Fourth of July

We had a really fun Fourth! We spent the morning at a very cute, hometown parade.  A lady was kind enough to lend her extra chair situated right in front to the kids.  The Boy got to high five the Statue of Liberty.

They also saw a number of Disney characters including The Incredibles, Peter Pan, Mickey and Minnie, and Mary Poppins.

After the parade, we had burgers at a local dive.  It was soooooo good.  Then I took the Boy to see Despicable Me 2 at the theater while The Man and the Girl did some shopping.

We skipped the big fireworks show over the ocean because it's late and the fog rolls in making it hard to see anyway.  We stuck to sparklers and snap pops in our back yard. Great day!

Birthday Girl!

The Girl turned three.  She is just not my little baby anymore.  She is excited that she is now old enough to go to preschool and dance class.

We celebrated at home. Balloons, birthday ribbon, banner, white cake with purple and pink frosting, and her choice of dinner - McDonalds.

She has been wanting a doll, but I am not quite ready to drop the cash on an American Girl version.  I got her some other brand and she loves it. She also got a ton of Hello Kitty stuff from Aunt Jo and Minnie Mouse stuff from Grandma and Grandpa.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl.  We love you to death!

More From Bora Bora

 I ate this chocolate custard thing every day..........for breakfast.  I want to live in whatever country serves this at breakfast.

 Seriously. It looks like this.

 Tamara's view from the hammock.

 The bathroom signs at the resort. We got a kick out of these.

 If I get to go back, I would definitely stay at the Intercontinental Thalasso again. 

Vacation of a lifetime.

Ia Orana!

My lovely sister-in-law and I left the husbands and the children at home and went to Bora Bora for a week.  Since this is almost entirely a place for honeymooners, I think a lot of people assumed we were married.  Having the same last name as her (as we married brothers) didn't help.  But we didn't care. Here we are about to depart from LAX.

 When our boat reached the island, we were greeted by this guy announcing our arrival.

This is the tiare flower.  They give one to you on the airplane. They make leis out of them.  They were fresh in our room every day.  They are at your dinner table. They smell so very good.

 Our room was its own over-the-water villa.  This was the view out the window of the bedroom.  Of course I made Tamara pull out the Tebow.  That picture is not altered at all.  That is the color of the water there. 

 And this is the view from the deck off our villa.

 It was nice to just hang on the deck.  In the sun.  Looking at the unbelievable water.

 And to read a book.  I read two in four days.  The Professor and the Madman was particularly good FYI. Thanks Deborah for that recommendation long ago.

Second to staring at the water, was being able to jump into it right off your room.  It was only about six feet deep and was the temperature of a perfect pool.  Not too warm, not too cold.  Refreshing.

Looks lovely all times of the day.

 We spent a half morning at the resort spa where I got a pearl rain massage.  Imagine taking a warm, soothing shower lying down while getting the best massage of your life. Yep.  We both also did a body wrap.  I have to make a quick note about the "disposable undergarments" they gave you to wear during your treatments.  They were purposeless.  They covered little and were see through.  I couldn't even tell which way you were supposed to put them on. Kind of funny. When we were all finished, we were allowed to use the spa grounds the entire rest of the day.  That included this pool which beat the living daylights out of your neck and shoulders.

We also visited the only public beach on Bora Bora.  Matira Beach. I did a little photo editing to this, but that's just silly because...

 ...the water actually looks like this.  Actually it looks better than this.  It is unreal. You can walk a long time before you get in over your head.

The third day we went on a half day Jeep tour of the island.  We climbed up pretty high at times and got amazing views like this.

The final two days we were toooooootally lazy.  We became pool rats.  And with a pool like this, can you blame us?

We met this guy - Mario.  Mario the pool boy.  Mario doesn't like reading.  He didn't like us sitting there reading either.  He kept teaching us how to do different things...

 ...like make these gorgeous Tahitian floral crowns out of those tiare flowers I mentioned earlier.

 And he taught us how to weave a purse and also hats (like the one he's wearing).  The pool boys were fun. On our last day, one of them paddled us all around the lagoon.

 A few notes on my travel companion.  Doesn't she look like a 50's bathing beauty in this picture? I mean minus the smartphone in her hand.

 Yeah, she's hot.  I didn't mind people thinking we were lesbians. Seriously, there were the natives, three visiting families, and us on that island.  Everyone else was a honeymooner.

 And at the end of the trip, she bought me this ring and bracelet that I saw and said I liked.  So now I think we really are married. She's great.

 *sigh*

 I want to go back and order room service this time. It's delivered by canoe to your deck - by a woman and the pool boy, Fred.  Really, his name was Fred.

 *sigh*

Mauru' uru Bora Bora.

Closing Day

 

I have no idea why I can't get this picture to post in portrait.  Anyways, today was the Boy's last Tball game. It was a pretty good season considering it was his first. I think we will definitely do it again next year.  He was excited to play against his little buddy from basketball season, too!

 

 

Hiking

 

Took this picture before we started our hike this morning. Little did we know id lose the keys on the hike. Luckily I left the car windows open enough for us to use a stick and break in, get the phone, and call the neighbors to bring us the spare. Im blogging from the car while The Man hikes back up to find them.

School of Fish

I got this handprint craft idea from my parenting group and decided it would make a great end-of-year gift for the Boy's teacher.  I pulled all the kids out of class yesterday while she was off doing testing and got their handprints.  I took it home, turned all their little hands into fishies (and two crabs at the bottom), and brought it back at the end of the day to surprise her.  The kids were so excited to show her and she loved it! Click on the pic to zoom in.

Mother's Day

The Man got me these beautiful flowers for Mother's Day. We were also served a full lunch at church.  Not bad.

Splash Mountain

Son, father, grandpa.

Three generations of scardy-cats.

I'm Going to Disneyland!

The Man had the week off so we pulled the Boy out of school Thursday and Friday and headed down to L.A.  Grandpa came to join us, too. We decided one day at Disneyland would be plenty for the kids.  Sure enough, it wore them right out.  We saw Mickey right away.  The Girl got to meet Minnie.  The Boy decidedly liked roller coasters - Splash Mountain in particular.   The weather was absolutely perfect and the crowds weren't all that bad.  We had a wonderful time!

Looks Like I Got Punched

I have horrible teeth.  My most recent adventure in fixing them is having an implant.  This is what my face looks like 5 days after the first step. 

Pretty, huh?

Memory of the Boy

One thing I want to remember about the Boy at this age is his gift for gab.  He loves to talk.  More than that, though, I want to remember that he seems nearly incapable of speaking while sitting. Often he walks in circles while telling a story. If he has something to say at the dinner table, he almost always stands up to say it.  He stands up and plops down multiple times during dinner.  He is standing next to his food right now to tell me that the Girl is spilling sauce down her face.