Another fun, relaxing trip to Rocky Point

It is that time of year again,

what so many look forward to all year long. Fun in the Sun on Playa Enconto, this year we stayed at new condos, Casa de Whales. They were very nice.

It's all about our special friends, the memories we make, the traditions that shape who we become as adults...the priceless gifts that we get. Thank you Lord.

A few of the girls....Summer, Winnie, Savanah

The big boys, Wesley, Mason and Collier.

And, then all things must come to an end, until next year.......

Big Party or Disneyland, which would You pick?

We gave Summer the choice of a trip to California for her 5th birthday or having a big party,
after much thought she decided......on the Big Disneyland!

It is so much fun to see Disney decks out for any holiday, the details are amazing. This Micky-o-Lantern adorns the Maingate entrance.

Many years ago Nanny started a Halloween tradition, she takes Mason and Summer shopping for their costumes. This year was a special treat since she knew we were going to Disneyland for Summer's birthday in October she thought it would be fun for them to have Disney costumes they could wear while on the trip.
I even got decked out in some Minnie ears.





As I've shared before much of our fun on a Disney trip is just the adventure and anticipation of getting there and coming home after hard day of play. Here you can see us waiting at our pick up spot for the bus.

Our wonderful boys!

Dean and Judy's Wedding

We were excited to receive an invitation in the mail for Dean and Judy's Wedding. Although we do not see Dean often he holds a very special place in our hearts. It was great to hear that they had decided to get married, they have dated for many years now. The wedding was a small ceremony held in their backyard, followed a few days later was a big reception. Unfortunately we were unable to make it, it conflicted with our annual Rocky Point trip. Judy looked beautiful in her western skirt and top.

Mason and Summer made some new friends and had a great time playing, running and chasing. They also enjoyed the awesome Tortoise yard Dean built.

It is not often we get to spend time with this part of our family, it was a very special day for all.

We wish Dean and Judy many years of happiness and love.

Who are those males?????

Another weekend filled with UofA Football festivities!

Friday Night we kicked off the New Mexico game with a trip down to the UofA Mall for Bear Down Friday Night. As you can see, Summer was transformed into a Rainbow Kitty. Wilma was nice but a Rainbow Kitty sounded more 'beautiful' to her.

We enjoyed the UofA Band getting the crowd, mainly ZonaZoo Students, up and roaring for another UofA victory. It is awesome to see how successful the ZonaZoo has become, the students are taking their UofA pride to the next level. Bil shared with me Friday that University of Arizona has the biggest student section in all of the Pac-10. This is great, I can remember before the Red-Shirts and ZonaZoo the student section was never filled. Currently the student section covers the whole lower east side of the stadium, they even moved the band to make room for more students.

After a good nights rest and a productive Saturday, we suited up in our Red and headed out. Before going down to tailgate we swung by Nannie's to drop off Summer, these 7:00 games just seem a bit late for her. Once we left Nannie's we found one of the very last parking spots in our trusted parking lot. We ran into Chrise, Craig and Cydney who was preparing for the half time show, her cheer leading squad and football team were invited to play/perform. The mini cheerleaders and football players are so cute, their uniforms are as nice as the college level. We managed to get to Lil and Henry's just in time for quick bit to eat and say hello before we went to the stadium.

Mason was in for a special surprise, second game in a row. Bil and Mason headed down to the bathroom around the end of the second quarter.

While Bil and Mason were gone, we had special visitors....who were they?

Manny and Moe to see Jack?

No.

Were they the First and Second Pig to see the Third Little Pig?

No.

Were they Woody and Sarge looking for Buzz?

No.

Were they Hewy and Dewy looking for Louie?

No.

It was no other than the famous and beloved Collier and Wesley!! You should have seen the look on Mason's face. He was tickled to see them. And as the story goes, to no surprise, they were together the rest of the night running up and down the stairs from seats to seats. Having a total blast! If you could have only heard their 8 year old conversation, retelling each play.

Even after all the fun, the night ended sadly with a loss.

Summer loves GYMnastics!

Jenn Bouton, you are such a resourceful friend! Thanks for reminding us how much fun Open Gym is, Summer had an absolute blast!

After enjoying another visit to Jenn's updated blog I decided Summer would love to go back to Gymnastics World, the last time we went Summer was just about 2 years old.

When we arrived we were happy to see Jenn and Xander already playing and having fun. Summer joined right in, she loves everything about gymnastics....running, jumping, climbing, swinging, playing and even the sweating. She loved some many things that she did today she couldn't decide on a favorite.

Sadness

What a hard week it has been. My deepest sadness is with Lisa and her family. We will never know why God takes each of us when he does and especially young children when we see they still have so much life to live. But what we do know is that something good will come from this and as unfair as this may seem I know this experience has allowed me to be reminded how fortunate we are to be blessed with Mason and Summer. It is so easy to get tied up in the daily grind and loose sight of what amazing blessings we are given daily such as our health, family and friends.

Football Anyone???????

Yes it is that awesome time of the year.......College Football, how can we tell the season is upon us you might ask.....

1. Bil resubscribes to the Tucson Citizen for his daily fill
2. We attend the recruting signing day event at McKale
3. We secure our tickets via Dad
4. All of the sports casters begin giving their opion of the upcoming season
5. We see the sea of red and football t-shirts come out of Bil's closest
6. Our family attends the scremiage at the statium and hopefully get some hot autographs
7. Mason gets to begin wearing his football jersys again
8. We get our annual call from Lil to give us the Tailgating update
9. Bil stays wake for the nightly sports segments
10. Bil and Mason go to the UofA to pick up their upcoming season's magnets

The first home game this year was against NAU, I was even looking forward to it. Mason, Daddy and I got our red on and headed down for tailgating after dropping Summer off at Nannies. We were excited to get down to the UofA mall and get into the true spirt. It turned out to be a great day and game. The final score was UofA 45/NAU24. And for Mason the even better part.....can you believe who Mason ran into during tailgating? No other then his great buddy Brett.

shoe laces!

Summer is maturing! Today she insisted I teach her how to tie her shoes because 'he' can do, if 'he' can do it so can I was her comment.

Well you might ask who 'he' is or you figure the 'he' is Mason, well guess again. It is not Mason but one of the other big male influences in her life....Caiou. Caiou is her favorite show to watch and she rarely gets to watch it. After watching it this week, she came in with her tennis shoes and ask that I help her. Guess what after a few tries she pretty much has it down....

Do you know the bunny story? I did not until Caiou taught Summer and then she taught me.

First you make a tree. Then the bunny runs around the tree. Then the bunny hides in the hole. Now how cute is that?

Is it Halloween Yet????

What an early treat Summer and Mason received this weekend from Nannie, aka Grandma Cheryl, my Mom. Nannie decided it would be fun for the kids to get their Halloween costumes early so they could sport them at Disneyland. With that great idea I decided that they would need to pick characters from a Disney movie that would compliment each other. Up to this point they've managed to pick things out that go together.

Last year they were UofA Football players. Of course, originally Summer was going to be a UofA cheerleader but decided she wanted to be just like Mason and became a football player too. Luckily, her good friend Aidan had the UofA gear to loan her.

The previous year, they were Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.

That brings us up today, so this year I posed the suggestion that they should pick Disney characters so they could wear them while we are at the Magic Kingdom the first week in October celebrating Summer's 5th birthday. Summer knew she wanted to be a beautiful princess, hence the reason we are going for her birthday this year. Nannie suggested Davey Crockett but Mason didn't take to that, sounded boring, didn't really know who Davey Crockett was. I suggested he be a Pirate, he has had interest in the past but hadn't work out yet. Another idea that was mentioned was Darth Vader, although not a Disney character, they do have a Star Tours/Wars ride. Another suggested mentioned was Zorro but again Mason really doesn't know who Zorro was so that didn't stick. After our brainstorming session Mason came back and said he wanted to be a 'hunter', well that brought us right back to Davey Crockett, (mom is right, Mason would make such a cute Davey Crockett!) Or, a pirate.

So, last weekend, Summer and Mason and I headed to the Disney Store to check out what they had and get some ideas, not to buy anything yet but just to look. It was very successful event and was so much fun. We played there for about an hour checking out all the costumes and playing with the toys. It is always nice when you are not rush and can just enjoy the moment. The kids loved looking at all of the costumes and accessories. We had a great time playing in the back with all of those awesome stuffed animal, can you imagine if you were a kid and that stuffed animal display was your actual bed, wow, how cool would that be!?!

Once in the store the decision was very easy for both Mason and Summer, Mason decided on the Pirate, a sword, gun and handcuffs. Summer at first was interested in Belle but after locking her eyes on those awesome, big Tinkerbell wings she was set on being Tink again.

This weekend, I asked Mom to hang out with Summer for the afternoon. I needed to rest in bed, recovering from a cold while Bil and Mason were at the Ranch watching UofA season opener game against BYU.

Summer and Nannie had a absolute awesome day, Shopping! Summer came home with Tinkerbell and the accessories! Ohhhh, how excited Summer is! She put it on and dances around the living room for an hour! She looks so adorable, check out our little Fairy...almost a Princess.

The next day, Nannie and Mason had their turn. And of course Nannie was just as generous for Mason, he came home with the whole Pirate costume.

Every since yesterday, the two of them have eaten, played, danced, watched Return to Neverland in their costumes! They are so cute. Nannie, thank you so much for your thoughtful Halloween tradition. If I had been shopping with them they would have had to compromise and negotiate for my budget. What a special treat it will be for them this year.

Day with Grandma in Patagonia

We enjoyed our day trip down to have lunch with Grandma and catch up with her.
It was a treat to see the town of Patagonia as she sees it. It is neat that all of these old buildings are still standing.

The actual school where Grandma, Joan, and Francis went is still the town's school. The school is on top of this hill, Grandma said that all the kids would walk to school which meant they would climb muscle up this hill everyday. Looking down from the hill you can get part of a glance at the town of Patagonia.

Mom and Larry were even married at the Old Patagonia Christain Church. Afterwards they had
their celebration at the Wagon Wheel Saloon. I remember decorating it

and putting pretty white lights in all the trees on the side yard.
People commented on how nice it
looked we left them for the customers to continue to enjoy.

Grandma remembers The Lopez Pool Hall was a
popular place to hang out. They held many dances at the Lopez Pool Hall.

After driving around Patagonia, taking pictures and enjoying Grandma's stories we stopped over at Home Plate to have lunch. Currently Home Plate is located in the old hotel.

Our Big Third Grader

Check out our special little boy, not so little anymore! He is now in Third Grade. A few things will be very different for Mason and Tia this year.

First of all, I'd like to introduce you to Tia. When Mason began Ms. Wiley's First Grade Class at Manzanita he immediately started talking about his new friend that sat at his table, Tai. He spoke about Tai often, Bil and I assumed it was Ty, short for Tyler. Then, a few days into school at parent pick up Mason happily shared as he got into the truck, look, there is my friend Tai. I looked and who he appeared to be pointing to was this sweet, shy looking girl. As the story goes it was Tai, simple put for our new sweet friend. To our pleasure, we were happy to learn that Tia and her family live just a couple of streets over, at that point we began the Westmoreland/Huesgen carpool. It has been a pleasure getting to know Tai and her family, Jeff, Jessie, Ryn and Jora.

This year our carpool has change! The Littles as they are often called, Ryn and Jora have started Kindergarten. Our ride is much more exciting and playful, Summer loves the girls coming with us. All of them get along so well. As an added benefit I think Mason will have girls figured out very well when he graduates out of our carpooling.

tea party and friends

What a fun, fun, fun day it was!


After an active morning of swimming with 'old friends' Summer begged to have the little girls over for a 'real' tea party. Gragra, aka Carol, had passed along some beautiful, special things for Summer and I to enjoy,this included a cute set of dishes that would be perfect for tea. So, we invited the Ashtyn and Winnie over for some dress up fun. While driving home I asked the girls what they thought we should have at a tea party and what did we need to do to get ready they responded with....

tea
sugar
lemonade
cookies
dessert
sandwiches

to look beautiful....
they need to put pretty dresses on
make up
jewlery

And, they even told me I needed to get all dressed up. Once we were home the girls each picked out pretty things to wear and then they put on the exciting part....make up. They were so cute giving each other advise on what worked and what needed improvement, this proved to me girls are just girls and boys are just boys. They sounded like grown up girls shopping together.

After everyone was dressed they helped me set the table for tea with the special dishes and china. Then we sat down for yummy treats. The best part of the party was getting dressed up, eating yummy treats but what was even more fun......the great pictures.

Look Who Turned 8...

Yes, can you believe that eight years ago we were spending the day at St. Joseph's hospital having our precious little boy Mason who now is not that little anymore. I keep telling him that he must stop growing but he just isn't listening.......Mason is a whopping 52 inches and 57 pounds now.
This year Mason decided to have a special boys day with Daddy at Breaker's Water Park. So, I decided that while he was gone I would paint his room and change the deco for him. We have been talking about doing this for awhile but it just keeps getting set aside, so I committed the day to his room while he was gone. I got the paint, bought a lava lamp, new sheets, pillows, a cool chair, and had Bil dig out some of his old car posters since Mason wanted it to be a 'Cool Car Room'.
When Tommy and Linda heard about my plan they offered to come help, I was so tickled with this. When they arrived I was very glad they were here I was starting to panic, how would I ever get it all done by myself. With their help, we whipped it out, painted, rearranged the furniture, hung the posters and displayed the other new goodies he got. Now it was a waiting game until he came home.
Once he arrived, he was in total awe, which doesn't happen for him often, it was so cute! He loves it. We also put the little TV in there but this cause Summer to have a major break down, she began bawling........"I want a new room with a TV!!! It's not fair......." She cried this over, and over, and over. I assured her that when she turned 8 we would do the same for her. Until then it is Happy 8th Birthday Wishes for our Awesome Boy, Mason! We love you so much and are so proud of you.

Is this the answer??????

My intentions are dreamy good! But reality is I haven't figured out a way to keep up with my scraping and journaling.

When was the last time I dug out everything???? I can't remember.

Currently my supplies and scrapbooks have become dust collectors while my pictures are piling up.

I continue to be inspired with Jenn Bouton's Blog, www.boutonbrood.blogspot.com , so I have decided that I'm going to give blogging a try, could this be the answer to document all those details-big and small that go on in the Westmoreland Family.....I sure hope so!

Here we go........