What?

What? Grandma's don't usually spray whipped cream directly into her grandkid's mouths?

Ours does.

Water fight!

Without going into details, my sister adopted a little boy in July. My brother's family came up this past weekend to meet him and have some family time. As you can tell from these pictures, he fits in perfectly with our family and you would have no idea he's only been with us since July.

Since it was 185 degrees on Friday, Grandma bought water guns for the kids and they had an awesome time.

The 3 amigo's--all age 9, all crazy silly kids. We call them "the little ones"

We call these two "the big ones." And they are TROUBLE. Just kidding.

Our Gabe

We lost our sweet Gabriel on Wednesday, August 21. He was 14 years old, so we had been warning the girls that it was coming. It wasn't any less easier, though.

When Bobby started at the fire station, I didn't like staying home by myself at night. Kobe offered no support in the guard dog territory. A co-worker had 3 dogs, and was getting married to a man who had 2 or 3 dogs. She knew she'd have to get rid of a couple, and we decided to take Gabriel. He was such a blessing to me, making me feel safe at night. As the years went on, I became more comfortable. Gabe was a favorite of the girls' friends, because of his fluffy fur. He and Kobe tolerated each other and generally stayed away from each other. He and Roxy HATED each other. Or really, I guess that Roxy loved Gabe and Gabe hated Roxy. In the last few months, I'm pretty sure he went deaf.

He went downhill pretty fast. Tuesday night he acted kinda funny, and threw up quite a bit overnight. He wouldn't eat breakfast the next morning. We all went to work and school, and Bobby came home about 2:30 to check on him. Gabriel had thrown up and pooped, and was barely moving and breathing. Bobby called me and said it was time to put him down. We were both afraid that Macy, who was due home any minute, would find him. I quickly called our friend Amy, who said she'd stall Macy. I raced home, in case Bobby got a call and had to go back to work. Gabriel was barely breathing when I got home, and died a few minutes later in our living room, by the fireplace.

Bobby got someone to come in a few hours for him, and we all headed down to the winery to bury him next to Kobe. We all took turns digging the hole, like we did for Kobe. The girls put daisies on both graves.

It was a rough night for the girls. Lots of tears, and they had a hard time falling asleep. They have lost two dogs in the last year, and it's been rough on them.

My absolute favorite Gabriel memory--he always had to know where I was in the house. If he was outside, he'd search for me when he came back in. Sometimes I'd hide somewhere, and wait for him to find him. You could hear him run all through the house, looking. When he found me, he'd race to a stop and sit down, making a big huffing sound.

The girls imagined that Kobe was waiting for Gabriel, and they went happily together to chase cars.

New school year

Macy started middle school! It's weird to be driving her to school again--haven't done that since she was in preschool.  It's been hard to get to her talk about her day when she gets home. I'd love to have the kind of relationship, like many of my friends do with their daughters, where she shares details with me, but we're not there yet. Maybe some day.

Kaylin started 4th grade. She has had a rocky start. Several of her friends are in different classes, so it's been hard for her. She's adjusting well, though, like she always does.

In case you were wondering how they both felt about the first day of school, here you go:

Once again

Once again I went quite a while without updating.

After the craziness of June and July, we spent the rest of the summer laying low and resting. Sort of.

We went to the drive-in to see Despicable Me 2

The girls and I spent a beautiful Saturday exploring parts of downtown Kansas City we've never been to: Loose Park and the Kauffman Memorial Gardens.

The girls and I went to church camp. Mine and Macy's 3rd year, Kaylin's 1st year. We more than doubled the amount of kids we had from last year, and we had a fantastic time! Here's my group of wacky and fun girls!

Macy and her friend Isabel did the Rip Cord at Worlds of Fun, and had a blast. You couldn't pay me enough to get me to do that, but they had a great time.

And just like that...our summer was over. It was the fastest summer on record, that's for sure!

Beach Trip 2013 Update # 3

Another trip to another beach...this one is Sombrero Beach in Marathon, near where Jenn taught chemistry at Marathon High School.

There's a big green lizard in the top of this palm tree. 

I called this album on Facebook, "why Bobby was sore the next day." He spent all afternoon with the kids climbing on him, and launching themselves off his shoulders, while Jenn and I sat in a chair and watched. It was great. He's a wonderful dad. :)

Macy LOVES to boogie board!

Later, we got out the kayaks and the kids kayaked in the canal in front of their house. Good times!

Beach Trip 2013 Update #2

4th of July was beautiful. We headed out to the Content Keys, which was about a 1/2 hour boat ride from their house. It was another local hangout, and as you can see, is absolutely beautiful. The time to go is low tide, because the water recedes and leaves a beautiful white sand beach underneath.

My beautiful girls

Our family

We discovered that Kaylin LOVES snorkeling in the shallow water like this. She did it at Bahia Honda too, and loved it.

This is Bobby and Macy. Love this picture! They saw a stingray and followed it. Macy was so excited!

We moved to another place that was deeper, and had a reef so there were more fish to see. More snorkeling!

Me and the girls. I've never been able to find a snorkel mask to fit my face, so I just swam with them and enjoyed the time in the water.

The kids would swim for a while, then need a break to eat a snack, then head back out.

Bobby and Kaylin on the way back

Two of the most memorable events of the trip happened this day.

In the second place we were snorkeling, we heard Jon say "shark". Jen and I headed for the boat quickly, and the kids were already there. Jon disappeared for a while, and Jen and I were getting a little worried. When he came back, he said the shark had circled him two or three times, and nipped at him. He made it back to the boat before it circled again, but he was going to stab it with his speargun if it came back again. Bobby was mad he didn't get to see it.

Then on the way back to the house, we ran into a little bit of rain.  About the same time I saw the rain, I heard Jon say, "This is going to hurt. We can't stop!" and the next thing I know, we were getting pelted with rain. IT HURT so bad! We were going full speed, and that rain felt like pellets stinging. It only lasted a minute, thankfully. The girls have enjoyed telling that story.

That night, we loaded up in the boat again to watch fireworks. The timing wasn't great, but hey--we were on a boat in the ocean watching fireworks. What could be bad about that? In the far distance, we could see the fireworks from Key West.

One of the best 4th of July's I've ever had!