Balifornia

Day 7 - The Beach!

Then a late lunch at Juanita's...

 The Amazing Flying Saucer - my fave

 Then we hung out at my brother's house.

The cousins played well

but Peter had to stop playing and dive into this crate of library books.

It's been a whole week without library books!

And then, my favorite part: to the airport to meet Paul.

Except it wasn't my favorite when I was parked in the center median on I-5,

overflowing into the fast lane traffic while cars zoomed by,

because my check engine light decided to make an appearance and things went awry on the dials in front of me.

Holy Canoli.

Stress up the back of my neck, you know?

The important thing is that we did not get smashed into the cement wall.

And Paul is here now.

See...

Day 8 - Today

Paul's here!

He's listening to Reuben read one of his phonics' readers.

Today we've done a round of lessons, including time in the pool,

and are now going to work on getting Legoland tickets

and perhaps take a trip to the library and the beach.

Oh!

And my sister's new baby girl arrived yesterday!

Cadence Kay and Daddy

Sweet

'Alifornia

Day 5

Church was hip.  Lunch afterwards in their restaurant was tasty.  The brotherly rough-housing due to being restrained in church clothes for too long was unfortunate.  Peter's glasses are now fashionably taped together.  Boo.

Yesterday afternoon we headed south to meet up with my brother's family.  More swimming!  They boys are loving all the pool action.  And I'm loving how they're sleeping so well.  Slept in till 5:30 this morning.  Getting used to this pacific time zone.  Actually, the high-octane swimmers are still slumbering here at 7:25am.  Got to get Charlie in the pool  more.

                                      My brother Dave with Brody and Charlie.  Then Gigi and Pete and Rube.

                                                             Peter's giving Brody The Nudge to 'help' him down the slide.

                                                                                    Pete and Rube giving a demo.

                                                                    Charlie preferred throwing the ball for Sidney.
                                                                       Sidney's head is poking in on the left there.

                                                                                     And playing with the tractor.

                                                                                                Pool break for Gigi and Reuben

                                                                                                   Back in.
                                                                     I have been amazed at Reuben's fearless swimming.

                                                       Charlie started pulling on his clothes as his sign he was ready to swim.
                                                                                    He was cool with Uncle Dave, of course.

                                                                                    My Mom and Dad

                                                                                                Hermans having dinner.

                                                                                And a final wrestling match.
                                                                   Siblings Gigi and Brody with friend Simon.

Today, you ask?
A trip to Target to see about a glasses repair.  Math facts for Peter and digraph 'sh' for Reuben.  A trip to the pool perhaps.  And maybe some bike time if the day is slow in reaching 99 degrees.

Cali

Day 4

While Peter was perfecting his golf swing at the driving range with Granpa,
Reuben and Charlie helped Granny make chocolate chip bars.

Oh, I forgot their early morning activity...  "pooling" as Reuben called it.

Granpa has lots to teach these boys.

Okay, then this afternoon we went to my Aunt Jo and Uncle Gary's house for a lovely time of visiting.

My Great Aunt Isabel and Great Uncle Don were in town.

They are 93 and call me Stacey Honey

because that's what my Grandma used to call me.

I miss talking with my Grandma.

My cousin Kyle was there with his two sons who played wonderfully with my two sons.

                                                                

                                                                Collin, Peter, Troy, and Reuben falling into the desert depths.


                                                                 
                                                                   Reuben, Peter, Collin, and Troy (Kyle and Heather's sons)

                                                                        The pool had this great shallow area.

Char Char

                                                                                          Peter and the waterfall.

                                                               Here are Sue, Don, Jo, Cheryl, and Isabel.

                                                                                       Playing with a lego boat.

Kyle and Heather with Annette just to the left of them,

then Cheryl, Gary, Mom, friend Jenny, and Jo.

Church tomorrow with a lot of these same people

then off to the third pool in three days.



In California

(The computer I'm using doesn't like blogger as much as I do, so the format is a bit funky.)

Day 1

                                                                Paul so lovingly escorted us to our gate.
                                                                       He's joining us next week.

                                                   Mini M&Ms, mini muffin liners, and pipe cleaners = fun on the airplane.

Charlie took the initiative of wiping down the seats at the Phoenix airport while we waited for our next flight.

Day 2

No pictures.

We went to Target, did our school lessons, and ate tostadas.

And rode bikes.

With helmets on.

Day 3 - Today

Reuben wanted to climb the mountain outside Granny's window.

So we did.

At 8am.

Three hour time zone change means we're up at 5am and ready to go.

                                                                                   They live in the desert.
                                                                        We kept an eye out for rattlesnakes.

                                                                                       Water break.  It's hot.

                                                                    Stopped to throw rocks down the hill.
                                                     I just kept thinking about the sleeping snakes they were waking.

                                                                                      Totally asleep.

This afternoon we went to play at the community pool.
Splash pad, large pool, and playground.
And clean bathrooms.
And a friendly lady named Chris with whom we chatted with for hours while our kids played together.
And misters.  Not men, but things that spray mist on you as you recline in lounge chairs.  Not that I got to recline much with Charlie roaming.  But still.  I imagine the misters are very nice.

                                                            Debbie - Thanks for the cute swim shorts for Charlie!

Charlie's current status.

Totally out.

Which is a total bummer because he conked out at 4:30pm,

which is his exact bedtime at home (7:30pm),

but could result in an unfortunate wake up call in the wee hours of the morn. 

Oo, time for turkey burgers!