My Josh turned 7--and he's been SO excited about it (Poor kid--first day of school and it's your birthday. That's got to stink!) When we've been asking him what he wanted, he's listed things like "an Android phone" (good luck on that one), a million dollars, 36 video games, and a go-kart. However, he's always listed a remote control helicopter as well. OK--we could do the remote control helicopter (we sure weren't doing the million dollars).

He opened it, started it up, and started the hovering process. I've neglected to inform you of the birthday cake that was sitting right in front of him, in its double decker glory. I've also neglected to let you know that I was sitting to the side of the cake, where the reflected trajectory of frosting and cake "could" splatter if the helicopter was to stop hovering.

It did. Josh DIDN'T stop the blades from rotating either. Neither the cake nor I looked fabulous after that.

When You Wish Upon A Star....

There's a lot of reasons to love August in our family. After all, who can't love 120 degree weather in the desert (although that doesn't hold true this year--we've been rather cool for most of the summer in the low 100s!) We have Madi's and Josh's birthdays to celebrate, we have back to school shopping (thanks Kristen for taking Reagan!), we always have new releases of books (can't wait for Mockingjay!), and we have the Perseid meteor showers.

Last year, we didn't get to enjoy these because DJ was still on his way back from Alaska, and I was lazy and slept. This year, however, we wanted the best seat in the house. That seat is found up at the back entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. We headed up there with our beach chairs, drinks, and snacks--of course. Actually, before we headed out, our little black Pomeranian decided to bolt--and YOU try finding a little black pom in the dark WHEN THERE ARE NO STREET LIGHTS!!!!!!!! We eventually got on the road.

Once we hit Joshua Tree, there's a pull off we go to every year, with a nice wide concrete area, with plenty of space to set up the chairs. The stars were amazing--it's scary how much gets filtered out around civilization. The Milky Way stretched from horizon to horizon. We made plans that when we saw a shooting star, we'd say "12 o'clock", "3 o'clock", "6 o'clock" or "9 o'clock." I don't think we did that once--it was just "OOOHH look at that" or "THERE." Lots of laughs, giggles, and kids sneaking up behind mommy to put there fingers on her and say, "Is that a tarantula?" We also told the story of DJ's first Christmas gift to me--he did that "Name a Star" radio thing. We found where it was on the star charts, went out to look for it--and then (dramatic pause here)--it fell. Right then, right there. Who would have thought it?

We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours, and saw 100 falling stars (more or less--I think Josh may have been counting by twos--or maybe it was me towards the end). There were a couple of brilliant ones that lit up the sky, but most were fleeting. I'm glad we took the moment to enjoy--and continue the tradition. Star watching next fall anyone?