Meme & Brae

We haven't seen Mookie's friend Braelee for a while now. Summer is always busy for everyone with vacations and family parties and work plus school, yeah it leaves no time for much.

I finally decided I needed some Ashley time and Mookie needed to see Braelee so we planned it out.

Brae was so excited when she saw Mookie walk in her house and the rest of the night they kept on hugging every once in a while. Way too cute!

Mookie sure does love the girls!

Adams Canyon

Mookie has been asking me to take him "rock climbing" which means hiking to him. The other day I told him if he wanted to go he would need to ask tio so that same day he asked to which my brother said "of course" since he lives hiking.

So we planned to go to Adams Canyon since at the top of the hike there is a waterfall and we all thought that would be fun.

So Sunday rolled around and off we went. The hike is less than 4 miles round trip however it took us about 4 hours total there and back with some rest time.

I would not believe it had I not been there doing it but Mookie hiked up all by himself with no complaining. I am so proud of him. I kept on telling him this would make him stronger and if he felt his bummy getting a workout to which he would respond "not yet mami, ask me later" I love that boy.

The hike was beautiful the whole way up and the waterfall was just simply amazing. We had an amazing time. Mookie fell asleep on the way down so between my sister and I we carried him down, which was hard so I need to find my carrier for him.

So doing this hike again. I feel re-energized and it was truly a great way to relief some stress. I do love nature.

Biking

Since getting back from California I have been trying to bike more often every week and just trying to be more outdoors in general.

Summer is going by too fast and before I know I will be wishing I had taken advantage of the beautiful weather.

Jon and I have started riding in to work together. At first I thought it would be a big mistake as I would be completely wasted after a 10 miles ride in to work but it was the complete opposite. I had so much energy the rest of the day. I work a 9 hour shift on my feet the whole time and then ha enough energy to ride back home.

This last week though I think the biking gods have it out for me as I have had 2 flats back to back which have completely ruined rides that I was so excited about.

The worse was yesterday 7 miles into our ride to Salt Lake from Clearfield I got a flat. I was so excited to do a 30 mile bike ride but such did not happen.

I am truly enjoying the outdoors. Hopefully I can keep up the rest of the good months.

Family Reunion 2

Friday night we drove down to Palm Springs to hang out at aunt Mary's house. Mookie loves being at this house and begs me on the regular to let him move there. He loves his Meme and cries for her at least once a day. I am not even lying, some days it happens more than once.

Anyways....going down the mountain late at night was kinda scary. I mean it's scary doing it during the day so night time just give me a sleeping pill and wake me up once we are down the mountain, honestly. We got to Meme's house and she was up waiting for us and showed us the new lights on the pool plus the waterfalls she just got added to the pool. Looked pretty fabulous.

The next day we just had a lazy day playing in the pool an lounging around. The kids all had a blast swimming and playing. The temperature was 115 so being outside was a no no unless we were in the pool. Once we were done with the pool we played some more rummikub while the kids run around like crazy people throughout the house screaming and us adults ignoring it in the hopes that they would eventually pass out. Jon got on the floor with them all at one point and I kid you not it was like a gang came upon him. When they were done with him and he was able to escape he hid for the rest of the night.

The next day all the cousins left for home but we stayed to have some more time with our family. Plus we needed to see grandma as she is now out of the hospital.

Mookie watched tv with uncle Hank, played with his new ninja turtle toys and tried his hardest to get uncle Hank to play with him. He snuggled up to his Meme and got some much needed hugs from her plus got her to kiss every "ouchie" he had on his body. Thank goodness Meme loves this boy so much and is willing to do just about anything to keep him happy.

We eventually made it out to see Jon's grandma who had a pretty severe stroke last month. She is such a fighter. She continues to show us what an incredible woman she truly is. She is doing so much better however she no longer can talk, walk or eat. For me it was really sad to see her for the first time like that. Just 2 months ago we were seating at the table talking about life and about how much she liked my fake eyelashes. Life can change so fast without any warning. I told myself I wouldn't cry in front of grandma but who was I kidding. What broke my heart was seeing Mookie be so worried about her and ask her "grandma do you feel better?" "you gonna be ok?". When this first happened Jon flew out to make sure he saw her just in case so Mookie had tons of questions and I didn't want to lie to him so I told him that grandma was very sick and at the hospital. I didn't think he would understand but he immediately started crying, completely broke my heart. Breaks my heart that Mookie won't remember the grandma I know however he sure does love her. Kept on kissing her while holding her hand. She recognized us but slept moved of the time.

Sunday night Jon's family took me out to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday. We had yummy food and fun talking to everyone. I was super spoiled by everyone too.

On Monday we got ready to leave but decided right before leaving to go visit grandma one more time and boy am I glad we did. She was super alert and was awake the whole time we were with her. She got really happy when she saw Jon and Mookie. She loves her boys that's for sure. She kept on looking at Jon and holding his hand like she didn't want him to go. I got to brush her hair and fix it. Mookie wanted again to hold her hand and give her all the kisses in the world.

So sad that we had to finally leave but it was a good vacation and made plenty of memories. We were off the Vegas where we were going to spend the night.

Family Reunion 1

For the first time in years the Stoddard family which is my mother-in-law side of the family got together for a family reunion. My husband has a really small family, only one cousin so we all keep in touch and know what's going on in each others lives pretty much, we just haven't been physically in the same place all at once for some time.

This was all made possible due to our dear aunt Mary who always goes above and beyond. She has a house in beautiful Lake Arrowhead, which is where Jon and I were married. We love it up there.

Well she invited us all to come up there for the 4th of July and there was no way we weren't going.

Everything looked perfect as it always does. The kids were all super spoiled by their Meme. There was 4th of July decorations all over the place. Honestly all looked beautiful.

We got there Monday night just in time to see Uncle Paul and Aunt Cheryl who Mookie loves to pieces.

We spend 4 days at the lake house. We went fishing, boating, sun bathing, playing in the sand box, doing arts and crafts with mom-mom, cooking, playing rummikub, talking, eating, swimming at a hotel pool, shopping, biking, going on walks and tons more stuff.

We didn't stop having fun the whole time we were there.

I loved having our cousin Huong cook for us every day. Honestly it was like having a personal chef with us. I'll clean any day as long as someone does the cooking. I need to live near her someday so I can just show up for dinner all the time, I told her I would clean her house as payment.

I learned to play rummikub and I am addicted so much fun but maybe the best part of it is getting to talk about life and parenting styles and just normal everyday things. I do love how we all kinda have similar styles of parenting.

Boating was another one of my favorite things we did. For the first time in over 6 years they got the speed boat out in the water and boy was I in love. I made Jon take me out for rides on the lake during sunset and I got some beautiful pictures an memories. We took my niece on a ride and t was the cutest thing. She kept on yelling "uncle Johnny is trying to kill us and I love it" since we were going pretty fast.

One morning we were all in the kitchen and Mookie goes to Jon "I'm going to bust you up" and out of no where one of his cousins says to Jon "imma cut you up" we died laughing. Jon said "I guess we know whose from Philly" really one of the funniest things I heard come from the children.

The 4th of July was pretty awesome but the best part was getting to watch the fireworks on the boat pretty close up. Funny thing is all the children fell asleep before they started and slept right through it. I told Mookie not to fall asleep or he would miss them and he said to me "if I miss them, I miss them" I laughed but he really slept right through it. They must've had a pretty amazingly exhausting day.

By Friday we started to get ready to head down the mountain and to the dessert to see our Meme who wast able to join us in the mountains. I don't think anyone wanted to leave and had Meme been up at the mountains with us we wouldn't have but we all wanted to see Meme.

Part 2 to come....

My birthday

I rang in my birthday the perfect way.

At least the perfect way in my head.

In Las Vegas!

We arrived last night on our way home from California. We will only be here long enough for us to have brunch at my favorite place, the Mandalay Bay buffet.

Oh yummmmm!

Then back on the road for another 6-7 hours till we make it home.

I will post about our family reunion soon and about my birthday celebrations. I have truly been spoiled this year.