We're back!

Mer and I just got back from a quick trip to San Fransisco for a girls weekend with Aunt Lizzie.  We had so much fun. It was nice, happy, and relaxing.  Liz and John were wonderful hosts.  We dined, shopped at great stores, saw a few sites, and had a blast playing with George and Grace. 

This was the view in the back seat pretty much the whole weekend.

As tourists, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge...

...and ventured into Muir Woods to see the Redwoods. The largest ones are around 2000 years old

I've always wanted to see these big beauties in real life.

Next up, with no cupcake shop in our own home town we had to sample some cupcakes to see what we were missing.  First stop, Kara's Cupcakes ... the Coconut was my favorite... so creamy

And then for comparison sake (another day of course) we just had to try out the famous Sprinkles...Red Velvet won my vote as favorite... so dreamy.

 Next stop as a tourist was the Bell Tower on Stanford campus.  Stanford was beautiful.  It made me think a bit about my own college days.....

Love this picture!!!  These three are so cute.

Here they are dipping their toes in the nearby fountain.

For the Stanford trip Mer had the privilege of riding with John in his Convertible.  Seriously a dream come true for her...

 Here are a few other favorites...Liz and John live near a commuter train track and George covers his ears every train a train rumbles by.  So cute!

Mer enjoyed every minute playing with these two.

We arrived home about 11:30 last night and got up bright and early, business as usual this morning.  Mer had to go to school to turn in her science fair project, and it was Valentine's day... so much to do.

Tonight we Celebrated, exchanging cards and chocolates!!

A special THANKS!! to the Balena Family for our wonderful weekend, you made our dreams come true.   Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Good night!

Girl Milk!

 Luke was finishing off his cereal yesterday and exclaimed "I have girl milk!!!" 

I looked in his bowl to find his cereal had made is milk PINK!  Though he still struggles to name all his colors, he has learned that Pink is a girl color

Here's picture of Max receiving his yellow belt that didn't make it into my last entry. This was pretty exciting for him.

And here's the video of his kicks that he had to pass off that day too.





Some of you heard word that we were tiling our backsplash on saturday. After  MUCH deliberation, purchasing tile, returning tile, cruising magazines, etc....this is what we put up. It still needs grout, but that's still on order.

Much more to be done... but it will have to wait, cause Mer and I will be in San Fran this weekend.  We are so excited!!

Bye for now!!

Yellow Belt

Okay, since last time I posted, I got a sinus infection from my week of illness, which laid me out for another week. I'm not 100% but I did go running for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks so I'm feeling a ton better.

Max advanced to a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do this weekend.  He had to perform his pattern and kicks in front of a panel of Black Belts.


The gym was so packed that not all of us were able to stay for it so Doug videoed it so I could see too.  Do you want to see Max do Tae Kwon Do?

This is his Pattern: "Chong Gi"

Its over!

Well at least our fevers are gone. Everyone has a little cough still but we are okay. I think I had it the worst.

Doug is coaching Max in his first season of basketball right now and Max is starting to get the hang of it. Yesterday he actually had his head in the game and is getting a bit better at dribbling.

Doug has been teaching Max some of his basketball moves.  Here's a link to a video of one of them.  He's still perfecting it so he can use it in a game.





For those of us not playing basketball this season, we signed up to run in a family 5k on Saturday. 


Since we had be fever free for a day and needed to get out of the house, I decided we'd do it still, even though I thought we'd probably walk the whole way.  Luke rode in the stroller while Mer and Jack and I ran the first mile and then run/walked the rest.  At about 2 1/2 miles Jack decided to sprint and there was no stopping him.  I chased him leaving Mer in our dust and he stopped for a break and to let Mer catch up with us just before finishing.  We did it in about 41 minutes.  It was fun!!


Here's a cereal we discovered this week that you should try.  Special K Red Berries is good but this new version with berries and yogurt chunks is awesome.  We are suckers for the fruit and cereal combination.

And lastly I made a little headway on the backsplash. It went from this....

....to this on Saturday.  I know, not much progress, but the job took me over 5 hours to do so I'm documenting it.  Ready for tiling!

We're dropping like flies, 3 more down.

Mer's finished Lego house. (A Christmas present)

When I last checked in we had great plans for a Monday at home. That afternoon I came down with what Luke had on Sunday.   Mer got a fever Tuesday morning and Jack came down with one last night. We are dropping like flies over here.  I think we have the flu.   I seriously can't remember ever feeling so sick.  I have a new found empathy for my kids when they get fevers.   I am hoping this is what Max had 2 weeks ago so he won't get it again. I don't know how Doug will dodge it, but I hope he does.

This week I'm grateful for Ibuprofen, Netflix Instant Movies, and Lego- it sure does provide hours of entertainment for all ages. And 2 hour naps- Our waves of fever have been staggered so Mer takes care of Luke while I sleep, then I'm feeling good when she goes bad. And warm showers too.

I'm feeling the need to steam clean our entire house when we are all well again.  Hope that's soon.  

Happy Monday to you!

Time for an update.

Not much to say except we have some sickos over here.  The kids have been passing a fever around and it was Luke's turn this weekend. I stayed home from church with him and he just wanted to be held or watch shows.  Doug took the rest to church but came home in the middle of it himself with flulike symptoms. He slept the day away while we all kept quiet which means a lot of movies were watched. While everyone was so quiet and entertained by the tube I got to organize my closet and go through ALL our files and paperwork.  Something that has needed to be done for months now. And yes that took ALL DAY.  But totally worth all the effort because I now have a great filing system and I can walk into my closet and get that high that only a freshly organized closet can give.  AHHHH! The sewing corner is next.

Meredith started official piano lessons last week.

Today the kids have a day off from school.  Doug said he'll probably come home early from work since he's not feeling so hot.  Since Luke is sick we can't play with friends today but in my organizing mode yesterday I made a list of activities for each of them to keep them busy today. One thing on the list is devising a way to pick the rest of the oranges of the orange tree, only the high ones are left. I can't wait to see what they come up with .  They are currently playing battle dominoes, waiting for the sprinklers to turn off so they can jump on the trampoline. After all, that is their favorite pastime.

And that does it for us.  Happy Monday to you!

Fun things we did with Grandma and Grandpa

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Thank you for coming to visit us after Christmas!! We had so much fun with you.  Remember when we went to see the Manatees? 



We knew that there would be a lot but Grandpa, you counted over 100!!.  All huddling together in a canal trying to keep warm.

Remember how there were millions of fish filling the whole canal as well.






And then we went to the park..






We fed the ducks and found a bright green caterpillar.  We saved him from freezing, warmed him up and fed him.
























 Remember how we went to the Orlando Science Center and we got to do a weather forecast...

...and we survived hurricane force winds.

We saw Kelly Slater surf on the big screen movie and later, went to the beach and tried surfing the big waves ourselves.

 

 Thank you for playing games with us...

And making puppy dog pancakes.

We hope you had fun making these memories with us. We sure did!!