Week of May 20

Our last full week in Madison! So sad. Except for the other 5 years of full weeks in Madison we have coming up. So, not so sad.

Monday:

Cait got a hair cut in the morning.

We went for a run out to the beach again in the morning.

Homemade lemonade popsicles on the way to lake. Perfect.

You can see the haircut and sexy legs here.

I took Atticus to the Bookmobile and park in the afternoon until late in the evening. Unfortunately he did not fall asleep on the ride home. Oh well. Cait stayed home with Lulah and had some friends over.

I went with our friend James to pick up a free couch for us after I got home.

Tuesday:

Parent helping at Atticus's preschool.

Cait sold her bike.

Wednesday:

Cait took the kids in the morning to some outside play and inside play in the community center while the rain came down.

I went for a ride to campus to drop off the money to our friend for the Dalai Lama questions, then to a library committee meeting at FUS and then to group run where only one other person showed up because of the rain.

Thursday:

I had a bunch of meetings with the University Apartment's staff as I get going as Assembly Chair. I also brought my new vice-Chair Anna along to have her meet the staff too. They all went well and we came out with some good ideas.

Friday:

Our friend Juna got new sand in her sandbox, so up the hill to play there.

That night we went to a ward marshmallow roast and smore fest. We honestly feel a little bit weird going to activities since we are no longer active and our tithing money isn't paying for activities, but we have so many friends there that it's always fun when we get there.

Saturday:

The big community garage sale was today. The weather, after being a little rainy, cooperated well. It went successfully in that we got rid of a lot of stuff we wanted to get rid of and there were a lot of people there. We did, however, come back with more stuff than we left. But a lot of it was free and all of it was stuff we needed/wanted. So we failed in decluttering out house, but we can try again when we get back, and at least there's not a ton of stuff hanging around that we want to just get rid of.

Here's our best find. A lego table with a box full of Duplos, including a Buzz and Woody and Lightning McQueen figurine.

This is our new-found life twin Nina, who was the former former Assembly Chair before Allison. She gave us so much great stuff because it was all "perfect for out kids" including some great cowboy boots for

Saturday also brought the long-awaited visit of Grammy and Poppy on Poppy's return from Afghanistan tour of the US. Here's some of the pictures of playing outside and reading books.

Sunday:

I rode Atticus down on the bike to go to a little bit of Mormon church before we went back to FUS so I could here the sermon on gun violence before I ran a film showing and discussion about gun violence after the meetings. The film and discussion (including a free lunch) went really well and we had more people show up than we thought would come. A lot of people seem to be really concerned about the issue, which is encouraging.

Atticus got to decorate a peace pole (a yearly FUS tradition) during the sermon, which he really enjoyed. Basically, a very nice member of the society provides poles and bunch of materials to decorate them and they are planted near the road in front of the building as a statement of our desire for a more peaceful world.

Cheesy smile

While I was doing the film, Atticus and Poopy built a huge block tower with our new legos.

Unfortunately, I crashed on my bike ride home in the rain maneuvering around all the toys strewn about the sidewalk in front of our house and hurt my hand trying not to crash through a window. Hopefully it is just a contusion and not broken, because it would be a pain to have to cast my hand for the whole summer trip. The pain is pretty minimal and I have full mobility, so my hopes are high. I just have a hard time grabbing things or using it to push off the floor. We'll see.

I was still able to help some get ready for our big going-away potluck, which went really well. Thanks everyone for coming out and stuffing inside our little apartment because it was a little rainy outside. We've made some really great friends here in Madison who also happen to be really good cooks.

Here is a bonus behind the scenes look for making it all the way through this post:

Technically, I think I am uploading pictures to Facebook, but it was while I was in the midst of working on this post. Also wearing the same clothes as last night. It was that kind of party.