Adventures Condensed

Confession: I forget, every single year, that Easter is not only a working holiday (for a pastor's family), but one of the busiest weeks of the entire year.

Confession: Because I forget, I tend to bookend Easter with a lot of adventures (with the intention of celebrating to the fullest).

Confession: While I love adventures, and loved each and every adventure fully and completely, I am exhausted.

Confession: Because of that, I am condensing the adventures of this week into one blog post (even though that means a somewhat picture heavy blog post) so that I don't have subsequent blog posts, documenting each adventure, hanging over my head and further exhausting me.

While we have had many mini-adventures this week, our first BIG adventure was Monday:  Roller Skating!  It was the twins' first time, and they were convinced they would be amazing and would race around the roller rink like stars.  Daddy and I smiled...and rented them the rolling handrails to help them along.

Though a bit grainy, this is my favorite picture.  With the rolling "walker" to help him, he sped around independent and happy.

Allie require a few pep-talks from mommy.  It was more difficult than she expected...and she wasn't always sure it was worth the effort...especially when, more than once, she fell on the far side of the rink (thankfully, sweet strangers - usually in the form of a junior or senior high schooler - were always nearby to help her up and return her "walker").

By the end, Ryan was begging to ditch the "walker."  I let him.  He immediately fell.  I suggested that maybe it would take more than one day to be ready to skate alone...

Once she made it around the rink a few times without falling she started to have fun!  By the end she was confident that she had almost improved to an expert level.

Taken at the very end.  They loved it so much they have been begging to go back (and we signed up for free passes so we can take them)!

We are skaters!

Our next BIG adventure was the annual moms' group trip to the local fire station!  The kids had all been upset that they could see the fire trucks on Saturday, but weren't allowed to get inside.  Thankfully, I had the promise of this trip in a couple days to quell the crying!

Everyone got a turn "driving" the truck (or making nose prints on the window...)

 Dreaming of the day he will really be driving...

The group in the other truck was taking turns honking the horn.  My sound sensitive children were not enjoying this taking place in a mostly metal garage...

In the ambulance, the paramedic gave each child a chance to be hooked up to see their heartbeat and the electricity in their body.  Every kid thought it was so cool (except D...who wasn't interested)

 The big highlight being when the asst. Fire Chief pulled out the ladder truck, raised the ladder, and climbed to the top.  It might not look high here, but it was roughly 6 stories up on a very cold, very windy day!

 To raise the ladder, he had to drive to the parking lot across the street.  Our group happened to be with the ladder truck at the time, so they got to ride across the street and back.  Highlight of the day!

Just before I took this picture, the fireman confiscated the radio from D...who climbed in and immediately grabbed the radio to make some calls!

Other mini-adventures include the library and special breakfast with daddy (intended to give me a chance to rest and sleep in...turns out I was wide awake and sleeping in did not happen...).  Even though Lucas has to work, the twins and I are looking forward to a restful weekend so we can jump into more grand adventures next week!