Oceanside

10 things we learned from our beach trip to Oceanside.

1. Sand is not to be mistaken for a lunch item, even though it looks so appealing!




















2. Boogie Boarding on the deck of the beach house is nothing like real boogie boarding! (Cort had the kids convinced that they were pros. We better finish swimming lessons first! PS, Cort is a Saint! I know 2 little boys who pretty much believe that he can walk on water!)
















3. Cousins make great friends!

4. Smores are especially delicious when roasted on hangers by the ocean after dark!
























5. Oceanside is a great place to take a family picture! (Don't they look CUTE!)

6. Southern CA has perfect weather for hosting the US Open. AND, cameras ARE allowed during practice rounds of the US OPEN.

7. Sand castles and Ruby's Diner kidsmeal cars don't build themselves.

























8. 818 Pacific Street is the perfect beach house!



















9. An 8 month pregnant woman can definitely scale this retaining wall because she has yet to purchase herself a camera remote for the group picture. (At least my forehead vein isn't bulging like it was in the Simmons family photos. What a cheapo. . . huh! It's only 20 bucks!)





















10. In the words of Tyler, "Grandma and Grandpa Hars and Barbs ROCK!" Thanks for all of the work that made a great week!

Tuscon Trip

Shane had a continuing education conference in Tuscon this last weekend so we headed to the Hilton to enjoy the sun!

THIS is pretty much all we saw of Tyler. His face is raw to prove it.
Shane and Paige, (well, mostly Shane) really took to the water slide!















Friday we checked in and tried out the water slide until Red Lobster called our names. How many kids do you know that insist on ordering crab legs and eating every last one? That's Tyler for you. He's a seafood man through and through. He's even tried mussel.

Saturday, the kids and I slept in and watched Evan Almighty. Shane had class. After that, he met us in the pool and we played a game of water basketball and then sat poolside with a giant plate of loaded nachos and ignored the fact that we should be applying another round of sunscreen. (We payed for that later.)
Saturday night we picked up a couple of pizzas and ate in the room. Later, at the pool, they played 101 Dalmations poolside on a big projecter and we watched bats flying overhead. The weather was perfect.

Sunday we checked out and played cards in the lobby until Shane was finished with his courses.

It was a great little weekend trip! We can't wait for the next one in November when we get to explore Sedona for the second time!

The last few weeks

So, the flu has passed, but since then we've been soooo busy. Here are a few things we've done

We picked our first tomatoes from our cherry tomato plant, and since then we've picked loads!

We hit our first 110 degree weather and spent hours in our million dollar pool!














Tyler officially graduated from 1st grade!

We planned a fabulous camping trip to Tonto National Forest outside of Payson and then found out that it had just snowed there, brrrrr. We figured we could still go, but then found that fire restrictions had been placed on the whole area. no camping

So instead we went bowling! (Just in case you were wondering, a somewhat pregnant lady held the lead!)

Sweet Paige

The throwing-up continues, but Paigey just couldn't be any sweeter. Check out this cute little drawing she did. She says that it's her holding our baby Morgan. (Morgan is the official name, just in case you wondered!) I just love little kids' drawings! She's going to be a great sister!

Happy Mothers' Day

So, here I am, at 12:23 am, deeply contemplating motherhood and thoughts on life. . . O.K not really. I actually just finished cleaning up strawberry milkshake vomit from Paige's bed and I have a load of pillows going just now. I had to stay up long enough to make sure that they spin right in the washing machine, you know instead of going off balance and rocking the washing machine to death. It was either this, or gag through tomorrow's laundry and hope the stains come out. I opted for the late night.

So, here's to all you mothers and caregivers out there who clean up puke, empty containers of smelly 4-week old food from the fridge, deal with messy diapers, spray'n'wash loads and loads of dirty laundry with only a prayer that those nasty stains with come out, scrub at hard water stains in your shower stall until your hands are pruny, completely wipe down your kitchen table and chairs after every messy meal, make attempt after attempt to pull nightly meal ideas out of thin air, scrub globs of dried up toothpaste from your kids' bathroom sink, cabinets and walls, clean out very ripe banana leftovers from the bathroom garbage and, last but not least, pick gum from the pockets of church pants after they have been through the dryer.

What I'm trying to say is. . . Here's to you MOM! If you did it and survived, surely I can do it too! I'm amazed that I can clean up strawberry milkshake puke and do 2 loads of laundry at 1 o'clock in the morning with nothing but empathy in my heart for the sick little girl on the couch. I'm so glad to be her mom.

Oh, I better go! The washing machine is about to break through the wall to the garage. I love you MOM! Thanks for giving us a great example to follow!

They're growing up!

Paige has been insisting for the last week that she needed to get her ears "peered." We figured that we would explain to her what happened during the ear "peering" and she would back down. NOPE! Saturday we headed to the mall for the big event, and when we entered Claire's she hopped up in the chair and said "I'm here to get my ears pierced!" (By that time we had corrected her and she knew all of the correct lingo!) We had to wait for a few minutes and Paige kept saying, "when are we going to do this?" She picked out pink earrings, of course, and everything went smoothly. We could see the shock on her face after the first one, but she claims that, "It didn't hurt, not one bit!" Even after the second piercing when the gun wouldn't come off of the earring, she still claimed that it felt good. I can't believe how big she is! I thought it was so cute to watch her walk around in the store afterward like she was completely in her element of glitz and glam.

Tyler has more recently taken up golfing with Shane. He played his first official round a couple of weeks ago with Shane and they WALKED 18 holes! I couldn't believe it! Shane said he didn't even complain once. He even bogied a couple of holes. Saturday after we took Paige to the mall, we headed out to the driving range. Paige and I watched as they showed off their skills. Shane figured out that I could take continuous shots with my camera and had me photographing his shot so that he could evaluate it and improve the angles and yada yada yada. . . . I just have fun whenever the camera is involved! Tyler is all business out there on the putting green. . . just like his dad!