I love these beautiful kids.

In Another Life . . .

In another life, Brady would have been a drummer. Heaven knows he's got the hair. He's definitely got the rhythm.  Now he's got drums.

Most of the time life is perfectly predictable.  It flows an easy course that can be charted on a timeline long before it happens.  Though sometimes there are sporadic twists you don't see coming, generally without wild outcomes. In fact, I can't think of a single 'life choice' I've made that turned any heads.

 Sometimes it is fun to brainstorm what life would be if it had taken a different spin- same you, but alternate, more edgy choices.     

In another life Brady might:  

- Be a CIA field operative 

- Still be playing rugby

- Be a dentist, chronically bored, and already rich

- Be training as a Navy Seal

-Live in New Zealand

In another life Dani would:

- Still live in D.C. but instead would work on Capitol Hill, wear pencil skirts, and have a law degree. Who knows, maybe I'd even be a democrat (don't worry dad, this is an ALTERNATE life. .. :) )

-Live in Girdwood Alaska, as a trail running hippie

What would you do in your "other life?" Have you ever felt like you actually took the divergent path?

Here Brady  is with his drum debut at the church talent show, and basement jammin' with Liam.  I'm happy to see him get into music, good things to come.

shenanigans

 Here Liam has decorated himself, including his feet, belly and even his sister, with Lego stickers. He is posed here looking like a dinosaur.  He says the inspiration for this sticker attack came from dinosaur scales he saw in a book.

Liam came to me and said "Mom, have you ever noticed that you're room is VERY, VERY, BORING?!"
That's why I decided to share some things with you, to make you less bored. So you could have fun. I moved in my toys, my spider-man chair, my basketball hoop, and me, in my bed." :)

(The bed is not pictured but he somehow he did move his entire bed, frame and all, through 2 doors and into our room, all by himself. . .and unnoticed)

Here is Elsie cozied up to . . .yep, an ear of corn.

Liam got these heavenly white peonies for me (even better yet, from our back yard)

I come from a long line of mothers who rock. It's true, Brady and I both come from top tier mothers. The kind that are overflowing with love and make 'regular people" look lazy.  Our mothers cared for huge, 5-6 kid sized, families and gave up, or more accurately gifted, a lot of themselves in the process.  They always had the impressive ability to make people around them feel valued.
 I have both a lot to live up to and a lot to pass on. Thanks Moms!

 Let's face it, Mothers Day isn't exactly the most exciting day of the year. Except if you're the people that live across the street from us, who were having a huge party with pinatas, loud music, tons of people and making us feel, well, boring. We decided to liven up mothers day by taking a spin downtown.  Spiced things right up. I love this place.

Happy Birthday Elsie!

Elsie melts my heart. I never dreamed I would have such a beautiful curly haired, blue eyed girl. She sings made-up songs to herself about meat and her Dora undies. She dances on cue. She loves eating pink food, snuggling with her pink blanket, and wearing pink clothes. Her hobbies include saying 'Hi' to cats and dogs and jumping off steps.  Ah, the good life.

Happy Birthday Liam!

        The love I have for Liam is energizing. He is the boy that every mom wants. The one that tells her she's pretty, and picks tiny, yellow, buttercup flowers for her when we go on walks.
     
 In this picture here he has dressed himself as a samurai to get ready for his 5 year old birthday party. Then he realized he was having a hard time talking with the tape and all so he switched to just the headband.  He found this hairy caterpillar and took great care of it until it snuck off.

    Liam loves  playing Nina these days. Today he said "Mom, do you know the difference between a ninja and a samurai? Ninjas are so quiet that when they walk you can't hear even them, but samurais, they make the floor 'creek'. "

His party had ninja Lego invites, spider-man napkins, star wars cups. Pretty much sums it up.

fish pond

 We have an abandoned koi pond next to us. The fish haven't been fed in years but live off bugs (like the creepy spider shown here) and the marshy nastiness at the bottom of the water.

spring plantings, nearly flowerless flower beds

Even more than planting, I love transplanting. I usually spend the summer taking notes on who blooms best and which flowers flop. During winter I make a long list of what I want to change. I stare at the same empty spots or misplanted flower wreckage for months. I google to find if I have the right soil, or enough sun, and then when warm-ish weather finally hits, I make my move.

     This past month I got my hands dirty gutting my flower bed.   I started from scratch last spring with a weedy, seedy, dirt pile.  It was begging to be redone. Last year nothing bloomed according to plan. My seedlings withered. I tried to coerce sun loving plants to be happy with shade and yep, their roots mildewed. A few weeks of 105 degree D.C.weather zapped most of my Michigan transplants. So this spring I've I put up lots of weed barrier and mulched away. I've decided to forget about showy flowers and focus on hostas, and fall bloomers. It's nothing sexy but it seems to be working, so far. 

While it's hard for me to get excited about a plant without blooms,this monster hosta gets bigger by the day packs a lot of personality.

A quick list of the other plants in my garden-
lillies (stell o'dora and hybridized)
spiderwort
soneflower
shasta daisies
hydrangea
sedum- autumn joy and creeping
hollyhock
peonies
rose of Sharron

The Perfect San Diego Getaway

This vacation was the perfect, romantic escape. It was a great way to celebrate our 7th (!!!) anniversary and create some sweet memories. I wouldn't change a thing about our trip. We spent time exploring and seeing, but also just the right amount of time relaxing and unwinding.

 With our kid-less independence we went to roof- top parties, nice restaurants, swimming, tandem biking (we laughed the entire time!), went on walks along the ocean, stayed out late, slept in, and went to the movies (we got busted trying to sneak in some Pop-Secret popcorn... I guess the name wasn't quite accurate this time; at least they didn't catch our other candy. We figured we did her a favor of providing the satisfaction of doing bag checks all day and finally getting to bust down).

I always wondered what goes on at Brady's conferences, so I snuck in with him this time. We had fun at some conference parties together. He insists it's not usually as much fun as we had. This is outside a live-jazz restaurant we went to. I also had fun ditching him at the conference to go shopping and get my hair done.

I thought about the kids relentlessly and missed them dearly, but was happy they were playing with Nana and Papa in Utah.

Our tandem bike, which we didn't have a lock for, and weren't allowed to ride on the sand... so we carried it to the water.

Brady taking revenge on not getting to play in the water during our last visit.

Maybe we'll stay here when we return after another 7 years...

  

Brady intentionally did not remind me that I still had my helmet and glasses on; I "looked too cute to ruin it", and I was having so much fun I didn't really care about how nerdy I looked.

 Here's the ferry we took to Coronado. The buildings on the right were the conference hotels. We stayed .5 miles east at the Gaslamp District.


Life doesn't afford us any re-dos. But this vacation comes close.
Brady and I went to San Diego on our honeymoon. When I think about the first time Brady and I were in San Diego, exactly 7 years ago, it was a little stressful, a little creepy, and we did have some good times, but lots that could go wrong, did.

Brady was on narcotics, one week post-op from major shoulder surgery, in pain, and feeling taxed. He had 24 staples in his arm and a sling that immobilized his right side. He left his debit card in the ATM on the way to the airport. I was a college student with a nearly zeroed out bank account.  Also I forgot that my drivers license had just expired and I couldn't drive the rental car. Sorry, Brady. The rental car we did find came from some secret, hidden lot, and was probably stolen and used to transport dead bodies across the border.

We stayed 20 minutes South of San Diego, just North of Tiajuana, in the middle of nowhere safe, in a neighborhood where other motels posted signs reading "NO PROSTITUTES!! NO DRUG SELLING!" posted outside. The place wreaked, and felt totally shady.  We didn't know what we were doing and spent most of our time driving around. We took one roll of film (and have yet to get the pictures developed). It was that good. But we were in love and enjoyed it all the same. We laugh about it all the time.

FAST FORWARD 7 YEARS. . . We come back to San Diego but it feels like a totally new city.  We stay downtown in modern, charming 4-star hotels,  and eat at swanky sushi joints. We order steak at 10:00 pm, just for fun.  To be sentimental we try to find the one nice restaurant that we went to last time, but ironically it has been replaced by a new establishment.  When the end of the week rolls around I am so sad to leave and can't wait to come back.  I'll never forget San Diego.

The picture above is of Brady's arm. If you look carefully you can see the 6-inch faded purple scar. It's almost not there anymore. If you look even more carefully you can see the holes of the 24 staples (which kept him out of the Pacific on Round 1-- but not this time). Brady's arm, as you can tell, is as strong as ever. ..  and so are we.
 Happy 7th year anniversary.