Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday this year we decided to go to a local resort for the weekend before my birthday. We went to the Squaw Peak Hilton where they have a great water park complete with a lazy river and water slide. Hunter wasn't quite tall enough for the water slides, however, the girls had a blast...Rob and I only lasted a few times. Alyssa and Ashley could have spent all day on the slide:)
The girls playing under the waterfall

The hotel was having a Hawaiian themed weekend with a luau and fun games for the kids. They each got to take a turn at pineapple bowling using coconuts to knock over the pineapples. Ashley threw hers so hard the coconut broke in half.

Alyssa tried really hard to knock them all down:)

Hunter ditched his water wings on the first day of our trip. Rob and I were amazed to see that he can actually swim without them. He has turned in to quite the fish now...He jumps off of the waterfall in our pool and can swim to the side without any help. It is such a relief each time one of my kids has learned to swim on their own!!!

Brooklyn managed to avoid the camera most of the weekend...We finally got a picture of her laying out:)

Alyssa and Hunter spent about an hour breaking part of a coconut into tiny pieces to use as "moisturizer". They even brought some back to the hotel and added it to all of the shampoo and lotion bottles...I'm glad I brought my own!!!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with my birthday, but I'm posting it anyway:) My girls love to play school and it actually comes in handy sometimes. This is Alyssa going over Ashley's sight words with her. Hopefully Choncho will learn them too:)

On the day of my birthday, I went to lunch with some of my friends. When I came home, Rob had decorated the house with streamers and balloons...Isn't that so sweet?!!!

He also ordered this cute cake for me. Thanks for the great birthday Rob!!!

Best Anniversary Ever!!!

Rob and I have now been married 13 amazing years! This year Rob had to leave the country on a late night flight the day of our anniversary. Because of this, Rob and I celebrated our anniversary the day before. The kids wanted to surprise us with a "romantic" evening before Rob left town. They started planning early in the morning and kept all the details mum, except that we were going to have a romantic dinner on the patio...complete with dessert. They set up on the patio in the backyard and closed all the blinds so we couldn't see what they were doing.

This is the sign that they made...complete with a stand and balloons. I love the way Alyssa spelled anniversary:)

The girls got our card table out of our garage and set up this "romantic" table for us to eat dinner on. They even brought out my ipod with speakers and had the song "Everything I do, I do it for You" playing for us. I especially liked the shoe box lids they used to put the silverware in:)
This was the card they made for us

Here is Rob and I eating our dinner. Brooklyn kept peeking through the blinds trying to get a picture of us kissing...Sorry Brooklyn, we did it while you weren't looking:)

The girls were terrific servers for us. Rob and I were almost in tears it was so adorable!

Alyssa made this for Rob as a present. She also bought us a box of Nerds to share along with a card she bought at Trader Joes. We had gone to Target earlier in the day to get a few things. Alyssa stood in line after us with her money and told me she was going to buy herself some candy. This is quite common because Alyssa has a sweet tooth...Candy is one of the few things she will actually spend her money on:) She is so sneaky, we had no idea those Nerds were actually for us...Thanks Lulu!!!

Alyssa ended our evening by doing a "show". She danced and did some tumbling for all of us:) The only thing as good as being married to Rob for the past 13 years, is having 4 wonderful kids to go along with it:)

Okay...Okay...Here is the Picture of Rob

There was a little confusion on which way he was supposed to point his toes...up, or down...:) Down was what he chose:)

First Day of School & FHE at the Lake

All three of my girls started school yesterday and since Ashley is now in 1st grade, they are all in school ALL day:( I'm one of those moms that dread sending my kids to school! I love having them home all the time and Hunter misses having three playmates...Even when they do make him play Barbies:( The only bright side to Hunter being alone, is now hopefully I can reverse the damage that was done over the summer with him being dressed up like a girl and having his toe nails painted...YIKES! He was so sad to have the girls leave yesterday. As we were loading up their backpacks with snacks and their lunch boxes, Hunter kept saying, "Me...unch. Me....nack. Me...school." (Yes, he does speak on occasion:) He ran around the house carrying a bag of chips and a bag of cookies. Ashley said our family prayer before leaving for school and she said, "Bless Choncho not to miss us today and not to cry...and bless that I won't miss Choncho..." It was very cute! Luckily, all went well, and aside from a lot of tears (from me), the girls all had a great day first day!
Hunter with his "nacks"
Ashley and her BFF Hannah

After school we headed to the lake with our friends. Normally the front of the boat would be a pretty safe place for all of these kids (and Sarah) to be sitting. Not the case last night...These kids had to dodge flying objects twice. The first time was a flying sandwich...That's right, a sandwich. Sam pushed Derek into the lake while he was eating his sandwich, but no worries...Derek managed to throw his sandwich to keep it from suffering from the same fate that he did by falling into the lake:) I don't know if he just wanted so badly to finish the last inch of it, or if he was afraid the fish might choke on the turkey and lettuce...Who knows:)??? The second flying object was the tow rope that Rob was using to wake board. He let go of it during an unsuccessful wake boarding attempt and it flung all the way the the front of the boat and hit Alyssa's leg:(

Besides driving for a little while, this is what Hunter spent most of his time doing. Just hanging out.

Last night everyone took their turn wake boarding (except Brooklyn and Hunter). Brooklyn had regrets the whole drive home for not giving it a shot. Sam went first and showed us all how it was done.

Alyssa went next and she tried...and tried...and tried. She finally got up for a minute...

but, quickly crashed:(

Derek went next and made it looks so easy...

Since I was able to get up on water skis last time, I decided to give it a try. On the 3rd attempt, I did it. I was up for quite a while and even crossed the wake...I didn't realize I was as scared as I look in this picture:)

Rob actually followed me, but I have been warned not to post the awesome picture I have of him wake boarding:)...So, Hannah gets the next picture. She was up for a second, but didn't like crashing:(

Ashley was the biggest surprise of all. Derek got in the water with her to help her get situated and keep her in the right position. He stayed in the water with her because we all assumed she would crash and burn like the other girls. She got up on her 2nd try and kept going...and going...and going. She even managed to stay on while Rob turned around to go back to Derek. It was so funny because she sat in this position the entire time...She never stood up:) In Sam's words, "That was AWESOME!"