Karen and Crew: Allen's House

We spent one fun filled day with the Allens. On the way down, I got a text from Matt saying Sigonella, Sicily. I was in traffic on I-15 and didn't respond thinking it was just another possibility for someday. An hour later he called and said, "Really, what do you think? I have to tell them right now." Wow. That was quite a crazy thought as I sat on the playroom/schoolroom floor at Emily's house. The other two choices were North Dakota or Kansas. What an insanely easy choice to make. The only hang up was that they wanted Matt to be there by April 1st.

(typing this more than 2 months later with the time to reflect and see how things have played out takes all the high emotion out. It's more comfortable, but more boring too.)

Italy was the best choice, but that didn't make it easy to think of the things we would be saying good-bye to earlier than originally planned. I knew I had a couple of hard phone calls to make to good friends. I was thinking about Isaac's Shakespeare and football, Makenna's dance recital, Jessica's soccer season and my May race. The right thing isn't always easy. Or guaranteed, as it turned out. But I digress. Back to our fun day with Emily and her kids. And Kim too! She came over for a few hours too! I missed a chunk of it, but got to see her more Thursday.

They started using the k12 curriculum this year and we were looking forward to having a school day together. My kids were so excited to see them and their new, beautiful house that it took a bit to settle down in their very excellent school room. But we did eventually buckle down and get a fair amount of learning done. Even with a rock-my-world-phone-call.

Kate and Jess working on math. Jess was excited to learn that she had just started the same book as Kate; of course Kate is nearly done.

Makenna was happy to take breaks to entertain Sam.

Isaac passing off what looks like a grammer lesson.

It was fun to see Emily doing familiar lessons.

Three working girls. This is right before Jess started reading to Lucy. They both loved it so much that I think Jess read over 1/2 the book out loud. For the next month she would say, "I've already read that. I read it with Lucy!"

After lunch, I slipped out to go down to Mapleton for a tax meeting with Craig. Very worth the time and drive, but I did miss out on some serious fun. It was reported to me that they went sledding at Sister Beck's house (yes, the RS General President. She apparently has some wicked hills in her backyard.) Sledding had concluded and the wet stuff was scattered to dry. They had moved on to this . . . .

Makenna going down

the laundry chute.

The others lined up in the bathroom for their turn.

Isaac caught them and helped them out the bottom.

Here comes

Jessica.

Every so often Isaac would run upstairs and take a turn solo, but he had to be quick to meet the demand. Coolest indoor playground ever. Eventually they stopped and went on to other things. There was much dressing up and hiding and finding and sword battles and flying monkeys and hugs 'n kisses and impromptu music concerts. I couldn't drag the kids away until after a late dinner and just one more song. Thanks Allens!