The world as Gus sees it

I gave Gus rights to my old camera, he will walk around and take pictures of this and that.  It is awesome to see all the funny things he sees.  Apparently James and I are on the couch a lot :)

A trip of firsts

Our trip to Oregon was awesome.  It was so great to be able to spend time with the Websters in that beautiful Oregon weather.  I sure miss my Lenor, but it makes me happy she went to such a great place to visit.  I took so many pictures, but I just wanted to post a few to show the highlights of our visit.

Gus' first plane flight, he loved every minute of it. 

Lake of the woods, the boys spent hours throwing rocks into the lake and we successfully prevented any of them from falling in headfirst.

Our Harry and David tour was so delicious, the smell of the popcorn and candy was impossible to resist.  Good thing the tour ended at the store and with some samples.

Our trip to Crater lake ended with no view of the lake, but a fun time in snow.  Gus has never seen snow fall from the sky, and he was fascinated.  It gives us a good reason to head back to Oregon, we definitely want to see that lake, we heard it's beautiful.

We went on a jet boat tour of the Rogue river.  It was really cool, we saw bald eagles, osprey and blue herring.  The boat captain did some spin outs, and I was amazed Lenor didn't lose any of her kids over the edge. 

We stopped at this random farm/ bakery on the way home and had the most delicious cookies.  It was the cutest little place.

I went to the Redwoods as a kid, but I don't really remember it that well.  It proved to be as spectacular as everyone says.  It's just crazy to imagine trees that big and pictures don't really do it justice.  Again, one of those things you just have to see.

We drove up the Oregon coast and I felt like I was in the movie Goonies (which was in fact filmed in northern Oregon.)  It was misty and the random rock outcroppings were so cool.  We headed to the beach and spent enough time for Gus to get bowled over by the waves.  The sand was so fine and soft, almost like dust. We had such a great time.  In all fairness if I was to show the real highlights I would have more pictures of Lenor's meals.  She is the best cook, and all her dinners were so delicious.  We love the Websters and we will certainly be going back soon.

I got my MOTY award in the mail.  Imagine my surprise when the committee actually took note of my motherly awesomeness and felt I deserved the award!!

*I got a hilarious personalized MOTY award in the mail from my aunt and her girls... You guys are the best, thanks for making me laugh.

Fun stuff!

So many fun pictures I will have a long post soon to come.  We also got good news that we are officially licensed for foster care!!  So hopefully we will have an additional kiddo in our home soon... Just an FYI, we are not allowed to call them foster children, so if you ask I won't be able to say foster care, foster child, etc. (legal issues...stupid.)  They will be our kid, and we are cool with that so that is what we will call them.

MOTY (mother of the year)

You know those days where you plan something really amazing, and you're sure that at the end of the day you will feel like MOTY?  I had a plan, I had the most fun day planned ever; it was going to be awesome.  Lite rail ride to the Children's Museum of Phoenix, play, eat lunch, play, lite rail home...and the weather yesterday was so incredible it would add to the fun.  We boarded the lite rail with several "random" riders, and Gus loved every minute of it.  When we got off in downtown Phoenix, I knew we had a bit of a walk so we walked quickly seeing that Gus needed to go to the bathroom, and there is NO WHERE to go in downtown Phoenix.  We made it to the museum, got our hands stamped and headed straight to the bathroom.  Gus had a meltdown, he was certain that the bathrooms had hand blowers and those are his personal kryptonite....(I don't know why, they just scare him to death.)  So being MOTY, I drug him by the arm, screaming into the bathroom, where he proceeded to stand in front of the toilet and wiz his pants.  In all fairness, he had a belt on and couldn't get his britches down, but I was sure it was him trying to foil our perfect day.  What do I do...take my kid and his wet pants into the museum, take the long walk back to the lite rail and sit there for an hour in wet pants (I'm sure he would have been super pissed about that.)  No Walmart, no drugstore, no car to get anywhere.....FREAK!  I about lost it, what the heck was I supposed to do.  I proceeded to grab Gus' arm and drag him into the gift shop, hoping to randomly find shorts.  The kid had the nerve to ask for a toy..."are you serious?  You're lucky to be alive."  Fortunately the gift shop does have overpriced shorts (in the storage room) for just such an event.  We cleaned up the wiz, bagged up the pee clothes and slipped on his sweet cotton shorts, and Gus went commando.  For reals, the museum is so great, he had a great time and looked totally homeless.  By the end of the day his legs were black from climbing all over everything, he looked raggedy.  We stepped outside and it was raining, I again take the title of MOTY as it's raining, windy and cold and Gus is in thin shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, walking around downtown Phoenix.  I ended up giving him my cardigan to wrap around himself so he didn't freeze, but it did make both of us look more homeless and we were carrying a bag that wreaked of wiz.  It was a great day!  I'm pretty sure I will get my nomination for MOTY here in the mail pretty soon.

Month of May...

Does it seem like this year is going by ridiculously fast, or is it just me?  I can't believe we are almost half way through the year, how did this happen?  May has been a crazy month, with funerals, family gatherings, and mother's day ( I had a wonderful mother's day, complete with breakfast and hugs and kisses.  I've got a great family...I did however have the standard mother's day tears.  I don't know why I'm always such a mess on holidays like that, I'm an emotional woman, what can I say.)  I feel like life has gotten a little turned upside down and I'm hoping to catch my breath and enjoy the rest of this month.