Monday, July 22, 2013

In Memory of Antoinette Robison

This was a tough month. Some of you may know this, some of you may not. John's mom fell in late May and broke her hip.  At first it appeared that the hip surgery and recovery would be manageable but after a series of complications, that seemed less likely. John spent the first three weeks of June in Santa Cruz with her and his sisters. The girls and I flew out for a portion of that time. After a few weeks in the hospital, his mom returned home with the support of hospice. She was very weak and very tired, but in the moments that she was awake, her sense of humor, lightness of being, and reassuring nature was fully intact. Antoinette Robison passed away on June 19th, surrounded by her children. She is terribly missed!



I'm so glad Lela and Cate had the opportunity to know her, if only for a short time. Her strength and humor lives on in these two spunky girls!

For Antoinette's memorial service in early August, the family will be sailing on The Chardonnay (a 70 ft sailing yacht which happens to be just above her head in this photo). She loved the Chardonnay and often walked Jema along the harbor, stopping to sit on the benches in front of the Chardonnay office.

Here is a link to her obituary
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary.aspx?n=antoinette-marie-robison&pid=165562211#fbLoggedOut

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Update

Okay. Here's how this works....

I'm babysitting. Helping a friend and also gaining some very valuable popsicle sticks (good old-fashioned babysitting currency around these parts) and I have exactly thirty minutes left before she gets home to update months worth of blog posts.

Here goes....

Having been knee deep in the car business lately (sold two, bought two, one more to sell), we've been washing cars a lot! We wash them, show them, move mulch in them, wash them, show them again, wax them, leave wax on too long, scrub for hours, etc. Here's JR and the girls hard at work on the old Nissan truck. This was in May and the girls can still tell you the name of the guy who drove off in Daddy's truck. It hit them pretty hard, even though they had never ridden in it.


Mother's Day at the Zoo... The girls weren't all that interested in taking a photo with me, so we bribed them into acting like they liked me. True story. I can't remember what we bribed them with but it must have been good!!


As seems typical for Boise in May and June, we have a few scorching hot days (or so we think) and then it cools off again for a few weeks in early/mid June. What better way to pass at least two minutes on one of those early scorchers than with a turtle sprinkler? They really did lose interest that quickly and haven't given the turtles the time of day since. Can we expect three minute attention spans next year and four the following year? Maybe we'll keep the turtles around to test the theory.


Oh dang.... time just ran out. 


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Spring +3







Spring has Sprung...

and summer break is just around the corner. This momma is looking forward to a little r & r!

I took my counseling licensure exam in April (no results yet), graduated on May 11th, and am officially way behind on paperwork at work with only a week left. This post is some serious procrastination.... while sipping a cocktail at Sunray Cafe. Hey, if you're going to be off-task, might as well do it right!

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to lately....

Visiting daddy at work...


Trips to the zoo....




Reading in Mommy's 40 year old embroidered shirt (made with love by Mum)


Raiding the box of hand-me-downs for dress up...


More potty practice...


Bathtub fun...


Snow days (okay this was a few months ago)...





Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Spring Break 2013 - Sampler

We drove to Santa Cruz. It was slow. The weather was lovely. John surfed. I whined. We all survived and are glad we went.

This didn't last long :)

12 hour drive + lots of potty breaks = 18 hour drive
Ugh!

It's a good thing someone is able
to use mommy's running shoes.

Looking for Daddy surfing in the ocean water.

Lighthouse!

Checking out Daddy's new wheels.

Ready to Ride in Golden Gate Park

Mommy has curl envy


More...

Because I'm feeling generous.





Spring Update

Life is good. Girls are great. Mommy and Daddy are on overload but hanging in there. That's it in a nutshell. 
Here are a few pics to hopefully keep you from abandoning the blog forever.

Santa Cruz Trip - LaQuinta Reno Love
Biking along West Cliff - Santa Cruz

Easter Tutu

Easter  Tutu

Lela's talking a ton and making lots of connections. Light posts and church steeples in our neighborhood have become light houses, but she's super interested and attentive when you tell her they have a different name. It's usually really fun to see what she has learned each day. Yesterday, however, as far as I can tell she learned to fake cry and "slam" doors. I'm thinking it was a rough day in the toddler room at school. "Slam! Slam! Slam!" she shouted as she slammed her bedroom door repeatedly at 9pm last night.

Cate mostly just giggles and grunts a lot. Her vocabulary has really improved but she doesn't have much interest in proper enunciation. We're working on strategies to help her out, but she's really pretty happy to let Lela do the talking.

Both girls are loving the warm weather and the opportunity to be outside more and they are rockin' their balance bikes... more pictures (and videos) of that to come.