Epic, monumental and other adjectives of the sort

So I have absolutely no time to blog but I just couldn't leave for my big weekend in Vegas without first throwing out some sentimental cheesy lines about how excited I am for this trip.

For those who are no familiar, when I found out I was pregnant the second time around, I joined a forum on BabyCenter that was specifically created for women who were expecting babies born in May of 2006. Over the last 5 years, I have developed a special friendship with some of these women of which words can not truly describe. These women make me laugh, are there when I need to cry or whine about parenting or life in general, offer excellent advice, undying support and allow me to be 100% me without judgement. The only downfall of this friendship is that it has been 99.9% conducted either online or via telephone being that we live all over the country. Last fall a select of few of them met up for a weekend in New York and due to the success of that trip, another, bigger trip was planned this year for Vegas. No one had to ask me twice. I was THERE!

My blogging friends as I like to call them have wandered from the BabyCenter forum and now keep in touch via blogs, Facebook and Twitter. There are so many incredible women whom I admire that I would love to one day meet, some of them (particularly my WAHMies) who were not able to come on this trip. To them I say someday it will happen because other people may not understand, but you ladies are a very important part of my life.

For those who I am meeting in Vegas - I can't wait to meet you in person. After meeting Laura in person last winter (she is my 0.1%), I am not at all nervous. Just incredibly fortunate and excited.

And, also on the epic, monumental front, after 6+ years Joe and I have finally gotten our bed back to ourselves. If you remember it has been for some time now that the kids have both learned to fall asleep in their own beds but getting them to stay in their beds has been quite challenging. Frankly I knew what needed to be done but was very relunctant to give up nighttime sleep to accomplish it. However, after Joe traveled for so long this last time, once he returned it had gotten past the point of the kids interrupting his ability to get a good night sleep so basically the foot came down. And it was probably long overdue.

Jake had been sleepwalking, very motivated to earn his reward for staying in his bed all night but getting up and wandering to our bed without realizing it. I don't know what changed this time. I returned him to his bed maybe twice and once got up and slept in his bed with him to help him fall back asleep but other than that, he has stayed in his bed all night for 2 weeks now. And he is of course enjoying his bribe (a new Domino stunt set).

I am sure Joe and the kids will have an amazing and fun weekend while I am away. This will be longest I have EVER been away from the kids, previously only being away from them for 1 night at the most. And frankly, I cannot think of a better way I would rather enjoy the time to myself then with the girls who have gotten me through to this wonderful stage in my life as a Mom.

Destination Fall - County Fair

I don't know what it is like for other people in other parts of the country to go to their local county fair because having grown up in southern California, the LA County Fair is all I really know. And it happens to be the largest county fair in the United States and it also happens to be on the outskirts of LA county, which made it a 15 minute drive from the house I grew up in. It also happens to be something I have very fond memories of doing with my family every year.

And now, even though it is more like a 2 hour drive, going to the county fair is something I look forward to doing with Joe and the kids every fall. So this past Wednesday we pulled the kids out of school early and surprised them with a day at the fair and with the temps not even reaching the 70's, it was a nice change not to be in the blistering heat.

First stop was Fairview Farms where we got to see all the farm animals and gardens. It was a perfect opportunity to answer all the questions the kids have been asking us about where our food comes from. It was also, apparently a great opportunity to get maimed by a rogue goat that couldn't patiently wait for me to give the kids the food to feed him (check out Jake's expression during the whole ordeal):

I thought I was so smart, keeping the cup of food on my head:

Maybe not such a good idea after all:





Also in the farms, Jadyn couldn't pass up the opportunity for a pony ride:

We then headed over to the carnival portion of the fair where we bought a certain amount of tickets for the kids to ration on the rides of their choice. We then decided that next year the kids would be tall enough and old enough that it would be worth it to just get the carnival wrist bands and let them go crazy. Jadyn is quite a thrill seeker, not being afraid of the speed of a roller coaster or the heights of a ferris wheel.

After the rides, it was time to check out the permanent Garden railway, which is a super cool miniature train display. I tried to replicate this picture I took 3 years ago for a compare and contrast but I couldn't quite get him to cooperate:

Here Jake is marveling at the train at age 3:


This year, same spot:

It was then time to go through the Flower and Garden Pavillion, which features gorgeous themed displays followed by an extreme dog stunt show (the kids went ballistic for this and not only did I love the stunts but I also loved that EVERY dog in the show was rescued from a shelter. How cool is that?)


You simply cannot go to the fair without at least one trip down the giant slide:




And what would a fair be without a parade?

By this time we were exhausted. We had spent twice as much time at the fair then we remembered in past years. A good reminder to ourself that as the kids get older, the more there is for them to do at the fair. We still had all the indoor exhibits to go through including the medieval themed "A Time Long Ago" where Jake was able to try his hand at archery and the kids both loved playing in the historic play kitchen:




Then on to Jurassic Planet featuring life size mechanical replicas of several dinosaurs. I took this especially to show Joanna and her son over at Sidewalk Chalk and Sippy Cups but seriously? The kids were so fried by this point they really were not up for cooperating. It is worth the giggle to click on this picture so you can see especially Jadyn's expression:


And finishing off at the Princess Playhouse where Jadyn was able to dress up and play princess in a house full of pretend play toys. Exhausted as she was, we still had to pull her away kicking and screaming. She could have stayed forever.

Literally, this fair is like visiting an amusement park. There is so much to do and see and this year we had the most fun ever. For what it is worth, I managed to refrain from any of the fun fried fair food. I am not sure which was more tempting - the chocolate covered bacon or the fried Oreo but I rather enjoyed my lobster tail at Outback where we stopped for dinner on the way home. Not exactly traditional fair food but we definitely continued the tradition of having fun!

Real life

I remember back in the day when I would let the kids watch a few cartoons in the morning. I loved Noggin. It had zero commercials. But then they grew out of it and now they watch shows that occasionally take commercial breaks so even the DVR can not shelter them from the constant advertisements of toys, clothing and food items.

I also remember taking the time to talk to the kids about commercials and about how they make things look so much more fun then they sometimes really are and the difference between wanting something and needing something. I didn't expect Jadyn to really get it but for Jake, on some level it seemed to sink in.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when I brought Jadyn home a new pair of sneakers for fall - my goal is always to go with cute, stylish and maximum usage ability based on what will go with the largest number of outfits, not to mention that she got Joe's Fred Flintstone feet and still needs wide width, which almost always means her shoes are from Strite-Rite. So I take the shoes out of the box and show them to her for approval and she says, "I love them Mommy. They look just like the Sketchers I saw on TV!". My jaw dropped to the floor. I guess I never realized just how much information they retain from the commercials, especially apparently her.

Then the other day, she had just finished watching an episode of Dora and was getting ready to turn the TV off when a commercial for Moon Dough came on. She promptly stopped me from turning it off and said, "Look Mom! This is the dough that doesn't dry out!".

I simply thought to myself how well she will do when she has to start memorizing stuff for school.

This last week, Joe got bit by the nostalgia bug and bought the game of Life for us to play as a family. The kids got a kick out of it and Jake can pretty much play along and "gets it". We knew Jadyn probably wouldn't understand all of it but of course there was aspects she enjoyed. Joe cheated a little and gave her the career card to be veterinarian, since that is what she wants to be when she grows up but when we told her what her job was going to be, she got upset and said, "No I changed my mind. I want to be Mommy!". Imagine her surprise when we told her that she could choose to be both a vet AND a Mommy. Her face lit up and she squealed in delight and then went on to completely by chance, end up with 5 kids in the game, while Joe and I both only had one baby and Jake remained childless (as well as insisting on calling his wife his girlfriend for whatever reason).

Sometimes you just have to laugh at it.

Our life in soccer and Legos

The weekend after Labor Day the kids had opening ceremonies and first games for soccer. Friday night we went to the opening ceremonies where to my surprise, the kids had a blast playing all the fundraiser games like the bean bag toss and dart throwing at balloons but after practicing for weeks what they were both really excited about was to be finally playing a game, although Jadyn was also quite nervous.

I am pleased to report that with Jadyn, it is going better than expected. When she is on the field, she sort of chases the action and tries to avoid actually having to kick the ball unless it ends up right in front of her but at least she is running around on the field. She is trying. She is most aggressive when playing goalie, truly wanting to stop the other team from scoring. I don't know if soccer is something she will continue to want to play past this season but for now she is having fun and I couldn't ask for anything more.

Here she is following the action on the field:

Stopping a goal:

Kicking it to her teammates:

As for Jake, he is so fun to watch out on the field. He is turning into quite a good defender being as how he can pull off legal slide tackles at such a young age. The only problem is he needs to learn when it is to his advantage to use it versus staying on his feet. It is odd to see my "baby" boy, who is almost always the smallest one on the field, play so aggressively. I love it.

What I don't love is the typical desert September weather. After months of hovering near the 100's and with school in session and the pool done for the year, it just doesn't seem right to be watching the kids play soccer with temperatures still in the 90's. Soccer is a fall sport meant to be played in milder fall weather. Of course I sound like a broken record because it is always hot here until we get closer to Halloween.

Thankfully on Sunday of that same weekend, we were fortunate enough to be able to escape the desert and join the kids friends' Gavin and Hayden at Legoland where they were celebrating both the boys' birthdays! We have definitely made good use of our season passes.

Jadyn got to take a picture with a life-size Lego guy:

And Jake loved posing with his own light saber and a life-sized Lego Darth Vader.

This last week was more of the same, school and soccer only we added another activity as Jadyn started her pre-ballet class on Mondays. And we took Friday on Thursday (how odd does that sound?) to get fixed. Between Jadyn's preschool teacher expecting in November and trying to explain why we don't want the cat to father a bunch of kitties, I am getting asked a lot of questions about the birds and bees. Thankfully, Daddy came home Friday night from almost 3 weeks of straight traveling so he can help me address those questions. Oh and as if this last week wasn't busy enough, Thursday night was also Jake's back-to-school night. Since I volunteer in the classroom weekly, I probably could have skipped it, but Jake was actually excited to go to his school at night, so we went anyway. Then over the weekend, we had soccer games on Saturday and a birthday party at the bowling alley on Sunday.

Phew! I am getting tired all over again with this recap. Looking forward to my girls weekend in Vegas, which is fast approaching.

The Last Swim

When we had those thundershowers come through a couple of weeks ago, it put an unexpected end to our pool days at home. For those who have an above ground pool, you know how hard they are to keep clean. Well, we didn't have enough chemicals in the pool and the rain basically turned the water into a slimy green mess. Time to drain it! And honestly with the cooler temperatures on the horizon and the kids busy with school and other activities, we probably only would have made in the pool a handful more time. But still, it made me a little said because I usually make a semi-big production the last time we go in the pool before putting it up for the year.

Soo, to make up for it, the Friday of Labor Day weekend I took Jake out of school a little early and took the kids down to the Desert Hot Springs Spa Resort (now only about 30 minutes away). They have a variety of 8 different cold and hot mineral pools and spas and for a small fee, you can utilize them for the day. This was only our second visit this summer and is definitely a winning hot weather outing.

Jake is basically swimming on his own and Jadyn can keep herself from drowning but her above water stroke is still a little shaky so Jake proclaimed himself Jadyn's "protector" whenever she needed help. I snapped this picture on my camera phone when he had his arms around her in the pool and it turned into one of my favorite pictures of the summer:

We spent almost 3 hours swimming that afternoon and we had an absolute blast. When it was time to leave, the kids were pretty worn out so I decided to put a movie on for the ride home. But of course they couldn't decide on a movie so I offered to play "eeny meeny miny moe" if the person who wasn't picked promised not to give me any attitude.

Well, Jake won and I put on Peter Pan and started driving home. I heard some noises from the back and then Jake whining, "Mom, Jadyn is attituding!". How can you do anything but laugh at that? He turned the word attitude into a verb and it is quite fitting.

And I have to say, it has caught on. Now the whole family calls each other out when one of us is "attituding".

The rest of our Labor Day Weekend was fun as well. We had a BBQ with friends over on Sunday after relaxing on Saturday and then Monday we took the boat out for one last trip to the river. I purposely left the camera at home so I could just enjoy our day on the water, although I did take one picture of myself with my camera phone to use as my new profile pic on Facebook. I guess the point is that Labor Day weekend felt like the official good-bye to the summer and that makes me both sad that it went by so fast but also excited for fall.

Then again, if the weather continues to be this warm much further into September, it might not end of being the last swim after all.....

Like an Old Pro

Jadyn went back to her preschool the week after Jake started school and it could not have been soon enough. She asked all summer when she could go back to school but after seeing Jake getting back into the swing of things, she could hardly contain herself. I took her back to school shopping for closed toe shoes and a new backpack (even though she doesn't really need a backpack and she picked Hello Kitty, which is the cutest thing EVER!). If there is one thing that Jadyn and I do well together despite often butting heads, it is shopping! She definitely takes after me on that one.

So anyway, there were no nerves or tears during that first drop off. There was hardly a time for a backward glance. She went straight to all her friends and her favorite toys and excitedly said hello to her teachers and the guinea pigs and I was left standing there wondering when she became such a confident and social girl. I am pretty sure when she starts kindergarten next year, the tears will be coming from me.

And as someone who is a work-at-home mom with a husband who has been traveling a lot lately for work, I wish I could say that after I dropped her off I was able to to something fun or productive by myself, but instead I hurried off back to Jake's school for my first day volunteering in his classroom. I gave his teacher the choice of Monday, Wednesday or Friday (the mornings Jadyn has school) and she immediately lit up at the prospect of having someone to help her get the weekly homework folders ready. I have to admit to being a little sad to give up my Monday mornings, a time I can usually devote to weekly cleaning and planning including most of my blogging for the week but the time I spend in Jake's classroom has proven invaluable in giving me a glimpse of his school day, his teacher's methods, his classmates, what he is learning and how he is doing. The short answer is almost all positive but I will save that for another post.

I will conclude by saying that Jadyn had a wonderful first day and week back at preschool and we are all fully immersed in the back to school/fall routine.

I didn't know they had made a comeback

But apparently The Ninja Turtles are all the rage again.

Both the kids are playing soccer this year and in a crazy twist of fate, both the kids have the same color uniform and the same jersey number. Even more crazy both their teams decided to call themselves The Ninja Turtles.

Picture day was Saturday and they looked so cute in their coordinating uniforms I just had to pose them for a picture myself!

Wordless Wednesday: This is where it all happens.....

Bonus Wordless Wednesday: Look what I found in my inbox:

Summer Showers

The first several years we lived out here in the desert, I remember summer thunderstorms occurring rather regularly throughout July and especially August. The kids lOVE playing in the summer rain and its aftermath. This last couple of years it seems like we haven't had as much rain during the summer and what little we have gotten has come much later in the season. I seem to recall Jake being in school already when we got the majority of our summer rainfall last year and then just this last week we had humidity and rain for several days.

On Wednesday, Jadyn had her open house at preschool. We could have skipped it since she loves school and we are plenty familiar with her school, classmates and teacher but after Jake being in school for 2 days and Daddy out of town, let's just be polite and say that Jadyn and I needed to get out of the house and be around other people. My friend Rose whose son Hayden attends the preschool also sensed my need to have some time to myself and offered to take Jadyn for awhile after we were done at the open house. I could lie and say I went home and worked on files or cleaned the house but honestly? I read Mockingjay and took a nap. Anyway, that wasn't the point.

The rain started right as I was picking up Jake from school. When we went to Rose's house to pick up Jadyn, we found the kids playing, running, laughing and jumping in the rain. Jake of course immediately jumped right in the mix. I would love to take credit for some of these action shots but they come courtesy of Rose:

And unfortunately I don't know if we will get anymore thunderstorms for the little bit of summer we have left. In fact, after the few days of humidity and rain we were greeted with unseasonably cool fall-like weather and have spent the last several days with the air OFF and the windows open. Although I doubt we have seen the end of the higher temps yet, it reminds me that there is no better season than fall in the desert as you can actually enjoy being outdoors. I can't wait.

First of First

First of all, I should be fired from my blog for allowing myself to get further and further behind despite the best of intentions. It seems to be yet another recurrent theme amongst my blog friends that it is harder and harder to find time to sit down and blog. And this last week could be proof positive as to why I have had not had time. With Joe traveling, and the kids and I settling into our fall school year routine, not to mention my need to get a copy of Mockingjay the morning it came out and read it in less than 48 hours, the word busy becomes an understatement.

That said Jake started first grade at his new school and for the most part it went pretty smoothly. There were nerves but no tears. He seems to like his class and his teacher. However, it seems that in some ways going from Kindergarten to first grade is a bigger adjustment than preschool to Kindergarten for several reasons. In Kindergarten (at least the school he attended last year) there was a lot of "hand holding". I delivered him straight to his teacher in the morning who in return delivered him straight back to me at pick-up. She was with them at recess and at lunch. Now I drop him off in the pass through lane of the parent parking lot and watch him cross the campus threshold. He goes to recess and lunch with his class but not his teacher and waits in the drop off area until he is released to me by the teacher on duty. There is a lot more independence and responsibility on his part.

He is also adjusting to being in class for 6 hours a day 5 days a week, which is really only an hour longer than his extended day kindergarten but may seem longer because he starts an hour later and sits at a desk for most of the time in the classroom (in Kindergarten they spent a lot of time on an ABC rug similar to preschool). There were a couple of days last week when you could just tell he was fried and it was most apparent on Wednesday when he had a full on meltdown at his friend Gavin's house, something that is completely out of character for him.

The other big adjustment is the workload. He is doing A LOT of writing, which he did very little of last year (in fact, at one point I even questioned it). I don't think he is behind but it will definitely take some getting used to on his part.

And finally, of course he is adjusting to not really knowing any of the kids very well. He has one girl friend from preschool that he knows but nothing like last year when he started off having one of his best buddies Sam in his class. Jake is very social and I know he will make friends soon enough. I am 100% positive that we made the right decision in moving within the boundaries of a better school. I loved his teacher last year, I really did. I just know he will get what he needs here. He already loves math and is reading pretty well. Now it's just time to get his writing up to speed. They actually write in journals every day. I love it!

A few pictures of his first day:

So another first has passed and I will never get used to how fast the time goes. He may be in first grade but he is still my baby boy.

It's Friday!

I mean obviously it is not Friday, it is Monday and its the first day back at school for Jake as a first grader at a new school. But I will wait on that so I can share what Jake had to say about his first day back.

Instead, I thought I would show you what happens when I innocently take the kids to go play with the baby kitties at the animal shelter after getting Jake's hair cut for school on Friday.

We end of falling head over heals in love with this 12 week old male and convince Joe via a text photo that we just have to add him to our family. And his name - Friday, not only for the day of the week we got him but also from the movie Hotel for Dogs in which the lead doggy character is also named for the day of the week.

He fits in with our family perfectly - super docile and cuddly. Jazz only hissed the first day and now cleans him like a mother hen. Nago is such a sweetie she just sniffs and wags her tail. So far, so good!

A Funny Nose Knows

That this is so wrong but just too funny to pass up.

A couple of weeks ago we watched my friend Rose's house while they were on vacation and the kids joined me a couple of times. Jadyn was delighted to find out that their little pal Gavin has a Woody doll from the Toy Story movies.

So flash forward to last night as we were driving over to Rose's house for dinner and Jadyn tells me, "When we get there I am going to ask Gavin if I can play with his Woody".

Changing Seasons

Piggybacking on the general theme of my blog friends from last week, our summer is winding down and I absolutely cannot believe that it is almost over. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was blogging about all the fun and productive things we were going to do this summer, and you know what? Unlike last year when I got really down on myself for not being productive enough, this year I think our summer struck a pretty good balance.

Although I may not have had time to blog about everything yet we made it to the beach twice and the river three times (with one or two more trips still possible). We did one session of swim lessons, spent one day at the spa pools and dozens of afternoons in our own pool not to mention countless play dates and BBQs with friends that we don't get to see quite as often during the school year because of all of our busy schedules. We also managed to use our passes to go to Legoland an impressive 3 times. In the end however, it was also nice to have plenty of days where we had very little to do except to play, play and play, something Jake and Jadyn do very well together. It has been a fun summer.

And even though I started off slightly more ambitious on the educational front, the one thing we did do continually this summer was READ and I am happy to report that when school starts next week, Jake will have have read a total of 40 books. The other thing I am pleased with is that despite the heat, I managed to get back into a regular routine of working out and have been both running on the treadmill and strength training (gotta love the extra room in our new house). It has been a productive summer.

So now it is time to prepare and look ahead to fall, which promises to also be both busy and fun. Since Jake will be going into first grade he will be in school pretty much full day (9am-3pm) and Jadyn will be in the 4-year-old class at the preschool attending 3 days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri). The really great thing is that I won't be driving all over the place at tons of different times. I can drop Jake off and then drop Jadyn off immediately afterwards and actually have (gasp) some time to myself. I am definitely looking forward to that because our evenings this fall our going to be CRAZY!

Jake and Jadyn are BOTH playing soccer. I was a little hesitant about Jadyn playing because I just didn't know how she would do. I had no doubt that she could do it because she can be quite athletic but she can also be quite stubborn when she doesn't want to do something but she swore up and down that she really, really wanted to play and so far she really seems to like it. Ironically both the kids teams are the same color (green and black) and coincidentally both teams picked the same name - The Ninja Turtles. LOL! Jadyn practices from 5-6 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays and Jake from 6-7pm on Tuesdays and Fridays and no, their practices are NOT at the same location. Because frankly that would be too easy for me.

Now originally I was going to have Jadyn take a break from ballet during soccer season. That was until last week when her teacher approached me about moving Jadyn up from creative movement to pre-ballet because she is doing so well. Moving up to the 4.5-6 year old class means she will get to participate in the winter recital (I secretly squealed picturing Jadyn in her cute little costume). Soo, I am going to break my rule about one activity at a time and let Jadyn continue ballet while she plays soccer because missing 2 months of classes would make it harder for her and the entire class to prepare for the performance. Eventually however, Jadyn is going to have to choose which direction she wants to go - seasonal sports or dance. I think I know which she will choose but really only time will tell. She might surprise us.

All girl playing dress-up:

Ready for her first soccer practice (there is something about the shinguards and cleats that suddenly makes her look so grown up):

So for anyone keeping tabs, this is what our schedule looks like for the next 3 months -

Monday - Jake school, Jadyn school, Jadyn dance

Tuesday - Jake school, Jadyn soccer, Jake soccer

Wednesday - Jake school, Jadyn school. (EVENING OFF)

Thursday - Jake school, Jadyn soccer

Friday- Jake school, Jadyn school, Jake soccer

Saturday - soccer games

Sunday - NOTHING

Throw in there our usual fall traditions of going to the county fair, apple picking, the pumpkin patch, Joe's birthday AND my highly anticipated blog friend weekend in Vegas and there is little doubt this fall is going to be both busy and fun.

We still have one week left of summer vacation and my goal is to squeeze in as much relaxation and fun as possible. We better take advantage of the more relaxed atmosphere of our days because you can feel it in the air - a new season is coming.

Utah November 20, 1998 - August 6, 2010

Last winter I wrote a post about our first baby, Utah. You can refresh your memory about his story here

Well over the last few weeks, Utah continued to take a turn for the worse and he was no longer able to get up on his own and even walking was difficult. We knew it was time. And so it is with great sadness that I took him in today to be put down. I stayed with him the whole time and he went very peacefully. We are blessed to have had 11+ years with him and the fond memories that are shared between a family and a beloved pet. I will never be able to listen to Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" without thinking of him howling along. At first it will probably make me sad but over time I know it will bring nothing but a smile to my face. RIP Utah.

Wordless Wednesday

Entertainment Meme

Because I have a ton I want to say on the subject:

Books: I read throughout the year but when summer comes and I a) have little new TV to watch and b) more leisure time with the kids out of school, I find myself blowing through books. This summer after re-reading Eclipse and the new Stephenie Meyer novella about Bree Tanner, I turned to the Steig Larrson trilogy (Dragon Tattoo, Played with Fire and Hornet's Nest). They were real page turners, although the violence and graphic nature was a little shocking, especially after reading so much YA lately. Still, I really enjoyed them and I loved the character development, imperfect as they were.

I just finished reading Kristen Hannah's The Things We Do For Love and it was also very good, sappy in the tradition of a Nicholas Sparks novel and a little predictable but the relationships that developed out of the storyline were heartbreakingly beautiful. I would really like to read more of her stuff. Now I am just biding my time until August 24th when the MUCH anticipated final book in the Hunger Games series comes out, Mockingjay. I discovered that series the fall the first book came out, so I have definitely paid my dues waiting to see how this story concludes. Feel free to comment, are you Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Movies: And speaking of teams, I haven't watched too many more since I have been spending so much time reading but I never did blog about my thoughts on the third installment of the Twilight movie franchise, Eclipse. Or maybe that was on purpose since when I posted on Facebook how disappointing it was, I got raked over the coals. Apparently THIS is the movie everybody has chosen to like. Now in all fairness, I haven't seen it a second time and I tend to like these movies better the second time when my expectations are not so high but I just felt that while it was not as off track as the original Twilight movie, they could have done SO much better. This was by far the most "filmable" of the books. Instead, I would still say New Moon was the best of the movies and at this point I don't even know if I want to see what they do with a two part Breaking Dawn film.

I also went and saw "The Kids are All Right" and it was exactly "my" kind of movie. I can't say I loved the plot line or how it concluded but I can say that is was poignant, funny and superbly acted. Oh, and it had a really awesome soundtrack too. I highly recommend this movie, especially if you need or want a break from the typical summer blockbusters.

Music: My summer soundtrack is full upbeat alt-indie tracks. I am really, really loving the new Shiny Toy Guns singles' "Le Disko" and "Rainy Monday", The New Politics "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and Temper Trap's follow single to "Sweet Disposition" entitled "Fader". Sorry folks, but what you won't find on my iPod is Katy Perry's "California Girls" (barf) or anything by either Usher or Taio Cruz. Here's my current fave mixed CD:

Silversun Pickups - The Royal We
The Futureheads - Heartbeat Song and Skip to the End
The Black Keys - Tighten Up
Crash Kings - You Got Me
AFI - Beautiful Thieves
Goralliz - Rhinestone Eyes
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Vampire Weekend - Giving up the Gun
Phoenix - Listomania
Band of Skulls - Death by Diamond and Pearls and Light of the Morning
Ring Ring - Sleigh Bells
Neon Trees - Animal
Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss a Beat
MGMT - Flash Delirium
The Raconteurs - Steady as She Goes

And finally TV: Like I said, I don't watch much during the summer months but Joe is a big fan of Deadliest Catch and over its previous seasons I have watched quite a bit of it with him. I find it fascinating and like so many other people took a special interest in the Cornelius Maria because of the complex relationship between Captain Phil and his sons. I was very saddened when I heard of his passing back in February and have watched this season intently as his journey came to an end. I have to say, they really did a respectable job of putting the footage together all things considering. It was heartbreaking to hear Phil tell his son that he was sorry for not being a better father. Seeing grown men cry? That really gets me. The whole thing was super emotional and sometimes you kind of felt like you were peering into a window in which the curtains really should have been drawn shut. But my understanding was that Phil insisted the crews stay and film It will be interesting to see how everyone is doing, especially his sons, when the new season starts. My heart goes out to the entire crab fishing community for their loss.

AND I finally (apparently along with 4 million others) jumped on the Tosh.O train and have been watching re-runs of past episodes all summer with Joe. This is MY kind of humor - unapologetic and completely politically incorrect. Why people put these videos on the internet in the first place is beyond me but EW's bullseye hit the mark when they said, Who knew the internet could be even funnier on T.V? So so very true.

So that's my entertainment update for the summer. In my next meme installment, I will be giving everyone a health and fitness update. Oh the excitement!

The one day

When we went to stay at the beach a few weeks ago while Joe was there for work, we actually spent one day at the beach. This is one of the posts where I could post some really cute pictures of the kids playing on the beach and one might conclude that a fabulous time was had by all. But that would be deceiving. The kids were grumpy from not getting enough sleep and bickering with each other all morning in the hotel room while I tried to get us ready to go. Then I had to hear the whining because they didn't want to go to beach and then once there, all they wanted to do was climb the rock jetties instead of playing in the sand and in the water.

It was kind of funny though. When we first got there I told Jadyn she looked like a beach bunny with her cover-up and sunglasses on and she proceeded to pose just like a bunny:

And then I bravely gave the camera over to Jake because with Joe at work all day, I wouldn't get to be in any pictures otherwise. Not a bad shot of me, although it would have been nice if Jadyn cooperated.

So after much coaxing, I convince the kids to just stick their feet in the water and run from the waves and after some warming up to it, they are FINALLY having fun at the beach. Imagine that? Then a lifeguard comes and tells me they are having major problems with stingrays on this side of the rock jetties and if we want to "swim" we are going to have to pack up and move because they were stinging people in ankle deep water. So I gather ALL of our stuff and we trudge to a safer area, but not without my back aching from carrying all of our beach gear and a lot of whiny whys and claims of being too tired to walk from the kids.

I have to say, once we made it to the other side of the jetty, it didn't take quite as long to get the kids back in the water and it really was a better location. It is so easy to snap pictures of the kids when they are smiling both naturally and willingly.

Jake got a little braver with the waves then I would have liked:
At one point a wave knocked him down and I had to dart after him. I didn't want it to scare him because I know it scared me when I was a kid. He was no worse for wear and it prompted this new little pose, which he claimed helped him stand up against the waves.

After we left the beach and grabbed lunch, we headed back to the hotel and washed all the sand off in the hotel pool. The kids are pretty much swimming like fish and it is nice to have a deeper pool for them to practice in, although I must say that Miss. Jadyn can be about as stubborn as they come when it comes to taking advice from mommy on her above water stroke. But underwater, they are both swimming the width of the pool with ease. And we couldn't have been at the beach on a better week because every morning we awoke, the sun was already shining, which for that part of the coast is nothing short of a miracle.

And as an footnote, I must mention that on the local news that night one of their lead stories was about how many beachgoers had been stung by stingrays at the beach not too far from where we were. Looks like we dodged a bullet there.