I’ll take a beach house, please

I think it’s time for a vacation house on the beach.

We just got back from another short trip to California. This was my sixth trip there this year. And I know I have at least two more CA trips planned in the upcoming months. 

The sand, the waves, and the sun have become something special to me. 

And my kids are usually the happiest at th me beach. Except when they are not.

(Little B needed some more sleep on this trip.)

sundays

a typical sunday in the Allred home in the year 2019 goes something like this:

7-8:30 wake up and get ready for the day
8:30 leave for church to set up chairs and Kacin helps to prepare the sacrament
9:00-11:00 church meetings
11:00-12:00 home and lunch (usually nachos or leftovers)
12:00-2:30 Brinna naps, Perry watches a "church" show (which just means something like veggie tales), the rest of us nap/read/watch a family movie/play/parent-child one on one meetings

2:30-3:00 family calendaring to go over the upcoming week, family business, then "come follow me" discussion
3:00-4:30 clean up the disaster that is our house and prepare dinner
4:30-7:30 dinner and games, often with another family or two (it was one of my goals to invite people over for sunday dinners this year and we have now had 18 families over so far--I'm not much of a cook but it has been nice to get to know more people)
7:30-8:30 kids ready for bed

there's most often a dance party thrown in there somewhere. because what is a sunday without dancing?

and it is usually the day that my kids have to do multiple pushups and jumping jacks for making rude comments to each other.

Surfing with Nixon

We had this cool opportunity to attend the Surfing with Nixon event for the first time this year.

The main purpose of the event is for children with autism to have the opportunity to surf. Perry loved his 20 min session on the waves!











They held the event at Big Surf. So nostalgic for me! Considering Big Surf was my first summer job when I was 15. And I don't think it's changed one bit from those summers 20 years ago.



We took everyone out of school for the afternoon and most of the children came with us. Kyler opted to stay home so he could rest up for a big cross country meet that night. So he watched Brinns while the rest of us hit the water park.

Those two had a big wrestling match going on in the pool.













I couldn't even get them to stop when someone offered to take our family picture. Oh well, that is real life with boys.





Perry was excited to meet up with a friend from school there.



And he was happy about all the swag we brought home--t-shirts, tumblers, posters, Hurley and Quicksilver hats, diamondback tickets, etc. and this little stuffed horse.





We had a blast on all of the slides.





This slide here was my second to last slide of the day. And the slide that ripped my swimsuit bottoms. For reals. Yikes!









We are already looking forward to this event for next year!

brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see a little girl

who is obsessed with this book. 

And her fabulous big brother.

And that's a pb&j just sitting on the couch.

All around, we have cut back on extracurricular activities this year. That means that we get multiple evenings a week with everyone home. Which means more time to read books, have a dinner conversation, work on art projects, swim, and get chores done. All while going to bed on time, most nights. It was hard not signing my kids up for things they have previously done and enjoyed. But I'm enjoying the quiet evenings even more.

wack shirt wednesday

Today was the first official Wack-shirt Wednesday.

Say what??

Kyler. He decided his sophomore year would be the perfect year to institute one day each week to wear a "wack shirt". Preferably collared. Often from your dad's closet. So cheesy, I absolutely love it. I hope this tradition lasts through the year because it was fun to help him decide which shirt to wear.



I don't think Layla and Kyler even discussed it, but Layla's outfit for Wednesday was very creative, too. She dressed herself like a unicorn. With a twisty hair horn.





So I just had to join in on the fun. I wore a paper vest. But my kids are cooler than me because I only wore my "wack shirt" inside the doctor's office instead of all day long.

5am

The alarm clock goes off at 4:30am

every morning.
Kyler gets up and gets ready
to run.
E and I take turns driving him
to meet his cross country team at the school.
I can't stop being
amazed
at how I can wake up at 4:30 or 5:30 most mornings
because there is no way in this world that I could've done that last year.
Being a little tired each day from lack of sleep
is nothing
like being utterly exhausted from cancer treatments.
And so I feel pretty gosh darn spectacular
that I can wake up this early right now.
And then I feel even more impressed by Kyler
who not only gets up so early each morning but
RUNS SIX MILES
or more
every day
except for sunday.
Today I returned to the school an hour later
with fruit and juice and
chocolate milk.
Always bring chocolate milk to runners.
The sky is really pretty at 6am.
Kacin and I set up the table
and another parent brought muffins and bagels.
Our purpose was to feed those
incredible, dedicated runners.
I'm proud my son is one of them.
So proud
that I didn't even take a picture of him
all sweaty and with his teammates
because
I did not
want to embarrass him.
Kacin never gets embarrassed by me
or the phone on my camera
so he was glad we took this picture
while we waited for the runners.
Or something like that. :)

last week

It doesn't matter how long I spend organizing it, the game closet goes 0-60 straight into an explosion after just a few minutes with one certain child. And if that child has friends over...there is no hope for this closet. haha. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but one day I will open the closet and it won't be quite so disastrous...

I spent a few hours at the ER after a follow up appointment with one of my drs at ironwood. Everything checked out fine! And I tried to make the best of it, by finishing a book I just started. But it wasn't the way I expected to be spending my afternoon.



"No boys allowed except dad" hung on the door when Layla and Perry each had a friend over and Layla was trying to escape from the boys.



Layla and Perry were playing in his room one morning. I went to check on them and discovered this:



"Please help us. We are in Perry's room. We are locked."
They turned the lock and shut the door and got themselves trapped. Oops!



Brinns turned two and she decided to start getting into everything--exercising her curiosity (as my Grandpa Allen used to say). This beautiful forehead is from my eyeliner.



My sister is in town from Japan. It's so fun to have more cousins around! We spent an evening playing, dancing, and swimming together.

Then my love grew exponentially for these teenage boys who joined us. I fed them pizza, they dared me to eat a jalapeno, and then the next thing I know they are letting me teach them "the git up" song dance (the one I taught myself friday night), and then "interpretive dancing" as a group in this line to the song "rainbows" by kacey musgraves.















Too much fun.