Posts
Drew had no memory of Bakersfield at all. It was hilarious, we had just started the descend into the central valley on I-5 when Drew asked, "Ummm, Do they water here?" LOL, he had never seen such desolate land. He later added, "I'm so glad we live in Coeur d' Alene, it's like dead and kinda ghetto here." Yep son, we know. :)
I was so glad to see one of my long lost besties from high school & beyond and her 2 babies which were 8 mos. and not even a thought yet when we moved. I am so sad we took no pics :( We were so caught up in catching up, we forgot. :( And one of my bestest cousins Jill and her family. We do have a pic of us all when we were leaving, but...she still hasn't sent it to me...UH HMMM...JILL...???
We spent quite a bit of time with my Grandma & Hal's Aunt whom I seriously didn't want to stick a camera in either of their sweet sick faces. Hal's Aunt & Uncle live on I think like 15 or 20 acres, I can't remember and have a ton of animals. Right away Drew was over the moon & was dying to ride a horse. Uncle Don took him out and taught him all about being a "Real" Cowboy. It was hilarious some of the conversations between the 2. Every once in awhile Don would look over at me, like are you kidding me...don't you teach this boy anything important. LOL. I grew up very near Don & had horses as a kid. I am pretty much a city girl now, I mean, I could easily meet in the middle say maybe a horse with a heated coach saddle??? LOL, but my kids haven't been around anything livestock related besides the fair in years...so ya, they aren't really educated in bein' cowboys. I kept waiting for him to tell me to go to timeout for not teaching my kids about cowboys, lol. Haliee was completely freaked out. She was so apprehensive about riding a horse. He kept saying, now when I put you up here, you cannot scream...ok Haliee. I'm serious... I was cracking up. Look at her facial expressions in these pics, priceless...
Ok Mom, I know you said it was safe...but...
Are you sure??? Like SURE sure?
Next stop, Uncle Sids...Now Sid is a kid who will never grow up. He was having straw wars, putting salt in peoples drinks, amongst other things in the restaurant during dinner. Haliee said, "This is the most fun I have ever had in a restaurant in my life." He got tickled and asked her why. To which she replied, "Ummm...We are NOT allowed to act like this in a restaurant." {NOPE}
He has all kinds of toys for his grand kids and my kids were so excited to ride dirt bikes and quads and go carts. Now again, I grew up here so I got my 1st 3-wheeler for my 3rd birthday. I have grown up like this and it is not at all new to me. Well, ummm...it is very different being a Mommy. I like to had not just 1 but about 30 panic attacks. Hal just fired everything up and away we went. I was freaking out, ummm...we need to teach them. He said, I taught them how to give it gas, brake, and to steer. They have to do it to learn. UGH. So Drew takes off in the go-cart 1st...the only way he knows how...FULL THROTTLE. So I am screaming at Hal while riding this little 50 motorcycle (looking like dumb & dumber) trying to catch up and make my son STOP. So we stop, I yell at him to slow down or we are finished, Hal is dying laughing at me, and what does Drew do, he agrees...and floors it. OMGOSH! I was so freaked out. He is literally driving down this dirt road bouncing left to right off the tumbleweeds on both sides, full stinking throttle. *SIGH* So now I am getting ticked. He comes around the corner & there is this HUGE I MEAN HUGE mud puddle covering the entire road, lol, so Drew goes barreling into it full throttle. Now, I am a few seconds behind Drew & Hal because Haliee & I am not driving wide open, so when I see Hal stopped, my heart sinks, I just knew Drew had wrecked :( So I come around the corner & LOL...hilarious, Drew gets out & Hal is standing next to him he gives it some gas to try and get it out of the puddle & it flings muddy water all over him. LOL, it was awesome! So again, I lecture the this is your last chance to slow your butt down or we are finished, I am griping at Hal too, so Drew gets in, agrees, and floors it...UHHH HHHOOOEEE HHHOOOEEE HHOOOOEEEE, I am ticked. So we get to this area we called "The Playground" growing up. It is a huge hole with all kinds of different trails, and jumps. I tell Hal, you are nuts, NO. I am serious, NO. I am going to throw up at this point. I am praying for God to protect my babies, and freaking out. I say at the very least Drew and Haliee need to switch as the quad went much slower than the go cart. So Drew gets on the quad and immediately barrels off the side of the hill crashing into a tumbleweed because the steering is quite different. I hear him as I race over telling himself, "Drew, slow down, just slow down." I help him get situated, he goes down the hill & can't get back up, I ride it back up for him. Then he wants to try the motorcycle. OH GEEZ, I am ready to beat my husband. He tries it, lays it over, and I finally flex my Mommy muscle enough to go home. I am so not even cool with my kids on motorcycles. What happened to me, I am an old Momma. PHEW, we were back unscathed. Thank GOODNESS!
We slept at Auntie Casie's the whole time & unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time with them as we wanted. But we had a great time nevertheless. The boys and girls had grown up so much :( We spent Halloween with Mark & the boys as it was his Halloween. It was nice to see him too. Broke my heart we had to do it separately.
A last minute thrown together Halloween this year.
Casie would beat me if she saw these pics, we were lounging all day with no showers. :) Notice her new found obsession with Angry Birds thanks to Hal!
My girls all grown up~
This was the most fun, exhausting shower I have ever thrown. I had about 5 things I ran out of time to do...but only I noticed. I love how it turned out. I could have never pulled it off without Haliee my trusted sidekick who took every single one of these pics for her Momma, my sweet husband who put up with my "ridic" OCD and helped me anyway even after I kept making him re-do things because they weren't "perfect", & my sweet friend Karlene who spent countless hours scrap booking and showed up a few hours early & rescued a psycho Tabby trying to make everything "Perfect". I wanted to have everything together & pics all taken before anyone arrived, have had time to finish everything I planned, have been a little more put together myself, but guess what...I'm not perfect. WAH...it is hard to say out loud...good thing 
I loved how this sign turned out! If you notice the owls on the left, there is 1 owl for each member of their family!! :)
I made the girls all tutus, fairy wings, sweet fairy headbands, & light up magic fairy wands because every big sister deserves a special present & because they matched my theme & looked adorable! They were all so super excited (well my Zoe was feeling a little babyish, & wasn't real impressed with matching her baby sisters, but she wore it for her Pabba). The babies were in heaven. Erin was crying lol! Sorry for the million pics, but look at these girls..aren't they precious, I couldn't narrow it down. I loved their expressions & just their plain ole' cuteness!
