Friends

I was getting together with some out of town friends. When my friend arrived at the cafe in Carlsbad and requested a table for 5 adults and 12 kids, the host about fell over. haha. We weren't joking. Cute kids though. 

 And pretty friends from high school. 3/5 of us are military wives... what are the chances?

Such a fun get together. It's neat to reconnect with people you haven't seen in a while and see where life has taken them. It makes me realize that we all go through hard things (we are talking a husband who overcame cancer, a near-fatal ATV accident, fertility issues, deployments, etc...) and there is so much to learn from the lives of others. The overarching theme was keeping a positive attitude and keeping things in perspective. It was a really encouraging morning.

Song bird

This kid never stops making noise. He is either eating and making a motor sound as he chews, talking incessantly, or singing. It doesn't matter where we are. Here he is at lunch last week. 

Daddy came home!

With only a week's notice, we were so happy to hear that Pete had a few days off surrounding the 4th of July. The boys hadn't seen him in 8 weeks, so they were very excited about his visit. He was originally supposed to arrive on Thursday the 3rd at 8:30pm. I had this sinking feeling days earlier that what if the flight's didn't go according to schedule. And my premonition was correct. A developing hurricane grounded Norfolk flights literally minutes before his flight was due to board. Thankfully, Pete's brother Scott lives in Charlottesville (just over 2 hours away), so Pete thought to leave out of their local airport instead. He met Scott near the airport and thankfully he had dinner in hand. Timing was tight so this was such a blessing. Thank you so much! He dropped Pete at the airport and then kept his car for the weekend. Well, delay after delay happened until finally his flight was cancelled around midnight. Oh and the Charlottesville flight was headed to Los Angeles and then he was going to have to drive in the middle of the night to San Diego. Not ideal. So really, the cancellation was probably saving him a very unsafe driving situation. So he slept in the airport and was able to get on the first flight out in the morning. He left at 8am and arrived in SD around 10:30am.

We had a few Kids Sing shows in the morning, so his dad went to pick him up. Our first show was good. We didn't have all the kids and outside shows are just hard in general, but it was still fun. Wee Sing sang first and did great. Austin knows all the songs by now, so he participated.

 After the first show, we headed home to meet Daddy. I took a video of the reunion, but as luck would have it, he was just getting out of the shower and greeted us in a towel. haha. So we'll just hang on to that video. But was so cute. The boys were so excited and gave him the biggest hugs. Pete looked pretty happy too. Then we headed to the next show at Old Poway Park.

 These guys have my heart.

 Then we went home and had naps. It was nice and relaxing. And since Pete had a very long night, it was good he had time to relax. Then we when swimming at my parents and bbq'd hot dogs. Austin pounded them like a hot dog eating champ!

 Afterwards, we went to pick a spot to watch fireworks. The cousins were already there along with some friends. It was a fun time.

 Austin just kept hugging Pete. He has really missed his daddy!

 My friend Sara won the "Most Fun Mom" award by bringing some sparklers.

 Lex and Park enjoying the fireworks show!

 Swimming was a theme of our weekend. The boys loved having daddy in the pool.

 Parker is basically obsessed with his goggles. He often wears them long before it's necessary.

 Swimming at the cousins house.

 We also got to celebrate Jo's birthday!

 Parker loved matching daddy in his purple shirt.

Dragon Ball. The guys' favorite game. They basically just hurl balls at each other! haha. That's a game that mom doesn't play:)

Now Pete is on his way back to Virginia, but much like his trip out, there have been several complications. He isn't even in Charlottesville yet, and then has to drive back to Virginia Beach. Poor guy. Praying for a safe drive for him. It's going to be a late one.

We hope to get him home in another few weeks for a few days. Can't get enough of him, but this was definitely the reboot we needed.

Friends

We are so lucky to have awesome friends here. They have been so good to us by keeping us busy and well-fed. My friend Stephanie is the hostess with the mostess. She is always inviting us over and often includes several other families as well. This night there were 4 families, including her own. Wow. She came up with the great idea of making our own nachos in disposable foil containers. It was a hit. 

Then, they taught a Family Home Evening lesson about kindness. The kids were all into it. 

 Such a fun night. In other news, these frozen lemonades are my favorite and they were on major sale. I've stocked up!

Shenanigans

Papa is always up for anything. Singing, dancing, attempting headstands, getting covered in garage sale dots!

 These two are always up to something.

 Random, but thanks to Stephanie for teaching me to curl my hair and make it last. I've been failing for years!

Guess who comes home tonight??!?! LTJG Dahlquist! We will be waiting with bells on!

My normal workout

This is how I'm usually working out these days. 

Added weight= more calories burned. But some moves just don't lend themselves to having a koala attached to you!

I've been really diligent with my workouts the last 2 years. I workout almost every morning at home, or going on hilly walks pushing my kids in the double stroller. I feel good about that. However, for whatever reason, I CANNOT muster up the will power to change my eating. My mindset is that I workout so I can eat whatever. And while I try to include healthy things in my diet, there is also plenty that shouldn't be there except on rare occasion. I know that if I were to become more focused on my eating, I would see much better results from my workouts... but why don't I care enough to make the change? Ah! Being the age I am, I am able to get away with a lot, but I know it will catch up with me so I should really start on healthy habits now. Lame. Especially since Pete is getting in the best shape of his life. I gotta keep up!

Swimming lessons

Parker has had swimming lessons everyday for the past two weeks. The first few days, he didn't want to get his face wet. Hard to progress with that hangup. Then he started going under. Awesome, but he was still sinking and totally unaware of how to possibly make his body buoyant. But sometime in the last three days of class, it clicked. He was swimming strokes and then flipping to his back float. He was jumping off the side. I would still say he is NO WHERE NEAR water safe, and my plan now is to not continue swim lessons to avoid overconfidence, so he'll keep wearing floaties. But I am glad that he came so far and really did his best at something that did not come easy to him. Our motto for those weeks, "I can do hard things!" And he did!

Austin was a supportive spectator... most of the time.

 His teacher Miss Andi was really encouraging with him.

 Aussie loves floating around Grammy and Papa's pool. He has such an easy going demeanor both in and out of the water. It's hilarious watching him glide around.

 My little albino.