Who Knew!

I've lived in this house for 7 years.

Just two days ago I found THESE growing in my own backyard!

How does someone miss a tree full of plums? We've had this small pear tree and I've watched it for years produce 2-3 pears tops. But this year its just bursting with fruit!!! (Sad part is that I can't even taste them. allergic)..
Now how come my garden won't participate?
I picked my One and only zucchini today (the one I artificially pollinated a week and a half ago).. The tomatoes won't ripen and although the garden is FULL of luscious green, its producing nothing!

computer time

Aquarium

My sister Steph invited Mattie and I to the Aquarium today. Mattie loved it, and spent nearly two hours running from tank to tank checking out all the cool things.

He would literally run from one thing to another excitedly pointing to what he saw
The aquarium isn't very big but there was plenty for him to enjoy

Stephanie touching the sting rays...... Mattie wouldn't do it.

he preferred looking... check out this giant lobster!

He loved the Octopus, and the spiders the best. I loved watching the Purana's and the electric eel.
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We took a break to eat in the cafe. Mattie was done before us so I let him have a turn with my camera (he LOVES taking pictures). Here are a few of his masterpieces..
His own foot. LOVE it!

The cafe... aren't these cool?

After the Aquarium we stopped at the dollor theater for Monster's vs Aliens.

Mattie only lasted half way through the movie and considering he'd missed his nap that wasnt at all surprising.

We then took a little detour to a pet store that sells all breeds of puppies, and more.

We held and snuggled our share of puppies and watched and gigled as Steph played with the 900 dollar bird. (I don't know what kind it was) it was so funny and playful, taking off her glasses and playing with her curly hair.

As we left my mom called and asked if we wanted to BBQ.. Ofcourse we did!

We finally got home well after 8 oclock and Mattie happily went to bed shortly after.

It was such a fun and busy day, I am so glad to have such wonderful family to spend my time with.

Zoo

Having a zoo membership is the best. I like being able to go for a short zoo trip and leave without feeling like I didn't get my money's worth. Taylor and I had a day off together last week and so we took Mattie to the zoo for a few hours.

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We tried to see the bird show but Mattie wasn't interested.. he complained until we left 5 minutes before it was over.

What he REALLY wanted to see were the BEARS!

we went straight to them and watched as they played in the water.
Then after a quick look at the reptiles we took the
obligatory train ride.

Fun little trip and out before it got too hot.

Pine View

I brought my Shuffle for the drive down. Mattie took it over for a spell. Anthony and I laugh at how much the girls talk. Megan was on one today, she talked the entire hour drive. I had my earphones on most of the time so I got to smirk out my window while Anthony answered her randomness every few minutes. The kids were so excited to play in the water.
Mattie was SO excited to see Caden, his very best buddy. Megan couldn't wait to get out on the jet ski (Taylor's brother and one of his sisters both have a pair so there were 4 to play on). Ali was a little more hesitant. They loved riding them. I got to take them out a few times too.. They both said Daddy was the better driver although I did better and went faster once I felt more comfortable. I was laughing so hard after my ride out with Megan. No matter how many bumps we took, splashes we made, or high speeds we went, Megan kept up a fluent conversation of randomness.....

" Remember when BUMP*Splash*__ this mom?" "and that one* bump, bump, SPLASH* time___________, and that was funny *BUMP*huh mom?"

Everyone but Travis and his family got to come. It was so fun to have most of the family there to hang out with.. Lots and lots of cousins to play with makes for alot of fun and noise.
In order to get up to the tent and food you had to climb a little embankment. Mattie was so cute when Dakota started climbing up, he held out his hand and said "here, I help you"

Drawing in the sandWe thought it was funny that grandma forgot to take the tag off her life vest
Grandpa spent most of the day sleeping under a large tree.
Anthony's shoes started to float away.. Mattie saved them...

He climbed up the big embankment to give them to Daddy and he wasn't even up there!

(self portraits)

Cutie pieI was pretty self conscious hanging around all his bikini body wearing sisters. I'm by far the largest I've ever been in my life. It was embarrassing and I kept my cover up on the whole day. Even his sister Kristina who's given birth to 4 kids has a smokin body (just look for her above). ugh.
I was surprised that Ali actually agreed to try knee boarding. I was so proud of her for going out there. she did great and had so much fun. We gushed how proud we were of her.

Overall a WONDERFUL day.. I missed pictures of half the crew but with so much going on it was hard to capture everyone. We all got quite a bit of sun. Mattie and Megan fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

I can't wait to do it again.

Girls Day out

Ali had been dying to do another "girls day out" since I took her to the Mall for her birthday two months ago.

First we went out to lunch just the three of us.

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Then we went to Build a bear for Megan. She picked out a darling Kitty and dressed her all up. She LOVES it.

Then we went to Claires for Ali where she picked out nail polish, earings, and two for one flip flops.

The girls had a so much fun and It was nice to spend time with just the two of them.

they leave next Thursday for a three week spread with their dad.. I'll sure miss their chatter. But NOT their constant bickering.

More time at the pool with friends

More swimming..

It was Thursday so of course Michie, Emmie, and Oli got to come too. Mathew is getting more comfortable in the water
The girls had a great time playing. I asked how long they wanted to swim and Emmie told me she wanted to swim forever or atleast for the rest of the night. She swam so hard that as soon as we walked back into our house she climbed onto the couch and fell asleep.

Thank goodness Taylor was there to help me keep an eye on all these kids!
I finally gathered enough courage to jump in this time.. It was surprisingly a perfect temperature.

No pictures of me as usual, but that's okay, no one is missing out on me in a swim suit...

Here is another of my big boy though.

Olivia slipped into this floaty right when we got in and didn't leave it until we pulled her out to go home.. at one point she was pretty nearly asleep. I think she would have really slept if the girls weren't constantly taunting her. She was just so comfortable floating around