The Hansen Clan went to a high school graduation this weekend up in Monterey and had a blast. Baby Girl was a rockstar for the 8 hour car trip, which was a shocker to us parents.
[We expected to need drugs and a “softie blanket” for everyone by the time we got there.]
My “ah-ha” moment for the weekend?
I found out that laughter can come from the unlikeliest places. Really, we sat around laughing our guts out at nothing (and had a fab time). And my husband does a stellar Scooby-Doo giggle.
For example, The Bow had us going for a while. That $1 thing from Target was passed around to EVERYONE’S head, male, female and feline.
Daddy got a picture of Babykins and I with The Bow, but I think he was focused on the usual when taking this photo (I call this pic “Boobs and Bows). If you saw the vlog we did back in the day (where I have no forehead), you’ll understand…
The fashion faux pas continued when I’d send the child out of the hotel room like THIS:
Let’s Go Already…I’ve got your purse!
And she’d end up looking like THIS:
So cute…and not matching worth a damn. (Uh-huh: red sunglasses…and some black pants.)
The word of the weekend was “Baducci” (pronounced Bah-Dooooocheeeeeeeee). Everytime my hubby would say it, that kid would die laughing. I don’t even know what a “Baducci” is.
Once she started saying “Badookie,” I made him change it to “Bonaduce.” Better for her to say the name of a redheaded has-been actor than to utter “Dookie” at school.
And for the very first time in history, I watched someone (my husband) say “Look over there!” while he put an off-limits-to-baby treat into the picnic bag…and it worked. That child looked where he pointed, and never saw what he was doing behind her back.
Now I’m wondering how long we’re going to have that in our bag of tricks. It was AWESOME.
Last but not least…that picture at the top of the post? Below is what was in front of us. 🙂
What silly inside joke amongst your friends and family makes you laugh every time? How old were your kids (if you have them) before “Look, over there!” stopped working? Where was your favorite weekend trip to? Enquiring minds LOVE to know these things here at More Cowbell!
Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
So glad you had fun – great family bonding time! We were engaged when we took the kids (his- 10 and 13) camping. I had visions of us exploring the outdoors together…. These are city kids. My son sat at a picnic table with a towel over his head to keep the sun off his video game. My daughter played on an old swing set until the chain broke, dumped her in the dirt, and she screamed bloody murder to go home.
That was the first ten minutes…
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Noooooo. I know for a fact those kids turned out just fine, but DANG. Camping is supposed to be fun….
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What a gorgeous view, Jenny! So glad you got time to kick back and enjoy.
I love those times with family where you just laugh your butt off. Our oldest (now 20, and still a riot to be around), is the family wise-cracker. He just has a different way of seeing the world. Don’t know where he gets it, since Paul and I are kind of ordinary in our humor, but it’s fun!
Love the “Look over there!” tactic, a tried-and-true strategy that belongs in every preschooler parent’s arsenal. Alas, I wish I could still use that trick sometimes, to swipe my 12-yo’s ipod and hide it for a while. Even if I got away with it, he has that “locate my ipod” feature…bested by technology, AGAIN. 😉
Sorry I didn’t get over to your pimp-and-promote post on Friday, hon! I read it but had no time to comment. It was a crazy day. Le sigh.
Happy Monday,
Kathy
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Well, I hope you still get your promoting in…you’re doing fantastic stuff.
And there’s a “locate my iPod feature??” *makes note to look that up*
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Oh, wow, I told you something tech-y that you didn’t know about? Woo-hoo! 😉
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Yes you did, and now I’m wondering if that can extend to cell phones and other devices, IYKWIM.
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Yep, and it’s a free app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-my-iphone/id376101648?mt=8
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Oooooooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It looks like you had a great time! Who cares about matching when you’re that age. LOL. (My 7-year-old still picks some wacky combinations.) The “look over there” trick still works with the 7-year-old. Usually, it’s the 15-year-old using it. 😀
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We did have fun. And really? SEVEN?! That’s music to my ears. 🙂
p.s. I want to look like you when I have a 15 year-old!!!
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Awww…you’re so sweet! I decided a long time ago not to feel my age. Or act it, for that matter! I stopped aging when I was 25 and didn’t start back up again for a decade. 😉 I had to change my number when I realized I had my older daughter when I was 12 and got married at 7. People tend to look at you funny when the math doesn’t add up in their heads.
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“Burp from the front row” does the trick, inside joke-wise.
During a performance of “The Mikado,” a woman in the front row unpacked a little picnic lunch at the top of act two, and gobbled it down. When she was done, she burped. At that exact moment, we had just finished a lovely piece that involved dressing the bride, Yum-Yum, for her wedding day. We sang the last note, the woman burped, we paused for applause, and then we simpered off stage and collapsed in muffled laughter behind the curtain, leaving poor Yum-Yum on stage to perform her solo. 😀
Favorite weekend trip (assuming this weekend just passed) was back to 1954. We’re rehearsing “Damn Yankees,” and it’s a fun show as it is, set in the 1950s. I’m playing Sister Miller, the role originated on stage by the amazing Jean Stapleton. Given her death on Saturday, she was in my heart the whole time we rehearsed, and the director commented it could have been my opening night, which is still five weeks out. I credit Jean, because I was definitely in the zone. She was a trip, and yesterday was, too. 🙂
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That is freaking hilarious, Ellen! I don’t know how y’all kept a straight face out on the stage. 🙂
I loved Jean Stapleton. I know she was best known for “All in the Family” but she had such a wonderful career. Who doesn’t want to live to 90 with such an astounding body of work behind them?
http://www.biography.com/people/jean-stapleton-9492310
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Sounds like you guys had a blast (and a much needed one since you guys spent so much time recently being sick)! Your views are gorgeous, even the bow shot (I promise, I’m not hitting on you).
Probably my favorite weekend trips have been either the long weekends to The Bahamas or when I go to Dallas for a game. Funny sayings? Don’t really have any with the fam, but my bestie cracks up every time she remembers the first time we went out for mani Pedi’s and the Korean lady doing my feet said (In broken English), “You have little toe.” To which I responded with a very put upon “I know”. Thankfully, I’d overcome my self consciousness about my feet or this would not have been funny… She’ll still randomly say it and die laughing. Sometimes I’ll just text her that statement because I know she’ll crack up.
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Your bestie sounds fantastic. And I’m so glad “You have little toe.” Everyone needs a few of those. 🙂
I think we enjoyed it even more for finally being well. That flu was a long haul!
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I felt so bad for you guys! I’m just glad the whole house is finally healthy and enjoying the summer. 🙂
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Oh, me too, Kitt. Me too!!
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Oh My Gorgeous! Your family and that view! Love the Baducchi word giggle. My giggle this weekend involved my 4 year old niece. I went home this weekend and we watched a Cirque du Soleil video and my niece decided “I can do that.” No matter what song, she dance right along to the beat whether it was zulu drums or ethereal trapeze music. She put on quite a show. LOL We were all laughing. My mom would try to get her to sit down and I’d call out, “Don’t mess with the Talent, she’ll sit when she wants to sit! Let’s get this girl an agent!”
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Don’t mess with the Talent is right!! Your niece sounds like a stitch. Why don’t you get these things on video for me??
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Ha, ha, ha! The hubster is so funny. He is dangerous with a camera. Yes, he is a boob man. lol. And didn’t baby girl look absolutely adorable! She matched Jenny. Look at nature and see how different hues of flowers all congregate together. Beautiful. I think she’s a trend setter! And you don’t have to show me how gorgeous Monterey is. Hubby and I LOVE that area. It is one of our favorite spots. We’ve spent countless anniversaries there with and without kids. Of course we enjoyed the kidless weekends a whole lot better. *wink* So glad you had a great time!
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Yep, our family members gave us a date night, which was stellar. We went to the Fish Hopper and watched the otters outside (and did NOT have to entertain a toddler). Wheeee!
Those Minnie Mouse sunglasses of hers kill me, almost as much as her putting mine on upside down. She’s hilarious. 🙂
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I don’t have kids but I still cherish the memories of those summer vacations when mom and dad packed us into the car and drove us to all kinds of spots. I do remember those famous words – “Don’t make me turn this car around!”
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LOL. Those road trips were classic. Plus, my husband did it in the days before carseats and child restraints, so he and his brother used to roll all over the backseat and the floor fighting. Ah, the joys of childhood…
I haven’t had a chance to use the old “Don’t make me stop this car!, etc.” LOL.
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HOW did I miss your vlog??? That’s too cute…and I LOVE your garden. Gotta ask though, what are the clear plastic hanging things for? Does it make it like a mini greenhouse?
Love the pictures today…even the red sunglasses with the purple dress and pink hat. Looks like Babygirl is all set to join the Red Hatters someday. BTW, your ‘view’ is now my desktop wallpaper. NOW I just have to find somewhere to stash all the darned icons. 🙂
Favorite weekend trip? Mackinaw City now. When my dad was alive, it was Murfreesboro, Tennessee….even though it meant a nine or ten hour drive each way.
Inside joke in my family? Can’t think of a joke, but we do still get a chuckle out of a fishing story. When my younger sister and baby brother went to the lake and he caught a BIG one. My sister, to be exact. They wound up at the emergency room with her sporting a large, brightly colored fishing thing…attached to her head with the fish hook. Yeah…I still giggle over that (which is what I’m doing as I type this).
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Yep, that vlog was history making. There aren’t any plastic hanging thingies, but I do have tons of multi-colored tomato cages. I use those to let the tomatoes and the zucchini grow up, rather than out. I also have a netting in my garden that I grow cucumbers and beans up. Does that answer your question?
Also, I’ve never been to Mackinaw City, but I’ve heard GREAT things about it.
Dang. Our fishing lines usually got caught on my dad, not each other. Did she at least get a cool scar??
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I love having moments like that, when nothing in particular happens, but it’s highly amusing and makes a lasting impression. Sounds like you had a lovely trip.
The babykin is adorable.
I don’t have kids so I can’t answer the question about how long the “look over there,” trick will work, but I can say that my dog will fall for the fake throw just about every single time. I’m not sure if that’s helpful in any way, but do with it what you want.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
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And doesn’t it make you laugh like a loon when your doggie falls for the fake-out? That’s what we did when she fell for the “Look over there!” 🙂
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Sounds like you all had a total blast! Unfortunately the “look over there” only lasted a year or so with my son, unlike with the dogs, who still fall for it. I guess that’s a good thing, huh, that my kid is smarter than a dog!
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You should be impressed, Kassandra! MOST toddlers are about on par with a dog, actually. I’ve noticed some major similarities. LOL.
I’m just going to enjoy the “Oooh, looky!” moments while I have them. 🙂
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Hello Jenny! I’m new to your blog, although I feel like I’ve known you for longer after the Susie Strong Campaign. 🙂 Your daughter is adorable!!!! How precious. My baby is 17 now so I miss babies. My husband still does the, “Look over there” trick but uses it to steal my french fries. I remember always using the spelling of words so the kids did not know what we were saying. That lasted a nice 6 years or so. 🙂
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Hey there, brickhousechick! Just read your post so I’ve got languages on my mind.
Jenny, if you and your husband both know at least a few words of another language that can work well too. For years, we got away with discussing plans in front of our son for things we were going to do “sans enfant.” This kept him from screaming, “Whadda ya mean I can’t go?” every five minutes.
Also if we wanted to distract him (this only worked for a couple years) one of us would start babbling away in French (I mostly made up what I was saying since my French is pretty bad). While he starred at the babbling fool, trying to figure out what we were saying, the other one would hide, snatch or otherwise bury whatever we were trying to keep him from seeing.
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Nice one, Kassandra. The only hitch here is my guy is dreadful at languages. I don’t know if that one is going to work for us…
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Thank you!! I’ll tell you, mine isn’t too far from babyhood and I already miss it. I’d have had more if I could’ve. 🙂
We spell a LOT. And y’all will certainly know how long that works for me…
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Looks like you all had a wonderful time, and Baby Girl is absolutely adorable. “Look over there” worked on our Baby Girl until she went to kindergarten. Darn education. LOL
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Nice!! I’m so glad I can use it for a while. 🙂
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Monterrey is one of the best things about living in California. Your baby girl is a DOLL!!
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Awwww, thanks Jane!!! We’re pretty excited about her ourselves. 🙂
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I love those inside jokes you pick up on vacations and road trips like this. When I lived with my two best friends in college, we had a MILLION of them, and whenever we’d say something around our other friends and started cracking up, they had no idea what was going on. But it was the best feeling. 🙂
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