B-day waterslide party

We headed to Columbia on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Kameron's (our nephew) 6th birthday. It was a warm, sunny day so the water play that was scheduled was anxiously awaited.

My cute, little guy hanging out in the calm backyard, before all of Kameron's classmates arrived.

Ellie and Paige played a little dress-up before they put on their swimsuits. What a goofball!!

Kameron blowing out the candles. Mmmm, doesn't that cake look yummy. I'd like a piece now. I think I need to steal a page from Valerie's playbook, because she always springs for a regular cake and a DQ ice cream cake, and they are both soooo good! Max even got angry with me when his slice of ice cream cake was gone.

The huge, amazing inflatable water slide! It was so cool, and made me wish I had brought my bathing suit. The big, red bucket at the top would tip over and spill its contents on the unsuspecting climbers coming up the middle, then there were slides down both sides.

There were tons of water balloons, and the party favors were these great, water squirters that Ellie is modeling below. Ellie wasn't that big of a fan of the slide (she's my cautious child, and being 2 years younger and a bit smaller than the other 15 kids running around made her even more so), but she loved the water squirters.
And if Ellie is my cautious child, Max is my fearless child. He loved the water slide. He got to spend a couple minutes on the slide and in the pool at the bottom of the slide by himself while the big kids finished their cake. His little face would light up when someone helped him go down the slide.
Ellie, Paige, and a couple other friends found refuge together in the kiddie pool. The pool was just big enough to keep them cool and let them fill their water squirters without being splashed by the crazy kids on the waterslide.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

Jason and I celebrated 10 years of marriage with a trip to San Diego. Jason was out there all week for business, so I flew out on Friday and we spent a long weekend together. This was our first time to be away from the kids for more than one night...the kids have spent the night with grandparents, but we were always just a phone call away if needed. So this trip was a big deal for us and brought a little parental guilt as it was being planned.

We did all the normal touristy things....trolley tours around the city, duck tour into the ocean (where we saw the sea lions), a day trip to Coronado island, and a short trip to Torrey Pines. We had big plans for Coronado, with Sunday brunch at the Hotel del Coronado and thoughts to rent bikes and play on the beach in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was freezing, so we had to go shopping instead....oh darn. Jason was excited to visit Torrey Pines, though he said it wasn't as cool as Pebble Beach. I know he would have loved to have played the course, but with such a short trip, I couldn't justify the pain of having to lug clubs all the way there. So, we'll just have to go back another time.

We relaxed and ate, and as Jason said, did our part to support the struggling economy. We were a little bummed at the timing of the trip because the Cardinals were coming to town for a series on the day we flew home. But it was a nice little vacation, and tons of fun to spend time just as a couple.

Here's to another 50 years, Honey!