Ice Cream and Train Tracks

We weren't too sure how Ryan's high school soccer season would end this year. We hoped for the best, seeing as for the last 5 years, his teams have made it to the playoffs. One year they were District Champs...so it would seem that this year would follow suit. Not so. Unfortunately they didn't even qualify for the playoffs. While his coaching friends and colleagues are preparing their teams for playoffs, watching films, comparing notes and talking strategy, Ryan is home with us. This is new territory. Not just the final record for the team this year. The being home with NO other comittments! No other schedule!
We know now that God must have wanted us to have some quality family time. And we have been so blessed with just that! This week has been incredible. We sleep in until at least 8:30 every morning. We get up and have some breakfast. We play outside. We hike. We have picnic lunches. We go get ice cream. We let the kids ride in their race car. We all take naps. We wake back up and play outside more. We get groceries and pick out the best tomatoes. The kids help because we're not in a hurry. We grill meat on the charcoal. We sit in lawnchairs and watch the kids crack each other up by driving backward on their Hot Wheels. We go for another walk. I think we've walked at least 15 miles this week. We take our time on those walks. Leah reads us the letters on every sign we pass. She sounded out her first word today completely on her own. POND. And Ryan got to hear it. We sit in the hot tub. We walk back home in our flip flops and rinse off, snuggle up in our jammies and say prayers later than normal, because it's spring break. And it doesn't matter.
Today was the best day yet. We used sunscreen before walking into downtown Forth Worth. We watched the cattle drive and the cowboys. We smelled cigars. We window shopped, had a picnic and got to pet pygmy goats and geese and ducks and even some bunnies. Ryan helped me lift the stroller over the bad parts of the cobblestone streets. The kids loved it! Logan got to walk on the Tarantula train tracks. Leah got to see a beautiful old wedding dress all full of lace, just after she sat on a saddle and wore a cowboy hat. She listened intently to the cowboy that saddled her up. Logan would have no part of it.
And the whole time, Ryan and I just walked together. We watched the kids, we held hands, we soaked in the sunshine. We realized that sometimes it's nice when the team doesn't make it into playoffs. It's so nice to have all four of us in bed in the morning. It's great to have Ryan with us when the chocolate-chip-pancakes come off of the griddle. I can't say that we're too upset about the end of the season. Sometimes it's nice just to have time for things like ice cream and train tracks.