Gatorade and camping just don't mix

After our initial plan of backpacking to Kolob Arch with the kids was dashed to pieces by the very unhelpful ranger who told us that no campsites were available we went to plan B and headed up to Pine Valley. We decided against backpacking as it was getting pretty late, Tyler put on his Army pants, and we crossed our fingers that we could find an unoccupied campsite. Tyler had a place in mind that he used to camp at as a wee child and he thought he could probably find it. After a few wrong turns, one where we found a beautiful spot that I didn't dare camp at because I am so scared of breaking the rules, and one where we nearly drove into a ditch and a couple of trucks looking for their ward campout tried to follow us on a road that was not really a road, we found the spot of his childhood. It even had the remnants of the wooden tables made out of electrical spools that a family friend had brought up years ago.

 

Ty and Max set up the tent and then we enjoyed a rustic dinner of Jimmy Johns. After that Tyler took Max and Tessa on a hike that lasted until dark, but they had their headlamps on so all was well. They got back from their hike and Tessa proceeded to drink an entire gatorade, unbeknownst to me. I got the kids in their PJs where I learned that Tessa had peed her pants on the aforementioned hike. Luckily I had a whole package of wet wipes to clean her up with, and soon all six of us (Mitzi included) settled into our three person tent. We turned on Peter and the Shadow Thief, and listened until we had all fallen asleep.

Around 1 AM Tessa woke me up to tell me she had to go potty, so we crawled out of the tent where I learned that she had slightly peed in her PJs while in her sleeping bag. But since it was freezing cold, and I had no extra PJs for her, I decided she'd just have to live with it and I'd wash her sleeping bag when we got home. She went potty and we crawled back into the tent where I stayed awake for the next hour and a half dead sure that coyotes were right outside our tent. 

Finally I couldn't take it any longer and I tried to wake up Tyler to tell him my fears. I even had Tessa shake him, since she woke up when I was yelling across the tent to him, but still he wouldn't wake up. Finally after a desperate, and slightly unkind, scream from me he woke up in a panic. He quickly calmed my fears and then proceeded to not be able to sleep, just like me. So we lay there and listened to the coyote howls that were close, but not scratching at the tent like I had originally thought. 

Around 3 Tessa woke up to tell us that she had, in fact, peed her pants for the third time that night. Aaannd...this time it was not just a little. We threw her sleeping bag and PJs in a garbage bag, did another wipedown with wet wipes, found some pants of Max's that we rolled up about 5 times, and finally settled back into the tent, Tessa sharing a sleeping bag with Tyler. 

As Tyler was preparing to drift off to sleep he jokingly said, "Tessa, don't you dare pee in my sleeping bag." And Tessa said, "Do you think I should just go potty now then?" It turns out she had another full bladder. So Tyler, oh-so-happily, took her out again. 

At this point I had the giggles, and Ty couldn't sleep, so we listened to Peter and the Shadowthief for an hour. It turns out that the humor in it is even better at 3 AM, and we had some good laughs as we were listening. Finally, we all fell asleep and the remaining few hours of the night were accident free. 

In the morning we had breakfast, I went on a very slow run while the kids did another hike, the kids climbed in trees, and then we packed up and headed home. All in all it was a grand adventure and I was grateful that we had a car with lots of supplies in it to deal with our little Tessa girl. Oh, and we discovered later that Mitzi got a tick in her ear from camping. Next time we will bring a flea and tick collar for her, and leave behind the gatorade for Tessa. 

Birthday celebration...

Presents... Medieval Times... Friends, Pizza, and Cake... 

 Beyblades...Max's current obsession. There is even a cartoon to help fuel it. The best is when I walk by his room as he's getting ready to launch his beyblades into the stadium and I hear him say, "Let 'er rip!". (Just like the cartoon) 

 I was 100% certain that these shoes were too big, but threw them in a bag anyway so he could open another present. They fit perfectly...it breaks my heart.

 If you look past the blatant merchandising of Medieval Times (no harm in trying to make a little money, right?) you find one of the most magical places for a little boy of 7. Max was literally (said Chris Traeger style)jumping up and down from excitement as he was watching the show.  

The champion knight got to pick one person out of the audience to be the "Queen of Love and Beauty". And...he picked Tessa. My friend Ariel, who has a small obsession with Medieval Times or, more specifically, the knights in Medieval Times said, "Of course he picked her, that girl is magical." There was a bit of jealousy there. :)  

 So...while this is Max's birthday we ended up with picture of Tessa and knight. Of course, Max didn't mind at all and thought it was great that he came out of the arena and right over to us! 

 After getting back from Medieval Times we quickly got ready for a small party at our house. 

Bad pictures (I say that all the time), but I think it's safe to say it was a pretty great day for Max!

Sunshine

Tessa has a bit of quicksilver in her. Her moods change quickly, from sunshine to darkness and back again. My goal in parenting Tessa is to just keep her in that sunshine as much as possible. And when she is, she is simply radiant. 

Ziplines

Occasionally Max will notice the yarn in the linen cupboard and soon the living room will become filled with ziplines large and small. Playmobil pirates and knights make the perfect heroes in this game.

Maddi comes for a visit

Around the middle of June Maddi came to visit for a week. The kids, and Mitzie, were in heaven having her here. There was snuggling, and baseball games, and running (but only a few times so as to not overtax ourselves), and making messes (not Maddi, just the kids), and swimming at a city pool and getting bored really fast and being grateful that thunder ended our time early, and Dallas World Aquarium, and Hurricane Harbor (and lots of anticipation for our Hurricane Harbor day), and talking about eating healthy but not eating healthy at all, and shopping (while placating the kids with the little quarter rides), and just being happy that my sister was here for an entire week! And here are some of the pictures taken, put in no particular order. 

Choices

I saw this delightful scene outside and knew I had to get a picture of it. Should I use my phone camera or my Rebel? I chose the phone. Poor choice, Cass, poor choice. But my kids' choices for rain gear--well, that was right on. 

Finishing up Kindergarten

Last year around this time I started to have a few too many emotional breakdowns. I finally figured out that most of my freak-outs were due to the fact that Max would be starting kindergarten. Max was perfectly fine, but I certainly was not. Of course all my worry proved unnecessary and Max had a great experience (but we sure missed him at home). He loved his teacher, Mr. Jenks, made lots of great friends, and sailed through academically. A friend of Max was talking to his mom and said, "Max is such a good kid. He ALWAYS does the right thing." Seriously, could there be a better compliment?

Here are a few of the End-of-Year events:

MOHAWK K-3 TALENT SHOW

Initially Max said he didn't want to play his cello in his school's talent show. As it came closer Max heard that a bunch of kids in his class were performing and he began to think that maybe he should. He talked to Mr. Jenks about it and Mr. Jenks told him that he would love to hear him play at the talent show. So Max got a permission slip for me to sign from Mr. Jenks, walked to his desk, then decided against it and brought the permission slip back to Mr. Jenks. Poor kid, deep down he wanted to play but was just too nervous to commit. With a little encouragement from me, Tyler, and Mr. Jenks he decided to play. He was pretty calm about it, but did get a little shy and tried to hide his face in his cello which caused a few wrong notes as his face pushed against the strings. I also forgot his endpin stop and ended up awkwardly holding it for him. But Max was great, and word spread through the school about the kindergartner who was amazing at the cello. The best part of the whole thing was when his friend stood up with his fists raised in the air to cheer after Max was done. It was EXACTLY what Tyler told Max would happen.  

KINDERGARTEN PICNIC

 Max and Yuto. Yuto is from Japan and speaks with an accent. When Max quotes Yuto he also speaks with a Japanese accent. It's pretty funny. 

 It was pretty hot (big surprise) so after everyone was done eating they gave each of the kindergartners a spray bottle so they could run around and spray each other. Definitely a success.

SUMMER BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

 All the poor kids who have summer birthdays and never got a special day at school got to celebrate. The mom's brought cupcakes for the kids. From the looks of the floor after it was all over only a small portion of the said cupcakes ended up in the kids' mouths. 

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Had I been thinking I would have taken of picture of Max with Mr. Jenks or at least some of his little buddies. I was in a rush to get Max to his cello lessons though. (Wow, I could not be more lame if I tried!)  Luckily, Mr. Jenks sent a picture home with him and Max. I'm just too lazy to scan it at the moment. 

San Diego

Thanks to babysitting by Deb and financial compensation by the National Guard, Tyler and I were able  to go on a quick vacation to San Diego for the annual AAPD meeting where Tyler learned many useful tools to better his pediatric career did not go to one meeting. 

Our trip started out on a good note as Ella threw up gallons as we were driving to the airport. I was feeling more than a little guilty as Tyler and I hopped out of the car and we left Deb to navigate her way home to take care of a sick little toddler and clean up puke that covered the carseat and car. I knew Ella was in great hands with Deb, but I felt awful leaving Ella when she was sick. 

Flying without kids was so incredibly easy. I realized that it was the first time I had flown without a child since Max was born. I almost didn't know what to do with myself when I only had to take off my shoes at airport security!

And now I feel like I need to wrap things up so I'll condense the rest of what I want to remember to bullet points:

• When we arrived at the hotel we realized we were in the more ghetto bay area and in a more ghetto hotel. Then we realized that we were in a room with the most uncomfortable and lumpy bed ever! Tyler was brave and asked to have our room switched. They kindly did switch us to a better bed that must have had a chain smoker staying in it before. Tyler then was SUPER brave and had our room switched again. The third room was the charm. And while perhaps not the Ritz, we had nothing to complain about because we weren't paying for it anyway.
• Walking with Tyler through San Diego and finally settling on a pizza place that took ages despite being nearly empty.
• Morning runs along the bay. Yes, that sounds picturesque, but it wasn't so much. Lots of homeless people, dirty boats, and running into the airport. We realized on the last morning that we had been running in the wrong direction. Had we simply turned left it would have been much more pleasant. 
• A beautiful hike with the Sameen and Brigham and Sister (can't remember her name) at Torrey Pines where I burned maybe an eighth of the calories that were in the burrito I ordered afterwards. It was good, but had I realized that the California burrito had French fries in it I would have stuck with the vegetarian. 
• An afternoon at the Coronado beach where one of Tyler's co-residents has a condo. Swimming in the freezing ocean by myself while Tyler surfed for the first time, and then getting to warm up in a jacuzzi. 
• Meeting up with Berk, Jordan, and Maddi at Balboa Island for lunch and a little Sinfulishous (I have no idea how to spell that). 
• "Is this your first time at Sinfulishous?"
• Berk and I creating our own signature lotion scents at said Sinfulishous and then waiting nearly an hour for the poor girl to mix up our $12 lotion scents. 
• Parking super far away from the beach because there was a parking spot open and then realizing as we walked toward it that nearly every parking spot was open. 
• Watching the boys juggle a soccer ball while me and Maddi chatted and froze. 
• Meeting up with Tanner and Brynne at Ruby's where Tyler and I split a fantastic veggie burger and shake. So very yummy.
• Cramming all seven of us in the car so we could continue our conversations since it was freezing outside. 
• Feeling cold for the first time in ages.
• Hanging out in the hotel room by myself without dinner while Tyler went to the AAPD block party. I don't get alone time EVER, so I really appreciated it despite my hunger pains!
• My first time eating sushi in America (I did have a bit in Japan long ago). 
• The LONGEST CAR RIDE OF MY LIFE as we drove a friend to pick up his wife from a mall that ended up being super far away, and the whole time I thought my bladder was going to explode. I think I appeared very unfriendly, because I couldn't contribute at all to the conversation, but I was trying so hard not to pee my pants. As soon as we dropped them off at their destination I started to cry I was in so much pain! 
• Sitting through the most awkward dinner of my life with the Baylor Pedo program. This probably set me back socially about 12 years, and I don't know that I will EVER be able to go to another group dinner where I don't really know the people. Seriously, it left a scar! :)
• Eating tiramisu. I had no idea. Enough said.
• Knowing that my kids were having the time of their lives with Grams, and that I didn't need to worry made everything so much better.

So there it is. It was fantastic to get away with Tyler. As much as I look forward to traveling with my kids, I hope to have many more vacations with just Tyler. He's pretty fun!

SMID Spring Concert

Oh how I love SMID. My heart broke a little thinking that this was the second to last SMID Final Concert. Max and Tessa were little champions. No problems getting up on stage for them. 

Celebrating after at La Madeleine. Hmmm, I do not enjoy eating out with kids. I was also a bit angry at Tyler, because I had just found out that during his turn out in the hall with Ella a poor mom had had to take Tessa to the bathroom THREE times while they were waiting for their turn to play. Each time they walked directly across where Tyler SHOULD have been. It should noted that  I took Tessa potty right before the concert, and once during my stint out in the hall with Ella, because I notice when someone walks out the concert hall doors will my daughter. Finally, when Tessa asked to go to the bathroom the fifth time the mom just told her no, she didn't need to go. I'm not sure if Tessa was just bored (it was a very long concert) or if it was nerves that were causing this incredibly overactive bladder.   

Mother's Day

I only wanted breakfast in bed and a nice picture of my children on Mother's Day. And although Tyler was in Austin for National Guard Duty, my kids didn't let me down.