Because That's the Kind of Friend I Am

Since I will be out of 'pocket' the next several days doing things that I most assuredly will tell you all about upon my return...I thought you deserved something to look at while you're here.

This is what happens when the punks both sign up to learn instruments the same year. You're welcome.

Last Ditch Vacation

Since we have plans for a big "family" celebration vacation later this year, we decided to take a short vacation with just the punks this past week to San Antonio...one of our favorite places to visit. We decided to make use of our Six Flags season passes and make that our main activity while there.

Just like when I was a kid, our boys really like hotels. We probably could have gone across town to a hotel with a pool...and they would have loved it just as well. We made good use of the pool within an hour of our arrival.

I love watching the punks play in a pool...with everything they have. They seriously love water! I also like to (and this may sound totally creepy, but not intended to in the least) watch their bodies as they swim. They are so unique...and I love noticing the differences in their body structure as they grow and develop. They are beautiful to me.

All boy...and yet stunning...

Every little feature screams "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." And I couldn't help but notice how Steve and I share our eyes with each one of them...the green eyed pair...

and the blue eyed beauties...

We're pretty happy to be their parents...and downright giddy to be away on a little vacation with some of the funnest people we know.

After swimming, we went down to the Riverwalk.

...ate some great mexican food...

did some sightseeing...

...and of course, we had to at least drive by it...

Then back to the hotel for um...play. Seriously one of the reasons the boys love hotels is because I let them jump on the hotel beds...and one of their favorite things to do since they were little boys is jump from one bed to the next seeing how high they can jump.

And of course there's the wrestling.... Like I said...all boy.

Monday morning we got up and went to Six Flags.

I used to love roller coasters when I was a little girl...and even into my twenties. Somehow with age, my body has not followed my heart and I don't handle the coasters too well. I was bound and determined that I would ride some coasters with the boys...part of their enjoyment is seeing me scared and hearing me scream (sounds sadistic, but they love it)...and I wanted to experience it with them. After dry heaving after the first three rides, I decided to just be the photographer for the rest of the day.

This was the boys' favorite ride...Superman. They rode it a total of 9 times over the course of the two days we were there.

I opted out of this ride...for obvious reasons...

Another favorite was Scream...again opting out. Caleb was sure to remind me that this was the same ride where the girl got her feet cut off in Ken-tuc-kee when one of the cables snapped. Thanks son.

Back again on Tuesday...more rollercoasters until the water park opened at noon...

We all rode this together...and although I had trouble getting started, I "beat" because I went the farthest...shocker, I know.

All I could think when I saw this was...wow, imagine how much pee is in there.

I rode this too. The boys tricked me into this...saying it was really a mild ride and that the intertube didn't go very high up on the sides. Uh...wrong. I saw my life flash before my eyes...up on the left....on up on the right...and up on the left...you get it. After I was able to swallow again, I realized that was one of the best feelings I had had in long time.

That night we ate mexican again...shocking again I know. They had a mariachi band that was pretty good...

...and a really weird Davy Crockett mannequin playing the fiddle on top of a replica Alamo wall. I would love to have been in the restaurant planning meeting that day.

Wednesday morning the boys got to do what they wanted to do from the first day at the hotel...use the luggage cart. I'm telling you...they are easily amused.

Before heading home, we went to the Alamodome and watched the Cowgirls in training camp.

We came home...closer as a family and feeling blessed we were able to enjoy so many fun things together...making memories to last a lifetime.

Ahhhh, summer...you never hang around long enough.

I Will Be Better by Tuesday

Dear Cody & Caleb,

In the morning, I will once again stand outside a bus, and wave to you through a tinted window as the bus pulls away headed to church camp. Although I will be holding up my “I love you” sign language, you will wave quickly because not only is it totally not cool to act like you are going to miss your mom, you also have way more important things on your mind. Like getting to the dorm first to get best pick of the bunk beds…and getting your swimsuit on so you can be the first to the lake. You might even make it your mission to be the first to get “blobbed” from your group this week…or decide which candy you will eat your weight in this week from the snack shack.

I, on the other hand, will be quiet for a long time on Monday. Daddy will do his best to take my mind off you leaving, but I will have no part of it for the better part of the morning. I will be quiet, and pray, and cry and hope.

I will be quiet because a part of me is missing this week…and it will be all too silent around the house. I will miss you telling me jokes, and asking me to take you to Six Flags EVERY day. I will miss every little thing that I take for granted on a daily basis…and I will commit to never taking those for granted again.

I will pray because you are being driven there on a big bus by a total stranger in whom I have just entrusted to get you there and back safely…and yet I know that that driver is not in control of your safety. I will pray because I believe there is no better time in a child’s life to hear from God than at camp…and I want that for you.

I will cry because…well, because that’s just what I do…and when I think about this being the last year for "children's" camp for one of you, it gives me one more reminder about how fast you are growing up.

And I will hope…more than anything, I will hope. I hope you will laugh until your belly hurts. I hope you will sing with no thought of who is listening. I hope you will have so much fun that it’s hard to sleep at night. I hope that when you see someone who needs a friend, you will be a friend. I hope for you to be listening…really listening when God whispers in your ear…hope that when you feel led, you will act…, and most of all, hope that you will never, ever be the same again.

Love,
Mama

I Know You Don't Deserve This

I know this is supposed to be Sweet Design Wednesday but I'm so behind on posts, I just decided to throw this one out there because something made me think of it today...and since for about the past 3 weeks I've been having memory issues probably related to this, but possibly related to menopause (since I'm blaming any shortcoming on my part these days on that even though I have no definite evidence that I am entering menopause), any time I think of something that happened in the past, I'm probably going to blog about it...even if it's not a great memory because it's a memory and one day I probably won't have any of those anymore... between the family history of Alzheimers and MS...I'm basically screwed...and yes that was the longest run-on sentence in history...so sue me...I wasn't an English major, but I always did really good in English...or is it 'did really well' in English?...I probably should have majored in it. So anyway, I was reading something today about "kids pooping in pools" and it made me remember the time when my kids were younger...and summers were spent just finding a suitable pool where they could play in the water without drowning and I could either play with them or play with the other mothers that were there because seriously playgroups are more about the moms than the kids...and if anyone tries to tell you differently, they're lying....I am not even kidding.

Anyway, this one day we went to a small community pool that was mostly 1-2 feet all the way through and had lots of things to play on for the kids...like this...

This is around the time Caleb had just finished potty training...so basically it was our first time at the pool with him wearing a swimsuit with no swim diaper. I think you can see where this is going...and it's not going to be pretty.

At some point during my in-depth conversation with my playgroup friends about politics or world peace or 'can you believe that Justin Timberlake left Britney Spears for Christina Aguilera...talk about moving from skank to skankee' and other important things like that, they started blowing the "get the heck out of the pool because someone pooped in the pool" whistle. I was ticked. Why would someone bring their kid that wasn't potty trained and let them loose in the pool when we were all enjoying such a nice play day with our friends and now we're going to have to listen to them all whine and cry because they have to get out of the pool?

I called Cody out of the pool, then picked up Caleb to take him to our chairs to wait out the "cleaning"...and I noticed his swimsuit was a little brown around the bottom edges. Oh my gosh...my precious little munchkin was the pooper! HE CLEARED THE POOL! Did I announce this? Did I apologize? Um, NO. I wrapped him in a beach towel...asked him loudly where everyone could hear..."do you wanna go pee-pee while we have some time to kill?" He was starting to say he pooped in his pants...but I started talking really loudly and walking very quickly toward the restrooms so he couldn't be heard. I would not be that mom. I got him cleaned up...but the evidence was still lingering...if you get my drift. We had to call it a day.

What did I learn from that experience? It was going to be a LONG time before I let the boys go swimming again without swim diapers. Caleb finally talked me out of them for camp last year.