Exploring near Home

I read on a blog that this past weekend was free entrance to many national parks so I did a search to see if anything fairly local was on the list. Much to my joy (because I am a sucker for free things!), there is a national park right here in San Diego--Cabrillo National Monument. Since we have never been there and would be picking up my mom from the airport at midday, we decided we would just check it out. We really had nothing to lose--we were in the area anyway since this was only about ten minutes from the airport and we could just leave for home if we did not find anything to do.

What great poses!

It was overcast and a bit chilly, but it was not raining so we picked up Mom and headed for the park. We started down by the water where there can be tide pools if you hit them at the right time. We did not hit them at the right time since the tide was halfway back in. However, we got a few good pictures and enjoyed one little pocket of marine creatures. The anemones were fun to tickle and get to feel and watch as they sucked inside themselves.

On the rocks with the boys

With Dad and Gma B

Our tiny tide pool

Then we headed up to the visitor center where we talked to a very enthusiastic-about-the-park volunteer who was so excited that we were getting to explore the park that day. We followed his directions up to the lighthouse and to the whale overlook. Alas, no whales! But we did enjoy exploring the lighthouse and seeing what life was like for the lighthouse keeper and family.

In front of the lighthouse

I am so glad that we took advantage of free entry day. It was a fun little outing and something out of the ordinary for us. Here's to exploring in our own "backyard"!

He's growing up...

I catch myself thinking this on a very regular basis lately when I watch Isaac do or say something that seems too old for him. I notice he is getting closer to being six years old with all the things he is able to do or think through these days. He suddenly seems so grown up.

One of his newest accomplishments is that he can snap his fingers. I think he is pretty proud of himself because he is constantly snapping. (I am not sure that he even is aware of it at times, and I am afraid that his teacher is going to have the talk with us about helping him drop the habit!) Here is a video of his snapping in action (and you can hear Caleb's "are you serious?!?" line that we have been hearing regularly these days):



The other new thing Isaac is doing is riding his bike with no training wheels. Now, I realize that a lot of kids are doing this much earlier, but our boys just love their scooters and have gravitated towards them more than bikes. Last week he finally asked Paul to take the wheels off the little bike, and he took off. The bigger challenge is pedaling and trying to keep his balance on his regular-sized bike with no training wheels, but he is doing it. He has informed me that he likes riding in the street better because there is more room than in the back yard.





I was talking to our neighbor lady while Isaac was riding on the street, and before I knew it he had ridden almost to the end of the block. As I called him back, I saw Caleb at the top of the hill by the pool starting down the hill on his scooter. Nobody crashed or left the neighborhood, but they do keep us on our toes!

New Year...We're still here!

You would think that with Christmas vacation and time off we would have had some time to share Christmas pix and details of what has been happening to us the last few weeks...I am just happy to report that we are still here and have started our 2011 differently than I would have liked. You see, Christmas is my busiest time for "work" at church since we have extra services and a lot of my regular worship team members are gone or just need a break. That would be one excuse for lack of postings. My other excuse is that I got sick right before the new year hit, and it was one of those cold-congestion types of sick that just seemed to hang on for a while. I am not saying this to make you feel sorry for me (but feel free to if you want ;-) but just to clarify why we have been "silent" on here for a month.

Although I started off the year with a cold, it has been a reminder to me of all the blessings in our lives. I am soooooooo thankful for our health and for good doctors. For all the people who serve at church in worship--they really make my "job" easy and so rewarding. For family--all three of my boys (that includes Paul!) and the joy they bring to my life, our parents (three of whom visited us in the last month), our siblings and nieces and nephews, and extended family. For friends and the family they are to us on this side of the country.

I am also thankful for the weather here...we had a lot of rain before and after Christmas, but this week is beautiful (sunny and in the 80s the last couple days already) so we are enjoying being outside playing and going for walks again.

We enjoyed a visit with Paul's parents right around his birthday--celebrating Paul's birthday, eating at Red Robin and playing the games there, making donuts, playing Sorry, reading books, opening presents, and trying to stay dry.

We spent lots of time over Christmas and New Year's with Jill and Mark and the girls--presents, puzzles, games, Guitar Hero, and lots of giggling and screaming.

We just spent a week and a half with my mom who gave us the gift of getting away--an entire weekend of movies, a play, dinner out, shopping, and lots of relaxing with no kids!!! (I know it sounds pathetic, but it was so nice to just sleep whenever and however long we wanted! Ahhhh, we are well-rested!)

We ended our long weekend visiting with my great-aunt and my cousin and his family who all came up for Sunday afternoon and evening to just catch up while Mom is visiting.

Now the house is quiet, and we are looking ahead to a "normal" week--just the four of us and a regular week of school and the daily routines of work (incluing having to wash the dishes again since I don't think I did any while Mom was here). I still have a tickle in my throat and an occasional cough to clear the tickle but am finally feeling almost normal again. I think my voice is almost back to normal which is good since I have had three Sundays off from singing--THANK YOU to everyone who filled in for me (especially my hubby) and took leadership while I was MIA.

Happy New Year!

Our mouse tale...

We received a bag of books from one of our youth group families, and in this bag was one of Paul's favorite books--The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. He has started reading it to the boys. Each night before bed he reads a chapter (or more if they can convince him to keep reading).

The first time Paul read to them, they weren't so sure about listening to the story and decided to color while he read. As the story progressed, the coloring became less and the attention turned to Ralph and his adventures. Our routine now is to get jammies on and teeth brushed and then park ourselves in the living room--Paul in our very worn and well-loved recliner and the boys sprawled on pillows on the floor. And on the nights when I am caught up on work, I get to enjoy the story as well.

What fun for us to see how our boys love books and their stories! During my violin lessons each week, Paul takes the boys to the library to return their books and movies and pick out new ones. Isaac gravitates towards the Lego Star Wars and super hero beginner reader books while Caleb is mainly about picking out his movie (usually The Wiggles or Go, Diego! Go! types). Paul would say that I have fine-tuned the art of reserving books so he always hits "our" reserve shelf and adds those books and movies to our bag. (A friend of mine has an "L" last name so we joke to each other about taking up the entire shelf since she likes to reserve books as much as I do.)

Paul has been talking about the day when he could read his favorite chapter books to the boys, and we can't believe we are already at that point! Oh, the adventures and characters to come...the boxcar children and the world of Narnia are at the top of our list. But for now, we are enjoying the ride with Ralph the mouse.