Lucky for you, I forgot my camera

Arthur and I recently took a very amazing and much-needed trip, with just the two of us.  And on the way to the airport, Dallin texted me and said, "Mom, did you leave your camera here on purpose?"

dis-a-POINTED!!!  Actually, devastation might be a better word.  I was sick that I didn't have my beautiful new camera with me to take the perfect pictures of all of our adventures, especially since I'd bought a new purse to carry it in and had imagined getting such great scenic shots with my precious canon rebel.

The upside is there are far less pictures for you to scroll through in the coming several posts.  And far less pictures for me to try to narrow down.  And after I got over the initial devastation of forgetting my camera, I just calmed down and took more memory pictures, which are the kind of pictures that sometimes you miss out on if you are constantly looking through the view finder.

So the week after school started my mom came out to stay with our children while we were gone for 8 days.  My kids were over the moon that they were getting Nona all to themselves, and couldn't wait for Arthur and I to leave.  Off we flew to Puerto Rico, because we had Southwest miles and Puerto Rico is one of the furthest away of their destinations.  Neither of us had been there, so we didn't really know what to expect, and it turned out to be SUCH a great trip!  I definitely recommend it and plan on including links to the places we stayed and adventures we had just case anyone else has Southwest Miles to burn, and an angel mother who is willing to come stay with your kids.

Those posts will be forthcoming, but in the meantime, I just want to say, that even if we had just gone to Santa Fe and left our children with my mother, it would have been worth it just for my kids to have some one on one time with their Nona.  She made them delicious breakfasts and fudge to eat when they came home from school, and restocked our freezer with a batch of strawberry jam, that Dallin made sure to point out to me when I got home.  (He really appreciates that strawberry jam, Mom.)  And she had family scripture reading with them every morning and encouraged them in their personal scripture reading and they had meaningful gospel discussions that wouldn't have taken place had Arthur and I been in the way.

I'm so thankful for my Mom's influence on my children and for the time they got to spend with her that week.  Also, I've gotta send out a big thank-you to my Dad and brothers, Nathan and Reed for toughing it out at home without her for 8 days.  Families tend to work a little better with a mom around, so I appreciate you guys for sharing her for awhile.