The Lake

 

The lake by our house has been getting a lot of use lately. The home owners' association filled it with trout for their annual fishing derby and they allowed fishing for the whole week after the event. This was a great opportunity for Paul and Liam to finally break in their new fishing poles. The first time they went, Paul said that he spent the first half of their trip learning how to use the darn thing and the second half of the trip feeling frustrated with Liam who kept crossing lines with Paul or getting his line stuck up in the trees or complaining about how they weren't catching anything. A teenage boy finally told them what they were doing wrong and tossed them a pity fish that ended up being gutted and pretty badly mutilated in my kitchen sink.

 

The next time they went Paul caught a fish that they were both very proud of and on the third day they actually caught THREE fish, 2 of which were on Liam's pole. Only one of them actually made it home since one fish literally jumped out of Paul's hands and the other was reeled in from the water along with a random fishing pole that caused the line to snap. This sent Liam into quite the bad mood and resulted in statements like, "That was probably the last fish in the lake and now that guy over there is going to catch it." And, "I am not leaving this lake until I catch another fish." along with, "I am never going fishing again! This is all your fault!" etcetera etcetera. He eventually recovered and we ended up feeding the ducks then taking a long walk to the park where the kids ran off the rest of their energy. And the fish that made it home was beautifully filleted... by Paul.

Kids color run

Liam and Brygit participated in their first color run this morning. It was hosted by MOMS Club and was a little under a mile with several "splash stations" along the way where parents cheered them on and dumped different colored chalk on them. Surprisingly, the kids loved it. Liam ran the whole way and was covered in chalk by the end and Brygit ran a lot of the time with several stops to dump more chalk on herself. She may have finished last.

A look back

 

Looking at the most recent family photo we took at SeaWorld made me think about our past few San Diego getaways so I decided to look at old pictures and marvel, once again, at how quickly life has been changing and how quickly my children are growing. It just never gets old, people.

 

 

The above photo was taken pre-Brygit in May of 2011. I found out I was pregnant the following month and Liam turned two a couple months later.

 

The next year we went to the zoo again so that we could get some use out of the annual passes we purchased. This was taken in March of 2012 when Brygit was just a month old.

 

We skipped a year in there and then made it back March 2014. Is time flying or what?

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

 

We had an early St. Patrick's Day with family last week so we are feeling extra festive today. We dressed in green, ate our fill of corned beef and cabbage and finished the night off with Shamrock Shakes.

 

An Old Irish Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

In the moment

Sometimes I find my kids like this and I think life can't get any better. Then I think, "How in the world am I going to get those knots out of Brygit's hair and those yogurt stains out of my couch?" But, mostly, "Life is good."

I have been thinking a lot lately about living a simpler life. Having less stuff, spending less money and using a lot less technology. It's hard to get back in the habit of moving more slowly and stopping to notice God's blessings all around me throughout the day but, when I do, I see things like this, and it makes me so thankful for this life I have been given and it motivates me to be more present in the moment.

And on that note, I'm deleting my Facebook account. I don't like the feeling of having something pulling me away from being completely "there" with the people that matter most to me. And that has more to do with my personality than it does with the actual social network. I have loved catching up with family and friends and feeling like I'm involved with so many people. As a stay at home mom Facebook has often been the extent of my social life. But I think it's time to stop reading about what everyone else is doing and what everyone else is thinking (and eating) and start focusing more on what I am doing and thinking. This is just one step in reeling in our media use as a family.

That being said, I am keeping the blog. I love blogging and I'm going to continue to do it even if nobody reads it. But, if you are interested in reading, you are more than welcome to do so. Please feel free to follow me via Google+ or by entering your email in that little box at the top right of the desktop page to "follow by email" and receive an email notification when a new blog is posted.

San Diego according to me (and Paul)

 

I promise I will stop talking about our trip to San Diego after this one last post. Our trip started out with coffee and this flower Liam picked for me that caused one of what felt like 5 meltdowns before we even got to Riverside.

 

Everyone finally mellowed out and we arrived at the hotel in one piece. I'm not sure our room was considered a room "with a view" but I loved it. When we looked out our dirty window we could see the water to our right and Downtown to our left. It was especially beautiful at night.

We settled in and took some mirror selfies before heading out for lunch.

My favorite part of the day has to be dessert. Chunky Monkey to be exact.

Oh and this street performer we met that the kids were terrified of.

 

 

We watched the boats and planes and then headed back to the hotel since Liam was driving us bonkers. Remember, he didn't want to be away from the room so he whined and complained the entire time.

When we got to the hotel I tried to talk to him about how we planned this trip because we wanted to be away as a family and we thought he would enjoy being by the water and seeing new things. He responded with a, "Can I get up now because this is taking a long time." Gotta love four year olds and their attention spans and reasoning capabilities. I might have ended up in tears because I was expecting this trip to be relaxing and meltdown free but Paul reminded me that we still had SeaWorld to look forward to and, of course, the free breakfast buffet. He knows how to talk me off a ledge.

But he still looked like this in the morning. I'm kidding. Everyone was happy. It just looks like they weren't in this picture.

Paul and I were just as awed as the kids were by all the animals. This walrus had him pressed against the glass.

And this show had me smiling the entire time. (I know, how anti-Blackfish of me).

But this was my favorite thing to see. My family having a good time together.

Overall, we had an amazing trip and I do have to say that SeaWorld impressed me. It was clean, not crowded and the employees were awesome. Like, dare I say, Disneyland status. Not as perky but very helpful and informative. More than once we found ourselves stopped and looking at a map when a friendly employee approached us and offered to help us find our way. And more than once were my children spoken to like real people and were offered information on several animals as well as up close experiences. I loved it and we will be definitely be going back.

First Game

Liam had his very first T Ball game over the weekend. It was super adorable.

I especially liked it when he got tired while playing first base and decided to take a rest.

And, also, when he kept balancing Karate Kid style on second base and had to be told that he needed to run to third.

It's quite the workout for a little four year old and I'm not sure he understands all the logistics of the game yet. But I am one proud mom.