Fun times with Grammy!

After I left the mountains I took a trip over to visit my mom. We had a great time with her and on our last day Christy, Chris and the kids stopped over for some Monkey Joe fun. The boys loved it. Afterwards we had a barbeque and bonfire (mini) with smores and hot dogs a-plenty!

Reunion in the mountains

We had a great time visiting with my sister and her family. The boys loved hanging with their cousins Ethan and Emerson. It's been a non-stop Ethan-fest here at the house. Below are snippets from our visit. I had the joy of celebrating Emerson's 2nd birthday with her.

And so it begins....

My little journey into homeschooling. I've decided to take a leap of faith. Some think I'm crazy, heck, sometimes I think I'm crazy but nevertheless it's a commitment that I've accepted whole-heartedly. Upon arrival of our curriculum I had a doubting moment. My friend, Rebecca, can attest to that. I sat down and facebooked her with my concerns because I couldn't find her phone number to pick the phone up and cry in her ear. Lucky her. I'm afraid of boredom. There I said it. Boredom. Sounds kind of trivial, doesn't it? Well when you've got three youngesters that depend on you as their sole source of entertainment it can be draining. I'm sure that once the routine is in place things will go smoothly. I expect bumps in the road but sometimes bumps are needed to wake you up and get you alert. Consider myself on alert status and ready to ride. Are you ready to ride along with me?

Nature Center and Waterspray

I was feeling a little summertime cabin fever since it's been so hot. I woke up this morning on a mission to curb the fever with a little heat. I know, doesn't make sense to me either and I sorta figured it out when I was standing in the middle of it (the heat, that is!). Our first stop was Lichterman Nature Center. I've heard great things about this place so anticipation was high. We packed our lunches and away we went. The visitor's center was very informative with stuffed animals that are indigenous to the area. We picked up a family backpack for free (you had to leave your keys for collateral) and it was filled with tons of fun things to use outdoors plus games to familarize yourself with the plants and animals. The kids particularly liked the binoculars and the handheld songbird identifier.

Outside of the visitors center was a flock of canadian geese. I'm not really a fan of these guys because I've seen them chase people. I was prepared to beat them off with our backpack if they got close but fortunately for me, and the geese, they were tame. Some of the other visitors had brought crackers to feed them. When the crackers were all gobbled up they just sort of walked behind us waiting for more handouts. Tyler didn't really enjoy this but got used to them. After we ate our lunch the geese appeared. Ty was chompin' on some cheez-its and decides he's brave enough to throw one to the geese. Of course they immediately flock to his side, he dumps the crackers and runs. I nearly peed myself laughing.

We were there just in time to watch a hawk feeding which was none too pretty, let me tell you. Thankfully the little mice were dead. It was all I could muster to keep from gagging when the tail was hanging out of it's beak.

A few of the moms and I got to talking and they told me about a water "park" not far from where we were so I piled the kids in the van and went in search for some cool off time. After Mrs. GPS directing, I made my way to the mecca of water "spray" parks and it was FREE. You can't beat that. The baby was not dressed for waterplay (don't ask me why) but that did not stop him from getting in on the fun. Too bad he sucked up half the water with his diaper. We spent an hour there and then it was back home with a little detour to Wendy's for a frosty. Good times.

My new name...

The Squirrel Wrangler. Yep. That's what they call me around these parts. Making it my mission to get these little guys all fattened up. Just wait until winter comes. They'll be living high on the hog or, well, high on the peanut.

Back in the saddle again

I've decided to compile all the pictures that I've taken over the last month and put them in a slideshow. As for the song, well, it says it all. I'm back at blogging. Consider me "caught up" and now I can go forward with future posts.

Enjoy!