What have we been up to lately? We went to the aquarium and saw Santa. Joe took the boys who wanted to go to a Salt Lake Stars game. We went to the Leonardo. Not pictured is a trip to Temple Square to see my sister sing in a choir, visiting our cousin’s house, and sledding. We also did a double Thanksgiving this year. We were at our house with the Walker family and then went to Joe’s brother’s house a couple hours later for the Braithwaite Thanksgiving. Too much turkey, but honestly not enough pie.

Here’s what I’m learning about doing lots of fun things with the kids.

• You have to plan ahead. Good intentions do not translate into doing things. Planning does.
• Not everyone needs to go to everything. Splitting people up actually gives a lot of opportunities to have one-on-one or alone time as needed. And not everyone likes everything.
• Sometimes it is good to force people to go. My oldest did not want to go to the Leonardo but enjoyed it. If you force people to go to things they don’t enjoy though, it just makes things less enjoyable.
• You often don’t want to go, but rarely regret going.
• It’s better to plan how often you want to go do things and find activities to fill that, than trying to go to an unlimited amount of activities. Ideally, I like doing one thing during the week in the afternoon/evening with the kids, and one thing on Saturday. Anything more than that is too much.
• You still need downtime at home. Everyone does.