Mancation

So I was going to name this blog "Week in Review", but that's boring.

What this last week REALLY was about was Will being gone for 6 days on Mancation with his brothers in Steamboat, Colorado.  They skied. They grew beards. They ate lots of junk food. And they had fun.

I asked Will what he was enjoying the most about his mancation and his answer was "Just that I get to do what I want, whenever I want. I don't have to change diapers or put kids to bed or take care of anyone's needs."

Eh HEM. And of course I'm listening to that on the other end of the phone changing diapers and putting kids to bed and totally plotting my own womancation in the near future.

In all fairness though, I WANTED Will to go on this vacation because the poor guy has been so incredibly busy with his job, feeling a bit stressed and like he never gets a real chance to just have fun.  

I mean I get it.  

Sometimes it's hard to see things from other peoples perspective, especially as parents you can really get caught up in the whole "Who's doing more responsibility" thing.  I know when I'm at home everyday with the kids ALL day long, taking care of them while also trying to clean the house, do laundry, feed everyone, clean up messes, go to the gym, and get a little bit of my work done (music work) during Taylor's naptimes....I know I can really feel like it's unfair that Will gets to sit at a desk everyday and never change diapers and have adult conversations all day long.

We often joke that we would love to trade jobs with each other.  I've never been one of those girls who was super anxious to become a mother. While many of my friends were married in their early 20's and having babies, I was soooo not even ready to be at that stage yet.  And then, when I eventually did marry Will we didn't have our first baby until a few weeks before I turned 31.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE my children so, so much and I really miss them when I go long spurts of time with not seeing them.  But I do really need and crave time to myself after several days in a row of mothering, and if I don't get it - I notice I start to get moody with the kids and my patience wears very thin.  I'm actually pretty sure that is normal for MOST moms out there so I don't think I am any different.

We've talked about how we could make it work so we each worked 20 hours a week and parented 20 hours a week. :) Haha!  But apparently full time jobs like Will's wouldn't really fly with that idea!  Go figure ;)

My point though, is even though I often feel like I do so much of the parenting between us and I often get jealous that he does an office job where he stays clean and talks to adults and all of that - I KNOW that he is often envious of me getting to stay home with our boys all the time and he wishes he could spend more time with them.  I also know that his job is very stressful at times and he even has to work late at night to get the work done, or on weekends - when he would really prefer to spend that time with us.  And then when he does get some free time, of course the boys and I are ALL over him with "Do this!' or "Do that!" and I know he never quite feels like he gets any "me time".

So I was happy to encourage him to go on his mancation to get a break and to have some me-time for himself.  

Will took loads of photos and videos from his trip and I've just included a select few here. Possibly sometime he can blog about it (like never haha), but in the meantime here are a few pics....And then at the end of the post I'll fill ya in on what the boys and I did while Will was gone...

Unfortunately, Daniel (Will's younger brother) landed a very big ski jump wrong (that included a backflip) and totally crushed his knee - broke his leg. He had to go in for surgery. It was baaad. I hear they had to put him under just to get his ski boot off. :( Poor guy. OUCH.

I also heard when they called his wife the first thing she said was "Is Daniel in the hospital?" Haha.  The woman knows her husband well.

All right - where here are the pics from the boys and I....

No this pic is not from last week (it's from a concert a few years ago), but it was my Dad's birthday and I love this photo and him and I.

 I got to spend last Monday with my friend Viktoria - as she was here in Seattle visiting from Sweden.  We filmed some stuff for her reality documentary for Swedish television and also went to Snoqualmie Falls.

Here is me waiting for her in her hotel lobby in downtown Seattle - I must say it had a front stellar seat to the ocean view...

My re-release of The Lullaby Album arrived, tons of copies.  If anyone is looking for a great Mothers Day or baby shower gift, I have one for you :)...

Also my reprint of Illumination came as well, as I was literally down to the last 5 copies of that.  Great timing.

And then over the weekend, we went to my parents house on the island.  We were there for a few days and the boys had a blast playing with G&G's collector edition Buzz and Woody (from Toy Story)...

My old running shoes finally died on me and I was starting to feel the rain in my socks, so I got new ones.  Old ones are now resting in the garbage.

I'm still on my quest to drop some more pounds, have hired a trainer and here is one of my healthy dinners from last week.  My trainer has encouraged me to not only eat grilled veggies for dinner but also always include a fresh veggie as well.  So in addition to this I also made a cucumber salad.

I went through old photos last week and found this one, and remembered how grateful I was for my mother-in-law and her amazing sewing talent for making this dress for me... 

My mom and I being total goofballs... 

Last night we all went to dinner as a family - as it's been super nice having Will back home again. We went to the Rainforest Cafe....the boys were a little freaked out by the animatronics snakes and elephants, but we still had fun.

In other news - Preston has REALLY been into coloring and drawing pictures lately.  He drew me a family photo (his first one) a few days ago but there were just three people in it. I asked him about it and he said "It's Preston, Papa, and then Taylor in your tummy".  Uhhhh, not sure why he drew Taylor in my tummy but I am at least impressed that he realizes where babies come from. No I am not pregnant.

Well that's it for now! Ciao!