You might be a Redneck if......

Hank: "Brody, Johnny Cash is dead right?"

Brody: "Yeah"

Hank: "How did he die?"

Brody: "He either got old, or he got "ammonia""

This is funny on many levels.

Spring, summer, what the?

Best. Picture. Ever.

I'm not sure what is going on in the Northwoods, but we have a Spring/Summer combo. in March. Wanna know the last time the ice was off the lake this soon? Well....it was when my dad was 3. I'm not kidding. The weather has been gorgeous. Typically we don't get spring here. It kind of goes....Fall, Winter, less Winterish, summer. There are about 4 days when the snow melts and it is Springish. Lovin' the weather. Please stay away snow. See you in November.

Girls weekend

Last weekend my friend Brenda invited some girls to go to a cooking school and to her cabin. She used the term "cabin" loosely. More like super awesome I wanna live there when I grow up log house. It was just what the Dr. ordered. Good food, great friends, and lots of laughs. We started the evening at Ingredients School of Cooking in Eagle River. The lady showed us how to make a mouth watering Goat cheese salad. Seriously people, it was A-MAH-ZING! We then had some Irish soda bread, marinated flank steak and a fruit dessert. As Rachel Zoe would say "Ba Nanas!"

Brenda bought these lanterns. They are like the lanterns from Rapunzel. You light the bottom of them, let them fill with air, make a wish and send it on its way. You can watch the lantern float away with your wish going to heaven. How fun is that?

Sneaky lil' leprachauns

Thank you lil' green men for leaving us chocolate gold coins. Yumm!

I'm a little behind on my posts. So sorry to all my fans. Heehee. Our computer was getting fixed by the famous James....so I'll add a couple posts today and update you on what's been going on in the Kow house. We had some sneaky leprechauns sneak into our house. They turned our milk green.
Pee'd in our toilet. And...turned my beer green.

The kids were moderately freaked out about the leprechauns. They were excited they left us some green suckers and gold coins....but did NOT like the milk and toilet. I had to dump the milk and flush the toilet immediately. They spent the next 45 minutes using the buddy system when they had to go into a room separate from Brad or I. After telling them for 45 minutes that the green guys were long gone, Brad finally had to say "There's no leprechauns. The dogs would eat them if they were still here." Nice. But, it worked.

Last day in Cali

Do you see what this barista is doing? Do ya? She's taking a blow torch to my latte. Why? Because it's a creme brule latte. She took a blow torch and caramelized the top of it. Best latte of my life. Best. I will be begging the local baristas to do this. PLEASE!!
Duh? Who doesn't?

Today is our last day in Cali. Whaaaaaaa.....Kids wanted to go mini golfing. And, try chocolate covered grasshoppers. They were on the va-ca bucket list. However, no chocolate covered grasshoppers to be found in Del Mar. But...there were super awesome cupcakes.

Our Vacation was great. Weather was chilly today and yesterday. But, sun was shining and we made the most of it. We had friends drive up last night and spend the night. We got lots of Kowieski cousin time. We collected some, but not lots of sea shells. We didn't go to La Jolla which is my favorite town in all of Cali, but time ran out. My goal for this vacation was to snuggle my babies, relax, eat delicious food that can not be found anywhere in Oneida county, and soak up the sun. Brad is going to have to put me on the plane kicking and screaming.

Seaworld

We went to Sea World yesterday. I didn't blog about it until tonight because I had a Shamu hangover. Wanna know how awesome of a Mom I am? Super awesome. Wanna know why? I got to Sea World and didn't have the SD card in my camera. There are very few things in this world that send me into a pi##ed off frenzy. But SERIOUSLY.......who the H forgets their SD card at Sea World? And, to add to the fun.....my "thing" for lent is to not be on my Iphone when the kids are around. So, I didn't take my phone either. Because....duh? Brad had his. So, in between Brad's 934,529,438 work texts I was grabbing his phone or saying "quick....snap a pic!

Brody petting some Starfish. It was fun! You could pick up the little guys and set them on your hands.

Hankie checking out his favorite. The sea turtles. Of course, in true Hank form he wouldn't look at the camera. We will have LOTS of cute pics of the back of his head.
Shamu show. Big hit! The kids loved Sea World. When we were walking around Brody looked up at me and said "I can't believe this is actually happening!" Lucky kids. Lucky parents.

A hike and a seal....all in 1 day

We had a great day in Cali today! These pics are not in order because of some influence by my friend Marg Arita. But....here's the low down on our day. Relaxing morning with coffee...snuggles...and lounging. We then went on a family hike, hit the beach, and had some pizza and cocktails. BTW....I think the word cocktails is funny. Say it "cocktails." Makes me giggle. The kids and I were playing frisbee on the beach and Brad yelled "SEAL!" What a cute little guy. Shortly after some surfers came out of the water and said they saw a leopard shark. Maybe spooked the little guy? Hope he's not hurt. Look at Hankie in the pic. He's waving at the seal.
Herbert on the hike. The whole time the Kowboys were worried we see ratt'lers. We assured them they aren't going to be out this time of day/year. When we got down to the bottom of the hill a guy said "careful.....watch the kids....I just saw about a 3 ft. rattlesnake." You can imagine the dirty look Brad and I got.

We're too legit to quit. Too legit too quit our hike. Venom this ratt'lers.

Some frisbie at the beach

Nothing short of a miracle. A seal AND my kid looks at me when I'm taking a pic.

Lifeguards on seal duty

Cousins relaxing after a fun day

We're in Cali!

Our week in Arizona

Our week in AZ was beyond relaxing. The sun felt great. Weather was warm all but 1 day. The pool was perfect and my kids are perfect ages to swim, ride in the golf cart, and this years favorite activity (besides Tombstone) was watching Westerns with Papa. Brody already asked if we can get the Western channel when we get home.
Hank "teaching" Papa how to play some board games.

Nothing like fresh picked oranges for breakfast!

Latte and sushi. Great combo. The only bad part of going to AZ is we have to leave eventually. Lots of tears, but soon Papa will be home for the summer.

Tombstone

Papa and our family went to Tombstone on our AZ trip. We stopped at Boothill graveyard on our way and say some "interesting" headstones. Lots of folks back then killed by hanging, gun fights, or Indians. Was very neat to see.

While in Tombstone we had some sasparilla at Big Nose Kate's bar. There was live entertainment and the guy was awesome!

One of Brody's life long dreams came true! He got to pet a parrot!!! It has just tried to bite him in the above pic. Tombstone and a parrot in the same day! I thought his head was gonna explode.

He got deputized. He's been hired to keep the peace 'round here.

Brody's new Tombstone riffle.

Thanks Papa! It was a great day. Lots of fun memories. Boys will be talking about this for a long time.