Back to School!

It's that time of year again already! Where does the time go? Ethan and Alys both started school on Monday. They were both excited about and I have to admit, Mom was a little excited too. Because it was a hectic morning, we took after school pictures. Ethan is now in 1st grade while Alys is in pre-school 2 days a week. Benjamin is my little trooper and gets to spend some more time with Mom. I know they will have lots of fun and make lots of new friends. The only complaint thus far is that they don't like walking Ethan to school. As you can tell, Alys is a bit red in the face after walking home on a hot day. Wait 'til the snow comes....

Oh Sooo Cute!

Aren't these the cutest little things? My parents have two Sheltie dogs and the female recently had 5 puppies. In these pictures, they're not quite a week old and still have their eyes closed. The kids were sooooo excited to go see them! If we would have let them they probably would've stayed with them all day. They were very cute and cuddly. When we got our dog, Sage, she was about six weeks old so it was a treat to see new puppies. It makes you want one all over again...for about a minute! Anyway, it will be fun to see them grow.

I was so glad to capture this while we were visiting my brothers house, where the puppies were. This is my cute nephew and niece Crew and Azlyn. It was nice to know that Benjamin is not the only one that has tried this!

A Great Birthday!

On August 12th I turned...well, let's say 30 something.  Ethan said 29 so he rocks!  Anyway, it was a wonderful day and week.  It started off with "Happy Birthday"s from Woody and the kids and that always gives you warm fuzzies to know that they thought of you.  Everyone in my family also called to give their wishes.  My Mom took me out to lunch and my sister and sister-in-law joined us as well.  It was wonderful!  We ate at a place called Costa Vida, which is basically mexican food with a tropical flare.  Yum! Yum!  After the kids' swim lessons I was treated to a massage.  I realized I need to do that more often...I don't remember the last time I felt that relaxed.  That evening, the kids stayed with grandma and grandpa and Woody took me to dinner and a movie.  I haven't done that in a while either!  We went to a place called Epi's.  It's a Basque restaurant.  It was something we've never had before, but very good!  And it's just another one of those cute hole in the wall places.  We went and saw Indiana Jones which was pretty good.  Of course we had popcorn and a drink even though we were stuffed.  To finish off the week, Woody and the kids made an Italian Cream cake for me with homemade ice cream.  It was good!  They each gave me the perfect card with the perfect gifts.  While the gifts were all wonderful it was just  so great to be able to spend time with so many people that I love and just knowing that they thought of me on this day.  This is definitely one I will remember.  Many thanks to everyone!

Laughing Cows?

Haven't you ever heard cows laughing?  Some years ago in my days of travel, I experienced Laughing Cow cheese.  I was probably on a flight to Europe and sitting in first class, and dreaming.  This was at a time when I could afford first class because I worked for American Airlines/Sabre.  Anyway, I remember getting this little wedge of cheese and thinking, "What the heck is this?"  I don't eat too many funky cheeses, but tried this one and it is really good.  If you've never had it is a creamy Swiss, but not as strong a taste as regular Swiss cheese.  You can find it in the grocery stores where they have the special cheeses and it comes in a small circular box.  I thought of it the other day and wanted to try it again, so I got some.  As I took it out to slather on a cracker, my kids asked about it.  So, me and my practical jokes on my kids, explained that it was 'Laughing Cow Cheese' and when you eat it, it makes you laugh.  They thought I was crazy, for a moment.  They wanted to try it, so we did a taste test.  They were already starting to laugh because they thought I was just being silly.  As they took a bite they started to grin and chuckle and then I started to laugh.  They also began to laugh and wanted more.  At this point, I'm laughing just because they believed me.  Woody was sitting nearby and we both started cracking up.  Needless to say, we were all laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.  So, the next time you want a good laugh, try some 'Laughing Cow Cheese'.  You just might crack up!  And kids, I love you so much!  Thanks for believing in my laughing cows and when you're old enough to read this or realize that mom was just kidding you can beat me up then.

Swim Lessons

Ethan and Alys have been taking swim lessons for the last couple of weeks and are having lots of fun.  I'm really proud of them, they just jump right in listen to their instructors.  Alys enjoys going under water to get dive rings, while learning to float and kick.  Ethan loves going under water and learning new things.  He had a different instructor one day and at the end of the class I thought they were going to go down the slide.  The next thing I know there's Ethan standing on the low dive!  I was amazed that he was ready to do that.  He thought it was great and went two or three times.  Now he's wondering when he gets to try the high dive!  Benjamin is a trooper and goes to watch with me.  Hopefully we'll have him in lessons this fall while the others are in school.

Cascade Getaway

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Cascade and relax by the lake with my family.  It was lots of fun.  We usually try to do this once a year.  My mom and dad have a house next to the lake so it makes it easy to go have some fun.  This year things ended up a little different but it was all good.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of anyone, except my niece, Whitney.  So I'll include one of here and maybe find an old photo.  I know...a photographer without pictures.  Anyway, my weekend started by taking some senior pictures of Whitney.  It was fun and she did great!  Friday evening, we relaxed, played games, watched movies, etc.  The ladies played a round of ping pong and what a riot!  I must say, I saw a side of my Mom and sister that I have never seen before!  We got to a point that we were all laughing so hard we were crying.  Surprisingly, we didn't wake everyone up considering it was about 1230am when we were playing.  It was great! Saturday morning the guys and some of the kids went out fishing and caught a few fish.  I think they all had a good time and Ethan and Alys were able to use their fishing poles for the first time.  By the time they got home and we all had lunch the weather took a weird turn.  The wind was blowing and it became cloudy.  This was supposed to be our day at the lake, but the weather changed that for us.  Instead, the community has a nice little park area called Fischer Pond that we all went to.  We played some sand volleyball (loved that!), horseshoes and did some more fishing.  That was quite a hit as they caught about 15 trout.  This is a little pond that they stock mainly for the kids to go fishing.  So even though we weren't able to enjoy the lake we still had a good time and did some things we don't usually do.  It's always nice to get away and it's nice to spend time with family as well.