Too blessed?

I don't have a problem counting my blessings. I know how blessed we are, and am reminded every single day. I have 3 beautiful healthy boys, a wonderful loving husband who is gainfully employed, and an amazing family that is so integral to it all.

The thing is, sometimes I feel guilty. And not just guilty, but anxious. Like things are TOO good, and my world is just going to come crashing down on me any minute.

While on our roadtrip last week, we got a call that Adrian had been in a motorcycle accident. Someone had run a red light and plowed straight into him. He has been in a drug induced coma and on ventilators for the better part of the week. We are so grateful that he was wearing a helmet and that his head and spine have are fine. The whole right side of his body is a different story. He is progressing toward health each day, and I told Nichole that he is strong and doing it all for his family. And I truly believe it.

After we got the news of Adrian's accident, I told Ben that "I just can't worry enough". I was worried about our 3 carloads traveling safely. I was terrified that I was going to have to watch my parents in the Blazer roll over or see Brooke in the truck behind us go off the road. Nonsense worries, but they consumed me none the less.

Then, just this morning, my dad called to tell me that Joy had been laid off. My sweet sister Joy has been through hell and back these last few years. She did her best to make an unhappy marriage work. Even then the jerk decided to go make a baby with someone else and tear their family apart. Joy moved two thousand miles away from the family to make her then husband and his family happy. Now she is stuck there. Alone. My heart breaks for her almost on a daily basis. She does the best she can, and is a much stronger person than I. But she faces more frustration and sadness than I can even comprehend.

I was on the phone with her this morning, trying to help her deal with the layoff. Dad has told her to take a month to herself. To do the things that she doesn't have time for when she is working and being the main caregiver to the girls. I told her that I agreed with dad and that all we want (the whole family) is for her to be happy. We both cried, because we know that she has not truly been happy for a long time. Yes, we enjoyed our vacation together, and she loves her girls, but she deserves true, burning happiness. And she has been denied it for way too long.

I had to go after that, because we were both too overcome by emotions to talk. But things didn't end there, that was when I really started to wonder how Ben and I had been so protected from such heartache... and what is in store for us down the road?

Seadoos, of course!

What do we do when family comes to town? Seadoos, of course!

Tuesday we packed up and headed down to Mission Bay, and Jillian got to come too!

The cousins had a great time splashing in the water, digging canals, building castles, dumping water on grandma, and going for rides. It was another perfect day. (oh, except that the Seadoo trailer broke on the way down.... but that was the mensfolks problem)

At one point, just before we were leaving, Isaac wanted one last ride. One of the seadoos wasn't working, so Joy, Isaac and I all went together on the one that was left. It worked well, Joy was cautious, and I was an extra set of eyes, it was all good. Then she took us to a little inlet that is protected, where you could do donuts. I didn't even know that was there! We waited for the other 2 jetskis to leave so that we could have the place to ourselves. We did a few donuts, and then hit a wake wrong. Joy stopped, and the Seadoo started to tip to the right. I tried to "high side", but my efforts weren't enough, and we all were dumped.

The key was tethered to Joy's vest, so the Seadoo stopped dead in the water. Joy scooped Isaac up right away, and we all had vests on, so we were fine. Isaac was shaken and looked at me and said "Whoa, I have never done THAT before". I laughed and said, "Neither have I!" He remained cool under pressure though, because he had scooped up Joy's sunglasses from the water before they sank. What a hero!

We talked about the safety precautions that we take, in case something like that happens, and how everything turned out just fine. Then I told him how I had thrown his dad off at least once before :)

Joy let me drive the rest of the way to shore, and I just chuckled the whole time about how funny it was, and how cute Isaac's reaction was.

More Cousins!!

Sighris and Adriana left on Thursday, and our favorite Texans came on Monday. They arrived at about 1130, and my dad brought them straight to my house :) We tried to get the little ones to nap, but it just turned into some adorable photo ops. Roman and Daisy immediately attached at the hips and played with Roman's electrical circuits while the little ones "napped".

Visit from Sighris and Adriana

The boys are getting to the age where they remember and enjoy their cousins. And we just don't get out to AZ enough, so we worked out a week that we could have Sighris and Adriana stay at our house with us. (Martin was welcome to, but I don't quite know how to entertain a teenager, and he probably feared he would get stuck babysitting.)

Nichole dropped them off Sunday morning, and they went to church with us. Then Monday, it was off to the zoo. Me and 5 kids. Brave, I know. They were all really good and I think they all had a good time.

We started at the Reptile House, where Roman and Sighris read all the names and descriptions to the little ones. I even had a lady stop me and say that they were doing a great job reading, and she should know, because she is a teacher :) Yes, I live for those kind of aknowledgements.

Tuesday I think we took it pretty easy. I had Jillian, so that was me against SIX kids, but they really are a good group. The boys played board games and legos, and Jillian was in heaven because Adriana imported her own girl toys :)

Jillian loved Adriana, and didn't want to leave when her mom came, until we promised that Adriana would be there tomorrow.

Wednesday we tackled an art project, stained glass candle holders. The kids had a blast. After the craft, they decided to play outside, it was the best! I fed them lunch prison-style, opening the sliding glass door just wide enough to slide the food through :) They played and played until nap time. And they ALL took naps. Sighris and Adriana had been up until 930 or later each night, chit chatting about missing their mom and dad and all the fun things we were doing.

That night, Ben came home early and we went down to the Doubletree for an evening swim.

We played some pretty intense Monkey in the Middle and my boys practiced floating around with their water wings on. We took showers at the Doubletree, and then it was home for bed.

Thursday we went to the park, but first stopped at mcDonald's. My mom had bought us McDonald's the week before, when our power was out and I didn't have anything for lunch. They totally messed up her order, and said that they were noting that she would be back in the future and they would replace the entire order. Not just the 3 things they messed up.

So, that morning, I loaded up my six kids, and we headed to McDonald's "to talk to the manager and see if we could get some lunch". I felt like I was going there to beg, but the kids didn't pick up on what I had said.

So, I parked in the only spot left not taken up by construction crews or customers, and dragged my traveling circus in to talk to the manager. She went back to look at THE BOOK, and couldn't find my mom's name anywhere. But she said that since I was there and still had my receipt, that she would go ahead and replace the WHOLE order for me.

So the 7 of us had free lunch!

As we were leaving McDonald's with our bags of free lunch, some people remarked that the parade was leaving. Circus, get it right :P

The kids played and played at the park, another beautiful day with great kids. Then, it was time to load everyone back up to meet their grandma for the hand off. Nichole's mom lives in Lake Elsinore, or somewhere north, so she met us half way for the exchange.

I gave the kiddos big old hugs and helped load them up. Those two give the BEST hugs. We waved to them as they drove away, and almost immediately Roman started to cry. He is such a sweet heart, and I know he had a great time with his cousins. When Aaron woke up later, he cried for Adriana and Sighris too.

Hiking Boys

Isaac made one really good friend in school last year. He had other friends, but they all seemed to think that you could only have one friend at a time, and Camden was it for the better part of the year.

As the school year was ending, Camden's mom, Julie, and I talked about our families hiking together.

We finally picked a date and decided to hike around Lake Hodges. The lake is usually more of a forest, with lots of trees and almost no water. But this year we have been blessed with an abundance of rain that has filled the lake and even gotten us out of our drought. I love to see the water levels so high.

Camden's family had done the hike before, but not when the water was so high. And I don't think that they made it the whole way last time.

We met up bright and early to try to beat the sun, the kids all had their camelpaks and smiles on. There wasn't much shade, and we didn't beat the sun, but the kids were great sports. There were 5 boys between us, and it was fun to watch them get excited about birds and animal tracks (dogs). The older boys liked to explain things to the little guys.

We paused underneath the freeway over pass, enjoying the shade, when we noticed hundreds of birds. They were swallows, and as we looked closer, they were flying back and forth bringing food or supplies to their mudnests on the underside of the freeway. I love those opportunities to teach the boys little things about nature.

We finished our short hike at a parking lot across from the North County Fair. It was pretty disappointing, as the only slightly natural thing there was a big old puddle. But then Evan, Camden's little brother, said he saw a fish in the puddle. Yah, yah, whatever. But his dad looked closer, and there were fish, and then he noticed that the "puddle" was overflow from the lake, and it was an entire ecosystem all it's own. We saw giant tadpoles, frogs, tiny fish and crayfish. It was really pretty cool.

I'm thankful for a beautiful world and the opportunity I have to teach my children about all of God's creations.