It's Noon....and I'm still in bed.

Guess where I am right now. You already know I'm in bed from the title of this post so I'll give you that one. But guess where the bed is that I am in........Give up? It's in a Marriot hotel. Downtown. On the 14th floor. Do you know what that means? It means that I woke up this morning when my body told me to, not when I heard a toddler crying for a sippy or cracked my sleep deprived eyes open to see a face six inches away from mine requesting pancakes, to which I always groggily answer, "Go eat some Goldfish Crackers, I'll be down in a little while." I know...Mother. Of. The. Year. Anyway, this morning I woke up around 10:30, ate some donuts, in my bed under the down comforter, then licked my sticky fingers and turned on my iPhone to read my Kindle book without interruption for the next hour or so. Then it occurred to me, this is an experience worth writing about! So here I am shamelessly bragging about being in bed, at noon on a Saturday, without anyone needing anything from me, besides maybe the peanut M&M's in the fridge who clearly need me to devour them...hold on. Ok, I'm back! Frozen chocolate and peanuts will only serve to inspire my writing so let's say, really, I'm eating them for you. If I'm inspired this will be more interesting for you to read so I'm consuming frozen, crunchy bits of heaven in an unselfish effort to entertain my readers (are you out there?) more fully...you're welcome.

So this whole blogging-in-bed-at-noon all started almost 6 years ago when our beloved babysitter Nikki came for the first time. That night started a tradition of her coming to stay with our kids every Friday night while we went out on our weekly date. We started talking way back then about how when she turned 18 she would stay with our kids while we went on a vacation. Fast forward to the past few months. We knew she was leaving. We knew it would be in September so we've been thinking about where we could go so that our kids could have their parentless weekend that they have been eager about for years (Nikki's WAY more fun than us!). Then, about a month ago, Nikki broke the news to us that she has to leave on July 23 for a family reunion and then head straight to college to begin an Anatomy class that she has to fit in and it starts at the beginning of August. She's getting a degree in Nursing and I tried to explain that we are WAY more important than knowing where someone's body parts are, but unfortunately she didn't buy it and we've been grieving ever since. Well as you can see that little announcement put our long awaited "weekend getaway" at the top of our priority list and we decided all we really needed was a comfortable bed in a decent hotel, some good books, good restaurants, and a movie theater and we would have what we really wanted...complete relaxation! Yesterday we packed our bags, kissed the munchkins goodbye and drove away a little bit giddy at our new found extended freedom. We ate, we shopped, we napped, we went to the store at 10:30 at night and filled a cart with an embarrassing amount of junk food that we wouldn't have to share and we ate it in bed while watching a movie. Really, it was like another honeymoon...well, with stretch marks and cellulite that didn't accompany my 19 year old body back on our first honeymoon.

So that brings us to this morning. Blogging in bed. I have no worries about what's going on back at home. Nikki loves my kids as much as I do. Yesterday she took them to a local beach, today she was making them strawberry and whipped cream waffles with who knows what adventures to follow. I love my kids but time apart from each other makes us all that much happier (and saner) to be reunited. Today Matt and I will read, nap, maybe go see a movie, find a really good steak house, break out the Double Stuff Oreos and remember what it was like to just be us...delicious! Tomorrow we go home to most likely lake induced sun-kissed noses, abundant hugs and non-stop jabbering about the adventures had in our absence.

We will also go home to the realization that this was it. This was our last regular Friday night with our beloved Nikki. Sure she'll come back, and I text her all the time, and we've already contemplated a Hawaiian vacation that includes her, seeing as she is part of the family and all...but it won't be the same now. She'll become a nurse, no doubt one of the best, and she'll marry her missionary when he returns and she'll have her own kids and will make THE MOST amazing mom! But we will ALWAYS remember when she was my kids' "other mom", back when they were little, and we'll thank our lucky stars that she was (and hopefully always will be) part of our family!

And now I'm going to go drown my sorrows in another donut, in bed, because calories don't count on vacations!

Power of Moms Retreat...

Well, it was supposed to be an uninterrupted night of sleep but my sis and I are both used to kind of flat pillows so the fluffy spa pillows made it a little hard to sleep. It was nice to wake up and not have to make breakfast for anyone though! We reported to the welcoming portion of the retreat and started making new friends. I have to say that this particular activity was really hard for me. I HATE meeting new people!!! I never know what to say. I am shy and hate to be the first one to say hello to someone. When I found out I had to leave my sister's side and go mingle I panicked a little but she said, "You'll be fine. It's good for you!" and we parted ways. We were supposed to eat breakfast at a table where we didn't know anybody. We dished up our breakfast from the way too healthy and not very tasty spa buffet and got down to business getting to know each other. It was refreshing to see that I am not the only one feeling completely overwhelmed by motherhood!

(Allyson, April, Saren, Ummm....can't remember her name-retreat attendee, Shawni, and Linda)

Our classes started after breakfast and I started to feel more comfortable. I tell you each of those classes was exactly what I needed! I'll go into more of what I learned in my next post but being there among those women was so inspiring. Linda Eyre, who I have practically worshiped for years, spoke to us first. She was followed by her equally impressive daughter Saren and Saren's amazing friend April. They are the ones who started Power of Moms. Allyson followed them and had us all laughing till' our sides hurt while uplifting us at the same time. That night we had dinner discussions at different tables and I sat in on one that discussed getting the whole family to help with household chores (you bet I'll be sharing what I learned!). I ate the most delicious portabello stuffed ravioli with a macadamia  nut pesto sauce...DIVINE! It was followed by chocolate mousse...DELISH! Too bad all of the spa food wasn't like that! Afterwards we played games on the lawn like a bunch of teenagers which was a lot of fun!

Then Amber and I vegged in our room and watched a movie, an entire movie with NO interruptions, all the way through and got better sleep without the pillows.

The next day we opted out of the 7am hike (if there's no little bodies waking us up we were sleepin' in!) and got smoothies at The Orange Peel before heading to our first class on Family Systems presented by Linda, Saren and Shawni. Only THE perfect family to present that particular discussion! I have to admit that along with a case of "Linda worhip" I also have a case of "Shawni worship" so it was so fun to meet her after having read her blog daily for so long! Let me tell you she is just as tall and beautiful in real life as she is in pics and she is so stinkin' sweet!

(I gotta say-Standing next to beautiful, tall Shawni tends to make one feel a bit short and frumpy!)

 Next came a panel discussion on Picking Your Priorities and then lunch and a break. The retreat ended with a class from April, Queen of Organization, on her new Mind Organization for Moms system. Wow! You really do have to check it out! If you are like me and suffer from a severe case of "Mommy Brain" than this is exactly what you need...Brilliant! Then we took lots of pictures, said our good-byes and the retreat was over.

(I stole this pic from Shawni's blog...shhhh!) 

Amber and I went out to Red Lobster (Divine after all that.....interesting?....spa food) with one of her friends that lives close by the spa then met back up with our AZ friends in the hot tub for one last night of relaxation. Even better we added one more friend, Launi (I hope I spelled her name right!), Lynae's friend and neighbor in AZ. She is so cute! After the hot tub we all piled into their room and gorged on junk food and YouTube videos.

We reminisced and laughed till' we couldn't breathe and I seem to recall Lynae falling behind the bed at one point?...although she'll deny it if you ever bring it up!

The next morning we checked out and met the girls at Village Inn for breakfast happily trading spa food for strawberry cream crepes and greasy bacon...YUM! We parted ways with our AZ besties and made the long trip home belting out the tunes and stopping to say good-bye to my "woolen love" back at the petting zoo.

What awaited me when I got home were welcome signs on the door and love notes written in my absence, a delicious dinner timed just right for my arrival, and hugs and kisses galore! Ahhh...The best part about being "Mom"!

Now if I could just feel like this...

while doing dishes and laundry...we'd all be a whole lot happier around here!

Road Trip!

So as some of you know, I went to a Power of Moms Retreat a few weekends ago and I am just now getting the pictures edited. It was SO MUCH FUN getting to go on a good old fashioned road trip with my sister! It felt like I was a teenager again! It was about a 5 1/2 hour drive with pit stops so we had loads of time to belt out tunes (Faith Hill's "If My Heart Had Wings" was our theme song), eat junk (so..........many..........Swedish Fish........*GROAN*) and talk, talk, talk! We even happened upon a little petting zoo set up next to a gas station and couldn't resist the little lambs that came running over to greet us...

One of the lambs was just too cute and I couldn't help but give him a smooch! Don't worry all you germaphobes...I barely touched those fuzzy lips!

When we arrived in St. George we checked into the Red Mountain Spa and then hightailed it to the local Olive Garden to meet some friends from AZ that were also attending the retreat. One of these friends just happens to be my bestest friend since 2nd grade, Lynae. I was SO excited when I found out that she was going too! Even better she brought her lil' sis Rachelle and their friend Kelyn (who is now one of our besties too).

(Left to right: My sis. Amber, Rachelle, Kelyn, Lynae and moi)

After dinner we got some shopping in... 

Then we went back to the spa to soak in the hot tub and get a blissful night of uninterrupted sleep!

To be continued......

American Girl Store....

So I know our CA vacation has long since passed but I did promise I would show pics of our trip to the American Girl Doll Store. I just finished the scrapbook pages yesterday so I thought I would post them for those who have little girls who might want to see pics of the store.It was so much fun to see Madison get to go somewhere that she had dreamed of for a while!

         Have a Happy Day!
                          

Beach Scrap Pages...

So I'm comin' outta the closet! I'm putting my kids' names out there in these pages and I'm not gonna be anxious about it. I'm not gonna stop calling them by their nicknames though because I just like em'! Anyway, here's the rest of the beach pics...hope you enjoy them!

That's all folks!

Next....The American Girl Store.

The Ocean...

On our final full day in California we relaxed a little. The older two kids and The Hubster went swimming in the beautiful condo pools while The Pea and I stayed back and napped, then we all went to the beach afterwards. it was amazing! Living somewhere far from the ocean means we truly appreciate it's grandness when we see it. It also helped that we got there in the evening so we got to see the sunset too. I'm really excited about some of the pictures I got while we were there but I took A TON! So instead of putting them all in one really long post I figure I will do a couple posts about the beach.

This top picture was actually kind of an accident. I wasn't worrying about my exposure in that moment and just happened to expose for the sunlight and not The Pirate. I love that he turned out in shadow! I also love that he has his jacket on because it is so him. He ALWAYS has his hooded jackets on. Rain, snow or sun. All winter he wore two hooded fleece jackets instead of a coat. *sigh* My boy is getting big... 

This was also a fun picture for me because it captures The Princess in one of her most authentic moments. She is incredibly curious about all things "nature". She is constantly researching animals, bugs, rocks and shells. She checks out books at the library about nature, she watches the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet whenever she can. She regularly digs in our back yard hoping to find a new kind of rock or fossil and she would rather spend her money on polished rocks than toys. She is one curious, smart cookie!

To be continued...

Sea World...

Ok so it's about time right? I just know you are all eagerly awaiting this post so without further adieu....

Sea World!

(click on each page to make them bigger-and in case you're wondering why I am posting scrapbook pages instead of simple pictures I figured I might as well just complete my pages for my Shutterfly book that I plan on having printed and then post them here too-kill two birds with one stone and all!)

P.S. I know that these pages mention The Pea's nickname as well as The Hubster's but I was too

 lazy to blur them out!

Disneyland!

The second day we were in CA we went to Disneyland. We were actually supposed to meet my Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Scott and their family that day to play together (they live about 10 min. from the park). When I called to get details I found out they were REALLY sick! Sad!!! So we ended up going ourselves. My sweet Auntie gave me lots of info. though that really helped that day. We had so much fun. We got there around 10am and stayed until about 10pm! LONG DAY! The poor Pea had her entire schedule turned upside down that day (and every other day for the whole vacation) so it was interesting trying to work around her nap and meal times. Unfortunately this meant splitting up as a family a lot while The Hubster and the older two waited in lines and I found meals for the baby, warmed milk for sippy cups and quiet spots for her to nap. However between fast-passes and parent-swaps we all got to ride most of the rides. Our regrets after though were that we only had one day to do it all, we didn't make it to Toon Town before it closed (shoulda' gone there first...ahh hind-sight!), and we didn't get a family picture with Mickey (the ONE THING I wanted out of that day). Oh well, there's always next year right? I gotta say, my favorite is still good ole' Space Mountain. Something about a roller coaster completely in the dark just puts a smile on my face! My kids' faves were Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain...well, they pretty much loved anything fast! Buzz Lightyear was pretty darn fun too. I have to say though, my absolute favorite part of the day was the firework show. Ever since I was little I have seen the Disneyland and Disneyworld commercials where they show the fireworks over the castle and I have always wanted to see them in person. This year I finally did and it was magical! It was such a fun day and it was so great to just watch my kids experience the magic that is Disneyland!

**Disclaimer: The following pictures may not be the best quality due to a crappy point and shoot camera that we bought right before the trip. I didn't want to haul my SLR around Disneyland. I learned my lesson that day and took my 4th child (my SLR) everywhere else during our trip. The point and shoot couldn't focus worth anything! It has since been returned for a full refund and my SLR will be my one and only from here on out!**