Utter Exhaustion

How do I follow up a post on the holocaust?  By complaining about how tiring my wonderful life is, of course!  There really is no graceful way to transition from the last post to this one so I thought I would not even try.

So, today is the culmination of three non-stop weeks of amazing visits.  First, we had the week up north for my cousin's wedding.  Then, I had a few days of my friend visiting followed by my amazing trip to D.C.  And, when I got back home, my mom, step-dad, sister, and nieces were already here for a visit and some orchard work.  So, I have followed up my amazingly relaxing break away from the kids with a week filled with nonstop activities for four kids!  We went to a zoo, a reptile "zoo", an amusement park, a pool, and a couple of playgrounds.

Thing #1 had a couple of significant milestones this week.  He went on a "kid" roller coaster and the Giant Ferris Wheel at the amusement park.  He refused to go on either the last time we went which was just about a month a go.  This time he even insisted on going on the roller coaster twice.  And, he was adamant about the ferris wheel, despite my attempts at reasoning with him that it went really high up, and that his mommy was a little afraid, and "couldn't we go on the roller coaster again?"  None of it worked.  Thing #1 was fine the whole time and after the first time around I was doing pretty good too.  But it has given my family much to laugh about.

The other thing that Thing #1 did was go to his first movie.  It was a huge success, despite the fact that he covered his ears pretty much throughout the entire thing.  When I asked him if he liked it as we were leaving he said that he wanted to do it again...now.

Tomorrow my mom, sister and nieces leave.  The house will be incredibly quiet and calm which I am looking forward to but I will miss all of the excitement and sheer joy (with a few tantrums thrown in for good measure) that come with being surrounded by four little kids.  This coming week Thing #1 starts swimming lessons and other than that,  I thought I would try to reconnect with my friend in the lovely town in which I live, since I feel like I haven't seen nor spoken to them about two years.  So, if you are all still out there, will you still be my friends?