Fall Break

I LOVE that the kids get a fall break, even if it is only two days. Between school, friends, piano and sports I feel like I hardly see Chase! I was looking forward to spending some good quality time with my boys! We packed in tons of fun activities (and also got a decent amount of chores and yard work done as well!). On Thursday we hit up the Discovery Museum with the Bennetts. It was so fun, as always, and so nice that they all have a little buddy to play with. And of course, I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Alyse so I didn't take pictures, except this one of Davis mowing the whole first floor. He loves this lawn mower (and our identical, but very weathered one at home). 

 I had promised the boys forever ago that we could see Incredibles 2 once it came to the dollar theater, which nicely aligned with our break! I was going to be super brave and take Davis too, but when my mom offered to take him instead at the last minute I jumped at the chance! So just the big kids and I enjoyed this movie together. I laughed so much at Jack-Jack and how uncanny the similarities are between him and our own Davis Jack. Like, I think the producers may actually know Davis and based the character off him. The boys laughed and laughed through the movie, until it got a little intense and scary for them and then I had them BOTH on my lap.

 Friday morning we hit up the zoo. I've loved having a zoo pass this year. I knew Hudson would love it, but Davis enjoys it just as much! He oohs and ahhs over every animal and it's darling to see him so excited! Hudson took a little map of the zoo and was sure we were going to find treasure with it, hence him holding it up in this picture!

 Davis loved the elephants, and he really went crazy for the gorillas. We have been reading him "Good night Gorilla" and I think in that moment it totally connected for him.

Ben and I were able to have a nice date night at the temple during the break as well. It was wonderful to get away with my main man and have a chance to talk about our family. During General Conference in October a lot of changes and challenges were given- and Pres. Nelson urged us all to spend more time in the temple. We don't get there as often as we'd like, so we decided we needed to make it happen soon. We talked a lot about goals for parenting, what's working and what's not, and how we think we can step up our game and teach our children more at home as two-hour church goes into effect in January. It was a much needed night out. I'm so thankful for the Booyse's watching our boys, and for my wonderful husband. 

One more thought from this time- during the women's session of conference Pres. Nelson gave all the women four challenges. Along with attending the temple more often and participating more fully in Relief Society, he asked us all to do a 10 day social media fast and to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. Both of these have been such good experiences for me, so I wanted to record my thoughts here. First, on the social media fast, it was a nice break. I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. I am thankful for the connections that I can make with people through social media and for all the good on there, but it was great to unplug for a bit for a reset. It also made me think about how I spend my time. Secondly, reading the Book of Mormon. I was somewhere in Alma when the challenge was given, but I decided I'd just start over and try to read it all by the end of the year. I'm spending a lot more time each day in my scriptures and I'm actually really loving it. I'm making a lot of connections I hadn't before and I can actually feel my mind functioning more clearly as I take more time to study. Some of the thoughts and themes that have impressed me as I've been reading are:

• The Lord doesn't take away people's trials just because they are righteous. He helps them through them and gives comfort. He's always there for them, but the trials don't just go away.
• Over and over, he asks us to focus on things that really matter and reminds us that material things pass away and aren't forever. Focus on Christ and family and service and relationships.
• Life is a refining process- it isn't easy for anyone. We can learn from trials.
• Remember all your blessings come from God.
• It can be easy to be confused by Satan if you aren't continually focusing on actively trying to stay close to God.

Anyway, Fall Break was AMAZING! I loved having my kids home and just really soaking them in. I loved taking them on adventures and focusing on having fun for a few days. I love those little guys. They really are the best!