Oh Where To Start?

Why not start with the drama? The middle of June was progressing easy enough...that is until my Sequoia was stolen. I know what you are thinking...didn't their truck just get thefted from in front of their house back in December. YES! To make a long story very short (as most of you have already heard the story and or don't have the time to hear about it) we left my car running in front of our house while we loaded kids into Tony's truck parked in the driveway. Some hood jumped in my car and drove off. Two days later they crashed the car, ran from the cops and the chopper found one of them. A week after that they caught another winner with 3 of Tony's credit cards. RIP Sequoia. You were nice while you lasted.


The day after the car was crashed the kids and I jumped ship and headed west to Cali. We needed a break from the drama and the chaos! We had so many highlights from our trip it is hard to pick just a few pictures to share. I absolutely love my friends and family!

Cienna Enjoying The Jump-Itz At Pixie Playland


Riding The Teacups With Mimi La Rue


On The Carousel


Hangin With Granny


AJ Having A Blast

We also went to Fairyland in Oakland. Cienna was the perfect age to enjoy all that it had to offer!


Welcome To Fairyland!


With GrrrrrrrAnie!


With Her New BFF's (Tana and Lala)


Awww...My Mr. Mr.!

And of course we did a ton of hanging out with friends!

Posing With Ms. B


My Girls B and Rachel After A Night Of Gossiping


With Dena


Our Kids At Studio Grow

A big shout out to Jenny for being my partner in crime at both Arties and The Clayton Club. Both places can really get you into trouble. Thank God neither one did.
And thanks to Lindsay for keeping my mind right at Chris's party! Mike and Kara - Can't wait to see you in August! And DJ and Melanie for the yummy screwdrivers!

The latter part of the week got a little crazy. Tony flew in to celebrate his brother's 40th b-day and our 6 year anniversary. Thank GOD I didn't take any pictures at the party. Not sure I would have even made it home with my camera. It was a lot of fun but I am really glad that he only turns 40 once!

The next day was our anniversary which we spent in the most logical place that we could think of after a night of drinking...boating on the Delta! Well, technically it was boating since we had to be in a boat to get to the crazy island of total debauchery, but it was mostly just standing around and drinking in the sun. Crazy times!

This Really Is The Place That Your Parents Warned You About

Lastly, I wanted to share something really special. Tony and I were married at the Gardens at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek. In the middle of the rose garden there are several brick paths, which you can purchase bricks to commemorate births, deaths, weddings, etc. Well now our path is complete!


The Rose Garden


Path 6


6 Years Of (Mostly) Wedded Bliss And I Would Do It All Over Again In A Heartbeat!

An Update From The Home Front

Ah yes. We have been home for a little less than a week and it feels good to have the house clean, the laundry done and be back into a little routine. That is until Tuesday when the kids and I travel back to the Bay for a 2 week trip! Yes, you read it correctly...2 weeks! But before we embarked on our next vacation of sorts I wanted to provide an update from the home front.
We have been working a lot on remodeling the outdated parts of our 1950's home. Of course nothing goes smoothly and everything takes twice as much time as we planned but I am proud to say that we are 99.9% done with what we have started. So here are some pics of our blood, sweat and tears (literally. I am not good with projects.)

Kitchen Before



Kitchen After



Laundry Room Before


Laundry Room After


Guest Bathroom Before


Guest Bathroom After


"Shed" Before


"Shed" After


And the most important revision of our home came when we added a garden area to our backyard. This little project has been a huge source of pride for me, as I run out daily to check on the status of my little gems!

My 1st Jalapeno!


Yep. This is my first tomato. Cienna proudly plucked it so that she could show me. I still don't have any new ones growing as of yet....

Playing Catch-Up

Even as I sit writing this blog I am aware that I will have to do this in stages. Summer is upon us and things are crazier than usual...which means that they are really insane. But I wanted to take a moment to catch up on the last few weeks.

When we returned from Mexico, Cienna had her first dance recital. It was cute beyond words and Cienna absolutely stole the show. Now I am not just saying that because she is my daughter and I am being one of those crazy stage moms. In the middle of the dance routine she stopped and waved like crazy followed by this little boogie down move and then she blew kisses to the audience. Well she was actually blowing kisses to AJ, but the audience didn't know that and every one erupted in laughter. It was adorable. Such a character!

Our Dancing Diva

A few days later my friend Lindsay flew in from CA for a Memorial Day weekend visit. We went up to the cabin for a little rest and relaxation and to see our good friends Beau and Heather get married. I have to give credit to the groom. It was the most creative entrance that I have ever seen. He arrived via a boat in the Rio Grande, fishing off the front!

www.BeauMeyer.com

It was a great wedding and we ran into our old friends Ian and Paige. Paige and I were bridesmaids in each others weddings but had lost contact over the last few years. I was glad to hear that she and her husband were doing fab and we had a lot of fun catching up over keg beer.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing yard work (blah) and indulging in buffalo steaks. I absolutely adore Lindsay, and we always have a ton of fun even when we don't do much. When we returned to ABQ on Monday night we saw a late showing of Sex and the City 2. A perfect ending to a perfect visit!

Lindsay and Cienna

Two days later we were off to Vegas! Firefighters Mike and Jackie White were generous enough to invite us to their timeshare just off the strip and we made quite the road trip out of it! There were a total of 7 of us, including their 2-year old daughter Adriana. We spent 3 days poolside, and discovered that the resort had a lazy river that was to die for! Even though it was 107 degrees, we managed to stay cool between the pool and the air conditioned rooms. We only ran into one problem...3 days just wasn't long enough!

Daddy and AJ on the Lazy River


Cienna - Posing As Always


AJ Enjoying The Sand Pool

Well that catches us up on the last few weeks. I heart summer!!!

Viva La Mexico!

It was oh so nice to have a beer in my hand with my feet in the sand last week in Playa del Carmen. While I won't bore you with all of the details of the trip, I will just say that if you have a Facebook page you may already know more than you ever wanted to know. Blame it on the tequila. And the beer. And the champagne. And I think there was also rum involved.


Anyway, enough about the alcohol consumption. Obviously a vacation minus the kids (and one that includes my best friend from high school) is going to be a crazy good time. Some of the highlights included:
-Being overcharged almost $400 for beer at the Mega our first day there. Yea. That is why you don't go grocery shopping drunk. Fortunately for us we figured it out the next morning and sent the guys down there to straighten it out while Jen and I consumed morning mimosas. Through an interpreter they were able to explain that there was no way to actually put 96 6-packs of beer into a shopping cart and we got our refund. Mission accomplished!

-Then there was the deep sea fishing excursion. I should have known that it was not going to be exactly smooth sailing when we woke up to black skies and torrential downpour. But when we called we were assured by our fishing guide "Walter" that it would be "no problem!" Uh huh. I should have listened to my internal fishing guide that said don't do it. Not one to be the party pooper, I popped my Dramamine and hopped my happy ass on the boat. Top five worst mistakes that I have ever made. Between the near capsizing of the boat, the freezing weather, and the smell of fuel fumes pumping in my face I finally succumbed to the nasty, plastic fishing vessel Gods of the Caribbean seas. No bueno.

Oh yea, and on top of it all we got a fish on the line and they give the freakin pole to the sicky just trying not to barf all over the boat. That was the topper. I finally gave up and handed Tony the pole, only to watch a 3ft fish jump out of the water and snap the line. Nice ending to the day.
-Tony being called "Rambo" by all the Mexican peddlers, and Jen and Justin being referred to as "Basketball Players." I am jealous! I wasn't given a nickname the entire week we were there. That is probably because no one could see me walking with all of the giants. I was the only one in our group under 6ft!
-Justin asked Jen to marry him! We were enjoying a beautiful walk on the beach when all of the sudden Justin drops to a knee and proposes in Spanish. Jen didn't have a clue what he was saying or why he was in the water, but after he slipped the ring on her finger she finally figured it out. Congrats you two little lovebirds!




So those were some of the highlights of the trip. Tony and I had a great time and only missed the kids a little bit. OK, a lot. But that is why we drank so much...to get them off our minds!








Thank you to Marilou and Gary for flying out to Albuquerque to watch the kids while we spent the week acting like kids. It was such a great time!

A Mother's Week

What a great Mother's Day week! I didn't think that it was going to be so great, with Cienna and I not seeing eye to eye on much at the beginning of the week. But Tony came through BIG TIME by taking her to Las Vegas with him and his business partner to pick up a dump trailer that they had purchased. A couple of days without her gave me the space that I needed to realize how much I love and miss the little nugget. T sent me little photos of their trip to keep me in the loop, showing me that she had an absolute blast. And I am sure that it helped that they stayed at Circus Circus....


Dad Carrying Their Overnight Bag


Riding The Rides


Did I Mention That These Were Taken At Like Midnight??

Tony said that Cienna actually told him that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. That just shows you how late it really was. But with McDonald's for lunch, In-n-Out for dinner and Krispy Kremes for breakfast, I am sure that it was a dream trip for her!

While they were gone, AJ and I got to bond. I think that he liked having the one on one time with his mama and I am looking forward to Cienna starting pre-school in August so that he and I can do Gymboree together. He is crawling everywhere and I even caught him pulling himself up on Cienna's baby gate. I immediately grabbed my phone, took a picture and sent it to Tony so that he could share in the momentus occasion. All I got was a reply that Tony had seen him do it the day before (and may I mention he did not feel the need to tell me about it!) I told him that his viewing didn't count and that the day that I saw it would be the day that went in the baby book. So there...




My first Mother's Day gift arrived on Thursday...a new dishwasher! Most people probably don't get excited over this type of stuff but I was overjoyed. Mostly because it has a cool "half load" or "top rack only" feature which allows me to wash just the baby bottles and cups that Cienna and AJ plow through on a daily basis. Moms will understand. My little brother probably won't get it.

My actual Mother's Day was fab. We started with breakfast at our usual Sunday spot, followed by an Isotopes baseball game in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and the best part came when Cienna's face appeared on the jumbo-tron. It was so cute, and you can bet how thrilled she was to see herself on the big screen! We then came home for naps and Tony continued work on our bathroom, which I can finally say is almost complete! It has been one hell of a project. Then I was treated to dinner at Buca di Beppo and given my "real" gift.



It was such an adorable idea. One side has the kids names and the other has their birthdays (both sides have their birthstones.) And he followed it up with a classic Mother's Day card, complete with at least one misspelled word and totally from the heart!

One more week until Mexico without the kids. This week is gonna be sloooooooooooooow.
Hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day!

More Colorado Footage

OK, so I apologize for the double post about our last couple of weekends in CO, but I completely forgot that I took pictures! So here are a few of my favorite shots (and some new pics from this week too!) Boring week here in ABQ. It went something like this:

Monday - (Tony) Hauling Jobs (Me) Catering to my children's every desire
Tuesday - (Tony) Hauling Jobs (Me) Mani / Pedi in the morning. Then catering to my children's every desire
Wednesday - (Tony) Fire station (Me) Catering to my children's every desire
Thursday - (Tony) Fire station (Me) Catering to my children's every desire
Friday - (Tony) Hauling Jobs (Me) Catering to my children's every desire
Saturday - (Tony) Fire station (Me) Catering to my children's every desire

See what I mean? Boring week. Anyhoo, here are some pics.


AJ's 1st "Cabin" Beer


I Think He Liked It....


Cienna Expressing Herself Again


I Think She Gets It From Her Friend Skylar


I Don't Know What It Is About Tony, But He Can Get AJ To Fall Asleep Anywhere!
(Ok, I do know what it is. When I get AJ to fall asleep I am doing dishes, laundry, making beds, doing yard work, catering to Cienna's every desire, etc. When Tony gets him to fall asleep he sleeps too!)




Just Had To Throw In A Couple Of Pics Of AJ Without The Luller In His Mouth


And One Of Me Since I Am Rarely Not The Picture Taker. Notice Cienna's Pose. Even The Random Lady Who Took Our Picture Had A Good Laugh At That!

That's it. Back to catering to my children's every desire!