Andrew, Ally, and Grandma on the Left coast

Grandma brought Andrew and Ally out for a week in August and we had a blast with them!! Here is my 6 foot tall nephew!! I remember when he turned 2 I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he told me, "Simba and Apple Jacks" so I got him a stuffed Simba (from Lion King) and a box of Apple Jacks cereal! This is the first boy I ever truly loved and now I get his hand me down clothes...

And Ally taught me that you really can love the next one just as much as the first one - isn't she gorgeous? Both of them are sweet, smart kids

Some fun with the underwater camera! Even Grandma got in the action!!

Some fun at the beach! We had a day where Grandma stayed home with Alex and Kate and Tom, Andrew, Ally, and I went to the beach. For the first time in 4 years I was able to close my eyes on the beach!! Very relaxing - hmmm... maybe I'll go today! It was so fun swimming in the ocean with my nephew and niece! For the first half hour out in the water with them I felt like I had to reach out and get them when a big wave came like they were little kids - but they're not! It was quite an adjustment! We all surfed - Andrew got up on the first wave and looked like a pro out there on the long board! Ally got up almost every time - you can tell if they lived here they'd be surfers!!

Hanging out at home






Uncle Gordie came to visit from Japan! Don't you know he stands out like a turd in a punch bowl in Japan!! This is his first time seeing Kate!







Eating out --- Posisedon on the beach in Del Mar

the view... not bad!

Pipes in Leucadia


and our favorite --- Soup Plantation!

Finishing out July!

Here are a couple of pics from Alex's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. We borrowed the idea of a doughnut birthday cake from my best friend Susan. It is now the Bobowski Family traditional birthday cake! It was so easy!! After Alex blew out the candles and took the top doughnut (with sprinkles) all the kids just reached out and got their own doughnut - no waiting, no whining, no requesting a certain piece of the cake, no knife ... EASY - and then they were off on their sugar high to play where a "kid can be a kid!"


What made Alex's birthday so special? His Ciocia ("Aunt" in Polish) Iza came for a visit!

She and I had a Girls Nite Out while she was here with a few friends. We went to a "Mystery Dinner Cruise" in the Harbor and it was such a good time!! I would highly recommend it!


Few more pics from the fair - I took Alex and Kate to see Freestyle MotoCross and Monster Trucks! They loved the motorcycles (who doesn't?) and they probably would've liked the Monster Trucks... at Qualcomm! Here at the fair we were so close and it was SO LOUD that I was afraid it would damage their little ears so we didn't get to see that much of it.


Alex had his first school field trip! We (yes, Kate and I went - it was a "first"!) rode the bus to downtown Encinitas and walked up to the library and had a picnic lunch at the park! It was a lot of fun!
Alex and his school friends!

The book he picked out (by himself) at the library!

Alex and "School Kate"!

Here is a picture of Kate and her little friend Lyla. Lyla is 2 months older than Kate and lives across the street. They play together so well! Lyla's mom Lauren is a Kettlebell instructor and I'm not very happy with her today... I am so sore from a workout at her private studio yesterday!! She has a blog, you can find a link to it on the sidebar of my blog and she has an awesome dvd out for anyone who needs an efficient, fat blasting, body sculpting workout.

The kids helping daddy wash his car. Notice how wet Tom is!! Alex is so funny! While he was spraying the tires he turned the hose on Tom and said, "Ooops daddy - it slipped!"

This is Tom convincing Alex that the hose is stuck! What fun in the front yard!


Stay tuned for the August blog - Grandma, Andrew, and Ally came to visit and we snapped a couple of photos while they were here! Praise God for digital cameras!! But, just wait til you see my niece and nephew!! They are no longer little kids and they are GORGEOUS!!!

Alex is 4!

Four years ago today I became a mom. A very blessed mom to a gorgeous, smart, funny, sweet little boy. I asked him what he wanted to do today. He said he wanted to "ride skybuckets". So, that is what we did.


We spent the day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo! We got there at 10:15am and left at 7:30 pm! We rode the skybuckets really more times than I can remember. Eventually we didn't even have to show our pass anymore! We did see a few animals too! Here is Alex climbing with the monkeys!

and Kate climbing with / on the apes...

We also rode the bus which we very rarely do at the zoo but, it was Alex's special day and it was Kate's first time on the Zoo bus.

We also rode the train

the carousel... this was a full 5 minute ride that went much faster than I remember carousels going. I thought I was going to puke. How sad. I used to ride all those crazy fair rides now I can't handle the carousel. It went fast though seriously!

Alex rode the planes and we met a little girl named Quinn who was there celebrating HER 4th birthday and don't you know they were born in the same hospital!! How random cool is that!


During the middle of the day when it was really hot (78 degrees) and even the animals were smart enough to hide in the shade, we walked around Balboa Park. Kate, who was an absolute trooper the whole day, slept for about 40 minutes!




Alex gave Kate some walking lessons in the grass

Of course, Alex also had his school party on Weds. Here is his birthday hat Miss Corrine made for him. Hippos. Don't ask. Because I do not know. Last year was trash trucks which I understood. This year - hippos. ?????????????


Stay tuned because we still have his birthday party at (the clean) Chuck E. Cheese's on Sunday!

Deeper Still...

June 27 - 29th was my first time away from Kate since she was born... and my first trip away from both kids. (I have spent a few weekends away from Alex before Kate was born) I met my best friend (of 31 YEARS!!) Susan in Atlanta at the Deeper Still conference featuring 3 of the top Bible teacher's in the country. I can't think of a better way to spend my first weekend away from the kids than growing in my faith and really recharging my batteries!!

First - THE FLIGHT... *sigh* It was so relaxing!! True, I had a middle seat BUT, it was in an emergency exit row AND I had NO ONE on my lap! Oh the space!!! I got to watch a movie (27 Dresses), read my magazine, go to the bathroom BY MYSELF, and have a margarita! Wahoo!! It was truly a vacation unto itself. I haven't flown without someone on my lap in 4 years!!
Friday evening Susan and I got great seats in the SOLD OUT Phillips Arena! Priscilla Shirer spoke on how sometimes the only way God can get us to LOOK UP (read: seek Him) is to put us flat on our backs and that these times in the "wilderness" set us up to experience God in a whole new way. "You are more protected IN the wilderness WITH God than OUT of the wilderness WITHOUT God."
Saturday, Kay Arthur was some kind of FIRED UP!! Her message sounded very political to start with but, after digesting it a bit this is what I got from Kay: It's not difficult to discern between what is right and what is wrong, where we stumble is discerning between what is right and what is almost right. Between what is right and what is not quite right... as an example she pulled out a copy of the very highly touted (by Oprah) book "A New Earth". She urged us to dig into the Bible and study God's word on our own so we would be well equipped to be able to discern "right" from the "trying to disguise itself as right".
Oh - and vote accordingly!

As Beth came onto the stage I leaned over to Susan and said, "What's that noise?" Susan listened intently for about a half a second and said, "Rain." I tried really hard to sit and listen to Beth - she was who I had been waiting for!! But, RAIN!!! Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer - I just HAD to SEE it!! So I ran out into the lobby and there it was: RAIN! Glorious Rain!! It was coming down in SHEETS! The stairs next to the Arena looked like a waterfall! It smelled so good and it THUNDERED!!!!! It really took all my self control not to run into it!!

It doesn't rain like that in Southern California (isn't that a song?)
O.k. Beth - her passion for God's word is so infectious and inspiring! The first thing I got from Beth was that we need to "settle the matter of Spiritual authority" every morning. She talked about how you need to be seeking God daily and getting fresh revelations from His word and if you aren't doing that - it is too easy to slide into legalism or just going through the motions. "Your testimony shouldn't be about 20 years ago - What's He doing in your life TODAY?"
She taught on John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of Grace and truth." She broke this simple verse down - just amazing! How many times have I read that verse and she opens it up like a gift I have never even seen before! The one thing that jumped out at me though was when she said, "How wonderful to be in a loving relationship with someone who is 'full'. Just to give you something to compare it to - have you ever been in a relationship with someone who is empty?" It sounded like a few of the 19,000 women in the SOLD OUT arena had indeed been in a relationship with someone who was empty...
Jesus will NEVER be out of Grace for me!!
"But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, He will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure."
1 John 1:9
Saturday Nite after the event (are you still reading??) Susan and I had dinner with an old friend Danny. Susan, Danny, and I were camp counselors at Pine Camp when we were in high school and some 20 years (gulp) later we all have kids that will be 4 this summer! How cool is that?
Sunday... Ah, Sunday... don't mean to brag but Susan and I slept in til 12:30PM! That is AFTER NOON people! It was amazing! Then Susan took me to a place for brunch (what was the name of it again? this is where I find out if Susan is still reading...) where I had - get this - grits pancakes! The grits had three cheeses and herbs then were made into little pancakes... Insane. They really shouldn't even be legal but I am so glad they were!!
Then, the flight home... a window seat, in the emergency exit row - (ah, the space) with no one on my lap, pulling on my clothes and my hair... I studied my notes from the conference, read a magazine and listened to my ipod...
It was an amazing weekend and Susan and I have decided we must do it at least once a year! I'm looking forward to it!
But, boy, it was beyond great to see Tom and my babies at the airport Sunday afternoon!!

Kate's first concert & the Fair

Technically this was Kate's first concert - it was the Switchfoot BroAm at Moonlight Beach June 7th. It is a big surf contest with a bunch of bands at the beach. We've always liked Switchfoot and even tried out the church where their dad is a pastor so this was a fun first concert for her!


Her second concert was Steel Pulse at the San Diego Fair but, we only stayed for a few minutes because the air was mighty sweet smellin' if you know what I mean!!! I loved Steel Pulse in college and still have a few of their songs on my ipod!


Here are a few pictures of Alex on various rides at the fair! We had a great day - we had a huge elephant ear AND ice cream! While we were eating our ice cream we were standing very near to where the bungee jumping tower was and when Alex saw the first person jump he said, "Mama, WHY are they jumping off that thing???" Good question Alex, good question.





We're going back to the fair tomorrow because they are going to have Monster Trucks and MotoCross!! "We'll sell you the whole seat but, you'll only need the edge...!"

Kate

took her first few steps today!! She's been standing up without holding onto anything for a few days now and today at the pool she stood up for a long time so I squatted in front of her and held my arms out and she took a few steps to me!! it was so exciting! She did it a few more times and then stood up alot later in the day. I thought she'd be too tired when Tom came home but she walked once from me to him right before her bath! She is fifteen months old TODAY so it is about the same age as Alex when he first walked. I think he was 14.5 months and took his first steps on the beach in Hawaii! I will try and get pictures of her walking tomorrow...

My first 10K

Sucked. Let's just say I'm thankful that there are NOT any pictures to go along with this blog!! First, I did not train properly for it. I had only run the distance once ever before race day and it was the week prior. Race day was HOT, much hotter than when I usually run. About mile 4 I realized I was NOT going to hit my pace so my mantra became "no walking - just don't walk..." and also this is where I really had to pee! It is no fun running with a full bladder! It was a weird feeling though because I also felt dehydrated so I was annoyed that I could feel dehydrated and have to pee so bad. That just ain't right. Mile 5 and I was thinking, "Never again - just get to the finish line and get this race OVER with!" Also, my best friend Susan is training for a MARATHON right now so about mile 5.5 she became my hero! I am really impressed with her because she just started running a couple of years ago after having her 2nd child. Before that I think the farthest she ever ran was down the vault runway in gymnastics when she was 10...
The one smart thing I did for this race was ask my friend Keri to run it with me. Keri is a runner and she is fast. I knew she'd finish the race a minimum of 20 minutes before me so I jokingly told her not to forget my water when she met me at the finish line. Praise God for Keri my new hero. Shortly after crossing the finish line I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked back and she was handing me a cold water!! Then, she went and got me some gatorade and a plate of food. I wasn't hungry at first but, when I was she even let me have the chocolate chip muffin. Not only my hero but, my new best friend!! I told her "never again" and she told me not to make that decision right now then she told me a couple of her race struggle stories which was really encouraging to me because she is one of the runners/people I really look up to. Next time I'll train better though I probably won't do any more 10K's this year. I need to start training for my 60 mile walk...