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 ;)

Progress!

I'm two-thirds of the way done with my quilt blocks! Twenty down, ten more to go. It was fun to lay them all out together to start to get an idea of how it is going to look when it's done. I'm still really enjoying the process, and although the blocks are far from perfect, I know each square of fabric so intimately that they are all really special to me. I really hope that I can pull off the finished product. I'm already dreaming of three or four new quilt projects, but I'm really trying to make myself finish this before I start anything else! 

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. 

Level 2!

Parker did so well at his swim class today that he is moving up to Level 2! He did all sorts of awesome things, including pushing off from the wall with his face in the water and swimming to the instructor; put his face under water for ten seconds; started learning how to swim to the wall with his face in the water while doing an overhand stroke; and floated on his back without the instructor holding on to him for ten seconds. Jared and Grandpa Geoff both came along to watch, and it was a really fun day for them to be there. He will start learning some new things in his next class, and if things keep going this well he's going to really make some great progress. He's still in his swimming trunks right now, and is begging to head over to Grammy and Grampa's pool! At least the sun is out today :)

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!