Spring Break

It was just a little over a week ago that Eric and I were planning our fun filled, birthday celebrating, week off from work and school. We didn't realize what our week would really have in store for us.

Saturday I had to cancel birthday plans with the girls because Luke came down with a killer cold. After an urgent care visit that assured us it was a virus, we packed the asthma medication, celebrated Easter,

then headed up to Big Bear regardless and spent a fabulous 2 days. We surprised Luke with an early birthday present, his first big boy bike!

We adventured to the Alpine Slides and spent an hour and a half riding the ski lift up and speeding down the slide. Zac was old enough to go alone and I was very proud of his bravery!

Thursday was my 30 something-th birthday. I had high hopes for the day that were quickly deflated. At lunch I looked inside Claire's mouth, touched a tooth that looked a little "off", and ended up with a piece of it in my hand. After 4 shots and a lot of drilling, 2 hours had passed. She was so brave and only began screaming at the end. They sent us home and I believed all to be well.

This is what she looked like the next morning after a night of Advil, Tylenol, and lots of tears. Still, I thought she'd be ok.

The next day, Luke's 3rd birthday, she really wasn't ok and we headed to urgent care because, of course, it was Saturday. She got 2 extremely painful shots of antibiotics as well as a liquid antibiotic. We made it home just in time for Luke's party.

He was so excited to tear open his gifts not matter what was inside. Really, I could have packed rocks in paper and saved some cash! He picked out a tie for the event and was so thrilled to see his Little Einsteins cake with "Rocket" perched on top. It was a great ending to what seemed like a really rough few days. Luke never fails to emanate pure joy that is truly contagious. We can hardly believe 3 years have passed since he joined our family. Because of birth order, he's still and always will be our baby! :)

In between all the drama Eric and I did get to spend 2 evenings out with great friends. Most notable our adventure to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to see the LA Phil Harmonic. It was amazing! Thanks mom and dad!

Today everyone went back to school. Except for Claire, Luke, and I. Luke begins his journey at a new preschool tomorrow. Claire gets another day off to visit a pediatric dentist. More on all that to come!

Henderson Visit 2012

Cousins!

I beginning to come out of my post Henderson visit depression. It hit hard when I returned to work last Monday when I didn't have one of my nephews coming along with me. Yes, Andrew and Thomas both got to be honorary Vista students for a day. It was so awesome to get one on one time with 2 of my favorite out of 4 boys in this world! I believe both of the boys thought I was a decent teacher but my students were "naughty." I didn't say it, they did!

Our whirlwind trip consisted of lots of cousin spy game playing. The game has reached a new level. Now copious notes are taken with precise locations of each adult in the house. We had a cousin sleepover with lots of laughter and not much sleep! We spent enough time in traffic on the freeway to last a year, but were able to visit some pretty exciting places: The LA Natural History Museum, La Brea Tar Pits, Long Beach harbor boat tour, and Santa Monica pier. Thomas and Andrew are professional sight seers. My children, on the other hand, are not. In short, Luke didn't care to see dinosaur bones, he wanted REAL dinosaurs and Claire thought it was "stupid" that the tar pits only had dead animals. The harbor tour was a hit all the way around except that Mark may want to pack a sweater while visiting the coast in early spring. The Santa Monica pier was fabulous except that it was almost cold enough to snow. We ate A LOT of food and had a great time catching up on lost time.

*Sidenote - Eric and I got a night out with Mark and Susan with no kids. (Thanks mom and dad.) Haven't laughed that hard in a while! I'm always happy to entertain with touching stories about my past. ;)