Welcome to our World

We have been looking forward to paddle boarding since last summer!  Well, Michelle, Natalie and I. My teenagers declared they were too tired to go on the day we had planned. Maisie informed us that she did not want to stay home with party poopers and came with us to the lake. Here we are waiting for the electric pump Hubby bought us (and had my cigarette lighter feature fixed in my VW) to do the work while we sat in the shade. It’s actually way faster to manually pump them up but this is easier. One of my priorities for the summer was to attack our garage again. Somehow that thing was just an absolute disaster. I was utterly embarrassed when my children would bring friends over and they would go through our garage to get in the house. That was not the first impression I wanted people to have of my home.  So, whenever I felt like I had time, I got to work. Natalie was an excellent helper and Hubby gave vital information and help as well. The first thing we did was clean out the...

 Danny’s baseball tournament brought us to Gondola Square in Steamboat when all the winter stuff was over and before the official summer activities began. We had a marvelous place to stay at the resort that must have been the coolest condo ever when guests started signing in the year Hubby was born. Only trouble is when you stay in something built in the 1970s you might have a hard time finding it due to all the new builds around it. But the weather was perfect for playing baseball and for waiting to get back into the condo when we accidentally locked ourselves out.  Not too hot and not too cold and there is enough rain to make everything beautifully green. We drove in on Thursday as soon as Michelle got back from her first Stake Young Women's camp (more on that when I figure out who to beg for pictures) and take a shower. The next day my boys woke up at 5:30am to drive to Craig (an hour away) to be there for 7am warm ups for their 8am game.  Hubby and I decided this woul...

… you take the dog for longer walks in the morning because the weather is perfect, you meet friends at the park and have play dates at their house or yours, Mom and Dad are driving every day to the orthodontist or a ball field or dance or track practice or the swimming pool. And no one has to got to school!  It’s amazing!   Hot dogs and s’mores in perfect weather for the win after yet another baseball game.    Michelle’s dance studio celebrated their 10 year anniversary with an amazing recital. My mom and I loved being there in person to watch and were very impressed. Of course Michelle’s routine was my favorite and executed well and there were too many great ones to count. She is looking forward to being on the Hip Hop dance team again next school year even though it means she will need to quit Scouts to do so. (Her assigned dance classes for the team will be on the same night as the Scout meetings and there will be competitions on weekends throughout the school yea...

  Our son has leveled up to official teenager status!  The amount of love I feel for this kid that I used to carry around in my arms only keeps growing as he does. Sometimes I feel like my heart will burst as I watch him walk away. The feeling seems to be especially potent when he’s wearing his white baseball uniform and walking towards his team. My job is to work my way out of a job but I feel like my time with him is coming to a close too fast. In five years he’ll graduate from high school and I will cry big fat ugly tears as I smile and am just so grateful his birth mother chose us to raise him. Danny’s actual birthday was the day after we returned from Florida so we had his good friend, C, over for dinner with his current favorite kind of cake (that Hubby and Natalie picked up on their way home from her softball game).  The sweet shirt is courtesy of said friend and the sunglasses were Danny's big present that he had picked out at Disney Springs. This is actually the ...