vacay day 1

as i'm pretty sure all of you know from my post on facebook, tim and i were supposed to be on a lovely, kid-free getaway this week in colorado at my generous aunt's cabin in lovely green mountain falls. sadly, that area is being devastated by a wild fire right now and green mountain falls and nearby manitou springs is under mandatory evacuation. although we are disappointed, after reading a few news stories about people being directly effected by the fires, it seems ridiculous to feel sorry for ourselves.

our babysitters have very generously agreed to keep the boys as scheduled which i was so thankful for because the boys were so, so, SO excited about their "vacation" at my sister's house and at tim's parents' later in the week. they have been talking about their vacation for the last week and counting down the days. we were nervous to tell them that we were going away without them, but they have been over the moon about their very own vacation, complete with sleepovers! whenever ben talked about their vacation, he would say, "and you're going to be so happy because you get a break from us and we get a break from you!" (he also told us on the way to mass yesterday, "i love you guys so much! do you know why? because you have iphones with fun games. and because you're my parents." not nearly as endearing as his whole, "i'm his precious jewel" bit.)

as i stepped off the porch this morning and walked toward the car, the happy little flower above greeted us. ben spotted it to and mentioned that he thought about picking it for me, but since we were headed to mass, he decided to leave it there for me to enjoy later.

we met my sister at the little country church were she, my parents, and one of my sister-in-laws regularly go to daily mass. it is such a beautiful, peaceful place and mass definitely helped lift my mood. after mass my boys ran happily around the church grounds with their cousins while we chatted in the shade of a beautiful, old oak tree. watching my boys play with their cousins brings me indescribable joy. so very wonderful.

after settling the boys in at their vacation destination i came home and was still feeling a little grumpy. tim and i still hadn't figured out what we wanted to do with our week and i don't like not having a plan. the possibilities are so vast of what we could do, but narrowing down what we really want to do, with very little planning has been difficult. it doesn't help that i'm not exactly a free-spirited adventurer and tim is pretty chill. since saturday night when we learned about the fire, most of our conversations have gone like the following:



we at least had a rough plan for the day: bike ride, naps, dinner out, and trip planning. fair enough.

while tim fixed the tire on my bike, i decided to tidy up the house and then continued on to attack the laundry room that had become annoyingly cluttered. it was so weird and wonderful to see a project through from start to finish without interuption and to not have the boys digging through all the stuff that i was taking out to organize/donate/throw away. i started to think, "oh my, i could tackle the whole house this week!!!" (last night i suggested we spend the week fixing the siding on our house and eating out at nice places as our reward for our hard work each night. tim replied that that would crush his spirit. see, aren't i a super fun wifey???)

once tim finished the tire and adjusted my seat, we went for a quick two mile ride. since we hadn't rode for such a long time, and we've really only gone out a few times together, it was fun, but oh so hot.

lunch followed and then nappy time.

after the sleepy dragon awoke (me) we checked several restaurant menus online to see where we wanted to go. our plan had been to go somewhere nice, but nothing sounded great to both of us and for the prices we were looking at, we both wanted to be really impressed by our meal. timmy boy loves seafood and i'm just okay with it. the few times we've gone to nicer places for seafood, i just end up getting an over-priced simple pasta dish or salad while tim consumes shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp. or scallops. or crab. seafood is the one thing tim has a more varied palate for.

where did we finally end up? i'm sure after this rambly, wine induced, i get to sleep-in in the morning so i don't feel rushed to get off the computer post, you're just dying to know! see if you can guess from this photo of tim savoring not one, not two, but FOUR gourmet desserts!!!

i can't say that i'm proud to declare *china star buffet* as the first dinner out of our romantic getaway vacation, but we did have fun it was undeniably delicious. we are classy people.

we also made a rough plan for our week but i fear it might be as exciting to you as the above post. unless i set tim to work on some serious photoshopping, a facebook album of our "vacation" probably won't be envy inducing.

tomorrow's big plans include mattress, flooring, and gun shopping. romantic, i know : )

purvis the nervous turtle

a couple of years ago we had a turtle show up in our yard. ben was probably three at the time and was quite fascinated with it. while inspecting it, he and tim (mostly tim) named the turtle purvis. purvis the nervous turtle.

and now, whenever we see a turtle on the road or one shows up at our house, it's referred to as purvis by our whole family. it's always been our little family joke that entertains tim and i. it was a little awkward when ben was telling someone at the parish picnic about the purvis we had seen on the way there.

yesterday on our way home from church there was a turtle in the road. not wanting to see it smashed, i was trying to coach it across the road as we drove by. frustrated by the fact that he just stayed tucked in his shell, i said, "come on purv, get out of there!" the boys chirped from the back seat, "yah, come on purv!" tim and i looked at each other and giggled.

this morning i found another large turtle in the yard.  all the kids were pretty enamored with it, petting it's shell, offering it leaves, and generally harassing it, thus making it stay tightly and patiently tucked in his shell. when we moved to another part of the yard he quickly made his getaway.

when ben wandered back over to where the turtle had been, he sadly reported that it was gone. the missing turtle led to an all out turtle hunt by the five littles (cousins were over this morning) complete with yelling his name loudly and shading their eyes while they peered into the distance. "PURVIS! PURVIS, WHERE ARE YOU???" my favorite was, " HERE PURVY, PURVY, PURVY! WHERE ARE YOU LIL BUDDY???" when i asked ben why he was calling to the turtle, if he thought the turtle would answer him or come running with his tail wagging, he giggled.

dear purvis: where ever you are, be safe little buddy.

yep, a turtle tale is what i came out of hibernation for. i wasn't quite sleepy enough for a nap while the boys had their "show time" but tired enough that i couldn't do any projects or muster much brain power.