white trash olympics.

There is just something about a long weekend that sometimes leads to randomness. Our randomness was also thrown in with a little quirky and straight up WT. We started the escapades off by meeting up with a group of Chad's best friends from high school at a sort of reunion at a place called Casa Bonita. A HUGE restaurant complete with cliff divers, puppet shows, a waterfall, mariachi band, caves to explore and a huge arcade...and was even apparently in a South Park episode. Chad has been telling me about this place since we first met, and I was excited to see it for myself. I was warned of the notoriously horrible food, but yet was still taken aback by how truly BAD it was! And yet, there was a line out the door when we got there! A strange atmosphere, but so much fun with little ones. I think it would be truly hilarious to take someone on a first date here...the ultimate impression.




~cliff diver. kaden now has decided that he wants to work at Casa Bonita and be a cliff diver when he grows up.


~Uncle Brian. amazing.


~the whole group of us....all of Chad's buddies from high school, such an awesome bunch!


~some creepy dragon is a creepy cave. weirdest.place.ever.


~poor lil guy's look of terror in one of the caves.




~this place is heaven for kids. There was even a pinata.


~checkin out the mariachi band with uncle brian.

Then we headed over to the Great Western Stock Show today to continue the adventure. I have heard so much about this, and thought Kaden would absolutely love it, especially seeing the animals. We spent most of our time checkin out the animals....so many piggies, cows and horses. We smelled like cow poop by the time we left there, pretty awesome.


~we were both so in love with the pigs, so cute!






~cows on parade.


~feeding Zip.

and we finished off the Olympics with dinner at Gunther Toody's diner, craptastic food, but hey they have hula hoops so who cares?




We did have spurts of normalcy throughout the weekend, a little zoo, playdates with new friends and sledding adventures.


~roaring at the lion.


~nosey-nosey with the baby giraffe.


~ready for some serious sledding.


~I found this pic on Chad's phone taken on Xmas eve. The church that we go to on Xmas eve is incredible, and downstairs they have this labyrinth where one can walk and have a meditative experience. Kaden spent most of the service down here, as he wasn't feeling well and really couldn't get into the spirit of church this evening. As much as I adore this shot, it also creeps me out a little and reminds me of a movie poster for a horror movie. Is it just me?

linky love

I have been following this incredible mother's journey on her blog now for a while, and I was completely heartbroken to hear that her little one had passed away. I hope that he is at peace now and that through all of this, we can raise awareness about EB so that we can put an end to this horrible disease. Tripp's blog is incredibly heartbreaking and inspiring. Hug your babies a little tighter tonite.

Blueberry Pie Baked Oatmeal. Need I say more?

I dream of the day we can own our own home and have a playroom! This post has so much inspiration, I love all the fun bright colors!

This article about the importance of unstructured play for little ones so resonated with me. I have been struggling with whether or not to start Kaden at preschool in the fall, and this article made me feel confident about our decision to go ahead and wait until next year.

This article is a must read for every parent. It saddens me how many people avoid this conversation with their children. Right now over half of my caseload at work, ages 5-11, are working through this.

and for all my therapist friends....please please please do everything you can to go see this man's seminar! I had the opportunity to go this week and I found him to be not only incredibly inspiring, but filled to the brim with the most amazing ideas and techniques to use with our little ones. Thank you Lisa and Rachel for encouraging me to go! Check out his website here.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

*love and peace*