August 06, 2011
Pool, Dinner, and the Mall
It was a good day with the family. There's no lawn work to do this weekend. Besides it's been too dry for the grass to do much. I tried to get in a balance of things to make everyone happy.
I started the day with a Step and Abs class at Golds Gym. Claire didn't come with me because she was out with her cross country team on a ~7-8 mile run. When I got home I could tell the three brothers were getting on each other's nerves, so I took Timothy out of the loop to break the synergy. He and I replaced a bulb in the garage and then took my car over to the car wash. It hadn't been cleaned in over a month and there was a red car underneath the dirt.
When we got back Michelle made us lunch and we head over to the Milford pool for a little while. Actually as we were driving over Claire said that she was ready to be picked up so I took Abby and the boys in and Michelle went to pick up Claire, bring her home, and rejoin us. Still we had fun. I took the 4 kids swimming in the deep section of the pool, which they don't get to do when I'm at work and Michelle takes them swimming. And since it was mild and overcast, Michelle just relaxed pool side. See snapshot below.
Although I thought I'd try to make it without a nap today, when we got home I needed little one. When I got up we took the entire family up to Manchester. First for dinner at Carrabba's for some Italian. The kids are really growing to like that place, ie. “Can we go here for my birthday?” From there we went up to the Mall of New Hampshire. That was mainly for the girls. The boys, Michelle, and I would be happy to not visit malls. But as long as Claire had her phone, she and Abby were free to go off on their own while Michelle and I took the boys to see things they'd care about. I have two snapshots below from the mall.
It was after eight by the time we left the mall. The boys were getting a bit irritable about “being there so long” while the girls always feel rushed. It's hard to make both sets happy. Just as they were starting to argue in the van, we put on XM's Forties on Four. Since the boys love instruments, all of the big band music fascinated them and calmed them down for the drive home. They were pretty wiped out by the time I tucked them in bed with their prayers.
Snapshots I took today:
