Some call it a personal mission statement, I prefer something a little less business-like, something more meaningful, playful, and so I’ve adopted the term, “Life Motto” to describe what I stand for.
My life motto guides how I feel (sometimes how I should feel), how I treat others and how I want leave a legacy.
I’ve never been a religious type, I remember going to Sunday School when I was really really little, but I think it was a way for my parents to have a little free time on the weekends to themselves – I think our neighbors or a family friend took us to church. I believe in God and Buddha (they are good friends and sometimes tag-team), I believe in the beauty of life, but most of all, I believe in myself and teach my kids the same.
The “believe in myself” thing was really difficult to to manage at first, as some days “myself” woke up in a bad mood or “myself’ got pissed off at something and couldn’t shake it off (you’ve had those days too, right?!)
My life motto centers me and waves *hello* during the times I’m a little lost, off kilter or just acting plain stupid.
MAGICAL MOMENTS.
Yep, that’s my life motto. I live for creating magical moments for myself, my family, my friends and total strangers. I’m always looking for ways to create fun, create experiences that people will remember for ever ‘n ever.
I promise I’ll dedicate a post about how to realize your life motto (it’s quite simple, really….and so fun as it involves making art!) – this post is about the magical moments that we all had the past few days when Brooke of Cheeky Kitchen and her family of 6 drove 3 days from Colorado to come visit us!
We played, swam, fished, bonfired, beached, boated, dined and talked nonstop.
I caught a fish ——> T H I S <—— big!
As you can see from the pics, the Steamy Kitchen house-style is suimsuit + rain boots, so that when it gets too hot, you just jump in!
Yum…those tiny blue gills are so sweet!
One night, the kids wore glowsticks, swam in the pool (have you ever done that!?? It’s so fun!) and then we had a bonfire. Of course we made s’mores! Truly magical.
A trip to Florida wouldn’t be complete without playing at the beach! The kids swam, boogie-boarded, collected shells and itsy bitsy live clams (smaller than the size of your pinky fingernail) and made a dolphin sand-sculpture.
Another night, we launched a blow-up boat raft that we only blew up half-way – the air compressor thingy we had took forever to re-charge and blow air.
Andrew, Nathan and Jacob were the brave boys to go first (Actually….*I* took the maiden voyage, but photos of that, if they even exist, are censored — basically I pushed the raft out a bit, leapt and dove in the boat. Legs flailing, butt sticking up and arms trying to paddle. So censored.)
The pics are blurry – it was about 10pm at night, pitch black – camera was set to the highest ISO like 50,000000 to be able to capture these pics)
How many can fit in this half-inflated raft?
WAIT! Wait for me!!!
OH NO you aren’t coming in! Hurry, let’s escape!
Silly, silly, silly.
Pooped. All of them, including Coco.
Nathan didn’t want Ms. Brooke to go.
I didn’t want them to go….
Goodbye’s are so hard….
Have a safe journey home….
I can’t wait for their next visit….I’m already daydreaming of magical moments we’ll create together.
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that is one sweet and fun get together you all had. i don’t blame nathan for them to go 🙂 thanks for the “magical momemts” motto. how inspiring!
Jaden – the story and pictures are wonderful. I love the “realness” of all of your pictures, including your food photos. It seems like lately, all of the food photos are starting to look a little overstyle-ized (is that a word?).
Keep doing what you are doing!
Thank you, again, Jaden and Scott, for a fantastic time in Florida! Thank you for helping our children (and us) create so many wonderful, magical memories. We love you!
Such a refreshing change of post themes. Love it. As they say, friends are the family we choose. My husband and I always say, “Let’s go make some memories.” It’s a good motivator.
What a sweet, beautiful post, Jaden! You ARE making magical moments for your friends and family! You have inspired me to do the same! 🙂
Llove this post, Jaden!
So cool! There’s so much to do at Jaden’s and Scott’s – forget about theme parks in Florida 😀
Beautiful and inspiring post, Jaden!!! Such fun…you should open a camp…but for adults, not just kids. Sign me up!
Camp Steamy Kitchen! LOL well, maybe just for family and friends 🙂
Goodbyes are hard, but just knowing there is another soul on this Earth that we will miss and that will miss us is worth everything. Cheers to creating more and more magical moments:)
I love your life motto…very inspiring! I will share this with my family and friends.
Jaden! Life Motto success! There were so many millions of magical moments during our stay, I can hardly keep track of them all, and wish I could have bottled them and brough them home. Mason jars of memories preserved.
Thank you to your and your sweet Scott. Every moment was a pleasure and a treat. We adore you and can’t wait for next time. Let’s make sure Mike Dooley is there! 😉
XOXOXO
Nothing can compete with the magic of beautiful memories made. These pictures will be an additional prompt to relive some of those magical moments.
This post was so perfect and inspiring, Jaden!
“I believe in myself” is so hard to manage sometimes, but it’s almost comforting to know that someone as successful as you feels that way also!
Memories nurture the soul in a unique way that “things” cannot. Memories are truly special.
You look like you guys had a great time!!
What a gorgeous and lovely pictorial! Looks like a fun kick-back visit and the closing 3 photos are so bittersweet.
I love this, Jaden! So sweet. All the smiles are gorgeous!