No More Training Wheels!

While us moms were out doing our early Mother's Day pedicures and dinner, the boys were holding down the fort with the kids. While playing outside Jason and Cammy decided to take off her training wheels and just see how she did on her bike. She was successful for short little distances, which was great! I loved seeing her so excited about it when I got home that evening.

That whole weekend we continuously brought her bike out to ride so she could practice. And on Mother's Day my mom and I took the girls over to the high school track just down the street to practice a little more. And I would say that on Mother's Day, Cammy became an official two-wheeler bike rider!!! She did about 4 successful laps around the track with no problems. It was so fun to watch!!

Watch out world, Cammy is ready to take on any task that is brought her way!

Mother's Day 2017

Mother's Day this year was more like a "Mother's Day Weekend." Since it's a rare occasion to have both my mom and my mother-in-law in town on this special day, I thought it was only fitting to have a special night with just us girls. So on Friday, May 12th I treated my mom and mother-in-law to pedicures and dinner out at our favorite seafood restaurant, Ivar's. It was a nice break for all of us and just a special time to catch up on life without the distractions from all of the kids.

Me with my mom on the left and mother-in-law on the right

(somehow we all managed to show up wearing the same colors!)

Pedicures with my mommy

Our toes

Dinner at Ivar's

May 14th was Mother's Day and it was a little more low key, as we just went out to an early lunch at Buca de Beppo with both my parents and Jason's parents. We enjoyed a super yummy family style meal together thanks to Glenda who organized it.

The whole group at lunch on Mother's Day

Now that I am a mom myself, I have come to appreciate all that moms do. It's no easy job raising kids and dealing with all the demands that come along with that all while still trying to maintain a healthy and happy marriage and take care of myself. It's hard to enjoy some of those tough days as a mom, but in the grand scheme of things these kids are only little once so I better enjoy it! I am very lucky to have 2 great examples of what a super mom looks like!!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Carol and mother-in-law Glenda!!!

A Little Vegas Getaway

It had been over a year since our last "kid-free" getaway to Vegas, so we decided sort of last minute to squeeze another trip to Vegas in while all the grandparents were still here and able to help. We have learned that now that we have 3 kids that we have to recruit ALL 4 grandparents to babysit if we want to go anywhere. Thankfully we have the most AMAZING parents and they were totally willing to team up and watch the girls for us for our 2 night trip. And let me tell you what makes them even more amazing...Brielle was still in her leg cast during this time, so it was definitely no easy job!!!

We left way too early on Saturday, April 22nd, but leaving at that crazy hour allowed us to have a full day in Vegas on the day we arrived. We were sitting by the pool at the Mirage by 9am relaxing and ordering drinks. It was pure HEAVEN!

We don't look half bad after only 3 hours of sleep!

Drinks poolside not long after arrival

We spent our 2 full days doing exactly what we needed...relaxing in the sun! We would wake up and go to the pool, order lunch poolside and then come back to the room mid afternoon to get ready for the evening. Days like this seem like they can never get old and I always wish I had just one more day to do it when I'm there.

The first night we went to a yummy dinner and then walked just about the entire strip to go to a Carrot Top Comedy show. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty funny and entertaining. I would recommend seeing this comedy show if you are looking for a comedian to go see.

All fancy for dinner before our show

Cooking dinner on a hot stone

Walking the strip to our show

At the comedy show

The second night was my birthday present from Jason and he took me to see the Magic Mike Live show. If you don't know what it is...Google it! And if you have ever seen the Magic Mike movies, the show is basically based off of the storyline. Needless to say, Jason was a total trooper going to a male strip show with me all because he knew that was exactly what I wanted to do in Vegas!!! And if you ask him, he really didn't think it was bad at all. He kind of enjoyed it. We ended the night at one of our favorite country bars, Gilley's, where we did a little drinking and dancing.

Dinner at my favorite Vegas Mexican food restaurant in the Venetian

Magic Mike Live!!!

Waiting for the show to begin

Drinks at Gilley's

Oddly enough we didn't gamble once. If you know anything about me this will be surprising to hear because I love to play Blackjack! For some reason it just didn't fit into our schedule this time.

All in all it was a very relaxing trip and I realized that we need to do these kinds of short trips way more than once a year!!

Leia's 34th Birthday

I usually only have one request on my birthdays and that is to go out for every meal. So my birthday started with Frost donuts at home before heading to the zoo (one of my most favorite places to visit). Jason took the day off so he was able to join us for our day full of activities.

The zoo was fun as always. My parents joined us also and some of our favorite animal sightings were Yola the one year old gorilla baby, a baby kangaroo in the pouch, a close up a peacock that wanted to chase Cammy down, and some of usual favorites like the bears and otters.

The peacock showing off his feathers

Hippos with the girls

Monkeying around with Cammy

Kamodo dragon with the girls

Brielle riding the carousel with Grams

Cammy on the carousel

Hailey being brave riding a horse this time

Watching Yola

Baby Yola

After the zoo we went to lunch at Kidd Valley burgers and enjoyed yummy milkshakes, burgers and fries.

Yummy milkshake!

Since naps happened in the car, we headed home and gathered up the kids' bikes after the zoo and headed to the town center for a little stroll on the trail. Our walk was cut short when the rain started, but that's ok because we knew we were chancing it a bit.

Family walk

I'll never grow up!

After the town center we headed to dinner at Grazie Ristorante where Jason's parents met up with us. It was a little bit of a tough dinner as the kids were in meltdown mode from being overly tired after a long day, but we still tried to enjoy ourselves. Sadly, we were preoccupied with crazy kids and never got a group photo like I hoped for.