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Allure Day 5: San Juan

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We decided to eat breakfast at Johnny Rockets again before heading out into San Juan. The breakfast sandwich with extra bacon was really yummy. While we were sitting there waiting to be seated and then waiting for food, I think we made at least seven trips back to the room—I sent Katie for my hair clip, then I wanted the Aleve, Tom went up for his hat, I went up for a battery backup (it was our first day with internet and I knew we’d run our phones down)…it got to be quite comical.

Owen loved having his own camera.

Papa stayed behind today as he didn’t want to walk through the city. As it turned out that was a good call as it’s really hilly and it was really hot. Our first planned destination was the Chocobar. We’d been there on our last cruise and knew we wanted to go back.

Unfortunately I had forgotten that we wanted to eat there…so we only had drinks and churros again. That’s a Chocolate Bloody Mary (I wouldn’t get it again).

Then it was off to the fort. I could have cared less about visiting there again—I had more than enough the last time. But we were with our friends and I didn’t want to miss out, so there I was. We stopped to let the kids cool off before heading over…

And then it was back into town to hit the street of umbrellas (which were army themed this time)…

And a recommended restaurant, Raices. With a margarita, of course. 🙂

The remnants of their shaved ice.

The kids didn’t want a single thing on the menu so they just sat and played while we ate. We really wanted to try mofongo since we didn’t the last time.

Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish with fried plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green and fried, then mashed with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil in a wooden pilón. -Wikipedia

Tom ordered butter garlic octopus mofongo and I got fish tacos. The mofongo was good but my fish tacos were outstanding. Not much to look at in this picture but super delicious. The only bad thing was that it took so long to get our food that we were starting to worry about getting back to the ship on time—we were only a few blocks away but you do not want to miss the ship—so we all had to eat fairly fast. I really wish we could have eaten slower and enjoyed it longer.

Heading back to the ship! With time to spare!

Half an hour later? This.

The kids were down at the pool with the other families.

I was back in the room working feverishly while we still had internet as we were leaving the port—a new product had dropped so I was busy posting on my group and trying to post a few vacation pics!!

It was hot by the pool…and hard to see to take a good selfie.

Soon it was time to get ready for our second formal night. And joy of joys we had drama with Katie and her hair. JUST LIKE AT HOME. YIPPEE.

She had been in the pool so much and hadn’t really shampooed it well (since I wasn’t doing it daily like at home) so it was a total rats nest. But she wouldn’t let me wash it and complained and whined when I couldn’t do her hair like she wanted. I was still able to do something cute but she was very unhappy and that pretty much solidified that I don’t want to vacation with the kids again (I mean, who wants to parent on vacation?!). So we left the room and she had a total grouch face… Which is why I’m surprised I got these super cute pics.

We were walking through the Promenade since we had a few extra minutes to take photos…

And a bunch of the ship photos we took but didn’t buy. 🙂

The second formal night means lobster tails!!! I thought I’d get two, but Owen didn’t eat all of his (but he ordered it!) so I finished his. Our awesome server made this and we had to take a picture for Gramma Jean.

Afterwards we changed clothes, saw our daily towel animal…

…then went to an acapella show. It was decent, but Katie wasn’t terribly interested and…

Allure Day 3: Sea Day

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While we were hanging out in the room at one point yesterday afternoon and I was looking through the app to see what was going on the next day, I saw that there was an opening for a private Flow Rider lesson at 8am. We thought that would be a special cruise treat for Owen (Katie had a cupcake decorating class with Tom scheduled for the day) so we were up early to be on the pool deck early! Papa and Grannie made it there, too! It was really nice and peaceful and quiet that early!!

Owen had fun, but unfortunately, I think the lessons need to be revamped. I know that everything on a cruise is a money grab…and this was no different. I knew my $69 wasn’t going to get an hour of personal time, but it was ridiculous to have to sit through SIX OTHER PEOPLE—especially because your own time relied totally on the whims of the instructors and how well you were doing. If you fell a lot, you got about three tries in three minutes. If you managed to stay up, they let you stay up until you fell—and then maybe let you go again. So Owen maybe got seven minutes total and another woman probably got 12 because she was better and didn’t fall as fast. It would be somewhat better if your lesson was a dedicated 10 minutes (and I said as much on my survey).

The kids played mini golf.

We played our elevator game—we’d all predict which elevator would arrive first!

I enjoyed my first quiet time on our balcony…

Then it was cupcake time! Owen and I were off shopping for lanyards and then came to check them out at the end of their class. They invited us in and we ended up taking home the instuctor’s cupcake plus she gave us EACH free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (it was for class participants only). We bought Katie an apron and a pink bag.

Katie did really well!! The cupcakes weighed about 2# each with the amount of frosting on them!! And we had THREE to carry back to the room! But Katie had decided that she was giving hers to Mark, and he was actually next door at Sabor, so we went and delivered it! Then it was back to the room where we ran into Papa and brought him back to the room. He enjoyed eating the remains of one of the cupcakes.

The kids then headed off to the pool and I went for some margaritas. 🙂 The avocado one was strangely good—every sip was like THIS IS WEIRD but then ended with BUT GOOD. Then we sat by the pool with our friends and drank while the kids played in the pool.

Some artwork in the vestibule on my way to the bathrooms.

On our way to dinner and playing the elevator game!

At one point they had a conga line with the staff and all the kids went off and had a blast!

And Hai was doing toothpick games for us.

Zoltar worked this time! But we didn’t get a card or anything. It was a little disappointing.

I can’t remember where we were but apparently the kids were at another bar with our friends and their kids…

Our towel animal!

We let the kids run around while we went out and about, and apparently they ended up with friends on the Rising Tide bar!

We called it a night pretty early since we would be in St. Thomas first thing in the morning and our excursion started at 8:30!

Allure Day 2: Sea Day!

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We didn’t get great sleep because Katie was coughing all night (even with NyQuil). The kids got up about 6:30 and I was able to ignore them until about 7—they wanted to go out and run around so I sent them out with instructions to be back by 8 for breakfast (Tom was working out and that gave me time to shower). It’s really great to be able to send them out on their own.

Tom and I had to stop to get our usual breakfast Bloody Marys (though the bar here is called Bow & Stern instead of Boot & Bonnet) and Linda joined us. We also enjoyed the people watching.

Then we introduced the kids and grandparents to the huge Windjammer buffet for breakfast.

Owen really wanted to to the flow rider so that was next. The little kids were bummed they were too small to do it but they had fun hanging out together.

He practiced twice on the boogie boards (stomach and knees) which then allowed him to upgrade to surfing at the more advanced station.

Now, just because he passed didn’t mean he was that good, LOL. It just meant that he had passed the bare minimum. Unfortunately he got super bummed on the next level because he kept falling—and they told him he was done. He misunderstood, though, and thought they meant he was DONE with the flow rider… but they just meant his turn was over. But he was also bummed because he didn’t stand up by himself and thought he was a failure. So we had to talk him down from that.

And we might have had a drink or two.

The rest of the afternoon included lunch, a veterans service (we all got medals and cake!), just hanging out around the ship, eating lunch, and watching the ice show.

Interestingly, I noticed this piece of art. Notice where it’s from?!

Tonight was also the first formal night. We were coming from the ice show so were already running behind, and then Tom realized he had forgotten his cuff links…so he ran down quick to the gift shops to buy some…and no one had any!! What?! So we were trying to figure out what he could use…and we ended up using a pair of Katie’s earrings (far from perfect but they worked for a bit). We also took formal family photos on the way into dinner…and one was good enough that I bought it!

The menu is good every night but some nights you just need to order four starters (they typically have four selections that change nightly and four “classics” that stay the same). I definitely took advantage of the Escargot many nights and Tom (and Owen) got the French Onion soup many nights.

Our server Hai was really great with the kids and was already making them balloon and napkin animals on the second night! We wondered what the rest of the week would have in store!

Owen was in the bathroom while this was happening and Aden was super sweet and made sure that she made a sword for him as well.

We took the kids to the Adventure Camp daycare after dinner with our friends’ kids and then went and hung out in our old favorite bar, Schooners. I tried to order my drink that I basically lived on last year, joking with the bartender that he had a lot to live up to…and surprisingly he was less than inviting. And I’d even go so far as to say he was a bit short with me. It was very odd, because normally all staff are very considerate and jovial and he…was not. Needless to say we didn’t go back there after that night.

But! We did have fun, as we ended up meeting our friends’ friends and their friends’ friends that night! So the eight of us just hung out talking and half singing along with the piano guy and having fun for a few hours.

The big joke was that Greg looked like Blake Shelton so I was taking “sneak shots” pointing at him behind me, saying I was going to post them on Facebook saying LOOK WHO I SAW ON MY CRUISE! (If you look closely you can see his wife laughing behind me because we set this up and he was posing.) And then he kept making fun saying JENNIFER HUDSON IS IN THE HOUSE!

Well, come to find out, he is an actual country singer! He joked that he’s famous within a 5-mile radius and I told his wife Anne that it was killing me not to be able to Google him which she found hilarious. So we just called him Blake and it was most of the night before I learned his real name was Greg. The other couple were were with—Mike and Melanie—were great, too.

Then we took a break for everyone to go get the kids from daycare. (Sidenote? They all said they hated it! Apparently all the other kids were rude and mean! No one wants to go back again!!)

And then this happened. I opted not to buy that photo.

Then we sent the kids to bed…and I made this happen because why not?!

From previous conversation, apparently Blake/Greg has a real knack for winning stuffed animals so we ended up going to the casino so the boys could try their hand at the Cash Claw game where a few of them tried unsuccessfully, of course, to win wrapped $100 stacks. It did provide us quite a bit of entertainment, though.

After we left the casino, the professional photographers were still out so we made the boys do this:

Later we determined they were the Bad Back Boys (a la Backstreet Boys grown up).

Shortly thereafter we called it a night and this is what we found when we got back to the room.

Allure Day 1: Embarkation!

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Sunday—Fort Lauderdale, FL

We had a quick hotel breakfast and then it was time to board the shuttle at 9:30. Embarkation went really super easy and fast—our shuttle left the hotel about 9:40 and we were getting on the ship about 10:50! After we got through check-in, we were just finishing getting our group picture taken when our friends came around at the corner…so we were able to get a group photo together! It turned out really good so that was one of the six that I bought!

Some quick snaps while the professional was taking her photos.

Then a little bit of check-in (the kids had to get security bands that they would need to wear the entire cruise) and playtime (there was a playset in the waiting area).

And before we knew it we were headed up the gangway!

The first thing we weren’t expecting was NOT walking right onto the hustle and bustle of the ship’s Promenade. We actually had to walk down about 30 yards. But we headed straight to Boleros, the bar where we got our first drink on the Harmony—and the place we got our beloved wrist bands. AND LEARNED THERE WERE NO WRIST BANDS ON THIS SHIP!! WHAT?!?!?! Yeah, they don’t have the technology for it on this ship—they will (hopefully) after the upcoming spring 2020 renovation but for now it’s old school.

Well, it’s certainly first world problems but that was really disappointing because we’d talked them up so much to the kids and were excited that we’d actually managed to save our bands from the last cruise. But we didn’t plan ahead with lanyards because we thought we’d all have wristbands!! (Note: I did happen to throw in two lanyards so Owen and Katie were able to use those but Tom and I just used pockets or my purse.)

Since we were at a bar…we got our first drinks—of course a margarita and a mojito.

We sat down to gather our thoughts a bit since Dad needed to sit and rest. The kids went to check out the pizza place and our friends wandered in the bar. We then explored the ship a little and the kids and Grannie rode the carousel.

And I got a margarita from the Mexican restaurant…I started with the Sweet and Spice and it was yummy.

Then we all met at Chops for lunch. I had to sit in the big fancy chair in the lobby.

We really enjoyed it, but BIG SURPRISE Katie didn’t like anything. She did start with the jumbo shrimp cocktail but didn’t like it and it was downhill from there (she didn’t even like the mac and cheese).

You can see all our shirts!! Kind of.

When it was time for dessert Tom said he wanted nothing. He got it.

Then he and Mark were joking about it being the Marine corps birthday so Mark told the waitress that it was Tom’s birthday…

It was really fun, the food was excellent, and we all had a good time.

After Chops, the kids explored more with Papa and Grannie and went to the pool while Tom and I decorated the room door as a suprise.

And Papa and Grannie’s door:

We were also finally able to get in our room (though we had no luggage yet)…and we were really surprised by the differences between the Harmony and the Allure. We had thought it would be pretty much the exact same…ha.

The room was definitely a little smaller and not laid out as nicely (the bathroom and balcony were smaller, the closet was in an awkward spot, and the couch/kids’ bed was closest to the window), we didn’t have nice big desk drawers for clothes, and there were only two outlets in the entire room! (And you can’t bring extension cords so you’re stuck.)

There were other little differences that jumped out, too. For example:

  • The bar where we get our Bloody Marys doesn’t have the nice high back leather chairs we used for people watching (and drinking our bloody Marys) in the morning. And the Bloody Mary bar (shrimp, bacon, etc., is apparently somewhere else).
  • We can’t text. You have to use their app and it’s constantly logging you out and dropping the wifi signal.
  • They didn’t have the chili cheese fries at the pool Cafe!!!

Tom stayed in the room to rest and I went up to find everyone at the pool and sat on the lounge chairs for a bit. Katie had her first of many ice creams…

Ignore my lips. I put it on waaay too thick so it came off.

Then it was time to leave!!! Tom did make it up to join us.

We showed the kids the room and got changed for dinner. Soon it was time for dinner and it was great. Owen ordered from the adult menu and had steak and Katie got pizza from the kids menu. They had fun with their friends. We enjoyed French onion soup (Tom) and crab cakes and oysters (Jen), prime rib (Tom) and a seafood mash (Jen), and pear blueberry crumble (Jen) and molten lava cake (Tom). It was all good except the crumble was pretty plain (it was sugar free). At the time I thought I didn’t really need to take pics of the menus because I didn’t need to record everything we ate… But now, after the fact, I wish I had.

I do know we had dessert shots every night—our friend Mark had heard about them on his previous cruise (they aren’t on any menu). They were always very good and were always something mixed with Bailey’s!!

After dinner we went back to the room and the kids were excited for their first towel animal!

(They had been bummed there was no towel animal so we asked our steward about it. So we were nicely surprised after dinner!)

Then it was off for the big water show Ocean Aria. They did a little crowd warm up and this happened:

The show really was something to see—divers and acrobatics using a tiny little pool. The kids loved it, though, and eventually went and sat right up front and got splashed! After they went down, a huge group of kids joined them!

Afterward we let the kids roam the ship on their own (we wandered as well) and gave them instructions to be back to the room by 9:30 and they were! So then they were allowed to go out again on their own until 10:30. They were out playing ping-pong and who knows what else. We did sign them up for the kids adventure camp thing so they’ll do that later this week.

Florida, we are in you!!

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Waiting to grab the shuttle to the hotel.

Papa and Grannie got to the hotel about 20 minutes after we did. After we ate lunch and got into our rooms, we celebrated!

This is what getting up at 3am looks like at 4pm when the Florida weather is crappy so the kids only spent about 20 minutes in the pool and we can’t sit outside or anything. 😒

There’s football on the TV and I’m trying to resist so I will be tired tonight and will hopefully fall asleep before midnight. I hate to see her nap because then she might be up all night, but she really needs the sleep as she’s had a cough for two weeks now and she coughs off and on most nights.

Why bother with glasses when you’re the only one left drinking? And is it even a vacation if you don’t swig from the bottle in a hotel room?

When there’s a nail salon next to the restaurant your friends have picked…and you had a nail emergency earlier that you weren’t sure how you were going to deal with. I was a happy, happy girl!!

Then it was down the sidewalk to an amazingly delicious dinner at Padrinos with Eddy and Susan…and then back to see their new (to us) house. It’s been four years since we’ve been there!

It’s time, y’all! We’re Florida and Royal Caribbean bound!!

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Look who we ran into at the airport?! (We actually knew they’d be there as their flight got changed recently.)

As luck would have it, we were in rows 25 and 27…and they were in row 26…so we rearranged to all sit with our friends!

Zander is always twirling Katie’s hair. They both like it.

The kids were all amazing on the flight…

Date night post-dinner Legion drinks

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There’s nothing like topping off a date night with friends than stopping at the local Legion for a cheap drink. We had three drinks for $11 plus I got an eyeball!

Imagine my surprise to see a Grayling plate on the wall. Now I want to visit Grayling’s legion to find the Gurnee plate. (I had to search out the manager to figure out how they got the plates. He said they traded them.)

NOTE: I talked to my contact at the Grayling Legion and she said they removed all the plates during renovation and they haven’t gone back up.

Let’s sell some magic lipstick!

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Today was a busy day–I’ve been up since 5am!—but I did it in style in my tiara!! 😛

I had a vendor event (the same one I did two years ago) so I wore a little more makeup than normal… But what once might have taken me an hour only took me about 20 minutes!! 🙌🏻 And oh my gawd I forgot how amazing Brick is!! 💕‼️

Here’s everything I used in my look:

I didn’t have my tiara on for the first round of pics…so I had to take more! (By the way, lots of people loved it and commented on it. So get yourselves a tiara, ladies! It’s fun!)

The event was fun and I couldn’t have done it without help from my friend (and customer!) Heidi—we really make a great team! I also met some great ladies (they like margaritas, too so there may be some parties happening in the near future).

Before we knew it the event was over and time to pack up! Tom picked me up and we went to grab a drink to celebrate!

Fast forward to getting ready for bed at 11:30pm…

‼️ I’m not kidding when I say this stuff lasts all day.

I’m finally ready for bed so it’s time to check my before and after comparison pics. I really gave my makeup a workout today—17 hours. The only thing really bad are my lips, but I did spend most of the day proving they were smudge-proof (rubbing them and applying gloss like a boss) and I stopped glossing about 4pm. 🙌🏻 If I had done a quick color fix then, it would still be going strong. But still, not too bad for 17 freaking hours!

Last-minute jumping afternoon

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Once the kids finished cleaning the basement I was going to put on a movie for them and make lunch. Then a friend texted to invite us to Jump America—they had an all-day special and NO ONE WAS THERE. So I made quick sandwiches and we were off! Owen made me happy by wearing the shirt I made. Katie refused.

Katie and her friend apparently got tired of jumping and did this.

Red Hots win! Congrats to the GYB fall champs!

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Owen’s team won the fall championship in a 19-17 nail biter today! They were up a few and then down by 10 (and we thought the game might get called by the slaughter rule), then we caught up, then they caught up, and then we were ahead by two and held them off!! Owen did his thing on 1st and caught the ball for the final out of the game! We are so proud of all the boys!!

Here’s a few pics from the game. Owen on second.

A typical sight: tying shoelaces.

Attempting to steal home. I can’t remember if he did or not.

Katie was being punished for earlier transgressions at home and had to sit by me the entire game, so I got these.

The game was stressful to watch because the score was so back-and-forth. But once we came back from being 10 runs down, the entire mood changed and it was a real game!! We were ahead by two going into the top of the seventh inning so we expected they’d score and we’d have to rally in the bottom of the seventh (and last) inning but the boys held them off!

I was taking pics of the last plays and got these. They aren’t great because the fence was in the way, but I love the progression of the excitement, then the boys coming in from the field, then throwing hats in the air! I wished I had gotten a shot of Owen actually catching the ball but it is what it is.

Award ceremony!

TEAM PHOTO!

Funny team photo!

Running the bases (Owen led the way)!

Friends. 💕

Coaches Tom, Ken, Jamie (Head Coach), Mark

Happy boy!

Happy daddy!

Fun with Coach Jamie!

And then it was off to Culver’s to celebrate!

My ME weekend while my family was off camping.

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So we’re all friends here. Which means I can safely admit that while we love our family with every ounce of our soul, we all wish for a break now and again, right? Since we don’t have family close by, we rarely get those breaks (other than a date night) so when I lucked into one this past weekend while my husband took both kids on a boy scout camping weekend…I took advantage.

So what did my weekend look like?

  • Friday night? Chatting, eating, and drinking margaritas with a new friend Jessica for five hours (we hadn’t realized how late it was because we literally did not stop talking the entire time).
  • Saturday morning? Donuts, crafty Cricut tee-shirt projects, and SeneGence facials with Ellyn. She has the machine and she helped me do a test run of simple text shirts before attempting six matching cruise shirts with a more difficult pattern.

  • Saturday afternoon? Nachos and a margarita on the couch while watching A Star is Born (which I TOTALLY loved and am strongly considering buying the soundtrack). Then binging every YouTube video performance I could find of Shallows by Lady Gaga and Bradly Cooper.
  • Saturday night? Margaritas with Anna and David.
  • Sunday morning? Sleeping in in perfect silence until 8:47!

Was I glad to have them home? Well, I enjoyed seeing their faces, but I missed the silence and clean house immediately. 😂

Scout camping weekend

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So long story short… Owen has kind of joined scouts. A few of his baseball friends (and dads) are involved and of course they talk about how fun it is and of course Owen wants to do fun things with them…so Tom and I talked and I basically told him I don’t want to be involved so if HE wants to do it with Owen, be my guest. 😄 So they went to a few meetings and then it was time for the big weekend camping trip to Starved Rock, a local State Park campground. The whole family was invited but I opted to stay home for some alone time and Tom was looking forward to taking both kids.

DAY 1

So come Friday afternoon they were all packed and ready to go! I even got Owen out of school a bit early since they had a 2.5-hour drive to get there.

I’m not sure they have enough stuff for 1.5 days (Friday night, Saturday, leaving really early Sunday). We borrowed a tent and then had to take sleeping bags, air mattresses (because how can they sleep on the ground like animals), pillows, backpacks, rain gear, etc.

Fast forward to later that evening when I asked for proof of life and got a text that they (and some friends) were at a local bar because by the time they got there and got set up the camp kitchen was closed. But as it would happen, a marine was having his retirement party so they all got invited to a free buffet!

And then later they did actually sit around a fire for a bit.

DAY 2

Tom taught the boys how to fold flags.

Getting ready to go on a hike by themselves! (The parents followed behind enough to be unseen but still keep an eye on them.) They also took pack lunches.

And then I got this from Tom about noon…and he said he was contemplating packing up and coming home.

I told him to suck it up—he wanted to go camping. 😜

So this is what things looked like later when everyone was gathered under our awning while it rained cats and dogs.

And everyone ended up back at the bar again for dinner—and to get out of the storm. I may have gotten a few THIS REALLY SUCKS texts.

DAY 3

They were up and on the road by 7 Sunday morning so they could get home in time for the last baseball playoffs game. (Our team was so awesome that they won the first game of the playoffs without the coach, two assistant coaches, and three players who were all camping!!) They pulled in shortly before 9:30 and I immediately proceeded to do laundry because everything was wet and muddy.

Tom’s overall feeling on the weekend was it totally sucked because of the bad weather but the kids had fun and he wants to do it again…though maybe in a pop-up or something bigger. The kids did have a blast and can’t wait to go again.

No, white eyelashes are not my normal.

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In my rush to get out of the house early this morning to take Owen to his Lego robotics class at school, my normal makeup routine was rushed. So if you see me within the next hour or so, I don’t have weird white eyelashes for any reason other than I only got primer on before it was time to leave and I forgot my mascara on the steps where I sat down to put my shoes on. 😂

P.S. It was another retail shopping day as I was meeting a friend in the Target parking lot to borrow her tent…and ended up going in with her.

Retail Therapy Day

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So Anna and I decided today called for retail therapy so we met at Marshall’s and just had the best time. We’d talk each other into or out of things and spent most of the time laughing.

I wish I had a fun pic of us to share but I didn’t take one because I was SO entrenched in this display of beverage containers.

I literally parked myself here for a good 10 minutes while I debated quantity vs price vs brand vs expectations vs color vs what we already had vs what I know we needed to throw in the garbage and replace. 😂 There might also have been a steady stream of texts and a phone call to Tom to make some final decisions.

What kind of therapy do you like? I love retail therapy but I wish I liked exercise because one is soooo much better for you. 😜

Happy 46th birthday to me!

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When it’s your birthday and you can’t decide what color lipstick to wear.

First was too light. Second was too dark.

Also? Yes. You can bet your ass I’m wearing my tiara all over hell today!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻 Happy damn birthday to me! 😂

Tiara out to lunch, getting my nails done, and leaving my kid at a neighbor’s after school. Tiara on the go!!

Then, I got birthday calls from my mom and David (as well as a handful of friends who were all in Maine together!) and dad and Linda (who, when I saw they were calling, wondered why).

Then, what better way to end my birthday than a margarita with a new friend (we met at the Paint & Sip a few months ago).

No, wait. THIS is the best way to end my birthday. 💕

What a crazy live sale!

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So I’d been having a party all month long in my business group and it culminated with a live sale. My bestie Heidi came to help and we started things off right with a margarita.

I had planned for about an hour but it ended up to be almost two!! And I’m so glad she was there to help because they’re is no way I could have done it alone. The only bad thing about doing it at night is that I had about four hours of work to do after!

This was at 9:53.

This was at 12:10.

I finally called it a night at 2am.

Baseball Wrap Party

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The whole team was invited to Richardson’s Adventure Farm to celebrate a great fall season of baseball. Not too many showed up, but we all had a great time! We rented a site with a fire pit and the kids enjoyed the Jumping Pillow, a 100′ slide, and the World’s Largest and Most Intricate Corn Maze (lots of cool details here). Lest you think I’m kidding about the maze, here it is:

Richardson Farm 2019 Corn Maze

We brought plain hot chocolate but Jess brought this… You can see why we’re friends.

Mom fun!

Yes I went down this!

It was actually really fun and not scary at all!

This place was huge!

I might have eaten something delicious.

Then once the moms were back at the fire, the dads took a group of kids through the corn maze.

And within five minutes of being in the car on the way home…

ROAR Run 2019

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This was our third year doing the Woodland PTO ROAR Run fundraiser! We thought it might not happen as major storms rolled through a few hours before, but it cleared up in time! I didn’t get as many good pics this year…

Practicing football sprints.

She’s still good with the hula hoop!

Guess who pinned his own number?

This is the only pic I took with my phone. I just thought it was cute…but Anna said they look like cell phone reception bars!! I love it!!

Her face is how I envision everyone feels after running. 🙂

And our friend Evan…

RESULTS!

It’s fall, y’all!

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I volunteered to do Owen’s teacher’s door for fall! I hadn’t thought that I’d get to choose what I wanted, so of course I started overthinking. I like Pinterest but it’s just so overwhelming. I ended up asking Anna to help me since she did a door for the same teacher last year…

It’s not perfect but it’s not bad for my first time! It was great having an extra set of hands, otherwise I’d have been there twice as long! Owen helped a little bit but honestly he wasn’t that much help (tape circles proved to be a huge challenge).

Fri-YAY: Friends!

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This week I’m thankful for friends. That seems really generic, I know, but let me explain.

Being military and moving every three years, there is a certain cycle that we go through each move–it generally takes about two full years before we finally have a good set of friends. You know…the ones you can call last-minute to watch your kids, the ones you can call to take your kids to sportsball practice when you can’t make it, the ones you invite over for dinner because your kids get along so well. It’s also a time when friends are around regularly enough that it seems very commonplace–like we’ve been here our whole lives.

So we’re at that two-year mark.

This week I went for a walk around the neighborhood with a friend, I ran into a friend shopping at Michael’s, a friend came over to shop for make-up, a friend and I vented to each other about life, I helped a friend decide what artwork to hang in her house, a friend came over and picked me up because she wanted to talk and I had been drinking and couldn’t drive, and a friend offered her assistance in designing a T-shirt for our upcoming family vacation.

Friends are amazing and I don’t take any of them for granted.

It’s been at least 25 years…

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So today the boys’ baseball game was cancelled due to flooded fields but we took a few of the kids for some pitching and batting practice.

At the end I decided to pick up a bat and try hitting some pitches from Tom. I haven’t tried batting in probably 25+ years so I thought it would be a complete shitshow. Needless to say I surprised everyone there when I hit most of them!! They were underhand pitches but still…

I will need Aleve and margaritas later today but I have to admit it was fun!!