10 Years

Will and I celebrated ten years of marriage yesterday.  My goodness, time goes fast.  I'll keep the sappiness to a minimum, but let me tell you - I married a really good guy.  He is definitely my favorite person to hang out with.  We have both changed A LOT in ten years, but what holds us together is a firm friendship and our faith in God.

Since we went to to San Diego a few weeks ago, we felt like a night out might be a bit overindulgent.  We chose, instead, to make it a family celebration.  We all got dressed up and had a fancy dinner.  If you look closely at the table you will see that I finally just decided on Chili's takeout.  Way less clean up.

Afterward we watched our wedding video and looked through pictures.  They got bored pretty fast with the video.  I knew they would.  At one point Emma said of Dave, the pastor, is that really how he talks?  I said yes.  Then she gave a very impressive impersonation.  This is only funny if you actually know Dave.

The girls were in awe of my wedding dress.  Taylor covered her mouth when she saw it.  One of them said (I wish I could remember which one),

"Did you use your real voice?"
"Yes."
"No, brides talk like this."
She then demonstrated the high pitched voice that I should have used at my wedding.
Thank you, Disney princess movies.

Cute Words

While in a parking lot the other day, Emma said the following, "We closed the doors because there was someone cigaretting and we didn't want the smoke to come in.

That same afternoon while waiting at the door she said, "Did you already ring the ding donger?"

While randomly talking about Christmas in June, Taylor said, "You know, I don't think Rudolf can really talk.  Or has a red nose." 

Well, of course not.  How silly.  Why in the world would a flying reindeer who carries a magical man and delivers toys to every child in the world in one night be able to talk or have a red nose?

Bug Birthday

Emma and Taylor turned 5 this week.  I can't believe it. Five.  Man, where does the time go?  They have done a lot of growing up this past year and I know it will only continue exponentially. 

If left to their own accord, we would have had another princess party of some sort, but with a few suggestions from me, we settled on a bug party.  They love bugs and playing dirt.  They'd love it even more if they were dressed up like princesses while doing it.

We started off by making bug catcher necklaces.  My inspiration came from here.  They turned out really cute.  I was so glad Will was home to help make all the holes bigger.  They were all just a little too small.

Next we played "Don't Disturb the Spider".  It was a pretty primary game, but the kids still enjoyed it.  They had to rescue the bugs without disturbing the spider.  The spider never really did anything, though.

This was the first year Emma and Taylor each got their own cake.  I figure, they share everything else, at least they can pick their own cake flavors.  Taylor picked vanilla and Emma picked chocolate.  They were both a little embarrassed by the singing, but had no problem blowing out their candles.

 
Here are our other "snack" options.

Worm ice cubes to go in their bug juice (lime kool-aid).

Cheese worms, bacon and cheddar grasshoppers, and chocolate rocks.

All the brave ones who tried the grasshoppers.  A few of them really liked them!

The girls also took their pictures with each of the guests.  We will be sending a copy in thank you notes.  I want to give a big thank you to those adults who stayed around to help. You didn't have to stay, but I was glad you did!

Idea credit

San Diego

Last week, Will and I had the opportunity to visit San Diego, California.  Without our kids.  We've not taken a real vacation alone since our honeymoon - ten years ago.  We've done some weekend get-aways here and there, but this was a whole week.  Our parents split the week keeping the girls and everyone had a great time.  They didn't start misbehaving until we walked in the door to pick them up.  I guess if they're going to misbehave, I'd rather it be with me.

Everyone told me how much I'd miss my kids.  I'd be aching to see them.  I'm going to be totally honest here, even if it makes me sound like a bad mom.  I didn't.  I kept waiting for it to happen.  It didn't.  Don't get me wrong, I thought about them constantly.  Everything I saw reminded me of them.  We bought them souvenirs.  Maybe I needed the break that much.  I think it was more than that, though.  I knew my kids were being well taken care of.  I knew they were building great relationships with their grandparents.  I have great memories from staying at both sets of grandparents' houses and I wanted them to have memories too.

I had a great time with my husband.  We stayed out late (although the latest was 11:30).  We just drove, without a plan.  We picked out restaurants based on what we wanted to eat.  We lingered at those restaurants long after our meals were over, without the fear of someone melting down.  We bought cereal with nuts in it (Taylor is allergic).  We went into stores with breakable items in them.  We bought pops and didn't have to share them with anyone. 

I love my kids to death, but I sure loved my time without them.

Now, on to our actual activities.

San Diego has a reputation of "June Gloom".  Cloudy and cool every day.  We heard about this, but fortunately, only experienced it about a day and a half.  It still wasn't hot, though.  About 70 degrees everyday.  Perfect.  Except at the ocean, where I found it to actually be pretty cool.  Thankfully, I took a jacket.

And the ocean.  This was my first time to the ocean and it was everything I hoped it would be, except for warm.  The warmest water we found was 66 degrees.  I refused to go in it without a wetsuit.  It was beautiful.  In fact, it brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it.

We went to the zoo, kayaked, and visited the Taylor Guitar factory.  The rest of the time we just explored.  And visited the ocean.  A lot.

I know you're all dying to see my pictures.  Taking pictures without kids was kind of weird.  Its either us, or the scenery.  If you'd like a complete viewing, let me know.  We can set up the old slide projector and have you over for popcorn.

If you look in the wave you can see a dolphin.  I know it looks more like a shark, but I promise, it was a dolphin.  He jumped out of the water for us!

Taylor Guitar Factory in El Cajon.  The guitar Will wanted wasn't on the clearance rack.  We bought t-shirts instead.

This bridge was literally one of the scariest things I've ever been on.  People really drive up there!

No kayaking pictures, just this after-shot.

Will swimming in the cold Pacific ocean while I watched from the beach.

Lots of pretty meal times.

Right before we got on the plane to go home.  We sure miss that beautiful weather.

Gymnastics

Its been awhile, but I'm going to get caught up on blogging this week.  At least that is my attempt.

As you may, or may not remember, the girls started taking dance several months ago.  You can read about it here.  It lasted  two months.  That is why we signed up for the pay-as-you-go monthly class.  They wanted to do gymnastics again.  I reminded Emma that she didn't like it and that she cried when things got too hard.  She still wanted to do it.

We told them this was the last switch.  They could try it one more time and then they would have to stick with something.  Things were different this time around.  Maybe they (Emma) was more grown up up this time.  She worked harder and didn't get as frustrated.  They also had a wonderful teacher who was very patient and energetic.  They ended the year with a little recital.

Taylor smiled and had a great time, but just as with their end of the year school program, Emma experienced a bout of stage fright.

There was some yelling at us from her mat asking for confirmation that it was okay for her to just sit there.

"IS IT OKAY?"
I shook my head yes.
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
I shook my head yes and mouthed the word yes.
"WHAT?  I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
Will then shouts back, "YES, EMMA, THAT'S FINE!"

She finally got over her stage fright and joined in.  Although she still scowled.

Everyone got a medal for participation at the end.  That brightened her mood.  Thank goodness she decided to participate. 

Afterward they had free time to show us some of their favorite activities and some of the things they had learned.  I think we're definitely sticking with gymnastics.