A VERY quick update

My camera is lost so I have no pictures from my last month except ones from other people, and they all downloaded in a weird order. But my mom asked for an update, so here it is:

Here is Maddie having a tea party with her girl cousins at Grandpa Stucki's house during Father's Day.


Maddie came up with a new hairstyle that she insists on wearing every day now.


Maddie stayed with Jamie for a few days at Grandpa Stucki's house and kept Grandpa company with her non-stop talking for a few days.


We went to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, where we went for my birthday. I am 27 now!


I did Maddie's hair for crazy hair day at school and was so proud of myself. But then Maddie saw it in a mirror and freaked out and cried and cried and said she wanted to have beautiful hair, not be crazy. I tried not to laugh in front of her, but I definitely had to take a picture to laugh at later.


This was the stunning resort we stayed at just outside of Victoria, British Columbia. It was in the middle of a forest with this amazing view of the ocean. It was a very peaceful place for me to spend my birthday. We had planned on hiking all over Washington and Canada, but then I got some kind of bug and couldn't keep food down. It turned out to be okay though because I got to lay in bed all day and read books, which is my idea of a vacation!


While we were in Canada, Maddie got to stay with her cousins in Vernal, and had a great camping/fishing experience. Thanks Eatons!


Maddie drinking a cocktail and thinking she was so cool. (It is koolaid.)


I had Lasik Eye surgery. I hated every second of it, but my vision is now freaking awesome!


For Father's Day, my family went to Sundance in Utah with my dad. It was beautiful.


That is it for now! I hope everyone else is having a great summer and finding ways to stay cool.

No comment...

Josh was in Nashville today filming one of those annoying local personal injury attorney commercials. Barf.

I don't know when they will start running on t.v., but when they do, you can call me and we will make fun of them together! (He looks so handsome though!)

My pseudo mini-van

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

I've always liked these on people's mini-vans and suburbans, but Josh thinks they are super dorky and won't let me put one on my car. But he has no say over what I write on my blog!!! (Thanks for the idea Lindsey!)

The recent happenings (and mishaps) of the last few weeks.

My cute husband, BBQing for our family. (After reading the user's manual in depth!)

After bringing it up every day for the last year, Maddie finally talked me into letting her get her ears pierced. I was more nervous than she was.

You know you need to wash your car when you find your daughter's drawings on your bumper.

Josh was so excited that Maddie loved the baseball game so much that she actually asked him to buy her a baseball hat. Aren't they cute?

This is the beginning of my hair debacle. I have been thinking about cutting my hair and going more blond because I am having a mid-twenties-crisis. (As opposed to mid life crisis.) I decided I am just not taking advantage of my sexy twenties. I have all of my thirties and beyond to be naturally beautiful, and explained to my sister that I need to be ridiculously sexy during my twenties. Inspired by Josh's cousin who did the exact hair cut and went super blonde, I took the plunge. And instead of ridiculously sexy, it turned out just plain ridiculous. The guy made my hair WHITE instead of BLONDE! 

So after 24 hours of looking like a swedish stripper, I called my friend Katie (who does hair) and forced her to cancel her hair appointment for the night and fix my freaking hair.

This is from my iPhone, so you can't really see my hair. But it is back to my natural hair color. Phew. (Of course, my hair feels like straw because it went through coloring hell this last week.) Apparently, I am past my sexy-prime and feel much more comfortable having naturally beautiful hair and wearing ridiculously sexy shoes instead.

I wish they all could be California girls.....

Here are some pictures of another Newport Beach trip we took this last weekend. I was able to bring my family down with us, and as you can see we had a great time relaxing AND playing.

This is such a happy picture. I smile because of everybody else's smiles. Except for Lucy, who doesn't seem to know what all the fuss is about.

I love how Kelsey and Kyle's legs are long enough to touch the floor even when their horses are all the way up.

The Ferris Wheel that I will probably die on some day because it is so creaky, but I still have to go on because it is now our tradition.

Josh was trying to win Maddie the "diamond ring" that was 1000 tickets. I believe he won about 4 tickets and Maddie didn't understand why she couldn't get the diamond ring from the prize wall.

All the grandkids riding in the coolest wagon ever.

My mom making sand castles and other things with Maddie. (If you are thinking about how hot my mom is, you would be correct. She is fifty, and I am half her age, and her body is fabulousness.)

Every kid has to eat a lot of sand on their first trip to the beach. Cole is no exception.

Every baby that is supposed to only have milk has to be fed yummy things by their favorite Aunt Rachel. Lucy is no exception.

Maddie has been exposed to too much sun lately.

Rick & Karen: This is proof that my entire family spent HOURS on Sunday on our hands and knees scrubbing every square inch of the beach house. Thanks for letting us stay for the weekend.

I Heart New York

I have been talking about going to New York for almost a year. So Josh, being the romantic guy he is, surprised me by booking a hotel and flights. Of course, it ended it up that he couldn't go because of work. I completely didn't mind going alone, but Josh, being the protective guy he is, insisted I couldn't go alone. So I called up my friend Kara. She had never been to New York, so I knew it would be a great experience. 

Reasons why Kara is a good travel friend: She is a picture-taking-aholic and I never take pictures, and she blogs in real time, so I am going to be lazy and just cut and paste pretty much everything from her blog. 

First Day in Kara's words straight from her blog: "Here I sit in the Marriott Marquis overlooking Time Square. So far our experience of New York has been a super scary cab ride where we literally thought 'Singh Surinder' the cab driver from India...was going to kill us after numerous close calls and lots of laying on the horn.  (pictured here) 

We finally got to the hotel where Josh had got us a corner suite...We then dined at the top of the hotel in the rotating restaurant, 'The View,' and came back to unpack our things..."

Second Day Highlights: Having a cabbie tell us with a NY accent: 'This is 2 blocks from here, you can walk. Don't waste my time.' Me: 'But we have really cute shoes and don't want to walk. I'll tip you really well.' Cabbie: 'It's only 2 blocks up and then 2 blocks over!!' Kara: 'You know what, that's okay. If you don't want to take us we can find another cab.' Cabbie: 'Yes, do. It's a waste of my time.' We decided to walk...  

We also got to practice lots of hailing taxis, see Xanadu on Broadway, 

eat at The Four Seasons Restaurant (supposedly one of the finest restaurants in the world, which I would agree with - Yummy!), 

take a death defying limo ride, 

watch Legally Blonde on Broadway, 

get room service, and let our poor feet relax.

Day Three in Kara's words: "Woke up, got ready for our date with the 'Sex and the City Tour.' (Rachel wore very special gear just for the occasion, namely a very large flower broach and a large feathery flower headband that gathered many glances, smirks and giggles. She says it was her tribute to Carrie 'circa season 4!") We grabbed some fruit and took a cab to the Pulitzer 

fountain...

We met up with our tour guide and loaded on the bus. The tour was so much fun!!! It really personalized the city. We went to several of the movie and show spots and learned lots of trivia, ate cupcakes, 

drank virgin cosmos from Aidan & Steve's bar, 

and walked through West Village, where lots of the stars live and where Carrie's "stoop" is. 

The neighborhood was amazing...The tour finished at the HBO store where I lost my battle for fabulousness giving in to aching feet, the headband that hurt, and the jacket that was too hot. I quickly changed into a Sex and the City T-shirt and some Sopranos flip-flops (hey, desperate times call for desperate measures!)...

We shopped and walked all down 5th Avenue - including Tiffany's! (So Audrey!) It was not quite the experience I had imagined because I was dressed like a complete slob and my credit card actually got denied!!!! Apparently, purchases at Tiffany's in New York looked like credit card fraud to my credit card company. It could have been horrifying, but, as Audrey said, nobody has a bad experience at Tiffany's.

Then we took a pedicab back to the hotel as our feet were now killing us. 

Once we got back to the hotel to get ready for Chicago, we both very begrudgingly (and thankfully) changed into tennis shoes. 

We very comfortably headed off to Chicago, and ended at the Olive Garden overlooking Times Square.

Unfortunately, I have the pictures from Day Four on my camera, so Kara hasn't been able to blog about it. I GUESS I will have to write it myself..... We started out with our reservations at Tavern on the Green. It is a very fantastical restaurant in Central Park that was both beautiful and fun.

The decorations were super over the top, and this picture doesn't do justice.

We followed with a carriage ride through Central Park, which was amazing and beautiful. I have been to New York five times before and had never been through the park. I am so glad we spent the day there.

We finished our vacation street shopping down 5th Avenue again (parents can never come back from a trip without gifts for the kiddies!), where Kara impressed me with her street savviness.

And lit a candle for Evan at the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It was a very beautiful building!

We had a super "fabulous" trip (especially once we changed to tennis shoes!) I would highly recommend everything we did and everywhere we ate.

For more fun details and pictures, check out Kara's blog: www.showbows.blogspot.com

Maddie's Composition