Time For Lenghty Yet Needed Update

I guess you could say that my "addiction" to blogging has diminished. What the cause is remains unknown, but it could be credited to school (I will finally get by BA in May), having my 3 kids home for the summer, or it being summer and my need to spend most of the time by the pool and out of the house. Whatever the reason, I haven't updated in several months and figured that y'all (okay, a few of you) might want to know what has been happening in the Wallin household. That would be...a lot.

April (yeah. I know. I have posted somethings since then but I haven't done Caleb's birthday party. Really stinks to be kid number 3)-Caleb is obsessed with all things pirate (and Harry Potter, Wall-e, and, thanks to my mom, Spiderman) so we had a pirate party for him with his best buds Matthew, Luke, and Emerson. I am not a big party planning person, I leave that to Isabelle, so there really wasn't much to the party. But hey, everyone loves to just play at 3.

May-I finished school, for the semester, and enjoyed a brief break from that. For Memorial Day, we went camping with the Gee's. It was a blast. All I know is that s'mores go great with everything any time of the day. Then I started school again for a 5-week intensive session. Man, it was tough. Some how I can juggle 15 hours during a normal semester, but 6 hours almost killed me. Literally. I would tell Jordan not to worry if he came home and I was hanging from the stairwell. I also finished my third quilt, for my nephew Owen.

June-School continued for me, but ended for the girls. Lucky for them my sweet sister Caitlin (16 and super cute) came out for two weeks to help me with them. She was awesome! I would call from school to see what they were doing and they would be at a children's museum. Who does that!? With a visit from her also meant a visit from my mom. That is always a bonus and something to look forward to. While she was here, we decided to take her and Caitlin to the state park we camped at with the Gee's (Stone Mountain) and take a lunch and do a little hike. Well, it is a good thing that my mom is in super good shape (better than me, which I guess isn't saying much, but she does marathons so that should mean something). Anyway, our "little" hike turned into a 4 hour ordeal. We hiked a loop that was supposedly 4.5 miles but didn't realize that we would be hiking from the bottom of the river bed to the summit of the mountain. That said, we had a great time. And, what, Michael Jackson died!

July-Lots of pool time. I needed the sun, although Jordan might disagree with that. The kids and I did lots of playing, courtesy of our museum membership to Booneshoft (if you have ever considered buying a pass, this is the best one). July flew buy. Two highlights-Jordan turned 31 and he and I got to spend a kid free weekend (thanks Tim and Cami) in Charleston. For Jordan's birthday, we invited a few families over and had cake and ice cream. It made for a great Family Night. Then, we went to the Wild Dunes Resort, where we stayed in March with the kids, for Jordan to attend a conference. I think he was a little worried about what I would do while he was in meetings, but he didn't need to. His meetings only went until noon. We drove down with Jordan's co-resident, Kristen, and her husband Cody. On Friday morning (July 31), Cody and I went to breakfast together since our spouses were gone. I am pretty sure that the waitress thought we were having an affair because after enjoying a great breakfast and good conversation we asked for the ticket to be split. We had a good laugh about that. Then I went to the pool, by myself, and read and laid out and didn't get asked to come play in the pool once. What a luxury! When Jordan was done, we grabbed some lunch and headed down to the beach. The water was so warm. That night we went to Charleston for some great dinner at McGrady's. Now, I love good food and this was great! I would go into detail, but then this post would get really, really long. Let's just say the duck was unbelievable and the tomatoes were so meaty and delicious. The next morning was more of the same and we headed home so I could get ready to go to UT with the kids.

August-On Aug 2, the kids and I made the journey to Utah, which was pretty uneventful. Once we were there, we spent time with my sister and her kids who we hadn't seen in a year. Thanks, Shawni, for making the trip to see us. It was nice to see so much family (my mom arranged to have her family come over for ice cream one night) and to see a few friends. I always wish we could see more people, but two weeks get filled pretty quickly. We went to Liberty Park to the splash pad with my mom, sisters, brother, and the kids. It was fun until Abbi was hit by some kid running around with his eyes closed. She was left with a big goose egg on her right cheek just under her eye (the bruise remained for the rest of the trip and was really ugly). We also went to the children's museum at Gateway and did some damage at the Shade store. Izzy was able to spend a day with Nana (Jordan's mom) because poor Abbi was sick (she had a rough first week in UT). We spent a few days at my dad's house and had a great time. I did more damage at the outlets there in Park City to get the kids ready for school. Yes, all the kids. Caleb goes to preschool this year. When Jordan finally arrived, on Aug 8, it was time to spend time with his side of the family. We immediately set off for Grandpa Wallin's 91st birthday party. It was great to see aunts, uncles, and cousins that we rarely get to see. We had a get together with some of our friends on the following day and it was great to see everyone (thanks Vanessa, Faith, Matt, and Lynds for coming out). Monday we made our way to Logan to have a BBQ with Nana and all of Jordan's brother and their families. Brandon (one of Jordan's brothers) has a great house in Providence and he hosted the party. They have a pool and Brandon was a little over zealous in heating the pool, but the kids all had fun. The next morning we headed to...drum roll please...Lake Powell! Jordan and I haven't been since Abbi was a baby so it was great to go. We went with Jordan's dad, Craig, and his wife, Barbara, and all three of Jordan's older brothers and their families. We had such a great time. Izzy tried to ski. Abbi tried to wake board. Jordan and I both skied. Jordan got me to cliff jump (quite a feat since I am afraid of heights). And some serious tubing, especially for Caleb. As a side note, Caleb LOVES the pool. He is crazy in the water, but he did not want to get into the lake. As a result, he was tortured a few times. First he was forced into the water with Jordan, assisted by myself, to ski with Jordan. He kept telling Jordan "I no swim." To which Jordan would reply, "Good, we aren't swimming. We are skiing." And Caleb would say, "I no ski!" Well, he skied anyway. The second time was when the girls were trying to ski/wake board. We were right by the houseboat and Caleb kept telling me he wanted to go to the big boat. And I told him the only way to get back to the boat was to swim, which he did not want to do. Anyway, he kept saying he wanted to go to the big boat so I scooped him in my arms and jumped in and swam to the house boat. He didn't like this much but we did make it to the houseboat. Needless to say, we didn't need to worry much about him drowning.
After five days at Lake Powell, we headed back to SL so we could come back home. It was a whirlwind vacation, but we had a great time. Once back in NC, we immediately jumped back into life. Abbi started gymnastics camp and quickly informed me that she wanted to keep going so she could go to the Olympics, so we signed her up right away for the rec team. She is excited to start back up in a few weeks. Izzy decided that she wanted to do horseback riding, so I had to find her a barn to ride at. Caleb decided to become and asthmatic and now gets to use an inhaler a few times a day. To top it all off, last night, Aug 21, I took the girls to the Jonas Brother's concert. All I can say is, wow! We all had a lot of fun and it was so great to see them so excited! Now we are getting ready for school to start and we are all excited about this next year.

(This is the screaming I enjoyed at the concert)

Well, that is what's happening in our lives. Hopefully I will stay on top of this blogging thing so my posts don't have to be essays.