Spoiler Alert:

Anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that I am a voracious reader. I love reading and yesterday was no exception as I read three books, two start to finish and the other one in a more skimming fashion. This book by Janet Evanovich was released yesterday. I had already put every single copy at the library on hold in anticipation. I still am cheap: come on people do you know me at all? Anyway...after a good laugh with my librarian friends they handed over this book. I snatched it with energy so cataclysmic that my daughter said, "Sometimes it seems like you love books more than your kids." After calming her tender fears we headed to the pool. Not conducive reading ground since I am trying to watch kids and they think getting me wet is funny. Once I got them home I put them to bed for naps and embarked on the journey of a well told story.

This is the fifteenth in the series and I had definite preferences how I wanted this book to go. And her is where the spoiler comes in...the heroine of the book a not so apt bounty hunter embarks on bringing in people who skip on their court bonds and although the stories are funny and I laugh out loud during each of her books, the thing that has kept me going through fifteen books is this twisted love triangle between her and 2 potential love interests. One a mild Bad Boy turned somewhat domestic and two a feral Bad Boy. Well people I just want her to hook up with the Bad Boy number two. Seriously I have waited for fifteen books now and I am still left waiting. Although at first I would have gone the other way I am deeply entrenched in my current opinion that BB2 is the best choice. And with each book I get more angry and aggravated. Will she never pick a man, will the series never end, will I feel so annoyed over writing that has gone a little downhill, and the heroine's dumb decisions that I will be forced to fork out my own eye. Probably but you know what I still am waiting for next year's book to be released. For the first time in my life I am deeply entrenched in a soap opera, although this is of the written variety. I need a help group. Someone-Anyone?

Isn't He Cute?

For all my weird feelings concerning Mother's Day, I have nothing but love for Father's Day. Maybe it's because the attention isn't on me making me feel all awkward. Maybe it's because I truly have been blessed with the best father for my kids. Maybe it is because I feel a need to appreciate all the men who work so hard and do so much and get so little recognition because they are just more emotionally low maintenance. No matter the reason Travis is the best father: Here's to you babe.

Our Summer So Far

Although summer officially started yesterday in our family it started the day Bella got out of school. And we have been filling our time. Not only have we gone to Texas but we have done many other things like:

Being Tourists in our own Town

Wilbur Chocolate Company
Yeah everything in that picture is edible.
Reverting to some of our old naughty ways. Kill me now.

Swimming/pool time with cousins and at the local pool.

Swimming with family is so fun. The kids play so well and I don't worry about how I look in my swimsuit. I love family.

The community pool is more kid friendly but invariably I see people who I would rather not have seeing me in my swimsuit. The kids teachers, principals, friends, neighbors, etc...

Engaging in America's Favorite Pasttime - Baseball.

The backyard games are amazing and Travis decided to take wiffle ball to a whole 'nother level. I the pitcher ending up with a welt and mark. This is more than 20 minutes past the end of the game and being hit.

Body painting - Nana in Texas got the kids bath paints. They are the biggest hit in the tub, on the trampoline with sprinklers, and with Kody any time he can find them.

Is this not the cutest little I've been caught face. And I know you're going to take them away from me.

I love summer, being outside, being so exhausted by playing that the kids fall fastly asleep once you lay them in bed. I love the fireflies, cool evening breezes, far off wind chimes, and various forms of vacationing. I love that I read an article about dropping even your cleaning routines during the summer to play more with your kids now that they are home. And I love that it inspired me. I love that this past week I did just that. Now I just have to keep it up all summer long. Already my OCD ways are nagging me to fold any one of the four loads of laundry in my room. But summer is perfection.

Texas Trip: Day 8

This day is hardly blog worthy but shouldn't be skipped as it is part of a series. We woke up, moved slowly with our heaviness over the week being done so quickly and our having to get back to real life. Travis's dad hung out for a bit to see us off. We left for the airport. Sad goodbyes. We had a two and a half hour layover in Atlanta. Due to thunderstorms in the Philly area we had an additional 1 and 1/2 hour delay. Four hours later my kids were done traveling even though we were just boarding the last leg of our flight. So as you can imagine the last flight sort of sucked. Nothing so terribly horrible but they weren't on their best behavior. Glad to get to Philly finally, get our car out of long term parking, and get out of there. Drove home to a huge thunderstorm, I love thunder. Got home exhuasted but not too tired to read a whole book from midnight to four. Perfect ending to a perfect vacation after all. Although got a call at 7:59 am on Sunday morning. Vacation officially over.

Texas Trip: Day 7

Feeling sad knowing that today is our last full day and that tomorrow we would be leaving.

Jumped out of bed at 7:30 wanting to fit every little last thing in.

We took the kids on a hike, they showed us the fairy homes.

We went to see Grandpa's barn, and to just walk some of the property.

Then Julie's, another cousin, husband, Mike, came over to clay pidgeon shoot.

We headed to the mounds to dig. I found my own arrowhead.

Ate lunch. Took naps.

Nana, Me, and the boys went shopping for clothes. Bella had gone on her own with Nana earlier in the week.

Had one last get together with family coming over to visit.

Turned into a huge party with standing room only.

Everyone brought dessert. That's all that is important to Travis's family.

We talked late into the night and had such a good time.

I love our family. They are all so great and so much fun.

Texas Trip: Day 6

We woke up this morning ready to move. We had a lot to do and I was worried about time and heat. It is scorching here in Texas. We all got ready relatively quickly and jumped in the car. We were headed for the San Antonio zoo. Nana was with us and the kids were dying with excitement to spend the whole day with her and to see all the animals. Each child was interested in a particular animal and so we decided to just systematically walk the whole thing. It was very fun and I took at least a hundred pictures.

There was a butterfly place that cost a dollar extra for each person. I was like it's not worth it I've seen butterflies but Nana insisted knowing that the kids would love it. We got the tickets and entered with all these rules about touching the butterflies, etc... I was speechless. It was spectacular worth the dollar and a lot more. It was my favorite part of the zoo and just so beautiful. Hundred of butterflies flying around, landing on you, landing on these spectacular blooming plants that scented the air with the sweetest smell, and landing on the fresh fruit that was sliced and laying everywhere to feed the butterflies. It was heaven. A butterfly landed on Wyatt and he kept all the rules about not touching it and waiting for it to fly away again. But the kids were filled with awe over watching it so up close.

From there we saw Cheetahs, Wyatt's favorite, Elephants, Issac's favorite, Rhinos, Travis's favorite, and Bella loved every animal. After exhausting ourselves at the zoo we left to go take a train ride that goes around the outside of the Zoo, Breckenridge Park, and by some museums. The train ride was 20 minutes and the kids loved it but were starting to be rocked to sleep. When we left there we got to the car and headed to McDonalds for lunch. We ate and played at the playland. We headed home for naps and Travis and I changed our temple reservations because we knew we would miss our four o'clock appointment. Yes you heard me. The San Antonio temple is a small temple that does a session every two hours but it is by reservation. And Wednesday night they are closed and Thursday morning because of lack of attendance. But after changing our reservation to six and going through it is now my favorite temple. It is beautiful, amazingly beautiful. So new and clean and the stain glass everywhere is so breathtaking. And the murals are awesome. And the details are phenominal.
Travis and I went to the temple, while Nana watched the kids. They went hunting for fairies, built fairy houses in the woods, and ran around. She then took them to play in the sprinklers in the front yard afterwards. Then she got them bathed, fed them snacks, and then that is when we got home. We put them to bed and then talked, laughed, and watched our way through the basketball game.
Travis and his brother Rocky left for a bit to help their Uncle move some furniture back into their bedroom since they had it remodeled. On the way home they saw a bobcat on the property and so they rushed home to grab a gun and go back to shoot it, but with no luck - it had disappeared. It seemed this was the mood of the day as earlier the dog had found a snake and Rocky went out to see it and found that the dog had trapped a coral snake. Apparently this is no big deal to them. But it got away before they could kill it and they all reassured me how not a big deal it is. Whatever. And that is not to speak of the several scorpions Travis had been finding and squashing along the way this week. Eeks creepy crawlies scare me. I ended the night by finishing my fifth book this week. What a vacation. I loved it. I hadn't brought more but was wishing I had. And then headed to bed for some restorative sleep.

Texas Trip: Day 5

Today was our day to visit family. Travis started the morning by heading out to the arrowhead mounds again. He practically lives there when he is home. He came home all excited because he had gotten things all prepped for me so that I would most likely find an arrowhead next time I went.

After he came back we got all the kids ready and ourselves and headed over to Pawpaw's house. Pawpaw had a 4wheeler that he wanted to use the old gas out of to put new gas in.
Then we headed out to visit Grandpa. As we headed into town to the nursing home where Grandpa is we prepped the kids about being quieter. The conversation was struggling, the kids were getting bored and misbehaving, and Nana suggested I played the piano because Grandpa loves music. Of course I hated this. But seeing him only once every couple of years softened my heart and I played. The older people started to gather in the room happy to hear someone playing. Such a simple thing and I couldn't believe how happy they were.
After naps we headed over to Travis's cousin Grace's house. She also has a little boy Kody but he is four. They had a swimming pool and all the second cousins had a crazy swimming party. It was super fun. We then toured their new house which we had never seen. Her husband is a cabinet maker and so there were these incredible cabinets but not only that but she had this amazing furniture that he had built all over the house.

After we headed back home for a dinner and a little birthday party to celebrate Travis's birthday since we are never in Texas in January. The kids had an early bedtime to get ready for our next big day. After the kids were in bed the adults laughed and watched basketball. Just being with family is so much fun.