The Harvest Festival 2011

Once again, I left my Nikon behind. It wasn't on purpose this time, I was actually pretty ticked off at myself. I had to borrow my sisters camera to get what I did and then hound her for weeks to get the pictures to me. (Thanks sis!)

Before Halloween we all headed over to the Harvest Festival at Underwood Farms with my family. We hit it up a second time two weeks later with my mother-in-law, and again, I had no camera.

Argh. I swear my brain doesn't work the same after having a kid.

Sully had a great time feeding the animals, watching the Pig Races, eating snow cones and going down the tractor slide with his Papa. He got to pick out his own pumpkin. The second time around we hit up the corn stand, the sandbox area, the petting zoo and the tractor pull ride.

It was a fun way to kick off fall.

My lovey

Sisters

Pig races

Papa & Sully

Wearing Papa's hat & watching the Pig Races. Go Team Blue!

Mama's boy

Being silly with Yaya

My sister & my dad

I like to be a creeper and sneak up on people taking pictures of themselves

Uncreepified

Tunnels

The house that pumpkins built

The bigguns (It weighed 500lbs!)

Going down the slide with Papa

Cool, right?

Here comes kid #1

Woo hoo!

And here comes kid #2

Choosing his pumpkin

Alright, lets go

Its a keeper

One last honkey tonk to the music and thats our cue to two step on outta there

To the hills

With everything we had going on the past couple months, we decided to take off for a last minute camping trip with my sister and her fiance to clear our heads and get the hell out of dodge for a few days.

And despite one of the hottest weekends on record for the beginning of October, it was still just what we needed. I literally turned my phone off Friday and chucked it in my truck and didn't turn it on again until Sunday afternoon when we were heading back home.

And it was nice. It was real nice.

The first thing Sully did was run for the grassy fields and find a nice big dirt pile to play in with his cars. He made fast friends with the local chipmunks once again and roasted his marshmallows like a pro.

The nights were painfully cold, but there is just something about waking up in your tent, huddled under mounds of sleeping bags with your sticky, dirty kid wedged against you and the smell of last nights campfire drifting through the air. Making pancakes and bacon over an open flame while the mist still lifts up over the hills and the sun starts to peek out.

There is just something about seeing my kid caked in dirt and smelling like grass and bark and sweat that makes me smile ear to ear. About ditching the makeup and pairing ugly ass sweatpants with boots and getting away with it. About shit talking each other over a open flame and wishing somebody knew how to play the guitar because you're one smore away from singing Kumbaya.

I think we all felt a little calmer after the weekend.

Like I said - it was nice. It was real nice.

Rock climbers. What you don't see is the large wall of rock to the right that somebody actually fell off while we were there trying to rappel down. Rescue workers and firefighters ended up on scene after an hour to get the guy out by boat. There was even a rescue helicopter flying above us. Sully was in awe.

(The majority of the pictures are courtesy of Sully, my mini-me photographer. I ditched the Nikon this weekend opting to pack extremely light, so all I had was my 6 year old point and clicker, which Sully commandeered almost immediately after we arrived. With the exception of a few photos, most of these were taken by him.)

Sully taking pictures of himself.

Doesn't Yaya look like she's wearing a tube top? She wasn't. Or was she ...

Sully & Daddy on top of the rock

Climbing up the rock

Climbing up a tree

My little lovey

Hiking is hard work (This kid hiked 3-4 miles, mostly on his own two feet.)

Trees

The stream

The rock pond

The rock pond

Hiking back out we found some pretty cool trucks after the dude fell

Crossing over the bridge

Sully documenting his death march in the 90 degree heat

The hike back

Sully's picture of Yaya

Sully's picture of the camp fire

Getting his smore on

The dirtier they are - the more fun it is.

Just keep swimming

I'm sitting here eating the last Baskin Robbins ice cream mini cake

because, well -

its just been that kind of week.

Last Sunday Shaun got a call from his dad with some very

unexpected news.

Without going into detail right now,

it wasn't good news.

My father-in-law is pretty sick and

hopefully

we'll get more news on the situation

in the weeks to come.

But in the meantime,

please,

keep him and Shaun in your thoughts.

Its been a really rough week for Shaun,

especially being so far away from his Dad

right now.

Four days after we received the news about my FIL,

I went to the doctor for a routine

followup on some tests I had done

from being sick last month.

On a whim, the doctor decided to do a

breast exam ...

and found a lump

in my left breast.

I'm waiting for the referral to go

get some additional tests and an

ultrasound of my boober

done.

And while I'm sure that its

nothing,

my brain hasn't been able but to help going

to that place where it could possibly be

something.

We went out Thursday night

because hell,

if there is any reason to celebrate NOT

having to cook dinner,

and gorging on ice cream -

finding a bump in your boob is

definitely one of them.

My first thought, when she said it -

was Sully.

And not just because he was in the exam

room with me chanting

"Checking Mommy's Boobies" -

hey I said the checkup was on a whim -

but because I'll be damned if

I waited this long to get my

hands on this kid finally,

to end up going anywhere.

I'm not.

End of story.

My wonderful husband has

been amazing, as always -

and let me cry the first night.

Then he slapped my ass and told me

to get my head back into the game.

Done and done.

We found out awhile ago that Shaun would be

losing his job in November.

He was actually suppose to lose it in July,

but he was extremely fortunate to be

offered a contract extension until November.

Five weeks.

And its going by fast.

He's had a couple interviews this past week

and will be going in for a second interview

for one of the jobs.

So cross your fingers and wish him luck.

Or Santa's going to be riding the bus

to our house this year and leasing out

that sled.

They say life is what happens when

you're busy making other plans.

How true that is.

Despite everything that is going on,

we've chosen to look at all of the

positives,

and laugh about the

shit that sucks.

Because thats just how we roll.

And even when you have a

gimpy fin -

just keep swimming ...

Cell phone dump

Our past month of happenings according to my cell phone.

Do I get the packed lunch badge for my sash now?

I'm not going to lie. I get the BIGGEST kick out of making your little lunches every Tuesday and Friday.

This week you got turkey roll-ups, fresh strawberries, a slice of cheddar cheese and for a treat a handful of cheetos. I really think you're going to be stoked about the cheetos tomorrow when you open that bag because you never get them. And you love them.

You will be all the envy of the Early Learners class tomorrow.
The cheetos guarantee it.
Because that's how you roll.

I even love your little bottles of water.

And writing you the notes on your napkins.
I know you won't remember that part.
Sometimes I feel like the silliest things are some of the coolest rights of passage into momhood.
They make up for all the really tough rights of passage all those parenting books just happen to forget to leave out.
Either way, maybe someday you'll read this and know that you never ate without Happy Face napkin.

Love you kiddo.

30 months

Today you had your 2 1/2 year checkup, and, for the first time in 2 1/2 years, you didn't cry.
Except in the car.
Actually you screamed.
You wailed.
You pleaded and begged for me to take you back home.
But once we were inside you took it all like a champ, so we'll forget about that whole pre-exam meltdown you had in the car.
At 30 months you stand 37 1/2 inches tall. But really, you're 38 and some change. I watched her take your height measurements and well, she wasn't very good at it since this was the official first time you got to stand against the chart. Either way, at the official 37 1/2 you still fall in the 90th percentile for height.
You weigh 32 pounds even. And well, you're in the top of the 50th percentile for this.
You're one long, lean string bean who is wicked strong I might add.
Like seriously open a can of spinach Popeye style strong.
You talked to the doctor and nurses for the first time today.
You got a lollipop.
You actually said thank you.
You even gave a terrified thank you after your flu vaccine which was actually pretty funny.
I told you before we went in that if you would go inside and pull yourself together, I would take you anywhere you wanted to go afterwards.
Once we were back in the car you looked like you were thinking.
You licked your lolly and said "Okay. I want to go see my Papa."
I said "You sure thats where you want to go?"
You said "Yeh. I want my Nini and Papa's house."
So off we went. We spent the afternoon there.
You got to play with your Papa and then crashed in the car on the way back home.
You're getting so big. I swear it happened overnight that suddenly your speech is crystal clear. You can carry on conversations. You can pick out which flavor lollipops you want. You don't cry when the doctor asks you questions.

You even made a joke. Your doctor is the name of a color and after the exam, you said as he was leaving "Bye Doctor Orange." and started laughing. Hint - orange is not the color of his name.

Keep growing wicked strong kiddo.