A Little Shout Out

Katrina, why didn't we take a picture together while you were here?!  Grrrrr....that was completely negligent of me.  I am so grateful my New York friend came to visit.  And when I had to leave her here alone so I could dart off to church, true to form, she was cool with that.  Thank you for coming!

I miss all of my New York friends greatly.  Sending you love and sunshine from California.

First Day in the First Grade (clap)

 Back to school!!!! Hallelujah!

Dance Class

I have already become a soccer mom. I am now becoming a dance mom. 

 The Girl has been asking me to put her in dance class for 6 months.  I told her she had to wait until she was three and fully potty trained. 

We started today and she was done with it after 30 minutes.  She was a little afraid to be without her mama for so long, but I talked her into finishing up. She said she didn't want to go back, but I've already paid for two more lessons.  So....she's going.

Hives

This is how we found out the Boy is allergic to penicillin.  After putting him on it for a gum infection above the loose tooth we (somewhat tragically) had to pull, he developed this lovely rash on the plane home.

First Tooth

It was a long, slow, semi-traumatic experience.

Memorial

I'm not certain I want to remember this day forever by putting it in my blog.   But significant moments are a part of life even if they are sad, and I want to remember the significant moments.

I only have a brief thing to say about my father's memorial service.  It was a hard day.  It was harder than it should have been. I'm grateful for what closure it brought to me.

For My Dad

My father died today. I don't know how else to commemorate this day other than to just write it here.  He was eighty-eight. He always said he would live to be a hundred, and I believed him.  So it was a bit of a shock to hear.  It makes me all the more grateful for the one year we lived in St. Louis.  Of all the places The Man could have chosen and gained admission, we ended up in the place where my father had just moved two years earlier. Who knew he would only have one more to live after that?

He had a lot of faults, but he was a good father and I look forward to seeing him again one day.

Summer Goings On

This summer has been somewhat busy.  Here's a bit of a recap:

The Boy had soccer camp for a week and weekly practice for the rest of the summer.  At camp, he got to shoot goals with a soccer playing goat while wearing the ginormous T-shirt the camp provided.  I don't even know why they bothered to ask me his shirt size.

We all went to the zoo.

We borrowed the neighbors power wheels every time they went out of town.

The Boy and the Girl are both in swim lessons and having a blast. 

  We are spending time at the beach where the Boy learned to boogie board and is testing out his surfing skills.

And we went to the dentist.  :)

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.