the 4th

Keegan loves his Papa!

On the road with Riley& Oliver

Visiting with Mema & Wiley

Happy 4th!

Tiare & me

Keegan and Triston had so much fun together!

We drove up to Utah with the Drakes the week of the 4th. Doug and his little brother, Quinn, went hiking and camping with Travis, Jeff and their brothers. Keegan and I got to visit with Quinn's wife, Dani, and their son, Triston. We also saw my dad and grandparents and visited with one of my lifelong friends, Tiare Ita and her family. It was a pretty short trip, but we had a lot of fun catching up with everyone!

Girls Trip to Mexico

I've been planning a girls trip to Rocky Point in my mind for the past couple of years and finally got one together the last week of June. There were seven of us who went, and we had so much fun! We pretty much just layed out, ate amazing food, and shopped the whole time we were there. We also managed to stay up way too late every night talking or playing card games. It was a really nice break from reality for all of us, as no kids or husbands were allowed :) The girls who went were Sarah Shepherd, Karen Skousen, Joy Simmons, Jamie Drake, Marybeth Weeks and Tracy Hiatt. Thanks to my mother-in-law, Sharee, for letting us shack-up at her house for a night and to Rod Herbert for his generosity. We all had a great time!!

Salsa baby, yeah!

Most of you know already that I'm a total salsa dancing freak!! Before Doug and I were married, I would go salsa dancing every week with my roommate, Deb. We loved it so much that we even traveled to NYC to go to a great salsa club there (I worked for the airlines, so it wasn't too difficult :) Anyway, my love of salsa music and salsa dancing hasn't subsided since marrying a non-salsa dancer. Doug was totally thrilled when I found a salsa class at our local gym several years ago. I've been attending faithfully ever since and the pressure is off Doug to learn how to salsa! The song that you're listening to is just one of my new favorites - doesn't it just make you want to shake your booty?

Dynomites Soccer

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Rocky Point

Keegan and I went to Rocky Point, Mexico last week with some of Doug's family. It turned out to be a girls trip since all the men were at home working. We really enjoyed the beautiful weather and sandy beach.

The kids racing their Crocs

The whole crew

Grandma & Grandpa

Baby Bella was a big hit!

Otter Pop frenzy

The cousins

Our last night in Rocky Point :(

Sunbeam!

I just ran across this recording of Keegan when he first started learning "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." He was probably about 2 1/2 or so - his little voice is just so cute! It was his favorite song for such a long time, along with "Popcorn." He made us sing those songs to him every night right before he went to sleep. He's growing up so fast, it's nice to remember when he was just a little munchkin :)

Agua Caliente

Doug & his sister Maline (does anyone else see a resemblance?:)

Grandma Gooch

While we were in Tucson we went to this really beautiful park called Agua Caliente. The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing in the little stream. Here are a few of the pics I took.

Keegan's Name!

Keegan wrote his name for the first time today and we're all pretty excited about it! Now we just have to tackle the lower-case letters! :)

Day at the Zoo

Keegan & Kara strolling through the zoo

Keegan sick of taking pics :)

The lion was pretty mello, just enjoying the sun!

Today Doug took off work and we all went to the zoo. Keegan loves the animals but doesn't like the "stink" very much! Anyway, we had a good time and the animals were all in pretty good moods!

Explora Museum

Keegan & Kara mastering the art of windmill design

The band has arrived!

We went with some friends to the Explora Museum downtown today and the kids had a blast! It's a hands-on place for kids to make all kinds of discoveries. There are tons of experiments and so much to do that even after being there for 6 hours, we didn't get to everything and the kids still didn't want to go home. The trip was a definite success, so I'm sure we'll be going back frequently!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!! Gary and Sharee drove from Tucson to visit us this weekend. We watched Keegan's soccer game (he scored a goal for the other team!) Saturday morning and went to Old Town for some shopping that afternoon. Today was spent at church in our Sunday best and then preparing a feast for Easter dinner - none of us will be hungry for a while! We also went hiking up in the Cibola mountains this evening. The weather was beautiful and we're hoping that spring has finally come.

Keegan with Grandma & Grandpa

Amber's Visit

Amber came to Albuquerque for the first time ever this week :) She had some much deserved time-off from work that she needed to take so that she didn't lose it, so she was with us for a week. We didn't do anything really exciting - she kind of just blended into our lives. I was hoping that she would play volleyball with me (I play twice a week at the church), but she was a little too shy and ended up being the resident babysitter instead. I don't know why she didn't want to play - we all know about that killer, light as a cloud, side-arm serve!! :) We did end up hiking in the Petroglyphs and going to Old Town during her stay. We were all sad to say goodbye and Keegan is definitely going to miss torturing her with all his car, train and helicopter games! :)

Keegan's Prayers

Sometimes Keegan's prayers are pretty hilarious. He just kind of goes off on tangents and forgets that he's in the middle of his prayer and then has to get back on track and end it. Some of the stuff he says is so funny, we wonder where he gets it. Also, he just throws in some Spanish, too. He's a little obsessed with the sun and moon lately, as you'll hear from the sound clip. The other night he said, "Thank you that the moon is so shiny and the sun is so bright." He also prays for a baby pretty much every night without fail - so sweet! Anyway, here are two prayers from last week.

Kendall and Harper Come to Town!

Sweet little Harper

Kendall and Harper came to visit for 10 days at the end of January. It was so much fun to just hang out with them. Of course, Kendall was pretty busy during her stay. I had booked cuts and colors for about 20+ of my friends. So she was working for 2-3 days straight and I'm such a terrible secretary that I booked her appointments half an hour apart for the whole day without any breakfast, lunch or dinner breaks! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted by the time the "Beauty Shop" closed, but all my friends were thrilled with their hair :) Keegan loved spending time with baby Harper (he calls her "little billy goat" because she eats pretty much anything, including paper) and was really sad when they left. I had to take them to the airport at like 4:30 in the morning, so he didn't really get to say goodbye. He woke up that morning to find that they were gone. He came into my room and said "I miss Kendall and Harper." It was so cute and a little heartbreaking. We can't wait to see them again!

Remembering the "chupy"

So I was talking to a friend today about how we got rid of Keegan's binky, which we called his chupon or chupy. I had vowed to take it away at 2 years but then my resolve weakened and I put if off until he was 2 1/2. Anyway, we were down to just this last one, so I decided that it was now or never. We warned Keegan about a week ahead of time every day that we were going to send the chupy away. So we bought 3 helium balloons because I really wasn't sure how many it would take, took Keegan to the park, had him say goodbye, and sent the chupy into the atmosphere. That thing seriously took off! I thought that it was going to be really hard for Keegan and it was at first, but after a couple of days he just stopped asking for it and moved on with his life - thank goodness! Still, every time I watch this clip, my heart breaks a little.

33 Already?

Happy birthday to me!

So, I can't believe that I'm already 33 years old! Time really does fly and I'm not totally loving it! Anyway, some of my girlfriends took me to lunch for my birthday, which was really fun. Thanks guys :) Mom and Dad sent some cash, which is always appreciated, and Doug took me to dinner (we had steak, of course - I'm such a carnivore!) and gave me a really great gift. He got me a massage and facial at La Bella - whippee! I love it!!! The only thing is that I feel like I have to earn that massage. Like I need to do a triathlon or something to merit such fabulous treatment. We'll see, maybe I'll line one up just for the reward of the massage afterward! As if that wasn't enough, Doug made me a delicious chocolate cake and invited our friends, Ben & Kristina, and their kids over for cake and ice cream. Thanks to everyone for making getting older a little easier!!

Harper's Blessing

Publish PostThe boys

The girls

Guess who wanted this pose? Mom - she's a real fan of The Sound of Music - can you say "Cukoo, Cukoo?"

I love this pic of Mom & Dad - Dad doesn't have his classic deer in the headlights look!

Kendall & Harper

Three generations of look alikes :)

Kendall decided to have Harper blessed by my Dad in Florida, and all the brothers and sisters tried to make it out for it. We were only missing the two oldest, Shannon and Frederick. Since it was such a quick trip for me, I decided to go alone, which was really hard! This was only the second time in Keegan's life that I've spent the night away from him. Thanks to Kristina for watching him while I was gone :) Anyway, it was really fun to have the clan together again. We reminisced, hung out and had a good time. Mom hired a photographer for the occasion and we all had a fun time hamming it up for the camera! Hopefully it won't be too long before we all get together again.

Balloon Fiesta

Balloon Fiesta 2007

Dad came out to visit for the Balloon Fiesta. I think it's his second or third time now, and we enjoy it so much more when he's with us. The best part of Dad's visit this time was that Dad, Doug and I went up in a hot air balloon. I was a little hesitant at first thinking that I might freak out as we were going up or something, but ultimately made the decision to go. It was so cool! It's not at all what I expected. First of all, we all helped lay out the balloon and fill it with air. Then we took off and there were about 10 people in each basket along with the pilot. The take off was so smooth that you got up without even noticing that the ground was getting smaller and smaller. It was so peaceful up there - the only thing you heard was the hot air filling the balloon every now and then. We stayed up for a while, floating over the city and into the country. Then we landed, which was pretty interesting. Actually, the landing really wasn't bad at all. I was braced for the worst and couldn't believe that everything worked out perfectly. Then we all helped fold up the balloon and got the basket into the van and went home. It was really fun - I would recommend it to anyone. Thanks Dad! :)

Girls Reunion in Myrtle Beach

Mom with baby Harper (her Mini me!)

Amber, Kendall & me at the pool

Keegan & Asher with Harper

Shannon, me, Kendall and Anne

The sisters

We thought it was a great idea to have Mom, the sisters and the sisters-in-laws get together for some female bonding time, so we instituted the Girls Reunion. This was the first time we did it and Shannon volunteered to host at her beautiful home in Myrtle Beach. Mom, Amber and Anne came for the first couple of days and Kendall and I stayed for the rest of the week. (Lori couldn't make it because she just had beautiful baby Jenna on July 7th.) We pretty much just stayed up super late every night talking. Of course when we got the late-night munchies, we whipped up a batch of Andes mint cookies and ate while we talked:) We swam in the neighborhood pool and played beauty salon with Kendall cutting and coloring everyone's hair. It was a really good time and hopefully we'll do it every year now. Also, Keegan seriously couldn't get enough of baby Harper. He wanted to hold her every chance he got. He'll make a great big brother some day!

Papa's Visit

Relaxing in the river

Potty break

Keegan really loved the caves!

With Papa at Bandelier

Dad came and visited us for the week in between Rocky Point and the Girls Reunion. We decided to take a trip to Bandelier National Park to visit the cave dwellings of the native Americans from that region. It was really hot, but we had a good time. Keegan had to pee like five times while we were there, and of course, there weren't any restrooms, so we had to improvise! After we hiked to the caves, we found a little stream to soak our feet in and relax for a little while - it felt so nice. We also went to Old Town to show Dad some of the little shops and churches in downtown Albuquerque. It was a nice visit and we were glad that he could come.

Rocky Point

Keegan totally tuckered out and ready for bed

The cousins getting ready for a sunset race

The banana boat crew

We all had a blast at Rocky Point this year. Sharee, Keegan and I went up a week before everyone else and enjoyed the peace and calm. The next week the rest of the clan showed up and the fun began! All the kids had a lot of fun swimming, digging in the beach and looking for shells. On our banana boat ride, the driver got a little too excited and Doug nearly fell off, but that made it all the more exciting! Keegan kept saying that he wanted to go faster and faster - the kid already has a need for speed. :) I also came to the realization that Keegan will use his Spanish only when he wants to, like when there are two cute little Mexican girls in the pool that he wants to play with. He was like, "Hola, como estan?" It was hilarious!! Anyway, we're already looking forward to the next Rocky Point trip.