Summer Time Fun

We're into full-fledged summer activities in our house. Having already been to the beach twice, done a bonfire, visited Hoover Dam and went on a weekend getaway to Lake Mohave.

We've also had a good time entertaining the Norwegian relatives (Erik & Erik), or I should say they've been entertaining us. Here's a note my Eric and I posted on Erik's (cousin in Norway) facebook just last night:

The top 10 things Erik and Erik learned in California...

1) Only one person had a red bag on US Airways that first night
2) Hand towels are surprisingly absorbent...much better than full sized towels
3) Stingrays are not actually stepping stones
4) Sleeping on a bench in downtown San Diego is not a "cool" idea
5) Healthcare in the US isn't free!
6) Beer doesn't mix with antibiotics, but shots mix perfectly
7) The floor of the bathroom is much more comfortable than bed
8) Forty year olds are cougars too...particularly on the dance floor
9) Ducks will actually eat hurl and lung butter...
10) They suck at Sudoku

Please don't ask me to explain all of the items on this list, let's just say they all have meaning and involved a part of their "holiday" to California!

So what's up next for us? Well, Taylor and Sammie are at the local Girl Scout camp this week. And Taylor is a youth leader! Next we'll probably hit up the Lake again, maybe including a trip to Vegas as well. At the end of July we'll have our Church camp for a week - and then the countdown begins for the August fun. There's just too much going on in August to list!

The Mommy Muse

Off into summer we go
With a new 3rd grader and tweenager in tow
Seeking adventures both near and far
wondering what the limits of staying up late are

Setting up outings, camps and such
Why do children think parents don't know much?
Asking about cell phones, sleepovers and junk food
Brooding, hormones and a bunch of attitude

Getting the girls captive out on our boat
Forgetting the boys, new outfits, and TV remote
Holding them hostage in their youth a few days more
Tubing, and skiing and joking galore

Raising up two little ladies is no easy task
Asking God's guidance each day I must ask
Why must time speed by at such a fast pace
These are a few questions this Mommy must face

So onward we go, Eric and I
Praying we're raising them right in God's eye
Set the example, some good and not others
But doing our best as Father and Mother

May Days the Burton Way

Whew... We are looking forward to some lazy summer days around here! None of us have had the chance to "sleep in" for over 1 month! It's just the time of year when sports are wrapping up, school events take precedence, recitals, family comes from the other coast to find SoCal warmth, and these are just the predictable events! We've even had a few unpredictable happenings as well.

Taylor's Girl Scout Troop (me included since I'm the "Camping Mom") took a trip to San Fransisco to bridge from Juniors to Cadette's by walking over the Golden Gate Bridge. This adventure happened over Mother's Day weekend, and ended with 11 happy kids and 5 exhausted Mom's! All told the kids did fantastic and relished the Ft. Mason Youth Hostel we slept in, loved the cable cars and busses for transportation, really loved the airplane ride (Virgin America rocks!) and logged more than 14 miles on their tennis shoes. Upon getting home I slept for nearly 2 hours before getting up to a GREAT Mother's Day dinner provided by Eric and the girls.

Eric kept Sammie going all weekend while we were gone by taking her to Disneyland for a little Father/Daughter adventure. He got her to ride the BIG rides too - this was a true feat! They had a picture taken with Chip and Dale at a "Character Dinner" there, and I love it. How do you like Sammie's Goofy hat with ears? That's our Sammie :) Sammie also finished up our soccer season that weekend by competing in a team tournament. 3 games in one day - YIKES! Our little warriors finished in 3rd! Lastly, they surprised our neice (from Tennessee) with Balloons for her birthday.

The next weekend Taylor's soccer team competed in a Tournament in Temecula. It was HOT and windy! Two games were played each day, and they ended up in 3rd place. Another fantastic part of this weekend was staying with Eric's brother Jeff & Michelle - we call them MICK & SLICK. Michelle hooked us up with great meals all weekend long... this really helped us out tremendously since we were all tired from the heat on the soccer fields.

In between we met the Burton side of the family down in Oceanside for a beach bonfire. This was a "school-night" adventure for us, which resulted in exhausted kids the next morning. But it was worth it! There's nothing like a fire - roasted hot dogs, smores and friendly faces to make you feel good inside.

Lastly, one of Taylor's past teachers nominated her for a youth service award with the "Savannah's Organic Ranch" non-profit organization. She wrote a very nice essay nominating Taylor by depicting the ways Taylor has helped others locally, nationally and internationally. The result... we were invited to their annual charity dinner and she received a prize for 2nd place. She spoke at this dinner in front of nearly 200 adults about her civic service. Can you tell I'm proud of her? Then, her 5th grade teacher honored her in front of the whole school this morning with an award that said "Consistently Exemplifies a Scholar." The smile in her picture says it all! You should see the smiles on her parents...

No big deal - just did a 1/2 marathon...

It was pitch black when we left the comfort of home on Sunday morning at 4:30 am to pick-up my co-racer Kellyann. Arriving at the OC Fair Grounds in plenty of time, we (Eric, Craig, Kellyann & I) rode the 5am shuttle to the race start. As we milled about, making sure to use the porta-potty before the lines formed, the reality of the day set it... 13.1 miles is a LONG way to go!

Kellyann and I have been walking together since our oldest girls were in Kindergarten, but this was the first time we took on a big challenge. Yes, we'd walked 3 times a week for years, averaging about 5 miles each day... but 13.1 was a daunting task! We listened to Eric's advice and had proper shoes, socks, inserts for the shoes, hydration, and protein. We'd also timed ourselves individually to make sure that we could do the course in the 3.5 hours limit. At last check I was 15 minutes over, and this was NOT acceptable! So we settled on a strategy of walking for 9 minutes and running for 1 minute, bringing a stopwatch with us to make sure we didn't over do it. We also took advantage of hills and ran down them, even if that meant running before we got to 9 minutes.

How'd we do? Well, our strategy paid off! We finished the course in 2 hours and 57 minutes and we each have a medal to prove it! Eric finished the course in just over 2hours as did our friend Craig.

Soreness set in almost immediately and peeling ourselves out of the car was a bit of a challenge. But today is Wednesday and I've already played softball, done a 3-mile walk, and I'm ready for the final practice Coaching my little soccer team tonight. Life is good! But the best part is the elation at knowing the 1/2 marathon was more than possible, it's DONE! My knee's survived with plenty of icing and I'll live to walk another race... maybe the Rock 'n Roll 1/2 in Phoenix in January... it could happen!

This weekend I'm traveling with Taylor's Girl Scout Troop to San Fransisco to "bridge them to Cadette's" by walking over the Golden Gate Bridge! Sammie and Eric will have a blast together too as they're going to Disneyland and Sammie will compete in her first soccer tournament. Go Soccer Stars!!!

A day later...

Yesterday we participated in the MS Walk down in Carlsbad, CA. It was a wonderful day walking with Eric's family, but the heaviness in the air was knowing that Jean wasn't there to share in it with us. We've all known that the day would come where she wouldn't be at the Walk... and although the time arrived this year, we all felt the loss. She died in November, and she's dancing in heaven, but we missed her smile this weekend. Saturday would have been her birthday - which Eric marked by placing flowers at her grave. On Sunday, when we walked as a family, we wore tags that Julie had made that said "Team Remembering Jean" and it had a picture of her from college. The announcers noticed this tag and asked us about her. It was a cathartic moment for all of us, but greatly expressed by Eric's father, Ron.

In other news, the school year is marching on and the end of elementary school is fast approaching for Taylor. Last week I attended the parent meeting at the Middle School and I left being very excited for Taylor and the adventure that's ahead of her. She's going to have many wonderful times in Middle School - besides the academics. So while others around me sighed heavily with a feeling of loss for themselves, I smiled largely because I remember the great time I had in Junior HS myself. It was one of the favorite times in my life, and I pray it will be for Taylor as well.

Sammie is still hoping that she's going to get a dog soon. Her weekly crying over the prospect of a dog and how much better her life would be with a canine is increasing. In fact, she's been adamant about this for about 9 months now! I remember life with dogs (from my childhood) and I loved them, but I didn't really care for them... so I'm apprehensive! Eric is opposed, but I do believe that Sammie is pulling on his heartstrings and I don't know how long he'll resist. When he finally gives in our yard will be a thing of the past, as will some of our furniture. I know these are just things, but they will be hard things to look at with teeth marks in them! It will be like adopting a child if I recall correctly! No need to rush these things you know!

Next week Eric and I will both be in the OC 1/2 marathon. Eric will run it and I'll be walking it with my pal Kellyann. We've been listening to Eric's training advice and taking into account our speed, we've decided to run for a minute every 10 minutes. We have to finish the course in under 3.5 hours in order to earn our medal... and we're very hopeful that we can. We know that we can complete the distance, it's just completing it in the time allotted that we're leery of. WE CAN DO IT!! Taylor will also be running in this event, but she'll complete the final mile of a marathon and then earn a marathon medal. The other 25 miles she ran at school over the course of 5th grade - cool huh!

Mahalo Maui & Aloha

Would you expect anything other than a crazy update of our lives? Probably not and so why alter your expecations?

Over the spring break we finally took the much anticipated Maui trip and stayed at the Hyatt in Lahaina/Ka'anapali. Maui IS every bit as beautiful as everyone says. I loved that there were no high rise buildings, no billboards on the side of the road, and it felt small and lush, and so happy to be there. In our week we went snorkeling, lava flow driving, , luau oogling, kayaking, waterfall viewing, kite board amazing, and downright relaxing. The pool at the Hyatt had a waterslide that our girls lived in, and a cave with a waterfall that they swam through many times. By the time our heads hit the pillow each night, snores were emminent within 60 seconds! The pacific ocean was our full view from our room, along with a sideways glance towards Mount Halekalea. We fell asleep to the sounds of waves gently lapping the sand... aahhhh.

When reality hit that our week was over in Maui, we silently packed and trudged to the airport. No big travel news here - the girls are wonderful travelers. We capped our trip with a dinner at In-and-Out Burger before going home and it totally completed the perfectness of the week.

On Easter we shared a meal with Eric's Dad (Ron), Julie (Matt & Zack), and Martina and her family as well. (Lada, Rachel & Troy). We hid nearly 60 eggs for the kids to find and luckily they found them all. Each year I wonder though because inevitibally I'll find one rotting plastic egg in the garden sometime over the next 12 months and marvel at how something so cute could become so stinky!

All in all, it's hard to believe that our vacation is over, that the kids are back to school today, and that they only have 2 months left in school too! Yikes, time to start planning the summer!

Girl Scout Cookies & Soccer

That's all we are talking about these days... Girl Scout Cookies and Soccer. How many more cookies do we need to sell for each troop? How many stores will we be in front of over the next couple of weeks to see the cookies? How many more should we sell to get Taylor's troop to San Francisco? Does anyone anywhere need more cookies? I don't need more, stop me please before I eat another Lemonade cookie (my new favorite!)

Also, it's all soccer, all the time. Both girls opted for soccer this spring instead of softball. And it kills me to say this but, I'm really loving it. The girls show so much confidence on the soccer field that you cannot help but smile and enjoy the game. Since I'm coaching Sammie's team too, I'm getting a good workout twice a week with the little 2nd and 3rd graders on our team. Goalie training is very physical and that's a main focus of mine (while the other coach works on a few other speciality things.) Sammie is really spectacular and it shows. You should hear the sidelines when she charges the ball and steals it from the opposing team.

I'm also refereeing games so that Taylor's team can advance to the regional tournament. So far I've ref'd one game, and it was a VERY new experience. I chose a game in a different city, with teams that don't play in our city, and experienced ref's in the center and the other side of the field. To say that I messed up my sideline flag calls would be an understatement! Yes, I coach. Yes, I know the game. But it's very different to make the correct flag statement to indicate what just happened and what should happen next. Here's my most obvious oops... One team scored a goal and I put my flag up to say "Yippee they got a goal." A flag up usually means a penalty! Imagine my embarrassment when the center ref ran over to ask me the penalty call and I just sheepishly smiled and said "Oops! I mean goal? No flag huh?!." He smiled and very nicely said, "we all have our first games." So, the long story short is that I got better as the game went on, but I'm a long way from being anything close to consistent (or good at it - YET!)

Next month we're taking a vacation to Maui! I just booked the trip yesterday and we're ALL very excited. We've never been there and to say it's been on our wishlist would be an understatement. Now I need to get back to the diet and excersise to make sure my shorts and bathing suits fit - gulp... shouldn't have let myself go...

Talk to you soon and enjoy the St. Patrick's Day clip below:

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Kelly