Proud Swim Mom

KILLER WHALES JFK; BIG AND STRONG AND YOU'RE OUR PREY!!!!!



The past five weeks Pie has been participating in a summer swim program. Quite obviously she was on the Kennedy Pool Team, and we were the killer whales (I really wanted a shirt. I might have one made for next year). She had some great friends on the team, and that added to the fun.

The program is an awesome city program, which is very affordable, and teaches the kids the correct way to execute the strokes.

The first week is spent working on freestyle, second week backstroke, third week breaststroke, and fourth week butterfly. On every Thursday we would have a swim meet against the Marcus Marlins.

To say that Pie loved it would be a bit of an understatement. I mean she REALLY LOVED it. Except for the backstroke, not really her thing, and the first day of butterfly was a bit painful.

Here she is practicing the for her breaststroke race, and doing a little dance that goes with it.

Oddly enough her best strokes are breaststroke and butterfly, both of which she can do much quicker than freestyle, go figure. On the fifth week meet the kids get to choose their favorite three races. She chose free, breast, and fly. She just missed the medals by a smidge in the breaststroke, but still came away with two seconds and a third in the first four meets.



We are so proud of her. She is already talking about next season, and beating her times. So happy to be back in my element.

P.S. Is the haircut the cutest thing ever???

You Say It's Your Birthday...nah nah nah nah nah

Somebody in our family had a birthday. Can you guess who??



Yep. College Daughter has left her teens in the dust. She is officially twenty. Which is starting to get a little awkward since I am twenty-nine, but no reason to dwell on that.

We had a great time celebrating at the old stomping grounds surrounded by friends and family.

First up, swimming with the whole family, and when I say whole family I mean it. The blog world has not been formally introduced to our other children because we don't get to see them very often. Blog world, let me introduce Matt and Valorie.

Please ignore the fact that this is a Wedding picture. There were NO pictures taken at the pool, and the pictures from Easter are a little inappropriate. No Matt, Eggs do NOT come from there.

Anywho, Cool Dad worked on a "Dig", because that is what Archaeologists do. This particular dig lasted 10 months. There were many college students working on this dig, and they would randomly come and go for Sunday dinners at our house. Well, Val just kind of stuck. She fit in with our family, so we decided to keep her. We love being her family in "the West". Matt, well he comes with Val now, so we are stuck. Just kidding we love them both, and we had an awesome time swimming as a family for College Daughter's birthday. I think it will be hard to forget all of my "children" jumping off the diving board screaming, "Mom, mom, mom. Look at this one!!!!" I do think the lifeguards were ready to kick us off the hydrotube, we might have all screamed the whole way down, a time or two.

Next up, movie time. The girls went to Monte Carlo, which was predictable, but fun for girls of all ages. The boys went to The Zookeeper. Rumor has it, they will never get that hour and a half back. Oh, and if you are wondering, we rarely go to movies together. We discovered that everyone is happier if we each go to our own.

Now, I don't know that I can really say the water balloon fight was for College Daughter's birthday. In reality it was for Bubba. I knew if he didn't get some water fighting cousin time in he might actually die. However, since they all did soak College Daughter we will include it as a birthday activity.

On Saturday night Grandma made Hawaiian Haystacks and Cream Cheese pie which is one of College Daughter's favorite dinners. We had quite a crowd there, and it got a little loud, even though we kept it under thirty guests. College Daughter made a pretty good haul, and seemed quite pleased with her birthday weekend.

We love you College Daughter! We think you are beautiful, kind, a lifesaver, sweet, smart, genuine, caring, loving, flirty, sassy, tough, a fast swimmer, a good big sister, an awesome friend, talented, responsible, hard working, clean (a little OCD actually), a snazzy dresser, and a Daughter of God.

It's Almost My Birthday

I know what I want for my birthday!!!!!

One of these babies


Do you think Cool Dad will go for it?




A bargain at around $5k, and I am sure they are totally inexpensive to maintain. How cool would it be to live in a lighthouse?? Cool Dad would love it. He isn't afraid of heights at all. He totally past waking up in a cold sweat when he dreams about climbing to the top of the Tybee Lighthouse. Way past it. It has been at least a week.

I am going to start dropping hints now.

I Win...You Lose

Hello Blogger World,

I have an extremely important question for you. Is there a way to print the Wii Bowling scores? All of you who know how competitive Cool Dad is are starting to chuckle because you can see where this is headed.

Let's just say that I was dancing around the family room yelling, "WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER, I KICKED YOUR TRASH!!!" In all of my sportsmanship like glory. Hmmm I wonder if the children noticed? Probably since it was a Family Home Evening activity. What can I say, parenting at its finest.

Hot Mom-180
Cool Dad-172

Take that!!!

The Big One-Oh

Well,Cool Dad really did it this time. He posted out of order. How could he not know that I like things orderly? The Anniversary post must come before random stories that happened yesterday. So in order to get us back on track I am just going to post pics and random thoughts about our trip. It was taking way too much time for me to try and come up with witty comments. So, here goes the Anniversary post.


First of all, Bubba made us this cool card. How could we not be excited for our Anniversary?

Cool Dad and I recently celebrated our Anniversary. It was our 10th, so the planning fell to Cool Dad. He plotted and planned for months before deciding on the perfect destination. For awhile he would just tell me that it would be somewhere out of the country. Since Cool Dad knows I love a warm beach I started having visions of tropical destinations.
Then, he finally announced the perfect romantic getaway to… Canada?? Isn’t it COLD in Canada??
That’s right folks; I had to get out my winter sweaters to go on vacation. I admit I did torment Cool Dad about the weather the whole time we were there, but it was really nice, and 70 degrees isn’t bad with a jacket.


Victoria, BC is beautiful, the flowers were blooming, and everything was so green. We really enjoyed touring the island. Usually we stay on the outskirts of places we visit for the best hotel rate, but for the big trip we stayed right in downtown at the harbor(Cool Dad even sprung for the Romance package so when we got to our room there were flowers, sparkling grape juice (which the hotel staff had to drive all over Canada looking for), and a big chocolate heart..he really does know me). It was so fun to be close to everything. We could wander around in the evenings, and we hit a few of the English Pubs for dinner, Mmm fish and chips.


Sorry, this picture is strictly for Cool Dad. he wanted proof that will go in the blog book that he is one heck of a romantic guy.


I love taking pictures of lighthouses. Living in the desert I don’t get much of a chance, so if there is a lighthouse within a hundred miles Cool Dad makes sure I get there. This trip we actually saw four. One we did not get very close to, since it was on the Washington side, but we went past it on our Whale Watching tour. I am going to put in a plug for Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours. They are a smaller company, but the tour was top notch, the captains were cute, and their boats are awesome. We were able to see a ton of whales, and Cool Dad burned his forehead, not to mention we got to wear these lovely outfits.



Since they have guaranteed a whale sighting I kind of expected that if we didn't see actual whales, they would have us take a look around the boat at each other. No fear, we did see whales. I took about fifty pictures of fins going underwater. Wildlife photographer, I am not. This one isn't too bad.



I also loved the Parliament House, it is a beautiful building. This picture also shows one of many totem poles. It was fascinating to see the mix of the English and First Nations cultures. I could practically make a calendar with all of my totem, pole pictures to go with my lighthouse calendar.


Although we loved being right in Victoria we wouldn't be us without a little exploring. We put over 450 miles on our rental car visiting other towns. We loved the museum in Nanaimo. Ask Cool Dad how he liked his famous Nanaimo bar? Can you say coconut? He about spit it out on the table, but had the manners to politely work his way through it since we were eating at a retiree hot spot. We also ate at A&W in Sooke where they still have the "family of burgers". Cool Dad and I enjoyed Teen Burgers (I know that is going to give away our ages).

At the end of the week we were ready to come home and see our kiddies, but the trip was a huge success. It was great to see a new place, and spend time alone with Cool Dad. Thanks for planning it honey. Happy Anniversary!

P.S. Did I mention the chocolate? I might need a whole other post just to talk about it. Don't tell Cool Dad, but I paid $4.99 for a candy bar, and I ate it all by myself. It is the kind the Queen eats when she goes to Canada. YUMMY!!!!!
 

...Makes Perfect

Bud: Pie get out of my room.

Bud (with a little more volume and emotion): Pie, get out of my room! I don't want you in here! Get out!

Bud (almost in tears): Pie, I told you. Get out. I'm gonna tell Mom. I'm serious. I'm gonna tell Mom!

Bud (at the top of his lungs): Mmmmooooooooommmmmmmm! Pie is in my room and won't get out.

Hot Mom (annoyed): Pie! Get out of your brother's room. Right now!

Bud (peaking out of his room completely calm): Mom, she's not in here.

Hot Mom (totally perplexed): Then why are you screaming?

Bud (nonchalantly): I'm just practicing.


No wonder Pie is paranoid.

Water Fight with Hot Water...Because That is How We Roll

Hello Blog,

Oh how I have missed you. I have been gone for three weeks. I have been on an extended work/vacation going from the heat to the land of the "Frozen Chosen", to Zion, and across the country to the state of "Live Free or Die", and back to the depths of He**.

I have had limited computer access at different intervals, and I have so much to say and show you. However, it is 118 degrees outside right now, and I have to go make strawberry jam, but first our family will engage in a water fight with hot water. "Why would we do that?" You might ask. Because there is NO other type of water here. All water comes out of the pipes burning hot. I think we actually turned our hot water heater off. I do have the water balloons on ice as we speak, but I am not hopeful that they will be even the slightest bit cool.

I do however want to tell you that I LOVED my trip to Canada. It felt a little like coming home. How can a country who loves chocolate and Pepsi not have a little soft spot in my heart?

So, until I can dazzle you with my wit and beautiful landscape pics I will leave you with the first tidbit of my trip.

On the shuttle bus at the Las Vegas Airport (5am). Man sits down next to attractive woman, and asks, "So are you flying today?" Without missing a beat she responds, "Nope, I just like to hang out at the airport."

Here's your sign!