The Tomlinsons: Labor Day/Lazy Day

Day 161 (Sunday 9-1):

We decided to go to church at Coeur d'Alene Bible Church on Sunday. Our hosts had gone out of town for Labor day to camp and left us at their place for a few days. Pretty trusting, right?

We took Kora to the church nursery AFTER we had donut holes and fancy coffee in their fellowship hall. Kees went with us to "big church", and they had the kids gather at the front for a little sermonette. I took Kees up there, but kind of regretted it. It lasted longer than I had anticipated and Kees wouldn't even face forward, he just clung tightly to me the whole time. I guess it was too much too soon for him. We're trying our best to ease him into things here in America, but it's always hard to judge where those lines are.

Dropping her off, they gave us a pager. Kees kept checking it and asking when we were going to go get her.

There were nametags right when we walked in, I found out that no one actually uses them, but I'm kind of used to being different.

Look at Kees look of disinterest and depression. This may have been the longest 10 minutes of my life, I felt like such a terrible mother.

And then he fell asleep, maybe that's why he was hanging all over me...maybe?

After church we went to lunch. I was starving...which is often the case. So I kept telling Doug, just pick a place, anywhere, I'm dying! He drove further than I thought he should have, but we ended up at this restaurant called Shari's and in the end I was glad he'd gone a little further. It was yummy! (You can check out their website here.) They serve breakfast 24/7 and have about 8 million kinds of pie, not to mention triangular crayons that don't roll off the table, and quite a few children's books.

Coloring with a triangular crayon.

Kora loves writing.

Doug was checking out all the kinds of pie they serve.

I look tired...can't remember if I was or wasn't.

I'm sure Doug will be thrilled about this one, but Kora's smile is so great!!!

Books!

We picked these up.

Look how guilty she is.

Doug had a hamburger with pastrami on it and it was on a pretzel bun...that's a thing now, putting stuff on pretzel buns.

Chicken alfredo and pita pieces.

After our fabulous family lunch, Kora fell asleep in the car. I was dying to do a little exploring (of nearby stores) to see what was available in the area. I wanted to go to Dollar Tree to get a few new things for the kids for the car ride home and I had seen there was a grocery outlet store near there. So, I dropped Doug and Kora off to take a nap, and Kees and I went on an adventure! We ended up shopping at Dollar Tree, Grocery Outlet, and Kmart. It was so much fun. Unfortunately, 12 hours later, when we got home, we discovered Kora had not stayed asleep and Doug had been entertaining her that entire time. I felt so bad!

Kees got to pick a car at Dollar Tree.

I LOVED the grocery outlet, it was so cool!

I was in Kmart and awkwardly realized that the shoes I was wearing had a similar version that was marketed as a house shoe...nice.

Our new friends, the Humphreys had invited us to try out a Thai restaurant in the area. As soon as we walked in, I realized this was like no restaurant actually in Thailand....that I'd ever been too. Way too fancy and cold. Also, all the servers were English speakers. That made me sad, I was hoping to brush up on some Thai. May have to drive to Spokane to get the real Thai experience. The food was good and the company was good! Unfortunately for me, Kora was not on her best restaurant behavior, and I ended up taking her out to the car and strapping her into her carseat. She actually didn't mind being in the carseat and listening to music for around 15 minutes, then she cried and cried. Kees enjoyed pretending to drive.

Thai Bamboo...fancy, fancy.

Please sit down, young one.

Motherhood isn't always fun and exciting, sometimes it's sitting in a vehicle listening to kid music and a screaming kid.

Day 162 (Monday 9-2):

Lazy Labor Day, lovely, lovely, lazy day. I feel like I could make up a song about this if you gave me about 5 minutes. We rested, played, and enjoyed hanging around the house. We would have ventured out, but it was kind of rainy, so we just hung around. LOVELY!