We're Back!!

We are back from our Mexico vacation!! We had a fabulous time in a fabulous place with fabulous friends! We stayed at the El Dorado Resort and Casitas. Above is a picture of our resort from the Casita area.

This is a picture of the main lobby of the resort. This is a picture of the resort as you leave the main lobby area. The resort was very clean and well maintained. The landscaping was beautiful. There were always people working on the landscaping and grounds.

I showed up in Mexico with my hair straight but the humidity and ocean air forced me to leave my hair curly the remainder of the trip. Mexico=Hot and Humid

We traveled with two other couples that live in the Kansas City area. The girls are friends of mine from college. We had such a great time together. I don't get to see them very often but when I do it is like I saw them yesterday.

Our resort had some great restaurants. The picture below is from the Italian restaurant and the food was great!! We had lobster lasagna, grilled jumbo shrimp and some great dessert which I did not picture (maybe later).

Below is the Fondue Restaurant. It was located on the upper-level of the Casita area and, although the picture looks indoors, the restaurant was actually outside. We all look a little shiny because it was H-O-T outside and the hot pots made it very warm at our table.

We spent plenty of time at the pool.

One of the main pools had a lot of activities and one activity was a water balloon fight. Let me just say, Joe can throw a hard balloon. Just ask the guy at the other end of the pool. Ouch.

While we were in Mexico the kids were in Dodge City being spoiled rotten. The kids had a great time in Dodge and hopefully I can post some pictures of them doing all of their "DC" activities soon. Thanks to my parents (Grandma and Umpa) and Joe's parents (Grammy and Papa) and to my sister Tamie (Tam Tam) and her husband Greg for taking such great care of our kids. Kira especially loved the time in Dodge City as she was able to ride horses every day thanks to Tam Tam and Greg.

Look who turned 7 years old!

Keenan turned 7 years old on June 10th. He had a party at the KSU Union Bowling Alley.

It was a hot one

This past Saturday Keenan's team played in a small baseball tournament. It was smoldering hot. The team did great and even seemed to have a lot of fun despite the heat. Keenan running home

I actually felt bad for Keenan as it was so hot and he played catcher for a couple of the games. I think him being so hot and sweaty bothered me more than it bothered him.

Keenan playing catcher

Ballerina Girl

Ballerina Girl - well, not quite. Keylee was so excited to go to dance camp. Although, while there she really had little interest (at least while I was observing her). In fact, today at her performance she didn't even really dance. Oh well, she had a great time and looked forward to going each day.

Below is Keylee with her "new" friend Anna. Anna is the daughter of my friend/law partner Katie. We always told one another we would try to keep these girls apart as long as we could because we share too many stories about each of them with one another and we have decided these two are Trouble with a capital "T"

What a surprise

Several months ago, while I was taking the kids to school, we were listening to the radio and the radio personalities were talking about a surprise party. Kira said, "I wish I could have a surprise party that sounds like fun." We generally do not do large birthday parties due to the timing of Kira and Keenan's birthday which fall during team football camp and/or team Pitt State Camp. However, this year, I decided we would celebrate Kira's birthday early (as her birthday is on June 15th) and Joe will be home from camp next weekend to celebrate Keenan's too (his birthday is June 10th). I took Keylee and Keenan with me to run errands and Joe was going to bring Kira to meet us for a "football pizza party." As we started down the road I told Keylee and Keenan I had a confession to make. I told them we were actually not going to a football pizza party but we were going to set up for Kira's surprise party at the Aggieville Pizza Hut. Keenan immediately started to cry and threw his football down stating, "I brought this football for nothing!" Eventually he bought into the idea but was still disappointed that the party was for Kira and not him until I reminded him of his planned and known (not surprise) party for next weekend.

Kira got a Magic 8 Ball from one of her friends for her birthday. I think the girls played with that gift the entire time. Keenan turned to me and said "I hope someone brings me an Magic 8 Ball but I hope it is a 9 Ball instead so me and Kira don't get ours mixed up."

Overall, it was s super fun night. Kira had no idea and she was so confused when the girls shouted surprise. Kira did miss her good friend Megan but she will celebrate with her next weekend at Keenan's birthday party which Keenan informed me is "no fair."

I was impressed that it truly ended up being a surprise. A party is a big secret for 8/9 year old girls to keep.