Hi-YA CowBOY

All of my kids have been blessed with larger than life personalities. My youngest however may have just a little somethin' extra! Today on our way out from Costco we spotted a Costco employee that was getting ready to head out and round up the carts. He was wearing his bright orange vest and a straw hat (I can only guess probably to keep out the sun). Before I even had a chance to notice him sitting on the side Avery yells out... " HI YA COW....BOY. with all the western drawl and inflection she can muster. When I start to laugh (as does everyone within ear shot) She turns to me and says "What mommy? He is a cowboy! See his hat?" It was the funniest thing! It totally brought a smile to his face, mine too.... but she does that everyday anyway!

Sum....Sum... Summer Time

I have now resigned myself to the fact that I completely suck at blogging during the summer. Accepting this fact and stating it out loud is quite therapeutic for me. I no longer feel like such a slacker when I put 1 maybe 2 pitiful little posts up per month. Having said this, here are a few of the things we've been up to lately.

Some much needed swimming lessons

Fireworks.... of course!

Lots and Lots of T-ball

And LAST but definitely not least.... My baby girl turned 3

(she was insistent that she have cupcakes and not a birthday cake!)

She had a swimming/Tinkerbell party complete with Tinkerbell swimming suit and dress up costume.

I love summer time!!!! Is there any wonder why? It just doesn't get any better than this.

Not so glad to be back

I'm sad to say that our trip to Hawaii has come and gone. We are back from our week long stay on Kauai. People have been asking me if we had fun on our trip. I guess the appropriate reply is yes, even though this doesn't really begin to cover how much fun we had. After ten years it is strange to find yourself alone with your spouse for a whole week. No one is there to interrupt 10 times before you can finish a sentence. It is SO nice!

We stayed on Poipu beech on Kauai. It was rated No 1. beech by the travel channel last year. Now I know why! This was our view from our room. Just around the corner was the sandy part of the beach and the cabana chairs where we spent many relaxing hours!

We paddled down the Wailea river and hiked to the "secret falls". We were so hot and sweaty! It was a cool experience, but required WAY too much effort for a vacation activity! Part of that was due to the guide (ask me about it later)

We also took a little zodiac boat out around the island to the side of the island called the Na'pali Coast. The only way you can get there is by boat it was pretty awesome. We took the bumpiest smallest boat that proved to be more of an adventured. We got to go into little sea caves that the big boats couldn't go into. It was well worth the sore butts that we got in return! Then we snorkeled along a reef over there and visited an ancient Hawaii village that many locals aren't even allowed to go to. (This was only because our guide was part of the rehabilitation project)


We spent plenty of time relaxing and watching the sunset (or sunrise... we had trouble sleeping in over there) Did I mention we had an amazing room! These pictures were taking from the balcony in my room.

We had so much fun. Just hanging out with each other. I've already started planning our 20 year anniversary trip. That one is going to to take a passport for sure! : )

I won't torture you with endless photos. I'll just leave you with one more thing. This video is of me boogie boarding. So FUN!!!! This turned out to be one of my favorite things to do! Who knew! Turn on your sound to hear Michael cracking up while I very un-expertly ride my wave up the beach! Enjoy!

" I have NO idea how she knows this!!!!"

We are finally settling into our summer routines. The first week or so we couldn't get into a groove and there was more than enough fighting to make me wish summer were already over!!!! We finally are getting used to be out for summer and most of our days are happily passing by in a flash. Sunday's however, are a little bit different. My girls LOVE church. Avery loves to get dressed up in her "princess dress" and go to her castle (which is what she calls the church bldg) Dylan however is a little bit less enthusiastic. I truly think that boys just can't sit still, be peaceful, and quiet for 3 whole hours. It's like asking girls to not talk for a whole day. JUST NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Dylan had a particularly bad day at church this weekend. He squirmed and talked through most of the first hour, and wiggled more than a lot during the next two. Even when I told him Numerous times to quit it. Who knows what he did during the 3rd hour, I couldn't see him then. (but I'm sure he wasn't behaving). Then after church I sent Haley to track him down so we could leave. She found him once and he ran a way. She found him again and he BIT her and ran away, by the time I found him I had more than had it!!! (Let's just say for his sake he was lucky to be within ear shot of all the people at church) When we got home I was telling Michael about all that happened while Dylan listened and looked at me with an amazed look on his face. Finally he turned to Michael and said "I have no idea how she knows all of this!" Not I'm sorry mom, not.... I'll do better next week. He just walked away to his room (for his time out )muttering "how do mom's know everything?"

How do moms know everything? It's just a gift I guess. (well maybe it's a curse)

And the winner is!

I just realized that I never informed all of you where we will be heading for our anniversary. After all of your helpful input I figure I owed it to you. After the whole pig flu thing we ruled out Mexico. Plus I didn't have our passports, and didn't leave enough time to get them here without rushing them (in other words lots of $$$) so that ruled out the Bahamas as well. Time frame helped rule out Europe. (I have issues about leaving the kids for very long.... I know I'm weird)

SO we are heading to Hawaii. This is where Michael was wanting to go from the start. Since we went to Maui on our honeymoon we figured we would try a new island. We're heading to Kauai. Plenty of beaches, waterfalls, snorkeling, alone time, surfing, hiking, and best of all! NO KIDS.

I know the kids will be well taken care of while we're gone by loving family members. Now if I can just wait for a couple of weeks.

Summer = Really Lame Blogging

Summer hasn't even officially begun but between end of school programs, last week of school activities. Really sick kids and reading my Kindle any free moments that leaves exactly no time for blogging.

On of our newest weird infirmity at our house is ear pain. (We are no strangers to ear pain) Haley, who is on her second set of ear tubes started having ear pain out of no where (this shouldn't be happening with ear tubes.) Then the pain stopped really abruptly and now her ear is draining bloody yucky stuff. Does this sound like a ruptured ear drum? Any of you ever had something like this?

Yippee bring on the summer fun.

Happy Mother's Day

I am a spoiled girl! I admit this.... openly and freely. I need to give my husband props, I know I have said this before, but he is the BEST gift giver EVER! This is what he gave me this year for Mother's Day.

It's a Kindle 2. You may or may not have heard about these. I LOVE to read. I buy a book a week, usually, and I am literally depressed when I don't have one to read.

So I've been researching (I'm a little crazy about researching things) for quite a while about these little guys. There are different brands and price ranges for these digital readers. The Kindle however seems to be the COOLEST one by far. (Of course it's also more expensive too) I mentioned this a while back to the hubby that I wished I had one. Guess what came in the mail today just in time for Mother's day. Needless to say I giggled like a girl and jumped up and down. (All of this was extremely funny to the neighbor and the UPS man)

Okay... enough blabbing. Here's what it does.

Holds e books (up to 1500 of them)
Instantly downloads them via the wi-fi for those of us with no patience.
Reads like a normal book REALLY it does. It's not like a computer screen. It has something to do with electronic ink.... Way too hi-tech for me to explain. Just REALLY REALLY cool.
Plus plenty of other cool things!


I've only had it for about 45 min and I already know how to use it, and I have a new book and I've finished the first chapter of my new book! YEA!

THANKS BABE!