ramble on...

Celebrating 16

My first born turned 16 over the weekend. That went by WAY TOO FAST. Don't even get me started on how old I feel to say I have a 16 year old now .

To celebrate, we spent the weekend at the Arizona Grand Resort at the fabulous Oasis water park. That place was amazing and we will definitely be back again some time. We invited the neighbors out to celebrate. It was a perfect weekend.

This the the lazy river, which is where I spent a good portion of my time.

This is the 8 story slide that the kids spent a lot of time on. This is a shot of Tatum coming down the slide. She's the little bullet on the right. I think she rode this slide twice as much as Iain.

The whole gang of kids.

After we left the hotel we headed home and made a stop at Oregano's for a little birthday lunch. This is Iain's "personal" pan pizza - loaded with bacon and meatballs. Oh to be young and full of fast acting metabolism.

Happy Birthday Iain. We love you!

summer project

tatum got creative on me and decorated the house with her tech deck dudes. i guess the fireplace makes a pretty good hiding spot for these little guys. this is what happens when you get cooped up in the house during this miserable hot summer we are having. the good news is it kept her busy while i worked all afternoon.

 

oh, and henry helped...

 

permit

my first born earned his driver's permit today. it's a pretty big deal for him. for me, not so much. i'm nervous. and a little worried. and to be honest, i'm not ready to have another driver in the family. it means he's growing up...for real.

i remember when i first got my permit. my mom and dad took me out driving on the empty roads and parking lots around our neighborhood. those roads and lots are now filled with neighborhoods and grocery stores. every time i drive by them i still remember learning to drive. my mom would slam her hands on the dashboard or put her foot (almost) through the floorboard - as if she could control the brakes this way. my dad taught me to parallel park in a church parking lot - in his 79 corvette. i guess he figured if i could park that car i could park anything. and that's the truth. i have this crazy ability to parallel park like a pro...even in the tightest of spots.

so maybe it's time i get over it and let the kid take me for a spin. i'm sure i'll have my hands on the dashboard and my feet planted firmly in the floorboard the entire time. or...maybe i'll let john handle all of that and i'll swoop in at the end and attempt to make him a professional parallel parker like his mama.

(by the way...totally random fact...i won the 7th grade spelling bee by spelling the word parallel. coincidence? i think not).

Happy 4th!

 

Be safe and enjoy your day today!

summer vacay

We just got back from a wonderful (almost) week away in San Diego. The weather was gloomy and a bit chilly and we loved every minute of it. The worst part about the trip is coming home to our horribly HOT weather. It takes a good week to acclimate - so luckily we still have a few days off for the 4th of July holiday weekend. 

We stayed at the Catamaran Resort where the pool was nice and warm.

Spent a day at Sea World.

Had some fun at Belmont Park  where Tatum was finally tall enough to ride the roller coaster. Here she is climbing a palm tree.

 

Her prize was the monkey. Iain won the banana throwing baseballs, which is why he plays soccer. :)

 

Spent some time boogie boarding at Mission Beach...

...where we found TWO sand dollars.

 

Now it's back to the gym because in addition to everything else we did, we managed to eat our way around the entire San Diego area. I'm up 4 pounds, but to be honest, it was worth it.

Happy Summer!
 

the four of us

i don't often get a shot of the four of us these days. we're all busy, kids are growing up and into their thing, i work all the time, john works all the time, we've been sick, etc. it's so easy to push this off until you realize we haven't updated our family photo in a good 4 years. my portrait clients always comment that i must have these fabulous family photos. sadly, nope. and i need to work on that. and then tara posted on her blog about her new personal project of photographing her family 12 times throughout the year (once a month is totally doable) and making a little album out of it.

so...i jumped on that bandwagon, yes i did. 

even though i didn't get a january photo of us, i'm ok with faking it. today was close enough. plus, it's my birthday so that's a fun little memory. we had to wait until iain got home from soccer practice and we were all starving and ready to go out to dinner, but we managed to get it done.

oh, and about the shirts...i had a shoot today with a client who works for the price is right. he found out we're fans of the show (mostly the vintage one...but don't tell him i said that) and he brought over some goods for me and the family. i love little gifts like this! so i thought it would be funny to slip these on for our first photo.

 

some things about us:

iain plays on the jv soccer team and got called up to play on the varsity team during their play-offs. this is a huge honor and he is super excited, even if he sits on the bench. we're super proud of this kid. plus, his grades are all a's and b's, which keep him on the team (our rules)

john finished up his first ever tattoo and it's healing nicely. one of these days i'll get a shot of it and show you. i know my aunts are super excited to see them! :) he waited 43 years to do this and the decision didn't come lightly. he's really happy about it and that makes me happy.

tatum is busy being 8. it's quite the roller coaster ride these days with her in the house. she's all about her outfits and hair and shoes and the perfect accessories. and sneaking snacks out of the pantry without us knowing. except i find wrappers and crumbs and leftover apple skins in my bed. 

i just hit the 60 lbs lost mark this week. i'm enjoying the gym immensely and trying to focus on eating whole foods and staying within my points. every day is a struggle for sure, but it's been totally worth it. i feel so much better these days and that is a huge thing for me. it makes everything in my life run a little smoother. 

so that's that. here we are. the four of us. (and i have no idea what the deal is with the smile on tatum's face. you just never know with that one.).

soccer season begins

i failed to get cute pics of iain after his first practice because frankly, he wasn't happy about bringing the cute. he's a sophomore now and can't be bothered with me and my annoying camera these days. so i'm breaking out the zoom lens on game day and will be back with pictures of him.

until then, here's our little soccer star on our way home from her first practice. this is her first year playing on an all girl team. i think i yelled "keep your hands to your side" and "pass the ball, tate" about 10 times. this is definitely going to take some getting used to her part. should be fun!

birthday boys

someone turned one today...

and someone else turned 15 on friday...

 

as  you can imagine...we partied all weekend long. that's how we roll.

one of us partied a little too much...

one year

i think about her every single day.

i still cry every single day.

i miss her.

i miss her voice.

i miss her laugh.

her hands.

her smile.

her.

i love you, mom.

summertime...and the living is easy...

this was my view last week. i spent almost my entire vacation sitting on a beach chair watching the kiddos play in the ocean. it was fabulous and much needed. we did other things too, but for the most part i stayed near the house we rented and just chilled.

i didn't even take very many pictures. i packed the camera with me but just didn't have the energy to pull it out and use it much. i did manage to get a few of the kiddos on the beach. both of them picked up boogie boarding and had so much fun with it.

i also decided to find out what the hype was about with this whole twilight series. i finished twilight in the car on the way home and have been reading non-stop since then. i just started the third book this week and i'm bummed that i have to get back to work. i feel like such a dorky teenager!

my kiddos go back to school in less than 2 weeks - so we're trying to make the most of summer break before the routine gets back to normal. i'm not looking forward to getting up early again.

hope you're all having a wonderful summer!