Happy Holy Cow Day and Post #1,000!

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the day we got the news that we were expecting triplets AND this is post number 1,000 on this blog!

To celebrate, here's a little glimpse at life then and now.

Oh sure, life is a little noisier and I've swapped out the ice cream for wine, but overall not much has changed. 

We continue to be overwhelmed by all of our blessings!

Thanks for being part of our journey from the initial panic to today's insanity and for reading my little piece of the blogosphere. I wonder what the next 1,000 posts will bring?

Christy

© Trippin' Mama 2012

Wordful Wednesday: Go Fish!

We braved four little pairs of hands swinging poles with hooks on the end to take the kids fishing at the fair. All I can say is thank heavens for those poor volunteers. They hardly knew what hit them by the time we were done!

Everyone had fun fishing.

We even caught a few, except for Sam, though he didn't really care.

We tried to get the kids to hold their catches for the big photo.

Alex made a go of it. (Isaac apparently was successful, though I didn't catch the photo.)

And Amelia refused to touch the fish at all.

That's my girl!

Play along with Wordful Wednesday at:

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Tons of Fun at the Fair

Today we went to the fair.

We fished. We fed goats and sheep and pigs. We played mini golf. We climbed on tractors. We ate hot dogs. We ate cotton candy. We pretended to be farmers. We looked at 4-H projects. We watched acrobats. We rode the trolley. We held baby chicks. We ate ice cream.

  

And we did it all without a stroller! That is a major accomplishment. (And probably a major contributor to the sheer exhaustion that we ALL felt tonight.)

I was surprised at how many people still commented on the triplets, because they were busy, busy! True, the boys were wearing matching shirts today, but I could hardly keep track that there were three of them, so I was amazed anyone else noticed. Amelia also wore the team color, green, which made it easier on Mom and Dad.

All in all, it was a great day at the fair. In fact, we may even repeat it tomorrow...if Mom and Dad are feeling up to it!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Yes, I Can Draw A Line In The Sand

This morning we took three of the four kids to a festival in the park.

Isaac stayed home with a babysitter.

Not because he was sick. Because we've been working all week on rewarding the boys for doing well at nap time and bedtime. And last night he wound up in the the pack and play after getting out of bed several times, despite clear warnings.

I know. Mean mom. I confess that it killed me to leave him behind.

And the boys kept bringing it up as we drove. "Isaac doesn't get to come." "Isaac isn't here today."

OK, could we please leave the knife out of Mommy's heart for a bit?

Isaac cried when we loaded everyone else in the van, but was fine when we left. I had his sitter bring him down at lunchtime so he could get in on a little bit of the fun.

Letting Isaac come for part of the day assuaged my mommy guilt. But then I worried that I was caving by letting him come at all and it wouldn't have any impact.

His brothers took care of that for me.

They kept talking about what they saw and Isaac would say, "We didn't see that." They were quick to reply, "We saw that before you got there. You stayed home with the sitter. You didn't stay in your bed."

Thanks for your support boys!

Tonight Isaac didn't get out of his bed at all. Not once.

That may be an anomaly, but here's hoping he has finally gotten the message.

This parenting gig sure is tough sometimes!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Green Beans?

I shared before that the Easter Bunny brought "green beans" to our house. Here's the video of the boys with their "green beans."

This past week was a bit crazy, but things are settling down so I should be back to a more regular posting schedule this week.

© Trippin' Mama 2011

April Showers

It has been so wet here this spring! It's driving us all a little crazy, because we can't get out of the house as much as we'd like.

Solution? Toss the kids outside during the first break in the rain on a semi-warm day and let 'em enjoy the mud puddles.

As you can see from this video, they "love getting wet" and had a blast.

The downside of this is that now all I hear when it's raining is "Please, we go play in the puddles?"

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Pteradactyl Hair!

What could be more fun than three pteradactyls in the tub?

Alex, Sam and Isaac show off their pteradactyl hair.

Well, four, of course, but everyone's getting so big that all of the kids hardly fit in the bathtub together anymore. I'm not sure what we'll do when we have to start splitting everyone up. Baths just won't be as much fun for kiddos or parents!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Warning: Helmets May Be Required

A couple weeks ago I heard the boys giggling and giggling as I unloaded the dishwasher, so I went to check it out. They were all sitting side-by-side on one of their little couches doing this:

Further proof that we should wear our bike helmets at ALL times...

Sam and Alex

Isaac

...even when we're hanging out in our jammies!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

An Uninvited Guest

We recently eliminated an uninvited guest of the mouse variety from our basement. There's really nothing to say about it except that peanut butter makes great mouse bait. I learned that years ago when we had a major mouse incident.

It was 1996 and Jeff and I were living in married student housing while he was in his first year of his PhD in chemistry. It was not a luxurious place -- 400 square feet with linoleum floors and cinder block walls -- but the price was right and the location was great.

The weather had just started to turn cold. I got up early one morning and went to the kitchen, a full 10 steps away from our bedroom, to get a drink of water. Since I had just crawled out of bed, I didn't have my glasses on and I'm near-sighted like you wouldn't believe. Unless something's a few inches from my face, I can hardly see it.

As I was drinking my water and looking around the apartment, I spied something under the table and thought "Wow! That is the biggest dust bunny I've ever seen in my life!" I'm no neat freak, and even I couldn't go back to bed until I'd gotten rid of it.

I walked over to the table, leaned down, and when I was just inches away from picking up the "dust bunny," its tail twitched.

I stifled a scream and I'm pretty sure my feet didn't touch the floor on the way back to the bedroom. There I woke my soundly sleeping husband and demanded that he do something about the mouse, even though it was barely light out. Jeff got up and determined that the mouse was in the final stages of dying under our table, so he put a shoebox over it and went back to bed.

I called maintenance and left a semi-hysterical "Get this thing out of my apartment!" voice mail.  When the maintenance man arrived he discovered that there was a hole in the foam around the stove vent. The mouse had apparently chewed its way in, and died under our table from eating the foam. The very helpful maintenance man sealed up the hole, set a bunch of traps with peanut butter, and removed the dead mouse and cardboard box -- after asking if we wanted the box back. Um. No. Thanks. I can always get another shoebox. One that hasn't had a dead mouse in it.

By the time it was all said and done, we caught and disposed of seven more mice. And by we, I mean the maintenance man and Jeff. My contribution was to throw the phone at a mouse on our counter, to scrub everything in the kitchen multiple times, and to cover my ears while Jeff finished off a mouse that got its leg caught in a trap.

I did learn that peanut butter makes the best mouse bait.

And I've never picked up another dust bunny since.

Hey, some traumas run deep! And besides, what a great excuse for my less-than-stellar housekeeping.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Sisterly Love

A couple weeks ago my sister Mary sent me an email saying she had broken her ankle. She did it playing touch football with her boys. I think it was part FYI, part warning to me since I have boys, too.

As it turned out, she really did the job right and wound up having to have a plate and a bunch of pins put in. So she had to stay off her foot completely for a couple of weeks and just went back to work this week.

My mom told me that the docs had given Mary "some kind of wheeled contraption" to help her get around.

This image popped immediately into my head:

The next day I sent this picture to Mary in an email titled, "Thinking of you." Because that's just the kind of loving sister I am.

She thought it was pretty funny and sent me a picture of the real "contraption" she's using. It's called a knee walker if you want to look it up. But trust me, it's not nearly as much fun as the image I have provided!



© Trippin' Mama 2010

Goin' To The Chapel...

Long ago and far away, when I was a junior in college and still had my pre-babies body, I spent a semester in London. I went partly for the adventure, and partly to get away from the most challenging roommate ever.

Long ago and far away. Pre-babies! Ha!

One of my roommates in London was Kris. She hailed from sunny California, and I had traded the Great Frozen North for the Semi-Frozen Midwest for my college years. (Kris later visited me in the Semi-Frozen Midwest in January and nearly froze to death. But that's a story for another time. I'm not sure she's forgiven me for that yet!)

We became good friends, and had many adventures in during our semester in London. I vaguely recall one night when we decided that wine spritzers would make laundry night much more tolerable. They did. I remember lots of laughing and not much laundry.

When Jeff and I got married, Kris came to the Semi-Frozen Midwest in June to be our photographer. It was her wedding gift to us, and it was priceless. She not only took great formal pictures, but took pictures of everything else that happened, too, from me at the breakfast table to my family doing some crazy dance long after Jeff and I had left the reception.

I've been to San Diego to visit Kris, too. I think she worried the entire time that my pasty, white Midwestern skin would get burned to a crisp. And, because she can't imagine living away from the ocean, she tried to ensure that we spent as much time as possible in sight of the Pacific. We had a great time.

Me, Caryn (whom I also met in London), a friend of theirs, and Kris. San Diego ~ 1998.

Over the years Kris and I have kept in touch in spurts, but every time we reconnect, we pick right up where we left off.

So last week when a heavy, cream envelope addressed in beautiful script arrived with a return address of San Diego, I was breathless with excitement. Kris was getting married.
I tore open the envelope, scanned the invite and then ran to the computer and dashed off an email titled "Yay!"

When the invite arrived I immediately started trying to figure out if I could make it to Kris's wedding. For Jeff and I both to go would be impossible, but maybe, just maybe, I could sneak away?

I checked ticket prices and hotel prices and started figuring out logistics. And then I started debating the cost and how little time I'd get to see Kris, and if it would be better to go later instead.

I almost let my head make the decision instead of my heart.

And my heart leapt for joy when I got the invitation. My heart cheered that Kris had finally found the man of her dreams and was going to get married. My heart wanted to be with her on that big day.

So, I'm going. I'm flying out on a Friday night, and I'll be back by Sunday afternoon. It will be a short trip, a crazy trip, but most of all, a JOYOUS trip.

Sometimes love trumps logic.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Grandparents are good for so many things, like teaching my kids how to politely ask for ice cream:



Thanks, Grandma Alice!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The End of An Era

After nearly two years of living with a crib in our family room, the time finally came to take it down.

It's been time for a while, but our motivation came in the form of two boys climbing out of the crib, onto the changing table, and nearly up the built-in bookshelves. It was another one of those moments that makes me ask Jeff how much money we have in the budget for hair color.

In the early, early days, we actually had TWO cribs in the family room. We used one for all three boys to sleep in, and the other was a feeding and holding area.

Bottom to top: Isaac, Sam and Alex ~ 6 days old, October 2008

Feeding time!

Once the boys started sleeping in their own cribs and sleeping better at night, we moved one of the cribs to the nursery, giving us three there. But, we kept the fourth crib in the family room. We dubbed it "Exile Island" and used it for those nights when someone couldn't settle down in the nursery and was disturbing his brothers.

I also used it during the day for time outs and to give boys a chance to play with a toy uninterrupted by siblings. Sometimes I used it as a jail while I cleaned up a mess or two. Remember the baby powder incident during Thankgiving last year?

Sam, Alex and Isaac: Jailed!

The boys liked to go in the crib to bounce and play. It held up pretty well against 75+ pounds of boy (and often another 30 of girl!) jumping up and down.

I let them all have a good bounce the other day because I knew the crib was coming down.

They sure fill it up differently than they did in the early days!

Of course, as soon as we got rid of the crib, we needed Exile Island. We'll have to keep a pack-and-play handy for those nights in the future.

Oh, and do you see that large framed painting hanging above the crib in the background above? It took the boys less than 24 hours to knock it off the wall once the crib was removed. Fortunately there was no injury to the children or the artwork.

Who said this gets easier as you go? Some days I long for those three little babies snuggled up together in the crib. They were a lot quieter and got into less trouble!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Fifteen Pounds of Apples a Day

Today was apple picking day. We headed out to a local orchard for some family fun and fresh apples.

All of the kids loved picking the apples. At first the boys wanted to pick apples up off the ground. Then they wanted to toss freshly-picked apples on the ground so they could pick another off the tree.

Once we told them to put the apples in the basket they did pretty well following directions, though they were a little rough. They chucked the apples like they were throwing a ball, so Jeff guarded our basket and served as designated catcher.

We also had a small issue with a certain redhead wanting to sample every apple he pulled off the tree.

More than half the apples I used to make pie this afternoon had already been through Sam's rigorous taste test. And he did a fine job. That pie was delicious!

Everyone enjoyed the fruits of our labors by sampling a fresh Golden Delicious apple.

Once we had our basket full of 15 pounds of apples, (which doesn't take long with four great helpers!), we headed home.

Amelia and I rolled up our sleeves and started with an apple pie. It was the first of several things I'll be making, and it was definitely worth the effort of chasing four kids through an apple orchard!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Who Told The Kids It Was Monday?

One of the nice things about this stay-at-home mom gig is that Mondays as we knew them in the business world just don't exist.

Sure, Daddy goes back to work after two days of being home with us, but there's no Monday morning staff meeting, no listening to the office partier tell more than you want to hear about his weekend, no complaints from the singles in the office about having to get up before their weekend sleep-in time of 11.

Then there was this morning. Who the heck told my kids it was Monday?

The boys all woke up early -- too early given their lengthy and loud party/cry fest in their room last night. And they all got up CRABBY! Nothing like three crying almost two year olds to start your day off right.

"Mommy hold you!" was the morning's rallying cry. Of course, sitting down and holding all of them on my lap satisfied no one. They all wanted to be held in my arms, head on my shoulder. Ugh. That's one of those moments when having multiples is really tough.

Then came the food throwing and the fits over diaper changes. Those fun activities were followed by pushing, hair pulling and biting. Within an hour of waking up, one of the boys had been put in time out five times for pulling hair. By this point, I was pulling on my own hair!

I texted Jeff to say I thought we should lock all the boys in a room and keep the survivor. He wasn't even here to hear the deafening, ear splitting screaming and he agreed!

That kind of morning makes you pray earnestly that you can survive until naptime. We made it, thanks to an executive decision to hit the sack early.

I wish I could say the nap magically cured the crabbies, but it didn't. At least I felt better after a little peace and quiet! And hope was on the horizon  that Daddy would soon be home.

Yep, it was a real Monday here in Mommyland, but at least I didn't have to endure it in pantyhose and heels.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Wordful Wednesday: My Tractor Is Faster Than Your Tractor

We took everyone to the fair this year. All of the kids had a blast.

It's hard to pick the best part, but we went through this fantastic exhibit where kids get to experience life on the farm.

They gathered (plastic) eggs, fed animals, planted "seeds" and then immediately harvested the plastic veggies, milked plastic cows and gathered wool.

It was a hit with everyone.

The boys especially loved the pedal tractors. We were just grateful they were too short to reach the pedals. I can only imagine the havoc they would have wreaked.

Hopefully next year when they can reach the pedals they will be a little better at listening!

Play along with Wordful Wednesday at:

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Out and About

We've been out and about a lot lately. We really haven't stopped since we trekked to St. Louis.

A few days after we got back, we took the kids to the fair. (More about that later.) This weekend we checked out a local park that had a neat Children's Garden. (Sadly no pics, just great memories, but we'll be going back!) We left the stroller behind and the boys listened pretty well and marched back to the van when it was time to go.

Monday I took all the kids to JC Penney's for pictures. By myself. In my defense, it was a last-minute decision, and I was temporarily dazzled by the 40 percent off coupon for a weekday photo shoot. I set Amelia up to go first and show her brothers how it's done. She was a pro, and by the time she was done the boys were begging to have a turn.

They all did great for individual shots, but it was a bit of a circus trying to get a group shot. The photographer pulled it off though. You'll get to see some of those results when I get the CD of the photos in a couple of weeks.

Today we went to the library for story time. We've been going for quite a while, and I usually end up chasing boys around the room and using the stroller for time out. But we keep going because I know that's the only way they will learn. Today all of the boys sat and listened or participated in the songs and dances about 90 percent of the time. I was so impressed with them!

I was just thinking the other day that we've finally got this summer thing all figured out and now the seasons are going to change and I'm going to have to start all over again.

Then I realized that it's not the season that has changed. It's my kids. It has been five months since we started going outside to play in the unfenced yard. And I remember coming in after an hour because I was exhausted from continually chasing down boys and putting them in time out.

When we're outside these days I still have to make the boys sit out for not listening or going where they aren't supposed to go, but it's become a rare occurrence. Way back in April being outside was one long time out some days.

When we have a good series of outings like we've had lately and I realize that we've got a few more months before the bad weather sets in, I can almost believe that we'll be able to survive the winter!

I remember in the early days being overwhelmed by getting the boys out for more than a stroll around the neighborhood. Back then the effort was more mental than physical. The boys might cry a bit or need a diaper change, but they didn't scream to get out of the stroller, unbuckle their car seat straps, push each other down, run around instead of listening, or wander off. I just had to get over the hurdle of leaving the house with them and put up my bubble against all of the comments.

Now it's definitely more of a physical challenge. Hefting everyone in and out of car seats, wrestling them into the stroller, chasing them down when needed, putting them in time out.

But it is getting easier as the boys can do more for themselves and they listen better. There's still the risk that they'll all take off in different directions or I'll have more than one troublemaker on my hands, but I have found that doesn't happen as often as I worry it will.

I'm going to keep living my triplet mama mantra: "Be Brave"...at least until the next major breakdown.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

An Animated Inferiority Complex

My kids are on a Calliou kick right now. For those of you fortunate enough to be oblivious of this particular brand of hell, Calliou is a PBS cartoon. The main character is a little boy named Calliou (pronounced caye-oo, in case you care). He has a sister named Rosie and a loving mother, father and grandma.

Calliou himself is tolerable. It's his mother I can't take. She's giving me an inferiority complex.

Calliou's mom is ever-patient, always gentle, and full of fun ideas. She never gets mad, never raises her voice, and is always helping Calliou learn and grow. ALWAYS.

Of course, to be fair, her children are almost perfect. I've never seen Calliou pitch a fit, refuse to go to bed, or pull his sister's hair. He's an easygoing, ever-cooperative child. His sister Rosie is blessed with an even temperment and a happy, if a bit incessant and annoying, giggle. She never has an ill-timed meltdown or hits her brother.

Still, despite all that and the fact that she's a cartoon, Calliou's mommy and her perfect parenting make me crazy.

I suppose it's no different than the unrealistic expectation that home and garden magazines set for us. Just like my house could look good enough for a photo shoot, I could be Super Mom long enough to pull off a 20-minute cartoon episode.Well, some days anyway. I certainly could do it if my kids would live up to Calliou's behavioral standards.

I'd like to see Calliou's mommy go a few rounds with my crew here in the real world. Now THAT would be a cartoon worth watching!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Getting Soaked in St. Louis

Yes, still more adventures from St. Louis. I told you you'd get the full scoop. It's just taking me a little time!

Sunday morning our early birds were awake at their usual time, which was 6:00 a.m. in St. Louis. So we fed the kids breakfast in the room and headed out at 8 a.m.

Unfortunately, there's very little open on a Sunday morning at 8 a.m. Fortunately, St. Louis has a great park, Forest Park, home of the St. Louis zoo. Since we were planning to go to the zoo Monday, we decided to explore the park instead. After all, it doesn't take much to make our campers happy. A playground with a few swings and slides will do.

We found a great playground. As my kids played on the slides I watched out of the corner of my eye as some other kids turned on the water fountain. The day was already getting hot and I knew we were headed for the water before we left. Luckily I had thrown a dry change of clothes in the van for everyone, just in case.

We started by getting a drink from the water fountains, which was as entertaining as it was messy. We had a few fights over "HIT DE BUTTON!" But within minutes they were getting soaked and laughing and loving every minute of it!

I just tried to keep myself and the camera dry!

After our fun in the water we had a picnic in the park before heading back to the hotel for naptime. All of the kids fell asleep in the car, which undoubtedly contributed to the less-than-stellar naptime and two boys escaping from their beds!

While the kids were "napping" Jeff joined my sister and her family for the Cubs vs. Cardinals baseball game. By the top of the 8th inning I was ready for a drink. The boys and Amelia had a blast running around the room and going in and out of the closets, but I got tired of trying to keep them out of trouble pretty fast! I couldn't really take them anywhere by myself, but we did OK, thanks to a few videos, some new-to-us toys and our color crayons.

Once Jeff got back we hit the hotel pool. I have no photos of that. To hold my camera would have been to endanger my children's lives. It was all the two of us could do to catch three boys (all wearing life jackets) who had no fear of jumping in the water. Once we got them to take turns, the job got a little easier.

We took the boys out of the pool so we could give them a bath before supper, and Amelia stayed to play a little longer with her cousins. Just about the time we got the boys out of their life jackets, they all made a break for the water. My brother-in-law Kyle was the only one on that end of the pool, and when he looked up and saw what was coming, a look of sheer panic crossed his face. He stretched his arms out as far as possible, but Jeff and I grabbed the boys before they could get back in.

I laughed out loud at Kyle's expression. I recognized that look of panic. I've had it off and on for three years, ever since we discovered we were expecting triplets!

After a bath, a LOT of pizza and time playing with their cousins, the boys went down to sleep without a peep. And they slept all night. I can't say the same for Jeff. Early in the morning I woke up to find he wasn't in the bed. I went out to the sitting area to find him curled up awkwardly on a four-foot sofa. He said he was too sore to sleep. That was no surprise, after he spent almost two hours lifting 26-pound boys plus their wet life jackets out of the pool over and over and over.

Just one more reason this was a trip, not a vacation. Fun, yes, but a lot of work, too!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

From My Kitchen: Let's Talk Turtle

When we were in St. Louis we visited Terrapin Park. It's a little park full of sculptures of turtles, large and small. I took tons of pictures that I wanted to share with you, but today is recipe day.

What's a girl to do?

Daddy, Sam, Isaac and Alex hanging with one of the turtles.

At first I thought, "What the heck. It's my blog. I can do what I want!"

This makes me think of a bad science fiction flick. Run, Amelia! Run!

But I hate to disappoint those of you who like my recipes, and I've already abused you enough with my sudden unexplained absence, so I decided to get creative. I was desperately wishing I hadn't already posted my Mock Turtles, so I would have a recipe to go with the turtle theme.

Alex checks out his terrapin friend while Sam offers back up. Isaac isn't so sure about this one!

Then, luckily for you, I remembered this delicious Turtle Cake that I used to make quite often. I guess it got crowded out by other things, but now that I've rediscovered it, I'll be making it again soon. It's a bonus that it starts with a cake mix, so it goes together in a snap. And who can resist the combination of rich, moist chocolate cake and buttery carmel? Not me!

And not these guys, either! (See how seamless this whole Turtle Cake/Terrapin Park post is? No, really. It's a work of art!)

Amelia, Sam, Isaac and Alex go for a s-l-o-w ride.

So without further ado, here's the recipe for some chocolate-caramel decadence.

Turtle Cake

1 box German chocolate cake mix

1 14-ounce bag of Kraft caramels

1/2 C. butter or margarine

1/2 C. evaporated milk

1/2 C. chopped walnuts or pecans

Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box. Spoon half the batter into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

Melt the caramels, butter and evaporated milk in a small saucepan or in the microwave, stirring until smooth. Pour over the baked cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

You can omit the nuts, but that's really what makes it a turtle cake. Without the nuts, well you've still got a delicious cake, but it's not technically a turtle cake anymore. Still, since you've made it this far in this madcap post, you've earned the right to do whatever you want. Throw caution to the wind and leave those nuts out if you so desire!

Pour the rest of the batter over the caramel layer and bake for another 15 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Seriously. I thought these would be cute shots, but now that I see them full-sized "ominous" is the only word that comes to mind. This bugger looks poised to eat my flower-picking darling!

This time of year I like to cover the cake and keep it in the refrigerator so the caramel doesn't get too runny. But don't worry, unlike its namesake, this turtle cake moves pretty fast -- at least in my house!

And now for those of you still with me (thanks, Mom!) the last of the gratuitous Terrapin Park shots.

Here's Amelia just moments before she slid right off the turtle's back and to the ground. It was a good six-foot drop. Some other dad at the park who was on her side of the turtle threw his iPhone and ran to catch her. He missed. Amelia scraped up her back and bruised her knee a little. Thankfully the iPhone survived so we didn't have to buy the guy a new one!

Amelia hams it up for the camera. See, no harm done!

Isaac makes friends with a hatchling.

Alex checks out the turtle eggs.

Sam welcomes a little turtle to the world.

Just think, if this were the good old days, you would have at least gotten invited over to eat the Turtle Cake while I tortured you with slides of my vacation. I guess everything isn't better in the digital era, now is it? :-)

© Trippin' Mama 2010