Returning from WA

So this is a little out of order.......I forgot to take the adaptor chip for the memory card from my phone and finally got these pics uploaded.

This is the Haboob......the second HUGE sandstorm that we had gotten this year (I don't recall ever having them before in the past 8+ years we have lived in AZ, and now this summer we've had 3!) We were just arriving into town when we saw this.......we were getting kind of concerned. They recommend pulling over, turning off your lights and waiting it out. We were SO close to home and just wanted to get there.....and get out of the car! Luckily we turned onto another highway, going away from it and only caught the very outskirts of it. My sister was waiting for us with dinner ready when we got back. When we got home everything in our backyard was covered in dust!.....Maybe that's what happened to our blow-up pool that I couldn't find? It got blown away.

A Very Fun Weekend

A couple of weeks ago it was my 20 year High School reunion. I can't believe it's been 20 years! People kept asking me if I felt old, but I just keep saying 38 is YOUNG! Ask me when I'm like 60 : ) It was a nice, quick get away. I have to say a HUGE thank you to my Mom and Sister for watching my kids so that I could fly back up to WA for this. Roman drove over from Chelan to meet up with me for the weekend too. Both nights were casual.....which everyone seemed to enjoy.

The first night we met at a pizza place in downtown Bellingham. Here with one of my besties (in the black & white stripes) & the blonde actually lives in AZ too, but we've never met up......I gave her a hard time about us coming all the way back to WA to see each other. The other gal and I have talked a lot on Facebook too and we are in similar situations with our husbands gone a lot.

Another friend/classmate I talked to a lot when I first joined Facebook. We told someone to remember us as "Romeo and Juliette".......get it? Roman & Julie = Romeo and Juliette. He kept calling him Mr. Julie too : ) A lot of people actually called him that......even though he refused to put "spouse of Julie J" on his name tag on night two.

The Rock" is quite a popular thing in these parts.......it gets painted for nearly every major event......and some not so major too. We were supposed to go help paint it Friday night after the bar.....we went out by there with some people, but couldn't get a hold of the guy that had the paint. We were waiting for him & then some of the people were heading home, so they took us home. Come to find out he was already there (we were just hadn't gone far enough) and the others that stayed helped to paint it. I think it was even there the next day too. A rarity.

Ahhh.....and after staying out until around 2am we got to have a VERY leisurely day the next day. We slept SO late & went down town for a late lunch.......AND it was sunny!!!!!! : ) You gotta love that! It can be kind of hit and miss.....even in the summer. They have been having a not-so-sunny summer this year.

Before the main event on Saturday we went out to my friend's house and had a glass of wine and looked at the old HS annual one last time.

I said, "Ok, I will pose for a picture with you here, but once we get to the reunion don't stand too close to me you sexy Mama! I distinctly remember the dress code on the reunion site: Jeans, cute top, cute shoes"........she looked GORGEOUS!!!!!

Not the greatest shot, but I finally got to meet in-person the wife of one of my classmates that also had twins. I talked to them quite a bit through e-mail when she was pregnant, as she had some difficulties during pregnancy also.

It was so nice to get to have a relaxed environment and to get to talk to so many different people. It really was a lot less clique-ish than the 10 yr. I grew up on the same street as the guy on the right side of the picture, so it was really nice to see him. I hadn't seen him since we graduated I think.

Some time together. I was surprised at how much I was on my own. I always hate it when we go somewhere and I don't know anyone and he takes off........he did know a few people there though & some people remembered him from the 10 year too. Plus, he's great at chattin' it up with anyone : )

I saw this cake kind of cut up & was wondering what it was. I didn't get a piece, but it was a cool idea I thought. (Not that I needed any more calories, mind you : )

Here I am again standing next to Londa......I kept telling her, "Don't stand so close to me, you're making me look bad!" Ha, ha.........I just had to give her a hard time : )

Ok, see what I'm sayin'.......Jeans & a cute top........it's all good!

They had all of us pose up on the stairs down to our party area.

We had a good turnout......This is all classmates I think, no spouses.......I think we had almost 200 out of about 250 classmates.


It was funny, it was like we were all teenagers again........no one wanted to go home, we just kept going from place to place........out again until past 2am. It's a good thing my flight on Sunday wasn't too early : ) They had a family picnic on Sunday too at a beautiful park. I would have liked to have gone to that, as one of my friends was only able to make it to that, but I had to get back to my kiddos : )

I'm so glad I was able to go. I really did have a great time!

Playing with Friends

This is the last of the photos from our trip. We had gone back up to Bellingham right before we headed home to AZ for the summer. We were able to meet up with some other friends we thought me might miss this year too, since we weren't able to meet up the first time we were in town. It works out perfectly.......they have a little girl about Sidney's age & a little boy about the boys age. : )

I love the hat & scarf.....just out for a Sunday drive : ) The kids all LOVED this bike! I thought about maybe getting them one for Christmas......but then wondered if we only had one would there be constant fighting? Do we really want to get three? We'll have to see.

The sun decided to come out this day too........who doesn't love a Popsicle on a sunny day?!


They said that it was ok for us to bring Daisy with us and she was loving it out there too : )

Again, we didn't think it was going to be sunny, so we didn't bring bathing suits.....luckily they had some extra for the kids to use. They had a blast!!

They had some extra squirt guns for the kids too : )

They just ran around all day........and the Moms got to catch up. It was SO nice! : )

Derek is showing Cameron how to work the Iron Man mask.

It's always hard to get the kids to go when they are having so much fun. Again, we stayed until around dinner time and my friend had to go to work. Yeah, sometimes it's hard to get rid of us. LOL.

Looking for a Dog Park

Bellingham is a dog friendly town.......so we were trying out as many of them as we could : ) We were having a little difficult time finding this one.......then once we actually found it, we weren't sure exactly where to designated dog area was......apparently to most people it's everywhere : ) We walked around a bit when we got there and found a trail......which led us up to this park. The kids were thrilled!

Cameron's running with Sarah.....he has seen the playground!

Carter's riding on Grandpa's shoulders......I have an almost identical picture like this from last year : ) And Grandpa's just enjoying the time with the grandkids.

The kids went from whining and fit throwing to us not being able to get them leave. They met some new friends and ended up having a blast!

The Beach with Friends

Ok, so can you tell that we are back now by the lack of posts? Even with the boys in preschool just up the street this year, there still are just never enough hours in the day to get caught up! Anyway....back to our trip.

I was beginning to think that we weren't going to get to meet up with these friends this year, but we were so blessed that it worked out on our second trip over to the West side of WA. I was afraid at first that the weather wouldn't hold out.....but it actually got sunny while we were there & we stayed for a LONG time! Luckily, my other afternoon friends fell through, so we got to stay longer than we thought. We eventually had to get back for dinner & to hopefully get the kids in bed at a decent hour, as they had been up late a lot with the sun going down so late & different activities.

We had to wait a little while for our friends, but the kids were eager to get in the water. They remembered this place, as we've been here a couple of times before. Here Carter takes a turn with the truck in the sand.

Sidney was taking a break & she actually ate her lunch......the boys never actually did, they just had a little here and there. It's always hard to get them to eat when they are playing with friends and having fun.

Boys and trucks and dirt.........it's always a good combination : )

Daisy wanted to get off the leash and run around SO bad, but there were signs that she must be leashed. We let her go out in the water a little though, so she liked that.

Cameron's turn with truck : )

The girls were kind of shy at first, not remembering each other as much, since they only get to see each other once a year now. But then they were playing like old friends again : )

The boys were having a great too! They met some new friends and everyone was getting along great.

The girls were having fun laying in the sand.......

.....and getting buried in the sand.

The kids all got along great and my friend and I actually got to talk and get caught up. Gosh we miss these guys!