SHAMPU AND FRIENDS

I have to admit, Tommy and I have never taken our kids on a vacation with friends. We have gone with my family or Tommy's mom and step dad, but never with friends and all of our kids, together. This past weekend was a first for us, and undoubtedly, it will not be the last.

We had so much fun heading off to see Grammie Alkire on Wednesday morning. Tommy worked all night on Tuesday so he had no problem what-so-ever falling to sleep the second we headed out the driveway. (For the third time since he kept forgetting everything)

Now, as a person that is impeccable with directions (I am not bragging, I just have a freakish thing for remembering directions anywhere I have been... no matter how long ago!!!), I must say that the navigation system in my new Escalade was a waste of money, but I happily apease my husband and let him plug in addresses and off we go.

I am not good with a computer speaking to me and telling me to do things and go in directions that I am not used to going.....especially when I know how to get somewhere. Tommy made fun of me all weekend for arguing with the navigation system. (he has made fun of me since we got his BMW and I sit and argue with the talking woman about her directions) I am not kidding when I tell you I screamed obsceneties at it quite frequently and rather loudly. At one point, I was traveling a road with signs saying, "NO LONGER MAINTAINED BY AZ DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION." All I could think was, "are you friggen kidding me?" I am going to Yuma ( I have been there over 200 times... I could drive there asleep) and here I am parallel with an unknown railroad track, in an unknown area and I am screaming at the computer who keeps saying, in the most annoying tone known to man, "IN 3 TENTHS OF A MILE YOU WILL VEER SLIGHTLY LEFT.... IN 1 QUARTER OF A MILE YOU WILL TURN RIGHT" Is it wrong that I nearly shot my nav screen?

My kids were laughing, I was on the phone nearing tears with my mom, Tommy was sleeping oblivious to everything and Pudgie was singing to the movie BOLT. B*E*A*U*T*I*F*U*L!

Suffice to say, I made it to Yuma and turned it off. Tommy drove into Campo from there. He thought it was funny...hilariously funny, until Sunday... but that will come later. REMEMBER HONEY...PAYBACKS!!

We were so excited to get to spend time with Grammie Alkire. We intentionally took an extra day just so we could hang out at her house, hike and explore and just relax. Grammie lives on 15 acres in the mountains and it was downright freezing in the middle of the night there. Tommy and I slept with the sliding door open and our guns close at hand... since Mexico is so close... but loved the fresh air.

After our time in Campo we headed to La Jolla to see Tommy's sister Michelle, her daughter Lexi and to spend the day on the beach. I felt so bad for Binky when we found out that Lexi would be bringing a friend to the beach with us. Brinkley was devastated that she would not have one on one time with her favorite cousin. It all worked out though!

This was Pudgie's first time seeing the ocean and it did not disappoint. He fell head over heels in love with the big pool as he called it, until a wave knocked him on his little tail. Then he got mad and threw sand at it. They became best friends after that. Our day was spent building castles and exploring. I personally hate sand, but love the ocean. I could have spent a week there but cringed when it came time to leave and there was no place to wash off. We headed off to our hotel to do a quickie clean up and off to dinner with the Patterson's we went. We were so excited to get all the kids together and just sit and relax. I had to tell Dawn's mom and dad how jealous I am that they travel with their daughter and the three grandkids on every vacation. Dinner was a blast with all of us just laughing and hanging out!

The next morning brought on SeaWorld and as Pudgie now calls him... Shampu! It was actually a shorter day than we expected. We got to see the Shamu show and the 12 of us dined with Shamu and relaxed all afternoon. Jax started feeling a little sick at around 6 PM so we called it a day. Although we all agreed that we had a good time, next time... 7 days straight at the beach and shopping. NO MAJOR TOURIST PARKS TO VISIT!

Instead of crashing when we got back to our hotel, we hooked up the kids with pizza and hung out by the pool and jacuzzi for awhile. It was a great way to end the day.

At the last minute we decided to head over to Coronado Island on Sunday, rather than go straight home. I am not a fan of bridges. My family finds this very amusing. I nearly hyperventilated going over the bridge this time........At any rate, we had a great time exploring the Hotel Del Coronado and doing some last minute shopping. We finally set out for home around 3 PM. That is when things got funny...

Tommy decided to plug in YUMA, AZ into the friendly navigator in the Escalade. Within 20 minutes we were being pulled over by San Diego Police..... for whatever reason, he made an immediate u-turn after we all got stopped and we were off and running again.... into the middle of no where that we knew. Tommy followed the route that the truck was leading us into and at one point, we were very thankful to have three fully loaded weapons with us. I had to wonder if we were still in the U.S. at one point.

I almost cried I laughed so hard when Tommy pulled over and started yelling back at the Nav system.... just like I did on the way to Cali. We ended up traveling through an Indian reservation on the southern side of I-8 (the southern side of the mountains and National City, Spring Valley and Syucma (or some strange spelling like that) It wasn't all that bad. Actually, it was really entertaining. We finally arrived home to one happy fat cat that missed his little girl and a broken kitchen refrigerator.

AHHHHH there's no place like home... even when it's kinda broken!

TERRIBLE TONSILS

My big boy is, finally, minus his terrible tonsils and annoying adenoids that have caused him to be way too sick over the past few years. I was so tired of entire weeks of illness and chronic pain and countless medications that did not work anymore. i am not kidding when I say that there were times that my poor boy was sick for 3 weeks straight from these horrible tonsils. It has been going on for 4 years now... I don't know how he managed it, but even with all the days he was absent from being so darn sick, my little man still managed to get straight A's every year, for all four quarters!

Jax has been counting down the days to his surgery. He was so excited to finally be able to breathe normally and to not have to worry about getting strep throat or tonsillitis every month. That was, until last night. It finally dawned on him that surgery just might be a scary thing and he started to get the jitters.

I hardly slept at all last night and I know Jax only slept a few hours. I guess that worked out to his advantage in the beginning... but then the doctor was running about 2 hours behind schedule and my boy started to get hungry. That is always a huge ordeal with my big 9 year old baby boy.

At 10:30 a.m. they finally took my baby back for his surgery. I was fine until Tommy left me in the waiting room to run to Starbucks. It was then that I realized how agonizingly hard it must have been for my parents and Tommy and the rest of our family, when I had my wreck. I only had 34 minutes of waiting. They had 31 days. I was a basket case by the time the nurse walked us back to recovery.

In typical Jensen fashion, Jax had an adverse reaction to the anesthesia. He woke up swinging at the nurses and had to be sedated, twice. There is no denying he is mine and Tommy's boy!

The nurse's and doctor thought it odd that both Jax and I were eager to see the tonsils. Jax re-thought that one after his surgery, when he was so out of it he couldn't speak. The doctor told us that they were pretty large and it was good to get them out so Jax could get back to being a healthy soccer player.

I am just so glad he is home safe and sound. He was so sick on the way home that all he wanted to do was rest. Not even ice-cream could grab his attention for more than 5 minutes. Thankfully he should be back to his wonderful self in time for Sea World and the beach next month!

On another note... we finished the night off in typical crazy day Jensen chaos mode. Brinkley wanted desperately for her ginormous cat, Spike, to come and lay with us while we had movie night on the family room floor. Somehow she slipped, with her 30+ pound feline phenom, in her arms, and fell straight onto her back while tumbling down the stairs. So, to add to an already crazy busy day, Daddy finished it all up by adding the proverbial cherry to the sundae, by spending the last few hours of the night in the emergency room, with Binky, and her severely bruised little back!

~Another "BEST DAY" Ever~

At the rate we are going, according to Pudgie, we will never have a bad day, ever. It seems like every single day is somehow becoming the Best Day EVER, for him, and for the rest of our family, as well!!

Last week I was chatting with my neighbor about surprising the crumb-snatchers with a trip to Big Surf. We go every summer, but normally, it is for my birthday and our last big event of the summer before the munchies go back to school. They look forward to it all summer but this year was my year to change things up a little bit.

Jax is having surgery on Friday and I wanted to have a day of fun for him with enough days in between so that he is well rested. When I told the kids we were hitting Big Surf they were thrilled. Shocked, but thrilled. Kelly and the girls joined us, which is now a summer tradition for us, along with Ruth and Gregory. We had the most relaxing and fun day. Jessie took control of Pudgie for me and followed him from pool to pool so I could actually sit and have a conversation without someone tugging on my swimsuit until it nearly fell off. (that came more towards the end of the day) This year, was by far, the longest time we have spent at the water park. We were there for the opening of the gates and for the last wave of the afternoon. It was awesome. I even gave into my own fears about my scars and sported a bikini, without a long sleeved shirt on, to cover it right back up. Thank you Jax and Binky for telling me that Mommy looks tough with all her scars. (I think that is a round-a-bout-kind-of-sort-of compliment????)

It was definitely one of our best days ever. The only thing that would have made it absolutely perfect would have been for Daddy to be there with us!

WHIZZING BY.....

Suffice to say, our summer is whizzing by a little too fast for any of us to catch our breath. It seems like every single day we are going some where, exploring some thing, having some one over or visiting some place and it is never ending.

We have been doing so much in the past two weeks I have to lump it all together for the sake of my own sanity just to remember how fast my kids are growing up.

In the past few weeks both Tommy and I have noticed a huge change in Jax. He is taking responsibility for almost everything (even when he is not doing something wrong, he claims it, so Justice won't get into trouble), Brinkley is still our little spit fire but working hard at "owning it" as I remind her regularly to do, and Justice, well, Justice is our big baby and I can't help that I do just that..... baby him.

So, needless to say, in the past few weeks we have had tons of swimming time, unbelievably good dentist visits, an incredible tooth fairy visit, four days (which we learned quickly was one too many days) of cousin time at our house, girl time at the nail spa, girl time photo shoots, park fun, crossfitting in the park fun, too many nights of saying good-bye to daddy, Daddy's day breakfasts and dinners, random play time outside and finally, Pudgie learning how to cook shrimp and vegetables with, "real fire," as he calls it.

We are learning to enjoy every second of our summer because as my Pudgie man keeps saying, everyday, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!! EVAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

And I have to agree!


I HAVE TO ADD... I OWE JAX A HUGE THANK YOU. THE PREVIOUS POST ABOUT HIM LEAVING OUR FREEZER DOOR OPEN WAS A BLESSING IN DISGUISE. ONCE I HAD CLEANED IT AND SANITIZED IT WITH HIM, I LEFT THE DOOR SHUT FOR 5 DAYS, WITHOUT OPENING IT, JUST TO MAKE SURE IT WAS COLD ENOUGH TO START RE-PURCHASING FOOD. JAX IMMEDIATELY NOTICED THE ALARM WOULD NOT GO OFF, EVEN AFTER THE 5 DAYS. NOW REMEMBER, TOMMY AND I WERE NEVER REALLY MAD ABOUT THE WHOLE THING, JUST MORE OR LESS FRUSTRATED AT THE FACT THAT WE KEEP TELLING OUR KIDS TO STAY OUT OF THE FREEZER UNLESS WE KNOW THEY ARE GETTING IN THERE....

ANYWAY, I CALLED OUT A SERVICE TECH WHO DIAGNOSED A LEAK AND BREAK IN THE COMPRESSOR. I COULD NOT FIND MY RECEIPT TO SAVE MY LIFE, THAT IS, UNTIL I WAS ACTUALLY ON THE PHONE WITH THE WARRANTY COMPANY WHO VERIFIED THAT I HAD A 4 YEAR WARRANTY ON THIS BABY AND... THAT IS THE BIG AND THEY WOULD BE REIMBURSING ME FOR MY DESTROYED FOOD. AFTER THE SECOND TECH CAME OUT, HE EXPLAINED THAT THE REPAIR COSTS WILL MOST LIKELY EXCEED 75% OF THE VALUE OF THE FREEZER SO I WILL ALSO BE GETTING A NEW FREEZER! THANK YOU JAX. YOU ARE THE BEST!

SPOT IT...

So, how well do you know me? This is my freezer in my garage. Isn't she beautiful? She was a gift!! (over a year and a half ago) She holds tons and tons of wonderful goodies for my wonderful little family. Salmon is a biggie in here, chicken breasts and of course the kids faves .... sorbets from Costco (ok...they are my fave but whatever)

We cleaned her today. Spic and Span... bleach and all.
Can anyone guess what is wrong with this picture?
*HINT* Most of you know I am a coupon sense freak and....if I could post my own head nearly exploding, I would!!!

My lovely garbage can is full and this has to still find a home...

because from top to bottom... this is what the garbage can looks like. WELCOME SUMMER... WITH NO POPSICLES, ICE CREAM SANDWICHES OR OTTER POPS NOW!

Now for anyone cringing at all the food that looks like it is being wasted. I thought of salvaging anything I could... The freezer door has been open at least 2 days and the raw meat liquid had seeped into everything.

And, I think I may start drinking now BECAUSE THERE IS REALLY NO USE CRYING OVER $1000.00+ WORTH OF DEFROSTED, RUINED FOOD ... RIGHT??

NOTE TO SELF: FROM NOW ON STORE MEATS AND FROZEN LIQUIDS ON BOTTOM OF FREEZER AND BREADS AND BOXES OF CRACKERS ON THE TOP..... AND LOCK THE FREEZER!!!! DADDY-TAKE A DEEP BREATH BEFORE YOU COME DOWNSTAIRS AND JUST KNOW THAT PUNSHMENT HAS ALREADY BEEN SET FOR THE CHILD THAT DID THIS. NO MORE YELLING OR HEAD EXPLODING TODAY. WE NEED AT LEAST ONE PARENT THAT IS NOT IN A STATE OF ROTTEN GARBAGE HAZE!!

GHOSTS, TREASURES AND TRAINS

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a trip to Jerome would get my kids so excited about history, ghost hunting and treasure. When we told the kids we were taking them on a weekend getaway to Jerome, (Tommy had the sense to start bringing up the history of the town and the Jerome Grand Hotel where we would be staying) they could barely contain themselves Thursday morning and then on the trip up.


Suffice to say that the Yarnell road up the backside of Jerome is not my children's favorite road trip. To put it bluntly, Pudgie hated it and made it known the whole way up. "Daddddddyy Pudgieeee is scared. STOP NOW 1, 2, 3!" (I think he figured his counting would make it sound serious and daddy might just pull over) Once we got into Jerome my kids were speechless. The old buildings, the mountains that had been stripped and the hotel were just amazing to look at.


Once we actually got up the hill and into the hotel, the kids immediately started reading how the hotel was once the town hospital and that it is haunted. It was amazing. We stayed in rooms 33 and 31, which we later found out, are the most common for seeing and hearing spirits. We heard bumps and bangs throughout the night but no one actually talked to us and we didn't see anything out of the ordinary, unfortunately.


We spent our time shopping in the fun little stores, hunting for treasures that everyone could not live without and enjoying the days up in this little town that lives at a slower pace than most. Jax fell in love with all the rocks and gems while Binky, she just likes to shop and Pudgie man will take anything you are willing to buy for him.


On Friday night we took the Verde Canyon Railway train trip up through the Verde canyon. It was the first sunset trip of the season and it was amazing. We rode first class for 4 hours with yummy treats for us to enjoy, an outside open air car for us to sit and enjoy all the scenery and then to grow sleepy from all the fresh air. It was awe inspiring to see bald eagles soaring above us, the rapids of the river below us and to listen to the rails of the train lull us along. This was a trip that I will undoubtedly recommend to everyone. Young and old will fall madly in love with it. I think everyone was beyond exhausted after this excursion.


Saturday we packed up to head home, but not without stopping to visit the old ghost town and mine. It is more adult friendly except for all the animals the kids can pet and chase. Tommy and I enjoyed looking at all the old trucks and cars that they store up there. If anyone says they are hurting for money in those parts... they just need to sell one of those old cars that I am sure Barrett Jackson would love to get their hands on!!!


It was an amazingly fun few days together. I am not a history person at all but I absolutely loved learning about the town and the things that have happened there. I loved spending all this time together. It was just amazing watching my kids drink in the history and fall in love with architecture and a way of life, that used to be.


Here's to more summer excursions together!!!