Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

First woman in space

The girls and I spent the day at the Sally Ride Science Festival. It was super cool.

Dr. Ride and the girls:

There were tons of projects and games and give aways. We came home with huge bags filled with posters, games, rockets, toys, water bottles and project making stuff.

Sally Ride shared her life, family and passion with us. It was truly inspiring.

Balloons

The last weekend of summers always ends with a bang. Friday night we went to an awesome pool party. We were all dragging this morning but decided to go ahead with the balloon festival.

We arrived at the park just after 6am. Yawn.

Johnny loved the balloons, from afar. He wasn't too sure about the flaming torches with their loud Whooshing.

My Joey, he's almost as big as me!

After watching the first round inflate and take off we head to the lake to watch them dip. The bigger the splash, the louder the applause.

Archy, the kid's pick for balloon of the year.

This is Mike, and his daughter. Mike is paralyzed from the waist down. Hence the ski-lift-type basket. He was the guest speaker at the girls' school yesterday. He spoke about his car accident and how it changed his life. Today he gave out balloon pins to the kids who knew the secret code. He is a great guy!

We spent the rest of the day at the Sheriff's department employee picnic (my dad is a retired commander). They had so many cool activities we ended up staying way too late. It was a great family day!

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday and Monday is the giant pool closing party.

I can't believe summer is over. :'(

Monkey House

Last week we took the little ones to the only zoo in the country built on the side of the mountain. Gee I wonder why that is? At least we get an awesome view of the city. (I'm pretty sure Tommy is picking his nose. Lovely.)

You may notice that my husband and the giraffe have the same facial expression. Cute, um or not.

Oh mom, you're not going to make us sit on the fake zebra and take a picture are you?

*eye roll*

Spider-kids

My guys.

It's so strange and wonderful that these guys are all mine. I've been married for 12 years and have five children. FIVE. I almost can't believe it.

EIGHT!

It wasn't all fun and games

Friday morning after the first session Johnny fell off the back off the bleachers, landed on his head, lost conscienceless and had a seizure. He was transported to the hospital by ambulance where they discovered a major concussion and subarachnoid brain bleed. He slowly came out of it and was released from the hospital.
Please keep him in your prayers. At this point it looks like he will have a full recovery, thank the Lord! But we've been told that any bump to the head in the next 30 days could be catastrophic. He will be wearing a helmet for at least a month.

We kept him in the air conditioned hotel for most of the weekend. Although he did watch a few of the early morning and late afternoon races. We were very lucky that the hotel was right across the street from the pool.

Johnny is our little monkey so we are praying constantly to his guardian angel to keep him safe. Unfortunately, the novelty of the helmet is wearing off.

(Be gentle -It's over 100° I have no make up or hair products in this picture)

Superman and swimming

This year's theme was "cartoon". Our team choose Superman. Joey had an old Superman costume in the dress up chest. I stuffed it, printed a picture of Coach Dad, glued the picture to a head I made of nylons and threw on a cap. He became our mascot.

(Dh and Super Coach dad posing at the hotel)

The Laws showing our team spirit and figuring out how many people we can squeeze into a two person folding chair. (five seems to be the limit)

Julie:

Awesome backstroke- just like her mama! Hey, she's wearing a cap!Megan: Megs overtired but still smiling!

Joey:
Joey also thinks caps are optional. :)

State report

Once again we had a fantastic state meet. The kids all had best times in every swim and they looked great against the competition. Our team came in third over all and we won the coveted Spirit Award! (This isn't the entire team- just those unlucky enough to stay an hour after the 6th session) Coach is holding Tommy, Julie is up front, Megan is holding the banner in the blue top, Joey is in the Superman shirt.

My sister, Maggie, was the star. She was the high point winner in her age group with over 130 points! Her best friend came in second which was great for our team points. Maggie swam 10 events, the limit, and almost broke the state record in the 400 IM smashing the competition! It was so very exciting to watch! it's so cool to know she is the fastest 13-14 year old in the entire state!

By the morning of the third day my Punkin was exhausted. She is such a pleasant child when she is overtired. uh huh.

Her relay was the first event of the last day. The team gets double points for relays. There are kids that just come to state to swim relays. So if J doesn't swim it the team losing huge points and three other kids can't swim at all. She didn't have a choice, like it or not, she was swimming in the relay.

Me: Julie lets put on your cap.

J: NO! (Pout)

Daddy puts on the cap

J: I'm NOT wearing a cap!

Me: Lets get in position.

J: NO! I'm NOT swimming! (Runs off crying)

Grandma and daddy walk her to the edge of the pool. (Notice the cap is gone but the attitude remains)

J: I'm NOT swimming!

Daddy: Here comes Gracie get in the water.

J: NO! I'M NOT SWIMMING!

Daddy lifts J into the pool.

Grandma: Hold on to the side, don't let go! (The team is DQ'd if they let go of the edge before the first swimmer touches the wall)

J: I'm NOT Swimming!

Grandma: Keep holding on!

J: I'm NOT swimming.

Grandma: Ready, GO!

Julie swam the 50 meters 19 seconds faster than her best time. She went 12 strokes before she took a breath and then swam the rest of the way breathing only after every 6th stroke. She raced against 12 year old and was at their level. It was amazing! I told her we are going to make her angry before all her races next year! :)

Thank goodness she took a nap before the next race! She was in a much better mood and still swam great!

Mom, my ear is filled with sand!

I know, baby, there's sand in mine too. And my nose and my eyes and my teeth.

I remember playing the Oregon Trail in elementary school. It was some sort of reward or time killer for the teacher I suppose. Anyhow, my oxen would always get lost or die in a sandstorm. I'd be delayed in some godforsaken place for days hunting down the damn oxen. All the while thinking: Yeah right, oxen are the size of a refrigerator and move at a lightning speed of .01 MPH. There's no way I lost four in a little wind and sand. Then I'd have to kill off my family, bury them on the side of the road and start over to get a competitive score. Damn sandstorm.

We were guests this week at the fantabulous city of Cortez, Colorado for the State Swim Meet(more on that later). Cortez, we soon discovered, is a bit more rough around the edges than one might think when picturing an idyllic mountain town. Apparently, it's smack dab in the middle of Indian Native American country. The town was literally filled with what Tommy called "Hobo bad guys." These were some serious drinkers and man were they mad at us white folk for invading their peace. They approached us screaming with arms flailing continuously yelling at us to "get the %$^# off their land!" The police became our good friends.

I'm sure they were as shocked to see the hundreds of swimmers converge on their "home" in the city park as we were to see them. It certainly opened the eyes of my children who have had little to no experience with alcoholism, profanity and violence. Although, most of the hobo (I'm sure that isn't the correct term but that's what the police called them) fights were: stagger, punch, miss, fall, cuss, and repeat, a few of the brawls got a little scary. My children, much to their dismay, were not allowed outside the pool gates without a parent.

I digress, back to the sandstorm. Seeing as we will probably never, God willing, return to the area we snuck in a quick trip to the four corners.

The only thing between Cortez and the Four Corners is the reservation. I've never seen that type of poverty. The living conditions were absolutely horrendous. The scenery was breathtaking. Those poor people. It's so sad.

We passed 1,498,521 empty bottles of booze on the side of the road during the 30 minute trip, arriving at a pleasant 104° with a gentle breeze.

Opening the car door was eerily similar to opening a huge oven door, only with wind and sand.
We noticed the breeze picking up speed as we approached the monument, hot air smacking us in the face.
The breeze turned quickly into a strong wind.

The sand began to pelt our skin as the air was replaced with brown dust. I instinctively grabbed Megan’s arm. Visibility was so bad I couldn’t see her. I screamed for Joey. He was only three or four feet away but I couldn’t blindly reach him. I yelled “run to the car!” Joey replied, “I CAN’T!” As I got closer I could see him flapping his arms and shaking his head in the wind. I pulled him by the shoulder and we ran in the direction of the car. My mother grabbed me from behind screaming, “Don’t run! A car can’t see you either!” We crouched down to the ground huddled together. A woman’s hat flew off her head. Her husband began to chase it as she yelled “JUST LET IT GO. SAVE YOURSELF, HONEY!” Notice how tattered and torn the flags are in this pic compared to the first?

As the wind began to subside we ran to the van and got the heck out of there. We looked at each other all brown from the sand and began hysterically laughing. Megan said, “I don’t think we got our $3’s worth.” I agree. Thank Goodness we left the three little ones with dh at the hotel!

I’ll admit I would’ve totally lost my oxen had my covered wagon been at the Four Corners that day. I’m sorry Oregon Trail no hard feelings, okay?