Wheel of Fortune!!!

Well, the good news is we had a BLAST!!!

The bad news...this is probably as close to the WHEEL as we'll ever get!

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I flew into SD and my LOVELY mom picked me up at the airport and took me to Nat's.

Then Nat and I were ready to head to the big audition, but first we had to make a quick stop.

The Drive-Thru Window guy wasn't too happy about me asking him to take our pic.

Notice there are 2 drinks and only 1 straw.

Pretty sure he did that on purpose.

Not to worry.

Nat hit the brakes, jumped out and fetched us another one. Good thing, cause neither one of us were about to exchange germs by sharing 1 straw.

We made it up there in plenty of time, so we hit the mall for a little shopping.
It was pouring down rain, & Nat was so happy that she brought her trusty umbrella.
If only she had been willing to share it.

Starting to wonder if she really intends to share that potential prize money...

We finally got to the auditions with a bit of time to spare, so I tried to pull a Jamie with the one arm wonder, but I obviously need some pointers.

After heading to the bathroom to freshen up (which was full of cute but STINKY gymnasty girls!), we were ready for our audition. They weren't ready for us though, so we broke out the cards. We never did get to play because we decided to make friends with the enemy.

Here they are: THE COMPETITION. Lookin mighty intimidating, huh? The couple on the left and in the center made it through to the 2nd round with us (along with about 40 other people).

Doing our Vanna pose before going through those doors and watching our fate unfold. Once inside, we called our letters loud and clear, worked as a team, bombed the written exam, and were remarkable while introducing ourselves. They told us that if we made it they'd call us in the next couple of days (kind of like don't call us, we'll call you?).

But we had the BEST time and are just happy that we made it to the 2nd round because that means we're .....

NOT 1ST LOSERS!!!

WHOO HOO!!!

Thanks Nat (and Jer) for letting me come and thanks Jamie for taking the Lukester!
IT WAS THE BEST!!!

While Mom's Away The Kids Will Play...

While Paige and Jamie were off to the races, Sarah and I took their kids for the day. And can I just add here how glad I am that Sarah didn't end up going with them!

Made for a doubly fun day at the zoo for me! And true, we were out numbered 7:2, but the kids were really good and the day ended up being perfect!

Those mamas packed a mean lunch! As a matter of fact....

Ended up having enough lunch for us and the ducks!

Bree, you make a fine Hornbill.

Elle was all about the seefood.

That Komodo Dragon was inside today so we settled for a picture on the statue instead.

Luke took a brief snooze on Elle's back.

She tolerated it quite well too.

This was hilarious. Elle told me to get a shot of her being a pirate. She's looking pretty tough - Argghhh! But I noticed her hangin around at the top of the ship, not going down the slide and then she burst into tears. There was a Chinese man hanging over the slide, waiting for his kid to come down and not for all the pirate booty in the world was Elle about to bypass that man to get to the bottom. So I politely explained the situation to him and asked him to step back while she went down. He just nodded and smiled and then continued to stand there.

Hmmm.... No speak English gonna be a big problem here.

And finally, the Top Pic of the day:

THE WEDGIE!

(Don't worry Jamie, Grady took it like a champ!)

Wednesdays Are Back!

Wednesdays have been minus the big guy around here for a looong time, so we decided to celebrate now that we have him back. So off to the Zoo Lights we went.

The highlight: This talking giraffe.

The giraffe hadn't talked to Breanna and we were ready to move on, but really, Breanna was going nowhere until she had spoken to the 17 ft. mammal.

My favorite pic of the night.

Love the in the moment smiles as they conversed with the giraffe.

Especially Jake smiling because he sees how much Luke is loving the talking giraffe.

They had to act like jumping beans to get her attention (sweet idea, mom), but it worked.

She called each of them by name and asked Breanna if she could see the big pen in her zebra bag. (Later Bree told us that she felt uncomfortable showing the giraffe her big pen.

We told her that was good and she should be wary of who she shows her big pen to.)

So glad we have you back on Wednesdays, Jer! We love you!!

6 Little Monkeys and 2 Mechanically Inclined Ladies

Eating out can be oh so fun when trying to keep these monkeys caged.

We got them out of there in the nick of time!

Then I ran by Amber's after my errands and it was a mighty good thing that I did because she was having a dire emergency!

She had a date with Olive Garden and was about to be late!

We got out those jumper cables and fixed 'er right up!

Who knew such refined ladies could be so handy?

Love that wink.

Almost Four Long Years Without You!

It has taken that long for me to even have the slightest desire to see this white stuff again. But I have been wanting to see the kids in it, so we decided to make it happen. Best plan ever, Jer!

Luke loved every minute of it and Jake and Bree were quick to tell him the first and really only rule of snow: Don't eat the yellow stuff.

Back tracking here (how do you move pics? - I miss that feature!) When we got out of the car it was as if we had been in the Ark for 40 days an 40 nights. All the kids jumped out of the car and fell to the ground as if they had been deprived of it for years. Oh I guess they had!

This was the best...Crawl. Lick. Crawl. Lick.

Ummmm! Notice the absence of coats. It was soo warm! And sunny. And not windy.

Could not have picked a better day to go sledding!

Again! Again!

I am a little freaky about broken skulls and such, so this run was somewhat concerning. I was telling Chad my apprehension and he said, "Ohhh you're one of those moms".

Got a strange look in his eye when he said it too.

I found out that going down is perfectly safe. It's being at the bottom when Chad comes down after you that is death defying. He took out Luke (okay nearly took him out - Bobbi has video to prove it). Then he went on to take out Breezy. Can't believe we made it outta there alive. Luke loves Erika!

After Chad took her out, Bree had a brief melt down complete with moaning and wailing (hey we'd been there for 3 hours already). And then he convinced her to go down with him and Lizzy. That's one gutsy girl.

The longest kid train. Bobbi told Jake he didn't need his own sled because he could squeeze on the back behind Erika. He did not even acknowledge her kind offer, he just did an about face and walked away. There's no way he was touching a girl. Especially a cute one. It was only after I told him it would be okay to have his own sled that he consented to go back. Jeesh Bobbi, don't you know girls have cooties? Or could it be that she's just cute?

Weeeeeeee!

The adults working up a sweat as they watch the kids come up the hill.

Did I mention it was hot?

Or was there another problem?

Speaking of going to the bathroom, Breanna had an "emergency", so we went to find a tree and while I was gone, look who got a hold of Luke. (Thanks for passing on the pic, Jamie!).

Can't trust that Chad for a minute. But I do have to admit Luke looks like he's ready to go!

Luke, I like you hangin with Erika much better. I think she's a safety first kind of gal.

The Perfect Day!!! We'll be back!