What a busy weekend. It was a good one, but still busy. I feel like I get a wee little bit of downtime and then everything is rush rush rush.  We had a 5 day weekend this past weekend. Well the kids did, teachers had to report for a seminar on Mindfulness and mental health. I know that it was suppose to be more about how to handle students, but I found it to be helpful for me. Grief has presented itself as a way for me to find me, and in doing so  I'm presented with different emotions that i don't normally deal with. My sounding block and the one who kept me sane is no longer here, which means i must deal with everything on my own. It also means changes in me.  I don't want to change, but i feel like it's for the better down the road. So that was my friday. The kids got to enjoy the day with Nana and had a blast.
Saturday we headed up to sheboygan to see the family up there. We did a cookout at Aunt Rachel's and then just hung around Grandma's. It was perfect and relaxing. The kids had fun and it was nice catching up.

 Sunday it rained in the morning, but we lazed around Grandma's house and got to enjoy waffles and bacon. THen as we got up and moving the the rain stopped. Sun was shining as we got to the wade house.  The kids had a great time and we met up with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Joel, Alex and Sam.

I'm so lucky for Uncle Ben. The kids have so much fun with him and he does a great job with them. Hopefully we will be able to do more with him as the kids get older,too!
today was a so so day. We got stuff done at my mom's house, visited Josh's grave and got stuff done at home. I'm learning how much i can do on my own and who is there to help me.  It's still very hard for me to be alone. Today i wanted to go fishing with the kids, but I have no clue where to go, can't take off a fish and missing our poles. I miss that the most. Being outside doing things as a family. Josh was such an outdoors sportsman and i want to pass that on to my kids.   I've been trying to let things happen as they are meant to be and not stress over what i can't do, so i'm praying that there will be answer to my prayer of something to be outdoors with us.
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Missing pictures from Monday :(

Saturday June 6th

What a day we had.. We didn’t tell the kids anything until it happened, so the kids were both up by 6am. Josh made breakfast. Afterwards we all got dress and packed to go. We wanted to make it a fun family day…and that we did.

First up was the zoo! The kids had so much. We let them take turns picking where we went and what we did. We played on the playground, train and carousel. Well max did the Carousel. We are pretty sure it was his first time, as Bella always boycotted it at the zoo and he was sleeping at Disney. We got see the Polar Bears a lot! We also had a snack at the new Glacier Grill. IT was just a great time at the zoo.

Next up was a trip around Madison to go to Ella’s Deli for lunch. The kids weren’t sure what to make of the place other then they too had a carousel. Max was cranky because he was tired, but he managed to make it though.

 

Next up was a stop at a friends house to pick up some books. Which worked as a good distraction for Bella until we made it to our next stop, Cabela's . We finally made it to the new one where Josh picked out his father’s day gift. Bella got new bobbers, Max a paint your own John Deere Tractor and cinnamon pecans for me. I”ll admit it’s not as impressive as the one in Richfield and I think has less stuff then the Prairie du Chien one, but it’s the closest for us now. I do like they have a café in it. 

On the way home Max fell asleep, so we let him sleep once we got home. Poor Josh was in pain with his pain so he tried to ice and heat that before he headed off to church. He went tonight because I sing tomorrow and he had a big house project to get done Sunday.  Bella and I just relaxed until Josh got back home.

We had a “whatever you can find” supper. Seemed to work well for the kids. Then Josh suggested doing a bonfire. The kids loved that idea. So we all went down to do chores and get a bonfire going.  The kids had fun looking for sticks to for the fire. Then they would go off and play with toys. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. Max preferred plain marshmallows.  Once it go darker Bella asked for sparklers.. so we said sure! The kids had a blast with that. But we figured out why we had them left from last year..they smoked like crazy!

 

I also got a video of Max talking about our day