Farrell's!

No, I hadn't been until about a week ago but I kept hearing such great things about the place that, when my mom's cousin, Melody, and her family, planned to go there for her birthday, I was really excited to finally experience the Fountain Fantasies and Fantabulous Food!

It did not disappoint. Once I took a bite of the Swiss Turkey on Foccacia, I could have eaten it for breakfast, lunch and dinner a few days in a row...and for those of you that know me, eating the same thing again and again isn't my fave.

So all 15 of us crowded into the "party room" of Farrell's and enjoyed our experience immensely. Thank you, Melody and Kyle, for such a special treat.

 Cousin William with Lynnea who thought he was just about the greatest thing since My Little Pony (William, that's totally a compliment).

 The birthday girl with her ice cream creation and her "no-one-should-realize-it's-your-birthday sticker."

 Caitlyn and I had fun looking at all of her Disneyland pictures. One thing about this family, they would literally live in Disneyland if they had their way. They had an awesome experience this trip of visiting the penthouse suites for Disney's distinguished visitors since they had a friend pretty high up in Disneydom. The pictures of the Jungle Cruise suite were pretty amazing, although I would have rather stayed in the Fairy suite. All of those cannibal-looking masks would have freaked me out at night.

 We got a few crazy pictures at the end of the night and were so incredibly grateful that Melody and her family chose to spend her birthday with our family. They are so special to us!

And a parting shot of me and my Nana. We were able to spend 3 weeks with her around Thanksgiving and enjoyed every moment of time we spent together. She is so much fun to be with and I wish we lived closer.

Things to be thankful for...

This past month has been a challenge, emotionally, for me. What I've realized is that, despite all of the tears and heartache, I really do have true friends; people who love me for me, who understand who I really am, not who they perceive me to be, and who make me a better person for having known them...basically, they possess these important qualities:

A true friend...
-Accepts you as you are
-believes in you
-calls you only to say "hello"
-doesn't give up on you
-admires all sides of your personality
-forgives your mistakes
-helps you
-encourages you to try it again
-makes a difference in your life
-says nice things about you
-offers his/her support
-understands you
-tells you the truth
-never judges you
-explains things you don't understand
-walks by your side
-calms down your fears
-shouts if necessary, if you don't want to listen
-raises your spirit.

- Unknown

I'll be honest, I've never been one to put up walls, especially when it comes to friends. On the contrary, I've usually been the one trying to break down the walls of others. Unfortunately, these past few weeks have made me get out my own bricks and mortar, closing my heart up just a little.

Friendships can be the most rewarding things on this planet...and the most hurtful. My husband and I were talking the other night about how our closest friends are those we can laugh with - that kind of laugh that makes your stomach hurt. They're also the ones to whom you can tell your most intimate concerns and they listen without judgement. They know when to offer advice but they don't try to fix it, they just listen, really listen, and they tell you that they'll be there for you, always. They encourage, they correct when necessary and, most importantly, they know your character and think the best about you instead of the worst.

So, with everything that my heart has felt these past few weeks, I've also been thankful for those people in my life who love me unconditionally, give me a giant hug, and say, " I love you for who you are - you're pretty special." With that said, here's more things I'm thankful for...just because my heart loves a little sunshine.


my favorite Christmas album playing

a hot, white chocolate peppermint mocha (especially the first sip)

that recipe that makes your entire family happy

the sound of my kids saying, "I love you, mommy - you're my best friend"

a spontaneous coffee date with a neighbor/friend that interrupts your walk home

talking on the phone with my cousin until 2am..about nothing and everything

my climbing rose that covers the garden wall in brilliant colors

a crackling fireplace

a good book that you just can't put down

Christmas lights in the rain

serving someone else

finding the perfect fabrics for a project...and then completing it!

watching my favorite movie with my favorite guy (my hubby, if you were wondering)

wise words from my parents

laughing at an inside joke

my sister

Thank you, Lord, for giving me another day to become a better person, to learn and to grow.

Finish The Race

First, a picture of 2 of my 3 cheerleaders. They're awesome!

These past few weeks have been full of challenges. Physical, mental, emotional, you name it.

Time allowing, I'll only write about the physical challenge in this post. My heart is still trying to come up with the words for the last 2 challenges.

So I ran a half marathon - yes, I'm crazy (but really only half crazy).

The race took place on October 7th. Early. When all was said and done, I finished the race with a pretty good time: 2:12. My goal was 2:05 but I knew that wasn't going to happen right about mile 11 1/2 when my mind said, "pick up the pace" and my body said, "I'd rather fall down and die." It was also right about then that I passed a man holding out a giant box of doughnut holes to all of the runners. I almost threw up right then and there. It was a miracle I made it to the next water station. Donuts? Really? My stomach has been jostling and jumping around for 10 miles and I'm going to eat a doughnut hole? You must be crazy...

So, now that you've heard the end of my tale, I'll fill you in on all of the exciting race details, starting with the very early wake up call (the part I dreaded the most). Yes, I woke up at 4:15. That would be in the AM. And by the time my friends Mina, Valerie and I got to Long Beach and the sun was just starting to peek through the clouds, we were surrounded by 20,000 people who were probably just as amazed as we were that we had actually gotten out of bed that early. Then, after inserting ourselves into the mass of humans lining up to conquer the Marathon, we all got ready to start our 13 miles of torture exhilaration.

When the gun went off and we all started running (which kind of mirrored cattle running down a cattle chute) I was full of adrenaline and positive that I'd run the best race ever. It started out great! I was on track to run a 9 1/2 minute mile.

Around the 6th mile, I was greeted by 4 screaming/cheering fans that greatly resembled my children. I quickly realized that they were mine and they were holding up the lovely signs they'd created the day before at the Expo. It gave me me a second wind which blew me to mile 8, when I encountered my first roadblock. I was starting to slow a little when my friend, Mina, ran up from behind me, said a quick hello, and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke as she jettisoned off to run the last 6 miles at a record pace. It was right about then that I walked for the first time.

By the way, one of my favorite things to see along the course were the creative signs held by the bystanders.  My 2 favorites read, "Run like a fugitive" and "toenails are for sissies" (the last one didn't apply to me. I kept all of my toenails, thank you very much. The right shoes are a must).

Back to the race, miles 8-12 were tough, but doable, and I finally arrived at the giant sign that said, "one more mile!!" I told myself over and over, "you'd better not walk this last mile- keep running." I tell ya, that last mile felt like 50. All I could think about was that someone must have put that sign on the wrong building. I think they were off by a few blocks.

So, right about the time that I felt the race should have ended, I heard people chanting, "you're almost there!" Ok, "almost there" was not quite accurate but it did put a little fire in my step.

I also have to share with you one of the most interesting/ridiculous/whatweretheythinking aspects of both races I've completed. The photos. You runners know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the photographers out there on the course with their long, zoom lenses, capturing all of the pain, sweat, and tears of each and every athlete who runs shuffles past them. I don't know whose brilliant idea this was but it must not have been a woman. No, it couldn't have been! What woman would want that kind of photograph of themselves? What woman thinks like this: "I have a great idea - let's get some photographers out there to sit on the ground and take photographs of  the runners- maybe one every few miles - oh, and especially one at that last mile! Ya! I want you to find the sweatiest, reddest, most agonized athletes and capture that attractive moment for all to see! Oh, and to make it easier to identify them, let's make them wear numbers. Better yet, let's POST the pictures online so that they can BUY them and hang them on their wall. I think everyone will want one, don't you?!! Who wouldn't want a photo of themselves completing such a great accomplishment?" Well, I can tell you one runner who dreads the email from "Brightroom" that tells me my photographs are ready to be viewed. I know what you can do with mine! You can burn them and then pat yourselves on the back because you've single-handedly reminded me that I probably never want to run another race again...especially if I looked like THAT.


Yes, I ended up finishing the race... but that last 100 yards was seriously the longest stretch of road I've ever experienced. Knowing I did the best I could do was awesome and seeing the faces of the 4 people who cheered me on every weekend during training was the best feeling ever. (Every Saturday, the kids would meet me in front of our house at the end of my 8,9,10 and 11 mile runs with water, a towel, and lots of cheering. It was all worth the pain!) My family was proud of me. I was proud of me. I had set out to accomplish a goal and I did it...again! Now I'm not sure if there will be any more half marathons in my future (to have to drag my butt out of bed every weekend, and run through places I've only every experienced from a car, was quite exhausting...oh, and the pictures don't help things, like I said).

I apologize if this was WAY more than you had anticipated reading. I'm sure it's more than anyone really wants to know about a half marathon but I thought it would be fun to record all of my thoughts. Well, it wasn't all of my thoughts...but you get the picture. :)

Oh, and, believe it or not, I haven't run a single step since the race...my alarm clock needed a break.

Expectations

I just know I've written about expectations before in this blog. How do I know? Because I struggle with setting all of mine just a little higher than I can achieve. I struggle with it a lot so I must have written about it. However, I don't put tags on my blogs (just another something I can't check off my expectations checklist), so I have no idea what I've written or when I've written it...I just know I've written it...somewhere.

So, to give you a little example of what "expectations" I'm talking about, I'll type out a few of the things I play in my head more days than I'd like to admit;

"I should have (insert word here) better"
"I should have signed up for (insert activity/leadership role here)"
"maybe I didn't need to say (insert conversation/lecture) to the kids today"
"I hope my kids don't remember (insert bad mommy moment) for eternity"
...and on and on and on.

Ok, so I don't think about this stuff every day but I do catch myself laying in bed some nights wishing I would have done things differently or wondering if I'm doing enough. That's the big one. Am I doing enough? Is what I'm doing good enough? There are so many times I go to bed wondering if I'm doing the mom thing good enough, if I'm being a good enough friend, housewife, or employee. Why do I do this to myself, you're wondering? Why do I compare, worry, and beat myself down about things that are out of my control? Good question. I don't have an answer...but I am trying to remind myself of the things I am doing to the best of my ability.

So, on that note, I'm going to tell you about one of my lower expectations...which also makes it my most realistic expectations. It has to do with Lynnea.

Now for any of my friends who have served even one minute in Lynnea's Sunday school class, you'll know that I'm really not embellishing the fact that Lynnea hates when I leave her anywhere. She hates it.

At 2 years old, I thought, "it's just a 2 year old thing...every kid is crying in here."

At 3, I figured it would end once she got old enough to figure out that I wasn't going to abandon her because I'd always come back in about 3 hours. The weeks came...and went...and Lynnea still had to be pried from my legs and wrestled into the classroom as giant alligator tears rolled down her cheeks.

At the 4 year old classroom, Lynnea is now the only child who cries like she's gonna die every time she gets dropped off. I can almost see the worker's faces when I come down the hall. "Oh no! It's Lynnea!" I can only apologize so many times before I just have to deal with the exasperation and judgements of the people around me. Countless times I've had to smile as the workers try to offer advice. I've had to inform them that, no, this is my third child and, no, I don't give in to her every whim and, yes, you can take her by force so I can get out this door before it's time to come pick her up again.

See, the funny thing is, she's usually fine 10 minutes into the service and all is well. It's vicious, I tell ya.

Everyone told me it was normal...it would go away soon! It wouldn't continue into preschool, surely not! So, the first day of preschool, Lynnea was excited! She was ready to go. She even wanted to go early! I thought, "we've finally rounded the corner! She's actually happy to leave me!"

Then I dropped her off...and they all took their "first day of preschool picture"...and this is what I got as a memory of that first day...

Are we having fun yet? I sure am. The clinging, sobbing, and hugging dried up every tear I thought I wasa going to cry that first day. This momma is tired. But I do know that the first day she stops crying, I think I'll kind of miss it. It might be nice to get my legs back but I know I'll shed a few tears as I walk back to my car. At that moment, I'll get a big reminder that she's not going to need me forever...

Player of the Game

Mikayla played a good game today and was so awesome on defense that the two coaches chose her as the player of the game. It's so hard to take photos in an indoor gymnasium and get good action shots but I did get this semi-still shot of Mikayla on the defense. I know she's just itching to get on offense and score some points but she's got speed and she plays smart and the coaches know they've got her in a great place. I couldn't be prouder of my kids on their teams! Tyler even scored 2 goals this morning! Love it!

Just Be Yourself

I laughed when I came upon these photos from back in 2010 when my cousin, Cheryl, came to visit us and we went out to dinner. The first photo is cute, posed. The second gets a little silly. The third brings out the crazy eyes and giraffe tongue...the kids completely break loose. With cousin Cheryl, they have no problem being themselves...a little cute and a little crazy.

These photos kind of remind me of what I've been struggling with the past few weeks. Quite simply, being myself...and letting that be good enough. I don't have time to get into it (and I really don't think you want to read about all of it) but I've had to constantly remind myself that I'm doing the best that I can...flaws and all. I think I just need to kick back and not worry so much about what everyone else is doing, what everyone else is thinking, or what I'm NOT doing...and just live the best life that I can.

That's all the words I have for today.

Soccer Begins!

 Today was the first day of the soccer season. Tyler picked up right where he had left off last year and did so well. Look at this kick!

Ready for the ball!

Tyler got to play goalie for a period and he blocked at least 4 attempts to score! We were so proud of him. Mikayla played this week as well but it's a lot harder to get pictures, especially when her arm was trying to hold up her shorts the whole time...it wouldn't have been a pretty picture. Next week, I'll get a few.

Gotta Get Away

Well, the summer has come and gone. We've had a lot of fun these past few months but I won't bore you with the details. I'll just pick up with the last few weeks. My dad had his birthday last week and it was a privilege to celebrate with him. He is such a wise and loving dad - such an example of what a father should be. I only hope that, after all these "young child parenting" years, my kids will love me as much as I love my dad.

We went to Oak Glen on Labor Day - kind of a spontaneous trip since we wanted to get out of the city. I absolutely love it up there. Mountains, blue skies, no traffic, my kind of place. I'm definitely a country girl at heart.

Last year, we found this place that allows you to pick your very own raspberries. Of course, they don't warn you about the burrs that are like balls of needles that lodge in every piece of clothing and skin. Luckily, it's early in the season so they're not brown and crispy. We had a good time - here are some photos of our trip.

Can you see Will in there somewhere? There were bushes everywhere!

Mikayla was the raspberry container-holder. She did a great job!

Tyler enjoyed eating them. Even though it said not to indulge in berries, there were dried up berries everywhere that hadn't been picked. I didn't think they'd miss them. When we were leaving, Tyler's comment was, "daddy, I'm full!" (Really, he didn't have THAT many)

Beautiful berries! This shot is a great one of all of those seeds!! Will won't touch a rasperry...he just LOVES those seeds.

I could live here...

Tyler was showing me all of the burrs that had chosen to bury themselves in his socks.

Of course, we had to stop by Burger King on the way there to get dollar smoothies!

And to finish off the day, we have a shot of my 2 oldest posing like good children should...and then there's my Lynnea. I guess she was done with the day and when she's done, she's 100% DONE. I don't know if you can see her eyes and lips but that's a common sight over here. She's got the "drop dead" look down pat.

In school news, my kids are loving their classes and loving being with their friends. It's so encouraging to watch them interact with their friends, love on them, and learn new things every day. It makes this mommy's heart proud.

Simple Questions

Sometimes, the things that come out of a child's mouth make for a humorous (and very needed) break in the day of errands, irritations, and fighting.

The other day, we were in the car going who knows where and this conversation came about in the back of the van.

Ty: "Hey mom? How come my friend Matt (name changed for privacy) doesn't have a dad? Does everyone have a dad?"

Me: I really can't remember what I said but I'm sure it was very wise and, in no way did it go beyond my 6 year old's understanding in any way (ya, right. I tend to over-explain and ramble at times, leaving my children looking at me like, "wha..?"). No, really, I know my answer this time was short and sweet."

Which led to this question:

Ty: "Mom, does everyone have cousins?"
Me: "No, I know it's hard to believe, not everyone has cousins. Aren't you glad you have so many?" I know, my ability to answer the tough questions most definitely came from my college education..

At this point, after Tyler nodded his head in agreement, there was a moment of silence. I know, it's rare. Then, behind me, from her precious 4 year old lips, came the best question of the day, from Lynnea...

"Mom, do all dads have iPads?"

Good grief...

A Few Pics

 I know, I know...I should have posted a million more posts before now and, I promise you, I've posted them in my head but they've never made it to the page. It's hard to put the pen to the paper, or the fingers to the keyboard in this case, when your job is on the computer and the only thing you want to do is get away from it the rest of the week.

With that said, I just wanted to post a few pictures I took the other day in our backyard of my wonderful, silly, pretty darn adorable, kids. Hey, I've got to use that nice camera sometime, right? Don't worry, I'll post something else soon; I've got a lot of stories in this brain - maybe some of them will make it to the blog one of these days.

Help! I'm surrounded by 3rd Graders!

I will begin this post with 2 words that should strike fear in the hearts of every mom alive...field trip. I'll wait until you all catch your breath before I go on.

Have you caught it yet? I'm still catching mine. You see, I've always had that "eek" reaction when I hear those 2 dreaded words even though my heart tells me that it would be so much fun to go! In the end, I always end up getting out of field trips the same way I get out of jury duty. You know the line..."I have a little one at home that needs constant attention and I just won't be able to make it this time." Well, the "excuse" streak officially ended this year when Mikayla came home a few days after the "we need volunteers" slip was handed out for the Aquarium and I guess most moms came up with an equally valid excuse why they couldn't go either. The teacher was desperate (there were 9 kids per group!)...so desperate that she actually chose students to ask whose mothers might cave in and say yes. I ended up being one of those moms that said "yes" and had to quickly go to the local Postal place to get fingerprinted so that they were absolutely assured that I had not committed a felony. Of course, as the girl is fingerprinting me, assuring me that these prints are good for 10 years, she also informs that any felony I commit after I get fingerprinted will not go on my record...I guess this is just for those past 35+ years of accumulated jail time (can you see me rolling my eyes?). Good grief-I feel so much better about the whole process.

On to the day at the Aquarium with my freshly fingerprinted self.

Ya, I could write about the cool jellyfish and the awesome touch pools but that wouldn't really paint a fair picture of my day with "the girls" was really like, would it? You know me...I've gotta throw in some observations and fun stories to make this post a little interesting, right?

The morning started out early..before school even started. All 60 children and their fingerprinted moms got together by class, somehow managing to get their lunches into the right large, plastic hamper, merge onto the yellow school bus, and fit 3 to a seat once on board. (I'll have you know that Mikayla had already figured out the seating arrangement. It was going to be her friend, Mikaela, then me, then my Mikayla...all in 1 seat. I had a moment to reflect on the beautiful fact that she actually thought my wide hips would fit between hers and her friend's on the bus and then had to shatter her dreams with the reality that they probably would only be putting the children on the bus and I'd have to take a boring, uncomfortable car ride and meet her there. My bones were thanking me the whole way, I assure you.)

Well, this boring, uncomfortable car ride was so boring that the 3 of us moms actually missed the transition from one freeway to the other, due to a far more interesting conversation, and ended up almost taking our own mini retreat to the beach before then realizing our mistake and getting to the Aquarium LAST, swearing to tell no one of our slight deviation. I think it was mostly my fault being that I was sitting in the navigators seat. I'll pat myself on the back for that one. Luckily we made it to our destination and joined our kids to get the "rules of the day" as we surveyed the field full of about 6000 other field trippers. Our schedule was this: we had an hour to look around the exhibits,  a special presentation at 11:30, followed by another hour of looking, then lunch.

These were my 4 beauties!

I quickly discovered that following my 4 was going to be a challenge. One of my girls thought she had a built in GPS and that I would just automatically be able to track her wherever she went. Another had brought her camera. More on that later...

Here we are, following all of the other school kids. I don't think the animals knew what they were in for that day. The morning started off with a flurry of activity in front of the arctic foxes who were the first to be attacked with 3rd grade volume even though the large, bold sign that said, "we like it quiet" couldn't have been any clearer.

We quickly moved on to the touch pools...with everyone else. I don't know about you but when I'm somewhere with a lot of people and I'm responsible for more than 2 children, I start doing the head count...over, and over, and over.....and over again to make sure I'm not missing a kid. So, this was me the whole first hour, "1,2,3.....4........1,2....3...4." It was like a nervous tic that just wouldn't go away. Once I was assured that no child would willingly walk out of the aquarium and hail a taxi to go home, I started to relax a little, until we went inside.

You see, one of my girls had brought her camera. She loved taking pictures. She loved taking pictures of everything. Twice. I can safely say that about half of our time was spent waiting for Delina to take pictures. One particular moment is startlingly clear in my memory. I was, once again, practicing my head count while we were walking out of an exhibit and I stopped at 3. A young mother with 2 small children was sitting on the bench right outside the exhibit. 3?? Where was #4? I (kind of) frantically looked around and made the mistake of asking the other girls, "Where did Delina go?" I could literally see the wind blow as this mother's head snapped around to look me in the eyes and, with the tone of "thisisthereasonI'llneversendmykidsonafieldtripwithanothermother" said, "lost one, huh?" I quickly replied, in a calm and collected manner, "(ha ha) no, I didn't lose her.. she's just taking pictures in there...I know exactly where she is..let's go get her, girls!" I actually think that moment will earn me the "field trip mom of the year" award, for sure.

 See, it happened so often that I actually got a picture to record it. She went through 4 batteries, filled up her memory card, and took over 250 pictures. All joking aside, it was so much fun to see her excitement in looking at the animals. She had never been and wanted to capture every moment. I loved watching her face as she touched the sting rays and ran from tank to tank, ooing and aahing at God's incredible creations.

After a while, the other girls decided to get in on the picture action too. After all, if they had to wait for Delina, might as well join in the fun!

After touring for about an hour, we were ushered into the auditorium for a special presentation. All of the kids got a "rap sheet" of all kinds of fish. Given certain tidbits of information, their job, as investigators, was to figure out who the "fishnapper" of the missing fish was. Now, if it were me, I'd throw everyone off a little. I'd pick the little, bright, happy fish whom no one would suspect. Who did the culprit turn out to be? Yep, it was Mr. Black Sea Bass with the shifty eyes, jet black scales...a "bottom dweller." That wasn't obvious at all! Besides that, the presentation was fun and educational (I even learned a few new words) and we went back out with our groups to explore some more.

 The penguins were adorable. They're new to the Aquarium and were so friendly.

Then, at the end of the day, my girls found the water table. Mind you, the purpose of this exhibit is to demonstrate the flow of the water in the area of the aquarium. The rain comes, washes down the mountains into the streams and then out to the ocean. The girls thought it looked boring. They were not interested...but, wait...did I say rain? Yes, I did. How do you make it rain, you ask? Buttons make it rain. Who pushed the buttons to make it rain? Yes, the "bored" girls did. Over and over and over and over again. There was so much precipitation that, in real life, Long Beach Aquarium would have been under water. The girls were soaking wet...and then it was time for lunch.

I could extend this blog to include the antics of lunch that drew in every pigeon from here to San Juan Capistrano but I think this recap has been long enough. I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I will say that I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved being with Mikayla and seeing the friendships she has with all of her classmates. She's very loved and that makes this mommy very happy.

Mommas and Miles

 Whew! Now that I spent a few minutes on the title, I can get into the meat of the post...and now I'm too tired to think of anything I want to say. Honestly, I read through all of these blogs that I follow and I can't seem to get those creative juices flowing! Maybe because I spent most of the day with about 60 3rd graders at the aquarium today (that post will come soon...although I'm not promising anything), or maybe it's just because I have a fear of the blank page.

With that said, I do have to acknowledge Mother's Day this past weekend. What would we do without our moms? I absolutely adore mine, she's one of my best friends and I'd spend every moment with her if I could. My heart is always with my mom on Mother's Day, so much so that I really do almost forget about the fact that I'm a mom as well. That morning I did remember that I, indeed, had birthed 3 children, and I was anxious to have a perfect "make mommy happy" day. Unfortunately, things don't always happen according to plans. Here's a little recap of my morning.

I awoke to a house full of noise on Mother's Day. The ever-present, "stop it, Tyler," from Mikayla, "they're being mean to me," from Lynnea and, "I don't want to eat that for breakfast," from Tyler started the day off right. There were just barrel-fulls of happiness that morning. I traipsed down the hallway and saw my husband feverishly cooking up a casserole for that morning's adult fellowship at church (the guys are always in charge of creating a fantastic potluck on that day) and I noticed 2 cards and a package on the table in front of me.

Eyes were large as I opened the first envelope. Mikayla whispered secrets into Will's ear which quickly turned into tears of sadness...large tears. I, of course, smiled as I said, "oh, no tears on Mother's Day!" "But I wanted to make you a card that was all my own (sob, sob)." I quickly stated that the one I had received was perfect but the crying continued. I read through the sentiments and started giggling at the photo that Will had placed inside of Lynnea holding up a sign with her infamous,"you know? I love you mommy." She used to say, "you know" in front of every sentence so it was Will's way of personalizing my card with her message. All of a sudden, there were more tears...this time from Lynnea. "I don't like that picture daddy put in the card of me!" she cried hysterically. By now, my Mother's day was turning into the day of tears!

Then I looked on the table at my present. Aerobic exercise bands...size Large. "Wow," I said to my smiling hubby,"they're big! I'm sure I can use them when I actually start to work off these extra 15 pounds I've had for a while but they may be a little hard to manage. With a smile that went from ear to ear, he pulled out my real gift, a little wrapped box that contained a Kindle. He knew that I had wanted one so he tried to fool me with a "fake" gift. So Will.

The rest of the day went well. We went to my parent's house to have dinner and I actually got a picture of my kids with me (I'm usually behind the camera).

 I also have to tell you about the time we spent serving in our church's Graceworks weekend. One or 2 Saturdays a year, our church goes out into the neighborhood and helps out with various projects, volunteering our time for a few hours. We chose to help out with a 5K for underprivileged kids, cheering them as they ran and passing out water along the route. It was so much fun to see these kids who got to experience success and a race well run!

 Mikayla chose to run the 5K with the other runners. She had never run that far in a race before and she ended up running all 3 miles in 25 minutes. That's a little over 8 minutes a mile. She was amazing and I was so proud of her.

 She did have a few side cramps along the way but she still kept that smile!

 Lynnea watched and played.

 Tyler cheered on the runners as well. He joined me in one of the track corners and gave a high 5 to everyone who passed. He was such a trooper!

 Mikayla and her friend, Megan, after the race. She was so disappointed because she came in 4th in her age group and JUST missed getting a medal. I think she's got the running bug and wants to run another one soon.

Morro Bay

Easter break and our family needed one...a break, I mean. So I jumped on Priceline and found a great hotel right off of Morro Bay Beach, we packed up the car for 4 days, and spent precious moments together as a family, soaking in the sunshine, eating lots of fish and chips, and collecting seashells and memories along the way. It was such a wonderful time together! I took a lot of pictures and there's a lot in this post but I figured you'd want to see a few, right? So, here they are...with a little commentary in between.

Tyler picking up shells and the 3 kids exploring the shore.

 Mikayla was so excited to jump into the ocean. To me, the waves had the temperature of barely melted ice cubes so I wasn't so anxious to get my feet wet.

 The sun starting to set.

 I'm amazed I got a shot of the 3 kids together. It was hard to wrangle them in.

 Stairs down to Moonstone Beach in Cambria. We found loads of Moonstones here while the tide was out.

 Luckily, I had purchased rain boots for the kids. They came in very handy when we waded through the tide pools and mushy sand.

 Elephant Seal beach was fun to see. There were only "cute" ones there, no big-nosed males yet. I guess they come later in the summer, thank goodness.

 There were also harbor seals on the beach. These 3 decided to nap together. They're molting which is why they look black in some places. There were docents at the beach talking to the tourists about the seals. Thankfully, they didn't notice my youngest accidentally drop a water bottle in the shrubbery above the hundreds of lazy, sleeping seals. We left soon after...

 There was quite a lot of blubber on that beach. This is only half of it.

 Isn't that the life? Sleep, swim a little, sleep, avoid sharks, molt, and ignore tourists...sounds easy, right?

 We spent a little time with some friends who joined us for a day on their own family vacation. We went to the elfin forest. At first I thought it was the "elephant forest" due to my husband's misunderstanding of the word but, as soon as we observed the mini trees, I knew they can't possibly have been calling us, as visitors, "elephants" so "elfin" seemed to fit better.

Mikayla and Camryn read the map and guided us on the path.

 This grove of trees was so enchanting. They wrapped around and their leaves formed a canopy above you so it was almost like you were in another world. Definitely would have been my pretend playhouse if I were younger. Just beautiful!!

 On our way home, we stopped at Solvang and got a few Scandinavian treats.

Yay for family vacations even if it's only for 4 days. I love time spent with family.