Just say no.....

It's so hard for us to NOT be able to do all the things and activities we want to do. There is so much going on in the summer and we want to be able to experience it all but time just does not allow (and our children like their time at home!) for us to do everything. We've had to say no to things that we do EVERY year and things with friends and family that we want to do. I keep saying 'it's summer' but we have to draw the line somewhere and our kids need sleep and they just really like to be at home with us playing sometimes!
As much as we want them to enjoy the things that we like do to (farmers markets, live outdoor music) it's not like they are SUPER pumped about these things most of the time.

My head is spinning with the amount of things we have going on in the next two weeks before vacation. I have lists and lists and I'm thinking about started a list FOR my lists! I need to find my super-human, low anxiety, excessively organized self and bring her out to play for the next month!

This is similar to how I would look in this outfit...big boobs and abs! HA! At least the big hair is spot on.

Smoke a little smoke!



This is the 3rd year we have attended and the first year we have kept Piper overnight with us. My parents had a wedding so we didn't want to ask them to watch her and she is getting easier and more fun to take places like this where she can run around and play with other kids.

 

Basically the guys who are smoking meat go down Friday night we all hang out, the adults take a boat ride to The Port (the tiki bar/restaurant) at Lake Panorama and the kids stay back and hang out. This was the first year we have done this also. Steve was by himself last year on this Friday night and the girls and I came down Saturday morning! So the girls stayed at the house with cousin Ella, Sam and Ava and about 5 other boys, they were a little nervous about us leaving but they did great and Ella was able to get Piper to sleep!

Saturday morning we got up about 8:30, most of the boys men guys had started their smokers and got their meat on the night before so they spend most of the day tending to their smokers, adjusting the heat, saucing up, seasoning, tasting and doing ALOT of smack talking!

Many times Piper is a loner, she hangs out with the adults and does her own thing. Most of the kids were much older than her so she was mama's girl for a lot of the day, which was fine until she insisted on taking pictures. I didn't mind at the beginning but 200 pictures later (most of nothing!) it was time for her to stop...she did get some good ones though!

Like this one of Uncle Matt!....who desperately needs a hair cut!

Presley has never been comfortable enough in the water to jump off the dock or swim. She always wants to but has never been brave enough to just do it!.........She did it!

She did it and then she was off....swimming, jumping and having fun with cousin Ava and all the other kids! It was SO awesome to watch her! (and it still makes me nervous to watch her!)

swam out to the lily-pad over and over again and had a blast!

Another picture courtesy of Piper :)

Then she started posing for me! :) LOVE THIS GIRL!

She convinced cousin Jordan to take out his boat, she LOVES Jordan's boat!

The weather was supposed to be HOT and it was, but we were lucky enough to have a cloud overcast most of the day which helped the heat!

Cousin Sam, typical boy!

Loving on the flamingos!

and then riding the flamingos?!

The trophy!

One of the guys preparing their ribs. Yum!

The boxes lined up for the entries.

Picture courtesy of Piper.

Some of the guys preparing and getting their entries ready.

Steve slicing his winning brisket!

Halligan with his 2nd place ribs!

The boxes are delivered to the judges, they don't know which box belongs to which person. They rate on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best and then the ratings are added up! There were 12 total entries and Steve's 3 entries came in 5th, 4th and 1st place! :) He was a very happy camper!

Getting hugs from the girls!

All of the meat was great! So good and so fun to get to try so many different things! It's so fun to have an event/get together like this! Thanks Jason and Christie for planning and hosting!
The bean bag competition got started, I was out first round! Boo! Guess I need more practice!

The girls got a little carried away with the mud....but they were having fun and it's SUMMER! So why not?! :)

We hung out the rest of the night, more bean bags, more beers, fireworks. I went to bed early b/c I haven't been feeling good most of the week and had basically lost my voice. So I was a party pooper but at least I was able to get Piper to bed by 9 and Presley by 10:30.

We slept in until almost 10 Sunday morning, got up, ate breakfast, hung out and then headed home. We were all tired and didn't do much on Sunday but unpack, clean, laundry and get ready for another week ahead! Then went to Sarah and Kyle's for dinner and to chat for a couple hours! Thanks for having us over!

 

My favorite things....

- I love this song! It makes me happy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

- I love this song too! Repeat please, repeat please, repeat please! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YyGCwvFm-U

- This drink. A friend of mine put them on FB and of course since Steve was on his daily trip to Costco he bought some. The coconut and pineapple are my favs so far but I haven't tried them all yet.

- If you love to read mystery cop dramas that are sometimes grueling and disturbing.......read these books. You won't regret it! http://www.karinslaughter.com/all-books/the-will-trent-series/

- We love shrimp in our house....Piper will eat it and Presley just tried some the other night too. When I want a quick meal (mainly for me on the nights I work late) I pop these suckers in the oven and dip in hot sauce and ranch....yum!


- I love that the Wells Fargo ATM told me "Happy Anniversary!" I was so confused....then I read below that...."21 years banking with Wells Fargo" OMG. That makes me old but I'm 37-21 years = 16 years old when I opened my first bank account with Norwest....after I started working at Target after my 16th birthday! One of my longest relationships is with Wells! :)

- I love, love, love being able to see pictures of my baby at daycare/school! Thank you Generation for setting up this system for parents!

Weekend Fun

Saturday morning we got up and ready....Steve took Piper to Carver's 3rd birthday at Skyzone and I took Presley to the Green Days parade...b/c we obviously needed more tootsie rolls and dum-dums after the last parade they went to. We are swimming in candy right now and normally I would enjoy the thought of that but vacation is 3 short weeks away!
It was warm but it was a fun, we sat with our neighbors Wendy and Jason who have a 3 and almost 2 year old so it was nice to have some other kids there for Presley to share with!
After the parade, we headed to Skyzone to pick up Piper and Steve headed off to his aunt and uncles 50th wedding anniversary in Cherokee! The girls and I ran to Wal-Mart and then home to do whatever we wanted! They actually played in the basement with the neighbor girls for over 2 hours, it was awesome! I did some stuff around the house and started working on Piper's baby shutterfly book....yes, I am aware that she is 3 and a half years old and I'm just NOW working on this, but hey, better late than never!

That evening we headed out to Holly and Jerry's...Holly got a new turtle (she's weird) and we needed to get out of the house anyway. We hung out there for a while and then finally about 7 pm, I forced ourselves to leave b/c we hadn't eaten dinner or done anything to get ready for fathers day on Sunday!

We got home, put a pizza in the oven and make cookies while we waited for that. I filled out a short questionnaire that the girls answered about Steve (thank you pinterest!) and they made cards (and paper plates faces(?) and I bought him a bottle of vodka! Happy Fathers Day!

Piper's answers : My daddy.....

His name is Steve.

He is 17 years old.

He likes to hug me.

He is good at coloring.

He is not good at fishing.

His favorite food is bacon.

I love him because I like to ride on his shoulders.

 

Presley's answers : My daddy.....

His name is Steve.

He is 37 years old.

He likes to fish.

He is good at writing in bubble letters.

He is not good at jump roping.

His favorite food is hot dogs.

I love him because he is smart.



Sunday morning I got up and went to work. The girls slept in a little and he got the slip-n-slide ready! He smoked some wings and a pork loin and we had over some friends whose kids enjoyed the slip-n-slide also and then his brother also came over to hang out for a couple hours. It was hot out but not unbearable in the shade so it was nice afternoon!

Once everyone left we hung out for a while, I cleaned up, Steve laid down, the girls fought played. Then we packed up and headed to Earlham to watch our friend Dustin play/sing...see that is him in the white shirt in the background! :) 

Cousin Ava was there so Presley went off with her to do some gymnastics and play. We saw quite a few people (including Steve's family) that we knew and the weather was perfect in the shade so it was a nice evening! We were definitely out too late and didn't get home until after 9 so the girls were asleep until about 10 which is just too late for a 'school' night! Oh well...it's summer, right?? :)



Johnston Green Days

As another week passes us by we seem to have found a weekly routine: Monday I work late....though this week was not AS late and then I squeezed in a late dinner with my bff Colleen! Tuesday I worked a little late and still made it home to eat dinner with the family. Wednesday night, gymnastics and El Mariachi and then we hung out with the neighbors until bed time. Thursday we made it back to the marina for a couple hours.

 

Friday we headed over to Johnston Green Days, we've been going to this every year since we moved to Johnston in 2012. It's just a fun, small, laid back carnival of sorts. The girls rode rides (some with daddy)

They all love the Tilt-A-Whirl (I wish I still had the stomach to join them on this ride!)

I love Piper's face in this picture!

and ALL 3 of them here!

They did the small roller coaster (Piper was basically tall enough to ride everything)

but on this ride, needed to have a parent with her...Steve looks thrilled. Piper looks like....typical Piper.

Then we headed over to the band/food/music/beer tent and hung out. We ate, the girls 'danced', checked out the car show and just enjoyed the night!

(They are very big into side ponytails right now!)

She wanted to dance more than she did. She was still super cute to watch!

Ketch-up....

See the word play I did there! wow! I'm entirely too clever!........ANYWHO.....Where did last week go? Ugh...
Presley started her semi-private swim lessons, thanks to my mom and dad for agreeing to take her since it's at 9:30 in the morning! So I drop P off at their house, they take her to swim lessons and then take her to KTC for fun with her friends and last week was filled with lunch at F&O's, Pump it Up, Infinite Gymnastics, roller skating and then staying at the school on Friday to get to know their groups a little better, go over the rules for the summer and that fun stuff.......Monday night I worked until almost 8 pm, didn't even see the girls b/c they were in bed when I got home. Steve took them to Sonic for dinner, he sent me a picture of them eating outside and my response was 'Fun! Is it nice outside?' I literally don't look out a window or leave my building to even know what the weather is doing. Sad, isn't it?

Tuesday we hung out at home and then got a call from my friend Katie who was camping out at the campground not too far from our house. So about 6:45 we quickly got things packed, jumped into Jeep and headed there....knowing that it was probably a bad idea b/c the girls always seem to misbehave when we let them stay up a little later than normal. We hung out at the campground, chatted, the kids played good (I think their 7 yr old Jace was a little overwhelmed with the amount of talking that Piper was doing, she WOULD NOT stop talking!) and then got home a little after 9 (which is too late for them, but it's summer! Right?)

Wednesday Piper had water play day at daycare and Presley had swim lessons, went to gymnastics with KTC and then had summer gymnastics at 5 pm. Busy girl! Piper and I had our date night at El Mariachi on the patio then headed home and we tried to get them to bed early!

Thursday the weather started to turn HOT. I like hot weather but when it's 95-100 it's just too much and you can't even enjoy being outside. Our neighbors got a nice kid pool and invited us to come down about 6:30...once again we decided to let our kids have some summer fun and stay out later than normal. They played good in the water and with each other until about 8 and then it was time to get home and get in bed!

Friday we were going to do a couple different things but it was just too hot so we decided to hang out at home, got our kid pool filled up. The kids played, Steve made a good dinner, we hung out by the shed. I was exhausted and didn't feel that good so Steve stayed out with some neighbors watching the basketball game and I hung out inside until it was time to get the kids to bed and then I went to bed too. I slept like SHIT! I couldn't sleep, kept waking up, kept thinking...then Steve finally came in at 1:30 once he kicked the neighbors out for the night. I slept good from 1:45-4:15, then the storm hit. That kept me up, then I checked on the girls about 1:30 and Piper was sitting up in bed so I laid with her awhile. Once she was asleep I decided that I probably should just get up and go to work! So I was in my car at 4:59 and at work by 5:25! IN THE MORNING...what the f*** is wrong with me?

While I was at work Steve took the girls to the Grimes parade (what a good daddy!). They said it was awesome! There was hardly anyone there and got a TON of candy! (which is bad for this mama b/c I love me some Tootsie Rolls and Laffy Taffy's!)

I got home about 11:30 and was just EXHAUSTED. I get grouchy when I'm that tired and Steve doesn't like to deal with me. So he offered to take Piper with him when he dropped of Presley at their cousin Ava's birthday party at Chow's gymnastics so I could take a nap! (what a good husband!)

One of the girls didn't show up so they asked if Piper wanted to join the bday fun and she was so excited! She did everything the big girls did and loved it! The girl working the party asked if she was in tumbling b/c she was good for her age and not afraid to try...this is her jumping into the foam pit!

Ava, Presley and Piper

I took a nap from 1 until they got home about 3:15, it was awesome! I haven't done that in a long time! Then I got up and actually started my day....laundry, went outside with the girls while they played in the pool, Steve made another awesome dinner and then we decided to head to Adventureland for a couple hours!

We got there and rode the skylift to the other side of the park and decided to start there and make our way back towards the entrance since we knew we'd only be there for a couple hours. The skylift goes right thru The Monster, the awesome new roller coaster!
Steve and Piper on the chair in front of us.

We did the Raging River and Piper was NOT impressed. She said she only wanted to get a little wet, so when we ended up right under the waterfall (and I tried to cover her with my own body) she said she 'got a lot wet and she only wanted a little wet!' So she doesn't want to ride it again. But she liked the Tilt-a-whirl! Barf.
Piper loves to be friendly, which is refreshing...she jumped up next to this boy on the motorcycles and had fun. Love the smiles!

We played some skee-ball and rode the train, did some other small rides. It's fun to see the place lit up at night when the sun starts to go down. They really wanted to stay longer but we didn't want to push out luck. We got home about 9:15 and went to bed. The girls had a fun filled day so they went to sleep fairly fast!

Sunday we didn't do too much...I got up and worked until about 11 then went home and we tried to play outside in the pool but it was just HOT. Multiple times I tried to go outside and read, in the shade, with my feet in the pool, sitting near/in the sprinkler....it just never lasted very long. So we did lot of cleaning and laundry and just hanging out inside!