Zero to 18 in no time flat

Zero to 18 in 22 seconds. That is truly what it feels like when my oldest child is now OFFICALLY an adult. I am one lucky mom. Even today he asked me “Does it feel weird we are all growing up?” My answer was……DEFINITELY.

He has always been a dirt biker

I have been struggling with Jackson this year. Not with him but the fact that he is now 18 and a senior. The fact that my oldest kid is going to join the Military after Graduation. The fact that he isn’t a little boy anymore with big ears and an even bigger smile.  I guess every parent struggles with the fact their kids are getting older. I sometimes look at him when he is speaking and can see WAY down the line when he has a family of his own. I see the growth. I see his caring nature. I see his joking side. I see how much he has grown. I see him turning into a man.

Me and my Adult Son

For Jacks 18^th bday he wanted to go to an All you can eat Sushi place. There is nothing like that around where we live although we do love us some sushi. His Mom and I talked and decided we would bring him to Reno so both sides of the family could meet up. We wanted him to have a big birthday with her and her side of the family plus Ryan and I and our side of the family. It was going to be great! Sushi, bowling and staying at a Casino. Cousins everywhere. I think Jackson was worried it was going to be a little babyish but in the end he said he really liked it.

We did the all you can eat sushi with 21 of us. Everyone chatted and had fun. It was all for Jackson and he was the star of the show. I wished I would have gotten a picture of him when the whole restaurant sang to him. The embarrassed look on his face was classic. We all laughed, ate and had a good time. After filling our bellies full we went over to Grand Sierra Resort to do Black light bowling.

A whole bunch of us

 

Jack with his mom on left and MIL on right

 

Cassie, Josh and Aunt Kelly loving Sushi

 

 Jen and some of the younger Cousins

 

Ryan and I loving Sushi

Ok I am going to stop for a second and say something important to me. I may not be Jackson’s biological mom. I am technically his step mom and have only been in his life since he was 10 but I love him like he is my own. He has my heart. I am thankful that his Biological mom and family understand that. They even call me the “other mom” as I am just that. The other mom. I am not the wicked step mom in Cinderella. I love Jackson and have since I laid eyes on him and his brother. Ryan and I have never treated the four kids differently. They get loved the same and punished the same. We are very blessed they get along so well and they view each other as brothers and sisters. My heart aches when any of them are hurt and is over joyed when something happens good to any of them. I am also very thankful that you can take two families that have been through a divorce and still be there for the kids. And have fun mind you too.

Ok so back to my kid turning 18. We all went bowling for two hours. It was a blast. Not only was it fun for the little kids but it was fun for the adults too. I laughed so many times. I laughed when my dad took off his shoes because he was afraid to slip. I laughed when Jacksons Uncle John told me how he was a great bowler but only on Wii. I laughed when any of us would get a strike and see the ultimate joy in our faces or rather surprised look that we did it actually. It was a good time. I loved getting to know Jackson and Jason’s Mom side better. Everyone was really nice and never made anything awkward. I loved seeing my nieces Kylie and Mariah bowl with their bumper pads and thinking to myself maybe I would do better if I used those too.

Jacob and Jackson going head to head

The thing that I hope Jackson saw in the end was there were so many people there who loved him. So many people who wanted to share in his bday of turning into an adult. He had Uncles and Aunts from both sides there, His Grandma Sally, His Papa Vaughn and Grandma Andy and then he had a slew of cousins from young to old there plus his siblings and all his 3 parents. I think that is how every big birthday should be. Full of fun and love for your child. Not many divorced families can pull that off but if you truly love the kids....you will.

It was an amazing night. Lots of laughs and lots of love. Jackson later went out with his older cousin Jacob to have a little one on one time too. Also shout out to Jacob. I like that kid (whelp technically adult) and I promised him if he won in bowling I would give a shout out! HI JACOB!

It was a good night. My son is finally 18. The skies have opened up for him and he is an adult. Just a couple more months and he will be graduating too. I love you Jackson. For the next couple months I may hug you a little longer and a little tighter…..you just have to stop growing up.

Spring Break Part 2

When my mother was pregnant with me my Biological father passed away. My mother remarried when I was an infant and I was adopted by my dad Vaughn. The most amazing thing about it was Larry's family (my biological father), my dads family and my mothers family stayed connected. Many of my aunts and uncles invite each other 30 years later to each others houses from the opposite sides. I love that my parents took the time in my life to see and stay connected to all sides of the family. After visiting in Spokane Cassie and I decided to make an impromptu visit to my families town which is Centralia, Wa. It was another 6 hour drive from where we were already visiting but it was so well worth it.

The thing about impromptu visits is no one knows you are coming. Usually when we all get together its planned so we have time to get everyone together. My biological Father Larry Ray (that's how they got my name LaRae) had 7 brothers and sisters. My mother had 2 sisters. The really neat thing is both of my Grandmas from both sides were best friends. I know any of you if you had a best friend would find it amazing if your child married your best friends child. What a way to connect the family.

First stop was to surprise my Uncle Mike. He had no idea we would be showing up. Heck I didn't know till that day either. He had just had open heart surgery. I wanted so bad to surprise him because I hadn't seen him in years even though we keep in contact on Facebook. His daughter Marie helped me set it up to surprise him. You should of seen his face when we walked in. I am so glad he is doing well. I really worried. Heart Surgery is no joke. Hugging my cousins were amazing too. I love Marie we have always been close. Stephen is too shy haha!

We went up to my families town and got a hotel. The next two days were a blur. I was suppose to meet my Grandpa on my biological fathers side for breakfast. It ended up being my grandpa, Vivian, My two uncles and their wives and my cousin. We never do anything small lol. It was so good to catch up with them that we decided to meet again for breakfast the day we were leaving. I had so many more houses still to go too. I loved seeing their faces. It warmed my heart instantly.

I went to my Uncle Mikes house next. He was my grandpas brother. Watching him rock in his recliner made me think of my Grandpa who had passed. This is on my others side. You know I think I cried three times while I was there. Hugging him was like hugging my mom. I miss my mom and grandpa a lot. Its nice to have someone who reminds me so much of them. He is a pastor also and that is always comforting because we could talk freely about God and our beliefs. Side note. The first time I ever felt God was at his church when I was little.

Next stop was my Aunt Cathy's house and all my pregnant cousins. They wouldn't let me take pictures of them but they were all there. I did have one cousin there too who I love who isn't pregnant but she is getting married in Sept so who knows what's next. We had a great time. Loved visiting and being with my second cousins too. I laughed a lot as my 4 year old second cousin told me that she didn't want to speak English and she will do is later. Mind you that's the only language she knows. Cassie fell in love with their puppies while we were there and oh boy did I know we would end up going home with one. Took three days for Ryan and I to really discuss it but by the day we left we had Sebastian in tow with us.

By the time Cassie and I got to the hotel we were beat. We had met up with over 20 of our family members. I texted my hubby and told him about our trip even though I had sent pictures throughout the day. I was so thrilled he had talked me into going. I really needed it. Cassie and I zonked out but fell asleep with smiles on our faces.

The next morning we met up with my mothers side of the family. My mom had two sisters. Jacque had 3 boys and Val had a boy and a girl. We were able to all get together but just missing out on 2 cousins which was amazing. I am glad that my family is close. I am the oldest grandchild on both of these sides so all of my cousins are younger than me. I always tell them they have to respect me! I think they just boss me around as much as I do them. Lots of hugs and more hugs and more hugs were given. Cassie was able to hang out with her cousins which was nice that she finally had some kids her age around. Kaeden and Cassie I swear would be BFF if we lived closer.

After we went to one of my cousins and hung out and talked and talked. I never tire of talking ha! I had promised Cassie we would go to the movie Cinderella so along the way I invited people. It was cool because we ended up with 3 sides of my family there. Aunts, cousins, cousin in laws and us. It was GREAT! I love seeing the faces of people who are so dear in my life. By the time the movie was over it was almost 11. Cassie and I were so tired but we followed my Bre to see where her work was. Once we got to the hotel we were out like a light.

I didn't even want to get up the next morning but we had too. I called Ryan and told him I wanted to move to Washington. I miss my family so so so much. I feel so at home with them. Cassie and I got ready to go and meet my Grandpa and Grandma for breakfast before our long drive back. Usually we stay with my Grandpa or Aunts but since it was impromptu we decided a hotel would be better. As usual many more showed up. My Uncles Bob and David, my Aunt Janet, my cousins Sarah, Laura, Brittney, Courtney, and Laura's hubby. It was a full table.

I just never wanted to leave. I missed them all so much. After lots of talking (mostly on my part ha) and lots of hugs and pictures Cassie and I were headed home. But wait! We had to go and pick up our new puppy Sebastian. Many hours later and many, many songs later we were home. It was a great week! I wish it never ended. I cant wait till we go back in Sept with all of us! Its going to be an adventure. I had to get back though....as the 6 of us are going on our first family Cruise to Cabo in just a few short days. Man I have to unpack and pack us all up again! Here we come Mexico!

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Twins? Tahoe? FUN!

When your three year old niece tells you that all she wants for her Birthday is for her cousins to come play with her.....you listen:)

Between Jason's Basketball game and school we weren't able to make the 5 hour drive to Mariah's 3rd birthday. Since we lucked out and it was a three day weekend we decided to get a house and pet sitter and head over to see our nieces. Mariah just turned 3 and Kylie is almost 6. Love these girls and they love, love their cousins!

Its funny when you see the interaction of teenagers with their little cousins. You would think they thought they were too good to do something but they get down on the ground and have tea parties. I love seeing how excited my nieces get with the kids.

Now Kelly is Ryan's twin sister. Kelly is older by a couple of minutes. As we are all growing older she doesn't say that as much now ha! My mother in law Sally came down too so we all could get together. It was really fun. I am very lucky because I get along with my mother in law. I know ppl are used to hearing the "MIL" jokes or "oh my MIL is so horrible she says this or that" but I am blessed to really truly like her. We could even hang out without her son, my husband....GASP! I know right!

I love Ryan's family a lot. They mean the world to me and 7 years ago they took me and my children in as their own. I am sure I get on their nerves or get cranky sometimes but they have been there for me through everything. My MIL even has taken me home from the hospital and taken care of me a few times. She will drive hours to come see us and even to watch our house, animals, kids anytime we need her to help out. Most of the time 9 times out of 10 she offers before we even ask. That in itself is pretty amazing!

With a blended family of four teenagers you would think ppl would treat the kids differently....but they don't. They are all told the same things..."I love you", "Use your fork properly", "How are your grades?", "You are so funny" ETC. Its nice to be apart of such a fun, entertaining family.

Anyways on to the day! Kelly and Dave and the kids had everything set up for us to stay there. Its not easy having a family of 6 come to stay. Kelly is always the very gracious host and I am thankful for that. Where they live they have a community pool that is apart of the package so we always bring our swimsuits come rain, shine or snow (hey its Tahoe). The first thing we did was head on over to the pool after our greetings and hellos. Dave stayed back and Grandma Sally (MIL) stayed back to start cooking dinner for everyone.

We had so much fun. I am so impressed with my niece Kylie who is five. She swims around with her goggles and flippers like she is a mermaid. I really think she should go into the swim team because she is an amazing swimmer. She can be like her Auntie Rae Rae and do swim team all through all her school years. She cracks me up because hooked onto Jason and wouldn't let him out of her sight. Love that kid!

Mariah went back and forth from the hot tub to the pool with us. She is so cute with her little ladybug life jacket. She would swim from Ryan to me to Jackson and Cassie. She was all over the place too just swimming and smiling away. She would keep going to Ryan or I so we could throw her in the air. Mariah would be thrown and go underwater and come up smiling wanting more.

Cassie and Jason were swimming with the kids a lot and hot tubing with us all. Then the craziness ensued!!!! Josh decided he was going to belly flop off of the diving board. He went and did it and SMACK! straight to the belly. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO DO THAT ON PURPOSE? Teenagers are weird creatures I tell ya. After him doing it about 3 times Jackson decided to do it also. What were they thinking? I do have to say out of the four kids Josh and Jack are always the dare devil ones. The other two are the watchers lol.  I tried getting Josh on video tape but the Video ran out and after that solid good belly flop he was done with doing it. So Jackson decided to do one and only belly flop before we left. I cracked up because he held his face and his well..."jewels" as he calls it and SMACK!! down he went. I actually got that one on video and you can see it by clicking this link! I am telling him not to waste my time because my phone was at 3 percent and we had 60 seconds of video left hahaha! He came up all smiles but had a bloody nose. We learned our lesson....if you are going to be crazy enough to do a belly flop...DONT hold your face because it will smack your nose! Click here to see his Belly Flop Jacksons Belly Flop

So as you can see teens can be crazy. We all went back to Kelly and Dave's house, showered and were pretty hungry. Dave had finished BBQ the chicken which was delicious and Grandma had finished all the yummy goodies to go with it. We all ate and watched a movie.

Fast forward to the next morning. Everyone is everywhere lol. I announce that I need to go to the donut shop to get us all donuts as everyone is eating cake from the birthday party ha! Collins family definitely has a sweet tooth:) We don't have a donut place anywhere near us where we live and I just wanted a donut considering I had decided to start low carbing the next day! After everyone's breakfast we did what we do best......Ryan helped him mom on her laptop on how to use it, Kids studied for their finals and took turns playing with the girls. I played Connect Four with Mariah and taught Mariah and Kylie how to play Candy land. Connect Four with a 3 year old is pretty interesting. Its basically match the color haha and Mariah saying "I got you!". LOL..... I loved watching Kylies wheels turn in her head on Candy land and really understand it. Such smart little girls! Uncle Dave showed the kids a helicopter and Kelly was just making sure everyone had what they needed for everything. She is organized like that which I love.

Around lunchtime we decided to all go over to a little Mexican Bistro Place with clean good foods. We had Grandma, Donna (her bff), our crew of 6 and then took the little girls so Mom and Dad could have an hour or so of peace:) We went to go meet Amber and Austin which is Ryan's bff. Amber is also a twin. She grew up with Ryan and they were always Babysat together. Amber and Austin are amazing. They are the only couple I know that liked each other in middle school. Dated each other in High School and after High school got married. They have only ever been with each other their whole lives and are still very much in love. I love seeing them. Ryan loves it more though because they have always been so much apart of each others lives.

The kids say that Austin is like a really big 12 year old and they always fight on who gets to sit next to him or who is going to talk to him first. Amber is this amazingly smart gal who I think has a heart of gold. I liked her the first instant I saw her. We had a great time at lunch and everyone talked, ate, and talked some more. Soon it seemed like 15 minutes had only gone by but it had been almost 2 hours. We had to say our goodbyes but we knew we would be seeing them probably in the next couple weeks closer to our house. As we were leaving they gave us this huge box of t-shirts and sweatshirts for the kids. Its all logos from their shop that they own called IN YOUR FACE SIGNS AND TEES. I love places that are family owned and ran! Check out their website if every interested....  In Your Face Signs and Tees

So the day was already getting to the point where we had to pack up and get ready to go. I already was missing the girls before we even left. I love being able to see everyone and have fun. I love the joking and all the memories. We had a 5 hour drive home and kids had to be back by bedtime so they could be well rested for Finals Week. We all gave our hugs and said our "see you soon" and headed on the road to go home. It was a fun short little trip and I am glad we did it. I am thankful for Dave and Kelly's hospitality. Its not easy having 6 ppl come to anyone's home. We will be back soon. Until then.......

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