Bike Adventure

Today Daddy and the kids packed a lunch and went on an "adventure". This means different things at different times. Lately, it means a bike ride to the "wilderness" surrounding the lagoon by our house. They always return with smiles, dirty faces, and many a story. As Lucas was recounting a few, he threw in this bit of insight into the mind of a five-year-old.

"One of the things I love about going for a bike ride is that it is so peaceful..."

(Mamma's heart skips a beat...My boy may grow up to not be a wild little beast afterall!)

" ...you can burp and you don't even hafta say excuse me because noone else is around."

(drat)

Here are some picture of their time, without sound.

This and That

A sampling of what we have been up to the past couple of weeks...

Give a boy a butterfly catcher, balloon and a piece of doweling and what do you get?

A weapon of course.

It was all fun and games until he actually figured out how to make it fly.

When Alan and Heather were here we had a conversation about some of the unique food combos we ate growing up: lettuce (iceburg of course) with sugar sprinkled on top, hard-boiled eggs in white sauce over toast, white rice in milk and cinnamon and sugar.


Don't knock 'em till you try them, except maybe the lettuce with sugar. Can't say I recommend that.


Anyhow this got me thinking of another treat we used to have...graham cracker/icing sandwiches and decided to make some with the kids. I took it a step further and added food coloring.


You know, so it was educational. I'm all about being educational. cough, cough.

Yum!

Poor sweet Jilly took a header off the counter. Does this picture not just break your heart and make you want to strangle the silly mother who let her sit up on the counter in the first place. Thankfully all wounds were superficial and all her teeth are still in a row.

The evening after this happened, Nathan prayed for her and as soon as he was done she said around her swollen lips, "Dad, you don't have to pray for me anymore. Jesus already made it all better."

Now from the "Inventions by Lucas" file...

He had a headache. I guess you might not be able to tell but that is a baggie full of ice strapped to his head with a rubberband.

A lovely moment of sibling peace. Playing candyland by the fire.

Lucas's class sang two songs in the preschool Christmas program. Ahhh...the cuteness was a little overwhelming. Why didn't someone tell him to fix his hat? I guess I should have bought him his own beanie instead trying to make his Dad's work.

"Grandpa and Grandma, the ones in Hatchapi" (Jill) came down last weekend for a quick one night visit. Grandpa took Lucas and Jill to the Wild Animal Park and McDonalds. I think it was a toss up which was more exciting. We have been hearing stories ever since. I tried to get some on video. In an effort to keep things real, I refrained from editing the whining.






So that is about all we have been up to. Oh, and according to pregnancyguideonline.com I've also been developing brains and fingernails.

Thanksgiving

Having company is a hoot...and then they leave and suddenly the house is too big, too empty, the kids are too needy, the towels are all dirty, and my pants are tighter than one week of pregnancy can account for. But this morning I went for a walk, continued the laundry that Nathan started yesterday, put all those blasted cookies in the outside freezer (as if that will help), hung a wreath on the front door and sat down for a good 20 minute snuggle on the couch with little Miss Jill (Is there anything better than talking with a two-year old?). The post-company blues are fading away and I'm left with good memories of a week of family fun. Because of Jesus there is so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season and all year long.


Dad and Mom and Alan and Heather and kids made the trek down to San Diego this year. We spent most of the time in full vacation mode (sat around) but the boys did work on my laundry room counter project which I'm loving! Thank you again! (Nathan got some of the tile work done on the backsplash on Saturday - I'll post pictures when it is all done).



Jill and Teddy were so sweet together! They played together non-stop. All week long we could hear them giggling off by themselves. Terrible two's is a myth. Five-year-olds however...now that can be a different story. ;)

Halloween

Lucas had a costume party at his school on Friday, consequently he needed a costume. A friend of ours offered a fireman get-up and thankfully Lucas forgot all of his other ideas and really got into the fireman persona. I forgot to bring my camera to school but it was pretty cute seeing all of his little friends dressed up. He was a fireman among a bunch of princesses...and a pirate (there is at least one boy that he now calls his friend).

Friday evening our friends the Arthun's invited us over to celebrate their boy Tyler's birthday. They live in the community we used to live in so we trick-or-treated at a few of our old neighbor's houses and then went back to their house for cake, which was a bit redundant on a night of massive sugar intake but it was a birthday party so we HAD to. =)

"It looks like I'm a big fireman that just rescued a princess."

I don't know if Alice in Wonderland qualifies as a princess but the dress was on the 50% off rack and Jill wanted to be a princess so we will just say that she does.

Pretend they are both smiling.

This is his "tough-guy" face.

Sunday School Picnic and Miller Party

I've been out of the blogging mood but I need to appease that nagging voice in my head so here goes.

On the 25th of October we drove up to Shadow Hills for their annual Sunday School picnic. The kids had a great time. They came away with dirty faces, ice cream on their shirts, and all sorts of sugar bugs gnawing away at their teeth. Oh wait, I think that was my nagging voice speaking.




After the picnic we continued our trip up to Tehachapi, Lucas via U. Dan's plane and the rest of us by car.

Jill asked (more than once), "Are we's going to go in the plane to Hachapi?"
"No, we're driving in the car"
Jill: "Oh, Good! Cause I gets sick."

Beth was able to fly home to surprise Barb for her 60th birthday just a few days before and the brothers all came up to help celebrate. After not seeing Beth for 5 years we got to see her twice in one month. Isn't that the way?





Oh great, now I'm hearing I should have been doing the laundry instead of sitting at this computer.

Couple of October Evenings at the Beach

Just to show that voice who's boss, here is another post. And if my rebellion

continues, I'll have another one out before the day is done...

One evening a couple of weeks ago we went down to the beach for a hour or so as the sun was setting. Lucas has been very anti-surfing lately, preferring the easy success of the boogie-board. That evening we saw this kid and his little brother surfing. The next evening Nathan took the kids down for another quick trip and guess what Lucas wanted to bring. Wow! that peer pressure thing really works. I'm shuddering as I think ahead a few years...

And back to the boogie-board...

Don't smile, Jill!

"Dad, I'm am so c-c-c-cold I can't feel my ch-chin!"

The Rest of the Trip

After Mystic, we started the friends portion of our trip. It was nice to be back in homes instead of hotels. Friday evening we made it down to Steve and Erica's house in Dorothy, NJ. The trip was a lot longer than google led us to believe but when your going by NYC, I suppose that should be expected. The kids defied all reasoning and didn't sleep a wink. Needless to say , we were ready to get out when we pulled into their place. It was so nice to be with my friend Erica again. What a happy, warm soul she is. Jill and Lucas wasted no time making themselves at home and Steve and Erica did a fabulous job of making us feel right at home. Later in the evening Lori and Linda with Russell and William stopped by. Funny how family just feels like family even if you haven't seen each other in years. Unfortunately our time at the Ruga's was very short. We woke the kids up early the next morning to start our next leg down to Virginia.

Again it was well after our anticipated arrival time when we finally found our way up Marc and Beth's driveway. We missed our turnoff getting there which meant extra driving time but we got to see the Shenandoah River and some more of the beautiful countryside! The last time we were with Marc and Beth, Lucas was not yet 3 months old and Catherine, Joshua and Jill had not yet been born. We were excited for our kids to finally meet the cousins that they pray for at night: Rachel, Timothy, Peter, Daniel, Phillip, Catherine and Joshua. After some initial shyness, the kids went outside to play and like kids do, forgot that they had only met moments before. Lucas had a great time riding Daniel's big bike (Thank you, Daniel) and Jill loved playing in their playhouse, although kisses from Lady the dog kept her on her toes. Each of the cousins were so sweet to Lucas and Jill. Rachel even crocheted little bears with matching blankets for the them! A few days before we arrived, they had gone apple picking and we fortunate souls got to enjoy the fruit of their labor...fresh applesauce, dried apples and a yummy apply pie courtesy of Rachel. Just the other day Lucas said out of the blue, "My Aunt Beth sure is a good cook!" =) Agreed. That day was a really nice change of pace for us. We were able to relax and the kids got to run around. After our apple pie, we said our good-bye and drove on to Andy and Jenny Buchanan's for the night.

Since it was quite late by the time we got to their house, the kids went straight to bed after a quick peak at the sleeping baby Ellie. The adults should have been as wise but instead we stayed up chatting. Catching up with friends is more fun than sleeping anyway, until morning hits that is. The next morning we got to meet sweet baby Ellie. The kids, especially Jill, loved holding her. Lucas took his turn but after Andy gave him an RC helicopter, he was a little pre-occupied. After we ate a delicious HOME COOKED (what joy!) breakfast during which Nathan about lost his tongue (hehehe...that was for you, Jenny =), we headed out to meeting. The meeting in Washington DC is in a hotel downtown, just blocks from the White House etc. Unfortunately, the World Bank (?) was having their annual meeting which brings out a lot of protesters so some streets were blocked off and parking was a bit tricky to come by. After meeting, we went across the street to a pizza place for lunch. Suzanne Buchanan and her four boys happen to be visiting also so Lucas was highly entertained. Probably against out better judgment we tried to do a drive by of the White House, the Capital and a few monuments after lunch. With the extra traffic it was a little laborious but it was neat to see them in real life. Thank you, Jenny for doing that! The rest of Sunday was spent warming the couch and eating. Thanks for the great time, Andy, Jenny and Ellie!

Monday morning marked the last day of our trip, hard to believe but somewhat of a relief. After breakfast, we met Beth and the kids at the Air and Space Museum. We had a good time checking out all the exhibits and topped off our visit with lunch and an IMAX movie. Then it was off to Baltimore airport. When we turned in our rental it registered a 1000 new miles and just over 25 hours of driving time. Thankfully the trip home was uneventful. It felt mighty fine crawling into our own beds that night. Unfortunately we weren't in them too long...the kids had finally adjusted to East Coast time.

New England

We have been wanting to visit Nathan's sister Beth and her family for ages now, well at least the past 5 years, and finally decided that if we didn't just do something about it another 5 years would pass us by. So we took advantage of a few Southwest vouchers and planned a trip to the East coast. We left Monday, October 6th, well before the sun made an appearance much to Lucas's delight. There is something so much more exciting about leaving "in the middle of the night!" than say noon. Poor Nathan was feeling very under the weather and we debated up until the very end if we should cancel the whole thing but we both knew that if we did, it would be another 5 years before we got it together again so we plowed ahead and thank the Lord after a few days his head cleared and no one else came down with anything. After 7+ hours, our trusty Southwest airplane brought us to Manchester, NH. Even though as we took off on our final leg Jill kept crying, "I want off this airplane!", we were surprised and relieved at how well the kids handled the day. IPod videos are the best!

We decided to start our trip in New Hampshire so that we could visit a couple that we had met 8 or so years ago through Nathan's work. Back then, his company took the top sales reps on a trip once a year for a little reward and we were blessed to have Jim and Diane on all the trips we went on. They are the nicest, friendliest Christian folks. This past year, Jim was diagnosed with an unknown brain disease so we wanted to take the opportunity to see them again.

Jim suggested that we stay in Portsmouth, NH so after picking up our rental car we headed that way enjoying all the beautiful fall coloring along the tree lined interstate. After finding dinner at a grocery store down the way and getting settled into our hotel, it was closing in on 10:00 so we got ready for bed, turned off the lights and stared at the ceiling. Even if you do get up in the middle of the night that 3-hour time change is a bugger.

The next day we set off to see Portsmouth. Portsmouth is one of the nation's oldest city, settled in 1623. It sits right on the mouth of some very long named river that I can't remember. It looks exactly like you might expect an old sea port village in New England to look like. The architecture of the houses and building were so cool and decidedly not California-ish. I loved it. We walked though downtown and made our way to a park which was great for the kids. Cobblestone streets and cool architecture don't have the same appeal to 2 and 5-year-olds. We were able to meet Jim and Diane for lunch at a groovy little cafe called the Friendly Toast. It was great to see them again. Jim looked just the same as always which was so nice to see after all that he has been through. After we parted ways, we decided to see a little more fall coloring while the kids napped so we headed up North. Now don't get me wrong, New Hampshire is beautiful and the leaves were colored so brilliantly from deep green to bright yellow and every shade of red in-between but I think I would loose my mind if I had to live there. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic just thinking about it. I guess I'm used to my open spaces. I know the appeal is the fall foliage but you just can't see anything but fall foliage. However, when there is an opening...gorgeous. Again, pretty trees were a little lost on the kids so Daddy kept them entertained yelling out "moose-alert" at every hint of a watering whole. We didn't see any moose but Jill was still on "moose-alert" when we hit New Jersey so you can't say we didn't try.

Wednesday morning, we took advantage of our continental breakfast one more time then headed down the coast toward Boston. As we were getting ready to leave, I asked Jill what she did in Portsmouth. She thought a moment and then said "I ate a muffin." Perhaps we should have waited another 5 years to take this trip. We took highway 1 part of the way down and any grievances I had with New Hampshire flew out the window once we hit the coast. It was so very beautiful and again, so not like California (not that there is anything wrong with our coast). Huge old houses sat on big pieces of land that ran right up to the beach. Old sea-faring ships sat in the harbors with beautiful wooden sailboats. Ahhh...it was lovely.



Into Boston we drove and found our way to the Prudential Center and to the Duck's tour kiosk. A little research before we left turned up this tour guide company in Boston that uses old World War II amphibious vehicles, called ducks by the soldiers, to show you around the city and up the Charles River. When the driver had us quack out the window at random people as we made our way through the city, I thought they were taking the whole "duck" thing a bit far but at least it kept the kid's attention. At any rate, it was a great way to get an overview of the city.




After Boston, it was on to Mystic, CT. Back in the 18-somethings, Mystic was a big ship building town and today they have a museum dedicated to all things maritime. We spent the day at the museum on Thursday. It was really neat to see the old ships and hear how they did things back then. They gave a demonstration on how they caught whales that amazed us. They were a little crazy back in the day. They also had a really cute children's museum and play area that the kids loved. For dinner we splurged a bit and ate at a little restaurant right on the river. The setting was beautiful. The restaurant was right by the town's draw bridge so we were entertained watching it go up and down. The kids somehow managed to get through the day without naps so we tried to get to bed early. It didn't really work but ready or not we had a 5 hour car ride to New Jersey planned for the next day.




To be continued...

Five Years Old

Two weeks ago tomorrow, Lucas turned 5 years old. Twice in the past week we have found ourselves recounting the drama that surrounded his birth to new friends (for some reason the subject of "birthing" has come up a lot lately - I just can't wait. =) and we were reminded of God's care in working out so many details to ensure his safe arrival. Someday I look forward to sharing the story with him but back to the birthday at hand. October 3rd landed on a Friday this year which was a preschool day for Lucas so what to do to celebrate? Lucas wanted to give all of his friends something to take home. His ideas ranged from $20.00+ gift ideas to rubber band bracelets (aka a rubber band). Since Mom wouldn't go for either extreme, it was decided he would take apples and carmel dip for snack time and call it good. He got to wear a birthday crown at school and from the sounds of things the best part of the day was when he got to decorate the crown while everyone else had to clean up. "Mom, it was so crazy! I just sat there and put stuff on my crown and even when I was done, I just sat there and everyone else had to work!" He makes me so proud sometimes.


To help celebrate the rest of his day, Uncle Dan and Aunt Carmen came down and went to the Mira Mar Air Show with us. Thank you again, for coming down! The day just wouldn't have been as special without you! After walking about 120 miles to get from our car to our seats we were treated with amazing flying feats and some bloody hot sunshine. Thankfully, Nathan made sure we had plenty of water (Let it hereby be known that I shall never question my husband's water consumption knowledge again. ;o) so we all survived. After the show we dined at a lovely Thai restaurant - every 5-year-old's dream- and ended the day with chocolate cake ala mode and presents. We love the sox off of you, Lucas! You make everyday so much more interesting.


On Saturday, Uncle Dan also treated the kids and I to a little plane trip before he and Aunt Carmen flew home. Jill wasn't too sure she wanted to get on a little plane but after she asked me, "Is it like Southwest?" and I assured her it was, just a little smaller, she agreed to it. We were all in happy spirits and enjoying the sights until we circled our house one to many times and little Jill all of a sudden got very serious and green around the edges. Thankfully our house is very close to the airport and we were able to land before we revisited breakfast. Thanks again, U. Dan for the fun times.

Sea World

Not last weekend but the weekend before, Scott and Lisa came down to get in one last visit to Sea World before our passes pass away in a few weeks. Do I need to say we had a good time? Of course we did! Here are some pictures...

Sea World has a new kids play area with rides just right for Lucas's age. Notice Guy and Amber in the row behind. They met us at the park with their little guy, Oliver.Finally a ride Jill agreed to go on. Half-way through the ride we heard over the loud speaker, "Sir, please do not hold your child. All children must sit on the seat themselves." But besides that momentary lapse in bravery, she tolerated it and got off smiling.After Sea World, Wendy brought a WONDERFUL lasagna over for dinner and the kids ran off a little energy with ring-a-round-the-rosie and a dip in the hot tub.Bed-time snackBreakfast, U. N8 style. That's a pancake under there.And some other pictures from the week. Doesn't Jilly look like a big girl!She has been spending a lot of time playing in her kitchen when Lucas is in school.Milk and Graham Crackers: Who can make the biggest milk mustache?Now a picture to embarrass poor confused little Jill with later. I think I should win some sort of potty training award.

Hawaii Revisted

When we got back from Hawaii this Spring all of the video tape we shot was distorted and I thought it was gone for good but today while I was unpacking a box -I know...why does she still have boxes that need to be unpacked??- I came across our camcorder videos and decided to give the Hawaii tape another try. For some unknown reason the rest did the tape good (I can relate little tape!) and I was able to retrieve all the video! Anyhow, I promised that I would share the video of Lucas serenading the neighborhood. I know ya'll have been holding your breath...

More kid-tidbits

Jill: "I'll be the Mommy and you be the Jilly, O tay?"

Lucas (handing me something he wants me to put in the microwave): "Mom, will you hot this up for me?"
Or when eating something spicy: "Boy this sure is hotting me up!"

Reception and the Zoo

Not that the reception was a zoo...

Last weekend we had the privilege of having Clint and Sara's reception in our backyard. This is really the preferred method of hosting an event...have it at your house but have others do the food, decorations, set up, tear down, etc. The Lord provided a beautiful evening.

Today the kids and I made good on our zoo passes that we purchased several months ago.

Should have had Lucas swallow that bite of PB&J...

Polar Bear Plunge

"Please do not tap on the glass."

This is why the San Diego Zoo is so great. You get so close to the animals.

Why oh why did I tell Jill to smile. :)

Jill loved the orangutans. For the longest time she squatted on one side of the glass nose to nose with the orangutan squatting on the other side of the glass. She kept saying, "He looked at me!" and then would start squeal-laughing.Since the last time we were at the zoo, Lucas has talked about wanting to ride in the bucket hanging from the "telephone/cellphone" wire that goes from one end of the zoo to the other. We determined that that was definitely in order this trip. However when we entered the line and Jill figured out what was going on, she got all teary-eyed and asked "why do we have to go on THAT!" It didn't help that there was a boy a few parties behind us who was literally screaming the whole time, "I don't want to DIE!" But with Mommy promising to hold her every step of the way she conquered her fears and actually enjoyed the ride (Mom on the other hand was holding on tight but smiling and ohhing and ahhing bravely). What brave little girls we are!