Botanic Gardens

On Sunday we were a little stir crazy from being inside all weekend long... so in between conference sessions we went out for a quick escape to the Botanic Gardens. The boys had fun stretching their legs, visiting the ducks, geese and swans at the pond, and Charlie refused to wear his coat or red hoodie. Who knows how this child can handle the cold weather when he only weighs 22 pounds and is such a skinny little guy. I personally think he's freezing but just likes to exert his 2-year-old independence. :)

We ran into some friends from the ward there at the gardens who took a picture for us in one of the greenhouses - 

 And for some fun news, we bought a second car last week! (yes, in the middle of my sickness and miscarrying... it was quite the week. Ben basically took care of it all) We have wanted to get a second car for a long time, but kept putting it off because it wasn't absolutely necessary and we wanted to save money as long as we could before taking the plunge.

We finally planned to buy a minivan in June before we drive to Idaho for a family reunion later this summer, but got nervous after the earthquake in Japan - there were news stories that new cars may be in shorter supply in a few months because the factories in Japan that make the car parts have been closed, which is messing up the supply chain so stock may be more limited this summer... one thing led to another and it was the last day of the month, end of the first quarter of the year, and Al, our Russian car dealer with the extremely thick accent gave us a fabulous deal on our beautiful new minivan :) I love having so much space and the kids call it their pirate ship. Eli loves having the back folded partially down and has fun "walking the plank." 

Here are a few other pictures of Eli having fun with the van after I unloaded groceries from Costco this week -  

I know some people aren't huge fans of minivans, but this is glorious!! I am loving it. Eli does too :)

Thanks for so many kind, caring comments on my blog post earlier this week. I'm doing okay - physically still pretty worn out (I think having that stomach bug and then the miscarriage did a number on me) and emotionally mostly fine, though I've realized I've been less patient and more irritable than my usual self this week. It's easy to get to a grumpy place, to be frustrated with all of the dumb things that have no significance but can easily get you down. For example, we brought the minivan home last weekend and realized that while it fits in our ancient garage (we had measured ahead of time to be sure), the ceiling at the opening of the garage is too short to open the trunk without needing to be really careful not to bang it on the garage door. Boooo.

Next week I'll just do my best to be grateful we even have a garage. And a car to go inside it. I really do love it.