{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Supersized

Now that we’re all settled in with Bubo the world’s most spoiled guinea pig, it’s probably time to upgrade to a large sized one, amiright?

Lookit! Just like a humongous guinea pig!

And it swimses all around! It could live in the pool! I think I’ll call her Cappy.

Actually, Paul and I googled and apparently it’s frowned upon (aka not legal) to own a capybara in our town. There go my dreams of a 50 pound version of Bubo ranging around the pool, I guess.  Hmph. Though, if it were legal, I bet our neighbors down the street would already have one, and a perfect backyard oasis set up to go with the rest of their menagerie. This is a quote, given to me without irony, looking me in the eye: Don’t ever buy a pig from the flea market. They grow up to be real big.

Words to live by, man. Wise words.

Daily Meditation

most days when we get groceries, it’s a quick turn-around to go grab big brother from half day kindergarten. perishables are put away, and the rest are allowed to sit until after homework time. it may not be perfect, but hey – cans make great building blocks!

You Know What This Means

I knew this book was arriving today, thanks to an email from Amazon yesterday. I forgot, and went grocery shopping this morning in advance of my father’s arrival tomorrow for a weeklong visit. Me being me, of course every meal in the interim has been planned--subject to changes, but planned. Me being me, the plans will have to change, of course, now that I have this. Perhaps just a dessert and breakfast dish? Also, me being me, I think another go at cooking the book shall be in order. Finally, me being me, I’ll get about 75% done and probably forget about the project. Oh well, it should be delicious along the way.

Dealio

Lego Minecraft Deal
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PVHMCG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007PVHMCG&linkCode=as2&tag=bloofmuf-20

Daily Meditation

dimples RULE

Daily Meditation

there are days when I’m pretty sure popcorn was his main source of dietary fiber

Daily Meditation

::time is never in as much abundance as I’d like. that’s not likely to change anytime soon. but here’s a bit.::

these special flowers collected “for Mama” by my kids will likely be a memory in a couple more years as they grow out of it. not sure if I’ll ever grow out of it, though

A Walk Down Memory Lane, AKA Two Weeks Ago

Tahoe.  We went.  We saw.  We sledded.  We swam. We… played skeeball? Huh.  I had the trip pretty well planned out in my mind, and didn’t foresee that one.

First time in any snow at all. (Bunny did mess with some snow the night before at about midnight when she accompanied Paul parking the car, but still.) This was just the little patch right in front of the hotel.

Then, for giggles, we asked ‘em if they’d like to go to Nevada.

 

See that driveway?  The hotel driveway?

Bam.  Nevada. Donner Party, eat your heart out.  Oh, wait.  Too soon for that joke?  Sorry.

Once we got that out of the way, it was time to suit up and get down to some serious snow play.

I love how it looks like I somehow managed to hike us into the middle of nowhere for some ‘freshies’.  Um, no. We were simply early, and lucky enough to be at Adventure Mountain first thing on a Saturday morning after a snowfall 2 days before (during a school week). About 20 feet to the left of us, looking up the hill, were groomed sledding runs.

Bunny and Cole liked to sled together, and I love how Cole looks like he’s Randy, the little brother on A Christmas Story who was so bundled up he couldn’t put down his arms.

I don’t have a whole lot of photos from Adventure Mountain, because I was busy playing, too. That place is great, and a total deal. Some other places, state run “sno-parks” included, charged anywhere from $15/person for the day to—get this--$30/hr per person to tube at Heavenly.  I mean, seriously.  For that much, for 4 hours for 5 people, we may as well have bought the adults lift tickets, and enrolled the kids in ski school, and blown some at the casino afterwards (we’re not casino folks, BTW, just sayin’ this is how stupid paying $30/hr/person would be).  Adventure Mountain was $18/car for the day.  You could buy food, or pack it in.  You could buy or rent equipment, or bring your clearance sleds from Target. Also, most other places really didn’t have anywhere to simply play if sledding was losing its luster. This place gets thumbs up from us.

After a couple of hours of rigorous play, my baby was hongry. I pantomimed to Paul that I was taking Cole to the snack shack, and bought us both hot dogs, and a bag each of chips and cookies to share.  Ha.  Share.

Mister Man wolfed down his hot dog and began eying mine within about 30 seconds. “Can I have yours?”  And he did.  And the chips, and the cookies. Then he asked for more. I suggested we wait a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day we enjoyed the pool at the hotel.

Then I put away the camera and jumped in, too. :)

The kids really got a kick out of the koi pond in the atrium at the hotel.  We never just walked on by these fish, and I think Carter named a few.

We happened to be on the second floor, so they also liked choosing between the elevators and the stairs.  And that the breakfast was served near our room, plus the pool was also right by us. Location, location, location.  Carter made good on his threat to eat dozens of slices of bacon, and I think his sodium levels have just about evened out by now.

For dinner we trekked all the way back to Nevada, taught the kids what second-hand smoke smells like as we walked the path through the casino, and went to have dinner.  The wait was only 25 mins, but the kids were literally—LITERALLY—trying to climb the rock walls outside the restaurant, and Paul suggested I check out the sign within sight that read, “Arcade.” I was certain it was just a different way to gamble, but humored him.  Holy crap.  It was basically a Chuck E. Cheese within the casino.  Irony of ironies.  I’ve maintained for years that CEC is simply “Vegas for kids” with those stupid tickets subbed for chips, and about as negligible a reward (“Hey!  Let’s spend $25 on tokens so the kids can ‘win’ about $1 in prizes!!”) and they way kids get PSYCHO about those tickets… anyway, here was the perfect way for even the kiddies to gamble away some cash, er, I mean tokens!

Never mind, it was an improvement over climbing the walls.

There was more of all the same (well, not the kiddie “gaming”) the next day.  All in all, a good trip, and my deprived kids can say they’ve visited ‘real winter.’ :)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.