The kids are officially out of school now for summer vacation. Yay! It has been a long busy week for me. Nate Graduated from preschool on Monday. I will blog about that as soon as I figure out how to share video clips (or when I have access to a computer with a fast enough connection to post them). Some things you just cannot describe with words and still pictures just do not do it justice. Anyone who knows Nate, knows this.

So, his last day of school was Tuesday and we went on a field to the zoo. I rode across town on a school bus with 36 preschoolers, to the zoo. I thought I was in the zoo, before I got to the zoo. Here are some pictures from our day at the zoo on Nate's last day of preschool, with his preschool friends. Can you tell I'm dragging this out a bit, I'm not really ready for my baby to be in kindergarten...

Here is Nate in his Vinland Preschool Tshirt.

The first animals on the list to see were the monkeys.
Here we have: my monkey looking at the monkeys.

And the monkey looking back.

We got to see, feed and pet the sting rays.

Nate petting a sting ray.

Who doesn't love the giraffes?

Nate even got to feed the giraffe.

Just a neat picture of the giraffe.

When you have multiple children, it is not often that you able to spend an afternoon with just one. Thus the little extras on this trip to the zoo. Like feeding the giraffe. It was fun to see Nate smile as he enjoyed the special attention. He also got a special souvenir (overpriced foam), but it made him smile:-)

Busy day yesterday with my sister's baby shower (for a baby that is not due until the end of July). I think she is hoping for sooner rather than later.

Here is a photo of me and my sister Debbie. I like this photo because I am skinnier than she is, lol. She's always been the tall, skinny, pretty one. Bitter? Me? Nah. I have come to embrace the fact that she got the beauty and I got the brains! Not the best photo, but I'm still skinnier.

This is what I bought for my new nephew Luke Robert. I am a boy mom through and through and everyone knows I adore a little boy in overalls. So this is my classic gift. That and the book "Love You Forever" a real tear jerker for any boy mom, well any mom really. Can't wait to see Luke in these!

And finally, the blanket is done! I love to crochet, but this blanket has daunted me for the longest time. I really am glad to have it done and out of my house, lol. It is really soft and fuzzy. And since he won't really need a warm fuzzy blanket when he arrives in July, it is big enough to use as he gets older. Deb said that Faith (my niece) still uses the one I made her. That was nice to hear :-)

It really is huge. It will cover mom and baby both nicely. Here it is draped over the arm of my couch. No wonder the darn thing took so long to make. I didn't realize how big it was until it was finished and I spread it out to take a picture.

I have so many projects that I want to work on this summer. Another baby due in July, another blanket to make (smaller). Looking forward to things slowing down when school is out...for the kids.

A couple of weeks ago, three weeks to be precise, my calendar on the wall said it was Mother's Day. Unfortunately, my personal planner said that I had three huge papers (finals) due the following week. The kids made me breakfast in bed, pancakes, with dad's help. Then we went to church. In the afternoon, we went out to lunch, to McDonald's so the kids could play while I studied. But, hey were all together.

A few days before, when Nate and I were walking home from school, we saw a mother and daughter planting flowers in their front yard. I thought that is what I want to do for Mother's Day. I wanted to spend a lazy afternoon hanging out with my boys, planting flowers and cleaning up the yard a bit. Well, I just didn't have time on Mother's Day, because of my school work. So, I told Brian that I was claiming the following Sunday as My Mother's Day.

Well, the following week, we got our first heat wave of the year. It was 103 degrees on Sunday. So, needless to say, we didn't spend the day outside planting flowers. (Ironically, the weekend after that it was pouring rain and snowing in our nearby mountains. I guess winter wasn't really ready to leave. This was also our anniversary and we were out of town, where it wasn't raining.)

So, that brings us to today. Three weeks after the calendar said it was Mother's Day, I claimed My Mother's Day. After church today, we went to and bought some flowers. The little boys each picked a tray of flowers. They both chose petunias. I knew Jacob would pick purple flowers since that is his favorite color. Nate wanted to pick the same thing as his big brother. I made him at least choose a different color; so he chose the pink ones.
This is the little spot in front of our house that I wanted to plant the flowers. Our yard is nice, but it needs some personality. The people who lived here before, had a lot of roses and other plant that I can't identify. Now, I am a talented gardener. I can kill silk plants. Seriously! So, their lovely plants, just will not survive me. I prefer annuals. You just replace them each year and they look pretty until they die. Works for me.

First, we had to clear out the weeds and grass that grown into the flower bed. The boys didn't enjoy that part quite as much. Honestly, we didn't even get rid of all the weeds. We really just wanted to plant the flowers.

We had to get a watering can.

Nate is helping me pull the weeds.

Nate pulling weeds.

Nate watering our pretty flowers.

Break time!

Jacob decided to pick some cherries from our cherry tree.

So did Nate.

Nate is Fearless! Dad, not so much.

I told Jacob to only pick the cherries he was going to eat. The folowing conversation ensued.

Jacob: The people at Savemart do not pick only the food they are going to eat. We should sell our cherries.

Me: Who would we sell them to?

Jacob: Our neighbors.

Then he brought me this.

If you want fresh California cherries, leave a comment. Only $9.99 per cherry.

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!