Gotta Love Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the last few weekends that we have been busy… cottage time with my aunt and uncle (finally getting the pictures from my sister), Schwobe camping, Minnesota trip, and just being at home…

My youngest sister, Alexis, checking to make sure the hot tub was working… it was!

Alexis and Ayden getting a ride on the paddle boat… courtesy of my other sister, Emily, and cousin, Kimberly! And… it was in the rain!

In the truck, ready to go out for some lunch!

Checking out a new beach… Ayden going down the slide for the first time! It was a great slide since it was shallow enough for the kids to touch at the bottom! Once they got over the initial fear, they were up and down LOTS AND LOTS of times!

It wouldn’t be a trip to the beach without some sand castles and rivers!

It’s the… HULK! Hehe!

We all wanted to make sure the hot tub was working… me, Ayden, Emily, Alexis, and some cousins (Kimberly, Jenna, Hailey, and Mitchell)!

Casey was super great with the kids in the pool… they had tons and tons of fun playing with him!

More waterslide fun!

You really need to try the belly! It is so much more fun!

Not only did this campground have a little kid approved water slide, it also had this great little kid beach area!

Alexis was quite the sport when it came to this water slide! Laying down flat makes for a much faster ride!

At the Minnesota Children’s Museum… ‘hiding’ out!

And painting rocks…

And… swimming in the hotel pool!

Hot weather leads to lounging out on the living room floor!

Or maybe jumping off the couch onto the air mattress blown up! Look at that face!!!

Hope you enjoyed!!!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Sitting and Thinking

I’m sitting at my computer… writing my third blog post of the day (contemplating whether it will get posted tonight or not)… with the cat in my lap (never happens- I’m trying to make nice so he uses his littler box again)… listening to the TV… and thinking about lots of different things.

I’m thinking about how grad school starts in like three weeks…

I’m thinking about how Ayden complained of ear pain earlier tonight and how I probably need to call the doctor in the morning…

I’m thinking about how I hope his ear stops hurting so we don’t need to make an impromptu trip to the doctor’s office… how it is either an ear infection or swimmer’s ear from all the swimming he has done in the past few days…

I’m thinking about how I’m drifting away from my best friend and how I’m disappointed in some of the recent decisions she’s made in life and how she could really do them in the first place…

I’m thinking about how I don’t really care if my friend and I are drifting and how I’m not doing anything to help the friendship…

I’m thinking about I should care where my friendships go…

I’m thinking about two recent dreams I’ve had… two dreams that included a different friend of whom I haven’t dreamt of in months… two dreams that occurred on subsequent nights… two dreams that have left me wondering about where this particular friendship is going… two dreams that left me wondering if we really dream about our subconscious thoughts… two dreams that have sort of left me with a sour taste in my mouth…

I’m thinking about all of the bills that keep coming and how I hate being an adult for that sole purpose…

I’m thinking about the birthday gift that I might give myself and one that Jay might give himself and whether or not we should really go through with it… I’m thinking about how I would really love it and so he would he, but if it is really what is the best for us at this point…

I’m thinking about the work involved in the upcoming semester…

I’m thinking about how I have a list of things to do before the start of the school year and it feels like I’m doing it all when really Jay should take half of the weight off my shoulders…

My head is just spinning and spinning… and it hasn’t made my mood any better…

Ugh!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Schwobe Camping and Minnesota Trip

Two posts in one day! Yeah me! Well, I could have made one really long one about a hodge podge of sort of things, but I didn’t want to so instead of continuing in my ‘Bad Mood’ post about all of the fun that I’ve been having, I thought I would start a whole new one!

The past five days have just flown by us and they’ve been great… bad rain storms and power outages and all!

Last Friday Jay and I left for Schwobe camping just after 5pm. We pretty much knew where we were going and had plans to meet up with our little guy at the camp site, since my dad had picked him up on the way!

We made it to the campsite and oh to see the look on Ayden’s face when he saw mommy and daddy after a week! I was so excited to see him as well! It was a great reunion, lol! But it took only about two seconds on loving on mommy and daddy before he was back to playing with his new buddies (cousins he doesn’t get to see very often).

Friday night was spent getting things set up and relaxing for a while by the bonfire. Ayden was running around with Alexis and Mitchell just having a ball of a good time!

The storms Friday night were pretty good! We got lots and lots of rain and lots and lots of power outages! Sleep for myself and Jay was not so hot since we were on the air mattress and both were not super tired. We usually don’t go to bed until after 11pm and everyone had pretty much dispersed from the campfire by 10:30pm and to top it off… I had taken a nap Friday afternoon so I wasn’t REALLY not tired!

But, alas, we made it through the night, only to wake to rain in the morning! We thought it was going to be a pretty cruddy day with the way that the weather was shaping up to be, but in fact…it was a fabulous day!

The weather cleared up by late morning and the sun started to make an appearance! It got really warm, although not as hot as it is supposed to get later this week. We played some family volley ball in the morning and I even joined in for two games, although I’m definitely no volleyball star! Hehe! And then it was off to swim the rest of the day away, at least for the kids. For as much as Ayden was in and out of the pool and in and out of the lake, I didn’t don a swimsuit once! Of course that doesn’t mean I stayed completely dry either! The camp grounds even had a little water slide for the kids to go down and Ayden was able to go down this one so that was awesome!

After a long day of swimming and just having fun, we left late at night and headed home for a good nights sleep before heading out to Minnesota Sunday morning!

It wasn’t a super early morning or anything on Sunday, but we were out of the house before 9:30am which I thought was a feat in and of itself! Sunday held the Children’s Museum, hotel check-in, Mall of America skimming, and Underwater Adventure… Monday held the Minnesota Zoo, Moose Mountain Mini Golf, and a little more Mall of America perusing, along with hotel pool fun… and today held just a little more Mall of America walking which led us to the Mirror Maze and game store! It was a busy three days with lots of eating out and two late nights! Not to mention the power went out for about an hour way early Monday morning which kept me awake because the hotel room was TOO quiet! Weird, I know… can’t sleep when it’s too quiet!

Both drives (to and from Minnesota) were pretty good. The drive home (although it took probably the same amount of time, if not less since we took a different way) seemed to take forever! But I think that is because the road we took home was a LOT straighter and seemed to go on FOREVER AND EVER! But we eventually made it home only a little more worn out and tired!

Two days at home… with Ayden accompanying me to work since we have no child care, and then off to my mom’s house for the weekend before Ayden spends a week at my dad’s house. Where is the summer going?!

My brother is having surgery tomorrow… something with his ear again. I’m not sure of the exact name of the procedures that he’s having, but apparently since one of his veins runs pretty close to where they were going to be cutting in, it could get a little dicey in there for a while. I really hope that they don’t find the cyst regrown and are able to put the titanium rods in to help increase his hearing again since he has such a significant loss right now in one of his ears.

Okay, this was the condensed version of the past couple of days. I’m going to try and make a better effort at blogging a little more since I’ve been so bad lately. Please forgive!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Bad Mood

I’ve been a bad blogger lately… not posting as much as I should or as much as I would like… and then here I am coming back to you in a bad mood.

I’ve been home for the second time in five days (one other time just to sleep) and we walk into the house and guess what? Well, Jay cleaned the litter box Sunday morning before we left for Minnesota and found out that our lovable cat, Diesel, had decided to do his business on the carpet in the downstairs bathroom right next to his litter box. We believed that the reason for this was because his litter box was a little dirty. It really wasn’t that bad as Jay had cleaned it just two or three days earlier (and normally he goes like a week, which probably isn’t the best, but we had yet to encounter any problems). So, Jay cleans up Diesel’s mess and we head out. We made sure his litter box was nice and clean, he had food, etc etc before leaving for three days.

Apparently, our lovable cat wasn’t so happy as when Jay went to check out Diesel’s litter box when we got home, he was pretty upset to find it was NOT used, but instead the bathroom carpet was AGAIN! And this time I also found a spot on the toy room carpet that was soiled! Ugh! I’m so frustrated right now because this is the last thing that I thought we would have to deal with! Our cat has been great since the day we brought him home! He never used anything but his litter box at the old place! He may have thrown up here or there, the usual cat hair ball, but that was it!

When we moved I was concerned that we might have a problem because you can never judge how a cat might react when something changes, but everything went swimmingly with the move and Diesel took to his new home and new litter box spot with charm! We had no problems… until now that is! And cat urine is SO potent! I already went out tonight to find some spray that will hopefully work and keep him from going back and frequenting his new spot! I’m also concerned that there might be something going on with him because when cats tend to find new litter boxes something is usually amiss. I am hoping he was just upset with his litter box cleanliness (in which case Jay will have to be more on top of) and its not something health related because the last thing I want to deal with is a vet bill!

Ugh, this just really gets on my nerves!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Its going to be a LONG week!

Ayden is spending the week at Jay’s parent’s house and it is only the start of the week… it is going to be a LONG week! Maybe not for them, but for ME! I miss my little guy SO much already! I feel sort of useless sitting at home without someone to tend to. And by that I don’t mean that I feel like when he is hear I am just tending to you, oh pooey, you know what I mean…

Jay and I said goodbye to Ayden yesterday afternoon as we had to head out of the campground because it was check-out time. He (Ayden) was sort of back and forth about spending the week at Grandma and Grandpa’s earlier in the day, but he was all smiles and ready to go when they headed out. I know it a had a lot to do with him being tired and crabby earlier in the day. I enjoyed yesterday afternoon and the first part of today child free (I mean because what parent doesn’t savor at least five minutes of free time here and there?!), but I’m craving some of those smiles and hugs and smooches…

I know that he will have a blast with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Steven all week long and probably not miss Mommy or Daddy as much as we will miss him. They are even planning on possibly going horseback riding, taking the boat out, doing some fishing… lots of fun stuff and the weather is looking to be pretty nice all week long so that is good!

My dad will be picking Ayden up Friday later in the afternoon as he, Casey, Emily, Alexis (and maybe Wendy) head up to go camping. We will meet them at the campgrounds for my dad’s side family camping weekend. It is really nice that he will have room for him because it will save Jay and I a trip that way to get Ayden. I’m excited for this weekend and the week has only begun! Hehe!

This past weekend was Hoerth family camping, you know… the one that I wasn’t really looking forward to. Well, I’m here to report that it was mostly successful, at least on my part. I had a mostly good time! We went Thursday night and spent time with Jay’s parents since they were there a day early and Ayden decided to sleep over that night. Jay and I came home because he had to work and I spent the day reading and relaxing (see I already got that day in for ‘me’ time… I’m all about wanting some ‘Ayden time’ now, hehe)! Anyways, since it was just Jay’s family we had a good time Thursday night.

Jay and I didn’t get back to the campground until almost 7pm Friday night since he didn’t get home from work until later and then we had to do some grocery shopping. We had a late supper and then went over by the ‘community’ campsite for a while. Since supper was so late… it was already late by the time that we got over there. Ayden and I didn’t stay too long. I think we were back in the camper by like 10pm and then shortly there after fell asleep. I’m happy to announce that I slept like crap Friday night, lol, but I wasn’t expecting anything else. I don’t know what time Jay and his parents came back from the big fire, but I don’t think it was too much after Ayden and I left.

I know that some people had fun on Friday night, but I didn’t hear any stories which was fine with me. Saturday was a pretty good day. We went for a boat ride with Jay’s grandparents down the river. That was nice because it was away from everyone and fun. The ‘community’ supper was Saturday night and all of the food was SO yummy! I left around 8pm Saturday night to come home and sleep. It felt so nice to take a shower and sleep good and since we didn’t leave all that far away it wasn’t like it was an inconvenience. Jay and Ayden stayed back. Jay said that Ayden really opened up and started to play with some of his cousins that he doesn’t see a whole lot and it was nice to hear that. It takes Ayden quite a while to open up to other people and sometimes I feel like so many of our family who we only see on holidays or such don’t get to see the real him. I mean, he was there since Thursday afternoon and didn’t really open up until Saturday night.

Jay told me that some of the normal Hoerth antics took place Saturday night. I’m glad that I was not around to see any of it. Jay also told me that he wasn’t any part of it and actually thought that it was getting a little out of hand. We talked a bit about how some of the family act and how we each feel about it and it was good to see that we were mostly on the same page. He told me that he had a few mixed drinks Saturday night, but mostly just sat by the fire with an aunt and chilled. I was happy to hear that…

And then Sunday it was clean up day… the weather the whole weekend wasn’t exactly super warm, but it wasn’t cold cold either. I think the worst part was the wind and right where they had the ‘community’ site it was getting hit bad by the wind. Oh well… I’m looking forward to my family camping more, but also glad to say that this past weekend wasn’t a total bust. I even have some good pictures to show for it…

Less than a week until we leave for Minnesota… can’t wait! I’ll leave you with a few more pictures… hope you enjoy!

CIAO! LOVE ME!