A Billion & One...

Here we have a billion and one pictures of the cutest four-year-old boy in the Universe.  

And there we have a big boy who told me as we pulled in to the parking lot for this little photo shoot, "Oh, the picture taking place!  I haven't been here in a yonger time, Mommy!  I'll be bery good and then I can get three cupcakes cause I'm four now."

And THAT is a solid plan - hatched out of pure genius, is what I say.

Initially, picture taking ladies are suspicious.

But then they are downright hilarious, what with their frogs atop heads and rainbow colored fuzzy dusters that suddenly become crawling caterpillars ready to tickle.  

And there we have a bonafide Kaelster look.  Don't touch that one.  It's Trademarked to a guy who is affectionately called, Big K.

Who will bowl you over both literally and figuratively in just about every way you could never even imagine.  Here's a myth-buster... he really is as cute and adorable as he is in all these pictures.  Sometimes I don't even know how to handle all the cuteness that explodes out of that little face.  Usually, I just buy three cupcakes and hold his fat little hand as we lick chocolate icing together.

 .XO Little Man.

When In Wayne...

So, Wayne County.  It's kind of like our little place, you know.  The boys want nothing more than to go to "Grandpa's Red House" every single day of their lives.  And really, I can't blame them.  This is an example of the list of things that are to be done at the red house on any given day...

Celebrate Someone Special's Birthday.

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that a birthday party at the red house is desired above all other birthday destinations.  Kael could not WAIT to have a Dinosaur Pinata and a cake at his favorite place on earth.  I kept telling him we could have a friend party or we could go to the race track and race cars or we could ride the train... listen, I might as well have been speaking in tongues.  He wanted a Dino party with his cousins at the red house.  DONE.  And seriously... how is he FOUR?

Ride Four-Wheelers.

The red one, the yellow one, the green one, the razor, the little red one, the other red one.  They must try them all in some very particular order.  Then they really got serious and decided to clean them this trip.  ALL of them.  Grandpa is loving this newest little obsession.  Life's tough.

Hike around the Sun Glo.

This is like the best kids playground ever.  And plus... "A River Runs Through It."  OK, it's a wash, but go with me.  There are rocks to be climbed, lizards to be caught, rain dances to be danced?  Listen, the guy is battin' a thousand on that one.  The rain poured from the Heavens that night... maybe in large part due to his Dino Head Dress?  Who IS he, exactly?

Feed the Horse.

And more recently, ride the horses.  My brother bought two horses and brought them down to "Uncle Harv's" pasture.  It was Heaven.  Acey could NOT get enough.  And seriously... there is something about horse therapy.  I don't even know if you can really explain it without sounding nutty, but it is soothing to ride a horse.

Catch a Crawdad... or Forty.

These little things are SO dumb.  Have you done this before?  You dangle a hot dog from a stick and they are too stupid/stubborn to let go and you just slowly pull out your dog and a couple crawdads along with it.  I'm not gonna lie... I love this more than my kids.  Wyatt and I are easily the best "Dad Fishers" as we like to say.  But Sophia is hands down the best "Dad Eater".  It is SICK how many Dads this tiny little girl will put away in record time.  No literally, it makes me sick.  :)

Do it all S'more with your Cousins and Aunts & Uncles and Grandma & Grandpa...

Stay up way too late.  Bag the mid-day naps.  Live on Sugar.

And then talk about it non-stop for days and days until it all comes true again.

It's like livin' in Candy Land... that Wayne Wonderland.  Complete with a candy castle, gumdrop mountains and molasses swamp.  Count this Mama Gingersnap in, along with King Kandy and all our little sweets.

Summer Romance...

We spent an entire eight days unplugged and off the grid... at places like this.

I'm totally unapologetic about not returning calls or emails or text messages, because it was SO good.  Like, suck the marrow of life good.  Like, holy freak of nature, that girl is high on either her first little bottle of 5-Hour Energy or just the good life.
(Or both in my case, because someone made me do a long run with her.. C-A-R-R-I-E).
But I digress...

I thought for a few days that I might just be one of those people that could live with my ruggedly handsome husband on a big plot of land tending to babies and crops in the sunshine and generally ignoring the rest of the world.  And I whole-heartedly believed it for those first amazing days in Wayne Wonderland, but then I remembered that I do love me some variety, or the spice of life as some would call it, which is why we changed venues and headed deeper into the heart of the desert,

(Post crawdad hunting, of course, because, Duh.)

And it was,"Just the Ticket - Take Two".  

But really, can you go wrong with any place that has red dirt?  I declare it right here - nay, you cannot.  

So, call me a fence sitter or a just call me lucky.  I don't care.  I feel overwhelmingly fulfilled and happy after our road trip.  Like the layers of sweat & sunscreen that had to be scrubbed from the fuzzy backs of my little men... there were layers of thrilled, tired, fulfilled and challenged all bundled up into one sticky sweet mess of a summer fling. Or for the sake of this silly blog post... a summer romance.

My new favorite thing in the Universe is to watch these triplet siblings of ours be silly together.  They make up a collective far-fetched tale of adventure, filling in blanks and changing the plot line with various "Bad animals and Mean Guys and Off-Road Vehicles" and then they fall to the floor in fits of laughter before jumping around like hot grease in a pan singing RIBBIT at the tops of their little lungs.  

It is hilarious and from my perspective... the best drug on the planet.  I smile regardless of how many minutes/hours they are up past their bedtimes because they are together.  Laughing.  And I try to soak in those epic Mama Moments like the thirsty desert earth.  You know, until I completely morph into my own Mama and say something parental like, "OK Babies... All good things must come to an end."

Yep, even our little vacation.  

Happy to be Home.