The Two Little Red Heads

This is Mason with his cousin Gracie when we were in Yakima last month. Mason has been mad at Gracie since November, when she stood on the stairs at our house, and screamed in his ear as he walked by. He got really mad at her, went to my bedroom, and cried because it hurt so bad. He was mad at her up until we went to Yakima in June. He was less than thrilled when he found out we were going to stay at Uncle Sam & Aunt Andrea's house, because Gracie was going to be there. I told him he didn't have to play with her. He said "hi" to her when we first got to the farm, and then they went off playing. This was the first picture I got of them together. I told Mason to move a little closer to her, and he said "This is close enough". It made me laugh.

Looking at her little face, and seeing that little smile she has, he couldn't be mad at her too much longer.

Then they became friends. They are cousins, so they are kinda stuck. There are only 3 grandbabies that ended up with red hair (from Papa Dawson). Kalen, my nephew who lives in upstate New York, is the oldest grandchild on the Dawson side. He's 19 now. We need a picture of Kalen, Mason and Gracie. That would be too cute.

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you all have a Happy and Safe Fourth! Just a few reminders from last year.

The Cake........

The Fireworks!!!!

The Zoo

A couple days ago, the 1st Graders get to go to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It's their annual, end of the year field trip. The weather had been rainy several days before the trip, and the forecast predicted for Seattle on this particular day had a raincloud w/rain and then the sun. What??!! Thankfully....it was wet, and didn't rain much. We had a pretty good day. A couple days before, I can fell on my bare toe, so I couldn't wear shoes, I wore my Tevas. Oh, and I had a Charlie Horse in my calf the night before, so my shin, on the same side of my bad toe, was really sore. I thought I would mention this because.........

These are Mason's good friends (Mason is in the middle). These 3 decided to RUN from animal to animal, exhibit to exhibit. They RAN all DAY! I wish I was exaggerating a bit, but I'm not. I was paired up with another Mom, who was also, a 1st Grade Teacher at Mason's School. She said it first. We were saying "Stop! Slow Down! Wait for us! Don't run to far ahead of us!"

The cool thing about getting to the Zoo in the morning, the animals are OUT! They aren't in their caves or homes. So we got to see the animals fairly up close. Like this elephant. I didn't have to zoom my camera in too far.

A few days before the trip, the kids all colored animal bingo cards. They had stickers, so when they saw the animal on their card, they covered the animal. They all had different cards. They had more than 1/2 of their cards full before we had lunch. And they got "blackout" on their cards way before the day was through.

The last few times we have been to the Zoo, we haven't seen the giraffes. We saw this baby one. He was so cute!

I have always loved Flamingos. The boys were unimpressed with the pink birds, but they were on Mason's bingo card, so he marked it off and we moved on 20 seconds later.

We had to take pictures on EVERY SINGLE animal sculpture. 3 monkeys climbing on the Monkey sculpture. Ha! Ha!

Mason loved this boat. We had a good time. We covered the whole Zoo in about 2 1/2 hours because of their running through it. I'm glad the weather cooperated a little bit. He had a blast and that's all that matters.

The Big 4-0

On June 11th, I turned 40. I remember when I said it out loud a few weeks before my birthday, and I repeated myself 2-3 times. When saying it outloud, it sounds terrible at first, but then I kind of got over myself.
On my birthday, I cleaned the boys' bathroom & did some laundry. My siblings terrorized my on facebook. My Dad came over for a bit and visited. I was waiting for a guy to come and detail the car, but he never showed. Lee had the day off, but he was off doing stuff. Then we went out to dinner at Azteca and then I went out to see a movie with my good friend Trudy. She was dying to see Sex and the City 2-so we did and she was greatly disappointed. Oh, Well.
Part of the day was "just another day" which was fine. Oh, the sun came out-so that was a nice suprise.
I still have all my teeth, my hair, no broken bones, and I somehow don't feel much older. I survived.

Goings On...

It's the middle of May, and I haven't really posted anything. We have been busy! Here are a few highlights of the month so far.

~Mac is almost as tall as me. He has about an inch and a half to go. No pics, because he doesn't want me too. Because he's a teenager.

~Mac "googled" himself....and found this blog.

~Lee has decided to take Mason on his 2 week trip in June. Tears have been shed (on my part) and a long talk with my sister followed....with more tears. She was sticking up and defending Lee, this was a first for her. I think the universe shifted a bit when she was talking because she kept saying "I can't believe I'm saying this" and then she said something in Lee's defense.

~I was not happy about Lee taking Mason on said trip because of his long, complicated, medical history. He still has to take medications, slather himself up with sunscreen, make sure he eats, and drinks enough, and other things that I won't post here. I have never been without Mason for longer than 3 days/nights. I have come to terms with all of this.

~I came to the realization that I'm a control freak with things that pertain to Mason. I don't want to be a control freak.

~I have been making a long list of things for me to do around the house while Lee and the boys are gone for 2 weeks. There will be lots of painting involved. Lee is a little nervous about my projects, as he should be.

~Mason has an appointment with his new Pediatrician tomorrow. He has had the same Pediatrician his whole life, on S. Whidbey. We will see how it goes. It's a woman, so this may not go over well with Mason.

~Lee has a tent thing that mounts on top of his vehicle. They are popular in Africa on Safari's and the Outback in Australia. Pictures will follow someday.

~I had a lovely Mother's Day weekend. I spent the Saturday before with Patty and Lee's sister Rebecca up north. Then Sunday was Church and a long Sunday drive around Bellevue. He showed me the "Beverly Hills" of Washington.

~I'm looking forward to SUMMER!

That is about it. A post without pictures, it's unusual for me.