Triple M & Company: Spring Break

I have thoroughly enjoyed this past week. Chloe has been home all week, and it has been heaven. No schedule, no rushing to school in the morning, no homework, no frantic bedtime routine. It almost makes me want to home school. But I want chloe to be able to read so.... (this is not a diss to homeschooling. I just know I am not the Mother to do it) I am so sad she has to go back next week. But summer is around the corner, and then baby comes...which makes me almost not dread the literal hell fire that comes to Phoenix in May. Oh, and a wedding! I really milked Spring Break for all it was worth. Last night Paloma spent the night and this morning we went to the fashion show at Nordstroms. Never done one before, and it was so much fun. Of course you had to buy something to participate, but that wasn't too hard. ; ) The girls picked out some sweet little dresses that I actually liked too. (miracle) I did their hair and makeup. Paloma wanted her hair curly, and chloe wanted her hair straight. sigh. They all looked so cute. Paloma didn't like the pink polka dot dress we had picked out earlier without her, she doesn't like pink, so she luckily found something blue and purple instead.

It was all fun and games until macie almost died on the escalator. She wouldn't hold Paloma's hand to go down, and before I could reach her, she went down on her own and fell head first. A woman ran and saved her before my large pregnant self could make it over there to catch her. It was terrifying. And embarrassing.

I tried to get Macie to put her shoes on the right way for the fashion show, but she insisted she had them on correctly.

Other things we did this spring break:
St. Patrick's Day, went to the new Riverview Park with a million other park. The girls loved the splash pad and the unique playground equipment. I feel I deserve some sort of award for braving the crowd and heat and actually taking them. I did find a nice palm tree that provided me 5 inches of shade.

Macie had a difficult time getting herself completely covered by her towel. I found her struggles with the towel quite entertaining.

We also went to a St. Patrick's Day party that evening where our friends made a massive corned beef and cabbage feast.

"Frozen" came out this past week and my girls have watched it probably 50 times already.

Also this week we went to the park with our friends, and took the kids to a trampoline place and IHOP afterwards with Grandpa.

One of our best outings was going to Boyce Arboretum with Grandpa, Liz, and Chelsey. The spring weather was beautiful and we took a long nature hike down a shaded path and saw (and smelled) all sorts of plants and trees. There was even a little creek winding through the desert cliffs. It was a perfect kind of day. Then we came back home and ordered pizza.

Last night I went to the new Gilbert Temple to see my friend Laree go through for the first time. The temple is beautiful inside. I don't think I mentioned how the past couple months our area has participated in an Open House for the new temple. The temple was dedicated about three weeks ago. Don and I volunteered at the open house as ushers. I was first put in a VERY sunny place outside and was told to stand there for 3 hours and point people in the right direction. But then a nice man looked at me and said, "Hmmm. This might not be the right job for you." Thank goodness. I would have been fried in a matter of 10 minutes, Not to mention I couldn't sit down which is not the most comfortable when you are used to a 2 hour afternoon pregnancy nap every day. So I got moved to a nice chair in the shade where I got to untangle plastic shoe booties.

The temple opening was an exciting event for our area. I really appreciated the positive coverage it received and how our whole community, including people not of our faith, were very supportive of the whole thing. It poured through the entire cultural celebration that the teenagers put on, and we watched on t.v. The teenagers all had a memorable experience, and it was an amazing sight to see 12,000 teenagers working together and enjoying their time while doing it. It almost made me want to be a teenager again. For about a half of a second. And then that feeling quickly faded. The whole thing was a wonderful and positive event and I am grateful we got to be a part of it in some small way.

(here's a video of the fashion show.)