Road Trip!

The boys and I headed out on a road trip adventure up the 101 to visit my best friends from college and their families in Healdsburg last week. I've found that the more time I spend at home and running around town with the kids and going about our daily routine, the more reluctant I am to stretch myself a little and do something different. It's also been a long time since I've traveled without Jared, and I started feeling like I needed to challenge myself a little bit. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to spend time with friends and to shake things up a bit. The boys were pretty darn good, with a few low points here and there, but nothing much more than what we experience at home in a given week. The driving days were actually surprisingly easy, and I accomplished staying at a hotel alone (with the kiddos) for the first time :) We spent the night at a hotel in San Luis Obispo on the way up and back and spent two and a half days at a virtual Disneyland of fun and happy times. Thank you to the Morks and Moores for a wonderful and crazy fun visit!! I think the boys would have exploded if they had too much more fun...it was definitely an idyllic summer camp experience that we will hopefully repeat every year :)  

Watching cartoons at the hotel on our night on the road heading North...a treat to unwind after our first five hours in the car.

Ready to hit the road for Healdsburg the next morning; they both packed their own backpacks with toys for the trip--Levi's was insanely heavy ;)

Picking up brochures at the hotel for entertainment in the car--Parker decided that he has started a "brochure collection," among his many, many other collections...he would spell the words to me as we drove and I would tell them what they said.

Parker documenting the trip with his camera (which I very sadly lost on our last day there...)

Parker really wanted to help wash the windshield whenever we stopped for gas...unfortunately, he could only reach a few inches of it on either side!

Truck-stop lunch...it served its purpose...

Levi fishing for already-been-thrown pennies in the fountain at the Healdsburg Plaza

Kids! Between the three of us, Mel, Em, and I have produced seven children...from Left to Right: Levi, Parker, Alice, Ella, Owen, Josie, and Chiara. Cuties!

Reunion :)

Fast friends...more like family...

Bubble Mania!!! 

Serious bubble craziness...

Baby Alice with her bubble beard

Chiara and Parker

Parker and Levi got their first water balloon launching experience...they both LOVED it! The Morks have a serious launcher set up to shoot balloons out into their lake.

Preparing to launch

Levi loved throwing his balloons into the plants, and then graduated to loading his balloon into the launcher while I shot it into the lake.

Parker interviewing Josie for what will sadly be his "lost" documentary...

At the Sonoma County Fair...Josie and Parker heading hand-in-hand into the Fun House. Too cute. They are such sweet friends.

Parker and Levi learning how to milk a cow...

I see a bright future for him on the farm...

Child of the Corn

They had the best petting zoo ever! 

Parker and Josie on the trampoline

Zonked! 

A lot of people asked me how on earth Parker and Levi entertained themselves in the car on the drive up there...here's Parker (and his dirty feet mere inches from my face) drawing the road signs that he saw along the way...

And here he is educating himself on Paint Ball wars...

And here's Levi ever-so-briefly entertaining himself with a book...both boys did amazingly well in the car! I did have to tickle a lot of toes, though...

Roll Overs

Parker is still doing awesome in his swim classes, I'm always wowed by him with every class. Although, of course, as long as he at least has fun and is happy to be there, that's great. I haven't been getting the camera out during his classes because I don't want to distract him, but I just couldn't resist today--I wanted to catch this new move that he is learning. I know it's really hard to see in the video here, but he's learning to roll over while swimming from his tummy to his back, float on his back, and then roll back over to his tummy and swim. I'm pretty sure we're going to sign up for another session of lessons so he can keep going while he's doing so well and before school starts. Unfortunately, I'm spending a small fortune on frozen yogurt treats after every class ;)

Portraits

I just came across these photos on our camera, I had forgotten about them...a few weekends ago, we had a simple backdrop set up to take pictures of some things to list for sale on ebay. Parker wanted me to take a picture of him with this stuffy, and the first photo I snapped came out almost too good...I love that the lighting is so soft and natural, and it was actually a spontaneous, candid moment...but at the same time, it's such got such a perfect "Sears portrait" look to it that it's almost creepy ;) I tried to get nice a picture of both boys together in the natural light, looking right at the camera and smiling and embracing, but it just wasn't in the stars. 

It's a Kid's World

Parker asked me to help him make a "to do" list this weekend, and here's what he's got lined up for his near future...if only all of our "to do" lists looked like this! How lucky we would be.

"What I'm Going To Do" --Parker

1. Karate

2. Swimming

3. Get The Swamp Creature [a Lego set he's saving up for]

4. Give Reece back his squirt gun

Swimming!

We had a great time at Grammy and Grampy's pool yesterday! Parker must have gone under water twenty times, and by the end of our time there, he actually swam by himself three or four times (for just a few seconds, but still, it was genuine swimming totally immersed underwater without touching the bottom!)! We were so excited, including Parker...we even took him to Target afterwards and let him pick out a new Lego set and then had a shrimp BBQ for him that night! He already looked at me this morning and said, "Hey mom, I kind of want to go back to the pool today." So despite the gray skies, I think we'll be heading over there for more swimming in about a half an hour. He really loved having the underwater camera there to play with and to encourage him to put his face in the water...

We also dunked Levi underwater for his first time...it seems like he is truly going to be our fish. We all went to the beach on Saturday and took our boogie boards, and Levi just could not get enough of the water. The tide was low, and he would lay down on the boogie board while we pulled him along through the shallow water and wet sand by the leash, just like we do in the back yard. Jared even carried him out into water and he literally rode a little whitewater wave in to the beach. If we put the boogie board down, he would go get it, drag it down to the water, turn it around, and lay down on it, waiting for a wave to come get him. He was one of those kids who won't stop playing in the water, even though they're shaking with cold. I'll have to bring the waterproof camera to the beach with us next time!

Karate Kid

Parker has been wanting to try a karate class for a while now, and I found a karate school really close to us in Carlsbad Village that looked great (near the Coyote Grill for you local Carlsbad peeps--mom and dad). They have a special try-two-classes-and-get-a-karate-uniform deal, so I figured Parker could try it out and see if it's really something that he wants to do. He was able to take his first class today, and when I asked him what he liked best about it afterwards, he told me, "everything." I was so proud of him for going in there and trying it out without having any idea of what to expect. He did a great job. Of course, he loves the uniform, and I'm pretty sure he loves imagining that he is a ninja (thank you, Lego Ninjago). Of course, as a parent, I love the idea of him learning confidence, focus, self-discipline, and having a positive way to channel some rogue aggressive behavior. I'm pretty sure he's going to want to continue with the classes after the two-time trial period is up. I love that the school is so close to us--and it's a perfect location for grandparents to sit in on classes, too :) You know, after watching his class today, even I want to do karate!

Beach Boys

We've definitely been having beach weather lately...both boys absolutely love going to the beach to play. It's perfect when the tide is low and we can play chase in the shallow water and run in the waves and collect rocks. Parker is getting much more comfortable in the water, and Levi is rather too brave for his own good. Once the tide starts to come up and the water gets deeper and the waves get a little stronger I tend to be in over my head a bit with the two of them on my hands, and it's time to head home! Timing is everything, must arrive at the beach just before or at low tide, then by the time everyone's tired out and cold we can head home!

It was hysterical watching Levi try to negotiate his big old towel as we dried off to head home. He wanted to put it over his head like the hooded towel he uses at home after his bath, but just couldn't figure out how to make it happen. He played a little peek-a-boo, and then I just took pictures and giggled as he tried to make his way to the car. Then I gracefully fell into a hole that someone had dug in the sand as I walked along backwards while taking pictures of him, so there you go.

Father's Day 2012

Jared went fishing in Mission Bay on the morning of Father's Day (he said the fishin' was good), and then the boys and I hopped aboard with a bag of sandwiches and snacks at lunchtime and we boated over to a cove that was perfectly sheltered from the wind. I know that deep down inside Parker really wants to swim, and I can tell that he's opening up to the idea of it and overcoming his fears more and more each day this summer. He was excited to put on his life jacket after lunch and start splashing and "jumping" in the water with Jared--they even swam back to the boat together from the little sand spit we were playing on. The wind made things kind of chilly, but we sure appreciated a sunny afternoon in June!! 

On a side note, Parker got bitten by a mosquito that Friday evening above his eyebrow, and by Saturday mid-morning his eye was hugely swollen--by Sunday morning it was nearly swollen shut. It was so hard to see him like that (he literally looked like a boxer after a fight), although it was some consolation that he really seemed unbothered by it and that the swelling went down almost entirely by Monday evening. It seems like he's just particularly sensitive to bug bites (he got so many bites on his head on our trip to Zion that I truly worried that he had lice), hopefully it's something that he grows out of. So, you might notice that his (left) eye looks a little funny in these pice.