"Lion!!! Raaarrrrrrrr!"

Kids are adorable. I got to see my three cousins yesterday, Jenna, Joey, and Jace. Yes they are all J names and yes it is on purpose! My Aunt Jamie and Uncle Joe decided to make it a family "J".  I haven't seen Jace since he was two and stringing maybe 3 or 4 words together. I got to spend 3 months with them last year, and it took him almost all of that time to accept me as family. I knew I had reached that point, when I walked into the door of their house and runs up to me, hands me his bottle and screams "MILK!!!" "MORE!!!" It's good to be loved :) 

He is 3 now, and yesterday I saw him and the kids for the first time this year. :Jenna (who is 10 tomorrow!) and Joey who is 6; both ran up to me and hugged me and started talking about school and soccer and all sorts of things, and Jace didn't really pay me any attention. So I finally asked... hey Jace do you know who I am? and he yells at me "VALRY!!" By the end of the day he was hanging onto me and slamming his face into mine for kisses. TOO CUTE.

Tonight I am hoping that I'll get to go to see Joey's soccer game! And Jenna's birthday is tomorrow so I'm off to find her a card and a gift. What do you get for a ten year old girl? Do you go traditional 'Claire's' route with cheap jewelry that will last maybe 5 days? A purse? Lipgloss? A toy or puzzles? Yesterday she came up to me and said "Valerie... in 3 days I'm going to be a pre-teen!" And of course, her head is up to my shoulder now (I know I know, not hard to do cause we're just sooooo short). They are all growing up!

And Joey is this adorable tiny little blond boy (He's six but looks four) who wants to play hockey, and soccer, and do karate. He also came in and said "Valerie, guess what? We're getting a lion!"
"oh you are? and where will the Lion live?" - me
"he's going to live in our backyard. In a cage. wait not a cage, we're getting a fence for the lion! And it will have to be careful cause we have a trampoline too" - Joey
"LIONNNN! RARRRRRR" - Jace (attacking me with 'claws' out)
"it's going to be a BIG Lion!" - Joey
"RARRRRRRRRRR" - Jace
"Joey.... we're NOT getting a Lion!!!" - Jenna
"Lion!!! Raaaarrrrrrr! Lions eat you!!" - Jace

Miss these kids!

Oh and today there were about 400 motorcycles parked in front of our hotel! I got lots of good photos... but can't put them on here yet. :(
Thanks for reading despite my horrible lack of photos! It will be more visually exciting as soon as I get to Colorado and find my cord!!