Pretty Pretty Princess

Back row: Sarah, Dina, Diane & Elizabeth

Front row: Janae, Marci, Nancy, Joanna & Bridget

Ahh, once again it was a "you had to be there" moment with this title. It comes from a something Nancy read. As a mother you spend so much time building up and encouraging your child that you can neglect the bit about building up and encouraging yourself. So sometimes you have just got to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "I'm a pretty pretty princess!" Well, for fun I tried doing that today. I started with a straight face, then the smirk kicked in and I was flat out laughing by the time the sentence was over.

These are my playgroup friends from a previous neighborhood. I started in when Erik was 18 months old and we got together every other week or so until our kids were in kindergarten. We haven't been together as a group for nearly 10 months and finally last week the "moms" got together for dinner. During dessert we had what is affectionately refered to as our "kumbaya" session. There is a serious amount of sass in this group and my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard.

We all readily agree we needed each other at that point in our lives. There is no way it was mere chance we all became part of the same playgroup. What an inspiring group of women. Thank you!

Hiking - It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I don't mean to be redundant with titles but those words are what came to mind after Erik and Daxton came screaming back onto the trail after being stung by bees.

On Saturday we had gone up to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon to a family friendly trail and met up with our neighbor, Lyndsey, and her three kids. The colors were gorgeous and the air was filled with that yummy spicy fall scent. The only downer was when the boys stood on an old log that the bees liked to call home. Amazing enough they received only one sting each. It was unusual how many bees and wasps were in the air along the trail and even back in the parking lot. I had never seen anything like it!

On the drive back I asked everyone who had fun. Claire pipes up, "not me!" She didn't get stung by a bee but did have to use the Forest Service hole-in-the-ground restroom facility. It was smelly, there was no sink or hand sanitizer available (very important to my hygiene conscious daughter), the hole was big and she was concerned about falling in. Amen sister, falling in would scare me too! Erik responded, "medium." This meant he didn't have a great time, but didn't have a bad time either. Darn bees (or wasps). All that aside, the rest of us had fun.

Megan had fun because she got to be carried around by her dad in the backpack.

Erik, Daxton and Kai ready to take on the world. This was before the bees took on them!

Daxton, Kai and Claire. We did see mountain goats too but they were so far up the mountainside I didn't bother to attempt taking any pictures with my sissy camera.

Lyndsey and Janae

Redbox - It seemed like a good idea at the time.

This photo was taken at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, California when Erik was 6 months old. Alright, so a little background on Erik and myself. We are wanna-be marine biologists. The local Aquarium: we have a season pass. The Planet Earth series: we own and love it. The favorite "chapters" from the series are anything to do with the ocean.

With that being said...A couple of weeks ago as I am standing in front of Redbox my eyes lit up when I saw one particular dvd rental title: Shark Week. I checked it out and brought the dvd home. That night after dinner we put the movie in. I was thinking it was going to follow the usual nature program model. Show a variety of sharks in their habitats from all over the world and how they are not man eating killers but docile (not quite friendly mind you) creatures. Throw in the segment how shark fin soup, pollution, and global warming threaten their survival. Top it off with commentary how you can make a difference (as a lone dorsal fin swims off into the sunset dodging its way between commercial fishing vessels).

Instead of the typical movie format, what I saw were the following chapter headings:
Chapter 1- Shark Attack Rescuers
Chapter 2- Shark Attack Survivors
Chapter 3- Anatomy of a Shark Bite

At that point I had 3 dead give aways that perhaps this wasn't the most appropriate viewing material for the three children ages six and under sitting on the couch with me. Despite that evening's hiccup, the last three books Erik has checked out from the school library have been about (you guessed it) sharks.