BYU Invite, Family Style

Fun weekend. We headed north Thursday for the BYU track meet and enjoyed great weather and great company. We stayed at Leif's uncle Dave's house Thursday night, and I felt really bad that we got there late and had to leave early Friday for the meet and didn't visit much with Dave and Sandy. But my kids were introduced to Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, so that was pretty great.

My friends Colby and Andrea Stratton were in Provo for a wedding, and when they found out I was there, they had me meet them at the gate and gave me a Mtn Dew on ice. It was so nice to start the day with a smile like that (thanks again, friends). Leif, good daddy that he is, took the kids while I sunburned myself at the meet. Nancy came to help, too, and they brought Dax to me as needed and took the kids to do fun things and to eat and such. They went to BYU's science museum Friday afternoon and then to see The Lorax while I went to eat with the team. We stayed at Leif's aunt Linda's house Friday night and, once again, didn't get to visit much. I will tell you, though, that these people have fabulous king-sized beds for us to sleep in. There is no exaggeration here when I tell you that I could have stayed in that bed all day Saturday. Why don't I have a king-sized bed with fabulously soft sheets and pillows?? (Two nights in a row of being spoiled with all that extra space, and I can't stop thinking about how tiny my itty bitty queen-sized mattress is. It may as well be a twin, cause that's what it feels like now.)

Anyway . . . I joined the team at their hotel Friday night to give a little inspirational speech and couldn't resist stopping at Krispy Kreme to pick up "breakfast." Yum. Leif, Nancy, and the kids went to get new tires on the van (yuck), and then dropped Dax off to me while they went to lunch. Whenever I needed to feed Dax, I sat on the ground in a back corner by the fence, which may be why my back hurts so badly. Once, I left him with a cute track girl while I went to the bathroom and did some coachly cheering. I got back, and Dax was "nested" in some blankets with about a dozen googly eyes hovering over him. His own personal fan club. It was pretty cute.

So our girls finished up their events, I said my proud good-byes, and I went with my fam to Costco to get a kids picnic table that I've had my eye on for approximately four years (thanks, Nancy!). We stopped in Meadow to do a little swimming in the hot springs, and Gavin could have stayed there all night long. Like father, like son. I forgot my suit, but Dax and I got in anyway because we didn't want to miss out on all the fun. I'm glad we stopped.

 We finally rolled into town about 10:30 last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed that moment of walking into a clean house after a long trip. We cleaned like psychos before we left because our new landlords were coming to see the house this weekend. As much as I love a clean house, I realized I can't handle trying to maintain that status while my kids are little. I was constantly getting after them for getting toys out and moving pillows and undoing what I'd already done twice. You can't even live life (and your kids can't enjoy life!) being so constantly high-strung about messes. At least I can't. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never apologize for "living" messes when people showed up at my door. It seems to be the first thing every woman says: "I'm sorry about the mess . . . blah, blah, blah" when she's been working herself to death all day to feed kids and get them to and from school and take care of the baby or go to work, etc. Why do we need to apologize, ladies? I fight the urge every time someone knocks on my door. Seriously. I have to tell myself, "We live here! It's okay for this house to look lived in!"

Anyway (again) . . . some of my favorite quotes from the trip:

Paige, after sneezing, "Bless you, Me."

At the museum, Gavin asked where a particular animal was from, and when Nancy told him it came from China, he said, "That's where my garage sale toys come from."

Paige, after hearing her Chinese buffet fortune cookie that read, "Your luck will improve in due time," exclaimed, "In due time?! Yay!"