Pine Nursery Park

It wasn't long ago that I was reintroduced to a park, Pine Nursery. We had gone years ago and I am not sure why it did not have the same umph at the time, but I will say our recent visits have been amazing. The park itself is little and it is perfect for little legs, cue Jonah. Not only that, it is beautiful! This winter has been unseasonal. It has been so warm--which last winter 😳. Exactly, so I am fine with this. I can drive without anxiety and that's a nice feature.  We have had such warm days and our family does not hesitate to go out and enjoy. My boys live for this kind of thing. Their happy place is outside. Honestly... mine is too. It feels easy, and care free. It feels like I have pressed the pause button. I feel like I can look around and see my family so clearly and love us easily. I take intentional deep breaths and try to take mental pictures of those moments. 

This particular time we took Odi to his first dog park experience which was...interesting. It was clear he was the new guy, he tucked his tail between his legs and sheepishly ran away from all dogs. I was intimidated for him at times when he was surrounded by many a dog all sniffing in all the wrong places or the right ones? If you are a dog? Oh dogs. But, he needed to start somewhere.  

The Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We figured out the best pumpkin patch to go to a few years ago, and now there is not question. The pumpkin patch is one of those things that...I love. I love it very much, maybe more than my kids. I can feel myself getting annoying to Sam when the pumpkin patch opens up and I am insistent on deciding on the best weekend to go all under the guise of the boys need to going. Yes, they do ask to go, but I make doubly sure, is happens. It was a beautiful and warm day and it was not crowded, and if memory serves they did not charge us to go -to get our pumpkins, of course, but there was hardly anyone there that they weren't bothering to take tickets for everything. It was an especially fun year because Jonah was able to enjoy it in a more hands on sense. It is fun having these ages of kids where at least all are mobile. 

We enjoyed the different play areas, the big slide, the mazes and bails of hay, and picking out our pumpkins. We had a very comical scene unfold as we were walking back to pick out the pumpkins we saw this farm dog hell bent on chasing around this chicken, and like most chickens, relied on our family as a buffer from the dog. The dog persisted in stalking the chicken so much that Jonah met the chicken face to face in the end, and he was not happy about it. 

New York Girls Hit Vegas Again

I am realizing that it has been so long since I have caught up on my blog that I will just have to face the music that until I catch my blogs up they may not contain the detail or finesse (if I can even call it that) that other blogs have. So, let me now go back to October (doodle doodle do doodle doodle do doodle do -see Wayne's World) The 

New York girls- minus Terri who was very missed- were able to get away again! It seemed like such a miracle the first time we went and so this time it felt like an...actuality. That we can actually make this happen on a regular basis, and that is amazing too. 

Like, I said the fine details may be missing but as always we had fun. We saw a mind magic show, (😂what are those called again?) we visited the strip for a night and had some yummy food, went to the red rock canyon, did some swimming...now that I think about it- the running joke the whole trip was that we basically copy and pasted almost everything we did the before! Ha! Starting with going to the same exact location of food place as our first stop only with a different name where we got belligerently double flipped off by an employee. We did not flipped off this time, I mean not everything can be the exact same. Key differences. 

The heart of the matter is this: this specific group of women is very unique. There is a very genuine nature in the way that we care for one an other, the comfort level that we have no matter the time that has passed, nor the distance that we all live. We are nice. And we are funny. And we love each other.  There really is an ease when we are together. We can cry together just as as easy as we can laugh together. We are in very close quarters with each other for a few days after years of not being together and it like we have spent our lives being roomies. 

I love the New York girls. I feel like they uplift me, focus on my strengths, and accept my weaknesses. I hope they each know that I fully embrace them. I marvel at each of their strengths. I admit, sometimes I feel like I am just holding my breath waiting for them to realize that I don't belong. I am the "one of these things are not like the other" song. I just feel plain lucky to be a part of them because they are each amazing.

 We dream of a cult a sac.