Trying to stay cool while doing....

....Yoga during the Padres game.

....Watching the Shamu show.

....Playing with cousins on the beach.

....Riding the bike around the harbor. And I mean RIDE. Josh pedaled. :o)

...."Exploring" the kid's museum. As if it hasn't been the same for the last 15 years.

....Feeding the fish at Lake Mead.

....Starting up swim class again.

....Attending another of Dad Josh's concerts WAY past bedtime. She only made it through the second song this time, before passing out on the bench. Our cousin got to come along as well, and even though he also plugged his ears, he was secretly tapping his foot under the table.

....Feeding slimy fish to the seals at Sea World.

The Beatles Reunite

Maddie's preschool had their end of the year performance where every class performed Beatles songs. They keep the costumes as a surprise, so when the class went out on stage, I have to admit it took me a few minutes to find Maddie.

The MUCH cuter Ringo Starr:

The videos of the performances (Look for Maddie's little solo part!):

Josh Mullen Jr.

Josh's band ("The Rick Harris Band") was seen at the law firm party by "Bono," of the Las Vegas U2 cover Band, "Arms of America." He was so impressed by them, that "Bono" asked them to come open for them at a later gig. When I saw "Bono" at the law firm party, I went up and introduced myself as the wife of the drummer and told him not only does Josh play amazingly well, but he also looks like a younger, hotter version of Larry Mullen Jr, and knows every U2 song. I told him that they should have him play in their band sometime. Well, the night of the gig, they had Josh come up and play two songs with them, unrehearsed, and he sounded amazing. If you blur your eyes and ears a little, you would honestly think that Josh was playing with the real U2. Yup, it was rad.

Here is a song from the Rick Harris Band (for you Aunt Ann!)

"Bono"

"Adam Clayton"

"The Edge"

"Larry Mullen Jr." - AKA "My Husband"

Here are the two songs Josh sat in for. Unfortunately, the spotlights were seriously lacking so you can't see The Edge or Josh until the last two seconds of the second song.

"Vertigo" Video

"I Will Follow" Video

Maddie's usual bedtime is 7:30, but she is seriously the biggest Rick Harris Band groupie. She goes to a lot of their practices and just loves to watch and hear her daddy play the drums. When she found out he was playing in a "concert" she begged to go. So she went. And because it was "too loud," she plugged her ears the whole time....

....until she fell asleep during the fourth song. :o)

Mount Rushmore?

Yup. This is random. Josh's Mom, grandparents, aunt & sister/brother-in-law were going, so we invited ourselves and booked a flight. Everyone knows about Mount Rushmore, and everyone assumes they will see it in their lifetime, but it is actually in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota. So I don't know if I would ever have checked it off my list if we didn't find a way to go this trip. It really is beautiful.

We also did cave exploration and saw Native American sights while we were there. By the end of the trip, we were pooped.....

Little Drummer Boy

Here are pictures of Josh's band's first gig. (It's made up of men from his law firm and his dad, Rick, is the lead singer). They were really good, and got asked to play at four or five other gigs in the near future. When I asked Maddie what her dad does, she replied, "He's a drummer and he golfs." Uh.....okay, but what is his job? "He's a lawyer too."

Crazy Hair Day

Today is Maddie's Crazy Hair Day at school. I love how happy this "crazy" hairstyle made her. Look at her little smile in the sideways picture. These are the best moments of motherhood.....

Family Fun in Virginia

Oh, how we love family!

Some of the girls in the family (and Josh) went up to Virginia to celebrate my little sister's college graduation from SVU. I just think Virginia is lovely and quant....

...And full of history! She now lives in the same town as Thomas Jefferson, so we went out to check his home, Monticello. After the tour of his house, Josh tagged him "The World's Real Most Interesting Man."

Was I the only American who didn't know that his home, Monticello, is on the back of a nickel? I think that is weird and cool. Go ahead.....go find a nickel and check it out. I'll wait.

Then we ate at a fun little Japenese Sushi restaurant in downtown Charlottesville. My family tried all kinds of random and raw seafood. Josh and Maddie stuck to their fully cooked chicken.

Then we walked around on their main street. I love small town main streets. The Strip in Vegas just doesn't have the same......um.....charm. (This is my nephew Bennett - AKA "Bo." He was born two months before Charlie, so we love watching him grow and imagine what Charlie would be doing right now. Which is basically scooting and drooling, but it's still fun.)

On our way out of town, we did a midnight drive to see the White House.

P.S.

The yellow bird's name is Bono and the blue bird's name is Gwen. (You guessed it, named after Gwen Stefani.) Our daughter is rock and roll!

Butterfly Release

Charlie's hospice has an annual butterfly release for the families who have lost a loved one. I told Maddie that we get to tell the butterfly a message, and then when we release him he flies up to heaven, finds Charlie, and whispers it into his ear. So she (and Josh and I) told the butterfly to say "hi" and "we love you." (We also snuck an extra butterfly for Evan!)

Here is the video

It was also great to see Charlie's hospice nurse again. She was at our house comforting us as we were comforting Charlie in his final hours. We are grateful for her service.

Valley of Fire

For some reason, Maddie calls us the "Mama Bear" and "Papa Bear" when we are in the motorhome, which she named "Sally". So, here is Papa Bear driving good 'ole Sally up to the Valley of Fire on Saturday for a fun family picnic and hiking.

How an only child keeps herself entertained.....

Maddie likes to be a "real cooker" and make these "delicious" desserts for me every once in a while. "Yum."

She also saved up her chore money and bought a snowcone maker all by herself. She looks way cuter than Tom Cruise (in my opinion).

Maddie just wanted pets. Any pet. Unfortunately for her, she got two parents who are not, shall we say, "pet people." Well, eventually my guilt won out and yesterday we bought her these beautiful little parakeets. Luckily Josh grew up with pet birds in his house, so he wasn't TOO mad that we surprised him. His birds growing up all had the same name "Dumb Bird." Those are our pets nicknames, but we are still working on their legal names.
Dumb Bird #1

Dumb Bird #2