Glorious!

Our nearest family members live 500 miles away. We don't have the opportunity to have a "get away" without the kids very often. We are really enjoying our current phase with our kids and not being in the 'baby years' any longer. But...finding someone who can and are willing to take 4 kids overnight is hard to do! Thankfully we have Becky and Willie! They are our kids' surrogate grandparents and absolutely adore them, and I'm pretty sure that Becky and Willie adore the kids! Every Sunday at church, Brayden and Ella sit with them and it is so sweet to see their connection!

So, Matt and I really wanted to go to Denver for a temple sealing of friends in our ward. Since it is a 3 hour drive one way, we needed to leave the kids with someone to make it work! Becky and Willie came to our rescue! They took the younger three Friday night and brought them home Sunday morning before church!!! Morley had his first boy scout camp out so he was off doing his own thing. Matt and I had an interesting 'date night' Friday picking up a fridge for a rental house and then removing the broken one and installing the replacement. Doesn't that sound romantic? After we finished it was nearly 10:00 pm, Safeway was closed and we were starving! We headed up to Wal*Mart to grab some dinner and snacks for Saturday. It was really strange coming home to an empty house that late at night! Waking up Saturday morning to an empty house was a little strange too and I was excited for my day with Matt.

Matt planned that we leave really early so that I have time to go to the fabric stores. Isn't that awesome? He followed me around several stores and gave me his educated opinion on certain fabrics and color combinations. I have no idea about the content of the fabrics...I just know I like the pattern or texture. He knows all the details!

We made it to the temple, had a marvelous time sharing the experience with Ray and Krystal, their girls and other ward members.

Afterwards, we hit Target, a fly shop and lunch at Swing Thai! OH, it was so delicious! We had planned to leave right after to pick up Morley from his camp out a few hours away. Thankfully I checked messages on the cell and found out that the boys were rained out and headed home already! PHEW...that saved about 3 hours of extra traveling for us! Matt and I then took our time getting home and stopped at Whole Foods. AMAZING, is how I describe that store! Everything about it was just so cool! We were looking for specific ingredients for some PF Chang recipes that we knew we wouldn't be able to find in Sidney. We restrained ourselves and only spent $10 and decided that we would eat there next time we came for a visit! It was like a full blown buffet there. It is actually a good thing we don't have one anywhere close to Sidney.

A few more stops at The Children's Place (awesome deals) and Bath and Body works and we headed home. We did stop at a Wal*Mart looking for specific items...which they didn't have...then headed home.

Morley was asleep on the couch with his uniform still on and his gear piled on the floor. After we opened up his bags, everything was SOAKING wet and pretty muddy! He had great stories to tell about his experience Sunday morning!

It was awesome to see the kids Sunday morning full of smiles and excitement to see us! Becky and Willie may need a few days to recover, but it was a great weekend for everyone!

The flowers at the temple are always gorgeous! It was awesome to spend 36 hours of one-on-one time with Matt! I love and treasure my kiddos and I know they enjoyed their break from us too! This next phase of our lives is going to be fantastic and I am thankful for friends who care for my kids as if they were family! Now, Matt and I just need to plan our next get away!