Best Buddies

Our neighborhood & my house have been a little too quiet lately. We are missing this lively little 'big' boy. He is like the other half to my Kacee & we are WAY ready for him to get better & come home. We miss you Dean & we love you buddy!

Back By Popular Demand

Okay, Okay ... I've been trying to come up with some riveting story as to why I have let my blog go to the way side ... hold on ... still thinking! Alright, well here are some reasons why I have been too busy to blog!

Todd is busy arresting bad people, firing guns & speeding around North Sac. He did take a break for what we like to call 'The Senior Portrait' Thanks Liz ... Love you Todd! :)
Kaila participated in her first high school Homecoming Powder Puff Football game. (Can I tell you again how weird it is to see my kid do the same things at the same high school that I did.) We enjoyed watching her play & Kyle even thought it was more important to watch her game than go to practice! WOW! She actually carried the ball a couple of times which is REALLY good for a freshman!
Kyle has wrapped up a great football season. He had a lot of good catches, good gains & played quarterback a little. Did I mention that Kyle has grown 7 inches in the last 2 years?! I know he has been growing, but holy cow!

Kacee was baptized in September. She also finished a fantastic soccer season, she scored goals at every game except one! Her all time record was 5 goals in one game ... they won that game 5-1! Awesome!Kate is the little princess. She is learning a lot of new songs in her music class, finished up gymnastics & keeps reminding me that she wants to go to school too! I have been totally busy perfecting the art of not being able to get any thing accomplished right now. As you can see from this blog I have been doing pretty good at it. I'd like to say it's because my kids are off track. Thankfully I have good friends that take care of me & can get more comments posted to the blog then I usually do! Now that's funny!

P.S. Next time just feel free to change the background ... it's all good! :)

Update your blog, Kara!

I am taking matters into my own hands! I can do this because I know all your secret passwords for everything. Update your freaking blog. You have tons of stuff you could write about! What are you waiting for? And lets make you a new background for heaven's sake!

Getting My Land Legs!

There was a couple of "Fun Days at Sea" that we had. We played BINGO, went to a show, watched some karoke & other 'cruise' activites. Everyday when we came back to our room for bed, we had a new little animal made out of our towels, here is one of my favorites!
Of course one of the favorite activities on the boat is to eat. Here is the result of our table getting lobster to eat. Yes that is a lobster flower...thanks to Kathryn's artistic side!
Here is one of the YUMMY desserts that we had every night ... okay sometimes 2!When we were officially done with the cruise we got to spend a few more hours in New York! The bus dropped us off at 51st & Broadway! It was so cool to walk down into Times Square!
Me & Kathryn walked down about 5 city blocks of an open air market! We had a blast! The market ended right at Central Park. Well if you are in New York, you HAVE to go to Central Park!
We only had about an hour before we had to be back on the bus that was probably a good 6-7 blocks away. So here we were at Central Park with only about 45 minutes. Kathryn had a great idea to take a rickshaw ride around the park to see the high points. What a great idea, it was the perfect way to end the trip!

Nova Scotia

When we stopped in Nova Scotia it was FREEZING! Luck us, that was the day we planned to go on a Tall Ship ride. So we layered up & went on a boat ride!
After that we went on a downtown Nova Scotia tour & we went to a cemetary that has victims from the Titanic buried there. It was really amazing to see the rows of head stones, they way they are laid out it curves like the bow of a ship.
It was wierd to see so many headstones with the same death date of April 15, 1912. Some of them had names & some didn't. They all had numbers on them that indicates the number that their body was pulled from the water. I thought this was one of the coolest places that we had gone to.

St. John's Bay

Oh Canada! Our next stop was St. John's Bay in Canada. While we were here we went on a trip up the coast to New Brunswick.
We went to Hopewell Rocks to see these cool rock formations. The tide here comes in & out every 6 hours & 50 minutes. The cool thing is when it's high tide it is over 30 feet, & low tide it recedes out about a mile.
When we were there it was low tide so we got the chance to walk on the ocean floor. If you look below at the picture of me & Kathryn the water comes up & almost covers the hole in that rock formation. It was a really amazing place!

Maine

The next stop was Maine. Now talk about breathtaking scenery. The weather was really nice that day, the sun was out, a little windy, but all in all a fun day. We went on a lighthouse tour. One of the lighthouse's we saw was called "Buglight".

Across the water at Buglight you could see the town of Portland. It reminded me of the town from "Murder She Wrote" :)
The next lighthouse was cool because it had all of these flat rocks that you had to walk/hop across to get to the lighthouse. Me & Kathryn went all the way out to the lighthouse, I definately had to choose my path wisely... Kathryn's legs are a little longer!
At the end of the tour we went on our own adventures in the town of Portland. We found a couple of fun shops, spotted a tiny UPS truck, meet some interesting locals & found this chowder shack that had the BEST chowder ever! Sad thing is I don't think I can enjoy clam chowder after having it there, everything else will just be disappointing!

Boston

After some much needed sleep, our first port was Boston. It is a very historical town with interesting stuff everywhere you turn. We went to the church where the lantern's were hung under the direction of Paul Revere ... 'one if by land or two if by sea'.
We were just walking up the street & here was this little house, just stuck between two big brick apartment buildings! Wild!
Then we got back in the bus & noticed that it was pretty hot in there, wouldn't you know, the a/c on the bus broke, like not working at all, I'm not kidding it was so hot that the windows were getting fogged up! After almost losing consciousness in the bus, we FINALLY were able to get out at Harvard University. This is a statue of John Harvard, well not really, no serious, it's not him, they just liked the way that guy looked & put him above John Harvard's name! So the deal is you're suppose to rub his foot to get good luck...had to try! :)
At this point you couldn't pay us to get back on that bus, so we ditched the tour & caught a taxi to Fenway Park, can't go to Boston & not stop by Fenway Park!
We got back to the port & to our surprise there was a 2 hour line of hungry, cranky, old...did I mention hungry? people waiting to get back on the ship. For some reason they only had one plank open & after about an hour & a half they decided to open another....NICE! But we made good use of our time & made a new friend. Officer "Bob" was on duty at our port, after talking to him we found out that he had actually applied for the CHP like 15 years ago, he thought it was pretty funny that my husband was a CHP officer...small world!

New York

Last month I went on a vacation....a REAL vacation! I kissed the kids & Todd goodbye & set sail for a 7 day cruise. We flew the red eye to JFK & then went straight to Rockefeller Plaza. We had a couple of hours to play before we had to set sail, so off we went.
We started at the Rainbow Room Observation Deck at NBC studios, then off to the Top of the Rock!It was a breath taking view from the top. You could see everything, Central Park, the Empire State Building & we tried to figure out where the Twin Towers stood. Once we had our feet back on the ground we were off & running. While down in the NBC Plaza we found some authentic NY food, found an NYPD car & walked around 5th Ave.
We were the last ones to get on the bus to head over to the cruise ship. We sailed on the Carnival Victory. Kind of looked like the Little Mermaid threw up all over the boat, but I was kind of expecting that!
Once aboard, it was to the life jacket drill...we mapped out where all the little boats were & figured out how many people we could take out if the boat were to sink! :)
When we left port we sailed right past Lady Liberty herself. It was so awesome to actually see it with my own eyes. It was windy, but so worth it to stay out on deck & watch her come & go!

"Hairspray"

If you have ever been to our house before you have had the privilege of hearing "Hairspray" the movie/musical playing in the background! It is Kate's most FAVORITE show! She loves to go put on her special dress & sing & dance to every song, it's quiet the treat! When I heard that it was coming to Music Circus this summer I called up a friend of mine that works in the box office & was told that they have a 'policy' that states that people younger than 4 can NOT attend! When I took Kate to the Dr.'s last week for her well check up he told me that she was in the 90% for height, so I figure she could pass as a 4 year old!That night we picked up our good friends & were off to see "Hairspray"! On the way there Kate was telling everyone how 'excited' (imagine a little lisp in there) she was! We had some great seats & Kate did SO good during the performance. We were sitting on a performance aisle so that was fun to be close to the actors.
Kate's favorite part of the show was the, "fat momma, the BIG, LOUD can of Hairspray that sprays & the sparkly paper at the end" (confetti!) It was a great girls night out, full of laughs & good company! I especially liked to hear Kacee's giggles when the actors were being silly on stage!!I know that my dad must have been giggling too!

Back To School!

Another summer is ending & kids are back to school! Kyle is in 6th grade this year & it looks like he is getting ready for his elementary school career to be over! Kacee is in 3rd grade & has Mrs. Victorin & Mrs. Bullard. We LOVE these teachers! Mrs. Victorin has been the only teacher that has had all 3 of the kids so far, it's going to be a fun year!

Kaila started high school a week later & jumped right into seminary. It will take her a while to get use to those early mornings, but for the 2nd week into it, she is doing really well! She likes her schedule at high school & knows someone in all of her classes & is really happy because most of her friends have the same lunch period as her! (You remember those important things from when you were in high school!)

So now it's back to me & Kate. We like to hang out together, run errands together & even once in awhile go out to lunch with friends. She keeps asking when does she get to go to preschool & I tell her I am not ready for that yet! I am going tomorrow to sign her up for a gymnastics class to tide her over!

Home of the Thundering Herd!

Yesterday Kaila had to go to the high school & get her schedule, locker, id card & p.e. clothes. I went with her & WOW, things haven't changed too much since I went to school there! As I was standing with Kaila in a line that never ended, I could tell it was not "cool" for Kaila to be standing with her mom. So she went & said hello to friends while I held our place in line. It gave me a moment to glance around at the other students & parents. As I was looking around I found myself comparing me to other parents, what an eye opener that was! When Kaila came back I felt pretty confident that she shouldn't be too embarrassed by her mom & told her about my little survey. She half rolled her eyes at me when I started to explain myself, then I just blurted out to her, "Look at that mom over there in the blue velor sweatsuit, you got to admit I'm better than that!!!" She laughed ... the joys of having a kid in high school!!

Happy Birthday Todd!

Today Todd is 38! WOW! He is taking the day off today, so we get to spend the day together! Happy Birhtday - We Love You!!

What a Deal!

Can you believe I got all of this stuff for only .93 cents out of my pocket?! Crazy, I know!! So I have been following this blog that a friend of mine told me about & it is all about saving money! Now it's not for the weak of heart, it does take a good amount of time & organization, but I dig how much money I am saving! If you are interested check out her blog at:
www.frugalisfab.blogspot.com
It's amazing how many good deals are out there when you learn how to shop the deals!

Where Has the Time Gone?

Wow...can't believe it's been 16 years that Todd & I have been married. Wow, can't believe I'm that old!! Back when I was 16 I was set up on a blind date with this guy Todd, by my friends Eric & Julie Carlson who I always babysat for. Well, he was the ex-boyfriend of Julie's younger sister, and they thought we might hit it off. So, we go on the ultimate first date to the movies, Fabulous 50's Diner and I even think miniature golfing. He was home from his first semester in college & I was a junior in High School. 6 months later, Todd left for his mission to San Juan, Puerto Rico, & I finished my Senior year in high school & went to BYU for a year. When he got home we just picked up right from when we left & here we are 16 years later!
In July we had a little getaway to La Jolla, CA. It was a great time! We walked along the beach, enjoyed the sunset & I even got Todd to go kayaking with me. We kayaked out to the La Jolla Caves & even saw some leopard sharks!

Today while I was doing my soccer run, picking up Kaila & 5 teammates from soccer camp, I get a phone call from Todd & he tells me to stay where I am that he will be there in a minute. So there I sit in my car with 5 sweaty soccer players & he pulls up in his CHP car & we get all kinds of looks from the people still there at soccer. He brings out this Edible Arrangement from the back of his car!! It was great, full of strawberries, chocolate covered strawberries, heart shaped pineapple & grapes. It was yummy & we all enjoyed it (especially Kate!)Happy Anniversary Todd!!

Back In Business

Life is complete again! My computer is back up and running better than before!
I found a new camera that I LOVE (okay, still trying to figure it all out!)
And finally, my knee feels well enough to get back to running (or jogging/walking!)