tales from a far-land

A couple of weeks ago, the entire family took a trip out to Atlanta, Georgia.  The trip had a two-fold purpose -- Jenn had an industry conference to attend and Josh had a college friend he wanted to visit.  So, we packed up the kids and flew across the country to explore the new city.  Atlanta has a nickname ... Hotlanta!  And we would agree the name is fitting, especially in June.  It was pretty hot and humid, but we had fun anyway. On the airplane Aiden asleep on the plane   On our first full day in Atlanta, we drove to Stone Mountain Park .  This is a fun amusement park and natural recreation area.  While at the park, we enjoyed visiting several of the exhibits and rides.  We were so proud of our kids.  They lasted the entire afternoon at the park with minimal crying despite the heat and humity. Our first stop in the park was the Butterfly Adventures -- a wondrous indoor habitat...

Wishing you a Happy 4th of July from Munds Park, Arizona! We are enjoying the cooler weather, the annual holiday parade and good times with family. So proud to be an American and thankful to live in a land of so many freedoms. More photos from our 4th of July (added postscript)

We spent this past Father's Day enjoying cooler weather up in Munds Park with my parents at their cabin.  It was a nice getaway complete with all of our typical cabin rituals including the Friday night fish fry, a trip to the local farmers market on Saturday morning and some forest exploring/hiking.  Both of the fathers enjoyed golfing on Saturday morning to celebrate their special day as well as a delicious brunch at the country club on Sunday morning.    Aiden enjoying the fish fry  The kids exploring the forest Daddy showing Madi a catepillar  Aiden petting the catepillar  Skyping with Lynsey  Artwork brought home from preschool

I know that my "Little Man" is almost two, but I just realized that this blog post never recorded.  I wanted to make sure that the photos from his 1st Birthday Party posted before he has his second birthday party.  I am not sure how this happened, but anyway here is the slideshow of photos of Aiden's 1st Birthday Party.  To celebrate, we had a "Little Man Mustache Bash" on the actual day of his birth.  Family and friends gathered at our home in the middle of August adorned with mustaches and ties.  What a fun theme!    

Madilyn LOVES shoes!  Lately, she has a new obsession -- high heels.  She loves to play with my heels, wear my heels, walk all over the house in my heels.  And what is even worse is that she walks pretty well in them.  Sometimes I think that she walks more gracefully in them than I can.  Josh jokes that I come home to take my heels off after a long day of work and Madi comes home from preschool just to put them on.  One of Madilyn's favorite colors is pink.  It just so happens that Mommy has a pink pair of high heel shoes.  Guess what?  These are her favorite pair.  She walks right into my closet, strips off her tennis shoes and will replace them with this particular pair of heels.  They then proceeds to clomp all over the house.  It is the funniest little thing to watch.  She is growing up so fast.  Sadly, in a blink of an eye, she will be able to *actually* wear my shoes.  Madi showing off her high heels ...

Bowling in an activity that Josh and I enjoy to do.  When we first starting dating five years ago, I was bowling on a league and actually convinced Josh to join the team with me.  We enjoyed our every Thursday night bowling league.  So, since we have not bowled in quite a long time, we decided to introduce our children to the world of bowling at the beginning of June.  This was the first time for both of them.  They were both excited to bowl their first game, but slowly petered out after that.  Thus, the adults were only able to get in a couple of games.  About half way through the first game, a neighboring lane allowed our kids to borrow their helper ramp so the kids could at least have a shot of hitting the pins at the end of the lane.  Madi enjoyed bowling a ton more once she was able to carry her ball to the ramp and push it on to the lane and then strut back to the ball return to do it again.  We are looking forward to many more family b...

Anytime we are in the Los Angeles area, we strive to see as many of my sorority sisters as we can.  Because I have amazing and wonderful sorority sisters they, in return, make every effort to spend time with us when I announce that we will be near them.  For this, I am so grateful.  I appreciate the time they take from their daily busy lives so that we can all be our little sisterhood again, even if it is for only a short while.  Our past trip to California in May was no exception.  The Palmer sisters and their families enjoyed Sunday brunch together at Storyteller's Cafe in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.  It is otherwise known as the Chip 'n Dale "Critter Breakfast”.  At the Chip ’n Dale Critter Breakfast, animal friends from beloved Disney films dropped by our table to say hello and be photographed with the kids.  We were visited by Dale, Koda and Kenai from Brother Bear , and Meeko the raccoon from P...