When Mom and Dad are Away, the Kids Will Play

When Ben told me about the chance to go to Hawaii, I thought it would be fun but I was really worried about who would take care of the kids.  We know plenty of good people in Utah, and we have some extended family around, but nobody we felt comfortable asking to babysit for 4 days was available.  Ben's brother lives nearby but they have their hands full with their own family.  We even considered flying a grandparent out to care for the kids.  But after a lot of deliberation we came up with the perfect solution.  Ben's young coworker, Tony, has become a family friend over the last year and a half and has a great relationship with the kids.  He's the oldest of a big family and I knew he and his wife-of-7-months (who also comes from a big family) would be the perfect babysitters.  And they were.  They stayed in our guest room so they were around the whole time, and from what they told us, the whole weekend went quite smoothly.

Jack really struggles with me leaving the house without him.  He goes through a ritual whenever I go somewhere (usually choir): giving multiple hugs, repeating multiple "I love you's," then running outside to wave at me as I drive past the house toward the main road.  But when Ben and I left for the airport Friday morning (the kids didn't have school that day), Jack and the others were so happy that Tony was there to hang out with them that they just gave us a hearty wave and a happy "Bye!" as we walked to the garage.  They didn't even watch us get in the car.

Then we got random pictures and videos while we were gone, showing the kids happy and having fun.

Dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, watching FSU men's basketball play in the ACC Championship

Cat and Katja setting up the traditional St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt Saturday night
for the younger kids to enjoy on Sunday morning.

Traditional Sunday evening video chat with Mema and Papa - I love that they did this!

The accompanying text read: "Professor Luke teaching me how to trap
lightning with ice thicker than 5 inches."

And then, "While making him lunch, Luke told Google to play Michael Jackson and
was dancing with his tie.  When food was ready, he paused the music, said a before meal prayer,
then started the music back up.  He's too much."

Cat was happy to get some time with her friends while Tony and Katja took the younger kids to a trampoline park on Saturday.  They had fun watching movies, playing basketball, getting their fill of pizza (at the office AND at PPC), and just hanging out.  Reading, homework, piano practice, and chores were all reportedly completed.  The kids got to school on time Monday and Tuesday, arrived early to their extracurricular commitments, and they went to bed without too much difficulty.  So basically it was all sunshine and rainbows while we were gone.  Except that little moment when Cat forgot that our family should sometimes be more of a dictatorship than a democracy and decided that after the younger kids were more unruly than usual during Sacrament Meeting, they would take a vote to decide whether to stay for the second hour of church or not.  I guess we know that Eliza's the most righteous of the children now because she's the only one who voted in favor of staying.  Cat had a sincere intention to make up for the lost church hour by spending extra time on a Come, Follow Me lesson at home, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans...

I'm so glad that Tony and Katja were willing and able to take care of the kids so that we could go on our trip.  The kids had a lot of fun, and we really appreciated getting some time away while knowing they would be taken care of.  (If you're curious about our trip, read about it and see pictures HERE.)