our secret vacation...

Booked a hotel, packed our bags, and drove for two days to get here...
Reservavamos hotel, empacamos nuestras cosas, y viajamos por 2 dias completos para llegar a nuestro destino para unas vacaciones...



so, can you guess where we went?!
puedes, adivinar a donde nos fuimos?!

FIESTA!

We had the pleasure of being invited to Ian Taylor's bday party in Waco.

It was at a bounce house and we all know how fun that is... :)

Andrew had a blast, as well as every other kid in there!



Ian had a blast opening up presents, all the other kids couldn't stand not being able to open them. 
He said a hundred thank you's....what a good boy!


Spider man cake was pretty gooood!

Gorrito y su Capri-sun

We couldn't pry Andrew off the slide they had...so we stuck around it for quite a while


The popularity would grow and wane...


Sometimes there would be slow-pokes and create a huge line...


Jonah didn't mind, I loved how his hair flew up!

Daddy took a cute pic of me and Jonah bear

We went back to the Taylor's house and lo-and-behold, a huge train set awaited the Witty boys!

Jonah was like Godzilla, destroying everything in his path.

Riley, Birthday-Boy Ian, and Andrew all "cheese"-ing it...


playing the piano and trains


Andrew's new love: choo-choo's. 

He really loves his choo-choo train. 

When we go to Moomie's, we play with James Ross' old train set and have fun building the tracks...


Of course Mommy gets to build it (if you want a working track, that is) and Andrew plays with it. 




Overturned carts, and tunnels, and pile-ups are normal

Beware of dangerous corners like this one, where a million signs hinder your progress.

And godzilla-like cats...


...that like to walk all over and supervise...



Choo-choo's are fun.



We sometimes get tired of trains and go onto other things...

...like pianos.


Mind you that there's no batteries, therefore no sound comes out.

But no need. The music lives in his head.



Kinda like he shows us here in the contemporary shot of his swaying his head while he closes his eyes. 

Very touching.

Indeed.


Love his little fingers raised up. 

This shot is WIN.

~Lynet

my puffy pancake...

This morning we ran out of pancake mix, and I was in the mood for sweet bread and I browsed through all the cookbooks. 
Betty Crocker's New Cookbook was a wedding present from who knows who and I've never used it.
Anyone that knows me knows I'm not the greatest cook. 
But I delve a little into trying new recipes that sound appealing to me.
Unfortunately, my ability to follow directions 100% always makes the food not come out like the recipe picture shows, but hey, that's just my cooking style.
Don't get me wrong, I follow about 90% of the recipe and the food is always edible {{sometimes}}. And I always get onto Gary because he spends his time measuring and eye-balling the recipe step for step.
My excuse is: I am my mother's daughter. Let's leave it at that. :)
So this morning I open up Betty Crocker's book, expecting to find this huge, complicated recipe for simple pancakes.
Lo and behold, I found this short and sweet recipe for a puffy pancake.
With 5 ingredients, I was in for a WIN.
This is what the picture looked like, a perfect, puffy pancake with garnishes on top and a perfect glass of orange juice.


Below is what mine looked like.


Trust me it looked better with some powdered sugar and syrup but I was too busy eating it, I forgot to take a picture!
It came to about 1/4 inch thick, and sorta tastes like french toast.
The thing is, the pancake took 40 minutes to make and cook and would be a simple breakfast for two, or if you're real gluttonous, then just one.
But don't make it expecting to feed a family!!

Want the recipe? Email me.


So this was my creation this morning...it was yummy but not filling


...this busy weekend...

If there's one thing that makes me feel most blessed is to know that my boys have family galore.

That's what you get when a family is large and has lots of occupants--duh.

I love getting together and seeing that these boys are loved!


Hang Ten Jonah!

Moomie does love a tickle fest

...putting all his dominoes in a row

Jo-Jo riding on Buzz

This weekend we volunteered a stop station for the bikers of Tour de Pepper in our hometown, Dublin. It was fun and exciting seeing all the riders and helping them rehydrate/replenish themselves.

The fam!

Jonah was a trooper, and Andrew wanted to be one too...

we sat down in the final minutes...

 Dawna and James go to camp this week and Jonah wanted to go too...

The one thing the kids love is the pool, sure cools one down.

 Tio can be funny, sometimes.

Andrew finally trusted his floaties.

And Jonah was chillaxin' in his tiger floaty.

How many things can one accumulate with both hands?!





EVERYBODY NOW!


...y comida rica!!!