Arriba Los Chargers!

Just back from a great trip to sunny and HOT Cali! The reason for the trip was to see the Chargers (of course we told the kids it was to see Mickey). We headed to sunny CA hoping to see the Chargers get their first win, after getting screwed against the Broncos, yes I am still bitter! Anyway, we bought the tix way back earlier in the year, long before Favre was a Jet. Needless to say, I wasn't super excited to see the Jets play, that is until I heard Brett Favre was there. Although I am a Chargers fan, ya gotta love Favre.

We stayed in Riverside at J's grandpa's house the first night and the kids were so excited it was warm enough to swim in their pool. They swam all day the first day and wore themselves out. Well, as worn out as they get.

After a fun day of swimming and letting Brenley meet her great grandma Sue and Papa Jess, we headed down to San Diego, where we rented a condo about 300 feet from the sand and the Pacific Ocean. As you can see the kids had a great time building sand castles and running and playing in the ocean. J even had a great time boogey boarding.


We spent the whole first day at the beach and then on Monday we headed out to Qualcomm Stadium for the Monday Night Football game between the New York Jets and the San Diego Chargers. We all had our jerseys on and went and chilled for awhile at the tailgate party in the parking lot. T and J played football, we listened to the band and best of all, we watched the Chargers kill the Jets. My favorite player, Antonio Cromartie had two interceptions, one for a touchdown and almost had a third. It was a great game, filled with fans fighting (as always there) and Brett Favre, which was really cool to see him play.

The next day we headed out to Sea World where the kids, and me too if the truth be told, had so much fun watching the dolphins and killer whales, the penguins and the fun Journey to Atlantis ride. It was well worth it going, the shows were absolutely so entertaining.

We LOVED the "Shamu" show. We were setting a little bit back, but still in the soak zone and as you can see... WE GOT SOAKED.



We spent the next day in Disneyland and had so much fun. B had never been there before and T was a lot smaller, so they both got to go on a lot of rides. T's fave, Pirates of the Caribbean, was definitely not B's favorite, she cried! We spent only a day there, I could have done more, but we crammed every second of that day with rides and fun. I already want to go back to Disneyland again. B's favorite part was meeting all of the characters: Mickey, Pluto, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh and more. She blew them kisses and gave them hugs!







We spent the last day at the Huntington Beach Pier and walking around there. I love that area, great shopping, good food and great people watching. There is always something going on there. Once again, our trip came and went just like that. Now its time to plan the next one...

Love notes for T...

Oh, I love you my babies!

An excerpt from a conversation with T, two days ago...

So the neighbor girl was over at our house a couple of days ago playing with T, she is a year older than him. She walks into the family room where I was sitting and hands me a note and then asks, "will you please give this to T when I leave?" I tell her that I would and then I open it up, she had it folded nicely. On the note it had her name and his name and then "I 'heart' you." I was cracking up and when she left I gave it to him. He asked what it was and who it was from. I told him it was a 'love note' from V and that it said she loved him.

"Stupid!!" he says. "This is stupid. I hate love, it is dumb" and then proceeds to rip it up and throw it in the garbage. Well, at least V had gone home and was spared the heartbreak.

Oh heaven help me... loves notes at 5?

Excuse me, is that a tarantula?

We took off for a quick trip down to Lake Powell, quite honestly one of the most beautiful places in the world. We skiied and camped and wakeboarded til we dropped. The guys did some cliff diving too while I watched. The kids loved hanging out on the boat all day, and night. We bought the kids their own skis before we left and T tried it behind the boat. He got up on his first try and lasted about 10 seconds or less until he got leaning too far back and fell over. He did great, but would not do it again.
We hadn't been since 2001 and I was shocked at how low the Lake is. The pic below is in Forgotten Canyon and is called the Defiance House, a place where the Anasazi lived a long, long time ago. Anyway, if you see our boat in the water in the background and see the line, that is how high it was last time we were there. We actually camped right across from the house and swam there. There is no more water, at all where we had swam. Pretty sad how low it has got.
The kids loved Powell and loved swimming in the 80* bathwater. They got a kick out of the bats circling our boat each night, although T was afraid one was going to suck his blood. I told him "silly boy, bats don't suck your blood and according to Edward, there are nice vampires too." Oh and then I started daydreaming of Edward... but as I digress!
Check out the creepy tarantula. My sis-in-law was sleeping in her tent when all of the sudden spiders crawling in her tent woke her up and freaked her out. She woke up to go outside and was greeted just outside her tent door by this creepy ass tarantula. GROSS! She screamed and managed to trap it! They are pretty quick little things. Again, the kids thought it was great, although only from a distance.

All in all, a great trip to Powell. Hopefully next time it will be longer.

And the gold medal for outstanding sequence of dives goes to...

Gone, baby gone...

Well, just like that my baby boy is not my baby anymore. Today was his first day of kindergarten. I almost can't even spit that out, I feel like I am talking about someone else. Where did 5, almost 6 years go in such a short time? I choked back tears and sobs all morning from the moment T woke me up all dressed and ready to go to school. He had an excitement about him all morning right up through the time we dropped him off. I knew he would be fine when on the way he made me promise not to walk him in, he could do it all by himself. Ok, so I crossed my fingers on that promise, how could I not walk him into his classroom, worse how could he not need me to walk him in there anymore? I feel this will be the first of many "drop me off around the corner mom, don't hug me in front of my friends mom". I hope they don't all rip my heart out like this morning. I am so glad he didn't freak out, but maybe he could have at least humored me by pretending he still needs me a little.

So a little embarassing standing outside his class waiting, feeling like I am dropping him off and never picking him up again, but I was begging to go in with him. He kept telling me no, he could do it. I know HE could do it, but I couldn't do it. So, after he made his way in, I snuck it behind and watched him walk over to his cubby to put his backpack away, find his nametag and take his seat. I didn't feel so bad when I backed up and ran into daddy, who also apparently didn't make any promises and snuck in with me. B also went in, I think hoping she could stay with her "brudder" in there. She moped all the way home missing him. It was weird, I missed him so much too.

You could definitely tell who the kindergartners parents were, they had the video cameras following their every footstep. I really like T's teacher when I met her the other night, I felt like she was a warm person. He gave her a high 5 and colored her a pic and then for the next 2 days is all he has talked about.


I know this is many one of many rites of passage for him, but this was a hard one to swallow. He is my first baby and I love that boy for all of his traits that are his and his alone. I know he will do well in school, but can't he just pretend I am still a player in the game and not on the sidelines already? T, be your own person always, be a good person and friend. I love you buddy!

T and his buddy K, so glad to be in the same school with him.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Mommy

Happy Birthday to you...

Just wanted to wish my mom a Happy 29th Birthday today.... I wanted her to know how much I love her and appreciate all that she does for me. There are days I don't know what I would do without her. I can only hope and pray that my relationship with B is half as good as our was Mom, and I will feel very lucky. You are a very special person to me and my very best friend. Even when I was a teenager I always felt so fortunate to have a mom like you, we never fought or argued, you would help me sneak out (is it sneaking out when your mom knows?), and I really think you had as much fun as we did. You were always so supportive of me in all that I did, especially my softball and athletics. Always pushing me, teaching me to be better and tougher and that is something I have carried into my life now and just applied it to other things. Thank you for so many invaluable lessons you taught me then and continue to teach.

You are a wonderful mom, grandma Pennie, mother in law and friend and I celebrate you today and everyday!

The world needs more moms like you!

I love you....