Yet Another Spring Break with My Best Girl and Our Crazy Kiddos!

I haven't posted much lately.  I intend to change that with this post.  I miss the journal keeping aspect.  I think I find it harder to post about teenagers because I worry that teen antics are not as cute or socially acceptable as those of little ones.  I have come to realize lately that while some may not understand or agree with my particular approach to parenting teens, that it is, nonetheless, what I am doing and I don't want to forget it because I was afraid of being judged.  So here goes...

Spring Break 2013 started on the Monday following Easter, unfortunately I had to be back to work Wednesday night at 9:00 PM so Suz and I decided to leave the Saturday night before Easter Sunday for our annual jaunt to the beautiful town of Loa, Utah and Capital Reef National Park.  

Our boys say Suz and I live in an alternate reality where we have our own time zone.   Suz/Sus time makes allowances for final trips to WalMart, obligatory Easter Egg Hunts, cleaning up paint spills, planting pansies, weddings and making  green smoothies (heavens knows we can't survive three days without Walmart and green smoothies).  

Getting on the road at 8:30 PM, if we're being liberal with the definition of, "on the road", is pretty good for us.  Gassing up one last time because Suz's dash board indicators like...oh, the speed-o-meter etc, sometimes work and sometimes don't, and one more stop at the bank etc. count as being on the road in Suz/Susan World and 3 hours later when we pulled into Loa with only one potty break, no road kill and eight sleeping kids we were pleased.  

Two hours later after settling our sleepy kiddos onto their own special chunk of carpet,  filling 25 plastic eggs with $1.00 in change each and 25 plastic eggs with candy and filling 10 bags with a water bottle, socks, bubbles, bandannas, glo-sticks, gloves and treats, and making an Easter Basket for Grandma, who's house we were staying in, Suz, who is not normally the potty mouth, turns to me and says, "We're f******* nut's!" 

"Uhhhh, yes we are, Potty Mouth." I reply

"Oh, no!" She says, I meant to say, nucking futs! And we start giggling like 12 year old girls seeing Justin Beiber leaving  the mensroom and that's when Grandma came out and asked if everything was OK? 

Evidence of our nuttiness and mad Easter Bunny skills.

 

 Easter Sunday dawned sunny and way to early.  We all got ready for church, Suz had her crew dressed in  Easter clothes.  Adorable!

          

  I looked down the pew at two of my crew dressed in semi-suitable Sunday attire, church clothes with tennis shoes, and my cute little, daughter-for-the-weekend, aka, #3's girlfriend, henceforth known as Flower, so named by her Native-American-for-the-weekend, boy friend, Eagle Who Farts in the Wind, dressed in a cute dress, and the rest in shorts, sweats, or torn jeans.  I thought about how much I loved them no matter what they were wearing and how happy it made me to sit there with them singing of newness and spring and re-birth and I realized that our loving Father in Heaven feels the same about each of us.  He cares only that we pause for a moment, however were dressed and whatever we are doing and think of Him. 

This is my rag tag bunch of Spring Break hikers! 

 This is Suz's cute group. 

And now, drum roll please, a photo line-up of what to expect on a Spring Break trip in Suz/Susan world.

Women Gone Wild  wild photo ops!  I think Suz is about the cutest best friend a girl could have!

Cute babies, well they're our babies. 

 Climbing, Mom style!

       

 Hooray, Mom!  You did it! 

      

 Climbing, boy style. 

                                                                             

One more really cool thing just a little further down the trail.  Water tanks.                                  

Snack time after a long hike. 

           

 Sunshine, shirtless boys, and really cool canyons. 

 Wild, and crazy bandanna wearing women.

 Trail markers!  These are called cairns they are placed by the park service each year to mark trails which may change due to rock slides or floods or vegetation etc.  A real cairn is a lot bigger, more noticeable and marks a trail suitable to the average hiker. This cairn was built by #6 who's trails make mountain goats pause and who isn't trying to compensate for anything with the size of his cairns.

Lot's of  hydration reminders.

      

  We see some incredible scenery.

  We pause for yoga breaks.

 And, laughter breaks.

 We wear bandannas in our own unique style. 

 Jedi, sans braid.

Rambo!

 Nearly invisible!

 Uhhhh, Flower and Eagle Who Farts in the Wind style.

 Braided  Boy Mom

 We start on hikes way to late in the day, notice the angle of the sun.

 We play follow the leader.

 We stop for potty breaks, and photo ops. Thanks Suz for not forgetting your camera,

 We play in the sand.

We contemplate flight, we're deep like that.

We find the hole we have been finding since #3 and #7 were much smaller (see below).

 The hole, numbers, 3, 6 and 7 and further below #6 and Suz's Milo circa 2007.

 

  

We fix the car. Darn thing wouldn't start unless we used the  jumper cables, not hooked up to another car, mind you, just had to use the connection because the battery cable was loose.  Sadly my twist tie, electrical tape fix was a fail but, on the plus side, I was right about the problem, now I just have to find me some cute, greasy coveralls.

 We take group pictures.

  We re-take group pictures.

 

We take Suz/Susan pictures.

 We retake Suz/Susan pictures.

But, mostly, we mark the passage of time and love, laughter and experience as our sweet little ones, seen here in 2007.

Have grown and made life in Suz/Susan world rich and full of joy.  Thanks boys and Lily for putting up with your wild and crazy mama's and for making our little spring break world so amazing.