Seriously.... get a cup of coffee...

This blog has alot of ups and some downs- but mostly ups... alot has happened in the last week or so....

I'm going to try to catch you all up in the whirl-wind of events going on over here, hopefully I don't leave anything out...

Well, the kids are out of school, so this is the first week of the summer that we get Aurora for a whole week! I think the rotation is every other week thru out the summer. Lots of quality time with Ro!!!

So we got to go to one of Aurora's baseball games... here she is hitting the ball- have you ever seen a cuter girl about to blast that baseball??? doubt it...

Can you make it out in that blur???

Here's a video of her running to first base- the camera man kinda lost it towards the end of the video... think her forgot to turn it off LOL...

SAFE!!!! And even time to wave to dad...

Off to second base...

And here's a video of her bringing it home...

It was kinda chilly, Jeromy letting me wear his heavy coat on top of my coat I was already wearing...

Here's Aurora's little sister Blonca and little brother Boston...

Onto something a little more somber. There was a tragic death recently. Some of you may remember before I was married to Jeromy, I dated David. We dated and lived together for 5 years (BC days), from 2001-2006. Most of the time was great, but the end was ugly. But people move on. Unfortunately we worked together. So the next 5 years have been at many times extremely stressful working with/around him. There's so much more but I don't want to get into all that. Anyway, fast forward the next 5 years... he's on his way to a camp site, riding his motorcycle, with his current girlfriend riding her motorcycle a ways behind. Well, the car in on coming traffic turned right into David hitting head on going extremely fast. David was thrown from his motorcycle and died immediately upon impact... I still can't believe it...

The funeral announcement, held in Oregon. We went, alot of other co-workers went also.

Just trying to focus on the better times. An old picture... being a scrapbooker I have 5 FULL albums documenting almost daily our lives...

He also had 2 kids, Jesse and Sanna.

After his death, his ex-wife called and said the kids had been asking to see us. So they came over a few days after his death. He has had multiple, short-term girlfriends since me. So the 5 years we spent together the kids really remember. The kids' mom said they are wanting to soak up everything about their dad.... and I have 5 years of pictures of them all. It was so great to see those kids, I loved them. They remembered that I loved taking pictures so they posed for another one for old times sake. They all 4 have grown so much. Here's a long time ago...

And now, Jade almost 19, Jesse 17, Sanna 15 and Kent 17. It was exactly 10 years ago when we started dating, the kids were 9, 7, 7 and 5...

So so so sad, you never know when your day is your last.... let those around you know that you love them...

Ok, switching gears.... I'll wait while you go dry your eyes and get a second cup of coffee...

Seriously, I'll wait for you... go...

Ok, next on our list.....

We are celebrating Aurora's 12th birthday!!! What a sweetie-pie!!!

Grandma and Kelsey...Kelsey and her juice box...Opening presents...Proud daddy singing her happy birthday...Handsome boys: Mason and Shane....Multi tasking dad.... strategically holding sweet baby Hannah while eating birthday cake without spilling a crumb...Laura and Alison...Grandparents with Aurora...Our whole family unit... so cool!!!So stinkin' cute: Laura and Maranda...Some more cuteness: Misty and me...Ok, some serious cuteness... look at all these girls... Aurora, Hannah, Natalie, Alyssa, Hannah and Kelsey...It didn't take these girls long to find Aurora's doll house...I'm so glad we joined the YMCA, for many reasons. One of them is that while we have Aurora we can take her swimming! We went 3 times while she was with us this week. Jade goes swimming with Aurora while I do my runs, Kent does a little of both!!!

But then it was time to bring Aurora home. But in a short week, we'll get her back again!!!

Let's see what else... Oh yeah, the kids' dad and Angela were in town. They were here to celebrate the 4th of July with Josh's side of the family. Here they are...

So while the kids stayed with Josh for the 4th, Jeromy and I had our own plans for the 4th. We were meeting up with the Schooler's! And their adorable girls... Natalie and Hannah... aren't they cute! Maranda is so nice in letting me grab and love on Natalie all the time, but she's getting so big!!!

We all went to the Port Orchard to watch the fireworks. We were right up on the water, literally 5 feet... front row seats people! The show was amazing... see...

Ohhhhh

AHHHHH

Me and J3... (Maranda took this picture for me cause I forgot mine, and then she sent it to me- thanks Maranda- we had a great time with you guys!!)

Ok, go get one more fill up of coffee, this will be the last event for this post... go get it!

Ok, so you may have heard that my little baby boy is going to Europe! For 20 days!!! His flight leaves at 7am Friday morning. But we will be leaving for the airport at 2:30am, they have to be there at 4 am- 'we' meaning Kenton, Jade and I... poor Jeromy has to be up for work at 4 am! But since I work nights, I'm pretty much staying up till time to drive to the airport then come home and crash. The kids are staying up along with me.

But here's some fun pictures! Grandma and grandpa came over this afternoon to give Kent an extra hug good bye! Kent is finally getting nervous/excited about his trip, I think it's finally hitting him! He's going to have so much fun!!!

My mom's blog has some of these pictures including a funny one of Jade and I kissing either side of Kent's cheeks and he's not making a very happy face about it. He doesn't mind me kissing him, just not his sister LOL! Too bad!

I was able to get the night off, which was really nice cause we had alot of last minute things to do. And just getting excited about it all! We did some shopping, and when Jeromy got home we went out to dinner to celebrate Kent's send off! He wanted to go to Red Robin! Done. He also wanted a chocolate monster shake and onion rings appetizer- done and done! Jeromy's was asking "why are we spoiling him now when he's about to go to Europe???" What a silly question, don't understand his logic LOL...

One of the things the delegation leaders recommended is wearing one of these money pouches under their clothing to carry the majority of their money. We got him $500 in European money "Euros"- which equates to 330 euros. And $100 in American bills. It's what they recommended! And then grandma and grandpa surprised us by showing up while we were shopping at Wal-mart with some extra spending $$$ just because! WOW! Kent was about speechless! And a friend at work also pitched in another $30 for him! This kid is set!

Also bought Kent these water sandal/shoe things. There goes another $100, but they really recommended these when he's walking on the beaches in say.... Athens, you know how that is! But seriously they really teach the kids how to minimally pack, and having shoes that can cross as water shoes was a great idea!

Jeromy gives Kent his last hug goodbye cause he goes to bed early!

Kent and I have alot of work to do. Here we are getting his "People to People" Journal all prepared to the way the delegation has told all the kids to have it. All the kids were given these cool journals filled with all kinds of fun information and places to jot down details of their trip, things to ask the people etc. So there is a section of the journal that has about 4 pages per day of the 20 day trip, we are supposed to get dividers, to seperate each section, then we had to print his entire itinerary of what they are doing each day, then cut the paper into each page and tape into place, alot of work, but such an amazing keepsake of this adventure. Kent and I attatching the deviders...

When all the delegates travel, or when they have important meetings, they all have this "uniform" they are required to wear. Khaki pants, their people to people shirt, and their lanyard with their name and home state listed. There are kids all over the united states going on these trips at different times thru out the summer... Isn't he adorable? I mean handsome????

A close up...

Now we are all done packing! And we have about and hour till we start driving to the airport. I will take another picture of him at the airport as I leave him to his greatest adventure to date in his short 17 years of living- but that will be in a later blog.

I AM SO PROUD OF THAT BOY!!!!