Full Life

For everyone interested, I just announced Full Life's current availability through September here.

Life is Good.

Life is good.  But when I get abnormally busy, the blog is the first thing to go.  So much goodness, so many thoughts I don't have time to articulate.

But life is good. 

Miss you, blog, XOXO.

Sleeping Beauty

Grace, on the second day of our little trip, we spent the night with Aunt Reta.  You were tired.  You slept in.  Really, really late.  Late.  And I thought you were precious.

I♥Faces Week 30: Purple

See more Purple at

RKC

Ransom Kickball Club Game 1. 

Ended in a tie, Jim smacked a girl, it was fun.

No Children Were Harmed in the Reading of These Books.

About once a month I do a little post to say what I've read in the last four weeks.  Well, I'm not ashamed.  This is a post about what I read in the last four days.


Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

Usually, I can't stand reading or watching anything that can't be "real".  Anything fantasy is a rare thing for me to love.  It can happen.  But not often.

Usually, if "everyone" is reading something, I'm automatically repelled by it.  I almost always resist the bandwagon.

This is a series millions of people adore, and it's beyond reality.  Two big strikes.

And I already basically knew the whole plot line.  With something this crazy popular, it's impossible to avoid the vernacular.

I love the movies.  But would never invest time in the books.

I caved.

And I loved every 2000+ page of it.

Holy Pink Color Casting Batman!

Our quick vacation.  Day 1.  MOA. 

Patie and Lily got Dora Passes so they could get unlimited shots at rides like this...

While Grace and I gave Forever 21 a thorough once-over and shopped around.

Then of course, the real reason we were here...

The girls dropped serious cash (their own cash), we looked at everything, and then it was time for afternoon tea.

Absolutely everything in the Bistro is pink.  The floor, the walls, the seats, the tables, everything.  Pink, pink, pink.  Faces, clothing, everything reflects pink in photographs here.  But, it's like a little girl's dream world.  So it's OK.

When the sweet waitress sees your camera and enthusiastically offers to take a picture of all of you (that's all of us- see how Jim is missing? He ate...elsewhere...) And Hudson was with G & G all weekend).

So, when she offers, you just go with it.  You throw the dial to Auto, you hand it over, she nearly drops it for the weight, she stands way too close, she gives you a weird look because she can't get us all in the frame, I explain it's a 50mm lens and she needs to back up, a lot, and she can't, because there's people everywhere, and you say, it's OK, that's fine, but she doesn't give up, and she moves around and gets herself further away, and then she asks you how to zoom and you explain it's a prime lens, it doesn't zoom, and then she asks if that means she should zoom out, while she's trying in vain to zoom a lens that won't move, and you explain it doesn't zoom, and she looks at it like it's the strangest camera in the world, like it's useless, because every other DSLR ("big camera") she may have ever picked up in that Bistro for families like us still has it's kit lens, and those zoom, but she doesn't know that, and you can tell she thinks your camera is a piece of junk when really, it's the opposite, and then that very, very sweet girl takes your picture, with the on-camera flash, and you thank her.  Because for the bargain price of all the scuffle and trouble, you're in a shot for once.

That picture makes me giggle every time I see it.

Moving on.

You also each get a craft to take home.

And of course there's dessert. 

This tea was absolutely worth every single penny.  It was an incredible time.  I love my girls, I love being a girl.  Love it.

The Girls with Their Girls

I'm really busy this week.  Like, busy getting things back together again after our mini-vacation, and enjoying a week where, besides the class I taught last night, I have no "work" to do, so I'm stretching the vacay out longer and reading a ton in my spare time.  But, I heard the blog, and our vacation photos, calling.

So really quick, here's the girls.  With their girls.  At Starbucks.  While we took that long, long, breakfast waiting for everything to open up so our day of shopping could begin. 

Grace and Daisy Lanie.

Patience and Emily Rose.

(She told me she was going to give me some "big eyes".)

Lily and Charlotte Lola.

Early Birds

You know what?  When you're with your kids, vacation is not about sleeping in.  It's about waking up 3 hours earlier than normal, and being wide awake and ready to get the party started.  Well.  At least that's what it's about for kids.  So, we had to go with it.  

But you know what?  Nothing opens until 10.  So you've just got to take a super long time to get ready for the day.  And then eat your breakfast really, really slow.  That's how you do it.

Then, when you've still got an hour to kill, you fight the urge to wish for that extra vacation sleep you could have had, and you wait in the parking lot.

Reta's Garden