Celebrating 44 on 4/4

On April 4, we celebrated my parents 44th anniversary at a restaurant that had been open 4 days! That is a lot of 4's!
But seriously, FOURTY FOUR years of marriage.

Rachel and I both got sitters for our kids and we all went out to dinner to celebrate.  Ethan came into town to celebrate with us as well so our family would be complete--just adults-the 7 of us. I don't think we have done that since Eli was born.

I have always thought my parents had the most perfect marriage ever.  And I still think that they do.  But the reality of marriage changed as I got older, got engaged, and got married.  It was not until I was really upset after one of mine and Blaine's first arguments after we got married that my mom told me that just because we never saw them argue (I mean, we NEVER saw them argue) that things were not always easy, and pretty and neat.
In my naive little head, I honestly thought that was how marriage was supposed to be.  That is what I knew, or thought I knew marriage to be.  And I wanted to have a marriage just as perfect as my parents.  I know that no single marriage is always neat, pretty, easy, that there may be days where you don't like that person, are annoyed with them (sometimes for no reason, or maybe they are crunching their chips too loud), that you have disagreements and they are not always handled in the best way.  I think this just makes you human. You get angry or frustrated, and then you circle back and you are accountable. But they made sure that we never saw any of that.

I still strive to have a marriage like theirs.  They have it figured out.  They still dote on each other, my dad buys my mom flowers every week, brings her breakfast in bed sometimes, cooks for her, brings home extravagant pieces of jewelry for her-sometimes for no reason. He misses her as he drives out of the driveway for work and pines for her when she is gone.  He worries himself sick when she is hurting or sick.  My mom leaves my dad sticky notes on his mirror and puts up with his fishing clothes (it may not sound like anything but you should see his fishing clothes).  They kiss hello every time my dad gets home, and he loves on her and is affectioned at every possible moment.

I am not sure what I did right to be blessed with such amazing parents.  Seriously, I did something so right to be able to have them in my life.  I still learn so much from my parents.  I call them with problems all the time, I know they are there for me and support me in anything and everything, I can vent to them,  and I learn so much about how to be a parent and what it looks like to be amazing grandparents---If I thought I was lucky, my kids are even more lucky.

So for their anniversary Hobo picked out the restaurant for us.  We went to a new place downtown called Italic.  We all laughed, a lot, had some amazing wine and cocktails, got a tour of the wine cellar and genuinely enjoyed every single second of the night with each other.
Of course my dad gave the waiter a little bit of a hard time in true David Kruger fashion, and the little napkin bunny made a debut.

The food was amazing, but the company was better.  I left that night feeling like the luckiest girl in the world to be surrounded by such loving family--the best parents ever, the most amazing, funny, witty brother and sister, an awesome brother-in-law and the most loving and caring husband and the best father I could have dreamt up.
Cheers to my Mom and Dad! I love you more than words could ever describe.

Shout Out To This Guy

Just wanted to give Cash a little shout out for finally deciding it was time to start talking!

He was slow to start and then even slower to even try to say new words even though we were pretty sure he could.  But just in the last week, he decided he was ready to repeat everything and say all the words he could possibly think of!  It is so fun to hear all the words that we have been waiting for for so long to come out of that little mouth with the sweetest little voice.

I took a few pictures of him in this orange chair the other night mostly because I was thinking a lot about Maw, and its my favorite thing that I have from her house. I think about her every single night when Cash and I are reading stories in it.  I'm sad that he may not have any memories of her since he was so young when she passed away, but I try real hard to talk about her a lot and to use all the little trinkets we got from her house to keep her spirit alive at our house.

And while we are talking about Cash, he now crawls out of his crib in the mornings, turns off his sound machine, gets himself dressed (he prefers swim trunks at every opportunity) and comes downstairs.  I am usually running around trying to everything ready to take Eli to school at this time, and he always peaks around the corner and says "HEH-WO" until I hear him and turn around to find him with the sweetest little smile and bed head.

He is now 2 1/2--doing his best to drop his nap, is still a self-proclaimed vegetarian, goofy as can be, adventurous, extremely physical and coordinated, loves his brothers, is obsessed with being as close to me as possible and every possible moment of the day,  loves washing his feet in the sink?!?!?, and reading stories, he loves "riding" his new skateboard and making up new tricks with it, it travels with us in the car most days, he is potty-trained except at night and would love it if I let him stand on the toilet and let him "aim" into the water, he likes getting his ears cleaned, and his haircut, he likes milk,  loves petting dogs and babies, he never sits still, rides a scooter like a pro-tricks and all, and is the most cuddly, kind, sharing little thing.

Spring Break 2015

Spring Break 2015 started off bright and early Saturday morning with Eli's soccer game.  It was a pretty rough start to the morning with a major meltdown because we told Eli he had to wear a long sleeve shirt under his jersey---that is totally a reason for a full-on meltdown, right?!?

But once we got there and he started playing his spirits lifted.  He even scored a goal! We are on the same team as last year with the same coaches and it was pretty great to see the boys just jump right back in right where they left off in the Fall...with a little more coordination and knowledge of the game.

 Just another crazy outfit picked out by Cash, topped off with a winter hat.

That afternoon my cousin Noah and his family came into town and came over so our boys could hang out.

Sunday afternoon after a picnic lunch at the park we headed to my parents house to hang out while Blaine was at work.  My attempt to ride bikes turned into an impromptu soccer game turned hose fight.

Owen insisted on me taking a pictures of him and his "mean" face.  Too bad this kid doesn't have a mean bone in his body! I had to scrounge around and find dry clothes for everyone to wear between my car and what we had at my parents house.

On Tuesday we headed out to T Bar M.  Rachel and I went there last year and the boys and I had so much fun that we wanted to go back for a couple days to break up the week of spring break.

After mentioning my plans to a few friends, a little group of us all coordinated and planned a trip down there together.  The four of us were all Zeta's together.  I was not really all that close with all of them in college, but we have become closer friends in the last few years.
So, Shelly, Melanie, Hilary and I all packed up and headed out Tuesday around 11am with all 10 (NINE boys and one little girl!) of our kids and made it to T Bar M.  The forecast called for rain the entire time we were supposed to be there.  Thankfully, the forecast was wrong and we didn't have any rain the whole time we were there, we got so lucky!

We quickly unpacked and picked our rooms in our 4 bedroom condo where we were all staying and headed out to play on the tennis courts.  I found a huge box of rocket balloons (the fun ones from Lola's birthday party), and they were a hit!!!

Buddies Rex, Eli, Will and Coan

Later that day we went and explored the property a little and ended up on the playground until we headed back for Fox's pizza that we ordered.

In the evenings they had ice cream so we all bathed, got in our pj's and headed out for some ice cream.  We made quite the scene every time we would all go out together.

Wednesday morning we woke up early.  Surprisingly everyone slept pretty good! It was Cash's first time to not be in a pack and play/crib, but be rocked the trundle bed next to me like a champ.

We braced ourselves to take all 10 kids into the dinning room for breakfast. I can not say that the staff was thrilled to see us, but the kids were honestly very well behaved!

We spent all of Wednesday outside....riding bikes and scooters, swimming, running around, and playing on the play scape. They finally broke us down enough with all their begging to take them swimming.  Thankfully we didnt have to get in with them but through the shivers they had a blast in the pool.

 The little boys having a little snack on the stairs.

 It took 2 moms to figure out how to get the bathing suit on Elizabeth--a true sign that we were all boy moms!

 After a busy day outside we all headed in to try and have a little downtime, which is almost impossible with so many little boys.  But Sherry had a pretty good game of Zingo going for a while.

 Before dinner we headed back out one last time to run out a little more energy. We cooked in the condo that night for dinner, and we had prepared everything before we left.

Cash is now fully potty-trained except for night time but has not quite figured out that there are appropriate and inappropriate places to relieve himself. I have caught him mid-pants down in more places than I care to admit. But I will admit that more than once I have seen him mid-stream and just looked at him like I was wondering where in the world his mother was?!?!?!?

 We had such a great time!!! Cant wait to go back next year!

We had had plans to head straight to our friends lake house from T Bar M, but somehow plans got all messed up at the last minute so we ended up just going by there for lunch and to play for a few hours before we headed home.  It was just as well because they boys were so tired from non-stop playing for the last 48 hours and they were ready to get home to their own beds.  All 6 boys played outside together and had lunch before we headed out.