President's Day Weekend

This past weekend, we loaded up the car and headed over to Phoenix, AZ to see Grammy and Poppa. I love roadtrips especially with Speedy because we often have the BEST conversations on the open road. Plus, we always stop in Yuma at the half-way point for In-n-Out :) All in all, its about a 6 hour drive - its pretty and goes by quick for the most part.

We did a lot in a couple days, mom and I went shopping and out to lunch. The boys moved some furniture from my parent's rental to their house. Mom and I saw WICKED - it was amazing! We love to go see shows...so far we have seen together: Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Cirque de Solie "O" and "La Reve" - and now WICKED too. A couple days we would walk the dogs to the park and let Stinker run through the field, swing, and go down the slide. They live in such a nice family-friendly neighborhood (much different then where we live!)

(attempting to give Zoey "knuckles")

(he may be a little "type A" - he always has to hold the purple lease that can only walk Zoey)

(storytime with 86)

I am so thankful for the family God has provided me :) I love seeing Stinker interact with his grandparents who love him so!

Valentines Day

I'm not anti or pro Valentine's Day...I think that its nice to celebrate love and show the people in your life that you love them. With that being said, this year I thought it would be nice to get flowers from Speedy but he has been really busy with work so if it slipped his mind I wouldn't care or feel "unloved". We chatted a couple times throughout the work day and I didn't bring Valentine's Day up in case he didn't remember, but I did have to meet him at one of his accounts to pick something up that morning. As I was leaving the store, it was so cute to see the men pouring out of the store carrying flowers.

Speedy came home from work and I left for work without anything being mentioned. As I was working I thought to myself that even if Speedy doesn't acknowledge the day, I still wanted to show him how much I cared about him so I decided to pick up some of his favorite beer on my way home from work. As I went into the store the first display inside the door was of flowers and the men were buzzing around those flowers like little bees! So adorable!! On my way home I "accidentally" walked into Golden Spoon and to my surprise it was BOGO free night - perf!

When I got home there was a simple, beautiful, bouquet of flowers on my table and to my surprise a special "fun" drink for me (since I am currently knocked-up and therefore unable to drink at the moment). Not to mentioned Speedy had made chocolate covered strawberries for us for dessert!

What a simple and perfect Valentines Day. 2 desserts. 2 "fun" drinks. We both thought to get each other a special drink and a dessert and apparently my guys were buzzing around a flower stand at one point maybe making a random onlooker (like I was) smile :)

Zoo Day Again

This time we reconnected with our friends who moved away a bit north of us. Our boys are about 6 weeks apart and we try to get our families together every couple months or so. In true Slowpoke fashion we decided that morning we were going to go to the zoo so I sent a "hail mary" text to my friend seeing if they wanted to come time TBA. That's me... not quite the great planner or detail person...hey you we wanna go here sometime today you in or out? :) Thankfully they were in!

(crawling through the "ice" by the polar bear exhibit)

(on an elephant by a food court)

We met at the downtown San Diego Zoo for the afternoon. Afterwards we went out to dinner which is always an adventure with a couple toddlers. It was refreshing to see these friends again.

The Q Goes on Location!

It was a holiday at the bank so in celebration of MLK Day, my kind neighbor gave free tickets to the Wild Animal Park to both of us other neighbors and.... the Q went on location!

The 3 of us mommies and our 5 kiddos (all under the age of 5) headed out in the rain for an adventure. It was great to be outside and Stinker got to hear lions roaring! This is his favorite animal sound to make at the moment.

It was a bit wet and we did eat lunch by the bathroom of all the beautiful locations, but it was a fun memory to build with these fun friends. V thought the "pink ducks" (aka flamingos) were the funniest things she ever saw. Little O was enamored with any water feature ... guess he didn't care about the huge animals like the elephants or giraffes! F shared her map with me and I shared my cookies...wonder who got the best end of that deal :)

We are so blessed to have such fun neighbors!

Enough ... I almost want 2011 Back...

We have had a rough start to 2012, starting with the whole flight fiasco and adding on a flat tire on our way to church the weekend we got back into the state. As we listened to the hissing sound of the tire with a large nail sticking out of it we were thinking...why??? but then in view of God's mercy we saw His providence in many ways...

1. It happened a few blocks from our church parking lot (as opposed to the freeway) so we were able to safely pull into the parking lot

2. It happened in Speedy's company car so it cost us nothing but time to repair

3. We were almost going to drive separately that morning but at the last minute changed our minds so we were together when it happened

So in calling the approved places for Speedy to take his car we ended up realizing they were closed Sundays so Speedy took care of business with the help of his sidekick.

It has been a weird start to the year but in other news I made a kick a@# lasagna the other night...

The Thriving Metropolis of Garner

Part of our trip back home was driving a few hours south to Iowa. We stayed the night at the Lund's and get a glimpse into their farm-town life. Their house is beautiful it was so nice to slow down for a couple days and spread out. Sam and I got coffee from the local shop and visited the quilt shop she frequents. We took Leo for a walk, ordered Chinese food, and took a tour of their church.

Aidan and Stinker are only 3 weeks apart and this was the 1st time they have seen each other since they were newborns...

Now they were giving each other "knuckles", sharing toys, taking baths, rocking out to music, and chasing each other around. Aidan has SUCH a sweet personality - it was so fun to spend time with him :)

All in all we had a great trip! We were tired and ready to head back.

Minnesota Christmas

This year we flew to Minnesota for a 10-day vacation. In true mid-west style, we housed the 3 of us, my parents, sister, and 2 dogs in my sister's one bedroom apartment. We had mattresses, a pack-n-play, an unfolded futon, and air mattress all over the place! We got into town at midnight before Christmas Eve - this was our 1st time flying with Stinker ever. Our plane was full but the person assigned to our middle seat either didn't show up for the flight or took one look at us and ran...either way we got the whole row to ourselves for the flight out there! Stinker was kept occupied by ipod games, and baby einsteins on the laptop. He didn't cry at all! Once we landed he adjusted to the time change easily which we were not expecting.

We hung out with family for the first few days spending our time eating, playing games, and watching football. We attended my sister's church for Christmas Eve service, a Christmas Day movie, and opened presents together. Then we packed a lot of friends and driving into a week. We traveled as far north as Sartell, MN and as far south as Nevada, IA. We got to meet our friend's new babies, and puppies, and tour their fabulous new homes. It was so refreshing to reconnect with our life-long friends.

This morning as we met with some friends and family for a farewell breakfast it came to our attention that Sun Country had changed our flight time ---- eerrr I mean flight DAY. We had actually missed our flight which we were told was switched to yesterday. In what other industry can you shell out $1000 bucks for a product only to be given a different product and charged extra for it?? Its like ordering a $1000 red purse and being delivered a black wallet while being charged an extra $300 for it...according to the agent we got a "good deal" too. Ok ok I'm over it.

We were flown into LAX at virtually the same time as we were scheduled to fly into San Diego, so with an extra couple hours of drive time and a couple extra hundred dollars we made it home.

More details of our trip to come....

Here are a few pics from our time:

(opening presents at Auntie Snacks)

(Speedy's move that as a a@# chew from the MIL)

(Beeka and I friends since 5th grade now all grown up...)

(Our husbands were roommates at Bethel and we are all knocked up at the same time)