I have to say it again. I have THE BEST husband! Ladies, feel free to pass this blog along to your guys, but don't tell them where we live. I don't want anyone hunting down Brian. He has set the bar pretty high this time. He planned our anniversary trip to the beach, entirely himself, with a big surprise for me. We had an amazing weekend.

We started out our trip at the car rental place. He had reserved a convertible for our trip. This was the part that I suggested. We usually rent a car for road trips, so I thought it would cool to cruise Highway 1 (the coast highway, which runs right along the beach) with the top down and wind blowing in our hair, reminiscent of the 50's beach movies. Well, we get to the rental place and the person who had last rented the convertible that we were supposed use, never came back. It was a MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE. How cool would it be for a 30-something couple to cruise the beach in a mutang convertibe? So, we didn't get a convertible. Now some people would see this as a bad omen for our trip. Not me, I said, "If this is the only hiccup for this trip, we are in for a great weekend." I am a "glass half full kind of girl." They gave us a nice discount on a full size car, which was just about enough to pay for the gas for the weekend.

We arrive at our hotel prominently located RIGHT ON THE BEACH! The views from the lobby were amazing. I just stood at the window (by the fireplace, because it was a bit chilly) mesmorized, while Brian checked us in. He handed me the room key and dinner vouchers for both nights. He had requested the "romance package." Ooh la la.

Then we went to our room. We had champagne, chocolate truffles and bubble bath confetti. The room was so pretty.

This was the view from the bed!

This was the view from the door.
And if you looked the other way...

We strolled the beach the first day. Then we went to Target (yes, they are everywhere) because Brian forgot his swim suit. We soaked in the hot tub and relaxed. It was amazing after the crazy few week I have had. Then we went to dinner.

This was dinner the first night.

I have had a dream ever since I was in 5th grade and watched Voyage of the Mimi. Why yes, that was Ben Afleck at 13, lol. I have always to go whale watching. I think I was mentioned it on just about every trip to the beach in our 10+ year together. Well, for our anniversary (last Thursday) he gave me the reservations for our whale watching tour. I was SO excited! Sunday morning we boarded the boat for our tour.

While there is no guarantee of seeing whales on any given tour, humpback whales feed in the Monterey Bay on a regular basis. There were people in the bay in kayaks! I told Brian, I would freak out if I were out the in a kayak and a whale spouted near by. They were close enough to get whale snot on them (Sorry about that visual, lol). We were not far out at all when we got our first sighting. Humpback whales! They were close enough the could have been seen from land with binoculars. COOL! They were really hard to get photos of because by the time they spout and you turn your camera to where they were, they were going under again. And you never know when they are going to come back up.

I got several photos like this, just the fin as he going back under.

This is why they are called "humpbacks." They hump their backs as they go under. The tighter the hump usually means they are going for a deeper dive and that they are going to "fluke" their tail up. There are two whale fins in this photo.

Of course, everyone wants to get the fluke picture.

Almost!

Not bad. Notive the white on this tail? It's like a finger print for a whale. No two are exactly alike.

Awesome!

Killer whales (also known as orcas, such as Shamu) are occasionally seen in the bay, but more often in the deeper waters outside the bay. The tour guide said there is about 15% chance of seeing killer whales this time of year. So, I wasn't getting my hopes up. The seas were very calm on Sunday and she said that increased our chances of seeing killer whales...to about 20%. Still not getting my hopes.

Guess what? Killer whales were spotted by another whale tour boat, so we went out to where they were and got to watch a pod of killer whales. There was on big male and several smaller ones (females? babies? not really sure. Don't really care). These guys were really hard to photograph. Again they are fast, and like the humpbacks, by the time you see them spout, they are going back down. They are recognized by their tall dorsal fin.

I got alot of photos like this as they were going back under.

Here's another, and there a couple in the background.
I love this one!

Here is the pod. I love this one too!

Mental note to self: Next time you are taking the boat ride of a lifetime, remember to charge the battery for your camera. My battery died about halfway through the tour. I did get some good photos and I'm happy for that. I will just have to remember the rest of my whale friends.

This is us on the boat. The last photo before my camera died.

The hotel restaurant provided an awesome view. I took these photos at dinner Sunday night (after charging my camera), of the sunset over the ocean. I just love how the colors changed as the sun went down.

Oh, remember that mustang convertible that we didn't get? Well, this car was at our hotel and seemed to always be parked by us, like it was taunting us. Could it have been the missing mustang? Well, I wouldn't have wanted to come back either.

This post is dedicated to the love of my life. Brian, I am very lucky to have you in my life. I realize that on almost a daily basis. In my career, you sometimes get to see the worst of the worst and I then I come home to the most amazing family and husband I could have asked for. Sometimes, I don't even have to look outside the family to realize I got "the pick of the litter." Bet you feel the same way ;-)

Nine years ago today, I made a promise to love, honor and cherish you. And I had no idea then that I could love you any more than I did that day. But, over the years the love has grown (so has our family, funny how that works). I can't even imagine where we will be in another nine years (grandparents?). All I know is that I want you to be on the journey with me. It doesn't really even matter where we end up (as long as it is far away from here).

So, here is a flashback to that day (when I was thinner and you had more hair) when we made a promise before God, our family, friends and a couple hundred Japanese tourists!

Don't we look happy!

This is such a pretty picture!

Wonder what she is thinking?

Wonder what he is thinking?

This is Joshua; he was so little. Now he's taller than both of us!

This is one of my favorites photos from our wedding.

There were two buses of tourists from Japan at the Falls.

They all watched our ceremony and took pictures, so we wanted one of them too!

The end of a long, fun day.

Check out my wedding shoes: platform tennis shoes.

What else would you where to hike a mountain?

Here's to many more, my love. Many more years of happiness, craziness, love.

I love you!

I have for a long time had issues with the philosophy of boy scouts and since I have three boys, that has pretty ruled out scouting for our family. But, I must say that I have longed for the comraderie of scouting, the excuses to do fun outdoorsy things and earn patches and go camping with friends. Not that we need an excuse to do fun outdoorsy things, we love the outdoors, but it's fun to earn patches. Plus, it's nice to share ideas with other people for things to do.

SO! The world of scouting has opened up to us. Yesterday, we attended our first spiral scouts meeting! (I know Aimee is so jealous) I am so excited about this. Spiral scouts are interfaith, inclusive, co-ed, all values I want to instill in my boys! (Yes, I can be a Christian, a democrat and a spiral scout, how about that!)

Our meeting was held at the Discovery Center, which is a not too well know gem in our area. I have been there on a few field trips and every time I go I think, I need to bring the kids here more often. It's an amazing place to explore stuff.

Here is Nate peering out the window of a
replica of Saturn IV rocket capsule (I think).

This is the worm farm, which was really cool to Nate.
Jacob would rather not get his hands dirty.

Then there was this maze. Wondered who would emerge first Brian or Nate. You never know where that child will go, he makes his own path :-)

Then there was the actual spiral scouts meeting. Our cirlce leader rocks. She has been working on this baby for a long time and here it is. Our first meeting was kind of a get to know each other and learn a bit about spiral scouts. We learned a new song too. And had snacks. What more could you ask for? It was a great start. I asked Jacob, my skeptic, what he thought, if he wanted to join. He said he would try it for a while. That's a big commitment for him. He is looking forward to camping (even if he has to leave his puppy with grandma).

This was our candle lighting ceremony. The center candle represents our new friendships. The other candles represent the elements. I was going to list them, but I can't remember them all (sorry Beckie). Bad scout mom. I will bring snacks, I'm good at that :-)

Our getting to know each other activity: Beckie handed out the worng name tags to each scout; they had to find out who had theirs and introduce themselves. Of course it was cute when she first handed them out and everyone protested that she gave them the wrong names.

Our first "craft" project was a group mural. Each scout was to write their name and draw something they wanted to or learn in spiral scouts. Neat idea.

Circle leader Russel with Nate.

Circle leader Beckie with Jacob, and a new friend.

These were the spiral scouts at our first meeting. I there were a few who couldn't make it. But, I think we had a good turn out and have a good size group to start with. Their uniform with consist of the dark green polo shirts and khaki pants/shorts. I didn't want to buy them until we were sure we were going to do this. (we're sure)

We concluded our meeting in a circle with "pass the squeeze." The circle leader squeezed a scout's hand (happened to be Nate), then he squeezed the next hanf and so forth around the cirlce. Neat way to end the meeting.

We had a great time and are looking forward to many exciting adventures in scouting!

Here's the story, of an ugly puppy...

Shortly after we got Kaylee, last year, my mother in law got Dexter. Now, Dexter just might be the ugliest dog I had ever seen. He is the second of this breed she has had, and she loves them. He is half Chinese Crest and half Mexican Hairless Chihuahua. Yes, I said hairless, well almost hairless that is. He has some hair on his head and his tail, which looks a bit like a fox tail. Here is Dexter:

So, now mother in law has to male dogs, neither of them "fixed" (spayed/neutered, I never can remember which one you do to male dogs). So, in January, my aunt comes to visit with her female dog Tea, which just happens to be "in heat." Well, you can figure out how we get from point A to point B. Tea is pregnant. But, we are not sure (at that point) who the daddy is, because well let's just say they each had a turn to two...

We promised Jacob he could have his pick of the puppies when they were born. Nate has Kaylee. Joshua has a cat. So, it seemed reasonable that Jacob could have a pet of his own. Mother in law, had already laid claim to a hairless puppy, if there was any. I was secretly, well maybe not so secretly, hoping it was JD, who I think would make much cuter puppies. And I really did not want an ugly hairless dog.

Fast forward about three months. While we were on vacation during spring break, we get a call from my aunt. There a six puppie, 3 male, 3 female, 2 of them bald. Grandma wants the bald male. I want a female. Jacob is sure he wants the other bald one, which happens to be female. This is before he even sees them. At this point, I am hoping he will change his mind when he sees all the puppies and snuggles a soft, furry one. Two days later we get home and go to see the puppies. Here is mama Tea and her babies. The bald ones were pink and black and looked alot like little piglets. This is the one Jacob took a liking to: In Jacob's hands, to give you an idea of how tiny she was. I wish I had better pictures from then, but they were only two days old and not exactly "posable."Over the next six weeks, Jacob was so excited about his hairless dog. There was no convincing him that he might like a warm, fuzzy dog. He even decided he was going to call her Amy. A-M-Y he told me. She is names after one of the characters on the Sonic video game. So, today we brought home Amy, the hairless dog. She is more hairless (less hairy?) than Dexter. Meet Amy: And her very proud owner: Remember when I said that Dexter might be the ugliest dog I have ever seen? Well, have you ever seen a dog who was so ugly, that it was cute, or at the very least endearing? Meet Amy's brother Mohawk: He is bald, with the exception of his mohawk and his "foxtail" like his daddy. This is Mother in law's new puppy.And this is where Amy is currently sleeping, with her proud owner.

Ah man, I'm middle age! So, it's that time of year again, yesterday I had my annual. After the fun stuff, we are chatting about things; you know, life changes, body changes, concerns. When she informs me that I should schedule an appointment for a mamogram. What? Am I really old enough for that? Which she politely informs me that I am "middle age." I corrected her by saying that I will not be middle age until April, which she conceded, lol.

Then, last night we went on a double date. A nice dinner and pleasant conversation with my teenage son and his girlfriend. Man, I AM old!

So, what do you do when you realize that your indeed getting old? Well, you head straight to your hair stylist for someething "new." Add some highlights; can't have any gray hairs peeking through. So, here is the new, middle aged me!

My baby girl had a birthday on Sunday. It's hard to believe that she is a year old already and that she has been with us for almost a year now. When we moved into a house last year (the rental), we promise the boys that we could get a dog in the spring. In February, my supervisor, who is a total animal lover, showed me an ad on the in hospital advertisement page. Someone had puppies they wanted to give away. I sent an email for information and got this picture back:

I showed the picture to Brian and we talked about getting a puppy "now." The puppies were a mix od Jack Russel Terrier and some unknown. So, I researched Jack Russels and it seemed the personality would be a perfect match for Nate. We wanted a dog that could keep up with Nate. When we decided, we wanted the little black puppy, that looked like a mini rottweiler in the the other picture we got. I contacted the owner again and was told they only had one puppy that wasn't already spoken for. This was her:

Now, who could say no to that face? We agreed to take her and they would let us know when she was weaned. The boys were excited and could not understand why we had to wait to bring her home. Toward the end of March, we brought her home. This tiny little thing and called her KAYLEE.

And she was loved from the start:

And as we expected, she became Nate's sidekick:

These two go non-stop until they collapse. He wrestles with her and kicks and slaps at her, in a little boy playing kind of way. He's not mean to her, usually, although sometimes we do have to calm him down. She is so gentle with him. She never snaps at him. She will chase him all over the yard; and she is FAST! She will fetch her toys, and his toys. When they reach their limit, they both crash hard. And this is where you will find a tired Kaylee, except at night when she insists on sleeping on our bed. Notice the dirt on the boy; they had been playing hard.

So, on Sunday we celebrated the year we have spend with our Kaylee. We had Rice Krispy treats and presents: new toys and chew toys and "bones." What is a birthday without presents. The boys were excited about her birthday and had fun picking out doggie toys. Look at this face. She hasn't changed much, just gotten bigger. So cute!

And she is still very much loved! Happy birthday Kaylee Girl!

A little about Jacob, aka Boo. I haven't posted much about the kids. I've been a bit consumed with "the house." But, Jacob had a pretty awesome month of January, so I thought it was time to share a little about him. I keep telling myself that I need to write all of this in his journal, but I haven't got to it yet. So, by sharing it here, I am also saving the details that I want to remember to write down, when I have time to sit down and write.

Jacob was to start a new series of appointments with his occupational therapist (OT) in January. He had been re-evaluated in August and his sessions were cut from weekly, for the past two years, to bi-weekly. This was an excellent sign of progress. But, when we went in January, I asked Miss Dawn if we could do a brief eval, because I felt that he had improved so much since Aug that I wasn't sure he really needed to being having OT anymore. She agreed to do this and sure enough he tested within normal range for all of his motor skills. He even wrote for her, "Mrs. Dawn is the best OT." in his best handwriting. She said to him, "who are you and what have you done with my Jacob?" She asked him to write his name. We have worked so hard on fine motor skills and handwriting. Instead of just writing Jacob for her, he wrote Jacob Wesly (last name). His middle name is Wesley, funny that you never think to teach them how to spell their middle name. His final test was moving of the "spider web." She asked him to climb across the web, go around the side and come back across, three times. He said, "I'll do it five times." He was so proud of himself already. Well, he did it FIVE times. Miss Dawn said she's never seen anyone do more than three. Maybe she was just boosting Jacob's ego; which really didn't need it. All that being said, Jacob "graduated" from OT that day. YAY for him. He is doing great! Yay for me, because that is one less thing that I have in my schedule! He was floating on air that day and so proud of himself.

Then the icing on the cake... He was chosen as student of the month for January. He has been frustrated the last couple of months that he was not chosen. He is totally his mother's child in this regard. But, he was chosen for the character pilar of "fairness." They had a lunch assembly, where the kids got to have lunch with the principle, provided by Wendy's. Brian took an early lunch and we both went to have lunch with him.

He got a medal that says student of the month and his teacher wrote a nice letter about him that the principle read. It said he was fair, he waits his turn and shares with his classmates. He always raises his hand and waits to be called on. We are so proud of him.Way to go Jacob! Mrs. D. reading the note Jacob's teacher wrote about him, and the other Mrs. D., the vice principal.

Hardwood flooring 101. Our first home improvement project was to tackle re-laying the hardwood floors. In hopes of improving the appearance of our house for sale, the previous owner took out the carpet in the living room and put down hardwood flooring. Great idea, right? Well, for some reason, we have yet to figure out, he put the hardwood OVER the carpet padding. Imagine walking across the wood floor and having it squish a half inch with each step. Also, he put the planks down in rows without staggering them. Picture straight lines across the floor where all of the planks ended ended every four feet.

So, we removed the wood planks and threw away the carpet padding. We did some research online to see how it was supposed to be done. It couldn't be THAT hard, could it? The planks are tongue and groove; we'll just take them out, cut some of them, stagger them properly and put them back down. Easy, right? Well, they were GLUED together and came up in groups of 4-5 that we could not separate. Plan B? Price new wood floor. Ouch. Price carpet. Debate.

We were hosting Christmas, so we put the wood on the patio to have room for guests and food and presents. We put down a cheap area rug on the concrete. Classy, aren't we? But, it worked.

The wood spend a couple days outside in the fog. Our realtor suggested using one of the glued together sections of the wood flooring in the entry to protect our carpet. So, we brought some in to get a feel for how it looked. Well, the planks came apart. Who knew? Fog will loosen the glue that sticks wood floor together. Then we decided to try the rest of them and THEY ALL CAME APART! Back to plan A.

Now, the fun part. You have to get the blue foam stuff that has the moisture barrier on the bottom to keep the moisture from coming up through the concrete and damaging your wood. Good idea. You also need these little black spacers that you put between the floor and the wall to create an "expansion gap" so to floor can stretch out. You need really good glue, in a fancy glue gun. You shouldn't need glue, but if you have bits of dried glue already in the grooves, they are not going to go together smoothly. And you need a fancy metal thingy that pulls the wood pieces together tightly if you smack it with a hammer. It also helps to have a good sense of humor! So, here we go. First you stack your wood and make sure it's level. A kids train will do this; if the train rolls, it's not level. Just kidding. It just seemed to fit this picture which I thought was cute.

First thing, you want to remove the baseboards and the nails that did not come out when the baseboards popped off. Maybe you would not have to remove them. But we plan to paint the walls and replace the baseboards anyway. So off they pop.

The first couple of rows are the hardest to get lined up and straight. After that it's pretty easy until the last row. I love the glue gun! At this rate, I might just become a "handygirl."

Laying wood floors is hard work. You want all the help you can get. So call out the big guns. Take a picture of them "helping" then put them to bed :-) The boys really wanted to help.

Ok, very bad picture here. I had to use the timer on my camera to get a picture of us both working on the floor together. Notice I have the glue gun again! Here we are about 2/3 of the way done. I must have been so exhausted when we finished, because I did not take a picture of the completed job. But, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty good. And, it does not squish when you walk across it.

Our current project is painting. The previous owner had an interesting sense of "style." And, well, ours is different. We started last weekend with priming the living room and front bathroom. This weekend we were going to "color" the living room and prime the hall. But, an extended family crisis put that on hold. So, maybe next weekend. We plan to be here a while; so there's no real hurry, except that I want to have a house warming party... eventually.

Finally, some pictures of the house. We are totally living the American dream, all wrapped up in a white picket fence. I love my house, although it still has a lot of work to be done. I smile as walk down the street and see it. It's so welcoming. I love the big trees (and I love that I have kids to rake the leaves). So here it is:

Here are few photos from inside. The kitchen floor still needs to be replaced. It has old scarred up linoleum, but the cabinets are nice. The counter tops and the back splash are all tile, which are in nice shape too. We are also planning to re-paint the walls though; as they are an odd shade of sea foam green in there currently. It might be ok for a nursery, but not so much for a kitchen/dining room. We are thinking yellow. We found a nice shade that goes great with the cabinets and our dining room set is the same light maple color.

Here is a picture of Jacob's Pokemon/soccer room. We were unsure of a theme for him, so we combines the two things he loves right now. He is so excited to just have his own room, that I don't think it would have mattered if he had anything in there at all, so long as he can keep Nate out when he chooses. I wish I could have captured his expression when he realized that he had his own room. The fact that the house has four bedrooms was kept a surprise until after we closed. He thought until then that he was going to share a room with Nate. Jacob is good about taking care of his things and keeping his room picked up. Nate, not so much...

Then there is Nate's Transformer bedroom. We were planning to stick with the Thomas train bedding we bought him a couple of years ago. But, when talked to Jacob about how he wanted to decorate his "side" of the bedroom (I know we played it up), Nate kept saying he wanted Transformers for "his side." I guess he has outgrown the trains to some extent. Although he still loves to play with them. We will set his train table up in the living room as soon as it is painted (this weekend). The rug on the floor was bought for Joshua when he was about the same age. Boy, I have got my money's worth out of it. Nate is not so thrilled about having his own room. He is such a social creature and would much rather be in the same room with anyone else. But, that's ok with us, most of the time... Here is Nate's room:

As for the big boys. They share a room and it pretty boring. They are teenagers. Enough said? They have bunk beds. I don't have any pictures. Their beds hadn't arrived when I took pictures of the little boys rooms and I just didn't think about it after that. I'm sure they don't care to have their room displayed on the internet anyway...

My room? Well there is still work to be done in there too. So, maybe that will come some day.

Keep checking in. I'm going to start sharing home improvement projects. That should be fun. We have already re-done the hardwood floors in the living room. That was our first adventure and I have photos. We have also begun painting. The living room is currently primer white. And the main bathroom... well, I have pictures of that too. Some things you just have to see.