Yea, a day off!

Well, the weekend wasn't exactly relaxing with a birthday party Friday night and then laboring all day Saturday on the neverending home projects. We decided we had to get out for a fun day on our free Monday. It's museum month at the SD county museums. You just get a card from Macy's and you get in for half price. We headed down to the Birch aquarium in La Jolla. Lots of fun. Then went to check out the seals and sea lions at the cove. A baby seal had been born that morning and we got to watch its mom trying to teach it to swim. We thought she should at least give him a day, but what do we know? Dinner and pazooki in La Jolla, getting home by 7 pm- the kids in bed by 9pm - no dishes ... perfect day!

Party time

It's Friday night - the end of a hard week and what does Chris come home to? A house full of 16 girls in their jammies singing High School Musical and playing DDR. Actually, it was calm through dinner. We could hardly believe how quiet and polite they were. After dinner was another story. We decided to play the crazy hair game (Chris' idea!). It was all screaming from there on out. We were wise enough to make it an everything but sleepover - sleepover. They were all gone by 10pm and everyone got a good nights sleep!

Shelby is 9!!

Our cute, sweet little Shelby...

is growing up!
Happy Birthday Shelby!! We love you!

Little Froggy leg

 

No, he didn't break his leg. It's a stretching cast. He'll wear it for about 2 weeks just to give his leg muscle a nice long stretch. As he was on the table with the technician cranking his foot down as hard as she could, we made up some stories to tell in case anyone asked what happened. Our favorite is: "I was in Paris climbing the Eiffel tower when someone hit me on the head with a baguette and I fell down and broke my leg." We haven't fooled anyone yet. Last time he had a blue cast and he decided then that the next one would be green. So when they asked what color, there was no hesitation. He picked the brightest greeny-est color there. He was very excited about it until the tech finished and then looked at his leg and said, "Hey, it looks just like a little froggy foot." You should have seen his face, he was so sad. He gets really mad if I call him froggy, but I can't help myself. All his preschool friends signed it and then he christened it with a nice mud bath at preschool the next day. It was the first time he came home from school dirty. How lucky that it happened to be on the first day of his two week no bath or shower stint. There was actually mud on his little toes in the cast - gross! Dirty little froggy foot! Anyway, I'm so proud of my sweet, brave guy! He is handling it like a little trooper!

Animal Rescue

 

We tried to pull off an amazing animal rescue, "Diego" style today. This morning I saw this bird out in our front yard. It's a crazy looking bird, right? I got as close to it as I could to see what the heck kind of beak it had. At first I thought maybe it had some kind of trash stuck to its beak and it was suffering, but the closer I looked the more confused I got. I snapped these pictures because I knew no one would believe me, just like the time no one believed me when I saw a kimodo(sp?)dragon on the side of the road in Fallbrook, but that's beside the point. Anyway, when I got back to the house later in the afternoon it was still in the same spot. I guess because I felt I owed a good deed to all animalhood because of how we mistreated our cat earlier in the month, we decided to call animal friends of the valley. I tried to describe it to the operator but I was pretty sure she thought I was a crazy lady calling them to save a pigeon with a red beak. Well, to make a long story short, the person who came out had no idea what kind of bird it was or what was up with the crazy red and green plastic beak. But the bird turned out to be just fine, because it flew away like a perfectly healthy bird as soon as she tried to grab it. I still feel good about it!

A great day

Saturday was a big day for our family. Aaron (my little brother) married the beautiful, sweet Amberly Crosby. We are so excited to have her in the family. They are truly perfect for each other! She is so sweet with Ethan too. I have to give them credit for pulling off a fabulous wedding in spite of just a few minor setbacks. The room in the clubhouse that they were supposed to use was damaged due to flooding a few short weeks before the big day. They ended up putting a tent outside and despite the wind and rain, we were cozy and warm inside. It was sunny just long enough for them to get some fabulous pictures which we hope to see on the Blue Lily website soon. Shelby was one of five adorable flower girls and Lindsay was thrilled to have a job as official wedding greeter, (but still coveted the flower girl position and actually told Amberly that!) Owen was satisfied with his title "guest" but he later got confused and asked if Spencer was going to be a "ghost" too. My pictures do not do justice to the event but I will still share them. Congratulations Amberly and Aaron!

Getting away and abusing our pet

Chris had a partner retreat in Oakland this weekend, so I just tagged along. While Chris was in meetings, I spent most of my time reading in the room with a box of See's candies. I did venture just outside the hotel to wander around Barnes and Noble for hours, visit the cafe and then return to my cozy room. It was a dream (I only felt the teeniest bit guilty about it). We had some incredible dinners with the partners and went to a jazz concert one night. The kids were well cared for by Mimi and Granddad. They had a day at the zoo and a pizza party and sleepover with the Burnetts. The only one who suffered over our getaway was Quincy our cat. We came home and discovered he had been locked in the garage. His cat door was stuck closed. When we rescued him his little nose was cut and bloody from trying to get the door open! And he was very hungry. Please don't tell PETA about this.