Trust The Plan

I figured out today that "Thy Will Be Done" means the same thing as, "I trust The Plan".  Now I want to put that on my wall in my next house.  It will help us to remember the big picture even if we don't understand all the moving parts.  One of my neighbors commented a few weeks ago that "Sometimes we think things are finally coming together, God knows that things have never actually been apart."  I like that and notice it more and more the more life I see.  It's like going on a trip in a car as a passenger.  Particularly as a kid.  We don't know where the folks are driving, or why there are so many bumps, or why we have to be in the car so long, or how things are going to look when we get there.  We just trust that Mom and Dad know where we are going and it will be fun.  (And we tend to ask "Are we there yet?" a lot.)
My sister Brooke and her hubby Jared finally got "there".  They brought their new baby to our house this week to stay for a while before they go home.  Here are some pics of my kids loving on their new cousin Brig.  I couldn't resist hanging a Brigham Young University pennant on his Pack & Play along with his finally finished baby quilt.
I enjoyed being the fairy godmother and giving Brig his first home sponge bath while Brookie shampooed him up and took pictures.

I'd have to say, though, that my favorite has been catching Brooke and Jared in their oh-so-vulnerable-new-parent moments, brought on by my rough-and-tumble children.
I came downstairs early one morning to see if I could snag the baby upstairs with me so Brooke could get another hour or two of sleep.  Ha ha (I'm still laughing out loud as I write this), my boys had her pinned in the lazy boy; she was holding onto that baby for dear life in nothing but her skivvies, not a bathrobe or a blanket within reach.  I shooed them out into the office to watch some Spiderman cartoons or something (hooray for Netflix), took the baby and ordered her back to bed.  Good thing Mark wasn't the first one downstairs!
Also had to laugh at mild-mannered, soft spoken Jared being in a bit of a panic (in the same lazy boy) when I caught my boys climbing over the arms of the chair, swiping off Jared's glasses (he usually has his contacts in, so they were a little fascinated) and attempting to try them on the baby.  Jared couldn't do anything about it because he was bottle feeding Brig, just an urgent "Don't do that, don't do that!"  Once again, I had to be the fly swatter.  I'm sure they will be relieved when they get to be home with no one but Lenny the Siamese cat.
Boston had his first baseball games this week!  He hits the ball pretty well but the whole team is still pretty confused about what you should do on outfield.  It makes it entertaining, though.  My favorite was a kid on the other team who ran to third base instead of first.  It was more of a trot, or a meander, than a run, which made it even funnier.  Boston liked being the first baseman because he liked to point to where the runner was supposed to go next (rather than try to get him out).  Mark soon put a stop to that.
We also have been trying to really enjoy these last few weeks of way-too-hot weather.  Friday I canned salsa all day and then that night we took the whole family to an outdoor acapella concert in the park right off Temple Square in downtown SLC.  We were on our picnic blanket right behind the provided lawn chairs and sound system and couldn't see a thing (along with most of the blanket sitters).  There was quite a crowd and we were actually lucky to have a place at all.  We could hear fine, though, and the weather was gorgeous and the singing was so fun.  We brought popcorn and water bottles and just lounged around with the kids, listening.  They did really well and even were dancing up a storm on a few of the songs while we sang along.  Coop and Boss really had some good moves on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and Macy kept trying to hula, entertaining everyone behind us, I'm sure.

Brooke wanted mostly gray and blue.  The back is the polka-dot stuff.

brothers from another mother?  Boston and Brig's ears have all the same folds and tucks.

I'm sure she was thinking, "But I'm the baby!"

Then last night we made our second attempt to visit our favorite splash park (our first attempt, last month, got lightninged out.)  It was gorgeous and fun and Mark cooked us all up some hot dogs while I lounged on the blanket and kept reminding the kids not to run on the wet cement.  I'm sorry I don't have pictures of these last two events, but Mark gets after me when I try to bring the camera.  He says to not worry about the camera and taking pictures and just have fun.  I'm okay with that!