Home again Home again

When I left you last, Lilly had just had her 6th Grade Promotion and we had finished the last day of school!  The kids and I are gearing up for our trip to the East Coast, but before we blow this popsicle stand, we have one more trick up our sleeve.  A Bon Voyage party!  Not only for the departing 6th graders, but also for our friends that are moving over the summer.  The girls had a blast with their friends but I think the adults had just as much fun.  Ben was at a different party while we were bogeying down.

I will miss you ladies!!  Beth is stuck with me for another year!

So while everyone was having a good time the night before, no one was happy the next morning when we ripped them out of bed at 5:00 am so we could drive three hours to catch our flight out of Phoenix. Good Times!  Well at least it was quiet.

After an uneventful flight into Raleigh, (those are the best kind right?) Aunt Sallie met us at baggage and whisked the kids off to her house to start their fun-filled week of family, museums, parks and a behind-the-scenes tour of Mount Vernon - LUCKY!!  I, on the other hand Ubered it over to a nearby hotel to meet up with Nanny.  She had mercifully booked a room so I wouldn't have to get in a car and drive three more hours that night.  Thank you Mom!!  I got constant updates from the kids on all their exploits but the highlights I am sure were spending time in DC with Aunt Kaki and the rest of the cousins and getting some quality time with Mamama and Gaga in Victoria. 

Not all fun and games in VA

I got to spend a week in Swansboro without the kids and it was great to catch up with friends without having to answer to the name "Mom".  Bliss!  I did miss them terribly though.  Do I sound conflicted?  Maybe, but it is true.  I didn't get to see everyone, I never do, but I did get to catch up with some friends I had not seen in YEARS and that was incredible.  

Mom went with me to pick up the kids and since we were fairly close by in Rocky Mount, we decided to swing by the Fossil Museum in Aurora.  I have wanted to go to this place for YEARS but have never been able to make it happen.  If you can do it you should.  The kids had a ball.  There are several display buildings you can go through to see all kinds of fossils that have been extracted from the general area, but by far the draw for the kids is the ability to dig through some gravel pits to discover your own fossils - namely shark's teeth. They even let you take a bucket of gravel home!!  I had discussed this plan with my friend Stephanie and she was able to meet us there!  It was awesome! While we didn't find any HUGE teeth, we did find some good ones. 

The first couple of days we were also lucky enough to get to hang with one of my oldest friend's daughter who was in town visiting her grandmother.  Eva G and Lucy are the same age and they got along great!!  

We even got to take them all out on the boat to go look for shark's teeth at our favorite spoil island.  The days are speeding by!

Nice fangs Ben

No summer is complete without some time with our cousins.  Usually it is when they are staying at YaYa's house but this year they switched it up on us and got a beach condo!  The kids were in heaven riding the waves.  

There are a few traditions that we do every year when we come home.  

1. Look for Shark's teeth - ✅
2. Tubing - ✅
3. Water Boggan - ✅
4. Mac Daddy's - ✅

Mac Daddy's was especially gratifying this year because all the children were tall enough to drive the go karts themselves!  Yeah!!  That is huge!

Last year Aunt Gigi took us on a hike to Fort Macon and so this year we went on another over to the Cedar Point Trail which is part of the Croatan National Forest.  The kids did NOT want to go but we bribed them with the promise of a trip to the Fuzzy Peach which will now be added to the list of things we have to do every year.  

So how come the time flies when we are in Swansboro, seems like we had only just gotten here and now it is time to go.  Hopefully we won't have to wait another year until we are there again.

The children love to use the leaf blower to write messages in Nanny's gravel driveway.

Although we enjoy our time in NC, it was nice to have this guy meeting us at the airport!!  He has been waiting not so patiently for our return.  We have just a few days to get everything washed and packed back up for our great RV trip!

But before that happens we have some more goodbyes to say.  The kids have made some lifetime friends while we are here and since you never say goodbye in the Marine Corps we will say see you soon!

Even though technically we still have a few days left in June, I think I will save the RV trip for the July edition.  This one has gone on long enough.

Finally May!

It's May y'all!  May means we only have a month of school left.  I must say, this  time I am really DONE with school!  DONE!  Done with making lunches, done with fighting with the kids to do their school work/go to bed on time/get up on time/catching the bus and pretty much everything in between.  Of course as soon as school get out I will have a whole different set of problems like fighting with the kids to read/stop playing video games/go outside/get out of the pool/get out of the kitchen, etc... but for right now I can't think about that. First things first, finish up this school year!

Lucy has the misfortune of having a smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-summer birthday.  She constantly reminds us of the fact that no one can ever come to her birthday parties because her friends have just moved or they are on vacation.  We solved this problem by celebrating her birthday in May.  Jim is against this practice, but I have found it greatly reduces the stress in our house. This year Lucy wanted to do a "Cup Cake War" style party so once we figured out the logistics of how to pull it off, all we had to do was invite her friends!

Unfortunately the only weekend we were able to schedule it was also Jim's birthday weekend - sorry Jim!!

Once the guests arrived we started the party off with a tad bit of horse racing. The Kentucky Derby happened to be on and so we had each girl pull a name out of a hat and she had to cheer her horse to victory!!  

The Cup Cake War party was pretty simple to pull together.  We baked several dozen cup cakes and I thought I had made enough frosting so the guests could tint and then decorate with a multitude of sprinkles/candy/toppings.  I seriously under-estimated their frosting consumption.  Even after I made two more batches of cream cheese frosting I still didn't have enough.  Oops!  No matter, we made it work!  

Afterwards the girls went outside to decorate an apron they could keep and then they hit the pool and trampoline!

Then back to the pool!  By this time, the wind had picked up and it was COLD! No way I would be in that water!

Of course it was a sleepover event!  The next morning, Jim made everyone a giant pancake breakfast and then just like that, it was over.  Lucy had a wonderful time AND she got to have a party with all her friends!  SCORE!!

Lilly is growing up so fast!  I can't believe it!!  She will be attending the middle school just down the street from our house next year.  A cool thing the school does is to invite the incoming 7th graders to attend a dance.  Of course she was super excited to go with her friends.  All the talk about what they were going to wear, how to style their hair, etc... Lord I am not ready for this! Way too much makeup by the way...

Generally this blog recounts what we do each month for the children.  Rarely do Jim and I get to have adventures without the kids (together).  This month, however, we made up for that deficit - BIG TIME!  A few months ago at a party, some of our friends tossed around the idea of the parents getting away for a weekend.  Everyone was on board and slowly the plan came together. Mother's Day Weekend in Las Vegas!  WOW!  I was worried I would have trouble finding an overnight sitter but it was surprisingly easy.  So off we go to Vegas! 
This is the overhead view of the pool at our hotel at 4:00pm.  All those tiny black dots are PEOPLE!  EEEWWWW!  

Here is the same pool about 4 hours later.  Hopefully they were shocking the mess out of it.  

We arrived early enough to enjoy some Vegas life before getting ready for dinner and our big night out of seeing David Guetta later on at a nightclub.  A nightclub ... seriously.

I was worried that I would not be able to make it through the show, but once we got on the dance floor all that changed!!  It was incredible.  This picture perfectly captures the night.  SO MUCH FUN!!!  Before you knew it, it was 3:00 in the morning and people were still going strong.  

Sadly, we had to get back to our real life in Yuma.  But I guess we will always have this one night in Vegas.  

The relay race (Ragnar) that I ran in March did this pretty cool virtual race in May call "Chase the Moon".  The basic premise was to have 1000 runners running 6.7 miles at night.  The Stroller Warriors of Yuma were all over it!  Here is a shot of the group I ran with at a local park.  We tried to get a shot of the moon in the background, but that didn't work out so well.  HA!

More running news - I know you are sick of reading about it, but that is pretty much all I am doing soooo...  Some of us decided right after the Relay race to sign up for a 1/2 marathon in San Diego.  Out of this group only two of us are staying put in Yuma so it was kind of a last hurrah for hanging with some pretty cool ladies!  I didn't make my time of a sub 2 hour finish but I was fairly close at 2:14 minutes.  I was on track until about mile 9 and then the wheels fell off.  Oh well.  

Jim was already in San Diego for a conference so he kept the kids while I was doing the race and we linked back up afterwards and headed down to Coronado for the night.  Why Why WHY don't we live there!!  So much fun!! Kids even found whole sand dollars on the beach!  Whenever we go to San Diego I wonder why we don't go more. 

I am sure you all remember Lilly was in a cooking contest because I was begging for you to vote for her two months in a row!! Sadly she was not the grand prize winner but she did get a $100 gift card for her efforts!!

Last full week of school!!  I am beginning to question why I was so excited to have school end... But we must press forward.  Awards!!  Lucy and Ben both made honor roll every quarter and Lilly fell just short of achieving this goal.  She did make great strides in her math grade and are hopeful she can continue this progress in 7th grade.

Since the kids and I are pulling out of Yuma so quickly after school gets out, we decided to stay in Yuma for Memorial Day.  This ended up being a good call as we had several people feeling under the weather throughout the weekend.  That didn't stop us from hosting a party for friends that are moving this summer. Not to worry, I segregated the child that was feeling poorly.  I should have removed myself as well as I was the next Wellons to go down.  By the end of the weekend only the males were still illness free.  Spoiler - That record did not hold.  Ben missed the last two days of school.

But before everything fell apart we were able to squeeze in a float down the Colorado River!

The Wellons love affair with all things motorized continues -- we recently came into possession of a razor cart.  I told the kids I bought it for me and they weren't allowed on it.  To date, I have yet to ride it.  

Lilly's 6th grade promotion is here!!  What?!  She has made so many strides in her grades and is eager to take on middle school.  I am not sure which scares me more.  But tonight we celebrate Lilly!  She took this picture of herself right before I dropped her off.  So pretty!

There she is!!  With her principal and teachers!  EEK!  Look at how grown she is?  Unfortunately almost immediately after this picture was taken she started feeling poorly again and I had to take her home.  So she missed the after party, poor thing.  She will have another opportunity to see her friends before we all scatter for the summer so we will take solace in that!

We made it!