Something about Christmastime

Well it isn't summer, although the tempature is pretty close. It definetly doesn't feel like Christmas eve. We are however approaching another Christmas rapidly. As I ask myself every year, where does the year go? I was looking back at pictures from Christmas 2007 and I am astonished that it was four years ago. I guess I will have to get over how time keeps speeding up and the kids keep getting older, and cherish every moment we have and celebrate the new stages.

This is my favorite day of the year. It was a huge holiday tradition throughout my childhood and I love to see the excitement on my children's faces. I even got really excited when I tracked Santa a few minutes ago. He is in figi! There is nothing like seeing the glow of smiling, happy children.

merry Christmas Eve!

Half way!

Really? July 25th already? Where oh where does the summer go every year? Well, I haven't been writing. Not because we haven't been having a good summer, but because I have an old school journal at home and well summer has been buuusssssyyyy! My last week of summer school is this week, but I still have two papers due. One of which I am avoiding doing right as we speak!

So what have we been doing? Ella did her first overnight camp this year. She loved it! It was only a half week program (Teddy Bear Picnic) and we all wished that she had the stayed a full week (LOL). That was the week of the 4th. She missed Fourth of July with us. :( Every since she was in my belly she I have dressed her to the nine on Independence Day and most years (even nine months pregnant). This year she chose that week though because it was her birthday week. So we went to the parade and to Missy and Joe's house afterwards without Miss Ella. It was still fun. Weston loved the large combine and all the tractors. Lately, he is also into tractor trailer trucks for some reason. He likes to count them on the highway. LOL!

Speaking of Ella's birthday what a day! Her actual birthday I had to work and had school, but I left work early to spend a few hours with her. My sister, Brady, Weston, Ella, and I went to the Dinosaur Place in Montville. The kids have been dying to go for years but it is so expensive for what they offer. Don't get me wrong it is a nice place. They have a splash park, trails, playground, maze, and lots of other things to look at but for almost $20 each... It was a nice day though. HOT!!! I went to school very sweaty that night.

Her birthday party was here this year and we got ponies! Which were a big hit with her friends. It was a nice day. The next day her friend Ava called and invited her to her birhtday party. Ella was very excited and I was happy for her. She was upset at not being invited to many parties this year. Plus, she was driving me crazy that day so I got five free hours while she had fun!

We have been to the beach a couple of times. Once with Laura, Molly, and Ryan. Another time with Missy and nine kids in all!!!! Ella's friend Ava came along. Nine kids is way too many to supervise. Thankfully we had two eyes and soem of them were older and good swimmers.

The kids have slept over my in-laws house twice this summer and went to the beach both times. We also have done the summer reading program again. Which is always fun. Last week was Vacation Bible School. Unfortunetly, Weston never stayed. Which was weird because he loved it last year. Oh well. Ella had a blast. Last Friday was their little production. I love that program.

Ella is at Day Camp this week (My favorite Color is Pink). Which means Weston and I get to chill out (and hopefully write some papers!). Today we went to the library and he played the game. They had reserved a bunch of tractor books for him from other libraries so we had to go pick them up. We also brought Mack to the vet for shots and Weston got his hair cut.

I am hoping that next week Weston will do Farm camp. I've been telling him about it all summer so I have to follow through. It is only a half day program and goes from Monday to Thursday. I had hoped to get them both out of the house at the same time, but sometimes it is nice to have only one at a time and spend some special time with them.

I cannot wait for summer school to be over so I can enjoy the month of August and read for FUN!!!! Yippee!

Here again!

Here we are again! I'm in denial. Today while driving I realized that I am in spring break mode rather than summer vacation mode. I'm trying to avoid thinking about the kids being with me 24/7 for the next 10 weeks. As always though I will be making the most of our time together and by the time September rolls around I will be sad to see them go back to school (and a little happy too).

Well we started off with a bang this summer. I had Brady on Friday and he was having a tough time with Lizzie getting all the attention, so while Kris and Scott went to her graduation we went to Chuck E. Cheeses. Fun! Really. It was! My kids really loved it. We hadn't been there since Ella's birthday party last year. Ella didn't even care about the rides anymore. That girl was on a mission to get as many tickets as she possibly could. 381 tickets for her! Once she found a machine that produced the most tickets she stayed there. We may have a a gambler on our hands! Weston loved playing the games too. Brady loved the pizza and the ice cream...and then wanted to leave after that, but he was a trooper and stayed for another hour while the other kids used thier tokens up. That night we hosted a mock awards ceremony were the kids got certificates for the accomplishments they did over the year. I think the kids loved it. Ella got an award in her class for being the classes star reader! Woohoo! I'm so proud of my girl!

Saturday the kids and I went to Lake Compounce since we had free tickets! Free parking, free admission, free soda all day, and a free dinner. Can't beat that!!! The kids had a blast! Mostly they loved the water park. Ella loves her waterslides and water rides. That part was a little scary since it is hard to keep an eye on both kids at once. The rest of the day was spent with Laura, Tommy, Molly, Julio, Katie, and Junior. It worked out well because Weston could go on the kiddie rides with the other little kids. Ella definetly thought she was way too old and cool for those rides. While Ella and I went on a roller coaster, Weston stayed with the others. I came back and Laura apologized for traumatizing him. Apparently he wanted to go on the mini "drop" ride were you sit in seats and they drop you. He wanted to do it, but was terrified when he got up there. Later we went by the adult version and he said "I wouldn't do that!" It was just a great day all around. I felt refreshed from being in the sun all day and having fun with the kids.

Yesterday we stayed at home. It was fathers day. Unfortunetly Andy had to work most of the day, but we worked in the yard mulching the front flower bed. I woke up sore this morning. The good kid of sore! I also woke up at seven today which is sleeping in for me! It was great!

Today, we went grocery shopping in the morning. I did a little school work in the afternoon. Then Ella wanted to do something and she asked to go to the aquarium. I caved because I thought the library had a free pass. Unfortunelty, it was only a discounted pass and I still spend $57. Ugh! Then an additional $3 each for the 4d movie theater. Ofcoarse Ella wanted something at the gift shop. I made her spend most of her own money. It was still fun...well except for when Weston peed his pants and when I say pee picture a bucket of water pouring into his shoes and on the floor. I used all the changes of clothes I had for him in the car on Saturday's trip to Lake compounce because we were soaking wet when we came out of there. So I did like any good mother and let him walk around like that. LOL! He didn't care and after paying that much money I wasn't willing to leave, neither was Ella. The 4D movie was cool. The penguins were cute. The beluga whale tried to eat us through the glass. Afterwards we had to stop at Drawbridge Ice Cream. We HAD to. While in Mystic it is a must. Oh yum it is so good.

So that was our summer so far. Tomorrow is school and work all day, so we'll see what Wednesday brings!

The End!

Well here we are at the end of August already. Ever year you know it goes by way too quickly and you want to savor the sun, the heat, the leaves on the trees, and the outdoor adventures....but Autumn comes too soon. School starts tomorrow. My baby gets on a big boy bus without me and makes his first step in gaining his independence from me. I am going to bawl my eyes out. I already know it. However, I am very excited about having three days of free time. I'll have about three hours each day. WOW!!! Oh the possibilities. How do I fit everything in to that time? I will have to make a list of projects and then get back on an exercise program. So the first day will be filled with crying. It is inevitable. I will grieve his infancy, I will celebrate his moving on, I will wish that time could stand still for just a few minutes at least, I will think about his future and what it holds (good and bad), I will be happy for him and happy for me. So many emotions will come out when I am crying over my baby growing up tomorrow. Then on Wednesday I will be ready to conquer the peace and quiet! :)

What a summer we had though. This past week has been filled with school orientations and getting prepared for this week. Plus, we had to save some money after that awesome vacation we had!!! It was sort of nice to hang back and just clean and have the kids relax and watch TV. I think they needed that.

Did I ever write about our last day in N.H.? I don't think that I did. We went to Santa's Village which my husband claimed that he remembered that it sucked. He was proven wrong when we got there. I love, love, love that place. I am not a huge Disney Character person but Santa Claus? He is my guy!!! We actually didn't get to see him though. My favorite is the reindeer though. Feeding them....magical to me! Obviously I am a huge dog fan (btw, Mack looks like a deer) and something about animals that is so calming. (when they aren't tearing your house apart) The reindeer are always my favorite part of the Christmas characters. We all went on the sleigh ride and got the most amazing picture of our family. It was finally one where everyone was looking at the camera and smiling and the kids hid me so I didn't look as overweight! LOL! The kids had a blast and went on this water park thing (although it was a little to chilly for it). There was water slides for little kids and medium kids and every 10 minutes or so the bucket on top let go and dumped water over everything. The loved it! Both were crying when we left because Ella didn't get to go on all the rides she wanted to and Weston saw a tractor in the gift shop on the way out that he wanted (good marketing for Santa's village to make you leave out a gift shop!)and he had already gotten a toy. They were exhausted and had an awesome time. Andy and I decided to leave that night so we could have all day Sunday to unpack. It was a long ride home, but we made it!

What an amazing vacation. My husband actually enjoyed himself and admitted that after Weston was born he buried his head in the sand and told himself that by working all the time he was providing for the family when really he was just avoiding CF. He really was able to let his work and stress go and enjoy the kids. He said he finally got to know them over that vacation and that they were really awesome people. It was great for me as well. I had some help with the kids and someone else to enjoy them with. I honestly was wondering at the beginning of summer if after the kids were all grown up if my husband and I were going to have anything in common. This proved that we can still have fun and he can do things other than work hard. I feel very very blessed to have been able to have such a great vacation!

I want to make a correction. Weston called his hood a "lid" not a "top". Some other cute things they are doing. Ella is thinking that "I dare you to" will work on me when I tell her "no" about something. Like I am going to succumb to peer pressure! Weston was chasing the dog around with his symbols the other day and he said "Mom, I think if I stop playing instruments in front of Mack than he won't be afraid of me anymore". Then he thought "Well maybe I could still play the piano because that isn't too lousy (Lousy is the word he used for noisy)." Then he told me that he and Mack had a situation in his room where he was trying to figure out why Mack didn't like music. LOL! Poor dog.

Still having a blast!

It is Saturday already!! We have been here for a week already and this is our last full day. It is bitter sweet because we have had so much fun and it has been really nice having Andy around. He's really been an awesome dad /husband this week. Thursday he took the kids fishing in the river by the campsite for two hours. I got to relax and read my Sookie Stackhouse books...which I just finished the last one last night. :(

Yesterday we also went fishing but at a different spot. The kids love it. I brought my book. It is nice to see Andy get time with the kids. then we went to Franconia Notch and walked to the Basin which is a "pot hole" in the rocks. This place is so breathtakingly beautiful. the Kidd loved playing in the clear spring water. After warning Weston many times not to jump, he slipped and fell in the water! He was crying for a bit until he saw that an older boy had also fallen in. We walked back to the car and changed. Then we drove to the flume gorge. this one was a two mile walk and we wouldn't have had enough time to hike it, but the kids really wanted to go to the gift shop so we did. Andy got a hat and a book, a got a jacket, and the kids got stuffed animals. Weston named his dog Bones and Ella named her bear Honey. By then it was time to come back to the campsite for dinner. The kids played, we read....relaxing! It is cold up here though. It warms up between 2-4pm, but the rest of the time is Jean weather.

Yesterday Weston came into our bed after he woke up and asked me for something to eat. I asked him what he wanted and after he told me he said "but can you shower first?" This was an odd request because usually he has no patience when it comes to food. I sake him why and he said " because you kind of stink" I guess my breath was really bad!

I had to put some groceries away that I forgot about. It is so relaxing here that time just doesn't matter...until you have spoiled milk! So Tuesday was another adventure day I didn't anticipate this vacation being so adventurous but I am loving every minute of it. Andy has been able to relax and enjoy the kids as well as keep his mind off of work and have a good time. It has been the perfect experience. Every night we are thoroughly exhausted, but the good kind of exhausted where you know you did a lot of fun things, got great exercise, and made wonderful lasting memories. Then you get to sleep in a camper with the windows open and catch all that fresh mountain air. It is great! Tuesday we ate a late lunch at the place so basically we came back and got the kids ready for bed and crashed.

Yesterday was Wednesday...right? Seriously, I am amazed at how time flies here and although I feel the need to know what time it is there really is no point when you are on vacation. So yes, Wednesday we decided to go to Storyland. The kids had been begging and it was a day to do kid things. Storyland is about 1 hour away from where we are camping at the Lisbon/Littleton KOA. The drive there is just amazing, amazing, amazing!!! Mountains, rail road tracks across mountains, the gorgeous Mt. Washington Hotel...just so so beautiful. I wish we could have stopped at all the lookouts, waterfalls, cascades, trails. I could spend a whole vacation just exploring those mountains. But the kids wanted to get to Storyland so we just went straight there.

Storyland was of coarse fun because it was nice to see the kids have a good time. Weston's favorites were the train ride, the tractor ride, and surprisingly the roller coaster! Ella's were the bamboo chute (flume), the water raft ride, and the roller coaster! Ofcoarse. I thought the bamboo chute was the only one worth the time waiting in line, but again they had fun and that is all that matters. It was pretty exhausting and there were many things we didn't get to see, but it was another great experience with the family. I can't believe that it had been five years since we went there. Last time I was pregnant with Weston. When I told him this he responded, "You better not have a baby in your belly this time because I'm not doing that!" LOL! Thankfully there are no plans for more babies in my future or I would have a problem with that one! The kids were over tired when we got back yesterday. Oh vey! That is the only downfall of the vacation...neither get enough sleep for the activity level we have them going at.

So today was a relax day. I think we all needed it. Well really I am finally relaxing right now, but for me it was catching up on laundry (Weston has peed the bed most nights including one night he peed both of the beds) and grocery shopping. Not bad though. We just went to the 99 and got lobster rolls and the kids had lunch. Then Andy went and bought fishing polls so the kids and he could go fishing in the river behind the campsite. They are there now. We'll be making dinner when they come back and putting to bed another awesome day on vacation. It is going to quickly, although I do sort of miss the dogs and the house. Plus everyone is posting on Facebook about school starting next week and that is making me a little anxious. I feel like I don't have things in place. Oh well, I can deal with all that when we get back. Atleast I finally know that Weston got into AM kindergarten (after I advocated for him) and who his teacher is.

Okay, were did I leave off? Saturday? We got here. The kids played. We set up. I think that was pretty much it other than dinner and roasting marshmallows. I forgot to mention that on the way up here I was pointing out the mountains to Ella. I was surprised when she wasn't more impressed by them since she is such a nature kid. When I pointed them out again she said "Mom, they look like trees to me!" Ha ha. I explained that there were trees on the mountains. Then when I pointed out mountains with rock on the top she said "Now those look like mountains because they are white on top." Apparently she has only seen pictures of snow caped mountains and green ones didn't resemble mountains to her. I love when you see something from a kid's point of view.

Sunday,we were going to hang out and relax which we did for a while, but then we wanted to do a little exploring so Andy found a place that did some adventure four wheeling up the side of a mountain!! Woohoo adventure! So the four of us went to Lincoln, NH to Alpine adventures and got into a special truck/bus thing that went up a mountain and did some extreme four wheeling. It was a lot of fun. Everyone appreciated it except for Weston who looked at us during the ride and said "Why did you guys pick this?" with this look of pure fear in his eyes. I really though he would be okay with it since it was like a hayride...sort of?! He isn't the rough and tumble person like the rest of us are. He was a good sport about it though and didn't cry, whine, or complain. He liked it when I put my arms around him and made him feel so secure. Ofcoarse I may have gotten a few more bruises because of it. :) Afterwards we went out to eat. By then Weston had pretty much had enough and was very whiney. We didn't get a nice peaceful sit down dinner, but he was able to make it through till we got in the car.

Monday since it was supposed to rain we decided to go to Clark's trading post since they had some inside exhibits. Also, we owed Weston a train ride since that is what he really wanted to do the night before. This day was also a lot of fun. We saw a bear show, a acrobat show, Ella got to climb a rock wall, Andy got to go on a segway tour, and Weston got to ride the train twice! The train brings you over a covered bridge into "Wolfman's territory" where a guy pretends to be wolfman and sets off fireworks trying to get you off his land. Ella was afraid of this guy and Weston was not. Weston also came up with a new name for hoods on a sweatshirt on this day. We got out of the car and he said "looks like we have to put our tops on". LOL! Love that kid! Andy had a lot of fun at this place as did the kids. Weston was most excited about a digger on the play ground. Ella always enjoys the rock wall. My favorite was the bear show. There was a baby cub whose name was Tula. She was so adorable. The older bear swang from a swing and Tula took a ride on a scooter. It was a good show. I couldn't believe how much time we spent there because it really didn't seem to have a lot of things to do, but we were there for probably 4-5 hours. It was really well kept too.

On Tuesday Andy and I had a taste of adventure and wanted some more. I had my sights set on the zip lines. The one at Alpine Adventures only had ones that kids couldn't participate in and it took two hours. There was no way for Andy and I to do it without doing it sepetarly and it was expensive. Luckily, we came across Loon Mountain that had zip lines, rock walls, pony rides, mountain biking, a gondala ride, and a euro bouncer for a package deal. We knew most of it Weston wasn't going to be interested in but Ella was able to do the zip lines which she wanted to do. No fear that one! So we went. First of the agenda was zip lines. Ella went first! I couldn't believe she went off first. It was about 35 feet off the ground! She hesitated a little, but she jumped off! Then it was my turn. I am not a huge fan of heights but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I went slowly off the platform. As soon as I felt my body supported by the harness I was okay. It was an awesome ride. We got to go across and back over 700 feet across a river. Pure awesomeness! Ella loved it to. Then we did the gondola ride up the mountain. Weston enjoyed this except that he wouldn't let us stay at the top of the mountain. We were able to look around a little and there was a look out tower up there were you could see for miles all the mountains. It is so breathtakingly beautiful up here!

Afterwards we went back down the gondola ride and off to the "pony" rides. I say "pony" because they were really horses. Weston loved this part and was a little impatient to get on. The woman who gave him the ride said "This kid has no fear" so apparently when it comes to animals Weston isn't afraid. Ella also liked it. Weston said he was just disappointed that they didn't go all the way up the mountain with the horse.

The rest of this day consisted of Ella climbing a 35 foot rock wall!!!! I can't believe this child she's only seven! Andy also enjoyed climbing. I made a total idiot out of myself, but I had fun to and would have tried again if I didn't have to wait in line. Weston tried the euro bounce (trampoline) but didn't like it. He really doesn't like feeling out of control. I give him credit for trying. Plus he was getting tired at this time. Andy did the zip line also and Ella did the euro bounce a few times. She ofcoarse LOVED it! Weston enjoyed the swingset they had there. LOL!