Montage Time.....(Over A Month Late)

Grab some popcorn folks!  It's time for a belated two-year-old-photo-montage.  Motherly guilt got the best of me.  I realized that I made a 1yr and 2yr montage for Coop but have been slacking for poor Cruz. Have no fear, little buddy.  I whipped up a little somethin' somethin' in your honor so you won't come back 20 years from now and want to know why I loved Coop more than you when you both turned two :).

Kidding of course.  I'm sure it will be me wanting to look back on these 20 years from now.  The boys will probably care less.

This is for you Cruz..........................

Cruz turns Two from A Mendonca on Vimeo.

Soccer

I'm a Soccer Mom (for now). Coop started soccer today. Which translates into 3 & 4 year olds running around like little ants at a picnic looking cute as all get out. Coop loved it and wanted to wear his shirt all day. It was a beautiful fall morning and the fields were packed with kiddos of all ages. Coop was diggin' being part of the mix.

It looks like this will be our Saturday morning activity for the next 6 weeks. Goooooo Lightning!!! (the team name was decided by the kids during the end of practice huddle). Boy was that name brainstorming session fun to listen to.

Our Groove

It's been a little over a week since we've been home and we have been busy getting our sea legs back. We are due for a down day I think. Both boys are showing signs that a snot fest is in our future. Cruz says 'oh no, boogas...Mommy' every time he sneezes.

The past week has been filled with a trip to the farm, a story time reunion, playing at the "beach", numerous trips to the park, a hike, yet another parade, and a Scottish Fest. With a few too many tantrums thrown into the mix.

Note: I don't have any pics of the tantrums. Just the fun stuff.



















Bag pipes at the park!!!!!

Elephant

Before the blogosphere starts to worry about our whereabouts, I figured I better write a post to set the record straight. We are home in Estes trying to get back in a groove. Mark was able to drive with us which was wonderful and we even got to spend all day Sunday and Monday with him at home. It really worked out perfectly.

Now I'll cut to the chase. The main purpose of this post truly isn't to let you know we're home but to let you know more about the big picture. I would love to do a poignant well thought out post about my feelings towards my Dad, life and the feelings I have racing around in my heart. I would love to jot it all down so I'll never forget every emotion that my mind has been throwing at me. But I can't. I try and it just doesn't come out.

What I do know (and I told my parents this) is that I feel like I lived a lifetime in the past 7 weeks. We went from feeling down right low to feeling pretty okay with things. From utter sadness to smiles and laughter again. Truly, the last 4 weeks of our visit almost felt like a time warp. My Dad's new chemo treatment really surprised us all and started giving him a little bit back. We really didn't think we'd see an improvement. He has so much more mobility, his pain is still manageable and he is back to sleeping in his own bed! We were even lucky to do a couple of outings with him.

In a nutshell, the last 7 weeks were a true gift. One that I will cherish forever. It was almost as if we were given a little time bubble where we could forget about the big elephant in the room. The elephant is still there but we were able to hide him behind the curtains for awhile and enjoy each other. On our drive out to Utah, I wasn't sure what to expect (none of us did). I don't think any of us thought we'd have such an improvement. I credit a little bit of that to the chemo but most of it to my Dad. He sure knows how to tame an elephant.

H2O

In an attempt to stay busy during our stay in St. George and to give everyone a break, we've tried to find daily activities to keep us amused. When you're dealing with temps in the triple digits, our efforts usually involve water..............

Breaking Routine

The boys and I were getting on each other's nerves this evening so I decided to mix things up a bit. We skipped bath time all together, bagged story time and went for a walk instead. I really should try and do stuff like this more often. Sometimes I think I'm too rigid with our "routine". I just love bedtime so much that I get wrapped up into putting the little gremlins to bed. I kick into auto pilot with a Take No Prisoners kind of attitude. It's Bedtime or Bust before Mama loses her mind.

Reality check: being so rigid makes me miss moments like this...........

Photo Shoot

Back in early July, when I booked our airline tickets to fly to Utah, I decided to try and book a photo session with the same photographer we used last summer.  To my surprise, she had availability so I went for it. 

The timing ended up working out perfectly.  Our appointment was scheduled after things calmed down a bit so we decided not to cancel.  The only draw back was the time of day.  In order to beat the heat and hit the Magic Hour for lighting, our session wasn't until 7pm.  This is smack dab during our normal bedtime battle but to my surprise, the boys managed to cooperate (for the most part).  I owe much of that to the photographer. Chelsy is amazing and a natural with kids.  It helps that she is a mom herself and understands the quick changing moods of antsy kiddos.

Back when I booked our session, my only request was that I wanted it to be outdoors again.  I left it up to Chelsy on where that would be.  To my delight, she chose Red Cliffs Recreation Area.  A place very near and dear to my heart.  This was the spot where Mark and I camped together for the first time.  It was many moons ago when we were dating and I was trying to impress him :).  That is a whole other blog post but let's just say that I almost severely injured both of us while showing off and trying to woo him.  I think he learned then what he was getting himself into by sticking around with the likes of me. Luckily, the crazy guy chose not to leave me on a cliff and saved me from an early demise.

This is what that camping trip eventually produced over a decade later.