Implementing Some Down Time

Kreg & I are implementing what, I think, is going to be a great idea for the Kell Family!  At the beginning of each month when we sit down to look at our calendar, we are going to pick one night for a date night (get a babysitter & everything!), and one (hopefully weekend day) for a "Family Fun Day" when we take some time to go do something fun, just the four of us, with no "work" involved!  By no work I mean: no insurance, no photography, and no Air Force Academy. We are entering the part of the year when our "down time" is very rare & precious to us & Kreg is gone quite a bit.  So, having this plan makes me very excited!

We had our first Family Fun Day this past Sunday :) After worship, we had some lunch & drove up to Water World, just the four of us & spent the afternoon playing in the water & riding the water rides!  It was so much fun! It was overcast & we were afraid we might get rained out, but we didn't-- in fact, I think it kept the crowds down, which was nice.  The lines moved quickly & we were able to pack a lot of fun into just a few hours. 

 After Water World closed, we cleaned up & changed & drove into downtown Denver to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  This is such a great little place to eat!  It's in the old Denver City Cable Railway Co. building & if you've never been to an Old Spaghetti Factory before... they all have trolleys right in the middle of the restaurant that you can eat inside.  For my little boys who love trains, this was the ultimate.  Trains and spaghetti.  Little Kell Boy Heaven. There was a balloon guy walking around the tables who made Westin a dinosaur. All the way home he kept saying, "Dinosaurs are my favorite! This is my very own first ever dinosaur." I'm sure that made perfect sense in his mind haha! It did start to rain as we drove through downtown, which was perfect.  We need the moisture, I just didn't want it to rain on my Water World parade!  I love being downtown during the rainfalls, though.  It makes me want to pop inside a bookstore with a cup of coffee and just spend the evening cuddled up with the smell of old paper and coffee:)

 

And so ended our first Family Fun Day :) I'm already looking forward to the next one! AND to my date night, which will hopefully happen next week...

--TIDBITS from this week-- 

Westinisms:  

Me: "Westin-- how's your macaroni & cheese shells?" Westin: "They're good... but they're hot.  I need you to cool them off with your blow thing." :) 

His new exclamtion for everything: "Ohhh, so THAT'S why we're talkin!" I have no idea what this means, but it makes sense to him.

He has aquired a Southern accent-- I have no idea how or why! He keeps surprising me with things like this: "I can do it BAH MAH sale-f" and "Mommy! Donald fell into the whale!" (the "whale" was a well... I had to start watching the show to figure out what he was talking about!)

The many faces of my little comedian

Tucker Stories:
(My apologies if you follow me on Instagram & have already heard this story!) I made some cookies the other night & had the second batch sitting out on the counter while the first batch cooked.  Tucker kept watching the ones in the oven signing "please" because he wanted to eat one!  I kept telling him we had to wait a little while. I turned around to do something else and noticed when I turned back around a minute later that he was on the floor next to one of the chairs (that Westin had pulled up to the counter to help me with the cookies) with a handful of dough. Apparently he climbed up onto the chair & helped himself to the dough.  He had a very guilty look on his face and there was a whole uncooked cookie missing from the second batch!

Just-For-Fun:
I decided to start making my own flour tortillas.  This came to be because I was out of tortillas and didn't want to make a special trip to the grocery store to pick some up.  I learned that they're really very easy!  And oh-so-very-yummy!  I have since been using them quite frequently in our meals :) The boys & I used the leftovers the other day to make our own personal pizzas for lunch!  We had so much fun & took them outside to have a backyard picnic!

Kreg, my Dad & my brother have been working on a swing set for the boys over the past few weeks and this week they FINISHED it! (Almost... it still needs a coat of finish, but it is in "playing" condition!) Westin could hardly contain his excitement about having a "park in our garden."  It's already provided many hours of enjoyment and I am so thankful to the boys for getting this project done!   

PS-- All of the pictures from this post were taken with my PHONE! I am constantly amazed at my iphone 4s.  And so thankful to be able to carry it around in my back pocket so I can catch all the little "moments" that are gone by the time I grab my "big" camera!