Monterey Beach Vacation

Not even the mention of a tsunami can stop us from heading to our destination vacation. My Aunt Lou and Uncle Mike drove from Texas to visit us and Monterey. They aren't in the photos because one of their kids is adopted and her bio parent father found her once and I don't know if she should have her picture posted out in cyberspace. But just for reference they are there with us too and they had a great time with our kids.
Monterey Bay Aquarium here we come.
Liv's ready to scuba already. Once she's 13 she gets to take the class!

My Ava cakes will touch anything. She has absolutely NO fear. I love that.
The girls love the jelly fish.
My main squeeze and his hot mammas.
Look out Ava!! The seahorse is going to eat you... wahaaha!
Me and my kiddos heading to the beach.
The best sandcastle builder ever. She gets that from her Papa.


Ava's big hole. Everywhere there is sand or dirt Ava is close by- digging, digging, and more digging.
Liv and Daddy heading to the waves.
Proud of her accomplishments, Ava sits in her hole.

We had an excellent family reunion and a great little weekend getaway.

Thanksgiving Week

How to begin this very long post... Dave's brother, sister-in-law, and their two kids came for Thanksgiving. Along with them they brought a Cajun Turduckhen (a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken and between all the layers was sausage stuffing). Sounds crazy right? Oh but tastes so good. So here's the first morning Wii session before we headed to Union city to do the IFLY. Everyone took their turn. (Michael is wearing yellow, Jacob is wearing white)

Here we have arrived at the IFLY and everyone's waiting for their meeting to begin. I was getting as sick as a dog by this point. Olivia still had her cough/sneezing/ sinus infection and was on day 8 of her antibiotics. Ava was hacking like a smoker and sneezing all over herself. I was wiping my nose every two seconds and getting very light headed, not to mention my watery eyes. So you ask why did I even go... Well someone had to take the pictures.

Here's the gang getting in their flight suits.

Here's Dave and his baby ready to fly.

Scott, Lisha, and Dave prepare for flight.

The kids. Ava still thinks she's involved at this point.

And they are off and in the tunnel.

Look at my man in goggles. Hot stuff!

Here's Michael flying high.

This is Olivia flying away!

And this is Thanksgiving morning or as I like to call it...moments before my death. At this point I could still sit upright. Scott's tickling the kids.

They ganged up on him.

After several hours we dressed the kids. I'm not really sure why. We weren't going anywhere but it was Thanksgiving. I was so sick by this point our relatives and Dave had to cook their own Thanksgiving.

The turduckhen... Umm turkey good. Umm duck good. Umm Chicken good. Suasage stuffing good. Put them all together and we give Thanks!

Here's the kids table.

Friday we went bowling. I was feeling a little better. All the medication I had taken the day before was still in me and I could breathe a bit. Liv was still spraying everyone with her sneezes and Ava- well she coughed and gagged at the same time. Real Fun. But we managed to make it through bowling and had a good time. It was at this time that I just began apologizing for our sickness to the relatives. If they make it through this next week without becoming violently ill, it would be a miracle. Oh and P.S. Olivia can throw her own ball thank you. As she told me, "Mommy, you go sit down over there please."

Here's Michael and Ava bowling.

The boys and their balls (pun intended).

Lisha and Ava saying hi.

Cousin love.

And since the boys had never had a black jack taco from TB we picked up a few on the way back from bowling. They were stoked and the girls even ate a taco too. (They would have never eaten them if it weren't for their cousins. I've tried tacos before. It's always a no go.)

During Ava's nap the kids helped build a gingerbread house.

And when Ava woke up, they ate it.

The next morning Dave's family flew home, we went to a birthday party at Pump it Up, and then we rested the rest of the weekend. The girls are better now. They still have the deep cough, but the sneezing is gone and they look better. I feel better too but now the mucus has decided to unleash itself so I'm full of wonderful phlegm.

Olivia went to her first day of school wearing her glasses today. None of the kids even noticed. Thank God for some miracles.

Off We Go...

We are packed and ready to head to Grammie and Papa's house for a long weekend getaway. The girls are excited that they are going to meet their cousins for the first time. Actually Olivia met them when she was six months old at a wedding but she doesn't remember so it's like a first time for her as well. These are my brother's kids... yeah you probably didn't know I had a brother but I do. He acts more like a distant cousin and his wife is a nightmare so we don't speak to each other. Less is more.

My parents on the other hand speak to my brother to maintain contact with the grandkids. The wife has been otherwise removed from our family and quite honestly it makes everything much more peaceful. The boys get to visit my parents this year for 2 weeks. So since they are here my mom wants a picture of all her grandkids together. Everything is lined up for Saturday morning. Should be interesting... It's hard enough for me to take my 2 kids to get their pictures taken with or without Dave's help so now we are working with a bunch of kids ages 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10. I hope for the best. The rest of the time we will be lounging pool side indulging in my mom's food and booze. It's nice to go home and be taken care of and not have to be thinking about planning breakfast, lunch, and dinner and cleaning up each mess. And with the girls both being able to swim basically by themselves in their little swim jacket thingys they will want to spend a lot of time outdoors. Heaven... Can you say heaven...

Family Reunion

This weekend we managed to finally hook up with my Aunt and Uncle and all of my cousins, first, second and third cousins that is, and my parents. They live less than an hour away and for some reason I never think about driving to their house. I literally drive by their house all the time on my way to somewhere else but this time I made plans to see my Aunt and Uncle for lunch. My parents came too to celebrate an early birthday with me and then they came back to our house and spent the night so we could all go to breakfast in the morning.

So the lunch began with us and well... like with most families one thing led to another and soon my entire family arrived, along with a LOT of food. It was great. The girls were so cute and they had an entirely new surrounding to explore and that they did.

Within five minutes of arriving Livy found the bridge in the backyard. She then became the toll bridge collector.
After a few minutes, Ava finally was able to convince Livy to share the broom. Okay so it might have been more like snatching of the broom but who cares really? She's just so fancy in her sundress. It seems a shame to be cleaning in it.

Ahh, Olivia had gotten the coveted broom back and had decided that sweeping the pool was a rather clever idea. Look at how cute she was in her little dress and ponytail.

15 minutes later...

Remember those cute kids with their hair brushed and pulled up into ponytails and the fancy little dresses they were wearing... Not anymore. Ava spent the rest of the day naked going from the pool to the fountain as well as in and out the doggie door.

This was everyone's view of Ava for most of the day. We really only saw her face when she was made to sit down and eat dinner.

Olivia hadn't gotten her clothes off yet when I took this photo of her washing the rabbits but it only was a matter of time before her dress was tossed aside and she too was naked and carefree.

And here's Peppy the life of the party. Ava chased this dog in and out through the doggie door all day. By the end of the day the dog had to rest. So he sat down and ate dinner with us.
We had such a great time. The girls met their cousins and ran around with them all day. It was nice to see them playing with family. Then by the time we managed to get back into the truck and drive home the girls literally hit the seats and went to sleep. We drove home, picked up a cake from the store, and within minutes Grammie and Papa were here to eat cake and sing happy birthday. Off to bed we went... lala land. Wonderful.