A Day Off

Sterling usually works at 5am. Which means he gets up and leaves the house by 4:45am. I love it (but that is beside the point). Yesterday they called him at 4am and said they wouldn't need him for the first four hours of his shift. Then they called him during breakfast and said they wouldn't need him at all. Now, this might be a bad thing if it happened all the time, but it doesn't. It's never happened before. Sterling asked me what needed to be done. We thought, well….we could work on this super-huge-incredibly-long list of to-do's that need to be done before we move….OR…..we could all play hooky. Which is exactly what we did.

We headed to good ol' SLC because we needed a bear. For Will. Ruth has had a bear (which was not intentionally hers to begin with, but she sure claimed rights on it) from Build-A-Bear since before she was born. It has been dirtied, washed, hugged, carried, and carted all across the country and slept with every.single.night. Recently, Will has started to see the value in Ruth's bear. Or at least the value Ruth places in her bear. Which has led to quite a bit of contention. So we decided we'd get a bear for Will. We promised Ruth she could pick out clothes for her bear, but that we'd only be getting a new bear for Will. Surprisingly, there were no problems on that front--we picked out a bear for Will, complete with a superhero cape (it had to be a suitable 'boy' bear, Sterling insisted) and Ruth picked out a dress for her bear. I was surprised at how easy that was, too. I thought she'd go for a fancy tutu or princess outfit (which are outrageously priced!) but she picked a simple, pretty, (inexpensive) flower dress and the nice lady at the counter gave her some matching bows for free. Ruth left happier than a clam and danced with her bear all afternoon. We've tried to focus on playing with Will's and making a big deal out of it so that he thinks his is as cool as Ruthie's. He's slept with it the last couple nights, so that's progress I think.

 Ruthie running around the water fountains at the Gateway. She was too scared to actually run THROUGH them, but she had a marvelous time running around and around.

 Will, of course, was the handsomest little devil there. I just canNOT get enough of his little walk. He still looks so unsteady! I just want to save it up in a jar forever!

 They have a cute little candy shoppe there, right beside the fountain. Ruthie picked out a little minuscule purse that had gum balls in it, exclaiming "It's just like yours, mommy!" so of course I couldn't resist. We got a big bag of gummies for Will, least messy and most enjoyable. Sterling and I got some old-fashioned soda pop in a bottle, ice cold from the fridge. I've got to say, it sure makes ya feel fancy when you drink soda pop from a bottle. Just the right amount of fancy-free for such a delightful day.

I have no idea.

Oh that boy of mine, I just want to keep him little forever.

Sterling snapped a baby bump photo. 

 Ruth and Will are in love with Ring-Around-the-Rosies these days. I think Will just likes it because he feels big, now that he can walk around on his own two feet. It's adorable.

 This is the best part of their newfound enjoyment in this game--they hold each other's hands. It has got to be one of the best things I have yet experienced as a mother. Seeing them holding hands and grinning at each other. 

 We were even there to see a water show--music and all! Ruthie loved the music and danced the entire time. Will was not so okay with the spray we got (from the wind) but he did enjoy watching it from dad's arms.

 Sterling tried to convince Ruthie that it was fun to actually run THROUGH the fountains. She was never convinced, but I think she still had a fun time.

 We had one more half hour before I had to be back to make dinner (we were taking it to another family, so I had to be on time) and we decided we'd stop by the Capitol Building on our way home. Neither Sterling or I have ever actually been inside, and so we figured we'd play tourists for the afternoon, while we still can!

Note Ruthie running on the side. I love that girls crazy run.

She was much faster than I was!

 The building was incredible on the inside. If you haven't been, you should definitely go sometime. I loved it.

This guy was one of my favorite parts, I think his name was Patience. The one on the opposite side of the stairs was Honor.

 Nothing better than two handsome guys on a beautiful 75 degree afternoon with sunshine and free time.

All in all, we had a fantastic time, enjoyed the beautiful sun, and I am now faced with the problem of finding motivation for anything productive. Can't we just take every day off?!?!?!