Last of the First of the Last

Another year, another milestone.  This year is the last year that I will have a child in their first day of the last time I will have someone in preschool.  A little dramatic on the analysis I realize but still, it's true!
Brooke is in 7th Grade, Ashley is in 5th grade, Lauren is in 1st grade and Fox even started preschool!   Before school started I saw a bunch of cute signs that people made on Pinterest for the cute First Day of School Pictures.   Then I remembered that I don't successfully pull off that kind of stuff, and we were lucky they all had shoes on and backpacks on their backs and I moved on :) 

Fox was the most excited about our back to school shopping.  The other girls didn't really need new shoes, but we were looking at shoes for Fox and he fell in love with a pair of Converse.  I thought they were still a little expensive (even at the Rack), so I checked out and didn't get the shoes.  For the next week, he kept talking about his shoes and wondering when we would go back to get them.  I couldn't resist, and when we went back, sure enough, even though, I was suggesting a few velcro strap shoes, he grabbed those Converse and would not let them go!  They do look super cute, too :0

I wish Fox was a little sadder about leaving me for a few hours every day.   Instead, he was so motivated to go to school that when I told him last week that if he wanted to go to school he would have to start wearing underwear instead of diapers he decided he wanted to wear underwear immediately and hasn't gone back.  For the record, this does make my potty training success complete - 4 kids, minimal effort = major success.   Biggest potty training tip is you just can't care.  As soon as you care more than they do, they win.  I just start asking if they want to go in the potty and eventually they decide they do. Win!  Someday I'll write a book on this complex theory :)  Also, if they want to read a magazine on the toilet, let them :)

Back to the morning of the first day of school.  after the other kids left he held his backpack in a grip of death and asked me if it was time to go yet for the next 40 minutes.  I thought for sure he would freak when we finally got there, but nope - he did freeze a little, but he talks about it constantly and wakes up first thing in the morning ready to go.  I sort of imagine the thoughts going through his mind as something like a pump up session, "I can do this. here I go.  I'm awesome."  He didn't say a word but I could just see it in his face.

Ashley had found out her teacher's name the day before school and was in tears - the horrible teacher that supposedly no student would ever want.  Guess what, though?  One day in, and she likes her new teacher!  Hilariously, there was a sign on her door saying, "Positive Attitudes Only Allowed" or something like that.  Considering Ashley's negative inclinations, I figured this could be an interesting year.

Lauren is in her class with her best buddy, Abby, so she was ecstatic.  Party time (I'm sure her teacher will love that :))  One of their new friends was playing with her blueberries and raspberries at lunch and now my picky eater, Lauren, has requested blueberries and raspberries in her lunch every day).  I'm liking this year already!

last minute camping :)

Robie and I have been talking about taking the kids on some sort of camping trip over the last weekend of July for the last few weeks.  We just couldn't seem to figure out where we wanted to go, though (the Redwoods in Northern California, a 12 hour drive?; someplace local?; Yosemite or even the Sequoias?). Since it was last minute by summer camping standards we were having some trouble finding a site we liked (no shade, no thanks!).  Anyway, we kept giving up the idea, then thinking again, then giving up, and finally on Thursday morning we knew we needed to decide for sure. I checked again and someone had cancelled a site close to Yosemite and at a campsite that said they had good fishing - Sold! 
We have most of our camping items in a "camping bin" so we didn't have to scramble too much to get all the camping stuff together (headlamps, cooking stuff, mosquito repellent), just the food we were going to eat and some clothes.  The drive was estimated at 6 1/2 hours, and knowing us we were hoping to just not lose any time off that (you know how long it takes when everyone gets out to go to the bathroom and get snacks!?)  Anyway, about 5 hours in we were feeling pretty good about our progress and I was taking some funny pics of Lauren squirting easy cheese onto wheat thins.

 Next thing you know, the car started getting really hot. Immediately, everyone is freaking out ("its HOT", "turn up the air", "I can't feel the air!!").  We had to stop.  I yelp'ed local repair shops and saw one that was coming up in Fresno and had great ratings. They couldn't see us at all, but he recommended another number.   They could look at the car in 2 or 3 hours.  WHAT?!  So I went for the next closest one on the map - they could see us right then and were right across the street.  They were very nice, but, just our luck, they were fixing up their waiting room, so their interim waiting room was in the middle of the garage itself.  At least we could watch them work and make sure they were working on our car,  and they had a tv so we could watch the Olympics.

(real picture)

(just smile for the camera picture)

When they figured out what was wrong and we knew we had some time to kill, we took a walk down to the El Pollo Loco about a block away - the kids were excited to see a Goodwill on the way.  Could they stop there on the way back to the car place?  Of course, we could - we had plenty of time and its air conditioned, after all!   3 hours after we rolled into Fresno, we were back on the road, Slurpees in hand.  The rest of the drive was uneventful and we were excited to finally make it to our campsite at around 5:30.  Just enough time to set up camp and head down for some fishing. 

Some of our fellow campers regaled us with stories of giant fish being stocked into the creek just that morning - sure enough, we got over to the creek and the water was actually clear enough to see the fish hanging out.  It still took quite a few tries, but everyone at least got one bite. 

Ashley seemed to have some sort of natural casting ability, while the rest of us started a little rough until we got the the hang of it (imagine fishing line caught in trees, almost hitting fellow family members or falling into the water 2 feet away from us).  I thought the kids would be disgusted by the actual catching of the fish, instead they were fascinated and sort of freaking me out (future serial killers?)  At one point, the fish had fallen off of Ashley's line, but it was on the beach, so they were chasing it down trying to keep it out of the water (this was just moments after the same thing had happened and Robie had been unsuccessfully attempting to grab the fish with his bare hands).  For the rest of the time that night and then the next morning, Lauren was more focused on just catching the fish with her "bare hands" (see, that's what she's doing in this picture)

We didn't have spices or butter to put on the fish, so we just grilled them straight over the fire and went for it.  It's trout, so I mean, it wasn't phenomenal, but we caught it and ate it :)
The next morning, the kids wanted to fish again, so we did some more fishing/playing in the creek, which I think was definitely their favorite part of the trip.  Since we were so close to Yosemite we decided to head in and let the kids see some of the famous sites.  Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with this grand idea.  We were rudely awakened to reality when we couldn't even get in the front gate for 20 minutes.  Then pretty much every parking area for all major sites (there are only a few in Yosemite, so I think that's part of the problem) was full and not even allowing people to try to park there.  But we stopped at Tunnel View for the scenery...

 Anyway, we finally found a  parking spot, looked around, listened to the kids complain about a 20 minute stroll through the valley, then got back into the car to try to find a place to get into the river.   We really just wanted to get away from the horrible traffic at every turn!   Finally, we found a place - the water was too low to really do any tubing or anything, but the kids were fully swimming around in the ice cold water.  At least they were getting all clean :) And best of all we were not stuck in traffic or surrounded by people.   It was very nice and relaxing.

 We realized we needed to get moving so we could stop and see the Mariposa Grand of Sequoias on our way out and then still make it home at a decent time so we dragged the kids out of the river and headed down.  We did see the trees and even though the kids were grousing about the hike, they were glad we went when they saw the walk-through tree.  Lauren would actually like Robie to try to do that to our pine tree in the back yard (I don't think it's going to work)  We left way too late from Yosemite, considering it is 6 1/2 hour drive and it was 8:30 at night, but we made it home!

On the plus side, the kids weren't bored in the car since they slept the whole way home :0

A little hike...

I was feeling a little blase last week.   I am really enjoying the freedom of summer, but wanted to do something different than swimming at someone's pool or going to the beach.  Both are such worthwhile excursions but Fox doesn't really like swimming yet, and the older girls were secretly (so secret that they didn't even realize it) wanting to do something more.  So I decided we should do some "adventuring".  Normally adventuring entails getting out of the car, taking a 1/4 mile stroll to this little bridge in Penasquitos Canyon, hanging out, then walking back to the car.  Brooke, especially, seemed unimpressed by this plan, so I tried to sweeten the deal with hiking to a waterfall.  Main problem with that was that I didn't really remember how far the hike was.  I went to what I thought was the closest parking area, and we saw on the map that the hike was a little over 2 miles. 

 hmm. 

Should've probably reconsidered at this point.  But I didn't.  So we forged on.  It was the afternoon.  It was hot.  There was really no shade.   For the next hour, I pretty much kept saying, "I think it's just up here guys"  "I think we are getting close".  They were actually pretty good sports, it's just we were going so slow that it took a long time and it's not a particularly scenic hike - at least not the route we took. 

Brooke was even carrying Fox for a large portion of the hike and Ashley had our lunches and a LOT of water. Once we got to the waterfall we actually decided to cross over and try going back on the other side, hoping for some more shade and a little change of scenery.  That's pretty much all you can see of the waterfall - it's kind of a cool little pool.  Going back, we did get some occasional shade, unfortunately, we also added 1/2 mile.. oopsey.  This was where I said more things like, "I'm really sorry, guys, this is farther than I thought." "I apologize, this was a horrible idea." "Just keep going and we will stop and get a small treat."  "Please keep walking and we will stop and get a big treat." "If you keep walking, you can get whatever you want at 7-11".  I think once it was over everyone was pretty proud of themselves, though, and it was definitely an excursion to remember (especially an hour later when the older girls had to head out for their two hour soccer practices)!

3 years!!

I can't believe Fox turned 3.  He seriously should be maybe 2 at the most - it's just not right how fast the time goes!  (In fact, Lauren cracked me up the other day when she even said, "these kids just grow up so fast" in a wistful tone - you know it, Lauren).  One of the things that sets him apart from his sister is that he geniunely loves toys - trucks, cars, planes, helicopters.  He has been so excited for his birthday to come, in fact, we have been using his birthday for the last 3 months whenever he wanted something we would "put it on his birthday list."  Since his birthday was on a Monday and Robie, Brooke and Ashley are gone on Monday evenings, we celebrated the day before.  I wasn't sure whether to just tell him if was his birthday day or try to explain the celebrating a different day thing, but he embraced the numerous day birthday situation.  In fact, he thought when we were going to church Sunday morning that he was headed to his birthday party.. they did sing him happy birthday in nursery so I think he was satisfied.

He was also really into having his cake, but not wanting any frosting.  Much to the chagrin of his sisters and friends, he got what he wanted - no frosting! 

Then for his actual birthday he got to have pizza (his favorite food) and even started liking a new food with his best little friend, Elizabeth, who taught him that turkey sandwiches can be delicious!  His sisters even played with him in his little pool and the slip and slide.  Party time! 

 (hey, this turkey sandwich is really good!)

(they were all checking out this giant red dragonfly that kept circling around)

See, that awesome afro?  Just a few days later, he kept asking for it to get cut, so Robie did it!

 and Fox was super excited to sit in the older girls' American Girl Doll Salon chair - only the younger brother of 3 girls, huh?!

Happy Birthday, America

Our neighborhood has a 4th of July celebration every year.   The kids (and adults) ride their bikes, scooters, whatever around the block (it's about 3/4 of a mile).  We have done this every year since we moved in, and I think they even did that before we moved in.  It is situated right in front of our house in the middle of the street, so we're pretty much committed to going - although our crazy next door neighbors get out of it by just holing themselves up in their house for the entire day so no one will see them go in or out - weirdos!  The last 3 years the fire truck has come out to help us celebrate, always with the "well, if an emergency comes up we won't be able to be there" caveat.  Unfortunately, this was the year that must have happened - the fire truck was a no show.  Robie took the lead and lead the parade around the neighborhood.  We start at 10, which leaves us enough time to get the watermelon cooked up, the shades up, the grills and tables out.  The only problem is that the parade only takes a few minutes, so that means you are left eating a hot dog at 10:30 in the morning.  The rest of my family seemed to have no problem with it - I, on the other hand, think it is disgusting!  That's the joy of America, though, right?  We have the freedom to eat a hot dog at 10:30.

I was in charge of the games, which means I didn't get too many pictures since I was instructing 30 children in their relay instructions.  Their favorite, though was the tug-of-war (hopefully I"ll grab a picture of that from my reliable sister, Jenn, who was taking some...)

An afternoon tennis game filled the small gap in between activities, until we headed over to our friends' house for some pool, grilling and firework time.  It was actually  a suprisingly cool day so I didn't end up swimming because it seemed like it would be too cold,  I'm still regretting not taking a giant leap off that diving board - its so springy.  I did go ahead and prove that I am the worst ladder ball player ever (fair warning for anyone who was thinking of pairing up with me!).

We utilized our American freedoms to eat more hot dogs (specialty jalapeno and cheddar dogs to be exact) and way too many other sides and snacks.  Why did that watermelon have to be so sweet?  Unfortunately, Fox was not feeling so great - he had a fever a couple nights before and it came back nice and strong when he fell asleep on the way over to their house.  He slept in his carseat for a while, then woke up and fell back asleep on the front seat.  Finally, he woke up and Robie had to take him home when he was inconsolable.

 Ice cream, a bath and some tv at home fixed him up, just in time to come back and finish out the night the American way - with fire?  Go, America.

 On that note - we are SO excited for the Olympics over here.  We've been watching the Olympic trials (gymnastics and swimming mostly so far)  It's going to be great!

There's a first time for everything

I decided at the last minute to go to the beach today.  We've been a few times lately, but Mark was down at  La Jolla Shores today, (and we haven't been down to that beach this year yet), so the kids were totally excited about going.  We didn't even prep anything - no chair, no umbrella, just threw some towels, sunscreen, boogie boards and towels in the car.  I was only planning on playing for an hour, 2 at the most.  Of course, we stayed for 5.  When we first got there around 11 I was doing the usual "stalking of the parking spot" in which I ask each person I see if they are leaving.  I did that 3 or 4 times, until I realized that basically the other 1/2 of the parking lot was pretty much empty.  funny.

The breeze was pretty cool for the first little while.    It was the kind of day where the sun peeks out at you, sending its little tentacles of warmth out onto your skin, until the sun retreats back behind the fog, ripping its tentacles back in with it.   After everyone got a little sunburned last week at the beach, I diligently reapplied the sunscreen, even with the chill, though!  I was so proud of myself, until we got home and I felt how fried my shins are.  Apparently I was also supposed to apply sunscreen on my whole leg... oopsey.  By the end of summer, I'll totally have the sunscreen technique down again.
Towards the end of our visit, we hear the lifeguards making an announcement to the people in the water.  Mark says, "I think they just said there was a shark sighting.."  Sure enough, they were pulling everyone out of the water due to a shark sighting.  The kids came running back in from body surfing telling us about how the lifeguards told them about the 4 other people that had seen a shark and that they needed to get out.  They didn't even freak out, really, it was sort of just exciting, I think. 
I wish I would have taken a picture after they pulled everyone out of the water, though, because there were literally 100's of people on the beach and I swear everyone (ok, maybe not everyone, but there were big groups of people) that were standing and pointing towards the water and then others are nodding their heads.  What?!  what are they seeing?!  I sent Ashley down (because that is what older kids are for) to scope it out.  She said people were seeing whales going up the coast, too... who knows?  I think the kids were really hoping they would get onto the news telling about their experience but no such luck :0

p.s. I HATE each of the girls swimsuits they wore today.  I happen to be a swimsuit junkie - I really like suits, so although I know they just chose them because they are kind of ugly so they won't care if the sand ruins them, I'm thinking those suits might all just have to disappear - lauren's butt cheeks were always sticking out - Brooke does not look good in those colors, and Ashley's top was way too low cut.  Of course, today was the day I had the camera....