate at Chick-Fil-A for the first time ever (it was SO. CROWDED. But they had carrot salad, which was unexpected and delightful.) 3. Attended a time share presentation for 1.5 hours, during which time we talked about baseball and education for 1.2 hours, and timeshares for .3 hours. In other words, it was totally low key, and I'm ready for some more vacations subsidized by the timeshare industry. Anyone know of any?

Out on the patio of our luxurious accommodations,
playing with new toys from Aunt Clara

And that brings us to the end of April's festivities. I had some funny quotes/ kid-isms, but it's late and I'm tired, so I think I'm going to save that for a...bonus post! That means two posts for the month of April. I'm sure I can hardly believe that I'm committing myself to that...

"All right! That's even more exciting than this hair wave!"