Dirt boy and his cars

Photoblog of Our Most Recent Adventures

Both Barefoot and Otherwise

Monterey Bay Aquarium. All of the boys, with the exception of Joshua, LOVE this place.

Why would anyone not like it? Well….do you remember when Joshua was ages 1-5, and he was obsessed with ALL animals? Remember how he could tell you every species of whale and what it ate at age 3?

It’s exciting for him to see these animals that he’s read about all of his life, but once he has seen them, he’s done. No need to stare at something for 2 whole minutes. Let’s keep this show moving. That’s just Joshua’s personality.

He has to be constantly doing. It’s a wonderful trait. He gets that from Alan. Alan is so bummed when we approach a weekend with no plans made.

I am euphoric when we approach a weekend with no plans made.

In fact, in recent weeks, I have enjoyed a little front porch sittin’ every day.

HUGE sea turtle

Daniel’s favorite exhibit is the penguins.

Dan’s happy place

As soon as we arrived, Daniel exclaimed, “Penguins! Penguins! I want to see the penguins!”

It reminded me of when we took Joshua to an aquarium, when he was five. My cousin Amber met us there. We walked in, and Joshua was all, “Whale shark. Whale shark. Where’s the whale shark? I want to see the whale shark. Is it over there? Is it in here? Let’s go. Let’s go see the whale shark.”

Amber pulled out her map and said to me, “Well, we’d better go see this whale shark first. Let me find it on this map.”

Wise words. We would’ve been listening to that all day.

So fast-forward four years. We made a bee-line for the penguins. Everyone else’s wish list could wait. No one can obsess and broken-record insist like a pre-schooler!

JD and Lightning McQueen take in the soccer practice.

Did you know that JD takes his shoes off everywhere we go and walks around barefoot? I don’t let him do this in indoor public places (mostly), but walking in grass is good for you. No, you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s good for the soul, so he pulls off those shoes every time.

Ok barefoot on gym floors in just plain freeing.

California has the coolest playgrounds.

We ended up taking the pedals off of this bicycle to make it into a ‘glider’ bike for Daniel. He LOVES it. He glides so well that we now need to buy him a regular bicycle. He’s a pro now.

I’d love to pretend like this is my garden, but this is my neighbor’s. We are just learning from her!

My neighbor was out of town, so she let Joshua water them. This is the kind of chore that children LOVE. After all, there’s water involved!

We do actually have a “school garden” this year to go along with science. We are growing watermelons and potatoes, but I put them so far from my line of vision that I only water them about twice a week, not nearly enough. They looked so sad by the time Dan and Caleb watered them today.

They don’t love vacuuming, except for Daniel. There’s something about watching kids do chores that makes me giddy.

I’m convinced that hard work develops good character.

Caleb’s map. We are learning about the ancient world this year. Do you see the person that Caleb creatively colored into the map? Sure, you see the face, but do you see the hand waving too?

drawn by JOSHUA, not Caleb as I said before!!!

I can’t tell you how bad I felt about this mistake!

As I showed the boys the blog, I congratulated Caleb on this super-cool robot drawing. Caleb looked confused. “I don’t remember drawing that.”

“Heh?”

“Hey!” Joshua chimed in, “I drew that!”

“Oh no! I’m so sorry, Joshua!!  I’ll post a correction on my blog. I feel so bad about that!”

Now that I know, it makes way more sense. This is more characteristic of Joshua’s art: asymmetrical and TONS of tiny details.

Caleb is a monkey-bar expert.

JD and I, enjoying our favorite beverages together.

I had no intention of sharing it with him, though.

Alan found this, EMPTY, on the kitchen counter and asked me, “Did you drink ALL of this?”

See, I never ever finish any drink. I don’t do this on purpose. It just happens, or rather, it doesn’t happen.

“Yeah. I guess I must have.”

“Are you sure Daniel didn’t drink any? Because it is 10pm, and he’s going wild up there.”

“Hmm. No, I think I drank it all.”

“You???”

“Haha.”

The next morning, Daniel confessed: “Me found your coke in the kitchen last night, and me drink it all. heheheheheheh”

“What! Well, that does explain a lot.”

We took the boys to the county fair. Dan was the perfect age. Caleb was able to ride almost everything. Joshua and JD were out of luck. They were either too big or too small for almost everything.

The big boys were so jealous. They wanted to ride it too.

the ferris wheel

view from the ferris wheel: city, ocean, mountains

golf course view from the ferris wheel

Daniel, reading his favorite Usborne books, while Joshua plays 3DS.

I hope you all have a fun week! I hope it cools off for all of us soon! When did I become such a cold weather fan??

The post Dirt, Fish, Penguins, Bare feet, Chores, and Bikes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Good-bye, Phone.

As you can see in this picture, when it comes to my husband, I have no room for complaints. The man is clearly dressed to work. Meanwhile, he’s also wearing a kitchen towel on his shoulder. He’s trim and fit, helpful, kind, funny, and a wonderful Christian example for all.

My grandfather gave me only one piece of advice my whole life: “April, never marry a man who doesn’t work.” Good advice.

Alan does work hard. I wouldn’t even mention this at all. O wait. I mentioned it on both of my last blog posts.

The Mommy Reality Challenge this week is “What’s broken?” I’m co-hosting this week, so I can’t just not participate, and there is ONE thing around here that is very much broken.

Not Caleb’s teeth anymore! Those were fixed up quite nicely. So that just leaves my smart phone. 🙁

Alan broke my phone. Was it his fault? Not really. He borrowed it, and it stopped working. Now I’m sad.

Do you know what else is broken?

Joshua. His face became so swollen by poison oak today that we had to take him BACK to the doctor. She gave us a fresh, 15 day supply of steroids. Hopefully, we can still enjoy our upcoming vacation!

But do you know what is not broken?

Everything else. We have a great life. I feel guilty even complaining about the phone thing. So what if I don’t have good internet access on my phone right now? So what if I am not very good at working this old phone from the Stone Ages. 😉 (2012. It’s from 2012. It’s important to play up the drama so that Alan will help me get a new phone.) Does anyone have a recent phone they’d like to sell me that’s more like from 2014?

I can’t say all of my kids are exactly healthy right now, but I will say that they are all happy. Praise the Lord.

Here are a few more photos of the great time we had at the aquarium last week…..before Alan broke my phone and before Joshua rolled in the poison oak:

Joshua asked, “Excuse me. May I touch this?” I was so proud I wanted to hug him, but 9 year olds prefer that you not do that in public, so I refrained.

Daniel petted the sting ray. (Petted will never sound like a word to me, but apparently it is.) Yay, Daniel!

Leopard sharks!

This computer gives you a stingray’s view of the aquarium. Pretty nifty!

I’m horribly ashamed to admit that I was so busy tracking JD, I did not find out what kind of fish this is. Anyone?

Daniel is checking out another fish that I do not know the name of. Oh, the shame.

Everyone that visits the Monterey Aquarium should eat there and enjoy this view. It was worth the extra dollar I had to run out and put in the meter.

blurry otter

JD was super excited about these fish. He said it over and over again. Fiss! Fiss! Fiss!

And one last funny……Only in California, will you run into CVS and be greeted by this:

cat on the Easter aisle…play it cool? No way. I’m taking a picture of this.

Apparently this cat also has his own Facebook page. Sorry, I don’t know the name of it.

Gotta love California. 😉

Hope you all have a great weekend!

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you;

Never will I forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5

The post The Broken Phone, The Aquarium, and the Cat appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.