Let's Welcome the Butterflies!!!!

Did I tell you we had a 90 degree day on Wednesday??  We RAN to the beach as fast as we could!!  IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!!  This is only the 2^nd day I can say I got HOT sitting at the beach…we all got to wear our suites…the strange part was (not JUST the sun) that the beach was slim to none…the ocean had come up SO far into the shore that was only had about 10-20 feet to walk on…and even most of that had been wet sometime recent…normally the entire beach is dry as can be and we have an nice 50 yds of it!  But none the less…we’ve had some pretty nice days here this week!!  With only about 1-2 mornings of fog!  This has got to be the Indian-summer everyone’s talked about!

The BOYS!!

What a FUN filled day we’ve had.  Mark normally gets home Friday nights by 12:30-1 a.m. and because I AM a night-owl I end up staying up until he gets home.  I got to sewing last night and he came in about 12:45 but I was ALMOST done with my 2 projects so we stayed up until 2:30 a.m.  CRAZY!!  Especially knowing our plans for that next morning…we are total geniuses, I know!  The other reason I want to be far from sleeping right now is because I’ve run out of prilosec  (don’t worry I’ve ordered more)  I think I’ve been using more than just 1 pill here and there! THANKS BABY!!  Anyway this has caused the worst case EVER of heartburn…I’ve even had to use the couch pillows with a smelly funk to help prop me up at night!!  I did end up getting a small ‘hold-me-over’ box at Target…so I’m feeling better but still I REALLY almost died!

  Saturday morning we jumped out of bed, Mark fixed us all a healthy breakfast (cream of wheat (MY fav.) while I jumped in the shower…we ate and took off for a day full of butterflies!!  We took the kids to Pacific Grove and found a nice shaded spot to sit and rest until the 72^nd Butterfly Parade passed us by.  We were near the end of the parade so we had some time to kill…good thing teacher Mommy had teacher’s aide, DADDY grab a few good books!!  The parade was SUPER cute and very fun!!  The kids even got a handful each of candy!!  Yeah, we did it…we FOUND a parade…a REAL parade with CANDY!! (Unlike the 4^th of July parade!)  And I’ve never seen so many butterflies and other creatures!  So the history is for the past 72 years the Henry Brown Elementary school puts on the parade and throws a huge after party to welcome the Monarchs.  Monarch butterflies migrate here every year starting the month of Oct. and stay in Pacific Grove throughout the winter months.  We’ve been told think MILLIONS!  We are going to check out the sanctuary (the same one we found empty about 2 months ago) before we head home.  We saw many real butterflies today but most all of them were the first graders and Kindergartners all dressed up as butterflies!  I’ll show a few pictures…it was SO cute!  Our kids got a kick out of it.

A good spot to watch...

Ella's Picture...

Mark cracked up at this lady all dressed up with her kids dressed up too!  Oh, I honestly think there were more people there with their dogs to watch then people with their children!!

SUPER CUTIES!!

Such a BEAUTY!

aren't they too cute...lil'butterflies!!

Now a class of Jellyfish! Creative!

U.S.A...U...S...A...Go America!

After this we walked to the elementary school and as we passed the fire station we saw that they were having a FUN open house for families…so we stopped there!  Not only did the kids get to sit and pretend to drive an old fire truck, but they got to see all the equipment they use, hang on the fire pole from the 2^nd floor to the big truck…they got a tour in the BIG truck, got to get in a real ambulance, and look into a real police car, and got coloring books and a badge sticker, but the fireman gave them each a COOKIE!!  Keegan made that man his new best friend and we almost had to pull him away!  It was super fun to have just stumbled across that! 

COOKIES...

In the OLD fire truck...

on the pole...

the Ambulance...

the BIG truck...

                We got to the school and it was HUGE!  Not only were the kids drooling over the 3-4 play sets in the play yard, but all the bouncy houses and games to be played!  We stopped long enough to grab a quick lunch…finish off with some cotton candy and hit those games!!  And today was also a HOT kind of day!  I think we got to 72 AND sunny with NO fog to be seen!

lunch...

then dessert...

Jumpy toys...

Ring toss...

fishing...

then play sets...

watch YOUR face...

My daughter really IS mine.  She kept seeing the butterflies but called them interesting names.  She’d get excited and scream, “Look!  A Modern Butterflies!!”  or “Hey, another Murder Butterfly!!”  Then she’d just giggle at herself when we said, “Ella…Monarch…they are called Monarch Butterflies!”  My poor poor child…she’s going to be just like me and have her own language…the good news is that she’ll be able to talk to me and I’ll understand just fine!

SO because of the nice hot sun we decided to skip nap…which is mostly normal for the weekends, and head to…THE BEACH!  This time we went back to Ft. Ord to play.  And boy did they play!  Daddy even climbed up to the tip top of the highest sand dune!  I got to go back to my Bitter Sweet book and read it (no Carlie…I’m not done…I don’t get much time to read…and I have to choose to do it over other fun things like sewing!!)  But I’m still very much thinking this gal IS me in a different setting!  We got some nice sun today!  We decided to leave and get some dinner out.  As we left the beach I noticed something very peculiar…I SHOULD HAVE WALKED BY AND SAID NOTHING!!!!  But silly me thought it was a moment to ‘teach’ SO…I stopped long enough to show the kids (all 4 of mine (Mark included) the dead animal…thinking seal or sea lion that had most of the decomposing finished and most of the bone structure showing.  Once we looked closer you could still see a little skin at the bottom half still hanging on, but the whole thing was pretty much intact.  Mark got WAY too excited…and before I knew it I’d OK-ed him cutting off the skull and taking it back with us.  The part I want to PUKE to tell you is as we walked out to the car Mark tipped it the wrong way and…’STUFF’ started falling out!!  I turned around only when I hear Mark gag out loud!  THEN I SMELLED IT!!  Let’s just say Mark almost had to choose between a nasty skull and his ONLY wife!  One thing was for sure…it was NOT going in the van!!  I have to admit I found it very entertaining that he almost did leave it!  See this is the very reason we even have family adventures…cause I let the Nana come out in me…thinking fun and creative and it gets blown into crazy ideas by my husband and sometimes my kids!  We got to the van…I had to consider the wind at all times and which way it was blowing to make sure I wasn’t downwind because I would just start gagging uncontrollably if I got even the slightest scent.  OK, so back at the van I had the kids changing back into their clothes for dinner while Mark’s running around trying to figure out a way to take this home with us without putting it into the van…but he had strict orders to stay behind the van or else!  Grissom was pretty much naked and told me he had to go potty outside like Keegan does.  I laughed and set him next to the van wheel thinking there’s NO way he’ll really go…totally naked he stood there and he went!  It was so funny!  We were shocked!  He ran over to me and said, “See, Ma…I goed potty!”  As I tried to put him back into the van he kept yelling, “I have to go again!!  Potty on the car!!”  (I'll post pictures of the skull when it's completely cleaned/bleached).

Ok…so now Mark’s up on top of the van…I’m giving him NO thought cause now he’s just crazy! The rest of us are in the van ready for dinner and we had to close the van windows to combat the now hovering stench of rotted death!  Mark gets into the van and looks very satisfied with himself.  I simply asked, “Where?” And he said, “Oh, I found my duct tape…I taped it to the top of the van!”  I about fell over laughing!  Hillbillies ALL THE WAY BABY!!  I told him I just to drive to give us some fresh air.  We hit a stop sign near the shoreline and I noticed way too many seagulls flying over the cars and about freaked out, “Mark!!  We are CALLING all the birds to come swooping down to this thing as we dive around town!!  You’ve got to let it go!!”  He laughed and explained that he found a bag in which he put the skull in and THEN taped it to the van!  Now I was just super proud of him!  That’s my man!!

We went to a new restraint just so the regular places we go to wouldn’t see our stink.  It was called Henry’s BBQ…plain and simple, a little hole in the wall place.  We’d totally discredited this place when I was told that they served dogs too…I was NOT going to sit at a table next to a dog eating with its owner.  This is gross…but not surprising out here.  BUT we found out that they only allow dogs to be on a leash under the tables on the patio, so we decided to give it a go!  And OH, boy…it was awesome!  They kept bringing us free food!  Mark had these ribs…I got Hawaiian BBQ…Keegan got the GIRL-cheese, Ella a huge bowl of Clam Chowder…and Grissom got a ¼ of a BBQ Chicken.  They brought us out these BBQ tip things (on the house) Mark went nuts…you would have thought we hadn’t eaten in a month!  After our meal they also brought us out 2 small portions of their bread pudding.  I’m not so much a bread pudding kind of gal…but holy yum!  IT WAS GOOD!!  So this is a place we are glad we didn’t find earlier cause we’d have been eating there WAY too much.  I had to hold my breath as we RAN to the van, jumped in and headed home. 

The assignments when we got home, the kids = Jammies and teeth…Mommy = get the kid in bed and pick up after our mad rush out the door earlier that morning…Daddy = boil that stupid head! 

So now the kids are in bed…the apartment’s pick up ready for tomorrow’s crazy day…and Mark came back as gitty as a 3 year old in a candy store with money to spend to tell us that it was boiling!!  Did I mention that I made him stop at Goodwill and buy a pot AND he had to use the grills outside to boil it?  I wasn’t about to let that happen IN the apartment!! Ha!! 

Tomorrow’s plans are to hit the beach yet again after church IF the weather continues…we’ve been told a storm is headed our way sometime this next week…that shall be interesting cause we’ve yet to see what they call a storm!  I’m kind of excited!

Oh, and in the van Ella yells out, “This is great…Mom’s given us SO many pets while we’ve been out here; we have Peanut at home, then the 2 frogs, then the starfish (which we killed!?!), and now a skull (which is NOT a pet!).” then she adds in a soft tone, “Mom, thanks SO much for letting us keep this cool skull, I can’t believe you let daddy have it…that’s so nice mom!!”

We’ve had a GREAT day!!  Bring it on Butterflies!!  I think that will be out last trip to Ft. Ord…I’m scared of what we may find if we go again!!  AHHHHHH!  And I was told it would be my boy CHILDREN that would bring home not cool things…NOT my grown-up husband!!

Sunday was started out yucky...a nice foggy morning with a steady mist.  We headed to church with sweatshirts and jackets, but after church the fog had gone and so had the mist!  It looked as if it were going to be a nice afternoon!  So we decided to hit our last colored beach, The Purple sands beach!  We'd found that this beach was not too far away, less then an hours drive south...BUT it was on highway 1...the puking highway!  But we decided to go it anyway!
 It was a nice Sunday drive down the coast...the ocean was nice and calm.  We almost passed our turn.  It was an unmarked road to the beach probably the reason this beach is not covered with tourists!  It was another curve side road back to the beach, but it wasn't anywhere near like the others.  We parked, loaded daddy up with our beach stuff (we only took our bag).  We came to the beach and I about fell over.  I mean seriously...the wind was SO strong and heavy that it almost knocked us all over!  BUT HOW BEAUTIFUL WAS IT!!
  Mark cracked up when he saw the guy sporting the speedo sun bathing on the hillside...we know now that he was up there because that was the only place you didn't get wind burn!  We walked around the hill a little to look for this purple sand.  On the hillside you could see bits and pieces of what looked like purple sand, but nothing like a total color of sand.  I've attached a few pictures have fun!
                                   Daddy and Grissom headed to gather our 'purple' sand...

GET OUTTA MOMMY'S DRINK!! Why can't he drink daddy's!!

the calm...

                                                                             aren't they cute...

                                                                        MY Keegan...

                                                       Loving Daddy...DADDY PILE!!

                                                                       YEAH...

                                                                    little miss THING...

  Let me tell you...it REALLY was SO windy...and the wind was pretty cold...so to say the least, I wasn't enjoying it when my fingers stayed white...but the kids were having SO much fun running around with daddy...I just couldn't make them leave.  So I made me a fort.  YES, I AM under there!!  I was reading...

Family photo...We are ALL into silloettes

 

                                                    ALL THE GIRLS...

                                                        3 out of the soon to be 4...HOW WILL WE LIVE!

   Ella was given a jar shortly after we got out here...she was told that once it's full its full...she was not getting another...so she was sorting through them deciding which to keep and which to pass on...btu I guess they needed to be cleaned better...they stunk!  Oh, and yes...Ella's without a top...see she finds it irratating that the boys can run around without a shirt so we allow her to do the same here and there...and yes, those are her magnets holding her nose closed! ha!!

The Peace Sign...

Peace sign changes depending on where you are in the USA…

So I find it funny…if you think about it the peace sign seems to be different things in different places and can be shown in different ways.  Stay with me…here in California you see the first two fingers held up as if you are a two year old learning just how many fingers you are old…this means a very simple, ‘PEACE’ meaning, ‘all good’ ‘we’re all friends here…being nice to everyone AND the trees’

                If you drive through this state you’ll always get this same sign.  It’s pleasant and makes one feel sweet and warm inside…you head through Colorado and even Texas and these signs change.

                 Instead of the first 2 fingers up there’s a fist with the first finger and pinkie held up tightly…this sign is thrown into the air in a rough manner…sometimes a facial expression of super crazy goes with it.  What does this mean?  It means “Hell yeah!!”  (Excuse my French) it’s a crude way of saying ‘Oh, Yeah!!’  This sign is basically a cowboy sign…or it can be a satan sign…I personally claim it as a Bull type cowboy sign…you know with the horns…its fun to do…try it!  You see this sign and you might wanna hit something!!

               You keep moving east where people move from hand signs to a wave that’s polite and kind saying ‘thanks, or go ahead.’  This sign is one you see in Indiana, Tennessee, or Kentucky.  This is a very nice sign to see.  Again, leaving you with a fuzzy warm feeling that makes you want to pass it on, or pay it forward.

                If you were to keep driving east all of a sudden you know you are in New York when you see their sign…they simply hold up the middle finger…as if saying, “Why are you alive and close to me?”  Or “BUG-off!” (I have to REALLY shelter these words)…this is NOT a nice or good sign.  In fact if you happen to see this sign being given (and hopefully it’s not being given to you) walk or better yet, RUN or drive the opposite way!  The people that give these signs are NOT friendly!  They are grumpy people with NO joy in their lives…People in California just don’t get those folks!

Now you have it…the signs of the USA from Stacie’s perspective!  If you don’t agree…well who cares, it’s just my thought that’s all!!  Come up with your own, but don’t forget to tell me!!

So...Keegan LOVES girls!

So...after dinner the kids and I were sitting at the table doing crafts we had markers out and stickers.  Ella used this time with mommy to confess Keegan's desires.  She says, "Hey mom, Keegan wanted a princess tattoo of mine on his arm so her could look at it cause it's a girl...he loves girls now!"  I smiled and looked over at Keegan's response.  Keegan says, "No Ella!  I wanted to tattoo of a princess on my arm so the girls would look at it and like it, then I they could tell me that they loved me!  Mom, I do LOVE girls!!" 
       We kept crafting and chatting about pretty much anything OTHER than the earlier conversation.  Keegan was playing with these travel stickers we'd gotten in the mail to encourage one to purchase their kids' magazine.  He picked the New York City sticker, stands up on his chair and announces loud and clear, "I will go to New York City to meet the girl I will love forever!"  Then giving a face to say, but wait a minute he asks, "Mom, will take me and go with me please? Let's do it, let’s go to New York City!!"

I love my boy...HOW DO I get him to COOL it with this I LOVE GIRL TALK??!!  I just giggled and told him he'd have to ask Dad first!  I'll put it on Mark...good plan!

P.S. The ultrasound went great.  It was strange though.  The lady took only me back and she didn't show me everything like the others did with the other 3 kids...she didn't really even talk much...so I asked all the important questions like...how many babies do you see please? (Just one!!)  And how many arms? How about Legs?  Fingers? Toes?  All looked good as far as she could see.  Then at the end she had the kids and dad join us where she showed them (and kind of me) the baby's face, feet, and...She told us what we were having!!  Don't worry I WILL announce it on here...JUST NOT YET!!  The kids came up with the way they wanted to tell the family so once they know I will make it loud and clear to all! (Sorry!! I'm sworn to secrecy - IF you call me I WILL ignore you!) LOVE YOU!!

Aunt Mamie is here!! YAY!!

                    So we’ve had a great time with Aunt Mamie!  Grissom will NOT let her leave his sight.  He gets SO attached to all our visitors and I think it’s the only way he’s got to show that he REALLY misses home.  She asked him if he wanted to come home with her and he said, “Yes…I get me shoes!”  Poor me, my baby would rather go home with his aunt then stay with me!!  Oh, well!

                                   Ella and I picked her up from the airport while Daddy and the boys cleaned apartment and got her bed ready.  We HAD to stop at Panda Express for lunch…poor Jamie had never eaten there!

                              That afternoon we were all tired.  The kids and I from our trip North that past weekend and Jamie just because she’d been flying all day…so we called it a NAP time!  Then we did a Wal-Mart run for food and had a late dinner!

           Ella's Creative Craft!!                                         

                                                           Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day AND warm…windy but life can still happen.  So we took Jamie to the beach!  The kids and her had a ball.  Ella, Keegan, and Jamie went looking for shells on a nice long walk while Mark and I played ‘hit-ball’ (a.k.a. football) and other serious sport with JUST Grissom.  I’m not sure he knew what to do having ALL of both of our attentions just on him…he got to laughing so hard he had to sit down!  

                         Later that night we took the kids to Awanas and Shoreline had there once a month Wednesday night worship service.  Jamie has been the ONLY visitor (just kidding, Riah went with us...she's the only family member) who’s gotten to take part in any kind of our Shoreline Church out here, so I was super excited to have her with me.  We sang some great music and then Kevin talked casually about Revelations it took me back to Campus House @ Purdue when we had TNT (Thursday Night Thing).  Both these events involved the preacher simply reading through every verse and chapter of a certain book and then sharing commentary about it – I LOVE that!! 

Now the part I forgot to mention was that we’d started the day off just like every other day…we had cream of wheat and the water was running just fine…but then we found that we no longer had ANY WATER!  In fact after calling the office we learned that a main had broken and they would be doing their best to get the water back on but our entire complex was out of luck!  SO after the beach we came home hoping to shower and be fresh for church…NO GOOD…so we sat in the back at church so no one could smell us…we seriously looked homeless! Ha!!

We had a big day planned for Thursday…WHALE WATCHING! 

Now let me take you back to over 10 years ago.  Carlie and I were on Spring Break from College and Jamie took a weeks’ vacation and we headed south to stay with Mamaw and Papaw for the week.  During this time Papaw took us sailing, which I discovered the year prior with him and LOVED it and couldn’t WAIT for my sisters to try it!  This sailing trip was crazy awesome!!  BUT it was a bit wavy that day…so wavy that Jamie started first and wouldn’t stop (puking) then Carlie joined in…so I got to sit there drinking my wine while both sisters were hanging over the side of the boat letting lose!  I TOTALLY made fun of BOTH of them…even to this day.  It didn't bother me...I loved the waves!

Now back to this story:

I wasn’t sold on taking Jamie out on the seas again, BUT with the time of year and season out here the ocean acts more like a lake with very small if any waves.  So the ocean has been very calm and quiet which gave me hope that she would do just great so we went.  We DID have her permission this wasn’t something I wanted to surprise her with JUST in case.  As we are driving I noticed that the waves were breaking into the shore and they weren’t as calm and quiet as they’ve been every other day…but what do we have to lose?  So we get there pretty early, paid and were ready to load the boat.  We had some time to kill so we showed Jamie around.  She got to see and smell the seals and sea lions.  And we all got to watch a mamma otter swim on her back while her baby hung tight to her laying on her tummy.  It was SO cute! 

 

We are SOOOO ready to see some whales!

Look closely at these next few pictures.  As we were standing at the rales in the picture above we noticed something in the water...these next 3 pictures are a mamma otter swimming and holding her baby in her arms!!  It was SOOOO cute!

This was only 1 of the 20 sea lions hanging out next to our boat:

Mark noticed a Starbucks on our way in so we went to grab us a nice pumpkin Spice Latte for the ride…too bad their espresso machine wasn’t working.  So we settled with pumpkin spice chi and boy did it taste SOOOOO good.  Jamie grabbed one too…my thought was, “not sure that’s a good move, but whatever…”  We got on the boat.  Ella and Keegan were both given a life jacket and Grissom was buckled into the backpack tightly strapped to Mark’s back.  Everyone had their warm clothes on and their big jackets/sweatshirts.  We formed a buddy system: I had Keegan, Ella had Mamie, and Grissom stuck with (or to) Mark…so we were ready to go.  All was great starting out.  There were a total of prolly about 25-30 people total on this boat and all the seats were taken so we were fine to hang out at the back of the boat where the wind could hit us with the fresh air and the kids would have a great view of any possible dolphins that could follow (which didn’t happen). 

The problem came the second after we left the bay area and we were out in the ocean a nice 5 minutes into the ride.  Mark looked over at Jamie and said to me, “I give her 5 minutes!”  I smacked his arm and told him to leave her alone and encourage her so she’ll be ok!  The problem was that the boat was hitting WAVES…and when I say waves I’m not exaggerating when I tell you I’m talking 9-11 footers every 10-15 seconds or so…I had such a tight hold on both Ella and Keegan with my arms weaved around the back bar of the boat so I wouldn’t fall.  Mark had wedged himself into the back corner holding on with both hands.  The boat’s tip was straight into the air and then straight down…it was crazy.  NO one was able to walk around the boat.  If someone had to move they had to hold onto something or someone or they fell.  I felt horrible!  Of ALL the stinking days to be out on this water…it HAD to be the one day the waves were crazy!  Jamie didn’t make it very long…she started ‘feeding the fish’ from the back of the boat…and she couldn’t stop.  I wanted SO badly to turn the boat around and let her get off…but we’d just started. 

I was really enjoying the wind and the waves along with the kids.  Mark had to help take Keegan so I could help Ella stay upright.  Not long after Jamie 2 other people got sick as well so I felt a little better for Jamie.  I was thanking God that I felt fine…remember I’ve NEVER been on a boat while being pregnant.  We went prepared with the sea bands on and Jamie even had taken Dramamine.  I wanted so badly to see a stupid whale so we could hurry back but we kept going and going and going farther into the fog to the point where we couldn’t see land any longer.  The boat slowed down because a whale was thought to have been spotted but it was a seal and we got to see a HUGE sting ray!  Ella was so thrilled and excited, Keegan too, but Ella just couldn’t believe that she REALLY saw a sting ray in the wild ocean! 

The next round of puking came as the boat started back up…we thought the waves and the up and down was bad as we went along in the water??  NO WAY!!  The worst part was when the boat sat still (or tried to) everyone was clinging to the sides and rails of the boat…it looked like the scene in the Titanic when the boat was upright ready to take it's final plunge into the deep sea and people were literally haning from the railing! (ok...so maybe that's a slight exageration!)  But I swore the thing was close to tipping a few times!  We had to hold onto the kids and I was SO glad to have Grissom in the backpack so Mark could help me hold the other two cause Jamie was back to feeding those fish again!  I also had the camera in hand to try to catch whatever we saw on film so that just added to the mess of trying to keep the kids safe.  But don’t worry…THEY (the kids) came first! 

We went on a ways more still waving…I have a feeling about 3-4 of the guys got sick as well.  You’d see them head to the front of the boat all white and they’d be licking and wiping their faces as they made their way back to where they were before.  I KNOW they were hiding the fact that they were getting sick – ha!  But Jamie and her friends were in on this too.  I had a moment of weakness where I thought for sure I was going to join…so I prepared and after spitting a few times off the back I was totally fine!  Close call I kept telling myself hang in there…you CAN’T lose it! 

The boat stopped yet again…but this time it wasn’t a false alarm…there was a REAL beautiful whale…a hump back whale…and I think you can see in the picture below.

  This boat stop caused Keegan to feed the fish as well.  Poor little guy.  He’d done SO well…but the look on his face as he said,”Mom, is it ok if I need to throw up too?”  I said, “Absolutely…go over there to dad!”  I know you are thinking I couldn’t’ handle it, but I couldn’t…plus the man sitting got up and offered me his seat so I was sitting in the middle of the boat while Mark was at the edge.  I was holding on for dear life…trying to take a picture of this stupid whale before I fell into the sea!  We sat and watched the whale for what seemed like forever.  I was starting to NOT feel good and was also ready to head back. 

Poor Jamie just kept those fish following us but next to her was a little Chinese gal who was doing to same.  This scene on this boat was almost morbid!  You could tell that everyone was having a blast watching this whale.  I KNOW that whale was laughing as he swam around us in circles watching all the puke hit the water from EVERY angle!  Keegan finished looked right up to Mark and said, “Did you see that whale?”  All the kids were super excited to see it!  Ella’s screaming, “There it is…mom did you get the picture?” while Grissom, still on Mark’s back yells, “Shark, right there…I see it!!”  I managed to grab a few pictures by holding the camera up in the air and shooting at the area of the whale!  Once I was able to stand (with help from the man who’d given me his seat) I was also able to see it and really get a picture of it.

                I’d never heard anything sweeter then the captain say, “Well, folks, I’d love to keep you out here watching this guy, but we need to start heading back to the dock!”  I think everyone sat up just a little taller at that announcement!  But sure enough as we started moving again the puking started up again…this time I was one of them!  I just prayed, “Lord…If I don’t puke it’s going to hurt so much worst…PLEASE let me get this up so I can feel better!” and sure enough the second I finished this prayer was the second He answered it!  I can brag only enough to say I got it all out in 1 shot…and I felt SO much better…BUT I did have to swallow a bit of pride and climb aboard Jamie’s side!!    

Keegan totally fell asleep on me, while Ella sat on Mark’s feet holding onto his legs; Jamie kept her post at the back of the boat while Mark held onto Grissom.  He’d gotten too cold and prolly a little sick on the back so we took him out (the boat ride back was a little calmer) but Mark held onto Grissom with ALL his might!  He also claimed that he almost lost it a few times on the way back!

This is the bay as we pulled in:

                So we pulled into the boat slip and no one felt happier! 

Keegan totally passed out...and I'd be lieing if I didn't tell you that I was just glad that it was over!

We took our time getting off the boat cause it took so long to get the life jackets off the kids, but I think Jamie was the first one off this boat!

See...we didn't look TOO bad once it was over...hahaha!!

So the stats are 50% lost their cookies while 50% held tight and were super strong!  I’m a little sad…I feel like I’ve let my Papaw Mc down and lost my sea legs…BUT I’m totally blaming it on the pregnancy!!

  Afterwards we headed for Me’N Ed’s because when you leave it all in the ocean…you feel empty!  It’s a good thing we rested the rest of the evening because everyone was still rocking back and forth up and down ALL night!  Mark even called from work to see if he was the only one feeling ‘still on the boat!’ hahaha!! 

 EVERYONE slept great that night!!

                Mark had to get up early AGAIN and head to work after only a nice 4 hours or less for sleep, but he was determined because when he came home he took ME out on a date…yep, Jamie was awesome enough to hold down the fort so Mark could take me on a REAL DATE!!  We only had a few hours cause Mark had to go BACK into work at normal time; 4 p.m. but we ran with the time we had!  We went to Cannery Row to a new restaurant; Louie Linguini’s where we sat out on the porch and watched the ocean.  What was funny was how CALM the ocean was and how the waves were almost NON-existent just a day after our whale watching event!  Oh, did I tell you that Thursday night’s weather man claimed that day as a real wind guster and huge ocean waves that were out of season??   Ha!!  Go figure!! 

Ok…so we sat on the porch and sat and sat and sat…we were basically forgotten!  Once we had someone stop at our table we ordered EVERYTHING and asked for the check JUST in case the man didn’t come back…and he really didn’t until it was time to collect!  We had to beg other waiters for refills, etc. After lunch we just walked.  We ran past a couple stores and just hung out and talked without any child interruption…IT WAS AWESOME!!  We got home just in time for Mark to head straight to work…again!  Jamie had taken the kids to the park down the street and the kids had a ball…Ella was very busy making flower necklaces and bracelets for all us gals!  Once I got Mark out the door we loaded up and took Jamie to the Moss landing Street side Market.  She got to see ALL the fruit and veggies that we basically LIVE off of out here…then we took her to the ‘other’ side where we showed her all the sea shells!  I wanted to drive her down south a little and show her more beach area, but we had to feed the kids and then it ended up being too late to see much of anything, so we had a cuddle with Mamie night!! 

                We ALL took Mamie to the airport Saturday.  I was able to wedge my bottom in-between the kids’ booster seats in the back of the van.  Not a pretty sight!  Keegan was SO cute!  He just cuddled with me the whole way there!  We had a little bit of chaos as Jamie got out and started saying good bye at the airport.  Jamie got out; Mark jumped out to get her bag and help pull me out of the back seat so I could get into the front.  But with all this going on Grissom got really panicked and confused at who was going where.  He started screaming, “Daddy!!!!!!  No Mommy!!!!!!!  Wait, Mamie!!!!”  We said our good-byes and Mark and I quickly got back into the van to show Grissom it was just Jamie going home, but he wasn’t satisfied.  He calmed down for a nice few seconds then asked for his lovie and Ga-ga…OOPS!!!!  I wasn’t thinking!!  When I told him I was sorry that I didn’t bring them he fell apart completely!  It only took him about 20 minutes to stop his hysteria and when he did we noticed that he’d passed out asleep!  Poor guy!  I'm NOT looking forward to the day we have to head home withOUT daddy!! 

                We knew like always we needed a little family fun to get our minds off of another visitor leaving…so we stopped at In & Out Burger for some yummy lunch!  We got to sit outside in the beautiful HOT sunshine and eat together as a family!  Then we headed over to the Halloween store to see if we could find the Ninja costumes the boys were wanting to dress as (Grissom says he wants to be a, “Hi-ya for Ween!”)  We also ran into a Sport Clips…SO Grissom got his first BIG boy haircut!!  And Keegan’s going to be the RED Ninja and Grissom is going to be the Blue Hi-ya (Ninja)!!  Ella and mommy are making her costume; she’s going to be the Snow Queen!

                We got home took baths then played a bit while I fixed dinner...SUPER crazy but tons of loud funness!

Daddy and Girssom played Racecars while Keegan played with his sword in the kids' room:

And Ella and Mommy painted nails...

 this is VERY seriousl business...

 Keegan didn't last long and joined into the racecar fun...

Sunday was a funny kind of day.  Church was nice and after church it was super sunny so we planned a BEACH day! 

 Oh, don’t let me forget the funny of this day!  Ok…lets go back to before church in fact it was before 7 a.m. (so Mark and I were still sleeping…kind of) we heard the fighting but ignored it later finding out that Keegan ripped Ella’s name tag sticker off of her Awanas book and now she didn’t have one that belonged to just her.  It was such a horible tragedy!!  Keegan did this because he could not his book (which was sitting in PLAIN view on the table!).  This fight was one we basically encouraged the kids to get through without us!  Then right after church we were hanging out eating the doughnuts Shoreline provides and talking about what everyone learned at Sunday school.  Ella was showing us the scroll she’d made and explaining that they learned about forgiveness.  She unrolls this scroll and on the top she drew a wonderful picture of Jesus next to a heart ‘helping’ her…then on the bottom of the scroll she’d drawn a picture of her and Keegan.  And she says, “Jesus helps me forgive Keegan for ripping my name off my book…” She was looking right at Keegan showing him the picture (it was one of those moments a parent dreams of…you imagine Keegan throwing his arms around Ella thanking her for forgiving him, etc…) Keegan looks at the picture closer and says, “I don’t have that much hair!!”  I about lost it!!  Mark had to walk to other direction…we laughed SO hard!!  There was a guy standing close enough to us that he heard the entire thing as well and even he lost it!!  Keegan was so worried about the art work that he paid NO attention to the fact that this was Ella’s way of telling him that she forgave him let’s move on type thing…he caught on with help of course but it was SO Keegan! 

                We ran home after church ate a super fast lunch and headed out to the beach…JUST in time for the fog to roll on in…we took a nice long walk on the beach came back to our spot sat down to enjoy the afternoon AND it started raining! HA!!  Go figure!!  So we just headed home…after all we had to prepare for the COLT’S game!!  Mark took off for Wingstop to get our family pack of wings while we held down the fort!!  We had a great night even thought the Colt’s didn’t win it was SO nice to get to watch them!