Spring Break Family Day

Preston was able to take a day off work for us to have 1 family day during Spring Break. Our day started pretty early and with extra adventure - our family trip to the dentist. When we arrived I brought everyone running and firing off questions about me. We found out about my cancer just after we had been there, so my appearance totally took everyone by surprise. I tried to answer as many questions as I could. The one medical assistant was clearly rattled and when I told her surgery was next week she asked me if I was going to have a vasectomy - I laughed right out loud at that - she really meant masectomy - but she was really just so startled about the whole thing.
When we go to the dentist, we just try to knock everyone out at once, still takes a good couple of hours plus....All the kids did great for the most part. Kelsianne got a bit unsettled (she still struggles a bit with being extra shy) and shed some tears during her turn. I went back with her and she just lay on top of me while I held her. That seemed to be enough to let her get through her turn and she was thrilled to be rewarded with a new purple toothbrush and a pizza gift certificate. Once again, our Baxter clan came away with perfect check-ups. Of course we also came away with a few surprises - more comments from Dr B about the Baxter cross bite and who will be next in line for Dr P and braces AND that Ceana will need to get her wisdom teeth out sooner vs later. She has already had her braces, so they will need to come out so her pretty teeth dont get crowded and need work again. Will have to look at that for this Summer probably. All in all, a positive experience for everyone and the kids all walked away with a goodie bag filled with fun things.

One of the fun things in the goody bag is a gift certificate to Izzy's - one of our FAVE restaurants! We dont always have time to take the kids to lunch after our appt, but knowing Preston had taken the day off, we were able to take the kids to lunch and just take our time. They had a new mac & cheese that was a big hit with everyone. Ky especially loved it and ended up eating 4 BOWLS of the stuff. We wrote that down on our comment card! It was funny to watch the kids during lunch.  Izzy's has 2 big screen TV's in their large seating area that are usually showing sports stuff. Since we dont have regular TV at home, the kids get mesmerized by TV and commercials of any kind. Their eyes were glued to those big screens at times, it was kind of funny. Everyone ate their fill and a great time was had by all. After eating so much everyone was looking forward to getting their exercise at our next stop - Highland Bowl! It is one of our favorite outings. It was funny that the minute we pulled into the driveway that Ky piped up with "This is where I broke my hand!" It is often surprising to me the things that the little kiddos remember. Of course, he was referring to to a couple of years ago on Spring Break when we were there with friends and Ky got his fingers crushed when he tripped and dropped the ball on his hand. That was quite the adventure.

We got everyone up to the counter and kept calling off shoe sizes and then proceeded to gather balls. It is always a big to do to get us all settled on an outing like this. Finally we were all ready to go, complete with nick names for play (Sonic, Swtpotpie, Mr CoolDad, SuperKy, AmazonWoman, MormonLover) I think Caiden and Kels were the only ones who just used their name. Kels was very adamant that she was just Kelsianne and not anything else, it was funny.
When we arrived, I realized that I hadnt brought anything with me, including the camera. Thank goodness that our phones have cameras these days, not the best images, but at least it is something fun to remember.

Kelsianne

Super Ky

Sonic

Caiden

Amazon Woman

Mormon Lover

Mr Cool Dad

SwtPotPie

Ky was the most excited about everyone's success. Anytime someone got a strike or a spare he would jump up and down. This one I caught him with his own strike, he was VERY excited about that.

I wish I would have been able to get better picts of Preston with the kids. He had come right up with Ky to show him how to better hold the ball and how to swing it vs just pushing it along the floor. It was so sweet to see Ky snuggled next to Preston as they talked. The camera on the phone just doesnt take picts fast enough, but action shots are fun too I guess. It was wonderful to have Preston all to ourselves and to see him interact with the kids one-on-one, he just doesnt get that time with them very often.

Kels just had so much fun. She would sit on the floor with her ball and just push it along the floor. She would cross the line and set off the buzzer. The boys would fuss that she "crossed the line" but she just didnt care, she was just having fun.

Caiden got some extra practice taking Preston's turn on the lane without bumpers on our 2nd game. He was really bummed that he came in last against the 3 little peeps, so Preston gave him some extra time and coaching on our lane to cheer him up. It seemed to work and everyone left happy and tired.

We got home with a little time to spare before I took the kids to karate. Preston ended up staying behind to do some work after all. With deadlines looming and every submission from the other groups constantly changing his drawings, he just had to put in some time to correspond with others who were at work. We were so happy to get him to ourselves for most of the day. We had a wonderful time and made lots of fun memories. It was extra wonderful for me to be feeling well enough to be out and about and be able to spend time with the kids too. It has been way too long since we have had time like this together. Looking forward to Summer when we can have lots of days like this!