Back From MIA...Possibly

I've been missing in action for over a month now, but I'm back, at least for the moment. I've been out enjoying my life outside of the computer/blogosphere. I'll share a few of the things that we've been out enjoying.

My little boy graduated kindergarten. Proud of the wonderful job he did in his first year of school, but not so sure I want him to be out of kindergarten. He ended with mainly Excellent's and some Satisfactory's. This is Jayce on graduation day with his awesome teacher...


So next year he'll hit the big time for 1st grade, Taylor will be in 4th, and Alyssa will be in her very last year of Jr. High, 8th grade. Ugh.

My husbands two oldest kids came out for a week's visit. While they were here we took them to Knott's Berry Farm and the beach in California. We had a wonderful time...minus freezing our asses off at the beach in the morning. My hubby is the only one who enjoyed it regardless of the frigid temp and water. But once the temps rose in the afternoon then we all enjoyed it. Seriously...when Ryan got out of the water in the morning HE WAS PURPLE. Mmm hmm...purple.

Ryan, Siara and I....our LOVELY 2 hour wait for Knott's Berry to open since Miss Siara woke us up at the crack of OMG because she wanted to get going...that and she's an early to rise girl to begin with...which kind of clashes with a "don't you dare wake me" me.

We ran into some hot fellas...

Ryan was just overjoyed that snoopy stopped by for a visit...

And here's my crazy family in the freezing waters of Newport Beach...

Siara, Ryan and I

Wondering if this sea urchin will poison me or something...

My hubby and I catching a wave...

Ooooh that was fun!

We went out on a ranger/quad ride....

Up front is Grandma Sheryl and Jayce, in the back is Alyssa, Siara and Taylor.

And here is my hubby and Ryan...

My hubby and I...

"I vwant to bite you"

And we've done some swimming...but I'll save that for another time. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Weekend Venture

We had a blast this weekend....and we also survived the snow! We ventured up to Flagstaff on Friday and stayed the night at Comfort Inn (I think they need to rename this hotel...Crack Inn, or maybe Noisy Inn) and then got up on Saturday to head out and play in the snow.

Here are some key points to our outing.

* In the hallway on the way to our room, our son decides to try the door knob to another room. They all look the same to him, he thought we were at ours. So after he was told to leave the handles alone, we continue down the hall. A few seconds later the said door opened, and crack lady herself pokes her head out to see who was trying to get in her room. I explained it was our son that mistook it for our room. The woman's hair looked like medusa and you could tell she was an addict...she probably was hallucinating that someone was out to get her.

*Usually when we stay in hotels we like to get adjoining rooms, that way we keep the door open between rooms and the kids are in one and we are in the other. We all like it that way. Well, this time we didn't do that. So the 3 kids shared a queen size bed. We were up off and on through the night with Taylor complaining about being squished. The girl can have a sleepover on her twin bed at home with her and a friend and no room on the bed and she's fine. But she obviously wasn't having it this way. I finally had to threaten her to be quiet and go to sleep already.

*At one point we were all pillow fighting on the bed, and this turned into pinning Jason down on the bed and tickling him. In return Jason was play biting me. Well...Jayce didn't realize that daddy was just play biting and he thought that Jason was really hurting me. So picture this...Jason laying on the bed, I'm sitting on his chest, the girls are by his legs....and Jayce starts crying a mad cry. I guess Jayce made a fast move and slugged Jason in the face 4X before he could be stopped. The girls and I were clueless to this, we just thought that maybe he got hurt while we were playing. Nope. So Jayce was scared and mad...and then Jason was mad cause he just got slugged in the face and didn't know why. That was interesting.

Here are the pics of our outing...

This is when we first arrived...

Alyssa and Jayce just went down the hill on the sled...Jayce is cryin' about the ice that went into his pants

Here's Alyssa getting some air on a little bump on the hill...she loves this stuff!

This is Taylor sledding down...you can't see her face very well on here...but if you could you'd be cracking up! She had a terrified look on her face. She's the type that gets scared but wants to do it anyways.

Here is Jason landing after going off course...

Taylor and Alyssa after going down together...again, Alyssa lovin' it and Taylor not so sure

Alyssa and I

Taylor and I

Jayce decided he wanted to ride down backwards so the snow wouldn't kick up in his face...

We had a really fun time can't wait until next time. I think we didn't freeze to death this time since there wasn't any wind...so that made it enjoyable for us.

Family Funnies

Everyone has some crazy funny family moments hidden in there somewhere.

Oh how I remember when...

Umm, something's wrong with mah teeth

Umm, naked here! I know I still look like my brother, but I've still gotta hide em!

Quit chasing me with the camera!

Oh fine, if you must have a picture of me!

But grandpa lets me pee outside at his house...

Sure Jayce, get off the couch and do something crazy like this out of the blue, no problem!

"He gets that from you Rose..that's all you"

Where has summer gone?

So I have been wondering where my summer has gone. All the things we do each summer have been absent from this summer. Camping? Haven't gone this summer. Boating? Haven't done that either. Ok, so that is due to our boat being broken down since last summer. What's a summer without camping and boating and swimming...and of course my favorite, roasting marshmallows by the camp fire at night.

So my husband doesn't want to go camping anymore until we get a travel trailer...I may forget what camping even is before we get one of those. I can't say I blame him much though. We can do the whole tent thing, but it really does feel like we're moving our whole house each time we go. Add to that a bad back for my husband, as he is a veteran. Our kids say they miss camping too, but really, I just have to give them THAT LOOK when they say this. I think our kids don't know what to do with themselves when we are camping. They tend to whine and complain and drive us crazy and end up just sitting there staring at us. It's like they don't know how to run around and play and have fun.

So, I'll just reminisce for a moment about our past camping and boating/swimming occasions, and maybe that will make it better for now...

Here is our boat. I call it the dragonfly since it likes to bounce and flit across the water.

This is when my husband and I camped overnight on the boat.

I slept as snug as a bug in a rug.

My husband on the other hand...he didn't think we needed to bring the other sleeping bag..he was gonna fish all night you know...so sometime in the middle of the night I woke up and heard a loud crinkling noise..I think he changed his mind, but now had to use the tarp to keep warm..I'm not so sure that he slept so well..

I miss the view..

I miss the serenity of being on the lake..

I miss taking the kids for walks in the woods while camping.

Front to back: Taylor, Alyssa, Siara

And Taylor and Alyssa learning how to fish..

And Mr. Jayce learning how to fish..

And looking back on the boat and seeing the kids giddiness..

Oh yes, those were the days...