First Camping Trip of the Year and Graduation!

Knock, knock.

Hello-o-o??

Anyone there?

Yep, I'm back!

So sorry to not have posted anything in 2 1/2 months.  I have been getting used to a new job, working at the same place, and am now a Monday-to-Friday-er with a (very) flexible 8-5 schedule for the first time in over 10 years.  Which means J is also going to daycare five days a week.  (I think he's transitioned better than I have, but that's not surprising, as he's always been pretty laid back and goes with the flow.)  At work, my to-do list is perpetual, which is new for me as well; I'm used to finishing all my charting on patients and then going home with everything completed.  It's been hard for me to leave things unfinished each afternoon, but I'm learning.

And speaking of learning, we have a graduate on our hands!!  J graduated from pre-K last week and his school had a ceremony for all the kids with diploma, awards, and cake included.  I swear Chris had tears in his eyes when they started playing "Pomp and Circumstance" for the children to walk in to (although he keeps denying it!).  Mom of the Year moment: remembered the camera (yay!)...forgot to charge the battery (boo!).  Argh!  So I got a total of 5 pictures before it completely died on me and most of those were blurry.  J's award was that they think he's going to be a Future Airplane Mechanic or Pilot.  And if you've been around him for any length of time in the last oh, 7-8 months, you know that they are dead-on with that guess!  Here's the best picture of the bunch:

We also went camping a couple of weekends ago to put our new camper on our land.  It will stay there permanently and it's going to be so nice to just drive up there, unlock the door, and push a button to slide out both the awning and the one slide-out we have!  We definitely have room for visitors, so if anyone wants to set up a time, let me know.  :)  I made a video tour of the camper, but it's way too long to upload to here...and I didn't even take a lone picture of the camper.  Sorry!  I'll get one next time.

It was a tad bit cold at the beginning of May when we were there, so we were all bundled up.

picking up kindling for the fire

this is B's idea of "kindling"!!

don't know how many more years he'll be able to do these splits

Daddy and J walking back to the campsite; they've both been waiting years to do this together!!

Chilling by the fire

Our last morning there, this is what we woke up to!  But it had all melted by 8:30.

putting together a model airplane

LOVE!

My boy

Took him forever to get to sleep in the hotel on the way home and this is how he ended up when he finally gave it up to Mr. Sandman!  He looks so long in this picture!

I'll try to be better about posting.  I've got tons of pictures to put up from the last couple of months!

Ice Skating

Look what we did yesterday...

Action shot so it's a little blurry:

We all had soooo much fun and J did awesome!

He even told us after a while that he didn't want the ice walker anymore and kept saying, "I can do it. I can do it!"  He's definitely getting more and more independent and wants to do things by himself.

What a blast!

Our Snow Day Fun

Oh, what a wonderful day it was!

What J and I did during the most recent snow day in our area:

He helped me shovel and then took a rest by making his own snow seat in the pile we had made.

He did some snow painting.  I'm glad I took out both colors and not just the red because it really looked like blood and might be a little concerning to the neighbors if they had just seen splotches of red all over the front yard!

My accomplishment!

It took me 1 1/2 hours to unearth (or should that be un-snow?!) the entire drive from the 6+ inches that had fallen...this time.

One of our snow dogs.  Don't know what she was after, but boy, that face was probably freezing!!

We came in and had some hot apple cider and then made some suncatchers.

I haven't seen these since I was a kid!  I did the butterflies and J was so excited to do the clownfish which, according to him, is "just like Daddy saw in Belize!"

He can't wait to "catch the sun" with these.

And here's someone who did not want to get his picture taken again by his camera-happy mama.  But he was more than happy to go with Daddy to DQ to get some ice cream for having such a productive day!

Happy Lunar New Year!!!

Welcome the year of the Horse!

Going out to celebrate with friends tonight with some yummy Korean food!!!

Wordless Wednesday - bed. head.

Retirement

Yeah, not mine. (although some days I wish I could retire and not have to work anymore!)

We started off the year by attending my dad's surprise retirement party...and then made it back home before a huge blizzard hit that shut down pretty much everything in town, except, of course, for the hospital where I just happen to work.

Grandpa was very surprised when he walked in the room, but when he saw Boo and me there as well, I'm pretty sure I saw tears in his eyes...a double-whammy of a surprise!  My younger sister was going to try to make it with her kids, but they live about 6 hours away (much farther than our 2 1/2) and between the storm that had just come through and the one that was predicted to come over the next few days, she made the safest decision to stay home.  We missed her, but so glad she and her kids were safe at home!

My dad loves. lives. breathes. is. Notre Dame!

For those ND fans, you'll recognize the play on the sign above.

That cake was almost bigger than Boo.  He could not wait for Grandpa to get there so we could finally cut it and eat!!

Grandma and Grandpa; such a beautiful couple!

I love this picture.

Boo and I stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's that night.  Look who was having fun with oranges...cheese!!

Putting a puzzle together that I did when I was a little girl.

Snuggle time with Grandma.   Shhhh, I think he fell asleep!

Happy Retirement, Dad!  Here's to starting the next chapter of your life!!

Movies from our second Christmas

First ride on a snowmobile with Daddy, bundled up and helmeted.

the helicopter

The only tame snowball fight that we had the entire weekend; it was usually much more intense...and louder!

I've got a funny video of Chris riding a new "scooter" of Boo's, but for some reason it's not uploading.  Cross a scooter a bit too small for Chris, slick wooden floor, two dogs wanting to get in the way, and his mom freaking out that he is going to go backwards down the stairs...fun times!