Just reminiscing about our California vacation visiting family for a few weeks. What a great time we had! While we were there we were able to celebrate Mom & Pop's 50th wedding anniversary - what a treat! 50 years is quite an achievement when you think of it! And 3 great kids to show for it (and a few other fine accessories like a FAB son & daughter in law - wink, wink...and a cute little grand-daughter). In addition to the anniversary festivities, I crafted some wicked abdominal muscles while Wii wakeboarding. We spent some time listening to vuvuzela's and checking out the Patterson Apricot Fiesta. Abby & Aunt Julie read a combined 72 million words during their shared "reading time". Of course, we can't forget electric blue toes and fingers...or the Pub Mix. Oh yeah...I'm a fan of the Pub Mix.

Here's a little compilation video from some of my Patterson photo shoots...enjoy!

Patterson 2010 from kristin amaro on Vimeo.

This is "pet" week at I Heart Faces...a perfect opportunity to welcome the newest member of Club Amaro:

Greetings to you all...here's a recent update straight from the Club Amaro Compound.  Abby has been attending day camp this week.     The two previous weeks were spent in California visiting Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Anthony, Aunt Julie, Uncle Paul and various friends from the Bay Area.   It was a super fabulous time which also included a little trip to Monterey (pull out a map of the US....see any beaches around Middle Tennessee?    Yeah, me neither.   So this California transplant had to dip her toe in the Pacific - even if only for a few hours).    

Note:  please check out my pictures from our Monterey trip, you can see them by visiting my AFH site here.

Great time.    Lots of Wii.    Lots of laughs.   Lots of eating.   You know the vacation drill.

So prior to our trip to California, I spent some time visualizing what it would be like for Abby that Monday after getting back from a jam packed vacation.  Waking up to Mom and Dad's morning breath with nothing planned for the week ahead whatsoever.   I mean, what kind of let down is that?   Spending 2 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa and then.....what?....running errands with Mom?    OH YEAH.......that's a recipe for summer disaster.

SO.   Mike and I purchased a day-camp week at a local ranch here in town (yes, our city has ranches!)  for the week right after returning from CA.    I mean, it's a proper camp with counselors, camp food, activities and the like.    We told her about it before going on vacation...    And yes, that was very strategic.    Mwaaahhahhhahahahhhaaaa!


Camp starts Monday morning....so Sunday evening we get the child to bed early.   Around 11pm or so, I hear the toilet flush (I'm in bed, reading).   I think to myself, hmmmm....    Abby very rarely gets up to go to the bathroom so I knew that she must be not sleeping.   About 11:30pm, I hear her little footsteps coming towards the room.   Next thing I know, she's standing in front of me.

"Mom....I've been asleep all this time {yeah, right} and I was wondering....is it morning yet?"

"No sweetheart...it's 11:30"

"How much longer until I have to get up?"

"7 and a half hours"

"Sigh......I'm SO excited to go to camp"

I remind her that she needs good sleep so she can be full strength for the 9 hours she'll be at camp the next day.   So I tuck her in and pray for her and shuffle back to the room to be reunited with my buddy pillow.  About 20 minutes later:

in a whisper:  "Mom.    I went to sleep for awhile {yeah, right} but I came to let you know that my water bottle is empty and I'm thirsty."

"Sigh....Ok, I will fill your bottle up.   But c'mon....you have got to get some sleep sister!"

"I know, I know...."

So I fill up her bottle.   Tuck her in and shuffle back to the room again.   My buddy pillow has lost it's indentions - I hate that.   10 minutes later:

"Mom.    It's so hot - I need a ponytail."

Fortunately, that was the last time she got up.   It was way after midnight I'm sure before she got to sleep.   And I'm here to tell ya that when her alarm went off the next morning it may as well have been all the way in China.   She was not hearing it.   Nonetheless, she got off to camp and had the most exciting day.    Same story for Tuesday and Wednesday.     Horseback riding and swimming every day have been the huge highlights.   Especially the horseback riding.

Today, Mike and I went to pick her up.   We were waiting in the car for the counselor to bring her out.   She walks up to the car with a huge smile on her sweaty face and reports to us, "I got bit by a horse today!".   Mike and I, in unison chime back, "You got bit by a horse?"      YEP!     Apparently the horse riding in front of her turned around and nipped her leg....we got the impression from her that the cowboy said the horse was trying to nip her horse because he was getting too close.   [Completely unrelated side note....did you know that when I was 19 I got a ticket for following too close + excessive honking? I'll have to share that story one of these days]  She has a little mark on her leg and everything (no skin broken, though).    After we processed that event, she went on to tell us about the rest of the day.  

Each day I've asked her what her most favorite thing was all day.   Her response each day has been "riding the horses".    I thought for sure she'd be done with horses after this episode, but she said riding was still her favorite part.    I was proud of her for not letting a few horse teeth get in the way of her enjoying the horseback riding.  So there you go.

Two more days of camp left.   Hopefully the horses will lay off the calves of my precious offspring and there will be more wonderful memories.

Wonder what we'll do next week....?

This past weekend we took a trip to Cheekwood and spent some time roaming around.   I couldn't stop taking pictures of the Chihuly sculptures - they were absolutely amazing!   I did manage to shoot just a few pictures of flowers...but my favorite flower of all goes by the name of Abby.   I could name so many great attributes about her, but this particular day the one that stood out most was "self-posing".    No longer do I have to prompt Abby to pose, she just says, "Mom.  Take one of me like this"  

Yeah....she rocks it.






Please check out the Cheekwood posts at AFH - there's lotsa, lotsa pics to see!!