Simple Woman’s Daybook – August 23rd 2011

For today – August 23rd 2011

Outside my window...  the sun is shining and it’s HOT!!  If you saw my fb status from yesterday (Monday) then you’ll know about the bird incident – it’s happening again :-)

I am thankful for... the fact that my east coast friends that I have heard from are safe after the earthquake – so scary!!

I am wearing... shorts and a tank top

I am creating... not much right now. 

I am going to…  head out with Hanna and Nolan to pick up Caty and Ciena from school  in a little bit

I am reading... Someone Like You by Sarah Desson

I am hoping... for a win at Bunco tomorrow night!!

I am hearing... Hanna and Nolan playing with the drum in her room. 

A few plans for the rest of the week…  Watching a new kindergartner tomorrow and Thursday, I’m hosting Bunco tomorrow night, not much on Friday, Saturday have an LPA Regional Planning meeting in the morning – my mom is meeting me at the hotel and picking the girls up to take them to their house for swimming. Sunday we’ll see what we do – some friends are having a BBQ but we’ll have to see how tired the girls are from swimming on Saturday.

A picture that I am sharing... Hanna and her tent – notice the little (battery operated) lantern she has on. 

Flashback Friday – August 19th 2011

Since school started last week and I’m back into the blogging, I thought that today's Flashback Friday should be about Caty’s 1st day of school through the past couple of years. 
First of day Kindergarten on August 10th 2010 – who could forget the broken foot!

First day of Preschool on August 17th 2009

First day of Preschool on September 17th 2008


It’s such a great thing that she LOVES school so much!!

POLP Swim Meet-Up

I met Sarah Frey on Facebook shortly after her daughter Tessa was born and diagnosed with Achondroplasia – so maybe 14-15 months ago.  They lived on the East Coast and we met them in person in Nashville at the LPA National Convention last summer.  They recently moved from the east coast to the west coast (Arizona) however Sarah grew up in Escalon, which is a tiny town in the central valley of CA and and along the way to our cabin in Pinecrest. 

Sarah let myself and Melisa know that she and Tessa would be out in CA and passing through Sacramento in July.  Melisa invited us, along with Kerri and Madilynn (who couldn’t make it) to get together for a POLP (parents of little people) get together at their community pool.

Tessa is quite the cutie and was very shy – it was a short amount of time that we were together so we didn’t get to see her as her mom described her – full of energy and non-stop talking.

Here’s Hanna cruising around

 

Aidan taking a break

Caty telling Aidan to come swim with me – although it was more walking around because the pool was only a foot deep

Caty and Hanna talking to Tessa

Miss Tessa

Aidan, Caty and Tessa

Tessa showing off her pink toenails

Looking forward to hopefully seeing Sarah and Tessa at our District 12 Regional in October!!

Our camping adventure…

We got invited to join some friends for an overnight camping trip.  With having the cabin, we have never done camping, at least with the girls. 

But we thought, how bad can it be.

So we bought a tent and pack up and headed to Camp Far West with our friends, Karen, Garrett, their daughter Claire, who is Hanna’s age and their two dogs, Duke and Vena. 

It took about 45 minutes to get there – quite close to home; once there we drove around and around looking for a good, available site.  Now when I think about campgrounds, I think of camping in Pinecrest (where we have our cabin) – paved roads, sites that you reserve, bathrooms, showers…well not here.  You can pretty much camp anywhere you can find a spot.  Since we were only going for 1 night – in case none of the kids liked it – most of the spots were taken.  We finally found one and started setting up camp. 

 

After camp was set up we walked the 100 ft to the lake and spent the afternoon there with the girls playing in the water and us adults enjoying some ice cold beverages

Caty and Hanna

Claire and Duke

The guys taking the girls out

Caty and Vena

Yep, Hanna was so happy to play in the dirt – couldn’t really call it sand.

Garrett getting the girls ready to go out in the boat (which belonged to the neighboring campers – they let us use it all afternoon)

The neighbors also let us use their jet-ski.  Garrett was the only one who went out on it – both Scott and I had had quite a bit to drink so we passed

Hanna trying out the tent

Caty helping Karen get dinner ready

Time for smores!!

We had such a great time.  Considering we had never taken the girls before we didn’t know how they would do with sleeping in the tent.  Hanna had only slept in her crib or a pack-n-play so she’s never had the “freedom” of sleeping in something that she could get out of.  She did great!  Went to bed around 9 and slept until 7 the next morning. 

No pictures from Sunday because as soon as we were up, Claire decided that it was time to pack up and head out.  We were home before 10:00. 

We’re thinking about taking one more camping trip before fall comes.  We’ll see if we can manage two nights (seeing as most camp sites have a 2 night minimum).