Remember Who You Are

I overheard Kendal saying,

"...A big house on a hill, or oops forgot my pill..."

Yes I am concerned that out of all the lines in Saturday's Warrior that's the one she started repeating.

DRAW!

About a year ago I beat my little brother out of the Wii Mario Kart Championship Title. I was crowed Queen of Mario Kart. Sean never recovered. You see... he isn't used to being second best. Now and then he'll challenge me to some stupid showdown in an effort to regain some of his pride. Here's our latest duel. Gun Slinging. In a round-robin competition, it all came down to me and him. The winner would take the Title. The final video is still under debate. But it doesn't really matter. As you can see from the first three videos, I am also the Queen of Gun Slinging. And to Sean, if you're reading this, stop challenging me. It's embarrassing to watch a grown man be beat out by his sister over, and over, and over again. It's sad really.

TMI

Raegan and Zach were ridding in the car with my friend Brittney, her mom and her sister.

Raegan: "My mom and dad like to spank each other. But my mom likes to spank my dad more."

Brittney's mom: "Maybe we should change the subject."

I Heart NY

DAY 1
started with a cold.

DAY 2
started in Brooklyn. Our first stop: The Museum of Natural History. (the Night at the Museum place)This is the Mayan god, Bat In Da Cave. Ancient peoples would perform this ritual and make a wish.

Just a few of the many, many pictures of us imitating nature. It was funner than reading all the boring educational stuff.

Rachel's mission while in NY was to take a picture with a "Jew with curls". Mission Failed. It turns out Jews don't like to take pictures with offensive tourists.If you watch Real Housewives of NY, you know where this is. We went in and met Jill's two step sons, who opted not to be in the show. The other brother was ugly, so we opted him not to be in our picture. (This was the closest thing we found to a celebrity.)Ate lunch at a Mexican/Chinese Restaurant. On our way to Soho we found some real NY firefighters... and a mullet on a stick. Delicious. After shopping we stopped at Times Square. Brittney had never seen anything so wonderful!

I heart Pink Berry... a lot.
DAY 3
The goal this day was to fulfill Brittney's dream of riding tandem bikes through Central Park... but first I needed to stop by the upper east side to get a PB&J sandwich from the Peanut Butter Co., some cupcakes from Magnolia's and to see Carrie Bradshaw's apartment. (My leg looks broken.)Our little hearts were crushed when we finally got to Central Park, and all they had were cruisers. We smiled through our disappointment and went on to survive the bike ride from hell. None of us realized how long and hilly that ride would be. We were all nice and greasy for the rest of the day. But it was worth it. Central Park is even prettier in person.
Then we jumped in a cab and drove to 30 ROCK where I was finally able to sit down and dress my wounds. Converse: not good for lots of walking.After chillin at the Gossip Girl hotel, I finished the last of my cupcakes and headed over to the Jimmy Fallon Show.
We were sneaking pictures backstage at The Jimmy Fallon Show. These were very dangerous pictures to take. Camera Nazi's were confiscating cameras right and left. (not really) We did get on TV. They got me trying to poke Rachel Ray's butt after she dissed Brittney's Hi-Five. Rachel Ray's a jerk. We went to dinner at Pop Burger and ate tiny little hamburgers made by tiny little people. (This is the closest thing I have to a drunken clubbing picture.) Some West Side Luv (also a dangerous picture to take)

DAY 4
Breakfast was pizza and bagels served on a dirty subway.We hopped on a crowded Ferry and set off for our next adventure. No one wanted to sit by me. Rude.Some pictures of me:
NY skyline plus a sexy pose...me being adorable...doing the robot.The Statue of Liberty was off da hook

What the...?! That's sick Brittney!

Ellis Island.

Ground Zero. Even while looking at it in person, I still couldn't grasp the utter devastation of what happened there. Flying over Manhattan... nah man, just kidding. It's the Empire State Building. I'm getting bored of this post
View from the top.Little Italy. Is anyone still reading this? A fabulous "authentic" Italian restaurant in Little Italy, fully owned and operated by Mexicans. At last we were back in Brooklyn and ready to go home,but not without taking one last stupid picture.Although my NY dream of being on Cash Cab went unfulfilled, this was the funnest vacation ever. Thanks to Brittney, Rachel, April and little Teressa. And a special thanks to Luke for making it all possible and for not getting mad when he found out there was only 53 cents in the bank account. I love you honey!

The End

A special reward for those of you who read the entire post.

On the plane ride to New York, Brittney asked for my funniest knock, knock, joke. Here it is...

Knock, Knock

Who's there?

I farted

That's a funny joke. We told it a lot.

I think my baby hates me...

I was sitting on the grass at T-ball practice , when Ellie came up behind me, wrapped one arm around my neck and tried to shove something in my mouth. I pushed her hand away and looked at what she was trying to feed me. It was a piece of dried up cat poop.

Camping Es Fun

First, Zach scouted the lay of the land and decided that this was the place. (Raegan and Annabelle concurred... and then giggled.)

We camped right next to a perfect little creek. Can you see our kids? Neither could we. It was wonderful.

This was the "Little Kid Hike" (a.k.a. ten minute walk). Luke and I decided to take our kids further and almost killed ourselves going off trail and slid down a mountain for an addition ten minutes.

This was the "Big Kid Hike". This was a lot of fun... after we found the trail. We drove around for an hour and 15 min before finding the creek that the lead to the Tubs, which creek was only 3 min from our campsite. Before finding the trail we dragged 4 kids and a baby through huge patches of thorn bushes and precariously tossed them back and forth across the creek trying to get down to the Tubs. It was an adventure. Finally finding the Tubs was totally worth it.

This was the picture that made me realize I'm too tan. I look like an Indian. Not a pretty Indian. I look like the old chief.

I loved washing dishes, clothes and the kids in the creek... and fetching the water for our hot chocolate, (oh yes, we drank creek water). I totally could have been one of those women who spent their days at the stream doing chores. I loved it. However, This was my Favorite part about having a creek running through our campsite. This little girl is pure sweet. I could have watched her do this for hours.

This was the awesome swing the boys made. The idea of a super cool swing is great, until they all start asking you to push them.
There was a tree in our campsite with a broken limb dangling from it. The guys were convinced the limb would fall and impale a child, so of course the only logical thing to do was this...

I don't know why we always take the camp out family portrait on the last day. We were all so Gross.

...oh yeah, and Ellie was there too.