Travel Toothbrushes

While I had a great vacation, it was a little odd to not have internet for a week. I think that I would/should have kept notes all week because it seems like a blur now that we're home.

Even before we left last week I was in vacation mode. I didn't want to clean the house, but I knew that if I at least straightened up then I wouldn't feel as bad when we got home. So with all the craziness of last Sunday/Monday (trips to the doctor), I managed to do a bazillion loads of laundry and somewhat clean the house. The nice thing about laundry right before a trip is folding and putting it right in the suitcase. I'm amazed that with the five of us, we managed to fit almost all our stuff in two suitcases. Note, almost all our stuff.

Inevitably, when packing for a trip I will forget something. It was when we left the house for the airport that I started my mental list of everything I meant to do but didn't. I meant to go upstairs one last time and grab toothbrushes and my curling iron. Those are the things that I forgot to pack. I don't stress out about those thing, because I know that I can usually buy whatever I forgot or do without.

I bought new toothbrushes for the kids and I, we definitely couldn't do without those. The curling iron I was on the fence whether I needed it or not. Luckily the drugstore had a store brand that was on sale and I was happy to pay the $8.99 to have a curling iron for the week. As it turns out, my hair was none too happy with the humidity. Best purchase all week.

So, with all the traveling that everyone has done, what have you forgotten?

More Vacation

The Kids waiting for the train.Waiting for a subway train.
Hey Dumb Dumb. I want my gum gum. (Night at the Museum)
Playing at the Transit Museum.
Michael got tickets to Spamalot on Broadway. We were able to watch the show and walk the Brooklyn Bridge without kids thanks to Michael's Aunt Patricia and sister.

Planes, Trains, and Taxis

We just got back from a week long trip to New York. Michael has an Aunt that lives on Long Island with whom we stayed. With a short ride on the Long Island Railroad we could be in Manhattan inside of 40 minutes. I had fears of the kids falling on the tracks before we went on vacation, but the kids were great in the city and "mostly" behaved while we were running around like crazy.

Jack and Emma's first NY subway ride.
Lily in Central Park with cousins Gabrielle and Quin.
Emma is excited to see a turtle in the lake.
Michael in the fountain taking pictures.

When It Rains...

it pours. Last week I took Jack to the doctor because his ear hurt. False alarm, not bad enough to warrant antibiotics, but enough to see the doc.

Today when Lily was brought to me after church, she couldn't move her arm. I didn't panic, I'd seen those symptoms before. Michael took her to Urgent Care and waited three hours for the doctor to pop her elbow back in place. Good as new, especially after the ice cream cone on the way home.

Tomorrow I have another appointment for Jack at the dermatologist. He has a wart on the bottom of his foot. I made the appointment two weeks ago, in the meantime Emma told me about a wart on her foot on Friday. No, I can't get the kids in at the same time, but we'll see if I can convince the doctor to have a quick look at Emma's foot.

We haven't been to see a doctor in months. I swear that when it rains, it pours.

Colorado Air

There must be something in the air for Colorado to be last place on the "most obese states' list". How lean is your state?

For another cool website go here. You don't have to register, just put in the starting address in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Happy Anniversary

I can't believe it's already been nine years that we've been married. After meeting in the wilds of Alaska, who would have thunk that we would be where we are today?!

Disaster Averted

On a hot hot day in July....Lily was eating her pockasicle (spelled as pronounced).Oh no!
"That's ok Mom, the birds can eat it." Very mature Lily.

Oscar the Grouch

As the temperature rises so do tempers. It's in the nineties today, you can guess what kind of mood I'm in. I think that we're all a little stir crazy, but it's hit an all time high today, or should I say low.

Warning! The following is whining and ranting of an insane mom;

Woke up, my first mistake. Jack was already awake because his ear is hurting him, but not bad enough for antibiotics. We walked to the grocery store for the kids favorite breakfast treat, donuts. I don't think that Jack stopped talking the entire way there and back. Got home to find Emma and Lily waiting on the couch for breakfast. Nothing like a donut for breakfast. As soon as the kids had inhaled their breakfast, they started watching PBS. I just didn't care this morning.

After an hour and a half of cartoons (where does the time go?), I have to be the prison guard and make sure their rooms are not a total disaster before they run out the door. They did the BARE minimum of cleaning to get out the door. Sure there were a few tears and punches thrown, but nothing a time out and loss of privileges can't take care of.

Meanwhile, it's already HOT in the shade, but we manage to get wet when the sprinklers turn on. That cools them off for a while and we are semi civilized to each other. Emma notices a neighbor that got home and she darts across the street like our house has the plague. Why is it like Disneyland when we go to other peoples' houses? We play at the neighbors house and make a lovely mess with the wading pool, sand box, and animal habitats. Finally it's time to go and shock and surprise, the kids do not want to help clean up. Argh!!!

I know it's just "one of those days", but I have a lot of Summer left. Whew. Thanks for reading an insane mother's rantings. I feel better, the air conditioning kick on.

New Park

Yesterday we found a new park. It's a tiny park tucked in the middle of a block of houses. I wanted to take a few pictures of the kids. Lily didn't care, Emma was all to happy to have her picture taken, and Jack was less than impressed. When did he get to be a surly teenager?!

Fitness Challenge

Our stake is having a year long fitness challenge to try and encourage individuals to exercise and be more healthy. You can earn 1 point per 20 minutes of exercise with a maximum of 3 points a day. Today is the exception. It's a no holds barred and you can earn as many points as you want today. I'm not sure how many points I want to earn today.

This morning I woke up and I'm sore in places I didn't think that I could get sore. I think that I perhaps overdid it yesterday. I woke up and got a few miles of jogging in before it got too hot. Since I was already sweaty I decided to mow the lawn, once again, before it got too hot. Then that led to the kids and I weeding the side of the house that was threatening to take over the house. Then later in the afternoon, when it was blazing out, we went to an outdoor swimming pool. Jack and Emma can swim like fish, Lily on the other hand isn't quite there yet. That led to me wrestling/holding her for an hour and a half in the pool. I'm thinking that I might need to take it easy today.

Milk Man

Having milk delivered to your house is fairly common here. While I think that it's a "cool" idea, I resisted the idea and went with supermarket milk. I don't want to have cooler sitting on my front stoop advertising my conformity.

When we first moved we had to taste various brands of milk until we found the brand that we liked best. Jack is the milk connoisseur and he's one that drinks it the most. He likes the Safeway "Lucerne" brand.

Well, the other night a dairy truck was driving down the street trying to attract new customers. The salesman/milk man was spouting off all the advantages to their milk; freshness, reusable jugs, yadda yadda yadda. Lucky for them I had run out of milk that day. I was willing to try their free milk and sign up for delivery. More importantly, Jack tried it and deemed it good. That was the selling point for me!

I'd like to say I'm not usually so willing to sign up for new services, but I think that this will be a good one to try. It seems like lately, I'll run out of milk and have to go to Safeway for just that. Nothing like wasting precious gas on a milk run to the grocery store. So, straight from the cow to our fridge in 36 hours, we'll be enjoying our "fresh" milk.

4th of July

We opted for a neighborhood party instead of driving and trying to find "the" spot to watch city fireworks. The kids ran around, ate too much watermelon, and enjoyed watching the fireworks in the street.

Slow Day

We got a slow start today and didn't have anything planned. I think those are the days that nothing and everything gets done. Michael took his parents to look at some model homes while I ran some errands. Michael has wanted to build some shelves for the basement for a while, he decided to put his dad to work and use the same set up as in one of the model homes. I really appreciate that his dad helped carry in the lumber. Not that I can't do it, but it nice to not have to do it.

Anyhow, Michael and his dad got one shelf unit together and plan on finishing up the other half. Michael also got the bracket for the flag put up. We can now have our flag flying on the 4th.

*This is the finished shelf...

Touristy Things

It's always nice when family comes to visit (hint hint), we go do things that we wouldn't normally do. On a spur of the moment, we went to Estes Park and then into Rocky Mountain National Park.

This is us at 10,000 feet. The altitude was fine, but it started to rain and get chilly. Go figure that we weren't prepared for cooler weather.
Local wildlife.
This is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. We walked around the grounds, we did not see any ghosts.

Living Dangerously

So, this is what the boys were up to while the girls went to the movies yesterday. The raft only went over once and everyone come home in one piece. There are some scrapes and bruises to prove that they went in the water. Jack (sitting in the back with the blue helmet) loved it and would go again. Maybe I'll have Michael write his version of the trip at a later date.