What a day!

Usually when I say "What a day!", I mean wow, it was exhausting, kids were bad, thought it would never end, you know. But not today. Today it is "What a day!" in the best way possible. And really, I could say "What a weekend!" Not for anything amazing that happened but just for the joy of a fall weekend.

Friday afternoon was rainy and Nolan, Max and I picked up the kiddos from school. We played outside just a little bit before the rain really started coming down, then came inside just before Dave got home. Dave brought home yummy Papa Murphy's pizza, and then the kids and I decided to go to the library. Now, I don't know if that's at all appealing to anyone else on a Friday night, but for me, it was perfect. Especially since I just finished reading a book that wasn't very good, and I was really looking forward to reading a new one. I picked out a few books, the kids picked out a few books, we picked out a few movies and then we headed home. When we got here, Dave had made the couches in the living room into a pirate ship, which the kids just love. After Max went to bed, they put in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and watched that, while I took a bath and started one of my books. Ahhhhh. Lovely start to the weekend, don't you think?

Saturday we really didn't do much at all. I slept in until 8:30 and the kids played nicely together and stayed in their pjs for a lot of the day. When we all finally got dressed, we were in and out, enjoying the wonderful fall weather. The kids and I decided on church Saturday night, and then afterwards went to Wayne's, a neat ice cream place near church. They didn't really have dinner, so we decided that ice cream for dinner was a great idea! By the time we got home, Max was almost ready for bed, the kids ate a little more "real" dinner, Dave was getting ready to go to a wine tasting at a neighbor's house and the kids put their pjs on to watch a movie. Once Dave left, the kids watched their movie, and I read my book. And once they went to bed, so did I, and I finished my book in bed! I haven't finished a book in two days since high school, probably. That right there makes it a great weekend!

This morning started out a little rocky. Dave was hung over from the wine tasting, but filled me in on the events of last night. Dave and Shelly are the neighbors who had the wine tasting and are fairly new (6 months here, maybe?). Neighbor Dave must be the jealous type and must get even more so when he's been drinking, and ended up accusing a different neighbor of kissing his wife. Oh my. I'm not sure if I wished I went just to see how this whole thing happened, or if I was happier seeing it second hand! Between them and the new neighbors two doors down from us who moved in last month (and who have (gulp!) crazy teenagers), it's getting crazy!

Anyway, so after Dave took a nap or two to fight the hangover, and I read the Sunday paper, and after Max went down for his nap at 11, I took Abby and Nolan to a local bike trail and we went for a bike ride. It was the best bike ride ever! The sun was shining, the sky was blue with little wispy white clouds, the leaves were beautiful and the kids were in such a great mood. Abby started singing a song we sing in church--Halle, halle, halle - lu-u-jah (Here's a YouTube link of some church singing this song if you want to hear how it sounds!)--And then she started singing the same tunes with "Autumn, Autumn, Autumn, Autumn!" and I just laughed. Then Nolan started yelling "Autumn is Awesome!" and driving his bike through the leaves on the ground. They are crazy! After we rode up about 20 minutes, we headed off the trail to a custard place and had lunch there. The kids shared a chicken tender basket so nicely (which wouldn't happen every day!) and had shakes, and then we played outside for awhile. Well, the kids played, by themselves, and I enjoyed watching them. Then we headed back on our bikes to a park we passed on the way there. Nolan got a little tired, but we finally made it, and the park was awesome! At first I was really quite upset that I hadn't brought my camera. The sun, the beautiful leaves, the kids playing... but then I realized I would have tried to take too many pictures and may have missed the actual moments. I even thought we should go home and see if Max is up and bring him back with Dave, but by then, the moment would have for sure been over. So instead I just watched the kids. Abby in her jeans and a sweatshirt, which for some reason always make her look so much older, and Nolan in a long sleeved striped shirt, with a sleeveless shirt over, and blue windpants, which always make him look so much... crazier! They pushed each other on the merry go round, and ran to the slides, and collected leaves. The leaves on the ground were so vibrant, they must have just fallen off today since they weren't brown and crunchy yet, but so bright against the still green grass. And then, just as other people were starting to come to the park, they came over to me and said they were ready to go home. Perfect timing! So, home we came, where I sat on the couch and took a nap, Dave played with the kids, and I woke up just in time to see the last half of a winning Packer game! It really just doesn't get any better than that. I do hope that all of this is a precursor to an amazing week to come. And if it isn't, well, there's always next Sunday!