On Wednesday night, we had the long awaited Activity Days late over. I have to admit that this emotionally took a lot for me to pull off. The day we found out that Gabriel had died was my last day doing Activity days. I went from having activity days at my house, where we planned our end of summer late over, to that awful doctor's appointment. I can't help but correlate the two. But, I love my calling, and even though I was asked if I wanted to be released, I said no. This is where I want to be. I am so thankful to the parents and girls in my group that were patient with me to be able to get to a spot where I was comfortable being back to doing them again. We started again with a bang!
We have 10 girls now since they combined the 8 & 9 year olds. This is great since it means I still get to have Skylar for another year, but a little crazy! For the late over all 10 girls showed up, even the inactive ones! It was awesome....and soooo loud!! We had pizza & lots of goodies, made journals, talked about our family trees and the importance of genealogy, and then the best part...told "ghost stories" about our ancestors. It was such a blast and I think all of the girls had a really good time!
A break from school just isn't complete without getting together with the Tongs. We don't get to see each other much during the school year because everything gets busy and they live so far away but we always try to plan something fun for those breaks. On Thursday we spent a beautiful day outdoors at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had so much fun together! It was so crowded but worth it to see the kids having such a good time. We spent 5 straight hours there enjoying the beautiful warm weather....some of us even came back with a little too much sun. Later we went to Cafe Rio for some yummy food and more fun! The Tongs even came to our house for a few hours on Friday to play. Yay for school breaks!
On Friday afternoon we went to pick out our tree for Gabriel. We ended up getting two trees because they were such a great deal! We got a beautiful flowering Eastern Redbud and for a bonus, we got an amazing Japanese Maple. We just absolutely love them both and can't wait to see them grow in our yard.
One of the traditions of Pregnancy and Infant Loss day is to light a candle for every baby that has died across the nation at 7:00 pm so that there is a continual wave of light across the country. I've seen some amazing pictures of all the candles lit for all of these little ones. My friend, Mindy, gave us a beautiful candle she made for us to light for Gabriel and right at 7:00 we lit it and put it next to his box that holds the blanket he was wrapped in, his footprints and handprints, and the molds of his hands and feet. It was absolutely beautiful. We will always remember you, miss you, and love you sweet baby.
We then headed over to the wonderful benefit concert for the Mailes. I'm so glad we went. We had the best time! It was so great to see how much love and support was shown for that family that we love so much. My favorite thing was watching how much fun my kids had and seeing genuine smiles on their faces and the faces of the Maile girls. Skylar and Alexis were definitely loving the atmosphere of music and dancing, which is so exciting for me as I'm such a huge fan of concerts. I can see many more concerts in our future. We had a very late night, which ended with three of the four completely konked out. You know you've had an exhaustingly good time when you can sleep through all that fun and noise!
On Saturday we planted our trees. The kids had a lot of fun helping out. They are going to be a beautiful reminder of our precious baby boy, Gabriel.
After making a short stop at Naki's grave to see his amazing headstone, we headed up to my parents' for a family party. We had a good time. My brother, Ed & his wife, Jen, and kids even made it up from St. George. Unfortunately, my sister, Steph, & her family couldn't make it because she wasn't feeling good after running her third (what?!) half marathon! Way to go Steph!! We missed you! Everyone dressed up in their costumes so they could show their stuff. Here's a preview of Halloween fun to come:
3 comments:
You are the funnest activity days leader ever! I'm glad your fall break was so full of family fun. I love Gabriel's trees. What a great way to remember him. Love you!
It sounds like your girls had lots of fun at the activity! The trees your family planted for Gabriel are beautiful.
I know who i will be going to for ideas for activity days...you have always been creative and fun...Sounds like you guys had a fun fall break...
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