Time Flies When Your Kids Are Busy Growing!

So much time has gone by since I very first became a mother.... 7 1/2 years ago. Since then, Taylor has grown so quickly from a babbling little baby to a back talking 7 year old! Along the way, Austyn was born, and that was 3 1/2 years ago! I can't believe 3 years have flown by this fast. It feels like it wasn't long ago that we had just found out we were pregnant with him. And then a short 1 3/4 years later, little Ryleigh graced us with her presence. I can NOT believe that in a short 2 months she will be TWO years old.
Anyway, Taylor is now in 2nd grade. I kind of cringe when I say that, because I don't feel that old, lol. He is doing great so far, and I'm sure that pace will continue. He is such a bright boy, and we are so proud of him. He loves to read books and enjoys getting his National Geographic (for kids) magazines. I think it makes him feel grown up. He's shy and reserved, kind of like me. :o) He's also a pretty funny character as well. He makes me laugh all the time at the silly things he says and does.
Austyn will be starting preschool on Tuesday! WOW. I never thought I'd see the day. lol. I'm pretty sure he will absolutely love it. It's all he talks about these days. School this and school that. I think he was beginning to think I duped him because we went to sign up on the 8th of the month. I hope he is good and not too much for the teachers to handle. He can be a few handfuls at times. He is loud and outgoing. He has never met a stranger in his life. Everyone is a friend to him. It's kind of refreshing sometimes, but its also a little scary! He is hilarious and says really funny things. His new saying these days is , "Oh, barnacles!" He gets it from Sponge Bob, and its pretty cute.
Ryleigh will not be starting school anytime soon! At least I still have a baby to hang on to for now. ;o) She is a total Daddy's girl and the second Mark walks into the house, I almost don't exist anymore. Its so bad that she's to the point where she will tell me she doesn't need to potty, just so Mark can take her! She totally has him wrapped around her finger. Every time he gives in to her I have one word I say to him, "WRAPPED!" He just laughs and says I was the same way with the boys. I love the way she adores him and loves him and vice versa. Its amazing and I love it so much.
It doesn't seem like so much time has gone by that the boys are in school and Ryleigh is almost two. Kids grow so fast. It's really bittersweet. I love it and I hate it. I can't wait for the day that they don't have to come to me for help, but I also can wait for the day that they no longer need my help with things. I'll always be their overprotective (at times), willing to help at the drop of a hat, always there for them when they need to talk, someone to listen or when they need help kind of Mom.

FINALLY....Cancun Pictures!

These are just scenery pictures.

These are pictures of us.

Who Needs A Shower? It Keeps Bears Away!

First off, I realize I never did post the pictures from our trip to Mexico. I apologize. I'll get to it as soon as I'm done with this post.
We spent this last weekend camping in the wilderness. I've been camping oodles of times & always loved it. As a kid we were always camping, & I have lots of great memories from those trips. This was out 2nd family camping trip. Our first was more of a trial & error trip for us. We didn't go far...about 45 minutes away to be exact. This second time we traveled a couple of hours away & camped in the Yosemite National Park. I was terrified. I never had to worry or even think of bears or mountain lions while we were camping. The most I've ever had to worry about was maybe a coyote or two & snakes. Neither one of those could slash me to shreds with a swat of their paw. I'm so dramatic. haha So all of Thursday night I had nightmares & awful dreams about bears & camping. I swear I had a panic attack in my sleep. lol. We camped with a coworker friend of Mark's. He did all the cooking, & it was pretty tasty. Our campsite wasn't 'flat' as the name of the campground suggested. Our campgrounds were named "The Crane Flats." To me, I thought...oh maybe there are lots of cranes there & it'll be fairly flat. NO. Everywhere you went, you had to walk either up or downhill. The spot where our tents went was fairly flat though. That first day didn't go so well. I wound up with a massive migraine & was car sick. That's what about 7 hours in a car on winding up & downhill roads will do to you. The first campsite we tried to stay at was full. The second campsite....well, we didn't even make it to it. We were down this really long narrow road where only one car could pass at a time. And to make matters worse, the entire road was riddled with potholes, so we didn't go over 10 miles an hour. lol. Mark's friend, Glenn just zoomed down & met us halfway only to tell us it was full as well. We were wondering how long the road could possibly have been & why there weren't any signs up anywhere stating the distance. Just as we neared the beginning of the road, we saw the magical sign with the distance down to the campsite. 21 miles. Yeah, that's right, 21 miles of steep, narrow, pothole filled road. Glenn said it was a very nice site though, so I guess that's the pay-off. Anyhow, we were all grumpy, irritated, tired & in need of some serious limb stretching along with some yummy food. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the next campsite, & we lucked out with a nice big site. Thank Heavens!
That night, I was a stick in the mud that night, & went to bed the second the tent was up. I didn't eat & I didn't hangout & have fun with the rest of the crew. I couldn't even sit up without getting dizzy & all the awesome smells of the numerous fires was making me even more sick. You've got to love those migraines. Anyhow, I slept off my sickness & was good as new by the morning. I didn't sleep all night though. In the middle of the night I was woken up by a man yelling at the top of his lungs. He was yelling at his wife & telling her to get into her car because there was a bear! GREAT! Just what I wanted to hear! As if my anxiety level wasn't high enough, it just skyrocketed to outer space knowing that I was quite possibly sharing valuable airspace with a creature much larger & more powerful than me. I couldn't get to sleep for a while, but when I did, I slept great. We woke up when our tent was gleaming full of sunlight. I love kids. The second the sun cracks over the horizon they are up & ready to get the day going. I must say it was very nice to wake up early in the morning. The sun streaming into trees was beautiful. It was cold, & there's nothing like a nice fire to warm you up. The dirt there was like a magnetic force. It clung to everything. The kids would get dirt on their hands, try to wipe it off on their clothes & then eventually would wipe their face. The dirt just left a trail of evidence on everything they touched. It wouldn't have been that bad if there had been a shower. Yeah, that's right, there were 8 of us who were stinky, dirty & un-showered for a few days. It works out though, because bears like to find things that have a scent & that includes things like shampoo and lotion. I probably would have been terrified to take a shower, daring to use such a thing as fruit scented shampoo or lotion. hahaha. The bathrooms had no lights, so you had to take a flashlight with you. We stayed at the campsite on Saturday & just took a hike into the wilderness behind us. I was terrified the whole time. I kept myself on edge & was keeping a close tab on our surroundings. The boys were making me nervous as hell too. They kept wanting to run ahead and lead us on an expedition & Austyn would start to lag behind at times. I'm glad what I was doing was right, even though I didn't know it until later. Later that day, I read that small children should not run ahead or lag behind because mountain lions will target them, since they are small mammals. WHEW! I'm glad I was a nervous wreck & made them stay close-by! :) I guess mom's do know best, & it's true that you should always follow your instincts. That night we stayed up and roasted marshmallows after we ate our fancy dinner of t-bone steak, chicken, baked (or grilled I should say) potatoes, & corn on the cob. I'm telling you, we will hire Glenn to come camp with us just to cook! LOL. It was delicious. We roasted our marshmallows and listened to scary stories once Austyn and Ryleigh went to sleep. That night, we didn't hear anyone yelling or anything like that, but I did wake up to a very low growling/grumbling sound. Not cool at all! lol We didn't see any wild animals, other than some deer & a few chipmunks, so that's great! We also didn't see any evidence of having night visitors. We all had a great time & can't wait to go back. Yeah, I said WE can't wait to go back. Despite my migraine, car sickness & high level of anxiety, I had a great time & I would love to do it again. We will be planning more trips in the future because we purchased the year long pass for $40. If we go one more time, it will have already payed for itself. Here are the few pictures we took before the camera took a poop on us. We have no idea what happened. It was taking pictures just fine, and then BAM, from one picture to the next it just wouldn't work, and then when it did, the pictures were too dark to see. So, here are the pictures.

This was just a cool barn/shed/building that we passed on our drive, and I liked it.

A huge rock as we are driving through Yosemite.

The mountains.

Another view of the mountains.

A meadow area.

The boys on the 21 mile road. They needed a potty break.

The boys on the 21 mile long road, goofing off on some HUGE logs.

A view of the field behind the campsite.
Austyn enjoying a box of cereal.
Taylor doing the same.
& Miss Ryleigh doing the same.
Mark, hanging out and staying warm.
The sunrise.
The kids, Mark and Glenn's younger daughter LaRosa on a very big rock at the campsite. (You can see that here is where the camera pooped on us.)
Mark took this picture, and since I rarely post any, I thought I'd post this, since its the only proof that I have that I actually went camping too! lol

Long Time No Blog

Yeah, I've been away from the computer for a little while. As if you couldn't tell. lol. We have been keeping pretty busy. Mark has been home for 2 months now, and we are still trying to settle into our routine. It was off at first because he was home, and then just as we seemed to get settled, we had to go to Southern California for about 1 1/2 weeks. He went down for a class to be the PFA leader for his squadron. Then we tried to get back into a good routine, but then his work shift changed back to nights. The next week he was off at school again, and the week following that we were in Mexico soaking up the sun. He was off this last week, but the week was chock full of running errands back and forth to work and getting things straight for the MWR party the squadron was putting on. This week he is back at work....working nights again. YUCK is about all I have to say about that. =) So, now we will try and settle into a routine.
Our trip to Mexico was fantastic. We both had a great time and it was kind of nice for us to be alone for a week. We missed the kids like crazy and I cried on the way to the airport. Aside from the hurricane remnants the first few days and the rude front desk people and the sucky room, the trip was great. The water was absolutely amazing. The sand was so soft, and white. It was completely different from any beach I have ever been to, and I loved it. The water was pretty warm too. Our first few days we spent around the hotel because of the storm. On Tuesday we went para sailing. That was really fun, up until about 7 minutes or so into our 'flight.' I almost lost my lunch. Its difficult to not get dizzy or nauseous when the wind is tossing you around and you are so high up. The entire time I was looking down in hopes of seeing some marine life in the clear waters. I guess that was a bad idea. I felt pretty icky for the rest of the day, but it was fun, and worth it! Wednesday we spent at a place called Xel-Ha. It was kind of like a natural water park area. We snorkeled and saw lots of cool fish. We floated down the river into the lagoon and we even ventured into an underwater cave. That was pretty cool and the water was probably a good 10-15 degrees cooler in there than it was in the lagoon. Mark jumped off of a 15 foot cliff while I opted to stand on the bridge and watch. =) That entire day was all inclusive, so all of our drinks, towels, lockers, snorkel gear, drinks and food was free. That was definitely a fun day! The next day we sailed to the Isla Mujeres. It took about an hour to get there, and again, everything was all inclusive. One of the workers made sure that everyone always had a cup full of Corona or whatever it was they were drinking. Once we arrived at the island, we did some snorkeling by a coral reef. We saw lots of fish, a starfish and a barracuda. I never did get to see any sting rays or turtles. It was a little disappointing, but definitely not enough to ruin the day or moment. After we snorkeled we had lunch at a private beach club and took a dip in the water before we headed back to the opposite side of the island for some shopping. We didn't really find anything really exciting or interesting. The boys both got shark tooth necklaces and Ryleigh got an authentic blue Mexican dress. We bought a few starfish for the kids' bathroom and we bought ourselves some necklaces. And of course, no trip is complete without a shot glass or two. The rest of the time we were there we spent laying by the pool and ocean working on our sun tans while Juan made sure we didn't need anything. I can't say thank you enough to Laura and Bonnie for helping out so much. Without the two of them, our trip would have been nearly impossible. Well, that's really about it for now. I know everyone wants to see some pictures. I'll load them soon, but right now its time for a nap!