YA Trilogies aka Books All 30-Something Moms Read

I think I've established a few things about myself that should be pretty obvious to anyone whose read my blog for a little while. 1) I like to read. 2) I like YA books...and Dystopian trilogies. 3) I love lists and comparisons. 4) I am a nerd.

With all that said, I wanted to talk about all the YA series that I've read over the past few years because I realize it's quite a few!

Hunger Games - Hunger Games was the first Dystopian trilogy I read, and it is probably still my favorite. I know some people thought the second book was a little boring or they weren't crazy about the ending, but I enjoyed all 3 books A LOT! I have also thought all the movies were really great.

Matched - I randomly read about this series on a blog a few years ago and gave it a try. I liked the first book, was a little bored with the second book, and I thought the 3rd book had a really strong comeback. I read that {big surprise} the film rights were sold, but I haven't heard anything more about a movie being made. This is probably my second favorite series - maybe tied with Legend.

Divergent - ugh. After staying up until 4:00 AM the day I got Divergent, I thought this series would be my favorite. The second book wasn't quite as good but was still really good. Then the 3rd book just took a 180 and was so slow and boring and had just the worst ending - it literally took me 18 months to read the 3rd book, and the only reason I finished was because I felt like I needed to! So disappointing. I did like the first 2 movies and will be curious how they make the 3rd book into a movie given the controversial ending...

Legend - I just heard about Legend this fall when all 3 books were already out - definitely made me happy to not have to wait in between books.  I thought this one lacked some character development and there could have been more about the backstory, but overall I really liked it. The ending of the series was a little bit different but I dug it. Definitely near the top of the list for me.

The Giver - I quickly read all of these in about a month and found them fun. Definitely {in my opinion} these would be geared towards the youngest of YA readers - I felt like there could have been a lot more character and overall plot development. If Allegiant hadn't killed all my liking for the Divergent series this would probably be at the bottom of my list, but I definitely liked them.

Any other YA books I should be reading?

The Rest of the Story Weekend

Sidebar: Anybody out there ever listen to Paul Harvey? If so, my title should be slightly funny. If not, your loss! {grin}

So I blogged about our busy day last Thursday for my DITL post and figured since we were out of town, I would recap the rest of our weekend at the lake!

Friday started off a little too early with Mayer waking Drew up with his extremely horrid lovable screeching - he started his day at 5:30, so he was off to an excellent start!

Friday consisted of lounging, fishing, checking out the pig that lived at the resort, visiting with more cousins, eating, catching minnows, playground playing...just lots of fun! 

My cousin, Ryan, brought me a coke with a great message!

We sent the picture to Brent who made a derogatory comment about Aggies {Ryan and I both graduated from A&M, whoop!}, so we sent him back this picture. I won't show you Brent's response. {grin}

The boys thought this was so neat - they kept catching the minnows and throwing them back.

The boys are being bandits, and Drew is just copying them because she loves these 2 boys!

There was a pot-bellied pig that lived at the resort. 

The kids were constantly wanting to see the pig.

All that pig did was sleep, and it was pretty sad, but that didn't stop everyone from constantly wanting to go see if perhaps the pig was doing something. Nope, never.

The front desk also had movies you could borrow, and I found Despicable Me 2. I think we're all aware of Trent's love for minions, so I won't a mom prize for that one!

I should have known when Drew went to bed willingly and fell asleep in my arms something was up after our 2 hour adventure the night before. I was just contemplating laying her down and getting to my book when up came her mac 'n cheese from dinner...ALL on my chest and herself. I quickly hollered for my mom, and we got Drew cleaned up and back asleep for this routine to be repeated 8 times over the next 12 hours. We decided to head home Saturday morning to save everyone else from the same fate.  {I think she actually got sick from a stuffed pig she found on the grounds that we washed and dried - no one else got sick, so that's a big mom fail if that's really what did it to her.}

After a car nap and then an almost 4 hour nap at home, she felt much better! We spent most of Saturday relaxing and watching movies - we all needed a rest!

'Coloring'

Brent ended up not being able to play in his golf tournament on Sunday {his partner's wife went into labor Saturday night a few weeks early so new babies trump golf...although Brent might not agree!}, so that was a nice surprise for me to have him home.

Drew really wanted to go to the playground, so we went just for about 30 minutes.

Didn't want her getting overheated since she was still a little puny.

And then we ended our day with haircuts and more lost teeth for this guy!

So sweet when he's sleeping!

And now that it's almost the weekend again, I'm finally done talking about last weekend!