Last Saturday Pete and I got to go to a jazz playoff game! Pete’s boss bought a box for all the employees. The jazz lost but it was still a fun game!

It has been really fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Halverson back in town this week.  With Grandpa’s help we are seeing real progress in finishing the basement!  Here are the some pics from when the kids were down in Vegas with Grandma and Grandpa.

Just like Grandpa!

helping Grandpa paint the house

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  Coloring at Grandma's table

Wednesday we went to the Wheeler farm for playgroup.  I didn’t expect such a big turnout…it was great!  Although I admit it was tough keeping tabs on 14 kids!  They were all so excited to run around and see the animals!

Are we corralling kids or cattle here?

Checking out the bunnies

the pigs

my cuties taking a break

yum lunch!

It was my first time visiting Wheeler Farm but I know we will definitely be back!  If you are interested in going admission is free and its a beautiful park too!

Today was beautiful so we decided to take a walk to the park after church.

Ari loved riding his big wheel.

Maya even took her turn walking Teddy.

Then we came home in plenty of time to read books with Nana and Papa!

Helaman 4:13

13 And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands.

I think every mother has those days. One moment everything is bliss. You take a nice long walk with the kids to the park. They sit and play nice with each other. Then you blink and chaos erupts.  For example, after are outing today, Peter’s flu came back, Ari wouldn’t get out of the bathtub.  Maya is out, but screaming because Ari keeps hiding her dinosaur in the tub.  She refused to get a diaper on and instead grabs the baby powder and sprays it around the room as I try to tackle her to the ground with the diaper.  This is just one snip-it of the life I lead.  Its enough to make anyone crazy!  I’ve been wondering what I’m doing wrong and the answer came today during Sunday School with this scripture.   

I honestly don’t think there’s much I can do to change the situation but I have been relying on my own strength here.  When I rely on Him the situation doesn’t seem that bad anymore.  I can laugh about it and go on.  I think that applies to many situations in our lives.  Sure we can probably do most things on our own, but if we don’t humble ourselves and ask for help He will leave us on our own.  We might do just fine for a while, when everything’s going well.  But then situations always arise and we just can’t do it without Him!  I am grateful for a wonderful husband that stepped in at this moment and helped me out with the kids.  I can often say Pete is the answer in many of my prayers!

Don’t let Jen fool you into thinking that she only tolerates Teddy. This is how the afternoon was spent.

In case you’ve missed it…Pete and I just got back from a impromptu 10day workation first to Venezuela (see previous post) and then on the way back we were able to stay in Aruba a few days.  Aruba was AWESOME!  It really has a little bit of everything: beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and 17mi island to explore.  Pete and I spent the first day sleeping in since we had traveled until late the night before.  Ah to sleep in…a rare thing once you have kids!  Then after a nice long walk on the beach we thought we’d try our hand at taking the local buses into town to buy souvenirs.   Everyone speaks English there so it was no problem getting around.  We get out at the tourist flea market and find some really beautiful art canvases that I would love to take home of course.  The guy tells us if we buy the big one for $120 he’d throw in the little one we were looking at for free.  Of course we didn’t have that much cash on us so we told him we’d come back.  He ended up giving them to us for the amount of cash we had $83.  So I was happy getting them for such a great deal.  They are beautiful but I’m still trying to find a way to hang them (any ideas?)  But then we were totally out of cash and the atms around wouldn’t take our cards.  EEK!  Well thankfully there’s Wendys no matter where you go and they take all American credit cards.  Lunch solved.  Souvenir shopping…done at least for now.  We did enjoy walking around downtown, seeing the museum and taking this picture before heading back:

We have heard that is many of these resort places people give out cash if you listen to their timeshare speals.  Since we wanted to check out the Marriott anyway for my parents, we headed down there.  They offered us $200 for the 90min presentation.  Well afterwards we learned it was $200 in meal vouchers to local restaurants but thats okay time worth spent.

We were able to use vouchers at this seafood place paying only tax and tip. Pete's fish was delicious my Aruban soup not so much:)

The next day being Sunday we paid for days internet so we could listen to conference.  Besides that we spent the morning relaxing at the pool.  Afternoon we decided to rent a car and go out and explore a little bit.  We ate lunch at a local place, The Aruban Chef…awesome place!   We were the only tourists there and the food was great.  I had crab cakes…absolutely delicious.  And ahh I miss plantains!  After that we tried to follow a map but none of the roads are labeled.  We ended up just driving and ended up here:

Little did we know Aruba looks a little like a desert with cactus everywhere!

Since this was our rental car (charming but not an off-road vehicle) we turned around and found our way to the other coast.

The Southern coast is where the sand and resorts are.  The Northern coast is rocky and facing the ocean.  I thought it was beautiful!

We followed the coastal road around until we came to the natural land bridge.  Well most of it actually fell about 8 years ago but it was still impressive:
 We were really glad we didn’t pay to take a tour to it that’s for sure!  Especially because afterwards we followed some locals to a remote beach that had huge waves (the South side has no waves).

We continued to explore a bit and found some caves that Pete swears have hidden treasure.  Thankfully I talked him out of coming back at low tide!

Last thing we visited before heading back with the ruins of an old gold smelter.

Monday was our last day so we decided to hit up all the snorkeling spots on the island.  First we went down to baby beach.  The winds were exceptionally high so we couldn’t go out too far but it was still beautiful.  We picked up a quick lunch and then snorkeled at Malmok beach for the afternoon.  This was by far our favorite!  We so wish we had an underwater camera.  We saw not only fish a coral but a sea turtle, barracuda, sea snakes, an a baby octopus.  At one point we were swimming in schools of fish so thick you couldn’t see through them!  We ended the day with a really nice dinner at the lighthouse.

The sunset there was gorgeous!  The food was really good if you like seafood:)  I order the seafood ravioli…loved the ravioli, the seafood was great but a little too much for me.  Clams scallops still in the shell, shrimp and even a little octopus.  I couldn’t help but think of the little one we saw earlier in the day:)  Aruba is an island though I’m sure seafood comes a plenty!  Tuesday was a traveling day and since I had burnt the back of my legs snorkeling we didn’t do anything else.  Thankfully the Marriott had gifted us some aloe.  Overall it was a great trip…Pete got all his work goals met, we got to see some of my friends, and a weekend like honeymooners in Aruba.  Couldn’t ask for anything more!