Merry Christmas

Geocaching Adventures Are Not For the Faint-Hearted

It seemed like a good idea--Ben was away at a football game (*gasp!*) and we had the afternoon to ourselves.  Not enough time to go to the zoo or Sea World, not enough time to drive to a state park.  "How about Geocaching!?"

Blank looks.  "Naw mom.  I want to stay here."

Calculating the number of hours they had already watched TV today in my head.  "Nope.  You're going to love it.  It's like a treasure hunt."

So we look up the website.  Try to download it to my phone.  Apple User ID disabled.  Nothing fixes it.  No security questions are right.  Hmm.

Write down the coordinates, examine the pictures, figure out how to install the bike rack on the van.  Load everything up, and two liters of water.

Get to the park just down the road (where the bike path is--but too busy of a road to just ride to it).  Unload everyone and everything.  Myra rides 45 feet and stops for a rest.  Gets off her bike, "I'm just gonna walk my horse now." Runs along side it, pushing it along.  Expending waaay more energy that way than just riding it.

Find the first turn off.  Clark's bike chain falls off.
Search for the little blue ball.  Nothing.
See a roadrunner!
Eva gets cactus spines in her finger.
Without GPS, geocaching is really, really hard.

Back to the bikes.  More horse walking.  Hot, did I mention how hot and humid it is in September.  Worse than June this year.  Find the next turn off.

Walk through the weeds.  Ant bites, stinging nettle.  Call Thad for help.  "How do I do coordinates on Google Maps?" He walks me through it.  Now we have GPS!  Phone battery dies.

Climb a few trees.  Everyone takes their shoes off.  Everyone has to put their shoes back on.  More stinging nettle and ant bites.  Myra walks barefoot across the scrub and howls with pain.  I look into her face and say, "If you aren't going to think things through--I cannot help you. No one can help you."

Climb the tree where the cache is supposed to be.  No cache.  Put shoes back on.  Myra crying.  Sara crying.  More scratches and thorns.  Walk back to the bikes.  Clark's chain is off.  I tear the chain guard off with my bare hands.  Tell Sara to "Go away" because she can't stop crying and I'm losing it. LOSING IT.

Back to the path.  Myra is comfortably sitting in the bike stroller with Sara, while her "horse" is stranded back on the path. "Uh-uh.  You get out and ride your bike home, or you owe me $40."  Giddy-up.

Clark's chain falls off again.

We run out of water.

My back tire suddenly and immediately deflates just as we are getting close to the trail head.  At least it had the decency to wait until the end.

We go home and have a dinner of beef jerky and homemade bread.  I try to explain that the reason I was so upset was because of PTA.  But I think it might have been a combination of causes.

Downtown San Antonio

We had a tourist day today.  We parked at the Central Library and then walked over through the Riverwalk and the surface streets (once it because imperative to find a bathroom) to the Alamo.  We saw the movie in the air-conditioned theater and then headed back out. 

 "Open your eyes, Sara!"

 "Try again!"

 "Ohhhhh"

 Myra Meerkat

 She is getting so old!

 Silly silly silly

Then instead of walking back to the library, we took the Tram.  It was a grand adventure. 

Last Day of School 2014

 Eva graduated from Kindergarten on June 5th.  Her lovely teacher, Mrs. Jensen, gave her lots of awards, including "Reading Rock Star" (she got a package of pop rocks).  She also earned a PE award, a music award, and a math award. 

 Her class

 The girls

 Clark finished First Grade on the same day.  His teacher was Ms. Ruby Salazar.  She was wonderful, sweet and kind.  She gave Clark the Scientist Award because he always knew every answer about animals.  He also earned loads of awards for his school work. 

 

I put together a quilt for Ms. Salazar and one for Mrs. Jensen.  I had each student write what they loved about their teacher on a square and then sewed them all together.  They were surprised by the gift, and it was totally worth the time.

South Padre Island - April 2014

Ben had a week off in April.  I know, right?  Living the life.  So we took advantage of it and pulled the kids out of school for a couple of days and headed down to our old stomping ground in the valley.  We convinced our friends, the Ottos, to come with us (Rick randomly had the same week off, he is also a resident).  So two families, eight kids all reserved rooms in the Padre South Hotel right on the beach.  It was lovely.

 Faye, Sara, Clark, Carson, Eva, Isla, Myra, Everett.  Listen to how our names match up (in age order even): Clark-Carson; Eva-Everett; Myra-Faye (Y names), Isla-Sara (A names).  We didn't even meet until a year ago either!  Just both riding the same name-brain-wave.

 We settled right into our hotel room.  There were two bedrooms and a pull out bed, so everyone had a comfortable place to sleep!  Sara even tried sleeping in a big girl bed for the first time ever!  She only fell out a couple of times the first night.  Then she figured it out.  We played at the beach, played in the hot tub, saw the sea turtle sanctuary, the boys went fishing, we ate quite a lot and watched Animal Planet (of course).

 Mama Duck and Daddy Duck

We love South Padre Island.  We love Dirty Al's.  We love the beach.  For an interesting story of Sara's elevator adventure, check out this post on my other blog.

Eva's Fifth Birthday - 2013

Eva turned five on August 29, 2013.  Since she was newly obsessed with horses, she requested a horse cake.  We invited the Petersons over to share it with us.

 singing. . . 

 blowing.

 Cutest little face.

 Eva and Aliya

 Miss Myra Jane 

 Bubs

 Kaiya

 Katelyn and Sara are the most intense frenemies that I've ever seen.  They are loving each other, chasing and laughing, and then Katelyn will have her fingers buried deep in Sara's hair, pulling it out at the scalp while Sara is clenched down, biting Katelyn's other hand.  They make a lot of drama.

Bibs?  Who needs bibs?

Happy Birthday to our Eva girl!  We love her so much!

Frozen Party - April 2014

No one throws a party like Jodi Peterson.  Last year, it was Brave and everyone joined a clan and got a plaid sash to wear around their waist.  There were too many stations to count and fun games and themed food and perfect decorations.  Seriously, her parties are EPIC.

Well, this year, Aliya turned 5 and she loves Frozen (little red-head that she is), so Jodi put on a Frozen production.  I wouldn't even say it was a party.  More like an event.

First, the kids could dress up in cold weather gear and sit for a photo in front of a frozen landscape.  They also got to decorate foam picture frames as they came in with snowflakes.  You know, just as a "welcome!"

 Bubba had a rough week.  She was running outside and was shoved by her sister (ahem, Myra) to the ground, so she caught the asphalt with some momentum.  Her nose was gushing blood when Ben brought her in.  She probably broke it, but we never took her in because it was still in place.  But MAN!  Did she get some sweet black eyes and a horrible scab on her nose.  I was afraid to take her out in public.  People are really into reporting bad parenting around here.  This picture is priceless for another reason too: Her outturned lip.  This is how she cries or mopes.  She flips the entire thing inside out and drags the corners down with her chin.  It is so cute.  People see it and unconsciously imitate it.

 Clark is getting SO big.  And boney.  And see those grown-up teeth?  I can't even carry him on my back anymore.  He reaches my armpits when we stand side-by-side.

 This Eva Girl and Aliya are best friends.  They get to play together each Wednesday while I teach piano.  

And Myra refused to sit for a picture, in true three-year-old style.

There were stations for Pin the Nose on Olaf, make your own melted snowman snow globe (water in a jar with puff balls, glitter, and meticulously cut out carrot noses and eyes), make a princess or prince crown with glitter glue, another snowman craft and more things that we simply didn't have time to do.  Plus all of the refreshments centered around the Frozen theme and everything was labeled with Frozen place cards.  Can you tell I am kind of a fan.  Jodi is teaching me a lot about not slacking.

 Sarah Allred, Lauren Murff, Jodi Peterson (THE Jodi), Me, Aly Lloyd.  I can't say enough nice things about these beautiful friends of mine.

 This is the kind of guest list that Jodi puts together for a party.  So fun.

 And, since Aliya's party was right before Easter, and Jodi usually also plans an Easter Egg hunt EVENT (stations, arts and crafts, face painting, themed foods) she combined them for the party.  My kids are finally getting the hang of Easter Egg hunts.  They should be.  We went to four this year.  By this one they were already tired of eating candy and chose the cascarones (eggs filled with confetti that you break on people's heads).

Kaiya Peterson and Eva.  Also best friends.  Eva is smack in the middle of these two beautiful sisters.  We couldn't be more grateful to be their friends.

Easter 2014

Easter 2014 was great.  Everyone found their Easter baskets, everyone wore their new Sunday clothes without a fight.  Even Ben voluntarily pulled out his pink tie to match the group.  We were a collection.

This is such a fun age for the whole family.  I love these little people so much.

Temple Square Visit - November 2013

After a few days with the Franciscos in Cedar City, we headed north to Provo to hang out with the Gillespie bunch.  It didn't disappoint.  One chilly day, we headed up to Salt Lake City to show the kids around Temple Square.  We did a scavenger hunt of different objects and symbols around the square, and it was fun while our interest lasted. 

 Luckily Aunt Emmy had Sara's extra coat to keep her warm.  Cutest ear flaps ever.

 Little Bubba loved to snuggle with Uncle Thad.

 Here we were at the opulent City Creek Mall.  It made me feel like Salt Lake had turned into Babylon.

 Figuring out where to go next.

 Waiting to be teleported.

 I love this mom.  So so much.

And the end of the day was a fun reunion with the Rowans.  Oh it was good to see them!  We ate at the food court of the Opulent City Creek Mall and let the kids play on the dinosaur things.