Are we done yet?

If only my stuff could be wrapped up so tightly.

Truth is, moving stinks.

A Moment of Gratitude

Of course this move has coincided with a huge 3 week trial that Jeff has with one of his clients several years in the making.  He has been working so hard at the office until between 12-2:30 am most nights.  He has felt so bad, but this move is completely on my shoulders.  It could be miserable, but miraculously it's not.  I'm nowhere near done, but so much has already gotten done and so smoothly that I just wanted to take a quick second to share my gratitude for those who have already made this so much easier on me.

 Tiffany Madsen.  Dinner for my family tonight and M&M's for making memories in my new home.

AND for the use of the Madsens BEAST of a truck they offered for the move.  Its so perfect for the job and Wes is in LOVE with it!  He texted earlier begging to just drive it to school tomorrow!  Nope that baby is all mine this week and I'm making good use of it!

 Amy Arnold.  Called yesterday offering to take Brynne to gymnastics which I had completely forgotten about. To defend myself just a little this is only week 3 of classes. She also took Brynne to her house after class and kept her busy while we moved and then when she returned Brynne home with dinner from sonic she brought me a Route 44! 

 Heather Smith. Asked me at church on Sunday if she could come help. Told me to call her on Monday whenever I was ready for her.  I totally forgot, but she just showed up and brought 3 cute girls to help out too!

Diana and Nate who have proven priceless during the remodel and the move have earned every dollar I'm paying them and might just be worth their weight in gold. Justin & Bailey workers for hire.  My kids and the Smith kids and Jared.  They all put in some serious hours and moved 70% of my furniture yesterday between 3-8pm. So Awesome.

Drew. For keeping a sense of humor throughout the moving process.  He begged for a white trash moment where he could just ride on a couch shirtless rubbing his belly eating food and the guys carried him down the street to the new house. He's been talking about this moment for over a week. This was as close as we got, but we did get a good laugh out of it.

And last but not least my dear friend Chris Remington who has been my biggest cheerleader and support though this crazy remodel.  She has inspired many of the changes to the new house, pushed me to stick with my gut when making decisions and backed me up on my color choices. This morning when I texted in a panic about my furniture not working the new rooms she came right over and lent her decorators eye and some muscle and left me grateful and content with our solutions.  Her touch can be seen all over this place.  Love that girl!

  I get by with a little help from my friends. I am at peace instead of stressed and my heart is full of gratitude.  I have awesome people in my life!

Now...back to moving!

Everything Summer Should Be

A few sets of siblings, a group of good friends, a hot sunny day, an empty smooth lake, and a boat with room enough for us all. 

An early start and no deadlines, the day lazily stretched out in front of us with possibility.

Two old friends strolled memory lane and remembered the infants and toddlers that are now almost full grown adults and tried to make sense of their rapid progression while we hadn't aged a day. Or so we'd like to imagine.

The sun warmed and then browned our smiling faces

The wind blew through our hair

and the music played

We talked, we danced and we listened

and sometimes we just stopped and swam

In the comfort of good friends our truest selves shine through

In those cherished moments the best memories are made

The laughter was consistent as my sons shamelessly transformed into a boy band and sampled all of Lauren's favorite dance moves while Justin held on for dear life

 And then of course the girls were not to be out done.

 We danced across the lake as the sun slid across the sky and the hours slipped by

We reveled in the sweetest comeback in the history of ever and effortlessly devoured two bags of powdery melt in your mouth goodness that Hostess calls Donettes.

Kara and Drew bonded as her name was imprinted onto his ring finger

There were dance lessons on board and favorite songs shared

 We wake boarded and tubed til our muscles were sore and our hands were tired and some of us felt our age.

At the end of the day our hearts were full and content.

We were lazy and spent, with pink cheeks, tan legs, and smiling faces

It had been everything a day at the lake should be. Everthing easy. Everything fun. Everything lazy with nothing else to be done. 

Everything summer should be.

At Last

Since Spring break I'd been craving a good beach day. I mean a full day with sunshine and relaxing. We got in a quick kinda crazy half day on my moms birthday, and then spent a few days in the wet overcast cold coast a few weeks ago. The latter just left me craving a real beach day even more than before.  Once I found a date that worked for us, nothing was going to keep me away from my beach day.  Not even kids who wouldn't wake up or a husband with a big trial coming up.  We left home bright and early.  My travel companions were not quite as excited as I was.

I was more than pleasantly surprised that when we arrived in Cayucos it was still bright and early.  No marine layer overcast for the morning! It was a beautiful day!

My niece Briannah had come home from the Bohn reunion with us and she was so excited to have a fun day at the beach too.  That girls gorgeous smile was on all week long.  Love her!

We were also joined by lots of friends

The Smiths 

plus Kylie

The Salways

Remingtons

I love this sweet picture I caught of Chris and Jackson!

Soldani's were already there with family but came down and joined us for the day

The McCauley Fam

The Arnolds

The West family

The Patteson family came a little later and left a little earlier and somehow I missed them in all of my picture taking frenzy except for in the shots of the whole big group on the beach.  With all of these fun families there the kids were all in heaven!  There were friends for all the teenagers

all the little ones

And even the almost teenagers had a crew

We took up some serious real estate on the beach!

We played in the waves

the kids and the grown ups

Wes and Briannah did a little exploring

They found lots of little treasures

Eric indulged the littles in a little whiffle ball game

One of the things Brynne loves best about the beach at Cayucos is the swing set right in the sand.  We were excited to see that they had added to that a whole jungle gym out there!

My heart was touched as I walked past and saw Drew taking care of Brynne helping her climb across the rings.

He is such a sweetheart.

The swings aren't just for the little kids though

Briannah brought me back to my childhood when she showed the kids how to do a real dismount from the swings

Garrett gave it a try too

It looked like so much fun 

I was itching to give it a go but chickened out

Brynne cracked me up as she discussed things with Jason

and explained the finer points in life to Brenda and Caleb

As the day wore on families began to pack up and head out but these guys wanted a last bit of fun with the holes that the kids had been working on all day

Kylie and Alli volunteered to get buried

Aaron decided he'd better get in on things to make sure they were completely covered

We had worked up an appetite and were ready for our favorite Cayucos grub at Duckies

There were only four families left with us when we headed over but getting seating for us all was pure luck! The food, especially that garlic bread were the BEST!

The kids all had a blast

It was a perfectly perfect day at the beach

It was the day I'd been wanting all summer long

at last!