Hot Date & Hike

Last night we took Claire out for her "hot date". We take one kid out each month to a restaurant of their choice. It is usually just that child and Tim and me, but sometimes Henry comes along. Claire LOVES buffets. She likes being able to choose a variety of foods and drinks (and desserts) and also loves not having to wait for the waitress to bring out her meal to her. So she almost always picks Chuck-A-Rama (isn't that a horrible name!?). Here are a couple of photos:



We had a nice day today. The weather was simply gorgeous. I have about 100 pictures of our hike this morning. (Seriously.) I will have to share those later. I am way too tired to post them tonight. After our hike, we went out to lunch to El Pollo Loco--a family favorite. We decided that we were just crazy enough to go shopping on a Saturday during Memorial Day weekend to Costco, and so we did. Probably not one of our better ideas. When we were finished shopping and were loading up the van, Tim said, "Why do we keep doing this? How is it that we keep forgetting that shopping with the kids at Costco on a Saturday is not actually fun? We have to stop doing this." It made me laugh.

When we came home, we quickly put groceries away and picked up the house. I made strawberry shortcake for a treat and it was so yummy. We all enjoyed it. Then everyone started snacking. That seems to happen after we stock up on food. When we were all full, we went outside (except Sahara and Beth, who stayed inside doing homework and reading). Tim played four square with the kids and a neighbor kid while I watered trees and tried to keep Henry safe. It was a little warm, but not too hot and we all seemed to love being outdoors. Around 6:30 pm, we started sending the kids inside to take showers. We have the five younger kids shower at nighttime to make our morning routine easier. We had Chana Masala, buttered tortillas and watermelon for dinner. Most of the kids also had bagels, too. We watched a little America's Funny Home Videos before the 2-11 year old kiddos went to bed. Right now Tim and the four older kids are watching The Hobbit. I am going to finish this up and head to bed. I am exhausted.

Church tomorrow! I love Sundays. They are such laid-back, relaxing days for the most part. We usually read, play games, do artwork, cook or nap in addition to going to church. It's a nice way to wrap up the weekend.

On Monday we're going to do some yard work, do something fun (not sure what we'll do just yet--maybe go to the zoo) and have a BBQ. It should be a lovely Memorial Day.

Here is one photo from our hike today (Beth and Sahara usually opt out of photos, so that is why they are not in this one):



Ryland's "smile" cracks me up. He looks like this in almost every photo I take of him. I think he actually believes he is smiling. ;-)