Lots has happened this past month but the most fun part was visits from family. Paul's brother Russ has 4 boys and two of them are on a traveling baseball team. They had a tournament out in Atlanta so Paul's parents took the opportunity to come visit us and watch the grand kids play ball! Everyone got in late Thursday night so Friday morning we decided to go to the Georgia Aquarium. Hayden has been 2 or 3 times now and just loves it.
She would not turn around and look at me, the tank full of fish is way cooler than mom! p.s. Hayden is loving her new summer clothes!
Hayden and Papa Steve, we warmed up to him much faster than Paul or I expected!
Hayden with Grandma Anne and Papa Steve
Grandma with all the grand kids: Hayden, Garrett, Quincy, Cooper & Jett
Hayden and Grandma at the Dolphin Tales, Grandma had way too many yummy treats!
Quincy was so great with Hayden this trip and loved to make her happy
Hayden was so much more independent this weekend. I think it must have been seeing all her cousins running around carefree. Usually she wants me to be right by her on the playground and I was amazed at the fact that she would go far from me and was ok!
Having fun with cousins
Although ridiculous, this is also a big deal. Hayden hasn't swung in a swing for about a year. She would never get in these and this weekend she decided she'd give it another try and loved it. In fact we couldn't get her out of it!
Paul comforting Hayden at the baseball game after being ripped out of the swing
Grandma and Grandpa with Garrett, the 8 year olds ended up taking 3rd place out of a big tournament of great teams!
The next day was Paul's marathon in Atlanta. Here we are waiting at the finish line to watch him cross. Steve was kind enough to take Paul early in the morning and save us a spot at the finish line. So Anne, Hayden and I just came at the end. Paul's dad has run 18 marathons in his life so it was great that he got to be apart of Paul's first one. I know it meant the world to Paul to have his parents there to support him.
Paul crossing the finish line! He was a half hour slower than he wanted, but did great considering all the knee trouble he was having (and the 4 hours of sleep he got the night before!) I have felt so much respect, love, and adoration for Paul since he completed this marathon. He had to give up hours each Saturday to train and lots of time during the week. I just don't think I could have ever done this and he did! I have so much respect for him.
Hayden checking out the medal
Instead of going home to relax and enjoying his favorite food, we headed back to the baseball fields to watch our nephews play ball. Paul was a real trooper. He took a baby wipe shower, changed his clothes and we didn't get home until about 10pm that night! That night Anne and I dropped of Paul and his dad at their car and the battery had died. So it took them a bit longer to get home.
All the grand kids and grandparents with Coopers (7 year olds) team trophy, they ended up taking 1st place!
The next day was my emotional wall. We had been running around like crazy and now we were about to paint Hayden's room. Well I went to the basement to get some painting supplies and I immediately smelled something off, then I got near the storage room and my feet were wet on the carpet. I knew it was bad and didn't want to open the door. Our water heater was old and had seen it's last day. Thank goodness we had big area rugs down in the storage room, they soaked up a bunch of the 40 gallons and it did only minimal damage to things in the storage room and our family room. It's a good thing Paul's parents were here because I was an emotional wreck. If it was just the water heater I could have handled it, but let's be honest it's been one thing after the other with this dang house and I had had it! Paul's parents were great about taking care of everything. We also had lots of help from our home teacher and they even found a guy in another ward who installed it for FREE! How generous is that!
The water soaked through our family room to about where Anne is standing. We had to pull up all the carpet, take the pads out and air them dry.
Needless to say, this set us back on painting Hayden's room! But we did finally get around to this. We asked Anne and Steve if they would help us paint Hayden's room since neither of us have painted. They not only helped, they paid for all of it and did most of it themselves. They were way too kind. But of course, the first color we bought, kind of a sage green, ended up looking like puke on the wall. So we made another trip to Home Depot and went with a safe blue color.
Anne and Steve in front of their finished product
Hayden in her "big girl bed" we have been talking it up for months now and it must have worked because she transitioned great! She just lays right down and goes to sleep each night and it has been about a week now. She even takes better naps . She is always so excited to go to her big girl bed. I tuck her in and she says, "ok mom, bye..." She even waits in bed for me to take her out in the morning. Hayden has always been such a great sleeper, for this I am very grateful, I really believe I owe it all to the baby wise method. I will definitely use it again!
Anne and Steve left the next morning and just like the rest of our weekend, their flight didn't go according to plan. It got delayed by about 7 hours and then upon arriving in SLC they lost their luggage! I should also mention that when I got home from dropping them off at the airport my garage door started to open and then slammed shut. That's right, the garage door (which I just had repaired last month) is officially completely broken (I cried pretty good at this point too). We had such a great weekend with them despite how busy it was. We are so lucky to have them in our lives and hope they can make another trip out here soon.
