Weekend With Friends Part Two

I'm always a fan of a good surprise, So I plotted with Blaine to keep our visit a secret from Tamra and the kids.  It was a little dicey for him trying to hurry the family through Costco to get home to meet us, but it was priceless hearing her excitement as my kids walked into the kitchen nonchalantly carrying groceries from the car.  (See below)

They live minutes from the beach-- sad for them huh?

So fun seeing them reunited playing with their buddies like ol' times

Getting drenched and dirty-- yep- just like ol' times

Her jeans were soaked, I don't know how she could stand it!

We were so tired that night from 3 hours of sleep we got that morning, we ended up crashing at their house.

Playing kickball and soccer at the park the next day

Anya and Bella excitedly showed the kids all the snails in their front yard. Yes, snails are foreign entity to my little desert rats. They nicknamed their play "Going Snailing. "  JJ offered a cash bribe to anyone willing to put one on their nose. I disapproved of taking advantage of the kids for personal entertainment, especially when he ended up having to pay them in Euros. But they said they didn't mind. I love these photos of Anya.

Anya--Going Snailing!

Cade Oliver-- or "Cado" as the nickname goes.

He is the cutest little guy. Such a sweet disposition. The jury is out on who he most resembles,

but he has Bella's cute little lips!

Pretty Momma!

I enjoyed much baby snuggle time!

After four years of being carpool buddies we sure miss seeing them every day,

but it's nice to see them settled and happy.

And... it just gives us more excuses to visit California--

We'll definitely be back!

That afternoon we head back to my folks and enjoyed more time playing on the beach.

Here is JJ going in for a swim, and.....

Coming out 5 minutes later. It was cooooold!

And even more beach time on our last day

I just love sitting on the beach watching them play

I get a little Deja vu of my childhood beach days

Burying his arm in the hillside

The kids found over 3 hundrend mini clams-- They counted them all

I loved watching the little clammy bodies slurp out of the shell looking for food.

What's a beach visit without a burial?

Despite the rocky start we had such a nice trip and a thankfully uneventful drive home!!!

Weekend With Friends Part 1- Bumps on the Road

Since our dear dear friends moved to Cali a month ago our kids, and admittedly myself have been heart sick to see them. Tamra just had her newest baby a couple of weeks ago. We decided to head over to my folks last weekend so we could stop by and see the little bambino. I was happy to discover they are a mere hour from my parent's house ( as the JJ drives).

Unfortunately we got a bit of a late start Friday due to Jordan's music recital, and even more unfortunately we heard the rumble of our tire blowing out a meger 30 miles past Gila Bend. (I remain unconvinced it was not due to the oil changers ineptitude at tire inflation. Either way it's them or their tires crapping out after less than 2 years. Curse you Fletchers!) So we pulled over and got to work getting out the spare and tools and discovered we had no jack. Talk about unprepared, we must have forgotten to replace it at some point. With nothing but sage brush to prop up the car, I began waving our glowing cell phones for aid. Might I say there are a shortage of good Samaritans out there. The only ones left come in the demographic of Mexican men between 40-50 years old . A semi driver stopped first, but could offer no help, and after about 45 min. of flagging, another guy stopped to help and lent us a jack. Even after all that time, we were back on the road before the highway patrol made it to us-- so much for road side assistance. Thankfully our good Samaritan who had also lost a tire on that stretch informed us of an all night tire place in Gila Bend. Sooo... after getting a new tire we were back on the road at Midnight and ended up crawling into our bed at my parents house at 5am-- just in time to see the sunrise. Oh happy day!

All the waiting and late night driving gave us a chance to reflect on the numerous other times we have found ourselves stranded on the side of the road ....There have been many....

--Our first little car left us out of gas several times until we realized the gauge was off and ¼ tank was really empty. It continued to strand us as that margin of error marched from ¼ tank to ½ tank throughout the years of ownership.

--There was the time the transmission went out, when we were driving JJ's Dad's car home from a trip for him. We limped along off the freeway and into a hotel parking lot. When we got off the phone with JJ's parents, we came outside to a charred front of the car surrounded by the police and the fire department. Apparently it spontaneously caught fire while we were calling. Luckily someone near by had an extinguisher and put it out before it burned all of our stuff and/or exploded. Twin Falls, Idaho you will forever live in infamy. (note: it actually ended up being a blessing in disguise for his dad, as insurance companies pay for fires, not broken transmissions)

--Then there has been the trailer on our sailboat-- a consistant source of adventure, starting with the first tire we watched burst into flame in our rear view mirror, come loose and roll along side us as we pulled over, with a final turn in front of us as it ended in a collapse on the side of the road. (I swear I am not making any of this up).

--Our “sailing” trip to San Carlos began with the barrings going out on one of the trailer wheels, 10 miles outside of phoenix (which took an entire day to fix) , ended with two flats on the drive home through Mexico (note: those llanterra tires are not to be trusted) and contained two days in the middle of being stranded out on the bay with a broken motor and not one lick of wind.

There have been others, but these are some of our favorite memories.  As I thought about them, I realized we were able to work through all those moments with some resourcefulness, patience, and the help of Good Samaritans-- oh, and a lot of laughter-- which I guess is the recipe for managing through most of life's bumps on the road.

--It also helps when the destination is well worth the trouble,  in this case, it definitely was...
see Part Two for details....

Flowers for Mother's Day

This year I got flowers for Mother's Day-- a whole yard of them.


My parents were in town last week and my Dad helped us color our backyard. Now our backyard, as big and wonderful as it is, has been a source of embarassment at how horribly we take care of it. --Well, we are turning over a new leaf (no pun intended) and I decided it's time to crack down and cover those army barracks with something more inviting. The whole family pitched in and spent saturday digging, planting, dirt mixing, and drip lining our backyard. It looks much better, and now that I understand our drip system and how to properly add plants to it, I feel much more confident that some of these plants will actually survive.


 As an added back up, I took careful measure to choose plants that appear, well, idiot proof. Or should I say lazy proof? To give you an idea of what they are up against.... JJ informed me a couple of days ago that the water has been off in our front yard for months because he needed to fix a drip- Nice, right? Yet our Lantana and honey suckle have been growing beautifully and fast all this time-- Yep- idiot proof!!! So, let's just say I picked a lot of Lantana,  also Bouganvillea, a couple mesquite trees (love those things) and since our Rosewood is the lone survivor from our last attempt, I got one more to boot. We also ventured to an orange tree. Jordan got so excited, he asked if we could get a basket so he could pick the oranges. I told him if there are EVER any oranges on it to pick, I will buy them each a basket. He excitedly passed on the news to his sisters. Here's hoping for oranges and general plant prosperity.  If nothing else, now that my Dad fixed our timer, we should at least be seeing some grass growing soon-- yeah!

My great little Dirt Mixers!

JJ, Herculing through the concrete ledge underground.

Drip lines here we come-- Thanks Dad!

Mud Trauma

Taking a break to be with her Grammy

Here are some of the results

This little nook should be really pretty when it all fills in :)

Someday, that Hibiscus will be able to shop in the Big and Beautiful

Section!---hopefully

The start of our Mexican Heather Hedge

My lovely Mother's Day Dinner

Lasagna,Asparagus, and Bruschetta

Who could ask for anything more?

It was a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, and I especially love the little notes and gifts from my sweeties. They each picked out such thoughtful things that I needed like lotion, hair clippy claws, squirt bottle (perpetually lost), and Isabel wrote me a thoughtful Poem and put it in a frame with a picture of a flower.

It is a nice reminder of my weekend so I will share it:

Mother's Love

Garden so pretty

Flowers full of love

More colorful than the rainbow

as beautiful as a dove

As wonderful as a sunset

If each flower was part of my mother's heart

My garden would go on forever

Here's hoping our little garden may go on forever.... Well at least until next week.