...7...

My baby is SEVEN!

Family party the night before the big day.

Drake requested a pinata, and picked this one out.

 Mason trying to hit it was so cute!

 I didn't get a very good shot, so you may not be able to tell, but that would be a Lone Ranger cake.  I felt so bad.  It was crunch time for bar study, and I was planning on just buying a cake from a store.  But then when it came down to actually doing it, I couldn't.  I had to bake a cake, but took a short cut with a Lone Ranger Lego set on top.  He was stoked.  Phew.

 That night I kissed my sweet little SIX year old boy good bye forever.

I cuddled that sweet baby boy so hard!

And in the morning, he magically was my sweet SEVEN year old baby.

He slept with his new Lone Ranger set.

This may be his favorite present of the day.

The Lone Ranger silver mine. 

If you haven't noticed, Drake loves the Lone Ranger.

And he LOVES Legos. 

 It turned out to be one of the best days of bar study I had.

These two sat quietly at their table working on that silver mine for hours!

If only I could have purchased a huge expensive Lego set everyday to occupy them.

When you don't get a b-day party, you get to go to Perter Piper Pizza

Drake's birthday was up in the air.  He chose going to Jack's house in California and going to Legoland with him over having a birthday party.

The problem with that was we were planning on Ryan taking Thursday and Friday off for our trip, but then last minute Ryan had a trial that looked like it was going to go for Friday, so he wasn't able to get Friday off.  But then Thursday he found out it wouldn't go.  Ugh!

So we packed up fast and hit the road.   

These boys were so happy to be together again!

 So were these boys.

 Unfortunately, I had to close myself off and study the whole trip, including while the dads took the kids to Legoland.

It better be worth it.

I better pass the bar for missing out on this.

 At least I got to see my sister.  Tara and I are due only days apart!

This happened before, and our boys were born on the same day... maybe it could happen again?

Curleyhair girls 7 months pregnant.

Happy birthday buddy.

We love you!

RIP Highlander

Strange.  I am so sad about my car being dead, yet when I went to title this blogpost, I realized I never even named my car!  That's weird right?  Everyone names there car... right?

Anyhoo, this story all began a few weeks ago.  I took my car in to get serviced, because the check engine light was on, and my tags were expiring the end of May.  (You can't pass emissions if your check enginge light is on.)  Well of course the check engine light was triggered because a stupid sensor needed to be replaced, and the sensor was expensive, and took a lot of labor to get to and replace.  $750 later, I'm ready to go to drop more $ registering my car.

Highlander in happier times

No prob, I love my car.

Honestly, I love my car!  I just rolled 200,000 miles in my baby, and she was still purring like a kitten.  While we realized with a baby to squeeze in there soon it'd be a tight fit, but I still wasn't interested in getting a new car because, like I said, I love my car!

So I didn't hesitate to volunteer to drive up north for a girls weekend.  My baby made it up the rim, and then stopped forward progress in Heber.  What I mean by that was it felt as if my car had been placed in neutral.  I checked, and it wasn't in neutral.  So we pulled over, called husbands, I held back tears, and then we all jumped in my friend's car, and left my Highlander in Heber for the weekend.

We had hopes that the transmission might cool, and then we'd be able to drive it down the rim, and maybe even into the valley.  So we enjoyed our weekend.  

On the way home, my car was still there, and it drove!!!  For a mile.  Then it went back into "neutral".  So again, I left my car in Heber, this time for a week.  

So the following weekend, we borrowed a friend's truck (this was a long story that I'll spare you, but THANK YOU John Arnett for coming to our rescue!!), rented a tow dolly, and went up to get the car.  Our friends Rick and Jenny were nice enough to let us stay at their cabin since we were going to be up in the area anyway.  

 So we stayed the night in Pinedale which was fun, because this was where we had a cabin until a few years ago.  So we took the kids to see the Pinedale stuff,

 and ancestor's headstones.  That's normal too, right?  Pictures in cemeteries?  

Then all too soon, it was time to go home, and bring the car with us.  

"How is Kristin going to push the car up on this dolly?"

Luckily, it was still where I left it.  Again, a long story here about trying to get ahold of the Donut shop it was parked at to ask them not to tow my car, and never an answer.  I figured they were out of business.  Fortunately for us, it was booming Sunday morning, and when some customers there saw pregnant Kristin trying to push this car up the ramp onto the dolly, they ran out and helped.  We never would have been able to do it on our own.  

We then drove it home, and luckily, when we got to the shop, and no one was around to help us push it this time, it drove!  So we were able to reverse it off the dolly, again, something we wouldn't have been able to push on our own.  

Well then we were left pondering:

Drop $1500-$2000 fixing the transmission on an 11 year old car with 200,000 miles on it?

Or buy a new car?

If I look trashed, it's because we were at the dealership for four hours, and the manager convinced me that I had kidney stones.  Another story for another post.

 Buy a new car!!!

Yep, we roll in a Ford now.

And I LOVE it!!!

And I'd be embarrassed if we told you why we're now Fordies.  It may have something to do with not taking the bail out $, and still kicking A.  hashtagbuyAmerican

And like that I've moved on.  Don't worry Highlander, I did love you, but it's time that we go our separate ways.

And again, I'm a chauffeur.  But now the kids insist on riding in the back back.

Meh-he-co (Mexico for the lay people)

Summer is the greatest time of year!  Because I get to have a life other than school.

So to maximize the fun we spent some time in the sun.

And to make it even better, we brought our besties, the Wevers!

I'm not going to pretend that we weren't a little scared to go to Rocky Point.  We had never been and had heard a mix of scary and awesome stories.  We crossed our fingers and hoped for an awesome one for us, and we got it!

This was the view from our room.  Not bad, eh?

Drake got to channel his inner monkey.

I think I heard him say "I can't go any deeper!"

The Wevers chillaxing in one of the many pools.

The kids and their killer Nascar boogie board.

They loved the ocean, until it got in their mouths.

But we were still able to convince them to try the banana boat, and they loved it!

Yea!  Ocean lovers after all.

And they will still mention in their prayers, "thank you Heavenly Father for helping us to overcome our fear of the banana boat", and keep asking when they'll get to ride one again.

No pictures to prove it though.

We did do a lot of shell collecting.  I might have even put some of said shells down my swimsuit so I could use my hands to catch a fish with my bare hands.  I did catch that fish because I'm awesome like that, but then FREAKED out when I realized those shells I put down my swimsuit had crabs in them!!!

Ryan who WAS NOT a cheerleader in high school, but a member of the stunt team (they totally only through girls around) had fun with the kids in the pool.

Gwen:

Drake who always thought he was being the Statue of Liberty:

Lennon:

Gwenny getting her hair braided by a darling little lady

And also super exciting was Gwen losing her first upper tooth!  Her third tooth lost.

While that was exciting, we were panicked about whether or not the tooth fairy would come to her in Mexico.  You see her tooth fairy brings her a Sacagawea dollar coin for her teeth, and the tooth fairy couldn't find any in Mexico.  So she got stuck with a regular $ bill.  Gwen didn't mind.

This is what Gwen left for her tooth fairy.  She was worried the tooth would fall in the crack between the mattress and the back of the couch since she was sleeping on a couch bed.  Luckily when Gwen goes to Mexico, she brings a little fancy box, so she put her tooth in that.  She also left a note asking the tooth fairy what her name is. 

When the tooth fairy woke up at 3am to watch the women's Olympic marathon she made the exchange and left a note telling Gwen her name is Samantha.

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of the inside of our condo, or the sweet meal we BBQ'd up with the Wevers.

But we did get a picture of Ryan's injured toe that we thought was broken until it healed two days later.

We also ventured into town for some shopping.

Mexican vanilla?  Check!

Drake, Gwen, Lennon, and Larry

I wish she lived closer!

And finally one last lunch before the Wevers continued their drive home.

Thanks for the best summer vacay yet!

MAY

A post of pictures:

So, after Ragnar So Cal, and my 10 miler in 100º, my iPod was kaput.  Not because of the lake that I jumped in to keep cool (I kept it in my hand out of the water), but because of the many bottles of water dumped over me to cool me down.  So the screen didn't work.  I took it into the Apple store to find out I had three days left on my warranty.  They handed me a brand new one! L.O.V.E. it!  

But then a week later, I dropped my iPod and this happened:

And now there is no more warranty.  Boo.  So I just took some packaging tape and laminated the glass so that it won't keep chipping off.  My iPod now looks like this:

Also in May was Mother's Day.  This has got the be the greatest holiday ever thought up.  My kids and husband celebrating me?  Yes please!!

Look what my cute boy did-

He made my bed (super good BTW), and then he leaves this behind so I know that this good deed was done by him.

My babies and I on Mother's Day-

Drake also has been obsessed with "Army guys" lately.  He harassed me to make him an Army guy outfit, so I raided the thrift stores and Party City, and came up with this.  You can't see the sweet patches I sewed on the sleeves, but just know that this Army dude outfit is legit.  

Our next adventure was a trip to Northern California.  Whilst there, I went for a long run with my friend Kassidy (since I'm supposedly training for a marathon next weekend.  I'm gonna die!).

All I have to say is that if I lived in Sacramento, I'd run the river trail every Saturday and never get bored with it!  

Especially since I'd be keeping an eye out for these-

From Sacramento, we cruised over to Concord to round up the Taylors, then headed out to Santa Cruz for beach camping over Memorial Day weekend.  

 Jack and Drake were overjoyed to be together again.

 And Gwen and Aubrey got right to playing house.

 Yes, we let Drake use a pocket knife to whittle a stick.  Don't you let your 5 year old play with knifes?

 Look at how gorgeous this place is!  And this campground is on a cliff just above the beach.

 And this is the stuff I've been dreaming about since returning....  Pizza My Heart pesto pizza.  mmmmm!

 pure silliness

 This Gwenny girl was so determined to boogy board.

 She braved the FREEZING cold water...

 and tried,

 and tried,

 and tried,

 and finally rode a wave in.

Then we packed up and drove the 12 hours home.  

 Just in time to start swim team.

Gwen got right back in the swing of it.

 Drake is still trying so hard to get it down.

 And a shot of this cute boy's belly profile.

 These AZ babies are freezing when they get to the other end of the pool and have to get out of the water, so they lay on the side walk to stay warm.  I mean it's only 105º, who can blame them for being so cold?  ;)