helicopter

This helicopter flew in front of our house last night, so we hurried and loaded our plane and helicopter lover into the truck and went to the airport to watch. It would land, take off, circle around, and land again. It must have been practicing!

I did NOTHING to these photos to make the colors so beautiful- this was really how it looked last night!

football fan

back at it

Summer is officially over. :( Josh started football practice bright and early on Monday morning (6:00 a.m. early!!) followed by a work day. He had another work day yesterday and I had meetings. Today we both had a district-wide meeting. Tomorrow he starts actual school and I have work days for the rest of the week. My students come on Monday.

Brecken started back to daycare today. I was so proud of myself- I didn't cry this year! I almost did last night while thinking about it, but I didn't- and held it together this morning, too! :) It totally helps that we LOVE Amy, as does Brecken, and he feels totally comfortable at her house. I think that's why there were no tears from Mommy this morning. :) I picked him up from Amy's this afternoon and he hardly noticed I was there... he was busy picking out a popscicle to have. :) And when he was finished with his popscicle, he STILL didn't want to come home with me- he was too busy playing golf in the yard. So, the transition for him was easy. :)

smartie

We have a smart kid. I've always said that, but now we have proof. :) Brecken had his developmental screening today and BREEZED through it. Hooray! He scored the highest he could on everything. He flew through the puzzles, threaded beads through a pipe cleaner, stacked blocks, identified pictures, drew circles, drew a straight line, kicked and threw a ball, tapped the tip of a pencil on the table with just his finger, lots of things. Here's my favorite moment of the day: The lady gave him two mugs- one empty, one full of blocks. She asked him, "Which one is empty?" He took the full mug, emptied it out into the empty mug, held up the now-empty mug and replied, "THIS ONE!!" :) Gave us quite the chuckle.

She asked if he's speaking 4-5 word sentences, and I told her that he's actually saying 8-10 word sentences, and stringing 4 of those sentences together to form paragraphs. She said based on that, his verbal skills are WAY above normal 3-year old abilities. (and he's still 2, technically!) He has lots of practice- the kid doesn't quit talking. :) (And how many 2 year olds can tell you the difference between a putter and a pitching wedge??!!)

I noticed a HUGE difference in maturity between last year's screening and this year's screening. Last year, he wouldn't leave my lap to do anything, wouldn't let anyone touch him, etc. (Granted, last year, he had never been to the school and had never met the people, but still.) This year, he skipped right on into the preschool, went right on his way to doing everything, and hardly noticed Josh and I were there. I LOVE that. He really loves school and thrives on it. We got him all signed up for preschool for this year. He'll be going FOUR days a week, for 2.5 or 3 hours a morning (I forgot what she told me). He's so excited, he's even asked for a new backpack for preschool. (But don't buy him one- my sister did for his birthday!)

We even got a list of school supplies to bring to school, so after the screening, B and I headed to Rawlins to get those supplies. Brecken calls them "School Surprise"- supplies and surprise sound the same, so I can see where he would get confused. :) We had to get crayons, glue, a glue stick, paper towels, snacks, markers, and watercolors. He had a great time picking everything out!

Makes me a bit sad though... my baby is growing up. :(

scared me to death

We think Brecken went unconscious and had a tiny seizure yesterday. We were up at Josh's school and he was running up and down the ramp in the hallway. He tripped and bonked his head pretty hard. I went immediately to pick him up and thought he was holding his breath like he does when he cries hard, but he wasn't- he was kind of limp and rolled from my one arm to the other, then shook for a second and then came to. Scared the living daylights out of me and the 3 of us went immediately to the clinic to get him checked out. His eyes were OK and he was walking and talking OK (through his tears) so we came home and watched him closely. Nothing out of the ordinary last night, thank goodness. We did wake him up a couple times in the night to make sure though. SCARY! Josh thinks he may have had a teeny tiny concussion. Scared me to death though.

In other news....

Hogan got sprayed by a skunk again last night. About 2:00 am we heard him bark and yelp and then an AWFUL skunk stink in our bedroom- we think the skunk was under our window and Hogan scared it and got sprayed. UGH. Our bedroom smells but I've been doing the odor remover on the carpet and vacuuming it all day.... It's getting better. Gross. The dogs have been sleeping outside because it gets so hot in our house at night- same reason we had the bedroom window open last night. Now I never want to open the window again! :) (although it is right now with a fan going to air it out!!) I guess I should be glad it happened now, when I have time to get all my clothes deoderized... last time this skunk problem happened, I went to school smelling like a skunk for a week. YUCK.

In the infertility world...

I had an HSG test done on Monday in Ft. Collins. (click on the link to get a full explanation.) I can certainly live without ever having one of those done again!! :) The procedure itself didn't hurt, really, but was one of the most uncomfortable experiences ever. (OK, except for the numbing spray- that hurt. BAD. It stung. BAD.) I was quite sore afterwards and yesterday the soreness continued. Josh was able to be with me during pre-op and post-op, but not in the OR itself. My RE does his own HSG tests, so that he can see first-hand what is going on instead of relying on a radiologist's point of view. I like that about my RE- he's extremely hands-on and does all of his own stuff. It was really cool to see the dye move around- especially when it showed no blockages! Hooray!! (Even though that just means there's something else going on... But it's one test checked off the list.) I go in for bloodwork in a little over a week to make sure I am ovulating, and then about a week after that to check on the cyst. The bloodwork can be done in Rawlins, thank goodness; the ultrasound on the cyst will have to be in Ft. Collins again.

A great story this week from one of my fantastic infertile friends though- I don't want to be specific since it's not quite public knowledge yet, but know that a wonderful woman and her husband are well on their way to becoming parents because of great treatments and options for infertile women. I've been smiling all week about it!

a reproductive endocrinologist

If you haven't figured it out already, we struggle with infertility. Brecken took 17 months to get pregnant with, and there is a reason Brecken will be at LEAST 3 1/2 before he gets a sibling. We just didn't know exactly what that reason was until this past Tuesday, when we went to visit a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) in Fort Collins, CO.

The appointment was interesting. Josh was called a stud pretty much. :) So that ruled him out, even though a few years ago, we had been told it was his "fault" even though they never did tests on me because shortly after, we got pregnant. Apparently though, according to our RE, most doctors aren't specialized in infertility so their knowledge comes from how they were trained, and in this instance, that was a LONG LONG time ago for the doctor we had seen first! There are no REs in Wyoming. So it's worth the visit to CO to get a specialist, but too bad it's so dang far away! (3 hours one way.)

Then it was my turn. They did an internal ultrasound and found that I have a pretty large cyst inside my right ovary. Looking back, I've felt some aches there sometimes, but I couldn't tell you how long because I just assumed it was normal or gas or something! Apparently, it's not, it's the cyst. They then freaked me out by sending me to the hospital for a blood test to rule out ovarian cancer- I FREAKED all night long. I cried and cried. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long for the results because they called the next morning at 9:00 and said they aren't worried about cancer anymore. Normal ranges are between 0-21, and mine was 74, but cancer ranges are between 200-300. Phew! The raised number is pretty consistent with someone who might have endometriosis, so that's what they'll be looking for next. (They are amazed I haven'tbeen in a ton of pain- usually it's pretty painful. Like I said, mine is just achy!)

SO, I have to go back to Ft. Collins in one month so they can do another ultrasound on me and see if it's going down on it's own- if not, I'll have to have surgery to remove it. If it IS endometriosis though, it's a disease I'll have until menopause- there's not a cure for it.

In addition, I have to go back on Monday next week for an HSG test, where they put dye into your uterus and watch it go up the fallopian tubes to see if there are any blockages there. Fun, fun! After that, we'll know a little more of what we'll do as far as a game plan. So there you go- that's the issue! We certainly had everything turned upside down on us since 3 1/2 years ago- we thought it was Josh's "fault"and not mine, and as it turns out, he's been fine all along and it's ME that has the issues!! Wonder how long I've had this.

We just got back today from Lingle. I now have TWO trips to get caught up with on here. I better get cracking! :)

2 going on 14

Here are the "teenager" phrases we've been hearing around the house lately- they are kind of funny when they come out of the mouth of a tiny 2 year old- they won't be so funny in a few years! :)

"Fine!"
"I'm mad at you!"
"I'm NOT pouting!"
"I'm not talking to you any more!"

(And trust me- we do not laugh when he says these, I know very well that that would add fuel to the fire. But that doesn't stop us from laughing after he goes to bed! :) )

itsy bitsy spider

arranged by Brecken

adoration

dreams

My sister came over yesterday with her kids and friend Lindsey. We went out to breakfast this morning, and on the way there, Brecken started telling me about how a spider and snake bit his mouth, two fires burned him, and airplanes bonked him in the head and knocked him down. He was very serious about it and I realized he was telling me about his dreams last night. Boy, no wonder the kid was up all night crying- resulting in one tired mom this morning! I felt really bad for him for having these awful dreams. :(

Tonight, 20 minutes after he went to bed, he woke up crying again. I went in there and he told me "Mommy, I'm so scared." I asked what he was afraid of, and he said he was afraid of the airplanes. Oy- it might be a LONG night. Josh is in Casper for the coaching clinic so I'll be on my own... wish me luck! :)

serenity...

...out my door tonight.

friends

Brecken made a new friend while playing outside tonight. Our neighbors' 4 year old granddaughter from Laramie is visiting. She started waving and saying hi, and boy, did Brecken get excited! He said, "Mom! Somone's talking to me!!" He ran over and they were instant friends. They played bikes on our driveway, played in the sandbox in the back yard next door, played more bikes, the little girl (Cody, but I'm not sure if that's how she spells it) even asked him if he wanted to spend the night with her. HA! I told her that Brecken probably wouldn't like that because he was a little young still, but maybe in a couple years. :) When it was time for her to go eat dinner, she and Brecken gave each other the nicest, longest hug and blew kisses to each other and said "See you tomorrow!" It was dang cute.

We've been to Gillette and back since my last post. I'll try to blog about that trip tomorrow. Blogger has been weird the past couple days so I haven't gotten a chance.

new post

New post on the photo blog!

fertile thoughts

I've added a link to blogs I read. I'd invite you to check it out, if you want to know more about infertility. It is written by a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), a doctor who specializes in infertility. He gets to write on both sides of the story- both as an RE and a parent who struggled with his wife through infertility to have a baby. Scroll down to the bottom and start with the first post- he has some fantastic information and good insight on what it's like to go through this.

I am in no way posting this to start a debate. I don't want to hear arguments. I've heard enough of them through our struggles and I'm not wanting more. I just want to put this out there so if you want to know more about what an infertile couple might go through, you can get it from someone that isn't just *bitter* about it, but someone who knows, both as a parent and a medical doctor who helps people who desperately want children, become parents. Someone who will tell you that in fact, "relaxing" does not help a medical problem. And adopting will not make you become pregnant one month later. And in fact, getting medical assistance such as IVF does not mean you will become pregnant with 9 children.

If you don't want to read about it, please don't. If you do, please do! He writes in a way that is very easy to read and you might enjoy it!

4th of Jul-EYE

What a fun past few days! We were originally supposed to head up to Gillette last Thursday after Josh got done teaching summer school. However, his kids worked really hard and finished on Tuesday morning so we took off on Tuesday afternoon. Ended up working out really well, because my mom was flying home from Europe on Wednesday and my dad had a closing out of town that day, so my mom was still able to have someone pick her up at the airport.

That night, Brecken woke up in the night saying he didn't feel good. I thought it was just that he was in a new bed, and I tucked him back in and he went back to sleep. At 1:30 am, he woke up again and was burning up. We got medicine down him and Josh went to get a temporal thermometer at Walmart (since our other one got wet in the ocean along with the stupid car keys and quit working). He said shopping there at 2:00 am was a nice treat- nice and empty! :) By the time he got back, Brecken's medicine had started working and his fever was down to 101.7 or something. I slept with him the rest of the night and in the morning, his fever was still there. So off to Urgent Care we went. This one is run by the hospital and I was really impressed!! The PA we saw was really nice and the whole facility was spotlessly clean and we were in and out very fast. Poor kid had an ear infection. This makes 6 in his left ear and 5 in his right. All he could do was cry and say "owie!!" We got three prescriptions filled (ear drops, ear numbing drops, and antibiotic) and gave him his first dose. That afternoon he was a new kid- laughing and playing again. Hooray!!

Everyone else (14 total people!) showed up Thursday and Friday. We had a great time seeing a lot of our family. And my mom and dad's neighbors were out of town, so we were able to have their house for bedrooms so nobody had to stay at a hotel. It was great!

Friday morning, a bunch of us headed out to the golf course to try out the new clubs my dad made for Brecken and my nephew Ryan. Brecken is in LOVE with golf and was pretty sad when it was time to go home and eat lunch. The clubs are quite heavy compared to his plastic ones, so swinging them took some getting used to. He never gave up though, he just kept on swinging!

That afternoon, we went down to a new waterpark that is part of a hotel in town. It was fun- there were two waterslides, a lazy river, and a really cute kids play area with little waterslides and fountains and stuff. We had a good couple of hours there. Brecken was shivering to death but he loves swimming so much that he did not want to leave!!

Saturday started off fabulous. We went to the parade and Brecken had a blast watching everything. Both little boys ended up filling their own gallon sized Ziplock with candy! Holy moly, that's a lot of candy! He had fun watching the horses and fire trucks and ambulances and all the other things going on.

After a BBQ and naptime, Brecken, Ryan, my sister, my cousin Ian, and myself went to the neighborhood park. Brecken loves parks so this was a great afternoon for him.

While at the park, I had an allergic reaction to the weeds and grass and everything else around outside. My eyes started itching something fierce, and when we got back in the car, I rubbed my eyes. Soon after, my eye formed a mass on the eyeball itself and it got hard to blink. Around 5:30, Josh and my sister took me to Urgent Care. We saw the same PA that saw Brecken. She donned a crazy looking helmet with special things to look in eyes and then sent us to the ER since she didn't know much about eyes and didn't want to mess it up. I appreciated that. And on our way out I told her that while I liked her, I hoped we didn't meet again for a 3rd time. :)

The ER took FOREVER, like I was expecting. I sent Josh home at 8:00, as everyone at home was getting ready to go out and do some fireworks. I wanted Brecken to have a dad to do them with, and besides, we had Brecken's car seat so they weren't able to get him anywhere unless Josh went home!! Kristen stayed with me and then my mom and dad came up so we had a car. After waiting in the exam room for over an hour and a half, we finally saw the doctor. She diagnosed me with Chemosis, which is the swelling of the eye tissue. There's some disgusting pictures on the internet if you want to google it. :) In addition, I have a scratched eyeball. AND, she made me tell her that I was overdue for a tetanus shot, so I had to get one of those, too!!! So one shot, a tube full of stuff as thick as neosporin, a prescription for eye drops, an eye exam, orders to NOT wear my contacts for 10 days (DANG IT!!), instructions to see my eye doctor this week, and a LOT of time later, I finally got to leave. Oy.

I missed doing the fireworks with Brecken, which I had really looked forward too. Last July 4, we had been up since 1 am to get on a plane and come home for a wedding, so Brecken was so tired that he made it through one sparkler before he crashed. This year he was excited to do them, so I'm completely bummed I missed it. However, we were out of the hospital at 9:30 so we were able to meet everyone else at the big fireworks show that Gillette puts on, so I was able to watch those with him. He loved every minute of it, even though it was almost 11:00 when we got back to go to bed!!

July 5 was my mom's birthday. Brecken had got to pick out her birthday cake from Dairy Queen. He originally wanted one with Santa and snowmen, but Dairy Queen didn't have that option in their book right now. :) So he picked out Lightning McQueen. He also insisted on party hats, but the only ones the store had were Transformers. So my mom had a McQueen/Transformers party! :)

Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July weekend!!

hopeless romantic

We went to the hotpools tonight. Also there were two of my little students with their mom and grandparents. These two girls are super sweet girls and really pretty. One will be in 1st grade and one will be in 3rd grade this coming year. Brecken got to use a pick-up line for the very first time ever, on the 3rd grader. She went walking by and he said, in a very smooth voice, "Hi... there's the moon...." LOL! Josh and I stifled our laughter as best we could as she just kind of walked away. Good thing he didn't really notice he was shot down. :)

not much

Wow, it's been almost a week since I've updated! That doesn't happen very often. We've been busy, but not with anything exciting, I guess!! Here are the highlights:

Wednesay last week, Josh got home from football camp. Brecken REALLY missed his daddy this time around- it was hard for him to have Josh gone to basketball camp, home for a day, and then turn around and leave while he was sleeping again for football camp. He's been very clingy on Josh since he's been home and doesn't like it one bit when Josh leaves to go anywhere without him! Wednesday night we also had company for dinner- Josh's cousin Kevin was in town on blood drive work so we had him over. Brecken kept saying, "Kevin! I have toys in here!" and "Kevin! Look at this!" and so on. He had fun showing Kevin around our house- he hadn't seen our new one yet. He even showed Kevin his bathtub. :)

Friday we made a quick trip to Home Depot to get supplies for a new fence. The back of our fence is about to fall over, so that will be our project next week. The back portion cost us a ton of money, so the sides will have to wait until next summer. :) Manual labor and Kara do not usually go in the same sentence, so it will be amazing if we can get through the project without Josh getting TOTALLY irritated with me. :)

Other than that, not a lot has been happening. This week, Josh is teaching summer school for a couple kids that need to recover a credit. It will go Monday-Thursday, 8-12 this week. After he gets home on Thursday, we're taking off for Gillette for the 4th of July. I LOVE the 4th of July in Gillette. Big parade, the biggest fireworks display in Wyoming, just a bunch of fun. My aunt, uncle and cousins from Montana will be there, as will my grandma and my sister, David, and the kids. My mom will just have gotten back from Europe, so I hope my dad is ready to go from a house with just him in it for the past 3 weeks to a house with 14 people in it!

Until next time...

marco island

We had a great trip to Marco Island! This could be a long post- sorry about that. I do promise to not post every picture I took- I think it numbered in the 700's.

Sunday, June 7

Sunday started off with something I've been looking forward to for a long time: The Children's Hospital NICU reunion party! Since we were in the NICU, Children's has moved to a new location. I thought the old hospital was fantastic, but this one is just spectacular! We didn't get to see much of it, just the lobby area, but WOW! Upon entering, we went to the registraion table and who was there registering people, but our favorite NICU nurse! Betsy was the one who gave Brecken his first bottle, and was the one who was the most instrumental in getting us transferred back to Laramie. The day we got released from the hospital for good was her first shift back from her days off and was supposed to be assigned to Brecken. He wasn't there so she called me to make sure all was OK! That meant a lot to me. Anyway, we walked in and she looked at Josh and said, "Hey... I remember you!" THAT is an amazing thing too- how many babies and parents has she worked with since Brecken was there? I wouldn't be able to remember one specific one, that's for sure!

The party had tons of games for the kids to play- golf, basketball, a bean table to dig in and find prizes, craft stations, the most amazing face paintings I have ever seen, a bicycle safety course, etc. Of course, my child wanted to do golf and basketball ONLY. Sound like someone else we know?

They served lunch and had their slideshow of kids- after it was all done, Brecken clapped and said he loved that! :)


Then they gave away some door prizes. Each family was given a ticket when we got there and they started calling numbers. They only had about 15 things to give away, and there were a couple hundred people there, I would estimate. They gave away some boring ones, like tickets to the railroad history museum, but was I ever thrilled when they called OUR number and gave away a fantastic prize- tickets the Denver Zoo! Woo-hoo! We love zoos, so that will be great to go back to Denver later this summer and go to the zoo.

After the party, we went to the aquarium to burn time until we could go to the hotel for the night. Brecken had a BLAST. He could have spent all day at the aquarium. He ran from exhibit to exhibit and was in awe of everything. And it wasn't crowded at all in there, so it was a fantastic visit!

Since we were so busy Sunday, Brecken only had about 10 minutes total of nap. You would think he would be tired and go to bed, but NO. We finally turned the lights off and he ran around the hotel room in the dark at 10:00 p.m. He finally got the hint and laid down and went to sleep.

Monday, June 8

Monday started off very early! We made it through the flights and landed in Fort Lauderdale with no problems. Hooray for that!

Tuesday, June 9

Tuesday we took it kind of easy. We explored Marco Island a little bit, and went to the Marco River Marina, which is owned by my uncle's company, Rose Packing Co. The lady there found out I was the niece, and gave us fabulous service. :) Josh and Jeff and Brecken all got new fishing poles to use on our boat dock at our house. Brecken was so dang excited he could hardly contain himself. We also reserved a boat for later in the week- and imagine our surprise when the marina called Josh later and said they had called my uncle and they were waving the fee for the boat! YAY!! That afternoon was spent hanging out in our pool and teaching Brecken how to fish. Yes, at the same time.

Wednesday, June 10

Beach day!! We went down to the public beach and prepared to have fun. We did have fun, too! To get to the ocean part of the beach, you had to cross water over a sand bar. Josh and Jeff checked it out in the morning while us girls and Brecken stayed back and played in the sand there, and then after lunch we all went over the sand bar. It was a lot deeper then than it was when the boys crossed over in the morning, and when we came back at the end of the day it was deeper still!

Brecken LOVED swimming in the ocean. He giggled and giggled when the waves came. He had so much fun and didn't want to leave! We had a good time looking for shells, playing in the water, making sand castles, and relaxing.

We got back to the rental van and that's when things went downhill. We could not find the keys ANYWHERE. We tore apart all of our bags and still nothing. The last anyone remembered was they were in Josh's shorts pocket and he couldn't remember if he had put them in the bag or not. A nice lady in the parking lot gave us the phone number for the local Enterprise. Jeffrey went back to the beach to see if he could find them anywhere. Beth and I stayed with the kids. After forever (it seemed), a family asked us if we lost our keys because they had found some. Oh, thank goodness! They were our keys! We thanked them up and down and they left. We went to unlock the car, and nothing. It's those new keys where EVERYTHING is electronic. We were able to take the electronic cover off and get the "old fashioned" key out to unlock the doors, but then it would not start the car. At all. We called Enterprise in Marco, Enterprise in Ft. Lauderdale where we rented the van from, and got nothing. An Enterprise guy finally came to get Beth and I and the kids since it was HOT and a storm was coming, and brought us to the house. Josh and Jeff stayed with the van. They finally had to get it towed to Naples, where they kept it overnight, to get the stupid key re-programmed. This was the second time we have had one of those van keys where it's all electronic, and the second time that it has quit working on us. I'm not impressed with the new Chrysler Town and Countrys right now. I won't be renting one of those again unless they give us the good ol' "old fashioned" keys!

Thursday, June 11

Another low-key day, partly because we didn't have a car for the morning. Josh and I went and got it and got back around lunchtime. We hung out around the pool and in the afternoon the boys went fishing. Didn't catch anything except a palm leaf but they sure had fun!

Friday, June 12

What a fun day this was!! We went out on the boat we rented from the Marina. Beth and the kids and I dropped the boys off at the marina and then went to the store to get lunch to pack. The boys brought the boat right to our back yard to pick us up! Brecken thought that was so funny. We spent all day out on the water. What a blast. I haven't spent a lot of time boating because let's face it- not a lot of boating options in Wyoming. Brecken had so much fun that he didn't even fight the fact that he had to wear a life jacket. We saw dolphins playing, lots of birds, a ton of boats, and it was a beautiful day out. We even stopped for fishing. Jeff caught one!! We also went to this place where you could park your boat and get out and wade in the nice warm water, look for shells, and walk on a little trail to the beach. SO. MUCH. FUN. I didn't want it to end!!

Saturday, June 13

Today we went to the swamp. I'm glad I went to see what it looked like, but I can live without going there again. Talk about HOT, MUGGY, and BUGS. Ugh. Remember that scene in Monsters Inc. where the monster was banished to the swamp and he ends up in a trailer and the lady thinks he's a 'gator? Yup, that's exactly how the swamp was. But Brecken was so excited to see alligators so off we went. We found an airboat place so we took a ride on one. That was kind of fun- I've never been on one before and it created a breeze! :) We saw alligators, so the trip was successful.

That night, Jeff and Beth went out on a date and we got to babysit Bryell. Brecken took that job super seriously, and was so much fun to watch. He read her books, helped me give her a bottle, even insisted on using the wipes when he helped me change her diaper. What a good babysitter he was!

Sunday, June 14

Took it easy again today- we went up to Naples to explore a little bit and found a nice air-conditioned mall. :) Other than that, nothing exciting happened.

Monday, June 15

Another fantastic day on a boat! A few days before, a Rose Packing guy called our house. Am I glad we answered the phone- because he offered us a day on the Rose Packing yacht- the Ramblin' Rose.

We had so much fun on this boat too. It had an airconditioned cabin, but we mainly stayed upstairs where we could see everything! Did you know that when huge boats go through the water, the dolphins use the wake to body surf? We got to witness it and let me tell you- it is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen!!

(I tried positing a very cool video of it but it was taking too long. I'll try again later.)

We saw some HUGE houses (I'm talking in the 13 milllion dollar range), some fantastic swimming pools in these huge houses' screened in porches, the house of the Stanley Steemer guy, a famous country singer's house (hold on... trying to remember which one it was...), some amazing scenery, had all the food we could eat, and had a really fun time. It was hard to believe that 4 hours passed as quickly as they did!

That evening, Josh and I got to go out on a date. We went to Naples and ate at a crab shack- we at so much shrimp that I'm not sure there are any left in the ocean. :) After that we bummed around in some cute little shops and then headed out to see a movie- "Angels and Demons". We had a good time together.

Tuesday, June 16

It was Father's Day for Josh and Jeff today! Beth and I got them a round of golf at a golf course for Father's Day and today was the day they got to go out and play. Beth and I had every intention of having a girls' day out (with Brecken and Bryell) but the guys played so fast that we only had time to get ready and have lunch!!

We went and picked the guys up and then we all went to the Naples Zoo. I'm not a fan of this zoo. Part of it was our fault- we went in the heat of the day (and let me tell you, it was HOT) and all the animals were resting where we couldn't really see them- but part of it was the zoo was pretty terrible. They didn't have a lot of "normal" zoo animals like elephants and zebras! The animals they DID have were behind two sets of fences so you couldn't hardly see them because of the two sets of green chain link you had to look through. We walked through the paths and then headed out. We ate dinner at a restaurant that was my Grandpa's favorite while he was alive. I never knew my Grandpa because he died when I was a year and a half old, but it was great to be somewhere that I knew he loved- I've never really gotten to do that before! That made it worth it, even if we were too hot to really enjoy the food. Next to the restaurant is a shell shack so Brecken picked out a special star fish to bring home for his friend Dylan. He kept telling me, "Dylan will LOVE it, Mommy!"

Wednesday, June 17

Today was the day we had to pack up. :( We ran a few last minute errands and then came back to clean out the fridge for lunch, and then took off for Ft. Lauderdale for the night. Our plane left really early on Thursday and driving from Marco Island to Ft. Lauderdale early on Thursday morning didn't sound fun. It was sad leaving the house- we had so much fun there. 10 days kind of seems long, but we all decided it was about the right amount of time for a trip. We were able to have fun-packed days and days where we did nothing but hang at the house- and we came back refreshed instead of feeling like we needed a vaction to recover from the vacation. We checked into our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, ate a yummy dinner at TGI Fridays, and Josh and Jeff returned our car to the airport.

Thursday, June 18

Flew home today. We had a great time and I can't wait to do it again sometime!! Rita and Pudge, if you read this, we had the time of our lives and we thank you SO MUCH for your help in our vacation. We had a blast!

More pictures can be seen on Beth's blog.

we're back!

And I'm slowly going through photos. Once I'm done, I'll put a full recap of our FABULOUS trip on here! We had a great time!

macro

I got a new toy for my camera this week and was outside playing with it today. I got about one shot of this:

and then it was quickly pulled out of the ground. I looked up to find this face:

He's such a boy!!!

can't wait

Brecken is so excited to go to Florida. He keeps talking about it. He's terribly disappointed that Daddy has to work this week and we can't go until next week. Today, he was sitting here and then all of a sudden asked me, "Mommy, can you wait?" I said, "Wait for what?" and he said, "To go to Florida!" I laughed and said, "Nope, I can't wait!" and he said, "Me too." Monday is going to be super exciting for him!

after the rain...

...this is what we woke up to. I can handle seeing this out my front window every morning.

first of the season

Even though it rained all day and was quite chilly in the evening, we had to end our walk with a piece of watermelon on the front porch. Our first watermelon night of the summer. :)

happy birthday to nobody

Today was Encampment's graduation. I had told Brecken that we were going to my school for a party. He thought it was a birthday party we were going to, and even practiced singing the "Happy Birthday" song. We were going to stay for cake after the graduation, but they weren't going to cut it for a while and Brecken was getting hyper, so we went home. I told him I would make a "birthday" cake when we got home. Of course, with him, you can't just make a cake- you have to have candles and singing too. We had quite the laugh tonight. :)

(oh, and forget the fact that it looks sloppy- if it had been for a REAL birthday, it would have had pretty edging, I would've taken more time making sure the {homemade!} frosting was nice and even, and the sprinkles, done by Brecken, would have been not in one huge pile. :) )