New house! Vegas! Busy busy!

Whew! It's been a crazy few weeks! I am pretty far behind now, must get caught up! The moving process was a bit of a blur, I can't even believe we survived it. Moving is very unenjoyable, to put it mildly. We had movers so that was helpful, but even with 4 guys working for like 8 hours, it was still sooo much work for us! We had to move quite a bit of stuff over in our van still (apparently we are fast approaching becoming a two-moving-truck family, which is just insane!). We have also been working to clear out the old house, and even though we hired cleaners, there was still a lot to do there! We moved last Monday, and Brian's parents were coming on Friday, so last week we frantically unpacked and organized to get things ready for them. I haven't posted any pictures of the finished house yet, maybe on the next post (no pictures on the wall yet, that was not a priority last week!). Brian's parents arrived Friday afternoon and we were able to breathe again and relax.

Saturday morning? Off to the airport! Our two night trip to Vegas was here, yay! We had a great time! We spent some time with our friends, Andy, Kristy, Elisse and Kelly, as well as a lot of time by ourselves just relaxing, walking around, maybe doing a little gambling:-/. We did not walk away with any winnings, but there were times when we were up for a brief time! That was fun:). On Saturday night we saw Cirque du Soliel Ka at the MGM Grand with our friends, which was really fun. I think I enjoyed our other Cirque show that we watched here more, but the stage was fantastic and it was really entertaining. Oh and get this - I rode the New York New York roller coaster! I have not been on a roller coaster in many, many years, and now I know why. I told myself many times on the ride that I would not die, but I didn't believe it! Yikes, I am too old for that stuff! Brian still likes it, so he will be the one to take those rides with our kids as they get older! Sunday we had a delicious breakfast, relaxed by the pool, had an early dinner at this cool restaurant that really made you feel like you were in Venice (and the food was fantastic!!), and then we were off to see the Blue Man Group! What a fun show! Very entertaining! We hung out with our friends again after, found a $5 Blackjack table and had some fun there. Saw the Bellagio fountains, did a lot of walking. Monday we did some more relaxing and walking around before it was time to head to the airport. A great getaway! The kids had done pretty well for Brian's parents, although Nathan was a bit of a stinker. He is becoming a bit harder to manage these days! He was such an easy two year old, but definitely as he gets older and more independent he is becoming a bit more of a handful. He was a bit low on sleep too, because he had a three hour nap on Tuesday (which he still fought like crazy, but clearly needed!).

Now I guess we try to settle into normal life again! Tonight we do the walk-thru on our other house, hopefully the landlords are okay with the condition of the house. It's very clean and Brian did try and do as much paint touchups as possible, but the walls desperately need a new coat of paint. When I scrubbed too hard trying to wash them, the paint came off on my rag! Terrible paint. But, I know the landlords are going to try and get away without spending a penny before any new tenants come in, so I just hope that the touch ups are good enough for them. It will be such a relief to give the keys back and just be in this house, not having to think about moving or any other housing issues. Seriously what will I do with my time?? How long have I been consumed with one housing issue after another?? Let's just say I am seriously looking forward to NOT stressing about houses for a while!!

Camping adventures in the rain!

Well we did something pretty brave the weekend before last - we went tent camping on the rainy coast, while there was a fire ban going on! We didn't know there was going to be a fire ban when we booked obviously, and we didn't know it was going to rain although we knew the chances were a bit higher than they would have been inland, but we still had fun:). We went with our friends the Davys and the Vanees and it all went pretty well all things considered! We were only a mile from Ocean Shores, but we only went into town once on Friday evening to get dinner (just the girls, everyone else stayed at the campsite). The kids had a lot of fun playing on the beach even though it was very windy. The kids slept GREAT in the tent, couldn't have asked for better really. All in all a fun weekend!

We are in full swing move-mode. I have been packing and organizing and purging whatever I can. It's hard to pack too far ahead of time, but I've been able to go through some things that haven't been organized in a very long time (we didn't really organize for our last move because we had packers that just packed everything). It's quite a good feeling purging things that aren't useful to us anymore and I've been able to give stuff to my community through Facebook groups. I am so looking forward to moving to the next house, I am counting down! Things that we have lived with for the last two years are suddenly driving me nuts now that I know we're so close to being out of here - like sorting the laundry on my bed because our room is so small. I have done that a hundred times, and now I only have to do it ONE MORE TIME!!

I feel like I've been so busy talking about what we are doing that I have not talked about the kids much. Nathan is growing up really fast. His sentences are complete and his personality is really coming through! We were watching "The Incredibles" on TV the other day, and there was a scene where one of the characters was beating up a bad guy. Nathan gets all excited, "Yes! Punch him! Punch him in the face!" Did I mention that we have a BOY on our hands?? Such a boy! We were talking with him about the fact that him and Adam are going to share a room in the new house, and that he was going to sleep on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. He told me he wanted to sleep on the top but I told him he was too little, it was safer for Adam to sleep on the top. He thinks for a second and then he says, "But there's a railing there so I won't fall off!" Yes, there is indeed a railing, and he makes a good point! Still not sure I want that monkey on the top bunk, but I thought it was impressive that he thought it through and gave me a reasoned argument:).

Adam seems to have picked up some kind of OCD about the cabinet door under the sink. Every time I open it to put garbage in the garbage bin, he starts ranting about it and has to come open and close it himself before he can be calm again. I don't know what that's all about!

Lynsey is kind of driving me crazy with her constant play date requests. I can't imagine that I could have asked my mom every day of the summer to go to a friends house at this age, but apparently that is where we are at! Oh how I wish she was more independent in her play! She can be when she decides, and her and Nathan have had some very nice play times together, but she is always looking to play with other friends. She plays with the neighbor girls a lot which has been a total godsend, but lately they have been "hurting her feelings" a bit so I'm not sure it's such a great idea for her to go there so often:-/. I'm hoping she will make new friends at the house as well and find things to do all day. Her and Nathan have discovered a new love of Lego which has been nice, we are going to make them a nice Lego play space in the new house.

What else is new . . . Lynsey and Nathan are doing swimming lessons this week and next, today Nathan refused to get in the pool for the first 15 minutes which was very frustrating. He did get in eventually so hopefully tomorrow will be better! I took Lynsey and Nathan to the zoo by myself last Friday and it went really well! Apparently I can manage two kids just fine - it's the third that's deal breaker for me on outings!

I almost forgot to mention that Brian and I get a little getaway to Vegas the second weekend in August! Brian's parents are coming down and they are watching the kids for two nights so we can get away. I am so excited! It's nice to have something to look forward to to get me through the stress of moving. It will also be a nice motivation to get everything unpacked and organized for when they come:-S.