From Earlier this Month

I haven't posted in a while so I have lots of pictures I'd like to put up and not a great idea of where to start, but this seemed as good a place as any :-)
Dave was out of town for the first week of May. He was in Chicago the first half of the week, then Seattle later in the week. Sunday evening we dropped him off at the train so he could get to Chicago, and as soon as we got back to our house I heard the toilet running unexpectedly. After further inspection I realized it was a rather simple repair of attaching a fallen chain in the back of the toilet to the little bar part that it needs to be secured to in order for the toilet to flush. The only complication was that we have an awkward counter top that extends all the way back across the lid of the toilet, so even once I took the lid off, I had only about 2 inches of open space to fix it. I also determined that the chain part that needed to be re-attached had been sucked up into the suction part of the toilet, so it was stuck. I knew I was getting a good start to the week as I stood fishing in the back of the toilet with a bent coat hanger. Dave rarely travels for work, and it struck me as funny how exactly one half of the toilets in our house decided to stop flushing during the first hour of his absence.
Overall the week went very well {once I fixed the toilet}, we were busy as usual, but everything went well. The girls are so good and helpful, I am a very blessed mama!!
Alyssa had her first track meet. She took second place in her heat, but due to some confusion/mistakes with timing in one of the heats we have no idea how she placed overall.

This is a terrible picture from my cell phone but too cute to skip sharing. Last summer our gym moved into a new facility and the coaches have been encouraging the girls to really take pride in this cool new place we have. The girls have a job to do at the end of each practice, and the jobs rotate so they aren't always doing the same job. I looked out into the hallway the other night and Emma looked so tiny trying to vacuum. I don't think she's ever done this chore at home, although I know she would if I asked her to.

The Friday night that Dave was gone, Alyssa was at a Newsboys concert with some friends and Emma was at practice, so I took Rebekah on a "date" to Target and Chipotle. We had so much fun!
She was enjoying her dinner when this young couple came in with their baby. The baby was sleeping in her bucket car seat carrier and the dad was carefully situating the baby at their table while Rebekah looked on in fascination. She kept watching intently so I mentioned that the baby's dad was taking good care of her, wasn't he? She agreed then with a serious nod she asked, "Did he bring that baby here for us? Can we have her?" I explained that those are not usually the kind of transactions that go down at Chipotle, and no, we would not be leaving with a new addition to the family.

This is the face she said the baby was making. Maybe it was just Rebekah's interest in their baby, but the young couple seemed to like Rebekah a lot too.

Dave had a chance to visit Pike's Market before he caught his flight out of Seattle on Saturday. He said this whole wall was tulips as far down the row as he could see, and that they looked so nice and colorful.

Knowing tulips are my absolute favorite flower, he brought me home a bouquet and we enjoyed their beautiful brightness all week after he returned. I felt sad when some of the larger petals started falling off and wilting.

I have always wanted to go see the guys throw the fish at the market. Maybe the next time Dave goes to Seattle for work I can go with him?! And visit some friends ~ Hi Michelle :-)!