Heart on your Knee?

I have heard of some one wearing your heart on your sleeve, but wearing it on your knee?  

Vincent had a long-boarding accident and we had patched him up with a big band aid. He took it off one day to check it and "Look Ma- I have a heart on my knee!" crazy.  It really does look like a heart!  How often does that happen?

He was thinking of picking the scab to make a scar, but then decided not a good idea. :-)

He is pretty handsome.

SeaFair 2011 = Blue Angels

Blue Angels

My favorite place to watch the Blue Angels fly is on the I90 freeway. 

They close it off and let us stand on the freeway to watch. The only bad part is that they don't let you walk that far down the bridge. Bummers.

Some of my favorite kids and photos of the airplanes. 

He's Back!

Oh the Beautiful Game!

Gary is happy again!

He can Jump and Run and Jump some more!  

His mens team missed Gary, and he really missed them!  I can not say "No" when he wants to play soccer. It makes him so Happy!  And a Happy husband makes everyone else HAPPY!

Wow...should I say Happy one more time? :-) 

Whoops! Ouch!

No worries, he is alright. We are done having children anyways. :-) 

Andrew and I went and watched the game. Well, I think Andrew watched a few minutes. I know my iphone battery was almost dead by the end of the game. 

Let it Burn!

Card Burning Bonfire! 

One more month left of working. August 28th is my official last day working as a Reverse Mortgage Consultant. It is a sad thing for sure. But I decided to have a card burning party at my house. It was fun to have a few people over that I work with. We all have tons of flyers and cards and misc stuff that is no longer good. I recycled most of it. But I saved a few things to burn. We also made paper airplanes out of some of the flyers and competed to see who could make it into the fire. 

I can't wait to see what the next chapter in my working life will bring. 

School then a new Job!  

???

Mt. Rainier/Extra Snow

The Sun finally came out!  

"Quick get in the car and lets go see Mount Rainier! "

When the sun comes out we head to the mountains. It has been a very rainy Summer so far. When we can see the sun we some times skip church and head up the mountain as a family. (It does not happen very often) This has been a tradition that started when I was little. I have some great memories of this trek.  You really have to take full advantage of the sun when you live in the Northwest. We really needed to get some vitamin D for our bodies and our Soul. 

We were able to take one of Andrew's friends, Mathias with us. He is awesome. Fits right in. None of Vincent's friends were available. Oh yeah, he has no friends. :-) 

Notice Gary with his Ipad next to the river. Hmm...And Vincent drove for a long ways. But when the roads started to get windy and steep cliffs off the side we swapped him out of the drivers seat. Gary took over, but he never stops where I want him to. Well he did stop a few times for photos. It was the fastest trip on the mountain. With all the snow we did not have places to walk around and look around. It was very crowded at the lodge also. 

We drove up the Paradise side of the mountain. I have never seen so much snow this late in the year. Usually by now all the meadows are in bloom and beautiful. I really don't know if all the snow will melt this summer before it starts snowing again.  We stopped at Reflection lake and it is surrounded by snow. The kids had fun walking on the snow banks. It made me a little nervous. Not sure if there would be hollow spots that they could fall thru. But all was fine. 

Northwest Trek

On our way home we decided to stop at Northwest Trek. We were done so quick on the mountain that it would have been a shame to not go here on the way home. 

Lots of animals were out enjoying the sunshine also. It had been a while since we did this trip. The kids enjoyed it. But we do not need to rush back. It was very expensive. So once in a while is fine for this trip. 

We will have to give the mountain a little more time to melt all the snow this year. I will be watching for signs of spring up there. :-) I love all the flowers that pop up. So pretty any time of year. Very spectacular even with a small cloud on the top.  

Love you Mountain! Hope to see you again soon! 

Scout Camp!

Scout Camp!

Gary and Andrew headed our for Scout camp with lots of excitement. Andrew is now 11 years old and can finally go on overnights with one of his parents to camp. He was so excited. But I think he was the most excited about being able to use his pocket knife. 

They went to camp Piggot. It was not too far away. That was nice. We thought it was going to be for two or three nights. But it only ended up being one night. Yeah. Gary was very excited about that. Of course we way overpacked. But we packed to three days. Oh well, its all about being prepared. 

They ended up having a great time. Gary said it was very posh for a camp. They had some great Tents for them to sleep in, and they cooked all their food for them. My kind of camping. :-) 

Cabo 2011-Two Weeks!!!

Wow- What a Trip. 

I must admit I have felt a little overwhelmed by making this post. What to do with over 1200 photos that I took? How do I tell the story of what a great time we had? Two weeks is a lot to cover. And I am sure you all do not want all the details. But I don't want to forget them either. And since I am no good at keeping a journal, this is the closest I get. 

Here are some of the highlights of the great time we had. 

I will try and cover the Who- What- When & Where at least. 

Who:

Gary -Vincent-Andrew-Myself! My parents Joy and Jerry also joined us for a fun 10 days! 

What:

Vacation to Sunny Mexico! 

When:  

Beginning of July 2011

Two weeks were perfect. Lots of time to do activities and hang out at the pool and relax. 

Where:

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is at the tip of Baja California. The Very, very tip! 

The Beach

Grandma brought some small kites and the kids had a fun time flying them. They got very high. Andrews took out all the string and Batman went flying out to sea!  We watched him fly away for a long way over the ocean. So sorry for littering. We did not do it on purpose. Grandpa was happy with his chipping wedge on the beach. Lots of area for practicing his golf skills. :-) 

ATV Riding

in the dessert and then to the Pacific Ocean

We had a great time riding thru a dry river bed and followed it to the Ocean. It led us thru a small cattle ranch that was fun. The bulls and cows did not mind us at all. They just looked at us like we were normal everyday visitors. I guess we were in a way. Lots of old dried up cattle bones along the way. They have not had rain for over two years in this area. But I think they did get some the next day for a couple of hours. Grandpa did great riding on his ATV. Andrew rode with me. He is not stupid. He saw how the other boys drove and decided to stay with me for the whole trip. Gary had a close call on his ATV. He was doing doughnuts and had it tip over. I was very happy that no bones were broken. One boy in our group did break his ankle at the end of the trip doing the same thing. They never learn...

A Day at La Paz. 

We drove for about 3 hours to visit the capital of the area. We did get stopped by some armed patrol military men. They did not speak english, so I was glad we had Vincent with us. They had us all get out and they searched the car. Yeah no drugs were found. It helps that there was none with us. I so wanted to take a photo. I had my little camera in my hand even. But I did not want to push my luck with Mexican Military Police. They did not look to friendly. 

We found some beautiful beaches that were not too crowded at all. 

Puerto Balandra is a huge cove about a mile across. You can walk the whole way across even. The deepest part was about chest deep. Not a lot of coral in the cove. So not too many fish. But warm and fun to swim in. Lots of people were kayaking across. 

Telecote was the second beach we went to. What a nice set up it had. It had hardly any tourists there. We were late in the day, so I think what few there were they had left by then. I had suggested we drive to a beach and the car got stuck in the sand. All my fault of course. A nice man helped dig us out. We then went for a short snorkel cruise with him. It was great. We swam with some huge sea lions. It was a little freaky if you asked me. They would swim so close to you they would brush up against your legs unexpectedly. Unfortunetly by then my underwater camera had broken. Lots of fun. It would be nice to go and spend the night in the area to really enjoy the beaches and the town.

Time Share Heaven

We are very lucky to have a few time shares. They let us vacation in style. We also love that they have kitchens and great eating areas. This trip we stayed in two places. 

First we stayed at Playa Grande. Great place with fun pools for the kids. Lots of activities to do with the staff. Very fun atmosphere. We did not stay in our normal room this time. As we switched around the dates. We stayed in a great two bedroom right on the Ocean. Loved it. 

Second we stayed at a brand new place called Grand Solomar. They are still not done building the resort yet. We bought it last year before they had the first phase finished. It was a gamble, but it looked great from what we could tell then. We were right. Very high end and fabulous. All the room look out to the ocean. The pools were very nice. All with those fancy infinity edges looking out over the ocean. It really was top notch. We all felt very spoiled. We had a huge two bedroom with a hide-a-bed for Vincent. 

Pool Time

We had a great small pool right out side of our building. We could look out to it from out porch. We met some very nice people at the pool. Couples from Texas and Georgia and California were our favorites.  We all got along great. Later in the week a few ladies joined us and made some waves that the pool was for adults only. Well no signs were up yet. Everything is so new. But by the end of the week they had them up and the boys had to stop going to this pool. Always a few bad apples in the group. But we only had a few days left and the other pools were awesome also. 

The Beach

Our timeshares are on the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo. The beaches in our area are not safe to swim in. It is even against the Mexican law to swim in them. Every year a couple of people die from the strong currents and rip tides. This year the surfers were coming to our beach. They were fun to watch. But hard to keep telling your kids, you can watch but you can not join them. Just too scary for me. Also the hotel security would not let the patrons go. Eventually the Marine Police came and made them all leave. 

Dolphin Discovery

This was our first time doing this adventure. 25 minutes away in the Marina Puerto Los Cabos is a great new Dolphin pen. In is located in the ocean water and not in a tank like some of the Dolphin places. I was not crazy about supporting dolphins in that environment. I am hoping that this pen in the ocean is a better environment. We had an awesome time. You can tell all of the people who work there really loved the animals.  I will do this again for sure. So fun! 

http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/los_cabos/los-cabos-location-overview.asp

We had a great great trip.  

Zip Lining and snorkeling were lots of fun. No accidents with Jelly fish this year. Yeah!  I was a little nervous and wore a long sleeve swim shirt a couple of times, just in case. 

I am so glad my Mom and Dad were able to join us on this trip. We have been going here for many years.  I would often wish my Mom and Dad were here to enjoy watching the waves with me. I got my wish this year. I am so glad they loved the waves as much as I thought they would. My Dad would sit on the porch and eat his breakfast every morning and watch the waves. They were really fabulous. Gary was not too happy with all the noise the waves made at night. He tried earplugs for a couple of nights even. It was really loud. 

All in all I wish it never had to end. 

I wish I could bring everyone I love to this great place. 

One of the things I love about this place is that I am with my family and the sun shines everyday!  We need that coming from the Northwest. Very very badly. 

My goal is next time I visit I will know a little more spanish. :-)