forget the concert... lets get ice cream!

now that chloe can ride bike on her own its so nice to go out for bike rides with her cause she doesn't have those damn training wheels slowing her down... so we went for a cruise downtown to catch a glimpse of the friday night concert going on.

we HAD to stop at the dairy and get ice cream. i've never seen that place as busy as it was on friday night. everybody wanted ice cream and i don't blame them cause their ice cream is super yummy! chloe definitely enjoyed hers:


so many people gathering together to enjoy some tunes... one reason i heart p-town:
then we rode home

'cause i'm one determined woman...

so i kept trying to upload the video from clay's birthday and i couldn't get it to work. i seriously tried like 16 times. i finally figured out what i was doing wrong... i wasn't saving it as a video file. duh? anyways, problem solved. enjoy!

double digits

clay turned 10 yesterday!! he wanted to keep his big day pretty low-key so his best friend spent the night and we went to the new indiana jones movie and fudruckers ( his fav place to eat). then we invited some close friends over for cake and fireworks. it was splendid! happy birthday to my big ten-year old!!

opening presents

showing off his new crawfish
i made a sweet video of the party but i'm retarded and can't seem to upload it. i cant figure it out... sometimes i can upload a video with no problem and other times it won't work... argh! anyways, i tried like 5 times to upload it and its not working so i'm giving up : (

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAY!

we went pickin'

well, we headed out to brentwood to go peach picking again. the kids have lots of fun climbing the ladder and trying to pick out the perfect peach. i think we got plenty of good ones... 19 pounds of peaches! anyone want some luscious peaches.. just lemme know. in other words: "please do not molest the corn..." ha ha ha

i seriously go out to brentwood just for this stuff. they are the best corn nuts ive ever tasted! i picked up an extra bag for a certain friend of mine who likes corn nuts too : )

ha ha ha ha

my pops sent me this video. its awesome.

went on a couple of really rad dates...

thats right. i've been dating. the first date was with La. we went to the fair and... honestly, words cannot describe how much fun we had. well, maybe a few words and some hilarious pictures. check it out here

my other date was with my man. we went bowling. it was sooo nice to spend some one-on-one time with each other : )

his game has gotten pretty darn good... he got a strike and a bunch of spares! he was so stoked!

like mother like son... our snack of choice was nachos, of course!! i swear, sometimes its so unbelievable how my kids are totally just like me. clay asked if we could get nachos before we even got there. yeah!

final score: clay 110 momma 134

bowling just kind of runs in the family. i can remember going to the bowling alley all the time when i was a kid. ma and pops used to bowl in a league ( ma still does) and we would go just for fun as a family. my bro is hecka good too... he puts a rad spin on the ball and he beats me every time! i swear, we should join a family league or something... we would kick ass.

hmm... now i just gotta teach my boy how to play hold 'em... ha ha ha!

holy heatwave, batman!

the kids have a summer camp this week. and by kids i mean: chloe, juniper, avery, and our new friend chase, too. they're all in the same class and we drop them off around 9 and pick them up at noon. it feels kind of weird but incredibly rad at the same time. so ive been having a little spare time to myself in the mornings... today i spent my free time killing spiders in la's backyard. there is some kind of serious infestation going on back there, i tell ya. he he

well, its hotter than heck outside, but we be stayin cool yo.

i finally figured out what i was doing wrong and why i couldnt upload videos off my camera! yeah, im stoked.

bodhi-sitting

chloe and i had the pleasure of babysitting our little friend, bodhi. he really liked chloe... she pretty much entertained him the whole time. and she even got to push the stroller while we went for a nice stroll downtown. chloe's got great maternal skills even though she is heck of rugged and tough. so she had lots of fun pretending to be a mommy for a few hours : )

he is such a good little guy

if i had a hammer...

chloe asked me if i would help her nail 2 boards together. um, sure... but she wanted them nailed end-to-end. that was a bit more of a challenge, but i was up to it. it only took us 5 nails but we got the job done. ha ha ha.

and yes, my daughter has whiskers in the pictures. she painted them on herself. he he.

i miss my man

he's been away for 3 days now. and he won't be back til monday. but he's stoked! he's having a rad time catching some waves and digging for sand crabs. clay was invited to spend the holiday with his best friend's family in seascape. i was nervous about letting him go but he was really excited about it so, of course, i couldn't deny him the right to go along. and he's having a blast. i can hear it in his voice when i talk to him. he told me that him and thomas caught some tiny shrimp and they were the cutest things he's ever seen... ha ha ha. i love it! and i love that my mr. man is growing into a great young man. i'm so proud of him and he continues to amaze me on a daily basis. he is my rock, my angel, and we've been together for almost 10 years now
10 years... wow. that really makes me trip out to think that i've been a mommy for 10 years. its awesome. and i really love it more than anything in the world.

me and mr. man 1998

me and mr. man 2008

pic by lori

can you imagine the adrenaline rush?

this is a cash game. they're playing with their actual money. and this is real. and why i heart poker

good god this looks cool!

fun at the fair

chloe and i went to the fair with some pals. it was $2 tuesday and chloe was free. but that darn wristband for rides was $23 bucks! ha ha ha. the weather was perfect, the nachos & beer were superb, the rides were bitchin', and the company was most excellent! we had a really rad time.

the grand canyon is really, um... grand?

when we got to the grand canyon we pulled over at the first vista point to have our first peak at the canyon. to stand there and look at the vastness and natural beauty of the grand canyon is truly a spiritual experience. you can look at pictures but it really does not do it justice. there just happened to be 3 Buddhist monks at the same spot we stopped at. my bro recognized the language they were speaking and told me they were from Thailand. i love the fact that people from all walks of life come to visit the grand canyon... it just makes me smile.

dude, i love my brother. he can make me laugh and laugh and laugh.
"hey, bro... take a picture with me."
"okay."
he turned around at the last minute. he did it on purpose.

this is me about to throw my little brother into the grand canyon. ha ha ha

um, yeah... duh? its not a wishing well, people...

okay, here's some pics of the grand canyon:

one thing i learned on this trip is that kids are never too old for a leash of some kind. i wish i woulda had one for chloe. that child would not stay away from the edge of the path... and by the "edge of the path" i mean a drop-down-into-the-fricking-grand-canyon kind of edge. yeah, i was scared and i pretty much kept my eyes glued to chloe when we were out hiking.my poor dad didn't enjoy the grand canyon very much... he got vertigo every time he would look over the edge and he really didn't like it when one of us went close to the edge.

it was heck of fun to sleep in the Rv. well, actually i didn't sleep very well at all but it was fun cooking and eating outdoors and looking for little critters with the kids and watching movies inside the Rv and playing cards. that kind of stuff was awesome!

the second day that we were there my pops offered to watch the kids while my mom, bro, and i went for a hike to see some more of the grand canyon. i was stoked! i didn't really get a good chance to really enjoy the canyon cause i was watching the kids like a hawk. it also gave me a chance to take some pictures :AND i got to horse around with my bro some morenice pose, craiga very nice Samaritan took a pic of us
okay so we all know i have a somewhat adventurous side.(which is yet another trait of mine that my daughter seems to have inherited.)

so i had to get a little daring and some fun while enjoying the grand canyoni believe i can flyit sure is a long way down. ha ha ha

woot!

my dad doesn't like this picture. it kinda freaks him out.

i had a really wonderful time with the fam on this trip. i appreciate that my parents do this kind of stuff. they've always provided my brother and i with the best vacations and now they are giving that gift to my children as well. my family is definitely dysfunctional... but i love the heck outta them : )