Life and Times of The Johnston family: A Very Fun Staycation!!

Last week Elizabeth started her swimming lessons which makes every evening busy for the month of May! Monday and Wednesday are swimming, Tuesday are the kids piano and tumbling classes, Thursday is Girl and Cub Scouts, Friday is our only free night! That makes for very busy weeks! Elizabeth is loving swimming lessons though and doing very well so it's totally worth it! Last week was a completely typical week, with the busy evenings, Wednesday night we went to Sill's Cafe for dinner, but even going there is becoming a normal thing for us! Thursday I started packing us up for our staycation weekend. Friday morning despite the rain I loaded up the van with our bags and stuff and after lunch drove the kids and I down to the Baymont Inn and Suites in Taylorsville, and checked in a bit early. We booked the Jacuzzi tub suite, so the kids could have their own personal, indoor pool and it was the first thing the kids found as we got into the room! And it was a HUGE tub!! We got just what we needed from the car then the kids could not wait to get their swimsuits on and play in the giant tub! They were in there for nearly two hours having endless fun together while I relaxed on the bed watching netflix on my ipad...bliss! Tony got to the hotel and ordered Dominos pizza delivered to our room and the kids enjoyed watching the preschool channel called Sprout until bedtime! That night I gave the amazing tub a short test run. Saturday morning we got up and ready then went over to the free...AMAZING....breakfast. They had a pancake maker, waffles, mini cinnamon rolls, mini sausage biscuit sandwiches, hash browns, donuts, bagels, bread, fruit, yogurt, milk and orange juice, oatmeal, cereal, and probably even more I'm forgetting about! It was the best hotel breakfast ever!! So we definitely ate our fill...well all of us except Devin who was content with his Pediasure and a couple fruit loops. Then Tony took the kids to a Build and Grow Clinic to build a flower truck, and to the store to pick up a couple things we needed. I filled up the jacuzzi tub with wonderfully hot water turns the jets on full blast and melted away into a state of relaxed nirvana! When I got too hot I got out watched some HGTV then got back in again...got out again...then back in again. After the third time I'd had my fill and got dressed and ready...what a wonderful morning. The kids came back and were excited to show me their creations, we let them watch a little Sprout then we got ready for the exciting day before us. We went to lunch at Subway then dropped the kids off with Tony's parents while we went to the Jordan River Temple to FINALLY get to see out good friends Kay and Barrett sealed to their absolutely adorable Maddi girl! It was nice to get to see so many from our previous ward in the temple waiting room, we visited a bit with the wonderful Baxter's and before we knew it we were heading to the sealing room. When Kay and Barret came in, I cried happy tears for the first time in months...I was overflowing with love and happiness for these great people. It felt so wonderful to feel so happy again! Maddi was so calm she slept through it, but it was truly perfect! I'm so blessed to have been able to be there for this joyous occasion, to know them and share an amazing friendship with them! It was just such a beautiful moment! Afterward we stopped by a couple model homes that caught out eye on the way there, then went to pick up our kids from grandma and grandpa. When we got their the kids were in their master bedroom sitting room watching All Dogs go to Heaven, and shortly after we got there Devin fell asleep, so we visited for a while and let him rest, Tony and his dad even made a quick run to Lowes. After saying good bye and thanks to his parents we went over to Highberry to look at their model home as we really like that area. After dreaming and such we headed over to our old ward house for a wonderful pot luck dinner to celebrate the sealing of adorable Maddi to her amazing parents. We had such a great time there visiting with friends and catching up with lots of our old ward family, it was so wonderful! I go to hold and play with one of my friends' very handsome 3 month old little boy, which I enjoyed very much...and must admit felt a slight longing for one of my own. He was so cute and little! I miss cute and little!! The kids had tons of fun playing with old friends as well...Elizabeth was having such a grand ol' time she did not want to ever leave! But sadly the night did have to come to an end(though we stayed til all the chairs and tables except outs had been put away!) and we went back to the hotel and put the kids and ourselves to bed. Sunday we went back to our old ward for church as Maddi was being blessed, and such a beautiful blessing it was! I just can't express how over joyed I am for our friends Kay and Barrett and little Maddi becoming a forever family!! Kay(being the Primary president) even invited Elizabeth to come up and sing the Mother's Day songs with their primary! It was just like the good old days! We stayed for all three meetings(which is something we haven't managed to do in months) Elizabeth was so excited that she was in her friends Liza's primary class and she made me a beautiful Mother's Day card and was so excited to show it to me! Devin even did great in nursery(after they came and got doggie for him). Bro. Lake gave a very thought provoking Sunday school lesson, that I'm still internalizing. And Relief Society was a great group discussion. Tony and I both felt so good there, like we just belonged there. Everyone welcomed us with completely open arms and TONS of hugs, many hoping we were back to stay, and we had to tell them sadly we were just here for a visit. But we decided to seriously consider buying a fixer upper in that area just to be back with the ward family we love and miss so much! But we shall see what the next couple years ultimately has in store for us. After a wonderful time at church we drove to my Aunt Julie's house for a mother's day lunch with my family, where Tony showed off his awesome fish cooking skills after a bit of a fish cooking mishap by others. I had a grand time playing with our little Daniel boy! Then we headed for home and Tony graciously got us unpacked while just kinda took it easy for the rest of my wonderful Mother's day. We had dinner with my parents, that Tony helped prepare, we gave my mom part of her Mother's Day gift(as I totally dropped the ball with Mother's Day and completely forgot when it was!) We visited with them for a while then came downstairs and got ready for bed. And that was our very fun weekend!

Having some fun at a nearby church!