Spring Break Madness

Kalea Bowling

Nathan's Golden Egg

View from the cliff

The Swing

Here are pictures of our Spring Break Highlights
I know that it seems like I've fallen off of the face of the earth, but I am still here. Things are very crazy in the Saenz household and I've spent the last few weeks trying to get me in order. I have so many things that I want to blog about that I've spent many a night just blogging in my head. If only I could hook a USB port to my head and podcast Sarah thoughts onto my blog.
We had an amazing Spring Break. It was filled with family breakfasts, a ton of bowling (we scored free passes from the school district), and a trip to Katy equipt with another midnight hotel fire drill. I can definitely say that we are now hotel fire experts. Families could pay us for the knowledge and skills we have acquired for getting our kids up and out the door when that hotel fire alarm starts ringing. I have so much to write about spring break, that I think I'll break it down by each child's highlight.
Kalea- Kalea's highlight was definitely bowling. She is a very free spirited bowler. It was beautiful. I think my sides were sore for days from laughing so hard. She was so excited when it was her turn to bowl. She would grab the ball with both hands, waddle and slide out onto the wooden floors in her clown shoes (they didn't carry shoes her size so they were at least an inch or two too big) and she would chunk the ball with all her might. Sometimes the ball went down our neighbor's lane, other times it would go BETWEEN the bumpers and the gutters, and still other times, it would just come back towards the couches. Steve would go running after the ball while Kalea would spin joyfully in the spotlight with one toe on the ground and the other foot lifted up pointing to the heavens. She would throw her head back and sweep her arms out and yell, "YEA!!!!" like she had just made a strike. Every turn was celebrated with spins and dances all across our lanes and our neighbors lanes. To Kalea, it didn't matter where the ball went, what mattered was that she threw it and for that, she was thrilled. All of our neighbors would stand back and laugh at Kalea's outward joy. We were blessed that no one really cared that Kalea's ball didn't always stay in our lane.
Nathan- Nathan's highlight was the golden Easter egg. We went egg hunting at the YMCA in Katy along with our 1,ooo best friends. The announcer spoke of a golden egg, and that was all that Nathan could think about. The buzzer went off and the kids torpedoed out to the field. The one golden egg that we had spotted was grabbed up immediately, so I found myself on the ground tossing eggs into Nathan's basket while he stood sulking that his golden egg was gone. I realized how ridiculous we looked so I stood up to give Nathan the pep talk about how the hunt was about having fun, and not about getting the golden egg. The field was cleared and the eggs and kids were gone before I could convince Nathan to at least pick up a few eggs, and that's when I spotted it. The golden egg was sparkling in the sun in a tall patch of grass right next to us. Nathan grabbed it up and inside was a whole dollar bill. Nathan was stoked. He carried it around the entire day showing everyone his prized possession.
Steve and Me- Our highlight actually started 10 years ago when we worked for the Boys and Girl's Club. Every summer we would take the kids to picnic at a park. When everyone was done eating and settled in on the playground, the staff would sneak off in groups of 2 or 3 (depending on how many of us there were that day) and we would go to this swing in the woods. We would stand on a cliff about 30 feet in the air, hold onto a rope swing, and would swing off the cliff. It was scary (and dangerous) and fun all at once. It was sort of an initiation for all of the staff members. Steve and I always joked that we would take our kids there when we were old and gray.....well, on Spring Break, we went hiking and found ourselves at that very swing. It was still there, only there were about three more ropes tied to the ends of where the original swing had broken off. We didn't allow our kids to swing off of the cliff, but we did have the opportunity to share some Sarah and Steve history with them and let them do mini swings on the ropes. It was just amazing and awesome that we had stood in that very spot 10 years ago, dreaming about what our future children would be like and then (bang) there we were with our perfect family on a perfect day talking about what the past was like.