Just because...

Just because she looked so adorable before school this morning. (And because I got a new lens yesterday and couldn't wait to play... yay!)

Lucky Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had so much fun today, it's days like this that I love being a mom. My kids make stupid holidays like this one totally worth celebrating to the fullest extent possible. I love it!

Last year at Kennedy's preschool, Leprechauns visited their classroom while the kids weren't there and left footprints and treats, and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. I kind of felt like a loser mom for only doing magic green milk!

Well, lately we've been reading books about Leprechauns and how they cause mischief, so, along with magic green milk this year, Mommy talked some Leprechauns into visiting our house as well.

Now, I have to admit, late last night as I was making green snicker doodles (because the only store-bought St. Paddy's day treats at Albertsons were in the bakery, and looked disgusting) and cutting out Leprechaun footprints, I was really wondering if I was crazy.

But this morning when Kennedy woke up and saw the "mischief" and found the treats, you would have thought it was December 25th, judging from her excitement level. She was laughing and running around and waking everyone up. It was so cute, she was thrilled! She really makes everything so much more fun than it should be.

Here she is in her cute green outfit, with pink accents, natch...the leprechauns also left her some fun green accessories this morning.

Hudson loved magic green milk, can you tell? He is our own little leprechaun...except he only takes treats, never leaves them...

Here is some of the mischief...luckily, our leprechauns only caused mischief that was silly and not hard for mom to clean up (our couches are freakishly light...really no excuse for there to be so much popcorn under them...)

Hudson thought this was hilarious. It was like someone had done his day's chores for him! :) He actually cleaned the balls up before I could! I am kind of wondering if this was the best idea, though. I really have a feeling many future messes may be getting blamed on leprechauns...


I let Kennedy help plan the menu for our all green dinner, and she did a great job! We had chicken pesto, green beans, peas, salad and green punch. We also colored placemats and Leprechaun pictures for the table and used every green dish in the house. They loved it!

Now, for the luckiest part of our day: We found my wedding ring!

For those of you who don't know: I lost it in my friends' driveway on Christmas Eve. I really have been sick about it, I dreamed almost every night that I found it, and Dustin has been looking several times, even with a metal detector. I have refused to let myself really think that it was lost, hoping that when the snow was melted it would show up. And yay! it did today. What a miracle! And right when the silver was starting to wear off of my big, gaudy fakey (I hated not looking married :) . Nice to have the real deal! Words cannot express how I feel about having this ring back! Everytime I look at it, I remember the first time I saw it, and how I felt. I will never let it out of my sight again! Thanks so much for watching for it, Chad and Jessica!

wonderful weekend

I had such a great weekend! On Friday afternoon my Mom met me at the Red Lion in Idaho Falls for the overnight crop Creative Memories does there twice a year. It is rapidly becoming a cherished tradition! We've had Jenna a time or two, and once Trulie came, which was so fun, but my mom and I have been every time since I heard about it two years ago. Last year my sweetest neighbor Tracy started coming, too, (she is a consultant!) and she has just added to the joy! Luckily, Dustin realizes how much I look forward to these weekends and doesn't even question it, just tells me which of the two available weekends he won't be on call. We just plan on it. Oh, how I love him for that!

It is so fun and relaxing to sit and gab while we work on scrapbook pages, they even provide yummy meals and snacks. I always get so much done (28 pages!) and come home a happier mommy. Honestly, though, this year, I would have liked it to be maybe not quite so close to our vacation, but, hey, didn't stop me! When I told Kennedy good-bye on Friday afternoon, she gave me a big hug and trudged up the stairs with her friend, saying "at least she'll only be gone ONE day this time." Yeah, I felt a little guilty. But I went and loved it anyway! Plus, she is on 100% of the pages I do, I'm pretty much staring at her face the entire time, so its not like I'm completely abandoning her...

I could probably win the prize for the amount of spreading out I do with my supplies...I like to see everything, and I take every available inch!

To make the weekend even better, when we finished up on Saturday at 5:00, we met Dustin and the kids for dinner and then my AWESOME mom took them home and put them to bed while Dustin and I hit 2 movies, with a Cold Stone in between! So fun! I found out, in bits and pieces, though, that Grandma Josie is definitely nurturing the sweet tooth that both of my kids have inherited...not exactly straight home and to bed...first a stop at the Cocoa Bean cupcake cafe, then to Florence's Candies, then to G's Dairy Delights....hmmm, not sure who had more fun, us or them! Thanks for the fun weekend, Mom and Dustin! I love you both!

FYI: We saw "Push" and "Taken." I liked Push, but the end was a little disappointing. I was expecting it to be as cool as X-Men ( I know, I'm this huge nerd who loves comic book movies) but it wasn't. Not a complete waste of time, though. However, we could not have been more...what's the word...exhilarated by Taken. WHOA! Seriously, one of the best shows I've ever seen. Definitely in my top ten. Maybe five. Maybe two. Awesome. A little scary, but awesome. Very satisfying. Dustin feels the same. Go see it!

Do you think she needs a little sister?

I'd like to say that she had to tie him down to do this. But, I'm pretty sure he asked her for some. Hopefully it was just to satisfy his constant need to make a mess. He did gleefully rip the clothes off of all of the polly pockets he could find in her room, though, so that's good.



Oh, and here are her new dance pictures! She is so pretty!

PS - Jenna, Kim: the title of this post is NOT an announcement. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love vacations...

I really miss those fresh fruit smoothies and pina coladas in pineapples. I miss getting no one but myself ready for bed at night. I miss the warm sand and the sound of waves, and someone else making my every meal. BUT...

I missed this more.

I really missed these guys! I have really been enjoying them this past week, and yesterday was just a great day.

Here's why:

Kennedy got herself dressed with a minimum of dawdling, and was so cheerful for morning. Hudson slept all the way till I was done tae-bo-ing and pilates/yoga-ing...he never does that! Plus, he was so happy, too, happily followed me around, chattering and driving his cars, while I got the WHOLE house cleaned and tons of laundry done. I was so productive, it was awesome, and I didn't even feel like I was neglecting him, he was just so happy to watch and jabber. Then, Kennedy got home and we had a quick lunch and then went outside to sled. It was the perfect sledding day: the snow was perfect, and it was warm!

We both just had on snow pants and long sleeve t-shirts by the time we were done. Then, after some hot chocolate, Hudson had a gloriously long nap, even through the front room carpet being shampooed (not even by me! Kirby guys stopped by, and it was "No thank you, I already have one. Yes, you can still clean my carpet." Awesome! Seriously, after the pushy vendors in the DR, the Kirby guys were a piece of cake!) Kennedy and I did some of her crafty-homework together, and just relaxed in our clean house together. It was so nice, I loved not having anywhere to be yesterday but home.

And to top it all off, last night was Taco Night, which I love! We do it up right, chips and salsa, delicious rice ( I have an awesome new recipe, THank you Wes! I'm going to put it here...) and homemade guacamole. Yum. Sorry, no pictures. I was too hungry.

So, I just had to jot this day down. Just about perfect. So thankful to be me.

An Adventure...Not with Kennedy and Hudson, and definitely NOT in spudland...

Our trip to Grenada and the Dominican Republic was amazing. I want to say "once-in-a-lifetime" but I really hope not! We really want to go again!

For those of you wondering, our friends Justin (high school BFF of mine and Dustins) and Ashlee (his very lovable, hospitable darling wife) are living in Grenada right now while Justin attends Vet school there at St. George's University. We wanted to take advantage of the excuse to travel somewhere really cool - where we know somebody! - and so did our other BFF's (I love to say BFF) Daniel and Amy. We got our opportunity when Amy graduated from Nursing School last year and got a week of her in-law's time-share as a gift. They were so awesome to invite us, and we started planning. 4 days in Grenada, and then on to the resort in the Dominican Republic for a week. We thought it would never come, and then it kind of snuck up on us, now it's over...sigh. Good thing I took over a thousand pictures. Seriously. If you want to see them all, you can go here. Otherwise, here are the highlights. It was awesome!

We flew into Grenada at about 11 pm on Wednesday night. Weird, fly all day, and end up somewhere tropical. And by weird I mean AWESOME. When we stepped off the plane, and the humidity hit me (I was in long sleeves and pants still) I thought "no way am I going to get used to this, hot and stickyness." But I did, and fast. It was so lovely to wear shorts and tanks everywhere. Justin and Ashlee, and sweet little Rylee, were the best hosts. We totally took over their apartment, and they probably wished we would've got a hotel, but I loved it! Like a 4 day sleep-over. And Rylee is the best baby in the world, she happily was dragged all over the island and had her schedule shot to crap, and i think she cried, like, one time. What a sweetheart! She was definitely making Amy and myself baby-hungry, and was so fun to take pictures of...

Here is a shot of their apartment. We spent many hours out on their little patio. It always had a wonderful breeze, and a nice view...

I was so amazed by these houses built right on the hillsides. Their driveways were almost vertical. I guess it's not a huge issue when you don't ever have to worry about snow!

Ashlee was the ultimate tour guide, had tons of fun stuff planned for us, and, most importantly, could drive! The driving is insane in Grenada. NARROW roads, no rules, and all on the wrong side of the road! Crazy. But she did awesome. None of us had to throw up once.

On Thursday morning, we headed up to Mt. Carmel, about a 30 minute, very exciting drive, and hiked a short ways to this gorgeous waterfall. No one else was there, and it was so peaceful and cool. We played like kids in the water. I have to admit, so many of the places we went to wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable if I had been worrying about chasing my kids around them...but, everywhere we went, I thought, Kennedy would love this! Bittersweet...


After the waterfall hike, we headed back down to LaSagesse Beach. It was very secluded and quiet. We had a little picnic and, even though it was overcast, we were excited and got in the water. We got rained out after a little bit, but it was still fun.

Thursday night we went to the much-hyped "Bananas" for a yummy burger and fries. It lived up to the reputation, we loved it. The picture of Dustin and his huge burger isn't good enough to make the blog, sorry...

Friday morning we hit Grand Anse beach. So nice! White sand, beautiful blue water, and some fun waves to play in. I loved it! We played in the water, worked on our tans, and let this guy make us each a cool bowl out of coconut leaves. It was pretty neat, but you could tell he was a bit overwhelmed by the high demand. Let's just say, there is not a really strong work ethic among the Grenadians, as a whole. You would not believe how many guys we passed, just standing around, drinking beer, all day long. However they definitely had plenty of energy to cat-call the cute white girls crammed into our little Vitara...This guy had to have a cigarette and beer break in between each bowl. Still, cool...

That afternoon we rented a car (a "six seater" in Grenada was really only an SUV with 5 seatbelts, but hey, whose counting? Certainly not anybody in Grenada!) and drove 45 minutes to Gouyave. We had an un-official tour of the Nutmeg factory there.

These shelves are filled with raw nutmegs...wow!

It had actually just closed, but they didn't care if we walked around, everything is so layed-back there! Ashlee had been there before, so she showed us some, but then Daniel gave a guy a couple of bucks and he really turned into a guide. Funny! The factory was so cool, really old and well worn, kind of old fashioned compared to anything you'd see in the states, and it smelled so good! Grenada is one of the 2 largest nutmeg producers in the world, apparently. We tried nutmeg ice cream and nutmeg salad dressing while we were there, and I'm a believer!

As we were walking through the town, I found an old crumbling building right next to a church. It was so cool I made everyone stop and take pictures. We got some cute ones of everyone, especially Rylee. She was way more smiley than any of those boys! Actually, most of Grenada is a pho-tog paradise...if anyone would like to fly me there to do their engagements or family pictures, I know some great spots now... :)

Here we are walking down the main street in Gouyave. This is two-way, can you believe it??

Gouyave is a little fishing town right on the coast and every Friday night, there is a whole street filled with vendors selling food made with fresh fish. Everything you can imagine! We all bought tons and shared everything, it was so fun, and we all got to try just about everything. Our favorites were the tuna kabobs, shrimp stir fry, coconut shrimp and yummy local ice cream. Dustin even made friends with a "yacht-ee" from Iowa...I know, random...and they shared a stuffed crab back, spoon and all. Ya gotta love Dustin, he really has no trouble making friends!

We were a bit early, so we took a load off and watched some of the prep work...

Fish Friday was one of the funnest things ever, but we never would have done it on our own. I'm so glad Justin and Ashlee were there to show us around! We really felt like we got the true Grenada experience, and would go back in a heart beat.

On Saturday, Ashlee showed us around St. George's, one of the bigger towns on the island. We walked up to the top of Fort George, and here is the reward! Quite a view!

We shopped at the Spice Mall after the fort, and got lots of fun souvenirs and yummy spices and extracts. The Spice Mall is a big outdoor marketplace, mostly geared toured tourists, and it was fun to walk around. A cruise ship had come in that morning, so it was really busy. After lunch in St.George's, we went on a death-defying road (steep, winding curves, drop-offs on both sides at one point) Grand Etang Lake. It is a crater lake high on a mountain top, completely surrounded by jungle. Wow, it was the greenest place I'd ever been. Worth the scary drive.

Thanks for always being willing to pose, Amy!

After Grand Etang Lake, we drove to Annendale Falls. It was probably about a 30 minute drive, but who knows how far. The Island is smaller than Bear Lake, but the roads are so twisty and the land so mountainous that it would take you all day to drive from one end to the other. It's amazing. The jungle reminded Dustin of a Dr Seuss book, with the crazy palm trees and weird plants. He told me he kept watching for Horton to step out.

It was a little tourist trap, as in, we had to give this guy a dollar to see the monkey, but it was pretty. The vegetation on this island is unreal. So unlike anything I've ever seen before. We payed another guy a couple of bucks to jump off the little cliff at the top of the falls. Just makin' a living, I guess...or earning a beer. whatever.

Saturday night, we had dinner at The Aquarium restaurant. It was so nice! Ashlee had made reservations at sunset, and it was gorgeous. We listened to the waves all through dinner, they gave the girls white roses, and the food was delicious. We probably won't top that Valentine's Day for a long time...

The next morning we flew to the Dominican Republic. I was really nervous about the plane ride (an island hopper) and the following cab ride to the resort. I worried for nothing, both were fine!
The resort was so fun, we had a great view from our terrace...

...and the beach was about a 10 minute walk away. The beach was really nice, not too busy, tiki bar close by ( we loved the pina coladas served in a fresh pineapple!).

We really didn't do too much besides hang out there and read and doze. Dustin and I got in the water almost everyday, we loved floating in the waves. It was so relaxing! The Dominican Republic was not quite as hot as Grenada, and I we had a few slightly overcast days, which really wasn't that bad. And the rain brought this one morning:

Here's what we did pretty much everyday: Get up, read on the deck for a while, Amy and I would go to the yoga on the beach or just go for a walk (I am so missing that!), then we would go down to breakfast, have a made to order fresh fruit smoothie with our meal, and then hit the beach.

Now, I really had to concentrate on NOT remembering all the Shark Week shows we have watched over the years. I really liked the water, and wanted to get in, but every little shadow was seriously freaking me out. However, once I watched the many, many, surfers (the preferred shark snack, according to stats) down the beach from us NOT get attacked for a few days, I started to relax.

We got to watch surfers, kite-surfers, and little sand crabs, which, really were very entertaining. We would throw them cookies and watch them try to take them down their holes.

We'd come back to the room in the late afternoon, get cleaned up, maybe squeeze in another quick nap, and then go down to the dining room for dinner.

The food at the resort was so good. Which was lucky, because we ventured into one of the closest towns, Sosua, on Tuesday, and pretty much hated it. We were accosted on every street by street vendors, they were so aggressive! We bought all our souvenirs, grabbed some munchies from the grocery store, and vowed not to leave the resort again! Plus, it rained on us and we were soaked and cold by the time we got back to the resort. A good lesson.

One day the resort had a fish fry for lunch down on the beach. The fish were cooked whole, heads and all. I was very proud of myself, I tried it and liked it, though a lot of work for not much reward... I am not a huge seafood person, but I liked everything I tried on this trip. I guess it makes a difference when it's fresh!

One night after dinner, we thought we'd skip "Casino Night" and play in the room. We got Monopoly from the activities hut to play on our deck. Actually, it was MONOPOLIO, and it turned out to be a little more challenging than we had planned:

I was dubbed "Senor Oswald" and when a chance or Community Chest card was drawn, I had to figure out whether the player had to pay or was payed... Actually was pretty funny, we had a good time. Dustin smoked us all.

Dustin, Daniel and Amy, Justin and Ashlee, Thanks for the memories! Let's do it again soon!

almost home!

I've just been ignoring the blog while on vacation, but I found a free internet kiosk here on layover at the dallas airport and had to say a quick word...first of all, stand by for awesome pictures this coming week, we had such an amazing time! Daniel and Amy, Justin and Ashlee, you couldn't have been more fun to vacay with.

Secondly, i just had to say a big thank you to my Mom and Jenna for the awesome birthday posts about me! Totally made my day. It sure was amazing to spend my normally-really-cold birthday on a gorgeous beach, and I owe a big thanks to Mom, Jenna, Jami, Kim and Trina for helping with the yay-hoo's so we could party. Love you all, and see you real soon!