Valleyfest Parade

 The pack participated in the Valleyfest parade last weekend!  I have to say, I had no intention of joining them.  I thought the girls and I could go have a girls night, get our nails done, go to frozen yogurt, BUT they wanted to see what a parade was.  There you have it. They are six years old and don't know what a parade is.  Yes, they have been to parades at Disneyworld, but apparently that doesn't count.  This goes to show, that I am old and crotchety and don't like crowds, or the people that draws them in.

I put on my big girl panties and bucked up for a fabulous night out.  We had to be there at 6:30, the parade started at 7:30, which being number 86, we started walking at 8:15.  We were done with the parade by 8:30.  Time well spent?  You better believe it!  When it was over, on the drive home, Kent and I both looked at each other and said the same thing.  "Never again, now that we've done that, we know what it's all about."

 Despite my poor attitude (I  hid it), the kids had a blast. 

 Wayne and Rene went all out on their truck and decorated it with a tent, campfire, fishing pole and even a dutch oven, complete with lights.  It looked amazing!

The kids got to try on these seizure inducing (see bad attitude) blinking glasses. They thought they were great!  The fun times are limitless around here!  :)

Through the car wash

I meant to  post this a while back when it happened, but time got away from me, and unfortunately, I am sure a lot of the details.

CAUTION:  Explicit info, only for the brave:

We, the kids and I, were going through the coffee shop line, and they had a box for donations for a little boy who was just diagnosed with cancer.  We started talking about him, and what he will have to go through, and we talked about our friend, Bella, who just went through chemo, at three years old.  This brought on more and more questions, which is not surprising.  I am not sure how, but eventually the question came up, "Mom have you ever had surgery?"

Me:  "Yes, when the girls were born, they were cut out of my tummy."

Brayden: "And when I was born too!"

Me: "No, not quite, I didn't have to have surgery with you."

I look in the rear view mirror and just as I suspected, there was a look of total shock and confusion.  In all these years he had never asked how he was born.  He assumed that he came out the same way as his sisters.  Now at almost nine years old, the truth is about to be learned...

Brayden: "Then how did I come out of your tummy?"

Me:  Bracing for a bad reaction of disgust or humility.  "Well, that's kind of a funny thing, you actually came out of my vagina."  Let me tell you, these are not the words a nine year old wants to hear from his mom.  My boy is sweet and sensitive, but still, there are limits.

Brayden:  A look of mild shock and embarrassment.  "BUT MOM isn't that TINY!"

Me: Trying oh so hard to hide my giggles.  "Well as a matter of fact, yes, yes it is."

B:  "How did that happen?"

Me:  "Well, first of all, it's a very lucky thing that you have a head the size of a peanut!  Secondly, our bodies do pretty amazing things and it stretched to allow you to come out."

All this is taking place, mind you, as we're driving, and now in the car wash, which is SUPER LOUD!

Ellie:  "WHAT MOM?  BRAYDEN CAME OUT OF YOUR VAGINA???"  IS IT FIXED?  IS IT STILL BIG AND STRETCHED OUT?  DID IT GO BACK? (to the original size).

Me:  Yes, Ellie, Brayden came out of my vagina  (we had to say this at least 20 times that day), and yes, my vagina is as perfect as it once was, everything is back to normal."

Meanwhile, Dani is literally sitting there with her mouth hanging open, just taking it all in. And wouldn't you know it, she was the first to spread the news to her cousins.  (I forgot to tell them this isn't something that we need to tell everyone about to discuss).

This my friends, is what having kids is all about.  I am so disappointed that this wasn't somehow captured on video, BUT this conversation and the looks on those precious, innocent faces will forever be ingrained in my mind. 

Just wait until we blow their minds about how they actually got INSIDE my tummy.  The conversation is not too far off.....any suggestions??  Besides videotaping of course.

Back to school

The day has arrived.  Who knew 6 and a half years ago that this day would get here?  The day that my gaggle of children are in school ALL day.  I have a flooding of mixed emotions.  A week ago I scheduled a "Back to school celebration for Mamas."  I was at my wits end and was so ready for them to be back in school and away from each other and all of the bickering.  I needed some girl time and something to look forward to!

This morning I was feeling the same way.  We were all ready and happy for school to start.  They laughed at the idea of me throwing a party when they returned to school.  I told them I would be here crying all day and missing them terribly.  They giggled and responded with a, "Yeah, right!"

My friends arrived, we ate, chatted, made mimosas and chatted more, until 12.  I cleaned up, went on a bike ride and came home to a quiet house.  It was almost eery.  I caught up on more chores, and got to work on this neglected blog.  Throughout the day, I kept pausing, looking around, waiting, for a sound, for a crash, for a giggle, a scream, fighting words, nothing.  It was weird.  I think I can get used to it, but wow, what a milestone! 

I promised the girls that I would be out at the bus stop waiting for them, and I was.  I was anxious to see them and hear about their days.  All three bounded off the bus with huge smiles.  All is right in the world,  they are going to be just fine.  All of their teachers are wonderful, I just can't believe I am handing off all of my babies to these wonderful ladies, who are going to influence them just as much, or more than Kent and me.

 

Birthday Celebrations!

Brayden decided he didn't want to have a huge, invite the neighborhood birthday bash this year.  He wanted to have a slumber party....not sure which is worse.  He researched on Pinterest and got an idea for his cake and he took over.  I could not have done a better job, it was amazing.  So proud of his angry birds design.

 

 

 

When the 5 boys got here we did an Olympic games tournament.  It was a huge success.  It was nice to see each boy excel at different games.  They were all happy with the results.

 

I can't believe my boy is 9 years old!  How did I get old enough for this craziness?

Pickleball

                                                Kent showing off his skills.

Our fabulous friends, Steph and Keith had their 6th annual pickleball tournament this Summer.  It is always a fun day that we all look forward to.  They grill, rent a bounce house/water slide for the kids and they had an organized scavenger hunt this year.  Everyone was thoroughly entertained! 
I missed it last year because I was in Nashville celebrating Kenzie's bachelorette weekend.  I didn't get to see Kent take home the first place title and the coveted jar of pickles.  :) 

        
                                                                 Brayden

Ellie, I don't know why she is standing like that.  With her tinkle issues this summer, I guess I should have been more concerned. 

                                   
                                                                      Danielle

                                                      Our nephew, Owen

Kelly ended up taking first prize this year.  Kent was bummed because his partner (they draw teams, mixed doubles, no spouses) had to take her son to the urgent care and the replacement wasn't quite as strong of a player.  They got knocked out right away.  My team got third, there's always next year!

Summer fun!

We rented a boat again this year out on Lake Coeur d' Alene.  It was a hot 90+ degree Saturday.  The kids were thrilled.  We hit the water and tubed for about 2 hours then we shut the motor down and had some lunch.  When I went to start it back up again, it made a horrible grinding noise. Over and over and over.  Long story short, we were stranded out on the lake for over an hour drifting toward the shore.  Kent jumped in and held the boat in place and kept us off the bank.  The owner came out on a pontoon boat, tied up our speed boat on the back, and we putted back to the dock.  It took FOREVER!  By that time we were done with the sun and heat.  It all worked out and they ended up refunding our money, so we got 2 hours of tubing and a lot of lake time for free.

                                                            Brayden ready to bounce and jump.

          Ellie, the little speed demon. 

                                                  Dani, the cruiser, likes to take it slow.

                                               Swimming with my babies.

                                           Showing Brayden how to dive, look at that form.  :)

                                                 He opted for a cannon ball.

                                                             Kent cannon balling in.

                          
                                                                Dani with a little jump.

                           
                                      Kent and the babies.  Memories were definitely made this day!

This picture cracks me up.  It looks like Dani is in jail, but she's hanging at the skate park.

Girls weekend!

 

Ahh, girls weekend.  The weekend I was looking forward to all year, and it didn't disappoint.  When I say girls weekend, I mean a weekend away with those girls that know you better than anyone.  Those girls that grew up with you, those girls who went through all of that drama time and time again and were there for you each and every time.  These friendships have endured for 20-30+ years.  I feel so fortunate to have found such true friends so early in life.  Who knew that in Kindergarten Jocey and I would still have so much in common 30 years later?

I digress, but this weekend gave me a break from my regular routine and I could be me, not the Mama, or the wife or the caregiver, or the fixer upper, or the therapist or the lost and finder.  I got to be me, the me that they know so well, and accept as is.

My weekend started Thursday morning at 3:16 am when I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep.  I had a 6 am flight to catch so I just went with it.

Kathy picked me up, we headed to Meghan's house, then we were on our way to Meghan's condo in Sunriver!  I was beyond ecstatic.  My parent's had a cabin there while I was growing up, we spent a lot of time there and I hadn't been back for over 10 years.

It felt like coming home when we took that familiar exit and navigated around the round abouts.  I was like a giggly little kid.  That night when everyone arrived, I was so content.  We laughed until we cried, we talked about everything, put it all on the table, right off the bat mind you; husbands, kids, jobs, the funny, the dirty, the ordinary, the usually untalked about.  I LOVE my 'Couve girls and I can't wait until next  year, especially when Kym will be able to join us.

 

 

                                Cute Megs at 10 barrel after we hammered these amazing nachos.

                                                            Crux fermentation project

                                                      Our hiking trails.

The old road signs from when I was a kid, now a decoration in the village pub.  I wanted to take them home.  :)

 

There's my plane, 6am and ready to take off.

The girls and m in front of my family's old cabin.  This is where we stayed for a week on our senior trip.  Memories were made that week.  :)

 

                                                                   Pi & Lins

                                               On our hike, Jocey, Lins, Kathy, Pi and Megs

                      Kathy and I rode the tandem all through Sunriver.  The first hill we went down I discovered the brakes didn't work well, although the squeaked REAL loud.  A guy moved off the path and said, "Wow, that looks dangerous."  Kathy and I were dying laughing, we had everything under control.  It was an adventure.

                                                   Megs, Pi and Lins. 
Megs and Lins had cruisers, Lindsey was riding Meghan's husbands, which was a wee bit too big.  She was not thrilled.  Her arms looked like they were on ape hangers.  (you know, those bad ass handle bars that are on some Harleys).

                                                 The infamous river in Sunriver.

Pool time!  Cute Pi and Lins working the hats.

                        Sunriver airport that Kathy, Pi and I cruised by on our long bike ride.

 

Kathy and I cruised, Pi raced with her road bike and helmet.  :)  I love it!

 

Remnants from the hike.