I'm Still Alive

I woke up this morning with a pulse. Normally that's not really remarkable, but today it means I survived my two week stint as a single mom! Carter will be home tonight. Hooray! I have been dreading these two weeks alone for more than a year and I honestly wasn't sure how I was going to make it. But I did it! And we actually managed to have some fun. Our secret? Staying REALLY busy:

We did loads of crafts (one each day). This was the first day when we made a countdown 'til Daddy gets home. (Look at how long that puppy is!)

We went to the movies (Kung Fu Panda was excellent. Well, the parts I saw when I wasn't busy wrangling children and picking up goldfish crackers were excellent. I told Chloe to do a kung fu move for this picture and this is what she came up with. Yeah, don't expect it to instruct you in kung fu, just entertain you.)

We enjoyed a Diva Reunion with Amber and met the beautiful Sydney (Chloe took this picture for us! We couldn't believe how well she did as our photographer!)

We rode the carousel (on a couple of different days. Definitely the girls' favorite. The thing they love best: picking what they're going to ride! Once we even followed this activity with ice cream cones. Pure Nirvana for them. Sometimes it is so easy to make kids happy.)

We had a picnic at the park (that's poor Owen Elsmore we're dropping here. The Elsmores were SO nice to us, hanging out with us on multiple occasions. Plus, Josh even watched all the big kids on Saturday so the mommies and babies could do lunch in Park City and hit the outlets!)

We went to the aquarium, which everybody, including Sadie, loved. Except don't ask them to pet a sting ray (even if you assure them that the stingers have been removed and that the rays are used to people). They are too smart to fall for that one.

Chloe and Piper developed a game where they would raid Sadie's closet and dress Piper up as a baby. It was pretty funny!

Additionally, we went to BounceU (I am a huge fan of this place! I wish I had pictures, but I couldn't manage the camera AND kids that were literally bouncing off the walls), ward Lunch Bunch (at Rumbi Grill, yum!), and dinner out with Grandpa Durham. We survived two ear infections, two trips to the pediatrician, two shots of antibiotics, a last minute Relief Society teaching gig, two Sundays at church (this last week we stayed all THREE hours), a nasty bout of teething (Sadie's tooth count is up to five!) and hearing all the wonderful things OTHER family members were doing (Carter hitting the National Gallery, the Louvre, Stonehenge, and Wicked in Europe while Katie was going to the Coldplay concert and shopping at an Anthropologie with three floors in New York). And, of course, we survived Father's Day without a father (Carter's absence was definitely the hardest to bear)! Despite all the odds against me making it through WITHOUT some type of psychotic break or dying from pure exhaustion, we did it! The fact that there are mothers out there that do it alone all the time simply amazes me. Welcome home, Carter!