Spring Break at Rocky Point

Mommy and her 2 big girls

Just though I would throw a bone to all my fans. Yes, its true, there is a post on my blog, one of real substance, not a glimpse of my broken gazebo. Stayed tuned for more posts. I'm back !!! (by popular demand)

Gazebo Pics For Patrick at Target

Fall Break

We didn't really have any plans for Fall Break this year. We (I) thought it would be too much work to have to pack up the entire house, drive in a car for many hours with 3 kids and 1 husband who ends up sleeping the entire way. Emily has been asking us to go to Flagstaff for a weekend. So, I put on my big girl panties and throw in the towel. OKAY we'll go for a mini trip over Fall Break. We stay in Sedona at our timeshare. We leave on Friday afternoon, (2 hours behind schedule) and make a half way point stop at the Outlets. This stop is just so mom will be happy for a few hours and can finish the drive without looking for the nearest cliff. We do a little shopping and jump back in the car to finish the drive. We all comment on how well Katie has done on the trip. Of course,we spoke to soon, about 20 minutes outside Sedona, Katie starts screaming. She doesn't want the bottle, toys or anything thing else we try to do to calm her down. Meanwhile I'm trying to drive without losing it. She continues to scream and scream and scream. She cries and screams so much she throws up. Not once mind you but 4 times. Luckily I'm driving and don't have to deal with that. But poor Emily is sitting beside her, and being very much like her mother, she starts to freak out over the vomit. After 20 very long minutes we arrive at the resort. We get everyone settled and unpacked, and I grab my book, stick my nose it and pretend I hear or see nothing. (a little something I picked up from my husband) On Saturday morning we get up and head to Flagstaff. We plan a day of parks, hiking and just relaxing. We get out of the car, and the cold air smacks us in the face and then the wind blows us over. Forget this, jump back in the car and head back to Sedona. We spend Saturday in Sedona, watching the girls play webkinz and I read my book. Ahhh this was bliss. On Sunday morning Greg tells me to call up the Spa and schedule a massage. What???? My husband said to get a massage??? Yeah, his reasoning.... if these last two days are anything like what you've had to endure over the last 2 weeks, you are in need of a massage. He tells me to go and relax. Isn't he the sweetest guy ever. Nice to know that he feels your pain. After my massage, we head to the Wildlife World Zoo in Camp Verde.

This is when the family fun really begins. We had an absolute (with tonic) blast. This is the coolest zoo I've ever been too. Take a look at these pics.

We went to a Tiger show and after the show you could feed the Tigers raw meat. I was really surprised Abbi did it.
No Surprise that Emily did, Tigers are her favorite animal.

Baby Katie enjoying the sunshine. She did great. She sat in the stroller all day and just enjoyed the outdoors. She loves to be outside and feel the air hit her face. Isn't she the cutest thing ever. Momma loves you Katie Bug.After the Tiger Show, we walked around the zoo. It was amazing how close to the animals you were. Check out this Tiger: We are standing next to the Pole on a lookout ledge.

Notice the Prison in the background. Talk about having armed guards staking out the perimeter.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Reminds me of a scene from Lion King. I started to sing Hakuna Matata but the girls told me to stop. Guess I was embarrassing them again.
Emily loves Tiger, but she especially loves White Tigers. She was so exicited to see one up close. Greg was following him trying to take his picture when the Tiger stopped and let out a very loud growl. Check out those teeth.
After we walked around the whole Zoo, we took the Safari Ride. This was my favorite part of the whole day. Everyone packs in a bus that had the windows removed and the roof raised. The driver gives everyone a carrot and tells us we are going to get to feed the giraffes. Not only do you feed them but you can put the carrot in your mouth and have the giraffe take it from you. Giraffes are my favorite animal. I loved being so close to them. Katie was sitting on my lap and she never once screamed or acted scared. I was a little nervous with her being so close but she smiled and laughed the whole time. Here is a pictures of Greg feeding the giraffe. The picture kinda sucks because I was sitting in front of him and he had the camera around his next so I just pointed and clicked.
I opted out of putting the carrot in my mouth and having the giraffe get it but this person did it and got a VERY big WET kiss. His tongue was HUGE !!!
The giraffe just leans into the bus and takes the food from your hand or mouth. He is so friendly and he seemed to perform for the crowd.

Isnt he beautiful !!

The Zebras hang out with Giraffes and they too are looking for a little action. The driver gave us hay biscuits to feed them. Did you know that Zebra's are black with white stripes. Their stripes are brown when they are babies and as they get older they turn black.
Thanks to my family for a great weekend. A special thanks to Emily for begging us to go somewhere. I can't wait till our next trip to the Zoo.

A few more pics from my Bday.

Okay here's the deal. I have two cameras, one I use all the time and carry with me everywhere (sometimes I forget to use it) and a nice one that I leave at home. The nice one takes a small memory card and I have to get the cables out to download pictures. Needless to say it doesn't happen often enough. Here a few more pics from that day.

My family brought me dinner and we celebrated with Grilled Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Casserole, Deviled Eggs, freshly canned applesauce and a delicious Carrot Cake. This was the greatest party ever. They showed up with the meal all prepared, cleaned up the kitchen and let me be the Queen that I am.



After dinner we had the Holbrooks come over to celebrate with some Cake and Ice cream. Charlene brought me a little gift of my favorite candy and made me this AWESOME Rice Krispy Treat Three Tier Cake.


Afterwards the kids played a game of Clue and with Grandma. Katie played too, she was Col. Mustard. When it was time to pick up the game, we discovered that Col. Mustard was AWOL. A week later he was found hiding in the girls hair crap basket. He said he's fine but never wants to see a hair bow again.


Later that night my friend Sarah stopped by with a gift, this too was a gift bag of my favorite candy. Apparently my friends really know how to treat the Queen.

Thanks for a great day !!!!!!!!

Huge no I mean TALL

As part of Emily's homework assignment this week, she had to write a sentence using her spelling words. Here are a few of her words this week,

Price- her sentence was---- Price Check on Register 3. (apparently we shop too much)
Fence- her sentence was--- We had to put up a fence so Baby Katie would stop eating the cat food.

So far the sentences aren't so bad then comes this one.......

The word is HUGE, HER sentence ---- My mom is huge.

Nice huh !!! I asked her if she really thought I was huge, she said yeah, as I started to get upset, she explained that she thinks I'm taller than most moms. Okay then, lets change the sentence. My feelings were a little hurt but she made it up to me. I like how the kids tell their teachers and their classmates the going ons in our house. Don't think her teacher didn't tell all the other teachers at lunch time.

Love you Emily, even though you told the class your mom is huge.

Moving up the ranks

Emily recently tested for her Brown Stripe. For those of you who don't know what that means her is a quick run down. Your first belt is white, then yellow, orange, blue stripe, blue, green, brown stripe, brown, black stripe and BLACK. That is how close my little girl is to being a black belt in Karate. Can she kick your butt??? I don't know, give it shot. We are so proud of her, she is required to memorize and perform two fighting routines. This is the kid that can't remember to hang up her towel. It really is amazing to watch her. WAY TO GO EMILY !!!!!!

What goes around comes around....

A little payback from the greatest friends in the world.



I guess there was no surprise that when my birthday rolled around there would be paybacks. Us girls have a little tradition of trashing the birthday girls yard. Let my birthday be no exception.
My husband and I were out that night with some friends celebrating our birthdays. My mother in law was home watching the girls and at some point looked out the window and saw them decorating my yard. Charlene went to the door to let her know what was going on, of course when the big girls saw what was going on they wanted to come out and help. They were so excited for me to see the yard, they came into our room the next morning and asked me what I thought about what my friends did to the yard. They did not come in empty handed though, they brought me breakfast in bed. (bringing food to me allows you to wake me up)


The ever so popular pink flamingos. They land in every birthday girl's yard, could the flamingos be coming to your yard soon????

Thanks to the best friends a girl could have. You really know how to make a girl feel special. Love you !!!!

Trouble is Brewing

Look at Baby Girl. She is pulling herself up on everything and even trying to cruise around the table.
She is such a determined little angel. She wants to do things herself and will push your hand away when you try and help her out.

Now comes all the bumps and bruises that go along with. I better get the ice pack ready.

Soccer Season Starts

Soccer Season began on Sept 6th. Can I just tell you how flippin hot it still is. I can't believe these poor girls play in this heat. It was well over 100 degrees, and these girls were running up and down that field for over an hour. I personally was sweating buckets just standing there watching them. Of course our game was at 11:30 and the sun was turned on full blast. After spending over an hour in the sun, Greg and I decided it was time to break down and buy an Easy Up Canopy. We have to have some relief from the heat. We figure we have at least until the end of October before it cools down and poor Katie is too young to be out in the sun that long.

Emily's first game of the season was against her best friends Alyssa and Colette. While out on the field Colette got knocked down and Emily stopped to help her up and make sure she was okay. I love the friendship on the field. Vicki and I sat on opposite sides of the field and texted back and forth about the girls moves out on the field. Yes, they beat us, but it wasn't by much.


Abbi trying to get some shade.
Baby Sister Katie cheering them on. She was such a trooper and handled the heat way better than I did.Emily's coach brings a sprayer that you use for bug spray and sprays the kids down with water when they come in off the field. Mom was trying to get in on the action but those little girls wouldn't share.