Crazy (Good) Summer and Here Comes the Bride

We have had a really great, super busy summer!  We have had to squish it all in because my girls start school next week.  We will see how year-round school treats us.  I'm sort of excited and a little scared, but definitely trying to keep an open mind and be positive since we don't have much of a choice.  So it feels like we have had a summer on steroids.  We have had some wonderful times together in spite of its hurried nature!  We just got back from another short trip last week, I can't wait to share!  In the meantime, I'll be working on the Mount Everest of laundry.  (I also have loads of California photos to share, I just haven't had a real chance to go through them yet)

Enjoy these photos in the meantime!  One morning I was totally shocked when this beautiful girl came walking down the stairs and her sister announced they had been playing "here comes the bride."  It wasn't so much the fabulous sister-wrought hairdo, complete with fresh flower tissue wrapping paper (requisitioned from her sister's recent present), or the beautiful girl that surprised me, but the fact that she was wearing her blessing dress (?) (can you say size 3-6 months?).  Of course she looks so cute in it but I was a bit horrified since I am trying to preserve the dress as an heirloom for her.  So after a quick reluctant bride photo shoot, we very carefully took off the baby dress and tried to locate a different dress!

 This bride is not too happy about getting her photo taken lately.

I'm envisioning a career as a wedding planner here?   Helping the "bride" smile.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  We met a new friend whom we really enjoyed and were sad to say goodbye to.

San Fran Day 1 and 2

Days one and two in SF.

Someone please tell me why I like this statue so much.  I just do.  ^^

Shhh.....don't tell.  After two frustrating days trying to find hotels or vacation rentals that would accommodate our large family, I had to get creative (hotel search engines are NOT built for 2 adults, 5 kids!  I just kept getting-- "no rooms available," blah).  We needed the air mattress for camping.  So it worked out in a few hotels too.  We had two big beds and the air mattress, which was comfy enough (in this photo, two little ones are late-snuggling with the big kids, they slept elsewhere).  Hopefully our neighbors and the hotel owners thought so too. I didn't know what else to do!  Suggestions?

Church.  We made friends with a nice group of boys visiting from AZ, who kindly took our picture and let us chat their ears off for a few minutes while our kids played jungle gym.

I can hardly look at SF and not get college flashbacks of Mike Meyer in So I Married an Axe Murderer.   Good times.  Miss my college friends!  We came here together during our freshman year, and it was magical!

 I don't know the name of this cathedral, but I thought it was pretty.

This poor boy was tortured by the too-tight jeans I had thrown in for him at the last minute.  He was a good sport, though.

 Running, running, this boy is always running!  But I love it.

More later!  I may not be back until next week, since we have company coming.  See you then!

Goal Update

Last month I worked on reclaiming some patience.  :)  It seems to be a lesson I'm learning over and over  during my project, that it is so much easier to retain a good habit than it is to reclaim it once it's lost!  As with other goals, I noticed it was especially hard at first, but after a couple of hard days got easier and easier.  (another pattern I've noticed-- some goals have felt nearly impossible to reach at the first, very daunting, but get easier even with a couple of tries)

This month, I'm going to work on a few things.  First, I want to focus on being more playful-slash- lightening up.  This is not hard for me when we are at a park or something.  I have learned to let my adult inhibitions go (with a lot of practice) as we go down slides and generally act kid-like and have fun.  My kids love this.  But some days I catch myself slogging through the daily mundane stuff and realize I could do better at making the little moments more fun for little ones.  So I'm going to try and be mindful of that this month.  (got a little taste of this in the car with my four year old, who was being whiny, so we ended up playing some silly games like elbow fight, yes, indeed, and got our giggles on)

Next, since I almost have a junior high kid, I want to introduce my kiddos to some good music.  Since I'm an NPR addict (not much lately though) I don't listen to much music.  But I used to!  So I'm going to revive some different styles of music and introduce them.  My kids are still a pretty clean slate in this regard, so this should be fun.

Lastly, I'm going to refresh my efforts to get healthy!  I know I've set this goal a lot.  But this time it's for real. :)  I really need to get the little one sleeping through the night, get him weaned, eat healthier, and exercise more consistently.  I'll let you know how this goes.

Will see you tomorrow!  Getting ready for another short trip and super excited to see my sister and other well-anticipated company!

What kind of music do you like?  Have your music tastes aged as you have?  I love me some good folk-type music with acoustic guitar.  Some day after I'm dead I'm going to take lessons from James Taylor.  But I like other types of music as well.  If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear!

Off on an Adventure

Dear friends, you have despaired or hoped that I was away forever!  Which was it?

We have been off on an adventure, and we have the laundry to prove it!  I can't wait to share.  Here are a few photos for now.

I hope you had a wonderful 4th!  Goal update tomorrow.

Rogue Girl Boy Scouts

When my husband and son tromped off to scout camp last week, we girls + the littlest boy tromped off on an adventure of our own.  It was a fairly easy hike with a big pay-off.  The kids really loved it.  And I gave my inner scout some "time." (when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a scout so badly!  my dad was a scoutmaster)

 Daughter number three is entirely self dressed in any photos you have seen over the last year.  It is quite fun to see what she will come up with, though sometimes her outfits don't work quite as well for a particular occasion.

Happy Wednesday!  Sorry, I thought I'd blog more this week, but it's been crazy (when I don't plan ahead, and find that certain towns we're planning on staying in have been booked for six months, oops!)!  We're going on vacation next week, so I won't be around.  But I hope I'll have some fun photos when we get back, on July 10th-ish.

I will see you here Friday, if you dare! :)

Memorial Day Part 2 (One Month Later!)

Here are some photos of our second half of Memorial Day weekend.  We always visit my father-in-law for Memorial Day, remember Miguel's mom, and enjoy some crazy times with our wonderful growing extended family.  This usually means someone is playing the organ, someone is building with blocks or Lincoln logs, someone is holding the "kitty" (a really beleaguered looking thing, but they all fight over it), little girls concocting ideas and trailing around after one another as they implement said ideas, kids go outside to explore the barn or the sheep camp or to traipse through knee high grass, gingerly over-stepping animal pies, or just to watch a long-eyelashed jersey cow crunch down her lunch; the adults get in some conversation, fantastic food while my father-in-law is awake, junk food when he is asleep, some late night games.  We often go for a "picnic" in the mountains-- usually hot dogs.  And often we go fishing.  So nice to enjoy each other's company and a break from every day routines, as well as the beautiful rural surroundings.         

Sorry for the picture glut.  I just couldn't choose.

Sorry if this grosses you out.  The kids enjoyed looking at it.  Below, bro explains.

 I love how sweet his sister is being, too.

 Cousins!

 Looking up at some sort of bug.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  That your summer is going well so far!  I may post more this week, because next week we are going on vacation!  Wahoo!