Spring Break Revised

This year has been quite the year for wet weather.  We had looked forward to a camping trip for weeks, but once Spring Break was finally upon us, we were rained out.  We made new reservations for the end of the week, but that ended up also being rained out.   So, we adjusted our plans and still had a pretty good week.

The big house project we wanted to complete was to sand and stain the kitchen walls.  It felt good to be "all in" for a house project - wearing grubby clothes, dedicating consecutive hours, and seeing some real progress.  We taped up sheets of plastic, Luke spent hours sanding, I filled holes and wiped off dust, Luke stained, I cleaned up... And we ended up happy with our cool coffee-shop-esque wood plank walls.  The kids were super patient as they were denied a camping adventure and had to wait until the end of the week for some family adventure days.

We headed to the zoo on a dry morning and then did home-camping in the den.  The kids were SO excited to "camp".   The best part for them was oven-roasted s'mores and spreading out sleeping bags in the den to watch movies and sleep.  I think my favorite moment was sitting on the school room floor together, playing Attack Uno, laughing and just being happy together.  Once we were in our sleeping bags, Lucy could not stop spinning.  She was so excited!!  After the movies were over, Luke had to go get some work done and I tried to get everyone settled to sleep.  Eventually, Isaiah decided he would go sleep in his bed.  Lucy decided she'd sleep in her bed.  I decided I would also rather sleep in my bed.  But, Noelle?  She was totally happy to stay in the den by herself.  I was so proud of her attitude after having been abandoned by her family.  She didn't mind at all and loved sleeping there all night long.  When Lucy woke up the next morning and I got her out of her bed she asked me if we were still camping and told me how much she loves camping!