Do you like our grass? How about the kid by the road with a toy gun? haa!

That’s quite a claim to make isn’t it? THE BEST? Is it really the best? Surely something is better. I said it myself that Destin, Florida looks like this:

I mean wow.

Well, you know, you gotta love the one you’re with, and Northern California IS 70 degrees.

70.

In July.

I’ve decided something. “I ain’t leavin’!”

No, I’m only kidding, but I do get to live here for a solid year yet. We have been doing the whole ‘lazy days of summer’ thing lately.

I can’t take too much of it. Isn’t that ridiculous? We so badly want to have nothing “to do”, and then when I have nothing more pressing than “laundry” and “Clean the bathrooms” or even “take the kids to the pool” on my to do list………..it’s dull!  I have no stress-strain on my heart, and I don’t know what to do about it!

It’s so ridiculous to feel that way. Right now Daniel and JD are playing together in their tiny sandbox. Joshua and Caleb are playing with their neighborhood friends. All I have hanging over my head is a kitchen that needs cleaning.

That’s actually something to be thankful for. A part of me does enjoy it, but this weird thing happens. When I only have a small, manageable amount of things to do, I don’t feel like doing ANYTHING at all.

What is that about? Am I the only one? Have any of you felt that way?

This morning I was out walking, and it was 70-something degrees and BREEZY, and all I could think was, “This is the best place ever.”

I hope you’ll all join me in praying for rain for this state!

Ha! I can hear Alan inside explaining to Caleb why we “don’t tell our friends the end of movies they haven’t seen yet.”

Daniel and JD are bringing me buckets, asking me to pour water in them.

No.

We have taken so many pictures this summer that I’d like to share. I will just have to do these in several parts. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

JD always has a hand full of cars.

Daniel learned how to build his own train tracks.

I happened to remember that when Caleb was 4, he was already building his own train tracks. Dan always has his older brothers and me to do that for him. I finally had to just tell him, “Daniel, you are big now. You can build these yourself,” and he can!

Sea otters

Seals at Elkhorn Slough

A seal pokes his head up to check out Alan and Caleb .

Chocolate pudding.

He saw an old photograph of himself, as a baby, making a mess eating chocolate pudding. Daniel took it upon himself to “do that again.” I wasn’t so happy about it, but I took a photo for you.

Plants Vs. Zombies……because he found it at a friend’s house, and I was just happy he was reading.

Little kid jump time

Southern biscuits. You can take the girl out of Bama, but you can’t take the Bama out of the girl. I’ve been baking these since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.

Playing Uno is fun, except when JD tries to play it with you, and then it’s not fun at all, so you HAVE to keep a sense of humor about it.

Joshua took my camera outside with him and took photos of himself and his friends.

the kids’ hideout…..Actually, Joshua said this is the girls’ hideout.

the boys’ hideout

We signed Caleb and Joshua up to play for the same soccer team. Daniel BEGGED to play too, so we will have THREE soccer players this fall.

the preschool hideout

Daniel made this. I thought it was cute.

what I look like right now

We have gophers! Or moles. They live in holes in our front yard. Just please don’t tell me they are just rats. I will be so disappointed!

That’s right! Even Dan got to kayaking. He’s a daring one. I just caught him standing on top of our patio table, ON A SCOOTER. Don’t worry. He put the scooter back on the ground.

dead sea lion, washed up on shore. We see a lot of this. I think there must be 1 sea mammal per square foot in this bay. There are so many!

I thought this looked like a sweet father-son moment.

Bird Island, Point Lobos

I got some ADORABLE photos of Xavier and Zoe reading to Daniel and JD, but I didn’t post those because big kids get embarrassed easily about being seen in their pjs. Well, Joshua does anyway, so I’m extra careful, but here’s one good photo of Xavier. We enjoyed their visit so much. The boys are still talking about it and wishing to see them again.

I had the best time hanging out with Amy too. It’s a great reminder that I need to become more social. I was way too much of a hermit last year.

Joshua’s BFF

Playing cars in the dirt: this is what we do the most of this summer.

JD is Joshua made over. They all enjoy reading with mom, but Joshua and JD LOVE reading.

our book corner

me and my faithful sidekick

Do you like the tiny sandbox that Alan built? JD LIVES in it now. I need to vacuum every single night. Actually, since the 4th boy arrived, I always need to vacuum every night. I’m not saying I do it. I’m saying that I NEED to do it.

I hope that you are all having a relaxing summer.

Check back with us this week! I have two giveaways lined up!

The post A California Summer is THE BEST kind of summer! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Jennings and I have been friends since I was 19, and Jennings was 18. Now we are in our 30s. We have gone from bright-eyed, hard-working college students, who both seemed to hardly ever get a date, to what we are now…..one married mom of four and one successful flight attendant and aunt extraordinaire. Jennings was there the night I went on my first date with Alan. She was one of my bridesmaids. She already knows the back story. That’s what’s so wonderful about ‘old’ friends! They already ‘get it’! No need to explain anything. They already know anyway.

Now when I say we were hard-working college students, I can’t emphasize that enough. We were not your lazy party girls. No, sir. We meant business. We were also both recipients of the same National Alumni Academic Walk On Scholarship. Jennings and I both, at some point during our University of Alabama years, held down two part-time jobs a piece, while going to school full-time. That’s how we became such good friends. We worked together as Resident Assistants in the largest freshman girls’ dorm on campus.

Jennings is the friend that you feel like you can tell anything to, without feeling judged, or at least she doesn’t let on that she’s judging me…..ha!

“Oh, I’m never going back to the regular work world. I really didn’t care for ‘working,'” I admitted to Jennings last week. I don’t think she judged me…

lol

We had such a wonderful time, touring the California coast. Jennings is quite the world traveler; however, she has never been to my particular area of Cali, so we had a great time exploring.

The boys went almost everywhere with us. They had a BALL, and I do mean a ball.

We took the boys to the beach on two different days. Yes, I had to clean up a whole lot of sand, but it was worth it.

JD, before he soaked himself

Poor JD.

The sea just beckons us to join it, and so he tried. He timidly toddled, just barely into the surf, when a wave suddenly came and knocked the tiny fella right over. And when you are 20 months old, and so very small and inexperienced, you don’t know what to do, but to lay there, rather stuck, and cry.

The boys were partially laughing at the drenched-in-his-clothing JD, and partially laughing at their mother. That wave took me by surprise too, and I shouted, “Oh! My boots!” I instinctively backed up, but then I saw my baby, stuck on his back, and jumped back in and grabbed him.

Don’t worry. We’re talking one half an inch of water, no harm done, and two adults there to quickly grab him up.

Now I am off to sleep. I was up until 1 am last night with my friend Julia, and a room full of 11 and 12-year-old girls. I know. I never thought I’d write that last sentence either, but I’m helping Julia with a Wednesday night class of pre-teen girls, and Julia decided to throw them a sleep-over.

But that’s a whole other story.

We just love hosting our friends and family. Next week, my parents arrive! Alan’s parents are visiting in March. Then in July, a whole family of friends from Virginia is coming!!  🙂  So exciting!

Come back anytime, Jennings! Next time, come on a weekend, and Alan can take you out kayaking with the sea otters!

sunning sea otter in Carmel

“A world without friends, I don’t think I could bear it.”  ~Jeff Foxworthy

The post “A world without friends, I don’t think I could bear it.” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Yes, I was wearing two pairs of glasses. Contacts and sea water don’t mix.

First off, if you ever get to travel to California, GO TO Monterey Bay.

There is this huge canyon underwater, right off the coast. This thing is even bigger than the Grand Canyon, only it’s underwater. Monterey Bay is also a sea otter sanctuary, and when they say that, they aren’t kidding. You cannot hang out on the beach in Monterey Bay and not see some sort of sea mammal, with your naked eye. There are sea otters, harbor seals, and sea lions GALORE here.

See, Monterey Bay has a kelp forrest, and the sea otters live in it. They even sleep in it. When we were kayaking, we’d see their little noses, asleep, poking out of the water. I was so nervous I was going to not see one and whack it with my paddle. (Don’t worry. I didn’t.)

The quality of these photos isn’t great. We took them with Alan’s cell phone.  We did zoom in on these, so we weren’t as close as it appears in the photos…most of the time.

This one is my favorite. The sea otters are very social, so you find them in groups, or “rafts.” Did you know that these guys are one of the few animals in the world that use objects as tools? They will get a stone and use it as a tool to break open the shells of their yummy sea food.

The sea gulls know what good little fisher-otters they are, so they sometimes harass them for their scraps. We humans know how you feel, dear fuzzy little otters.

There are laws. We aren’t supposed to come within 100 feet of the wildlife. That’s impossible if you are on a kayak. They will come to you. If you sit still too long, they might even hop up and join you! No, that did not happen to us. I would have FREAKED out. I LOVE them, but I respect them.

Actually, I spent a whole lot of my kayaking adventure a little freaked out, and yet I loved it so much. It was thrilling. You are just paddling along, and suddenly *splash* up pops a seal, staring at you. There was one that I’m telling you, was definitely stalking us!

It’s hard to see it in this photo, but look closely in the middle, you might see a little nose poking out of the water. Actually, it’s more like a big face with the nose pointing up. Do you see it? Gray blob. In the middle. We saw several sleeping faces on our adventure.

Monterey also has this long rock wharf that sea lions LIVE on. We paddled over there to get a look, but being close to that many sea lions kind of scared me, and we paddled away.

I did feel like we were invading their privacy.

At one point, two of the sea otters began mating, an activity which took the pair almost all the way to the sand, with the mother sea otter’s previous baby following them all the way, screaming at the top of his lungs…It was all a little unsettling and embarrassing–a real life discovery channel special.

If getting this close doesn’t sound like something you want to do, but you would love to watch the otters and seals, I have another discovery to share: The Fish Hopper Restaurant in Monterey.  It has huge windows overlooking the bay. I saw sea otters, seals, and sea lions all while eating my clam chowder. So much fun!!!

Thank you, Alan, for taking me out to do this! I can’t wait to do it again!!

I love pelicans too!

We were stretching our necks up at each other. They seem to be just as interested in us as we are in them!

A few other photos of Monterey Bay:

My dad took this one. His cell phone camera is way better than Alan’s! Plus: no fog. There’s a fog that hangs around here off and on, every day, especially in the morning and evening.

Daniel and the cutest little wetsuit ever

Whales!

Ninja John David wishes you all a wonderful rest of the week:

I guess turtles are his favorite. Haven’t seen any of those around here yet…

Want to see more of beautiful Monterey? Try these posts:

Monterey: 42 Beautiful photos

Carmel: Photos of Carmel Valley & 17 Mile Drive

California: Our 1st 3 Weeks in California Photoblog

SaveSave

The post Kayaking Monterey Bay and Chillaxin with the Sea Otters appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The greatest thing about moving to California is definitely the nature watching opportunities. I can’t tell you all the wonderful things  my eyes have seen since we’ve arrived! I will do my best to show you what I can, though!

Perhaps tonight I will finally download all the kayaking pictures we took using Alan’s cell phone. Kayaking with the seals, sea otters, and sea lions was incredible, and we managed to get a few photos of them. Wildlife fascinates me.

One thing I have always loved about the beach is that it’s different every single time you go. On Monday, it may be covered in sea weed, or kelp, as is the case here. On Tuesday, there may be less of it, but lo and behold, a dead sea lion has washed ashore. The next day, you may see him again, not looking so great. A week later, all of that is gone, but there are billions of tiny shells and rocks everywhere. It is always different.

In the past 3 months, I have seen:

-a sea gull harassing a sea otter, in hopes of obtaining some crab scraps

-a sea lion, just as interested in me as I was in him

-A seal was stalking us when we were kayaking, for a while–freaked me out a little bit…

-sea gulls devouring a family’s McDonald’s picnic, as they posed for pictures by the water…….Poor family.

-homeless people sleeping on the beach

-a dead sea lion washed ashore, with a giant hole in his side–a little disturbing

-billions of tiny, molted crab shells

-seals, leaping out of the water

-one humpback whale, leaping out of the water—-If awesome weren’t such an over-used word… how to describe this…It was a breathtaking sight that I will never forget.

-two sea otters mating….while the baby chased them, squealing at the top of his little lungs….haunting and embarrassing…

-jellyfish–thankfully from afar……I was stung as a young teenager. That’s something I’ll never forget.

–and just the other day……a pelican FEEDING frenzy. There were literally hundreds of pelicans. Pelicans are favorites of mine, so I was delighted to be there!

Of course, this sea lion buddy was there too. You can’t go to Monterey Bay without seeing a sea mammal!  I love it.

I wish this picture were clearer. These birds have such long beaks.

By this time, it was getting darker. After all, I have to wait for my childcare to get home from work to do things like this. 🙂

Come back soon for sea otters and redwoods! Hopefully, I’ll get those up by the end of the week.

Update on Caleb:  The “coke in the morning” was a complete disappointment. He acted more like a caffeinated child than a medicated child. That would point in the direction of this NOT being ADD that we are seeing in Caleb. I may not want to try the caffeine thing again!

Meanwhile, the baby just woke up from his nap, so this is one momma that needs to become a lot more like the caffeinated child…..Where did I put my coffee cup…..

5 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Matthew 6:25-27

The post A Pelican Feeding Frenzy appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

While my parents were here, we wanted to be sure that we all got the full California experience…..soooooo we went hunting for movie stars….

Ha!

No, that’s not us at all. We don’t even know who any of the current stars are, really.

Nah, we figured a more authentic California experience would be if we…….all got Marijuana prescription cards….NOOOOOO just KIDDING!!!  We took our guests WHALE watching, of course!!!

You didn’t really believe me, did you? I got that prescription idea from a conversation we overheard yesterday. We were at the library, and as we parked our car, I told Alan, “I don’t know about this space. There are an awful lot of youths (high school kids) hanging out back here..”

We laughed, locked our doors, and as we got out, we overheard one girl tell her friends, “So my mom is always going to the doctor because she hurt her f****ing neck, right? So I told her, ‘Mom, why don’t you let me have your marijuana card? I mean that’s money just f****ing sitting there.'”

Ah yes, young lady, aspiring to a life of selling drugs, noble idea….

The things you hear from back alleys.

THANKFULLY,  we really and truly did manage to go whale watching!!!

We called up the whale tour people. We thought we’d take my parents, and reserve a whole group of 8. We were a little disappointed to learn that actually, children must be at least 5 years of age to ride the boat. We had to split into two groups. Alan, Joshua, Caleb and I rode out on the morning tour. My parents boarded the afternoon tour. A wonderful time was had by all. Both go-rounds were hugely successful in finding humpback whales and tons of sea lions. Mom and Dad’s boat even found orcas!!!

Sorry, we only have humpback photos to share.

I highly recommend this activity. It was especially fun to watch Joshua and Caleb seeing it all for the first time. Alan and I had done this one time before, in Boston. We saw at least two humpbacks there. This tour was even more exciting, as we saw herds of sea lions swimming along with FOUR humpback whales.

Four!!!

We saw an additional one, way off in the distant literally jumping out of the water. It was a spy hop move, where they push their whole upper body straight out of the water, vertically! No, I didn’t get a photo of that either…..I was not on a roll with my camera. In fact, I finally gave up altogether and handed Alan the camera, so Alan took most of these pictures. I am not overly steady at sea.

These are in backwards order of our trip day, but rearranging this many photos is way too much work, so here we go. 🙂

I love Joshua’s outfit: Alabama sweatshirt, Boston hat, touring in California. That’s a military kid for ya.

“Where are you from?” they ask us.

“Um, uh, uh…” Such hard questions!!!

Yep, that’s our humpbacks.

Notice the blow hole spray.

All those little things you see in the water are the tops of a sea lion herd, out hunting for fish with the whales.

Caleb said, “Those whales sure do like to eat those sea lions.”

“No, no,” I reassured him, “Those whales only eat little fish.”  Blue whales only eat krill, but humpbacks are less picky. I think they are in town for the anchovy buffet.

I love how these sea lions LEAP out of the water. I’ve seen a this few times from the shore too.

There’s something extra fun about managing to get a tail picture!

Here’s a better sea lion herd photo. I just love these guys.

My FAVORITE of all these sea mammals is actually the sea otters. At one point and time, these guys were believed to be completely extinct, but thanks to the protection of countries around the world, they are staging a come back. We saw about twelve of these on our kayak trip today. They make their homes in the kelp. More on that in my next post!

Did I mention that sea otters are my favorite?

Things were so exciting this week with the grands here. I wish they could always be here!!!

Pssst! Don’t forget to “like” my Facebook Page: Stories of Our Boys.

The post Visiting with Humpback Whales appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.