…Now if only we would tell ourselves that every day, with such conviction as she has.

During General Conference weekend I had an opportunity for a quick outing to a cupcake shop with my sister, Mom, and nieces. The store had recently won the show Cupcake Wars, and we wanted to see how good they were.

Their winning cupcake display.

It turns out, all the cupcakes were really tasty. I tried the fruit pizza, caramel toffee, and chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. They are less sweet than the ones at the cupcake bakery closer to our house, and I enjoyed these more. The fruit pizza was surprisingly delicious (it was a show award winner), and the chocolate peanut butter was my favorite.

And maybe the best part was I had an outing without my kids! A break is nice.

Not too long ago I took Wes, Carissa, and Elizabeth to Payless for shoes. Shopping with all three kids can be a little hit-and-miss, but once they found the camera in my purse they were happily entertained while I took turns helping them try on shoes. And thus our shopping trip has been documented.

Picture taken in front of a mirror.

John came with me and the kids to IKEA. A treat to have John, and a double treat to meet up with my parents there.

IKEA with Grandpa = lots of fun and climbing.

At home in IKEA.

Lunch at IKEA. Yummmmm. And cheap.

Watching cars.

Because an outing is never complete without an ice cream cone.

One new toy.

Another new toy.

A fun day.

Wes or Carissa sometimes snag my camera without me knowing it.

And this is my favorite, courtesy of Carissa. Reminds me of a picture I have of us in my kitchen from our dating days back in college.

A couple weekends ago there was an activity at a local “Fun Center” for families with kids who have special needs. It’s nice to have activities like this where the entire facility is open to just these families. Wes gets let off easily sometimes as having an excuse for his behavior because clearly he has Down syndrome. His disability is obvious, but not every kid’s struggle is so easily labeled. You see kids sometimes having meltdowns in crowded places and you may wonder what’s wrong with him, or with his parent, when really he has a disability such as autism that is harder to identify. At activities like these, everyone understands and accepts and is patient. It’s nice.

We took Wes and Carissa to the roller skating rink first.

Wes was excited by the idea of it, but not by the actual skating part.

Carissa was acting very put-out and sad.

So we didn’t spend long at the rink. I would’ve loved more time to practice my skating and go a few rounds with John, who is an excellent skater from his days on the ice hockey team in college.

Next we went to the area with the bounce houses. Wesley’s specialty! I always forget how fearless and boundary-less he is with physical activities like this. He climbs the highest bounce houses, even the ones that make me nervous with their height. I usually climb right behind him to make sure he’s safe, but I’ve never seen him in danger of falling. Here he is in action:

Carissa was still out-of-it and only played a little. I took her down a few slides.

Wes had a ton of fun and was perhaps a little over-excited. Carissa wanted to go home. So we finally left. We were able to get away without a total meltdown from Wes by promising him ice cream. Carissa was asleep before we even got to the drive-up window that was only a few blocks away.

Later that afternoon Carissa threw up a few times and had a fever. So that explains her sad morning. Poor kid. It just wasn’t her day. But we’re still glad we had that time together as a family.