There are so many things about this town that make zero sense. One of those things is why there are no indoor activities. I'm pretty sure a skating rink would make a million dollars. Anyway, there have been rumors of a trampoline park being built for a year. When it finally opened and a friend invited us to go opening week, I didn't believe it. In fact, I went fully expecting there to be a single trampoline sitting in the middle of a warehouse (that's how Yuma rolls a lot of times). Thankfully, I was wrong and was actually very impressed. It was pricey, but the kids had an absolute blast.
Don't you do the splits on the suspended balance beam?
The boys' even learned how to play dodgeball and I was very impressed with how much they held their own in a game with older boys.
Other, not exciting news...
It always cracks me up when Maya does this:
If you lay on the floor to stretch, she has to come lick the sweat off you.
My bubs. Just had to document that he still needs my snuggles. There are times in school that he gets frustrated and just has to climb in my lap for a second to regroup. Then he's fine and finishes his lesson strong. This is actually true for all the kids and it always reminds me the power of a simple hug.
Eli continues to create what he imagines. He thought up this costume, made it up himself and even spiked his hair.
Last Sunday he decided that every Sunday there should be sewing. He started working on a blanket and we talked about sewing takes patience; you can't just sew something in a few minutes, but it may take days or weeks.
{I fixed the sewing machine and it no longer makes those squeaky sounds}
Thursday morning, I was sitting in my red chair with my coffee, when I realized this might be our last normal school day for a long time. I have wanted to do a "day in the life" post for years and it has never happened...for silly reasons really. I guess perfection is my enemy and I kept waiting for the perfect day, which never happens. We are supposed to have one more week of school before life becomes INSANE and we travel/have family visit for the holiday/move. We will be taking at least 2 months off, although I hope to have the kids do a little work to keep the wheels turning during that time. Thus, I followed my instinct and documented what has been our normal life.
I'm always up at 6:00. I have a deep love for quiet mornings with coffee and reading. My day goes exponentially better when I start with coffee, Jesus and praying over our day and my family.
Every morning I am reminded how deep mother's intuit runs; I can hear ever foot step out of bed and I can always tell who is up.
Ben gets up first and will let Maya out of her crate, who sprints down stairs and shoves her head in my lap to be smothered in love. It's a pretty great way to start the day.
7:00, my boys come downstairs for snuggles. This has happened every morning for 8 years and I'm not sure how life will go on when it stops.
Ben dishes out hugs, leaves for work and Maya will steal the warm spot while I go get ready for a run.
Then she'll follow me around, licking me, begging me to take her.
{She gets walked after I run or in the afternoon}
When I get back, it's time for breakfast (Alison usually wakes up while I'm out). Usually, Alison and Colin will have a granola bar and a piece of fruit and Eli will eat whatever I eat, plus a bowl of cereal. But once a week, we do a bigger breakfast. Their favorite is French toast :)
The kids do their morning chores while I clean up and then it's time for math! Of course the day I document is not normal...we are usually at our desks, but there have been some grumbling attitudes about "our boring schoolroom", so we sat outside at the picnic table this day. It worked wonders for those grumbles!
After math, we planned our third annual 'Falloween Party'.
Then it was time for grammar. Again, usually we're at our desks...but Colin and I laid on the floor of the school room and petted Maya while doing his lesson. He's learning about common and proper nouns and the lesson was on animals and pets proper names.
While I give Eli his lessons and check Alisons work, Colin can do ABC Mouse.
Then it's time for lunch. A favorite school day lunch is cheese and crackers, with veggies and fruit.
We are at the library at least once a week, if not more. However, this week, I only had time to drop off the stack that was due and thankfully, the kids still have plenty of reading material.
(P.S. this Danny McGee book is weird. don't get it)
In the afternoon, we do science or history. We were learning about homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures this week. This lesson was on suspensions and we did a little experiment:
I am loving this science book so far; I love that I can use it for all 3 kids and it makes the lessons easy to understand, with simple experiments. However, not one experiment has worked! The raisins were supposed to eventually rise to the top, but they did not.
Then we have reading time. I'll read some out loud, then work with Colin and then they all go to their beds to read independently.
We finished the Mouse and the Motorcycle this day!
Alison read this book 4 years ago, but she has still enjoyed listening to it.
After reading time, the kids go out and play with the neighbors. The timing works out nicely as they are coming home from school and we are done with all our work. Lately, they have been playing until it's dark and time to come in for dinner; just the way the life of a kid should be.
Colin has been asking to do the slip in slide for a week. It's been in the 90's, so why not? Before he played with the neighbors, he got in some splash time and had a blast. This may be the last time in his life that he plays in water on October 25th.
In my perfect schedule world, we also do afternoon chores, they help cook dinner and practice piano, but perfect doesn't always happen when the weather has FINALLY cooled off and you can be outside.
My suspicions were right and that day was our last day of normal. The next day, 2 of the 3 kids were feeling under the weather and next week, I'm heading to California to finalize things on our new house. Ben will do some school with the kids and we'll have our party, but it won't be our simple, normal days.
I like our normal. Maybe too much. I sure am curious what our new normal will look like in a few months...
Our first trip with our new "expedition" trailer was a success! We didn't take Maya this time so we could all hike the trails. We dropped her off at the kennel and were off to Joshua Tree.
Packing was an adventure in itself. I knew it would be colder, but my Yuma brain wasn't sure how cold it would feel to us. Alison had zero pants to pack, so we had to make a last minute trip to Walmart to buy some pants that barely stayed on her tushy...but they were warm so I guess that's what matters. Eli's only fitting closed toes shoes were his church shoes and he refused to let me buy him tennis shoes, so he hiked in church shoes. This is what Yuma has done to us; we live in shorts and flip flops year round and don't know how to function in cold. We are in trouble. Thank goodness, Laurel mentioned taking hats and fleece blankets with them last time they camped because she saved our lives! We were cold and also thankful to be cold, if that makes any sense.
Joshua Tree is magical. At each turn, you had to just stop for a second and let your brain process what it was seeing. It felt like we were in a whole different world.
We set up camp, started cooking dinner and the boys went exploring.
The kids have been eager to help cook, which made cooking even easier.
We camped at Jumbo Rock and the kids climbed the boulders the entire time. Colin was fearless...a little too fearless, but he came home with no broken bones.
They pretended this was their dungeon.
We roasted marshmallows and cuddled up on a picnic blanket to stargaze. We could see the Milky Way crystal clear and it was amazing!
The kids really make camping easy. By 8:00 each night, they were exhausted and ready to climb into their warm sleeping bags. They would put themselves to bed and slept like babies.
Inside our tent:
In the morning, Alison and I did a little exploring ourselves.
Then we all hiked to skull rock.
We explored around skull rock and found some pretty cool places to climb.
Ben climbed up higher than we wanted the kids to go. If you look closely, you can see me holding the boys sticks they collected that turned into guns. They would hike all day as long as there are sticks that can be turned into guns :)
Colin said at least a million times, "Daddy, take a picture of this!" Ben literally had 100's of pictures of Colin from this trip.
After lunch, Ben took the boys on their own little adventure. He found an area of rocks that they called Mars and I'm pretty sure was the highlight of their trip.
Then, just because we could, we went to the geology tour road. Only cars with 4 wheel drive can go down it and you can see different rock formations and old mines. We didn't go too far because some of us are prone to car sickness, but it was still fun.
Then we hiked the hidden valley trail. We were pretty tired by this point, but it was a short hike so we tried to push through.
Colin was especially tired from the full day, plus dramamine, but as soon as he found this log to carry as his machine gun, he got the pep back in his step.
We got back to the campsite in time for an early dinner. We learned that it's much nicer to eat an early meal and have everything cleaned up and put away before it gets dark. Plus, once the sun went down, all we wanted to do was stay warm by the fire and look at the stars.
Both dinners, we grilled meat that we had already marinaded, toasted some bread on the grill and then added a simple side. We could probably make meals even easier, but we all enjoy cooking, so it will probably stay this way.
I loved our campsite. We had so much space all to ourselves! This campground only had a bathroom, but Ben set up a water system for us and even had a shower. The kids and I were too cold to even think about a shower, but Ben used it and it worked well.
We even brought our hammock stand, which beats a camping chair any day. I mean, who doesn't want to relax like this?
While I cleaned up, Ben took the kids up on the rocks to watch the sunset.
While they were sitting there, this fox started roaming our campsite!
He stayed for awhile, circling our table to see if he could find food. He was really pretty, but freaked Colin out.
The next morning, we loaded up our campsite and went to the cholla garden.
The kids said this was one of their favorite trips and I would have to agree. I definitely see us going back to Joshua Tree; it was so peaceful and fun to explore. My favorite part of the trip was evenings with my girl. We would lay under the stars and talk or play Uno by lantern light while the boys slept.
