An Amazing Weekend

We had such a wonderful weekend together as a family. It provided great relief after a stressful week. Both the older boys kept passing pink eye back and forth. One eye would get better and then, the other would become infected. Ethan had a hernia repaired this week. The surgery went really well, but it lasted for about an hour and a half and the first day proved to be really painful. Also, my sweet Grammy broke her back and had that operated on this past Friday. She fell helping my grandpa get up, after he'd fallen, due to complications with his cancer and heart. The week before that, Pop-Pop had heart surgery. To say that we feel emotionally exhausted and spent would be an understatement.

As a result, our family decided that we needed to get out and have an amazing time together. So this is what we did!

Friday night, just a day and a half after Ethan's surgery, we loaded up the van and headed downtown for an Astros' baseball game. We met up with some long-time friends (However, they're more like family.) and had a great time. Josh has actually participated in each of our children's baby blessings. They were the first friends we made at college. We love their family.

One of the coolest things about the stadium is that when it gets too hot or rainy outside they close the dome. Then, on Friday nights, the stadium provides fireworks after the game. We had front row seats to some really awesome fire works. It was such a great night!

Then, Saturday night, we did a family movie night with a new spin. I found this website from a friend's about dating and various family activities. One of the activities was a family movie night, but having everyone earn his ticket for the movie, popcorn, soda, and candy. It was a great idea, and the house stayed cleaner than it ever has! The kids were so excited!


After we finished the movie, we put the kids down and had a home-date. This was a lot of fun! Again, Kori, a friend from Logan, inspired me to check these other websites and start doing better, more effective dates with Ryan. I was in charge of our first date. I asked Ryan out on Monday and surprised him last night with a luau of sorts. We dressed in swim suits, listened to Hawaiian and Caribbean music, played homemade Battleship (since we don't actually own that game), watched a little bit of Pirates of the Caribbean, danced, talked, and drank delicious slushies! We had a great night! I highly recommend the websites "Simply Modern Mom" and "The Dating Divas." You can access the websites with the buttons on the right. It will give your marriage a fresh spin and revamp your courtship.
These umbrellas were the ticket! It's just too bad that I forgot to use the twirly straws I bought. They were really fun too. Bummer!
This is the poem I wrote to explain what we were doing. It was a lot of fun planning and the best part was that it didn't cost hardly anything. I was able to get really inexpensive decorations from Wal-Mart, the Dollar General, and Party City.