When the rain comes down...

Someone's gotta get the mail!

He was the only one of the house that wasn't sick and was happy to oblige!




Way to go Aggie!

Britney Comes to Town!!

We did a little bit of this...

Rachel, Britney, Me, Lisa, Rebecca

And a little bit of that...

Perfection.

Please come back and visit again soon. Staying in S.F. with the late-night chatting, peanut butter cookie eating, shopping, spa-ing, splurging, "sister"ing was just what I needed!

Any. time.

Conversations...

Overheard in the family room today...
Owen (the 2 year old) in a very whiny voice: "It's my turn. I wanna watch Diego!!"
Alex (the 6 year old): It is Diego. I promise. See? Diego is dressed up like Tom and Jerry for Halloween. Isn't that funny?"

He's sly, that kid.

Visit to Washington

To see my nephews Liam and Logan.

My brother Steve has two boys who are living in Washington with their grandmother. Steve and his estranged wife are not quite fit to raise them and are trying to get their life in order. The boys live in a beautiful home with their grandparents Bill and Rita and an Uncle Jared who is 14 and wise and kind beyond his years.


It was so great to see the boys and to see that they are so well taken care of. They were so full of hugs and love and kisses and affection and I couldn't get enough of it. They were not in a good place with my brother and his wife and their volatile relationship but they have come so far with the love, stability and structure that Bill and Rita have provided.
We went to lunch at the Oyster House on the Puget Sound....

Me and Liam

Grandpa and Liam

Grandma and Logan

Rita and Liam



Bill and Jared with us

The Sound

After lunch we walked along the pier and toured a little original boat called "The Sandman"...

Cute Logan and Liam...



After that we went to my cousin's house for dinner and to stay the night. It was fun to see family that I hadn't seen in years...

My second cousin and his beautiful wife and daughter

My second cousins--one just got home from a mission and the other is just leaving!

My first cousins Ruth Ann (who has raised 6 handsome boys who have all served missions! I tried to get some pointers) Kathryn, and Mark

"Uncle Terry" (my dad) and his neices
In front of their house they have these huge holly trees and they were gorgeous! She sells the holly to tree lots and vendors at Christmastime...


It was a wonderful trip and so good to see family.

Mario Party...6!

Alex turned 6 last month and despite some setbacks...(the school called and he threw up the day of his birthday party!)...we managed to postpone it and have a little party. He wanted a Mario theme, so we went to work on the planning, with much involvement from his excited siblings. I made the cake...

We had some goody bags...

Stars...

Mustaches!...


And games. The kids came up with every one. First up, "Yoshi's Egg Hunt" with hidden eggs filled with gold coins and candy...


Then "Pin the Mustache on Mario"...


"Boo Finders", where we hid a bunch of "Boo"s in the dark garage and the boys had to find them with flashlights...


They also played "Mario's Freeze Dance Party" complete with black lights in the dark garage. (Where many of them pulled their pants down to see their "glowing" white underwear. They thought it was the funniest thing ever!) Boys will be boys, I guess.
Then the "Chomp Char" pinata, which John worked very hard on.

He was going to make his own patterned after one he saw on the internet until I found a round baseball one and convinced him to just spray paint it. (He was so adorable working on the preparations!)

Love the faces...


Yay!!

Jake, getting into character...

Making a wish pep talk...

Blowing out the candles!...

The gang!

It was a great party.
Hard to beat last year's party and cake!