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What a fun week! The kids were off for Spring Break so we decided to actually do something this year. On Monday, Carol went with us to the Alamo, Riverwalk, and Tower of Americas. Coincidentally, all of my school aged children are learning about the Alamo in school right now. Logan has been so excited about it all and comes home frequently talking about Davy Crockett and other heroes of the Alamo. So, needless to say, the Alamo was a neat place to visit for them. Cameron took the audio tour, Errolyn got bored, and Logan was thrilled to find names and faces of people he had learned about. The Riverwalk was fun and the kids had fun playing on the stairs at the Arneson River Theatre. On the way to the Tower, we found the coolest playground I've ever seen. The kids absolutely loved playing there as it was huge and had mazes and climbing/ hiding things all over it. Errolyn loved being on top of the Tower of Americas but the boys were a little scared. There was a 4-D movie that was shown that we all enjoyed. Carol bought all of the kids souvenirs at the Alamo and they had a great time.

Tuesday through Thursday, the kids and I went to visit my parents and brothers and sister. We stopped at Janet's house for a few hours and the kids had fun playing. Then we drove to Mom and Dad's house and stayed the rest of the time with them. It was good to see my parents again and I enjoyed talking with them both. On Wednesday, Dad came with us to the Arboretum and we met Janet and her kids there. The kids had fun on the playground and later on the trails at the Arboretum. I always enjoyed going there as a kid and it was neat to go back again. I did have moment there though where I thought a large cockroach had dropped in my shirt. It ended up being a large beattle, but I still was freaked out that it was in my shirt and I had killed it in there. David came over for a little bit and we got to talk to him and then Kevin talked with me later that night. On Thursday, we went to the neighborhood park, but I didn't come prepared (with wipes for bird poop, water, etc.) so we didn't stay long. At the house, I began packing up and the kids began raking the front yard to help "Grandpa." I joined them, and although we barely made a dent after raking up 2 bags and a trash can full of leaves, the kids all felt good for trying to help. We ate lunch with Mom and Dad and then began the drive back home. I was VERY tired on the drive home and had to pull over at a rest stop and take a 20 minute nap before I was able to keep driving, but I was completely fine after that.

On Friday, I ran some errands and then took the kids to a "Green Lunch" that my friend Aubrey had organized at a park. We saw lots of old friends and the kids had fun playing and eating all of the green foods that everyone brought. Today we cleaned for a while and then Mike took the older three kids on a 10 mile bike ride. I took a walk with Emma around the block but she was sad that we didn't find the other kids. Mike called and had us meet him at a park and then Emma was so excited that we "found" the other kids. The kids have been bike riding many times with no sunburns, but I guess it's sunny enough to start using sunblock since Logan and Errolyn both got bad sunburns on the bikeride. Cameron just tans. Mike said Logan was so tough. He said he could tell Logan was really tired and the last mile was almost all uphill and Logan didn't complain or stop at all. Logan came home, took a shower, and then crashed on the couch for a good three hours... he sure was tired, but he was SO excited to go on his first 10 mile bike ride with the older kids. Mike and I went to the temple tonight and did Sealings which I love doing with him. It always reminds me about how much I really love him. Afterwards, we decided we are too boring and always eat at the same restaurants so we tried a new place, Stonewerks, which was very, very good. Afterwards, we stopped by Grandmas so we could say hi to Jim and Grandma for a little bit. And now, we are home and tired.

Carol and George are coming over for dinner tomorrow and I've asked George if he could share his vast wealth of knowledge about stocks with me. I'm about ready to getting more involved with stocks, but I'm still in the research and learning phase of it all. I've also been doing a lot of research on the best ways to store water since I just finished draining my water barrels and am ready to fill them again. I also have been researching food, specifically whole foods and recipes. I honestly think that if we all exercised and ate more whole foods and cut out the pre-made, chemical filled, preservative filled foods, that we'd all be a lot healthier, sleep better, and have less illnesses, fatigue, stress/ medical problems, etc. But, there is so much to learn so I will be making baby steps. I will first try to find some local honey, make my own bread, and am adapting one recipe a day to be completely made from scratch or whole foods. I'd love for my next 3 months of freezer meals to be completely "whole foods"... but we'll see... baby steps.