Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Wow, I can't believe it's been an entire week since my last posting! I even missed a week of "Thankful Thursdays"... But I'm not necessarily sad because I took some MUCH, MUCH needed time off with my family! It's been a very difficult and emotional couple of weeks for us here but I'm doing my best to get through it all...and like I said, the time away definitely did me some good. I guess I'm trying to live by the good ol' mantra of "When Life gives you Lemons...You make Lemonade!" And I preferred flavored, Peach to be exact!

We had the kids, all of them, for almost the entire week, which we rarely ever get the privilege of doing, so we were excited to focus on the kids and have some quality family time. We have THREE birthdays in the month of July, Connor, Chase, and Abbie, and this was our time together to finally celebrate! Abbie just turned 14, Connor turned 11, and Chasers just turned 9! I can hardly believe it. We decided to take the kids away for an overnight trip and put some of those accumulated Priority Club points to use! (Free is always good!)

We headed up north...way up north from our home...to Layton and went to Cherry Hill Water Park. It was over 100 Degrees outside so the water adventure was just what the doctor ordered! The kids had a blast running from one end of the park to the next. And Chris and I enjoyed just doing whatever Pookie wanted us to. He eventually braved the water slides and LOVED it. But I think my favorite part was the hour or so that we all just floated around the Lazy River. Jaxon of course stayed on my tube at all times, but I was alright with that. We ended the night by playing Aeroball, Cyd did some rock climbing, and everyone took some turns at the batting cages. It was a great day! The only bad thing about it was that I left my camera in the car...but I thought I left it at home...so no pictures of our fun day! :-(

We stopped for ice cream treats on the way to the hotel and finally arrived around 10:30 that night. We loaded up all the luggage, pillows, stuffed animals, and of course PRESENTS, and headed to our rooms! Abbie, Connor, and Chase were all thrilled with their gifts and we had a great time watching them open them up!

The next morning the kids got up bright and early to go swimming again, and I took my time getting us altogether to leave. Chris had to work that morning so he had already left...WITH THE BIGGER CAR. Yeah, we didn't plan that so well. So not only did I have one-to-many children in my car...we were JAMMED PACKED with crap! And wouldn't you know it...I had a blow-out on the freeway! So typical of my life! So I sat on the side of the highway, praying a police officer would NOT stop to help me...waiting over an hour, in 104 Degree weather, with five crammed kids, for Chris to come and rescue us! It was insane! And positively exhausted me! I don't know what a road trip would be like for us Cole's but after that day...I'm not in any hurry to try one out!

Friday and Saturday were pretty low key for us...which was just fine by me! And then on Sunday Chris and I had the opportunity to go boating with some great and close friends of ours. Unfortunately as soon as we got on the boat a major Thunder Storm came through so we actually never even left the boat slip! :-( But regardless we had a great time. We BBQ'd right there on the boat, had a leisurely dinner, and just hung-out watching the storm and enjoying one another's company! The long ride to the lake, and back home, was also completely enjoyable! It was just great to get away for the day and relax some more!

Today of course the usual work routine kicked in, but fortunately, I think my time off re-energized me and I actually had a great and very productive day of work! WHEW! I ended the day in the afternoon and took the kids swimming at our neighborhood pool! That was a blast. I love watching the kids have fun and it is so nice having a pool at our disposal every day! But what I enjoyed most was just lounging in my chair and soaking up the view and the mountain that we live on. I think today was the VERY FIRST time since we moved in just a year ago this past week, that I have fully taken in and enjoyed my surroundings! It was great, and I intend to get in as many more days like that as I can in the remaining summer days!

One last thing...the title of the post...well I think it sums up just how great of a week we've had...and it also just represents the overwhelming need I think we all have to just stop life and soak it up. I know I do it far to far between and I need to do it much more often. And funny enough...the thunderstorms we had this weekend brought some amazing rainbows with them. Perfectly fitting!

Have a great week everyone!