Sorry Gramma

How I forgot to post the pics of these sunglasses back in August when they were VERY happily received in the mail, I'll never know.

Kid Dates #4

This time around we decided that each kid would get one date with one parent, only because we knew we wouldn't have time for 2 each.

Rome and Jeff played sports again. This is Rome's favorite thing to do and his ONLY request. I convinced Jeff to take the Flip along this time.

Capri and I went to Weston, she's been asking to go back for months since we first went. There is an awesome Celtic store there with a fairy room in the back. Capri is utterly in love with this store. We had no idea beforehand, but when we go there people were lining up on main street. Turned out to be the local high school's homecoming parade. Bonus!





Sable and Jeff went to Zona Rosa and walked around. They "smelled all the flowers", went to Gymboree to get some of their awesome bubbles and then to Coldstone. No pics, but imagine a very happy baby with a tint of blue around her mouth.

Silver Dollar Anniversary

On September 8th, Jeff and I celebrated 8 married years together.

We concluded that 8 years is a good amount. More than many make it, and we're still going strong. We told each other "I love you". Course we say that to each other every day, at least a dozen times.

That day, I woke up to roses and a card with Jeff's trademark swirly writing - I LOVE getting cards from Jeff. He's the master.

Later, we went out for dinner at Outback of all places and have since said we won't be back, maybe ever. We had a great time together, but the place just isn't worth the money.

Our REAL anniversary celebration was a week later when we went for our FIRST ever trip away from the kids. Seriously, we'd never both left them before overnight - or even for more than maybe 5 hours. We were excited yet wary. Not because we didn't think they'd have a great time, time spent with Mar-Mar and Aunt Katie is always time well spent, but because of how WE felt about leaving them.

I cried. I tried hard not to. But I did.

And then we set off to Silver Dollar City. We'd been saying for a LONG time that we wanted to go by ourselves and take the Lantern Tour in Marvel Cave. It's a special tour after the last tour of the day. You have to sign up and pay an extra fee, but you get to go in the cave with all the lights off with only the light of lanterns. There are different guides and they tell lots more stories than on the regular tour. Best of all, they take you into the Mammoth room - part of the cave you don't get to see on the regular tour. We were also anxious to see the bats, hopefully lots of them.
The tour didn't disappoint. But I was an idiot and didn't get a single picture, I was too excited I guess. We each got our own lantern and down we went. It was truly amazing to be in the cave without all the normal lights, somehow you felt like you were able to see even more. Then the guides started in on the ghost stories. Whew. I do NOT like spooky stuff, so this was ROUGH for me. My Dad could tell you about being in Edinburgh, Scotland and the family wanting to go on one of the many ghost tours they have there. I REFUSED to go. My Dad, who is a GOOD Dad, took me instead to see Jurrasic Park 2 while my Mom and brothers went on the tour.
Back to the cave. Even with the ghost stories, and there were a BUNCH of them, I still loved the tour. I've loved going into caves my whole life, and Marvel Cave is truly amazing. I very much wanted to see some bats, preferably hundreds of them just hanging out. This didn't happen, instead we saw maybe 5 that took flight once we'd enter a dark room with our lanterns. Still cool.

We watched sorghum being made, Jeff was in HEAVEN. I'm not joking here. He has been wanting to watch this for months. We were both shocked by how much juice is actually squeezed out of the reeds.


Having no kids with us gave us the chance to read every sign, go into every shop, and check every nook and cranny of one of our favorite places to be. And we seriously DID read every sign, went into every store and checked out every nook and cranny of SDC. It was awesome, but at the same time we kept saying "The kids would LOVE this."


OK, so I didn't get the best pictures ever. But without kids, you kind of forget to.


But we did get a video of us dancing a jig. Enjoy.

Beauty

FOREIGN LANDS

Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.

I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky's blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.

If I could find a higher tree,
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.

To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Happy Baby

We didn't teach her to call herself "happy baby", that's ALL her.

Disappearing Act

I seem to have disappeared.

But I haven't.

And I still LOVE LOVE LOVE my blog.

Sometimes I just don't LOVE LOVE LOVE posting on it.

It's like my fingers CANNOT be forced to write whatever post is needing to be posted.

And NOW the cable has accidentally been severed in our backyard.

We have NO internet, NO tv and NO home phone.

Till Monday.

When the Time Warner Cable guy will come to our house and charge us at least $50 to repair it.

Our "free" fire pit isn't going to be as free as we hoped.

I'm at McDonald's by the way.

Free Wi-Fi.

But I still can't force my fingers to type out a meaningful post.

So I'll share this.


It came in the mail from my Mom the other day.

Coolest random package EVER.

Capri's Concert

Anybody who knows Capri even just a little bit, knows that she sings for at least 95% of the day. She sings songs she knows well and songs she knows only a couple words to - repeating it over and over. But mostly she sings songs that she makes up on the spot. MANY times I've been asked by relatives, friends and even strangers "What is she singing?" Nearly always, I say something like "Ummm, she's singing?" That's cause it's such a part of everyday life that I don't always hear it. Then I'll listen and say "Oh, she's just making something up."

Many times, I've been told that Capri has real talent. This is odd since Jeff and I are about as far from having any musical talent that two people could be. When I was called to be the Primary Chorister I laughed, honestly thinking the bishopric counselor was kidding. Then when I realized he was serious, I nearly cried.

Because Jeff and I are largely unskilled when it comes to music - although we both love to fake it and live vicariously through our Rock Band personas - we don't really know what to do with Capri. I'm not the type to push a kid into an activity, and Capri has made it clear she wants no after school activities this year.

Mainly we just try to enjoy (sometimes endure when she's been singing ALL day and I've said "CAPRI!!" for the umpteenth time trying to get her attention) her singing. She LOVES to give concerts, they aren't a daily affair though. She plans them out, makes invitations, decorates and puts a costume together. Rome is recruited as roadie and guitarist. He's happy to take "side stage" to his big sister.

Here are a couple of songs from Capri's last "concert". Remember, these are not real songs - they're just made up on the spot.

Enjoy the dancing naked baby as well.