Life with the Leibrocks: A weekend of impromptu fun

So if you know me, you know that I almost never blog about something that just happened. Most of the time I have a laundry list of posts that I want to do and every 3-4 months I sit down and crank all of them out. However, I just felt moved tonight to sit down and document this past weekend as it was a really great weekend filled with sweet family time and lots of great memories.

If I could sum up this weekend in one phrase, it would be "impromptu fun." We didn't have a ton planned but went with the flow and took advantage of some impromptu moments and truly had an amazing time. It was an excellent reminder to me that sometimes the best things can't be all planned out and I just need to get better at "going with it" and enjoying the wonderful family that I have.

And let me back-up a bit and say that the last three weeks have been some of the best of my life as I recently started a new job at my company (it's truly my dream job here and I feel so so blessed!) and along with that, Matt moved to first shift. That in itself has been a tremendous blessing as this past year as been really rough on us with his odd schedules. It's unbelievable to both be working and both be home at night to make dinner and put Brinley to bed. I feel like I've had to keep pinching myself lately just to make sure it's truly all real as I can't believe this is really our life now. It's so amazing I'm almost scared to blink and have it all disappear, but we're trusting God to guide are path. "For we know not what the future holds, but we know who holds our future."

So going back to this weekend. We started off with me picking up Brinley from her new Thursday/Friday daycare and then making a split second decision to go with a Chipotle picnic for dinner watching Lion King. It was perfect. Then Saturday morning we were up and ready early to attend an officer's breakfast at Daddy's firestation. The pumpkin pancakes were delicious and I was celebrating as it was two meals in a row that we didn't have to cook or clean-up. Score!

After the breakfast Matt had volunteered to stay behind and help clean-up so the plan was that Brinley and I were going to go home and take a bath. But in the car I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to the zoo. So I figured it was 9:45, we were already up, dressed and fed, why not? So we went to the zoo. :) When we got there I quickly realized that it was actually trick or treating a the zoo that day and Brinley was not dressed in costume. She didn't mind though and we had a wonderful day. We went and saw the monkeys, penguins and then had a quick snack before going down the Minnesota trail. She's at the perfect zoo age and loves to run and check out the next animal exhibit. She also loves to say hi and bye to the animals and try and make friends with the other kids. It was adorable and I loved watching her.

We also took our time and I really didn't rush her. Just followed her around and watched her joy, it was wonderful. After the Minnesota trail she said she wanted to go and play on the playground so we did. I played with her a bit but really let her just run around herself and she loved it. Especially the spinning birds nest thing. Afterwards I gave her the choice of eating corn dogs in the cafeteria or heading home. She chose the cafeteria so we had some lunch. At lunch she met a new friend and they played together for awhile and then we headed to the honey bee hive. She loved it there and made more new friends and had a ball building towers and knocking them over. Then after we left there they were having a mini-concert on stage and Brinley went up and danced it was so cute. She also saw an older boy there and decided to copy everything he did, including sitting on the stage and swinging her feet it was adorable!

Shortly after that we headed home, but it was truly an amazing time at the zoo! On the way out I was holding her and she started singing me the "we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo" song. I hugged her and told her how much fun I had with her that day and in that moment the world was absolutely perfect. It was beautiful. :)

On the way home we stopped and picked up Daddy and decided to head over to the local pet store for their petting zoo. Brinley loved all of the animals and wanted to touch all of them. She wasn't afraid at all, in fact I had to keep reminding her to touch soft so she wouldn't scare them and end up getting bit. She sure loves animals! I think the puppy and pig were her favorite.

Sunday we all woke up late but still made it over to church on time (miracle from God, for sure!), and then came home and Matt had some friends over for the Vikings game. Brinley and I played and watched sis sis and I helped my mom with her work project. I've helped her a couple of times this week and honestly loved it. We bonded so much over it and had a lot of laughs too. It really was wonderful to help her!

Then after nap, we decided to make some cupcakes as a family. It was such a sweet (and messy!) time and we had lots of laughs for sure. The cupcakes turned out great but it was more about just all of us being together. Then right before dinner Brinley wanted to go outside and we actually said "yes." So for 15 minutes we raked leaves, ran around and just had fun. It was great!

After dinner there was more giggles as we played a tiger chasing game with the foam halloween mask that Brinley had gotten at the zoo. It was such a blast. Just our family, no cell phones, no distractions, just fun.

So here I sit and type after a full and fun weekend full of so many unplanned happy moments. If there's one thing that I've learned from this weekend it's to take advantage of those times when we can say "yes" and throw our plans aside and just seize the moment. It's so worth it.