No...you're not hullucinating.

I have finally succumb to the pressure everyone has put on me to update my blog. I did try to talk several people into just updating for me but, alas, here I am posting. I do appreciate all the people who bugged me to update (even though it didn't really work) and I appreciate Nalani's personal goal setting service (she called on more than one occasion to tell me that my goal for the week was to update my blog). I still live by Sarah's theory not to set goals that are too lofty b/c it will only result in a loss of self esteem when I fail to achieve them.

What helped more than anything was Ty locating the cord that connects from the computer to the camera - I hadn't downloaded anything since May.

I am beginning think that seasonal posts are more do-able for me. Since it is now officially Fall (and since I haven't posted since spring) - the time has come to do a little posting. If the stars align I may even post 2x's in one season.

The kids started school in the end of August. Lauren is in First Grade this year and Cole is in Third Grade. Depending on the day you ask them, they really like school. I am not sure I agree with them as the evening homework probing/prodding is already getting old. I am working hard at teaching the kids to take ownership of their school work. It was going well (or so I thought)until Thursday evening when Cole announced that his Unit of Inquiry project was due the next morning - he (loosly put) was able to get it done at ohh, around 11:30pm. Fun times!

Lily has a little playgroup (she calls it "school") that she goes to 3 days a week for 3 hours at a time. She really loves it (and so do I) and it has helped her with her separation anxiety. She will now also go to nursery on her own and actually looks forward to it! For us this was a BIG step! :)

Here are some pictures of the "First Day of School" (again, loosley put as they were actually taken about a week ago). I put in a picture of Cole on his birthday so you could see how his hair was just before school started. His teacher asked that he get it cut so that he would be in complaince with the dress code (which is what I was waiting for b/c I knew it would be better coming from his teacher than me).

Seattle

What a lovely group they are and what lovely flowers they have....at least the ones Jed did.

Jed and I (along with many helpers) were making flower arrangements into the wee hours of the morning. When we got to the point where we had the two largest arrangements to do, Jed did one and I did one (this one is Jed's...at least I think). At one point I said something to the affect that I thought they were big enough and we didn't want to use all the flowers in those two arrangements. Then Jed added another so I had to add another, then I added one more and he added one more until, well pretty much they were twice as big. And that began the flower competition.....I think we are still friends, right Jed???

This is when Jed decided it was the perfect time (right before Kami walked out of the temple) to break it to Richard that their flip house had water dripping through the light fixture downstairs. Notice the sick look on Richards face - classic.

Look how perfectly they are all holding their flowers, at the perfect angle. Hmmm...I wonder if there was a flower Nazi somewhere in their midst???

Jed may never speak to me again after seeing that I posted this picture. Doesn't he look like a natural? Too funny. The shirt doesn't look so purple in the picture - what do you think Jed? I know I am color challenged.

So I thought I was getting an awesome picture of a bridge and all I got was the road. Maile said "Hold the camera up really high." Evidently it wasn't high enough.

Picture #3: The inevitable happens. I start to lose my balance, grab Nalani and both of us fall to the side while hysterically laughing. The funniest part was that Nalani's lip was sweating. JK.

Picture #2: Karmen pushes Nalani forward in order to get on. Nalani utters a few choice words through her laughter.

Picture #1: Nalani gets on the lucky brass pig, but won't move forward so I can get on too.

Pike's Place market had the most awesome tulips for sale there were tables and tables of all colors of tulips and they had the best prices!

School Play

Cole's class did a play a few weeks ago - you can see how thrilled he was in the picture above. He actually did a really good job, he had his lines all memorized and spoke up enough so he could be heard. BTW - Cole's teacher is a single, charming, witty, cute canadian so if anyone is looking for a fun date let me know! (I am sure she would be horrified if she know I posted that on my blog)

Easter Time

So I didn't get any pictures of the kids on Easter morning but I did get a picture of the Easter Basket Cake I made and I did manage to take a picture of my two cute cousins.....for all those single men reading this blog both girls are taken.

Fun times at School.

Lauren's teacher sent me the cute bubble picture, in the e-mail she said "Lauren was so excited to play with the bubbles you would think she had never seen them before.....you have let her play with bubbles, haven't you?" Little does she know that she really may be onto something there - after all bubbles are a bit messy. JK. That was for all the readers who think I am a clean freak. I will say there was a time when that was true but I let go of that notion years ago........... seriously. :)

Bluebonnets

This is our annual photo shoot in the Bluebonnets - which would be the Texas State flower. It is illegal to walk on them, sit on them or pick them. I think we covered all three of those areas. The pictures may incriminate us....and the other 10,000 people who took their pictures.

Cruisin'

We weren't going to take any chances with the food being gone at the midnight chocolate buffet so we were the first in line. I think that may have been the closet I have ever come to a chocolate overdose but it sure was good.

This is us at Senior Frogs in Cozumel - it was QUITE the happening place.

Let's just say that I completely underestimated how high 800 feet was - now I have a real clear picture. Kim and I definitely got a birds eye view of Cozumel - we had a great time!

No that's not chocolate or any other brown substance on Ty's lips. That would be a random women's lipstick that Ty borrowed for one of the many funny games we played on the cruise. We won't even mention what Women's apparel items that Huy borrowed..... too bad we didn't have our cameras but we do have a video to use as blackmail in the future. :)

SHOW ME THE MONEY BINGO BOY... that was the phrase we yelled out each time we would see the guy that ran the bingo game - it was a real hoot! Judging by the picture you might guess that we didn't win the $5,000 jackpot. But, we sure had fun (and spent a lot of $$) trying.

When we would come back to our rooms at night we would find towel creatures waiting to greet us - it was always a treat to see what would be next!

We saw a cute little sea turtle while we were on the way to our snorkeling spot. I didn't take this picture but this really is the color of the water there. Anyone up for a swim??

This is 7 mile beach in the Cayman Islands. It was SO beautiful. The water was crystal clear and the most beautiful color. 7 mile beach has its name for a reason - you can see the ships (those dark blobs to the right of Ty's head). Who's bright idea was it to walk all the way back to the ships????

We went to "Stingray City" in the Cayman Islands. Let's just say its a little unnerving to have 20 or 30 Stingrays swimming around your legs. I thought I would be able to remain calm...no such luck. Good thing no one had a video camera to document my hysteria! Our guide told us to be careful and wash the squid off our hands because the stingrays would latch on to wherever they smelled the squid - that was my cue to rub the squid all over Kim's arm. I have never seen her move so fast in my life - too bad she got it washed off before the string ray latched onto her arm. That would have been some AWESOME footage!

Finally...cell phone reception!! It was SO funny to see everyone with their cell phones on the minute we hit the coast of Florida. Good thing we were only in reception for 8 hours otherwise I think I would have been on the phone (with one of the kids or my mom) the whole cruise.

You could add tree climbing to my list of talents except for the fact that I really couldn't get down from the tree and the bark was really rough. Good thing everyone didn't see this as an opportunity to leave me stranded!

This was our first "formal" night on the ship - the second formal night I wore jeans. Lessons learned. :) The best part of the evening was that we could order ALL the entrees if we wanted and ALL the desserts - I think I ordered all the desserts every night because, well, why not???

This is us (and a few of our closest friends) at the Southernmost point in the continental USA - only 90 miles from CUBA - we could see immigrants swimming in. JK!

We thought the ship looked so pretty at night. (I'm not sure if it was really all that pretty or if we were just so excited to see it after all the interesting transvestites we saw in Key West).

This is us in our little electric car in Key West. (note to self: don't ask if an "electric" car needs to be returned full - one of my more blonde moments.)

Costa Rica.

My Mom, my Sister and I all went to Costa Rica for a week. It started off with us getting lost on the way to our hotel and not arriving until 2am only to find that the front desk was closed down for the evening. After that there was no where to go but up! We explored the area, relaxed, ate and talked and tried to improve on our Spanish skills. The water was the same temp. as the air, it was so relaxing to lay on the raft in the ocean and get fried! We had a fun time.

Jungle Zipline.

We went on a zipline through the jungle. Before we arrived we had anticipated seeing monkeys, tropical frogs, beautiful butterflies, etc. We didn't see a single thing because we found out that we were in the "Dry Forest" and all of those things live in the "Rain Forest". That was too far away so we settled for a hair raising ride on the zipline. Somehow I didn't quite follow the instructions on the proper way to ride and I would get stuck in the middle of the zipline and then have to turn around and pull myself in. By the 10th jump off I had it down pat!