A SUPER Weekend

This is going to be way out of character for me. I don't know... dare I say it? At the risk of sounding grown up and responsible I will say it. I think we had way too much fun this weekend.

What? Who said that? What has gotten into me? I'm so ashamed....

This weekend exhausted me. But it was a lot of fun.

Brandon & Beau left for a friend's cabin Thursday night for a fun "guys only" ski trip. Beau ripped it up on his skis and Brandon had fun on his super slider snow skates (thus dubbed by Bradley Meyer; friend and fellow skier). To be fair, I took Mercedes & Reef to a movie Friday with some friends. Then it was a girls night out. No husbands. No brothers. Just us moms & daughters doing what we do best. Shopping. Talking. Eatting.

Then Melinda hatched a plan to "Heart Attack" a couple of girls from church. (I cursed myself all night long for not thinking to bring the camera.) We got home very, very late. So late, in fact, that I'm sure my ski bums were a tiny bit disappointed that we weren't here to welcome them home. So late that it was actually.... tomorrow.

Saturday morning we set off to San Jose to see this Super cool kid get baptized.

Noah Michael Sowards

Ben & Michele Sowards. Noah's parents....

..... and 2 of our most favorite people EVER.

Noah is our 2nd cousin. But I don't really like to think of him that way. That seems so...distant. You see, Ben & Brandon are first cousins. They're also great friends and favorite surfing buddies. So it's only natural that Michele and I have become very close over the past decade. We have many, many memories with these guys. Many, many inside jokes. And many, many similarities. Their family has just moved back to the Bay Area from Southern California and I can't tell you how thrilled we are to have them back home. We are "Uncle B" and "Aunt Tiff" to Noah & his siblings. Our kids call his parents "Uncle Ben" and "Aunt Mishi". That's just the way we roll here at "Team Cuz".

It was very hard to pull ourselves away from the fun festivities and great company. But we had a surprise for the kids. We were on our way to AT&T Park in San Francisco to watch Supercross. The kids were stoked when we told them. You might think they're too young to follow the dirtbiking circuit but then you've never caught my boys outside playing "dirtbike". They call eachother the names of the pro racers. They attempt wheelies on their bikes. They pull off pretend jumps and stage fake crashes. They eat this stuff up. It was so fun to watch them wide-eyed as their favorites were introduced amongst an awesome fireworks & laser show. Mercedes screamed at each introduction as if she were at some tweeny rock concert. We fed them ballpark classics like hot dogs, churros, french fries, soda, and cotton candy. But all of the yummy grub was an easily forgotten sidenote to actually being in the same stadium as these racers who now rank up there with Super heroes. Watching my childrens faces full of wonderment, excitement, and awe made the trip out there and the money spent on tickets soooo worth it. Beau leaned over to me once the 2-Stroke exhaust had billowed up to our seats and said, "Aaaaahhhhh, that smells goooooooood."Well... that was almost more rewarding than the Main Event for me. (Have I ever told you how much I love that smell? He's a boy after my own heart.) I also marveled at how a sea of people from all different walks of life respectfully stood, removed hats, and placed hands over hearts as the Air Force marched in with the American Flag and the National Anthem was sung. You won't find that at a PETA convention! (Or in most schools these days come to think of it.) So we had a blast that night and were in such a state of euphoria (or maybe we were just intoxicated from all of the exhaust) that it didn't even bother us to sit, parked on the pier, for over an hour before finally being able to wiggle our way out of the parking lot.


















We returned home late that night. Or early Sunday morning. Take your pick. I have no shame in telling you that we slept in until *gasp* 11am. We were super tired. After church it was back to Ben & Mishi's for a Superbowl party. And a super funny 1 hour episode of The Office. ("Stanley was attacked by his own heart." Hilarious.) We returned home late, once again but it was all worth it.


So now you see how we've had too much fun this past weekend. This is why my kids' have been fed Mac n Cheese, Ravioli's, and eggs & toast for dinners this week. This is why I was in my PJ's before 7 pm on Monday night and fast asleep by 9. This is why there was a mountain of dishes in the kitchen sink until about 45 minutes ago. But it's just what we do. We are a family that works hard& plays hard. And I can't think of better playmates to make these super memories with.