Curious George Ain't Got Nothing

I am willing to bet big bucks that there is not a more curious boy in the world than Carson. Uncle Nathan, the previous question champ asks loads of mindless and useless questions, and I have been known to make fun of him frequently or respond with, "seriously, WHO CARES".....but now-a-days, he doesn't even hold a candle to Carson...Curious George, not even on the same playing field, A college trivia bowl (if those even exist), guarantee he can ask more in the same amount of time. Now I'm all for a curious mind and taking any and all opportunities to teach kids, but I have to admit that sometimes the rapid fire questions wear me out. I planned on keeping a tally one day so I could keep it in Carson's journal, but 10 minutes in the car to target and 21 questions later, (literally) I gave up.
I don't know, is rarely an acceptable answer for the little man. Your better served to make up an answer. And more likely than not your response will only lead to a new question. Why does it get dark? Well Why does the Sun Go down? Well Why does the earth spin?
And then there's our regular regiman of questions in the grocery store. Why is that kid crying? Why is that guy loading the shelf? Where is the back room? Who goes there? Why do they put the cookies on that shelf? What are the carts made out of? Why can't I walk? You get the point.
Carson's mind is always moving and my efforts to make ALL toys in his room inaccessible during quiet time, in hopes that he'll actually fall asleep, only result in a nap about once every two weeks. and only on the brink of exhaustion. Kind of the same pattern as his questions....no time to sit and relax!
He definitely keeps us on our toes, but we sure love our little question making machine! So if your ever in the mood to share some random thoughts, knowledge, or theories with someone feel free to give Carson a call, because he would love to listen. Or if your in the mood to gain some random knowledge you could either call Carson or Nathan, and one of them is bound to have an answer. Give little Carson a few more years and he'll really be ready to give Uncle Nathan a run for his money!

Not so Royal

We had a fabulous, kidless vacation in Puerto Vallarta with the Halveys and the Koehle's and here's some of the highlights and lowlights in a whole heck of a lot of pictures......okay really the only lowlight is the resort, so we'll go ahead and start there!

Welcome to the Royal Decameron, also known as little tijuana. Really we were in the minority BIG time. Now nothing against my hispanic brothers and sisters, but just not quite what we expected. Apparently if you run out of things to do during the day they give you a random can of paint and you can touch up the outer exterior any place you choose!
Next we have sweet sweet Ramona. Every night there was a show and we made it through half a show one night, and opted for games the rest of the week...good choice. Ramona flipping up his dress every few seconds to show his speedos (with a hole in the back no less) somehow lost it's humor after 10 minutes. Although it did make for some good jokes the rest of the week.
Here we have our favorite meal of the Royal D. Mmmm chips and guac! The rest of the food....lets just say it didn't really agree with our systems or our taste buds. I am sooo not hard to please, but these buffets needed some serious revamping!
All in all, here's how we felt about the resort......

Okay, really, other than our accomodations, the trip was awesome and really relaxing. Something about being able to go wherever you want, when you want, is the BEST!!! Not to mention a week with NO whining....okay maybe a little when we first saw our 1 star get-up. We did miss our little munchkins quite a bit though! Our trip started the night before staying in Blake's motor home at LAX.

The resort really did have some fun things to do. we went for a couple rides into town on our banana bikes, played lots of volleyball, kayaking, and sailing!
And the night time made for some great rounds of "loaded questions." This is quite possibly one of my favorite pictures of trip after a hilarious game....so help me Eric, if you ever make fun of Matt's teeth again :)
One of the excursions we did was a Zip Line Canopy Tour. SOOOO FUN! You fly so dang high and over rivers and trees and some of the instructors were really cool and would go with you so you could go backwards or upside down. Highly recommend this one!
Next Excursion was the "Rhythm of the Night." Go ahead and hum the song while you read on. I am! We were taken by boat to a private beach for dinner and a show. There was lots of rain, and good good food under candlelight- oh la la. The water was beautiful over there...a good change from the poo murky water in front of our resort, and it was so tropical. We almost wanted the boat to leave us behind!

Here's a few more tidbits and highlights of our trip. Sorry, I just have too many pictures to post! We ate an Italian place that was our favorite restaurant on our resort....and this is our anniversary dinner. Happy 6 babe, I love you more than Ever!!! I have to say one of my favorite pre-trip quotes was when Lori asked if we minded spending our anniversary with them and Trevor said, "What, in Puerto Vallarta, with no kids?" Sounds pretty darn good to me.
The twilight phenomenon carries on in Mexico. I'm happy to say that Eric and Mariah joined the club on this trip....well mostly Eric, cause he was being a twilight book hog:) can you blame him?

Hanging out at our favorite resort down the way...now this is a real resort!
All in all, a seriously fun trip, good company, and lots of laughs. Thanks guys for coming with us. And Huge Thank you thank you to both Grandparents and Aunt Paige who took such good care of our kiddos. I'm pretty sure they didn't even know we were gone!

HAPPY FOURTH!!!

A Little Birthday mixed with Wedding

So I turned the big 2-8 on Tuesday...definitely no longer in my mid-twenties and well on my way into the good old thirties! It was the BEST birthday!!! (by the end of the post you'll see how simple I really am to please:) Since i've been married, birthdays are pretty mellow, with maybe a family dinner, or a date night, but nothing too exciting! So here's a little story of my 28th birthday adventures.
A couple days ago, Matt told me he needed me from noon to four, and his mom would watch the kids. Just the mere fact that he was taking a half day off work I was giddy. We headed to La Jolla for lunch because he had an "appointment" down there at 2. Lunch was at one of our favorite La Jolla eateries and throughout the meal, he gave me 4 clues as to what were doing next....clue #3 peaked my curiosity to the max, and I finally guessed on #4. Here's the clues, if you guess the activity, you get a prize... maybe:)
1) You need to remember a few facts
2) You need to take off your wedding ring
3) It's slightly dishonest :)
4) Your mom would love it .....and the appointment was...drumroll please!!!


We went wedding cake tasting and it was SO fun! To really appreciate this, you have to understand my minor obsession with wedding cakes. I LOVE them!!! It's probably my most favorite thing about weddings next to the brides dress. And everytime I know someone getting married I'm happy to offer my cake tasting expertise. So the fact that Matt thought this up on his own, and called our wedding planner friend to find out the best place to go, made my day. Seriously, I really am pretty darn easy to please, especially when sugars involved! I Love things that take thought. Not to mention there never has been a better birthday cake. The cake place gave us about 14 different flavors, and even sent them all home with us. It really was the BEST cake ever. So we're getting married October 4th, and the cakes all picked out. You're all invited!!! We ended our afternoon date with a little shopping. Matt is one of my favorite shopping buddies. Just to clarify for his sake, I know it's not one of his favorite activites, being the manliest of all men and all, but I love that he'll go with me from time to time!
While we were gone, Carson & Grandma Karen were hard at work making cupcakes that provided some good entertainment when Carson asked Matt, "Hey, Can I shove this cupcake in your face?" Carson's got Matt's laugh and when they get going it's the funniest thing EVER! If you've ever heard Matt laugh just picture two of him. It's contagious.
Of course Matt had to get him back. And then the boys went to assess the damage in the mirror.

Carson couldn't imagine anything better than smeared frosting all over your face and has since asked for it a few more times.



Next up, I went out with a few girlfriends for dinner and pedicures! It was so fun to have Becky, my best friend from highschool in town, to come along!

Just in case we want to act out some scenes on our upcoming trip to Mexico, Lori bought us some gilligan island prop hats. Not to mention a little shout out of patriotism for the 4th of July.

I seriously ALWAYS have a blast when I hang out with these girls, they're the best.....so thanks a ton girls!!! To top it all off, Lori and Mariah put together this poem, that really is a pretty darn good summary of me. I love love love love it! I don't know if you can read it when you click on it, but if not, just know it's really good and you are missing out!
So that was it for my fun filled day. I LOVE birthdays!!!