Growing Up

The little ones in my life finished their school year a few days ago.   They started the school year thinking they would be in the South for who-knows-how-long...and finished the year in the Midwest. 

They grew and changed and embraced change and made me one proud momma.

T-Man took the changes in stride.  He smoothly transitioned from one climate and culture into the next.  He is a helper, a leader, a reader, and radiates positivity.  Ironically, his name means "long-winded talker" and "cheerful".  Both of those meanings fit our little T-Man perfectly.  And I love him to pieces for both of those qualities.

Fearless had the hardest time with the changes--he is one that loves the routine and anticipating what is coming next.  Moving and starting over with new school rules, new friends, new climate...it took awhile for him to adjust.  But being the little rock star he is, he realized he was having a hard time and every night he would pray that he would be happy.  And each day he tried hard to choose to be happy. 

That attitude is pretty grown-up for a five year old.  I'm so proud of him for pushing himself to grow and embrace the change. 

And this little lovey?  She's still my doll-baby; but she's grown-up too.  She loves her independence and is communicating what she needs and wants like a champ.  And although we lovingly refer to her as our little F5 Tornado (or just F5 for short) I love her curiosity and her sense of adventure.  I love hearing about what is going on in her mind. I love learning what is important to her, so it can be important to me too. 

Having them all home everyday means that our home is full of ruckus & chaos at any given moment--and surprisingly, it doesn't bother me.  Just having them close and deepening our relationship is worth all the noise and Lego messes.

Yay for 3 months of uninterrupted time for me to spend with my little ones!!

Bring on summer!!

Fall Travel Journal: A Perfect Ending.

Sometimes people come into your life that aren't technically related to you, but they might as well be family.

While Dr. C was working on his PhD in Nebraska, we had the privilege of getting to know some these un-related family members.  After we moved to The South, we unfortunately don't get to see them as much, but when we do see them, we pick up right where we left off.

On Wednesday night, before we all left San Antonio and headed home (us to The South, some back to Nebraska, some back to Brazil)--we had a mini-un-related-family-reunion at a fabulous brazilian grill, Fogo de Chao. 

It was a perfectly lovely evening.

These un-related family members are some of my favorite people on the planet.  An evening with them is like being home.

Thank you for the wonderful time; spending the last night of our trip with you all was the perfect ending to a fabulous vacation.

Next time, let's all meet up in Brazil.

Fall Travel Journal: The First Day

Dr. C and I are currently enjoying our vacation (for me) and vacation conference (for him).

Our first night, we left The Village at 9:30PM and didn't get to our hotel until 2:30AM.  When Dr. C was reserving our hotel for the midway-point of our drive, I told him my only requirement was that it needed to be nice enough that I could relax and sleep in it.

No such luck.

The non-smoking room smelled like it had been housing a chain-smoker for years.

The bathroom light/fan sounded like they had a hamster up there, running (and squeaking) it's guts out to make the blades go round.

The shower water smelled disgusting...I literally gagged a few times.  And then, randomly, it started smelling like a perm.  Not much of an improvement.

The toilet made the noise I would imagine a duck being strangled and drowned would sound like.

And let's just say I refused to walk around without my flip-flops on.

I'm beginning to think that the people that write online hotel reviews have a fundamentally different set of standards than I do.

We were too tired when we got in to find something else...and knowing we'd only be there for a few hours, we crashed, woke up 5 hours later, and got the heck outta Dodge.

After another 5 hours of driving (plus a detour in Houston--a city where you can apparently see where you want to go, but there is no way to get there without driving in circles on a zillion one-way streets first.), we arrived at Sea World in San Antonio.

Maybe it's because I'm a beach person, or maybe it's some lingering tween girl thing where you love everything dolphins (or horses or butterflies or whatever-girly-type-animal-you-can-think-of) but I absolutely loved Sea World.

Loved it so much, that I told Dr. C I need to add "marine biologist" to the list of degrees that I need to get.  "Marine Animal Trainer" is currently at the top of my Coolest-Jobs-On-The-Planet list.





And "Swimming With Dolphins" has been added to my bucket list.

I would even settle for "Swimming With Whales", if the dolphin thing didn't work out.  Either way, I'd be a happy, happy lady.

There is just something so graceful and powerful about the dolphins and whales...I could sit there and watch them all day.

Shamu waving goodbye. 
Although as far as I could tell, they call ALL of the killer whales Shamu.  So this could really be Shamu the Third or Baby Shamu or really Shamu's cousin.
Your guess is as good as mine.

It was Fab-U-Lous.

And then, when we checked into our hotel for the rest of the week, we were met with valet parking, a newly renovated room with a giant flat-screen, balcony view of the San Antonio Riverwalk,  granite counter tops, and a big comfy bed with a zillion down pillows that I easily relaxed in. 

Quite the difference from the night before!

10 Reasons.

If you haven't ever been to a Buddy Walk--you are seriously missing out.  The annual Buddy Walk is one of our favorite family days of the year.  They really are awesome.

Here are my 10 Reasons Buddy Walks are the best.

10.  The T-shirt.  While usually they are pretty cool and Dr. C and I wear them throughout the year with pride, this year, I think they were going more for the "get noticed" factor.  And they definitely got that right.  Dr. C and I decided that we will wear these shirts again when:

a) We decide to go for a nighttime run and all of our other clothes are missing

b) We become hunters and don't want to buy the orange vest

c) We find out someone is taking pictures from space and we want to make sure they can see us.

They did make us easy to find each other when we did a little post-Walk visit to Target.  And we easily spotted some other people that had been at the Walk too. 

9. There are plenty activities for everyone.  This year they did a carnival type thing.  The kids got to play the games as much as they wanted.  Heck, I could have played the games as much as I wanted.  Everyone is encouraged to participate however they want to.

8. All the money raised helps people with Down syndrome.  It funds scholarships for summer enrichment programs, educational seminars, family events, and more. 

 7. When a 20-something woman hops on the horse ride and yells YEEEE-HAAAWW at the top of her lungs in true wild-west style while moving at about .3 miles an hour...everyone thinks it's awesome. That cowgirl was living the moment to the fullest. 

Most of us could learn a lesson from her.

  

6. You could talk about Down syndrome the whole time...or you could not talk about it at all...and both options are completely acceptable and understood.  Our first year, I think we talked about it the whole time.  This year, I don't think it came up in conversation once.

5. When you speak in funky acronyms (AVSD, OT, ST, PT, IFSP, IEP, etc.) everyone knows what you are talking about.

4. No one is too cool, too old, or too self-conscious to have a good time. 

3. It's completely appropriate to hug everyone you meet.

2. The entertainers stay long past their original quitting time, just to make sure no one is disappointed.  

1. In a sea of 300+ individuals whose lives are somehow touched by Down syndrome, we all become "typical".  We bond together, support each other, and we celebrate the blessings that we have been given.

There are still Buddy Walks going on across the country.  To find one happening in your area, search here.

YEEE-HAAAAWWWW!!

Summer Travel Journal Part 5: The Egg Drop

My family likes to keep things entertaining when we all get together. 

For instance, while I was growing up, my parents had to figure out a way to keep us all occupied in that lull of vacation-laziness between Christmas and New Year's.  When we got to the point where everyone had been on break long enough to feel relaxed...and we were all starting to get a bit ansty to do something...and when the sugar buzz from all the homemade caramels and cookies was turning more into diabetic shock, my parents would buy some giant bags of rubber bands from Sam's Club, take us all to the church gym, and we'd have a giant rubber band shooting war.  The only rule? Don't shoot anyone in the face.  Other than that, it was a free-for-all to release excessive pent up energy.  And after a couple of rounds of shooting family members with rubber bands as hard and as often as I could while fending off their attacks on me, life was good and we were all ready to go back home and put together some Christmas-gift puzzles.  Good times. 

(Side note: If you ever try this activity, I would suggest wearing long sleeves and pants.  Just sayin'.)

I think most families go see a movie or something?

Anywho, my point is, my family likes to mix it up in the entertainment area.  Our family reunion was no exception.  About a month before the reunion, my mom told us all to prepare for an Egg Drop--the kind of activity you did in 5th grade where you try to package your raw egg in such a way that when it's dropped off the roof of the school, it won't break.  (If I remember right, my egg in 5th grade did break.  Bummer.)  While my siblings all paid attention to this email...I think I was buried up to my elbows in homemade paper mache and promptly forgot about it.

It all worked out okay in the end though, since I had been pinata-making instead of planning our egg's protection, we just used the broken halves of the pinata to package the egg. 

How's that for being resourceful?

Most of the family--waiting for the excitement to start!

Woohoo!  Not a single crack!

The rest my family did just as well and not one egg broke.  I'm pretty sure that means we hold the World Record for "Least Number of Eggs Broken During An Egg Drop Contest At A Family Reunion". 

(Cue music: We are the champions...we are the champions...no time for losers 'cause we are the champions...of the world)

I think we might have to add "Egg Drop" to our permanent family entertainment list.  Oh, and we'll be stocking up on rubber bands too.

Summer Travel Journal Part 4: Gone Fishin' Party

Once again, we are flashing back to our Summer Travel Journal.  We spent the last week of our vacation at a family reunion with my family in the Uinta Mountains--a simply gorgeous part of our country.  My whole family, minus one brother, was there...making a nice round number of 30 people in one cabin.  It's a good thing we love each other!

The cabin we stayed in was pretty much waaaaaaaay out there...as in, no cell phone or Internet service.  As in, so far out there that there were real cowboys (shepherds?) riding their horses and herding their flock of sheep across the highway.  Nothing like starting a nice family reunion almost being slowly stampeded by sheep.  The cowboy-shepherd guy kept telling us to just keep driving...but dude, who wants to run over a herd of sheep?!?

Baaa.

A couple of miles later, this deer was running along the road, right next to the van.  After a good race, it decided to stop and pose for a picture.  (Sorry for poor picture quality, I was took it through the window.)

The sunset view from the cabin porch.  Simply beautiful.

We started our week with a Gone Fishin' party.  Each family decorated a tackle box--and then filled it with yummy snacks like Swedish Fish and gummy worms.

Miss B picking out stickers for our family's tackle box.

I made this fishing-bobber-pinata for the party...and let me tell you the homemade paper mache process was a whole heckuva lot of work. 

If I ever decide to make a pinata again, please, somebody stop me. 

Despite the project being much longer than I expected,  I was pretty proud of the fact that it lasted through 18 of the 19 grandchildren hitting it.

All that was left after my hours and hours of labor.  Next time, I think I'll just buy one.

My mom did a cute carnival-style fishing game--where every grandchild got to fish for a prize.  My dad was in charge of the child-with-the-fish-hook side of the pond...which was a very brave thing for him to do.  I'm happy to report that not one person's eye was lost.  (But we did have some close calls.)

My cute nieces made these fun fish-cupcakes for everyone to enjoy.  I don't get to see my sisters and brothers and their families very often; so that evening in the crowded kitchen while we were making dinner for 30 and the girls were cupcake-decorating away and the laughter and chatter was constant...even though we were miles away from a decent-sized civilization and many, many more miles away from my house, it felt like home.

More to come...my goal is to finish our Summer Travel Journal by the middle of next week...we'll see if I make it!