Happy Birthday to Mark, David and Mom!

My Mom's birthday was on Monday and Mark and David's was yesterday (Wednesday the 11th).  We celebrated by having a big family dinner at Chuy's last night.  Then we came back to our house for some delicious cake made by Sharon.      

I had a great time in Arkansas with my four best friends from high school: Sarah, Tara, Amber and Christie.  Sarah showed us around Little Rock.  Sarah also tricked me into climbing a mountain.  I've never done any mountain climbing, but now I can say that I have.  Sarah said we were going on a "hike" at Pinnacle Mountain and Sarah's definition of a hike and my definition differ apparently.  It was so hard!  But that's why I love Sarah, she knew I could do it and I did!  I was so proud of myself.  Unfortunately, none of us brought a camera to the "hike."  I was really wishing we did because the view from the top of the mountain was gorgeous and I really wanted some proof of my accomplishment.  We also visited the Clinton library, which was very interesting.  I'm not necessarily Bill's biggest fan (to Mark's dismay), but I thought the library was great and very well done and had a ton of interesting things to read and see.  We got to spend time with the whole Spencer family, which was really fun.  I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures to share--I just couldn't fit one more thing in my carry-on bags.  You can see some pictures on Tara's blog.  On a side note--Tara and I both ended up marrying guys with the last name "James" so we have the same last name now. 

I was really happy to see Mark and Luke when I got home.  Luke kept saying, "mama."  I think he was pretty happy to see me too.  Mark did a great job keeping Luke by himself.  Mom, Shauna and Lily watched Luke on Friday while Mark was at work.  On Saturday, Mark and David took Luke to Gymboree together and then spent the rest of the day together.  

Jim and Sharon arrived safely back from their Alaskan cruise and said they had a wonderful time.  I think they enjoyed the break from the Texas heat and got to see a beautiful part of the country.

This weekend we are going to my family reunion.  We are looking forward to it.  It will be Lily's first reunion and Luke's first reunion as a walker.  Last year he was crawling and it was difficult to keep him contained.  I am going to make these and this.  I hope it all gets eaten.  I always worry about that.

On Tuesday, early in the morning we leave for Providence, Rhode Island.  We are renting a car and driving to Boston and then on to Portland, Maine for Mark's conference.  Then we will go back to Boston after the conference.  We can't wait for our trip--although that is the longest we have ever been away from Luke so we are kind of nervous about that.  He will have a great time with all four grandparents and I know we will have a great time too.

I hope I didn't bore you with the long update.  I probably won't post again until we are back from Maine/Boston.