::this last week::

As per the usual, this was a crazy busy week with lots of work to get done.  Not the best week I've ever had (someone hit my car and dented it in a parking lot and then drove away, I almost had to fire someone, etc. etc.)  but it was also the kind of week where we got a lot of stuff done.

Week before last I got an awesome new cast iron crock pot for making roasts.  Sunday it got to make it's first roast.  A roast cooked in a yellow pan automatically tastes better than one in a boring old pan.

Right?

It really did turn out yummy.  I always feel like I did something right when I can actually manage to feed the kids something I made.  Not something that happens too often in my life right now, so we enjoy it when it does.

Here's Lucy and mom.  I think this was Monday afternoon.  Yes, that sounds right.  Sandy didn't feel well on Monday and so he was lying on one of the couches watching movie and after movie, and at this moment I was keeping Lucy company on the other couch while she had a snack.  Monday was a bit of a long day, but Sandy was feeling better by the afternoon, so that was nice.

Sandy did some awesome creative lego building this week.  This was a star destroyer.  I love all the details and small pieces he put in there.  In the back someplace is one of batman's throwing bats.  He was very proud of this creation.

I think this was also the day he decided to draw all over himself with a black marker--bones.  He's certainly not the first kid to do that in the history of the world.

I feel like I spent most of this week either working on work stuff until my eyeballs fell out, or cleaning up people's toys.  But I guess I did do some taxiing, driving people around to where they needed to be.

On Wednesday between school pick up and when we had to take Max back out to go to swim (which is only like an hour), we took a quick detour through the McDonald's drivethrough for some ice cream cones.  By Sandy's request.

This made Lucy very very happy.

Very very VERY happy.  And look how impressively long her tongue is.

It's honestly hard to say no to these cute little faces.  Max had already inhaled his, and was probably off doing something instead of his homework at this moment.

Later in the week Max and Sandy did some more movie making--This was while they were working on "Tickle Me Sandy."  It turned out super cute and hilarious.

I like it when Max includes Sandy and Sandy is actually willing to play along.

Max's cinematography and editing are slowly getting better.

On Friday Max didn't have school, which was lucky because we watched little one year old cousin Cole for most of the day.  Max was the one in charge of watching him, and was excited to work and make some money, as he's saving for a new ipad.

Unfortunately after a really great start at the babysitting job there was an injury.  Max had already started the day by taking Lucy and Sandy and Cole all in the living room and playing with them.  Then during breakfast Cole was wandering around.  Max went to retrieve him from the laundry room and on the way slipped on a baby toy and fell pretty hard.  He hit the back of his head on the door jamb when he fell and really bruised up the back of his head.

Youch!  And that was when it was pretty fresh.  When he was passing the sacrament today I could see behind his ear and it looked totally black and blue.  Poor guy!

This took all the starch out of him for a while and I had to nurse my babysitter back to health.  Eventually he got it back together.  He was a real big help for me that day because I still had a lot of work that had to get done (of course, as usual!) so it was nice to have such a helpful guy to lean on.

Saturday morning I got to go on a bike ride downtown which was super fun, then we ran a bunch of errands, did laundry and worked hard on a bunch of other saturday type stuff.  Ignore the toys all over the floor behind me!

One of our errands included Target where we found some mystery minifigure packs.  Sandy was such a good sport when he got this adorable ballerina.  He actually really like her (much to my disappointment--I was hoping to trade him for her!)  He took her right over to the lego table to play.  Max got an poor injured guy on crutches that had slipped on a banana peel.

Sandy spent most of the day Saturday playing with our playmobil collection.  This made me happy because they boys just don't play with those toys that much.  They're just so cute, they deserve more attention!

These kids were all out on a trip in the camper.  I think the one in PJs with bare feet is Sandy.  Not sure who anybody else is.

I'm glad we survived this week.  It was even a good one from time to time.  Mostly because of our cute little family.  They drive us crazy and they're a lot of work but they sure make life better--in all ways.

::speaking of...::

Speaking of little girls that love their daddies, we were taking some family pictures on Easter Sunday and some cute stuff happened.







































First of all, there were these cute little guys in their easter outfits. I have to say, one of the things I enjoy most as a mom is picking the kiddo's clothes and dressing them.  It's a little bit like playign with dolls I think.  I really love doing it.

Look at this little goofball!  He's cute and he thinks he's funny.

Then the Lucy grabbed her daddy, and it was all over for me.
Oh little Lucy, you sure do love your daddy.  And your daddy loves you.  So much!

Lucy kisses are the best.  Especially when she's laughing and kissing.  I was just snapping away as this happened, hoping desperately that it wasn't too bright out and that I was catching what I was seeing with my eyes!

Love these two.  So much!

::poor little lulu::

Poor little Miss Lu was so sad yesterday.  Dad came home from work and then took the big boys with him to guitar lessons.

Sandy told her she was too little to go, and that--on top of Dad leaving--broke her poor little baby heart and the big lip came out and everything.

I love little girls that love their dads.  Too cute.

::toesies::

 I got a piano book that has a bunch of songs from Tangled, Frozen and Enchanted.  Lucy was very happy with me about that.  She was thrilled that we could play her favorite song from Tangled (albeit slowly and badly).  After I got done playing (which didn't take long since she wanted to "play along" the whole time), I went to do something else.

When I came back to the guitar room, there was Lucy, trying her best to play the song.  In her little "Let it Go" nightgown and with her darling little toesies sticking out.

Think she might let me teach her to play piano at some point?  Nobody else has yet.  We'll see I guess.  Maybe if I ply her with enough Disney showtunes she'll have no choice but to learn.  I'll keep trying.

::sandy haircut::

We don't document every single haircut because not only would that be boring but it would also be silly.

However, a haircut like this one does deserve some attention.



Sandy had been cultivating the Luke Skywalker hair for quite a long long time.  He was very proud of it, and refused to even think of cutting it for a long long time.



As it got longer and bushier though, I had to insist on grooming it more often.  And I think maybe Sandy inherited a soft and tender head from his parternal grandmother.  He can't STAND having his hair brushed if it's in the slightest bit tangly.



So we came to a decision between the two of us.  It was time for the long locks to go.  So we went to see Patrick.  Sandy was pretty stoic about the haircut, although he did keep saying "I sure hope we're almost done."



And he may not actually trust Patrick at all, when it comes down to it.  But anyway, it's done, and the new haircut is cute and short and easy and he's delighted that we don't really have to do anything to it at all.



But I have to say he does look like a different kid, and that's always a little fun but also a little sad at the same time.



And then here are the goofballs.  Such silly people.



We went to see Zootopia together right after hte haircute and it was super fun.  I like these littles.

::::

On Weds I had to take the car down to the dealership in Albuquerque for some servicing.  Sandy got to come with me.  He's getting some special treatment as he tries to recover from his tonsillectomy.

We went to Target (of course, when don't we go to Target?).  He really wanted a hot dog, but it was breakfast time.



I offered him a slushy, but he turned it down.  It's insane.  He's been all treated out almost.  It blows my mind a little bit.  ANYWAY, we walked over to the cafe so I could get him a hotdog.  That's when we spied these delicious cinnamon pretzels.  He told me later that he saw them and thought they were doughnuts.  "So weird!" he said, "Who eats doughnuts for breakfast?!"



But really Sandy, the real question is who eats hot dogs for breakfast?

We got home in time to pick up Max from school, and the car is all refreshed, so it was a succesful trip.

::new building update::

These aren't even good photos, frustratingly, but they're the best I could do when I was driving down the road!  Or maybe I think Max took these for me?  Same problem though--questionable quality.

The walls and ceilings and everything are all up!  They put the stucco on the outside of the building which is exciting!  The scaffolding is up there because that big wall that sticks out there is going to be painted an exciting bright orange.



It's so crazy to see the building going up, to realize how humongous it is, and also realize what a frighteningly huge project it is!  Yikes!

We're excited because the location is awesome and super visible.  It should be great for marketing.  And the building is going to be so fun looking.

I'll try to get a few more photos next week, and maybe some interior photos!!

::day one Costa Rica::

Day one!  Of course the kids were up early so we weren't late for breakfast.
Our routine was pretty much the same every day on this trip which made it easy.
Here we are on our way to breakfast.  We had breakfast at the hotel every morning--a small one, basically just fruit and toast.



We came to breakfast early and ready to go to the beach.  Right after breakfast we would go over to the board locker, or the "board room" which is what Kris liked to call it and get things together so we could walk over to the beach.  It was maybe a 10 minute walk down a bumpy rutted dirt road to a jungle path, past a little weird cemetery.



Kids sure do love getting sunscreen applied, they're usually so cooperative too.



Oh boy, Lucy was ready and raring to go.  She was excited to wear the little swim outfit that the Surf Diva ladies picked out for her.

Below is the whole group.  On the far left is Izzy, she's one of the owners of the surf shop in La Jolla that runs the camp, and she was in charge of everything.  Her daughter Annabelle is standing in front of her.  Annabell LOVED Lucy and spent lots and lots of time playing with her which was nice.


Next to Izzy is Eki.  She's a native Costa Rican and was there to teach the kids.  She was very kind and gentle with the kids and they had a great time with her.  Halfway behind Kris is Todd, Izzy's husband.  He was only able to be there for a couple of days.  The guy with the HAIR there is Steve, he was Kris's and my surf coach, and he was great.  Super kind, really unintimidating and a good teacher.  We had a lot of fun with him, and Sandy loved him more than words could say.


And there we are.  Kris and I traded off taking lessons.  We had a two hour session in the morning and a two hour session in the afternoon.  Theoretically if there weren't littles to watch we would've had a two hour group lesson for every session. But since we DID (and do) have the littles, we decided to just switch off.  And becuase of the amazing fact that we were the only family there, we each got to have privates for half the session.

I had a great first surf session and got to stand up which I hadn't accomplished yet.  I was so excited!  It was pretty thrilling to pull it off.

After the surf session we went back to the hotel and rinsed off and had a bigger breakfast/brunch.  Eggs, rice and beans, plantains.  Oh yum it was good.  Especially after all of that physical activity.



Since this was the first day, after breakfast we took a little tour of the town (town is a strong word--village maybe?)  The kids got some ice cream and I got dropped off at my yoga class--yoga was another thing that was included on the daily schedule.  Kris and I decided to switch off on that too.

By the time I got to yoga I had an insane heat headache and I thought maybe I wouldn't survive.  But I drank a lot of water and powered through.  It was a great class but it really made me tired.  When I went back to the hotel Lucy fell asleep on me and I got a little nap, again something that feels so incredible after working so hard!

Luckily the hotel room did have a cooler, so that kept me going that first day.


After the break we got all ready again and headed back down to the beach for the afternoon surf session--usually around 3 or 3:30.

The kids somehow both squeezed into the stroller.  Amazingly because they're both big, but also amazingly because they can't be in the same space without trying to push each other out usually.

This fisheye photo is the cutest ever of Lucy.  She's such a good sport.  Evidently life was just a little too bright for Mr Sand.



And pretty bright for Ms Lu too I guess.



Fashion plate:


Sandy was vehemently against doing any surf lessons. I knew he would eventually give in, so I didn't push him.  He just played in the water the first day and really enjoyed himself.



Lucy was a little better in the afternoon, but she spent the whole morning of the first day scaring the living daylights out of me and trying to join the mermaids at the bottom of the ocean.  Being a two year old, she naturally thinks she's invincible.  And she's a super brave little girl.  Nothing slows her down.  So I just had to follow her and pull her back out of the water when she got too deep, pick her up quickly before a wave took her out and try to talk her into staying closer to the edge of the water.  It was impossible.



Luckily she settled down some in the afternoon though, and we were able to have a better (less stressful for me) time.



Sandy HATED the beach at this age.  He was afraid of the water, he hated the feeling of the sand.  Everything was scary--and sorry, I can't help but insert a illustrative photo here:
Oh man he was so cute!  And he hated the beach so much!!

But the point of this story is that I'm proud of us!  We worked him through his issues and he loves the beach now.  He's comfortable in the water and he's happy to be there.  It makes me feel good.



The baby footprints!!


Another good surf session!  We are back at the board room here. We were supposed to hurry and get cleaned up so we could head out for dinner at a local place.



But look at these guys.  Think we wore them out?????  Holy cow these kids look tired.
I also think this may have been the day that Kris tipped them both out of the stroller on a little sand hill.  They weren't too happy about that.







We did make it to dinner, and it was delicious.  They also had photos of the beach from a local photographer running as a slideshow up on a monitor.  We were in a few of the photos which was really fun for the kids.

This huge bug came to visit a neighboring table and Max ran over to get a picture.



After dinner we all collapsed into bed as quickly as possible--I was soooooo tired!  In a good way though.