We had our first camping trip of the year. Oh did it feel so good to be out there. We had picked up Rocky. Yes we are that family that has named our RV. We purchased our RV from a sweet couple last spring before we ventured out west. We had rented one the year before and were sold on this was our way of living. Since I met my husband we had always been campers. But back then we tented. Now I will tell you prior to my husband I had not camped since girl scouts in elementary/junior high school. But, I was all in back then! Then we had kids and we moved up to a pop up camper. We then took a little break sold the popup and missed it so very much! So when we finally picked up Rocky the kids have been asking weekly when can we go camping. I love that they love it as much as we do. It is not a chore for them even with them being 13, almost 12 and 10 years old. They get that the fresh air does our mind good. So off the kids went to school and off Chad and I went to get a spot at the local state park. And there we sat "working from home" in the comfort of our RV in the woods. It could not have been more perfect. Our view from our desk was this. Fresh air it does our mind good. We need to take a break from the technology/media/news and just be with one another. It is a big reason why I love it so much. Get out there and do something with the ones you love!

A sure sign of spring in our backyard is when your Saturn Peach tree starts to bloom. It amazes me how pink the blooms are all up and down the tree branches. We get so excited when we see it blooming because we know this means we are going to have another great season of peaches.... 

Even though he is 13 he still has those days when a good nap after school is what he needs. Lord knows I would love to take a nap at times....

Oh the last concert we will see for Meggan at least in this form. She has been a kid that can pick up any percussion instrument and play a song on it. But she has decided she would like to focus on her piano skills. Which to be honest are quite amazing. But we now put the drum sticks, bird whistle and bell kit away....

Oh the life to receive so many treats and sometimes some blueberries or popcorn. Yep he loves all of them!

While cutting our grass my husband disturbed a pile of bunnies who were apparently sunbathing on our berm in our backyard. Maybe I should start with my kids love animals. So, when these babies when running all over our yard and one ended up going in the street my older daughter, Meg was blocking the baby so a car would not hit it. We got a net and captured the bunnies and put them back in their little nest. We told the kids under no circumstance do you touch or pick them. Couple hours later my husband and I return to the girls holding the babies in our backyard with some neighbor kids and they each are holding one being very careful. Ally told me she had named them after the musical she was just in (Adventures of Beatrix Potter). Mopsy, Flopsy, Cottontail and Peter Rabbit. Each baby as they showed me had a distinct feature, one had a white fur line on its forehead, one had one not yet open, etc.. So we talked again about how we can't hold them as their momma may not want to take care of them if they have human scent. But, no matter what I said they couldn't resist it. So, this is Mopsy with Ally. They asked us that night that if the momma doesn't come back to them then it is meant that we need to take them in as our own pets. Yeah that got a big "NO" and a "And who will be the one that ends up taking care of them? ME". Every day they go out to check the nest and see if they are there. But they are not. They must have moved after all the bunny handling. Thankfully no bunnies were hurt in this story....

Last year our son asked to try a new sport that had come to our community. It is Lacrosse. My husband and I at the time knew nothing about lacrosse other than it was very physical. We were puzzled by him wanting to do this, but said sure we will check it out. That is one thing that is very important to us. If our kids want to try something and we can do it with schedules, funds and school we will make it happen. They are only young once and so why not let them try different things. That is the only way they learn what they really like and we want them to do what they want and not what we want them to do. We are not those parents who live vicariously through our kids with sports or activities we did in high school. I am probably the furthest from that way of thinking. So we looked into it and Jack joined the Kimberly first ever Lacrosse team. Coming from the soccer world we spent a lot of the games that first year laughing over all the slashing and shoving, etc. There was a group of us soccer parents who had kids trying it out and we all were kind of trying to understand the game and what the rules were. It was interesting and it has turned out to be an amazing experience for him. This year he chose to play again and we were all in. Our team is like a little community and had our son not asked to try this sport we would have been missing out on a great community/team. 

No fear is what I see when I look into her eyes. She will try new things even if no one she knows is doing it. Tough cookie she will always be...

I am not a big fan of pictures of myself. That is probably why I prefer to be on the opposite side of the camera. But the end of December I started on a journey to better myself physically. I never really struggled with weight until I had my kids. After that I was up and down with my weight, but mostly up. Last year I had a scare for me where I started having chest pains when I worked out. My grandpa died of a heart attack at a young age and my dad was fairly young when he had to have countless stints and in the end triple bypass. So when this started I of course thought the worse that I am going down the path that my grandpa and dad have had to face. I went to see my doctor and he referred me to have a stress test. The doctor that conducted that test was someone who let's just say should not be in the medical field. He gave me comments like "You have no reason to be worried about heart disease.." Clearly this man had not looked at my medical history. I then saw a cardiologist up in WI who said he would check me in a year. Yep this really happened. I also for the past 9 years had been on high cholesterol medicine. So, my mom the wise incredible women that she is asked me if she could call my dad's cardiologist down in IL. I said yes because I too was thinking what if I have some blockage, etc. Dr. Sethi's office was amazing they got me very quickly and when she looked at the records she said I had right to be worried. So, we went through some tests and in the end she ended up doing an angiogram on me which showed that I have a 30% blockage on my back artery. It is what was causing my chest pains when I exercised too hard. There is nothing they do for this except for watching it. I was relieved that it was not worse than it was but also was very down about it and thought why me? I had my own little pity party had no interest in being around people and the introvert that I am came out 100% more. Flash forward to December I put back on weight I had lost and was so mad at myself for doing that. I realized on New Year's Eve that enough is enough. This is my life, my journey and I was going to take it back and be who I want to be and live my life the way my parents have always taught me to. I would now remove myself from situations where there was not positive vibes and where I did not matter. I got back on my exercising schedule and eating mostly clean (I am human so it is not always at the forefront)! As of the end of April I am down over 15 lbs. and I have lost quite a bit of inches all over. I still have a long way to go, but thanks to the support of my husband, parents, children and friends I know this is it. It is probably why I now share exercise photos of me and how I am doing because it was one person who asked me why are you doing this to yourself? So this selfie is one of a person who has struggled, who has scars, who will no longer let negativity influence her. I stand strong and proud that I have reclaimed my life and am doing what is right for me and my family. 

Our Daisy Sparkles. We call her a pup but she is clearly not really a pup at almost 6 years old. But she is definitely the one who keeps our Sox going. For being younger than him she definitely treats him like she's his mom. She licks his eyes and ears daily, she gets so excited to see him in the morning when he has slept with one of the kids. She will grab his ear and walk with him to make him go her way. It is all in love. Just some of the many reasons we love her!