Spilling the Beans: April 2021

Birthday season continued this month with Carmen turning SIXTEEN! I cannot believe this girl is 16. She is smart, witty and oh so funny. She makes me laugh like no one else. In VA you have to be 16 and 3 months before you can get your drivers license, so the next 3 month should drag right by.... but she is ready and already a very responsible driver.

I had these adorable cookies made for her birthday. Not only were they cute, but they were delicious too.

We've been trying to give more experiences as presents. Dallin got to go to a professional soccer game, Charlotte got to have a paint night with mom and for Carmen, I surprised her with a "Day on the Farm". She absolutely loved and told me it was the best part of her whole day. Which I was so relieved because I wasn't really sure how she would feel about it.

Then for Spring Break we traveled up to DC for the week. We've been to DC tons of times, but it's always up and back in one day and usually involves the Smithsonian. Well, they are all closed still due to COVID, so we decided this was our chance to explore the monuments on the Mall and find other hidden treasures in DC. Our kids have lived in VA for 12 years and still hadn't seen most of these places. And I was soooo grateful to not have to endure the Air and Space museum one.more.time.

Renting the electric scooters was by far the best decision we made. It made getting around so much faster and way more fun.

This is on the back side of the Lincoln memorial, which I didn't even know you could walk around to that side. It was pretty gorgeous back there and the sun was just beginning to set which made for that dreamy golden light.

We caught just the tail end of the Cherry Blossoms, which were still gorgeous, but I wish we had just been a week earlier to catch those blooms in all their glory.

I had never in been to Capitol Hill before this trip. Our scooters wouldn't go up the hill so it was quite the climb, but I'm glad we made it. Here the kids are in front of the Supreme Court.

And then we traveled over to the National Arboretum, which I had never even heard of. While it was beautiful, we happened to be there after the Cherry Blossoms and before anything else was in bloom. I'm sure it's gorgeous later in the Spring. These columns used to be on the Capitol building, but were replaced back in the 1980s.

Dallin really took goal keeping seriously this season in soccer.

I don't know why I have this random picture of Carmen's school portrait, but isn't she beautiful?!

Dallin insists on being first in line in the morning for drop off. Most of the time it drives me nuts, because we sit there for 30 minutes most days. But it was this day that I realized how special this time is. He gets 30 minutes of my undivided attention and he just talks and talks and I listen. He had the most creative and imaginative mind.

Last month we decided to put our house on the market. We've been working so hard to get it ready for showings. Decluttering everything! And since we currently don't have a job, we're unsure if we want to rent something here in Charlottesville or move somewhere else with more potential job opportunities. It's been a hard decision. But in the meantime, everything non-essential is going into storage pods. When I came across this quote, it hit home for me. Right now, we are making sacrifices. We are planning to leave this gorgeous dream home of ours for something we want more. And that is more family time together. We were tired of David being gone all.the.time and so he quit his job several years ago. He want back to school and now we are struggling with what the next thing is.