Hot MamaJama

Reid Park Zoo...bright & early this morning! Grandma & Grandpa joined us! And Tim got to go...that's always better on field trips! (I just love my parents in the background of this picture holding hands...too cute) Animals were seen, played in & fed! A picnic at the park and a stroll through the rose garden and we were headed back to CG!

Saturday the 5th we had a big get together at my parents house...on our way there we stopped at a yard sale in my parents neighborhood. We ended up buying a very cool porch swing. We all got to enjoy it Saturday, but we haven't gotten it from parents backyard to our porch yet...someday we will I guess. So Sunday we made it to Vegas. There's so much to see and everything is larger than life. So big and bright and so much going on all the time! Wow. We had a blast...we always go around acting silly when we're without the kids & don't have to be the responsible ones. :-) In M&M World I posed with the yellow M&M which we all know is a peanut M&M, which we also all know are the best kind! We watched a 3D M&M movie...we acted shocked for some reason with the 3-D glasses on. Then we headed over to Coke World and ordered "Cokes Around the World". Which is 16 various Coca-Cola products from lots of different countries. We all sat around sharing them...

I like the fall. Of course Friday didn't feel much like fall. It was very warm (might have reached 100). But it was the day my sister & Mom & I had all planned to go to do a fall activity! Dawson had a great time! We all did, but he seemed to just revel in the animals and hay & outdoors! Ella really enjoyed herself, despite the fact that we spent her entire nap time outside in the sun! It took her awhile to warm up to riding a pony, but once she did, she must have ridden one about 6 times or more!

It's totally weird & unexpected, but the 4 day vacation up to Show Low was one of our best vacations ever! Even Tim said that was true for him. It was nothing spectacular, just good, clean fun! Relaxing, yet not boring. Fun, yet not busy. And the kids all behaved & got along...maybe that's what made it awesome! Plus the fact that we hadn't done too much as a family for a year due to Tim's hospitalizations, sicknesses & lack of vacation time left. We went to a very fancy restaurant. Savannah had been learning in school about etiquette in a place like this, so she was able to practice it & keep the boys in line. This place also had a live band out back, so afterwards we went out there & sat around the fire and danced a little. We all played frisbee golf. Tim grilled our dinners while I sat on the porch & read. The kids played games outside. Tim joined them in several hide-and-go-seek games, which they thought was cool. He did some pretty impressi...

No matter what I do, my children just keep getting older! I tell them they aren't allowed to. I don't give them big parties. Nothing works. :-0 I so vividly remember the first days with him in our family. Savannah & Hunter were thrilled to have a baby in our house. My little thumb sucker. I have to say, Dawson is just so full of life & personality & odd thoughts & sayings. He's very imaginative and thoughtful & caring and the next minute he's pestering someone out of their mind! He's unpredictable most of the time. He will always find the loop-hole to the rule & find a way to do something naughty that there wasn't a rule made up for yet. He makes me want to pull my hair out most days...but it's that passion that makes me crazy about him too. Last night we went to Rustler's Rooste for dinner with my in-laws to celebrate. ...