Eden SUP

Eden got what we call the sushi board (pictured below) from Mimi and Popi for her birthday this year. Almost as soon as she got it she started using it as a SUP. The first time she did it I was blown away. I never would have imagined she would even think to use it for that, but it ended up being such a break through for her because she could go faster and have so much more control than she ever had before with our giant 200 pound boards. Up until last week she has never ventured out of the shallows with it. In fact, during the summer I would swim out to the buoys to coax her into taking the board out to deeper water. Then, out of the blue, last week she decided to paddle it to the other side of baby beach staying just outside of the buoys. That, in and of itself, was such a shocker to me; but once she was done she excitedly proclaimed that she wanted to paddle to the far jetty. We ended up going down to baby beach three times this week to practice this feat. Needless to say, Eden is hooked. 

On the first day, Eden is admiring the pirate ship and contemplating paddling out to it. This was in the wee moments prior to her deciding to go for it.

We came back the next day and as you can see from her expression she is amping to get back out there.

Tara's 11th!

We celebrated Tara's 11th birthday right around Halloween. A few cute pictures came out of that evening that I have been meaning to post. I especially like the two of Poppi and Zion...

Halloween at Mommy & Me

More pics from Halloween that I am just now getting around to posting. As a side note, I can not begin to express how much fun this class is with Zion. He has so much personality it is incredible and I love to see all of the different aspects of that personality come out in this setting. Much of his time is actually spent with the dolls. Codling and nurturing them, and taking them for walks around the class room. I'm not quite sure how to explain this except perhaps the fact that he has two girls that dote on him all day long.

 Don't they all look like dolls??

A Happy Halloween 2013

Jon got forced to work on Halloween this year. It was kind of a bummer but ended up being a really fun day with a visit to the fire station in the morning, playtime at Eden's friends house in the afternoon and trick or treating in the evening. When we got home from her friends house though Eden explained to me that daddy may still be coming home tonight "You never know" she told me. I tried to explain to her that I knew he really wasn't coming home but she persisted in telling me that he may still come home. I think she got a little confused when he was taking all of those classes and coming home at night occasionally. 

Eden was in something of a hurry at the fire station to get going so she could go play with her friend Elli. I could have sat there and watched them race bikes all day.

In the evening as I am rushing around the house trying to get the kids out the door Eden says to me "Mommy, you know what my costume's name is?" I say (only slightly annoyed)..."Mermaid?" Eden says: "No Moonlight"...I stop in my tracks and begin to praise her for coming up with such an exquisite costume name when she interject - "but everyone will call me Beauty cause I'm a beautiful mermaid."

Eden was on cloud 9 all night, she and Max would run at full speed from one house to the next. Ben would follow close behind and Zi kind of lagged a bit more. He seemed overwhelmed by it all but always made it to the door for a "trick or treat", "thank you", and "Happy Halloween". I really wish I would have gotten it on video because it really was pretty sweet. Below Eden is showing me how many candies she received at the last door.