Coronado Island

Wednesday morning, the kids and I drove to Coronado Island to spend the day on the beach. 

The kids had a great time playing and eating snacks.  Just hearing the waves crash is always good for my soul.

The boys played "bury all the sand toys".

Alison worked hard to build a moat for the castle.

Eli and I built a throne in front of the moat so he could be the guard.

This was the most Colin got in the water by himself.  He was content playing in the sand and would usually only go in if I was holding him.

In the afternoon, the wind picked up a bit, which made the kids chilly.

It was a bummer that Ben had to sit in training all day while we sat on the beach.

The other bummer of the day=sunburns.

We were outside for maybe 4 hours and I reapplied sunscreen every hour.  We left for the reason that I was really feeling the sun, even with all the sunscreen.  By the time we sat down to dinner, we noticed red marks on Alison and Eli's faces.  It took me awhile to figure out that they got sunburned in the spots that the sunscreen stick had missed on their faces.  I am no longer a believer in those handy sticks.  Oddly enough, Colin showed no signs of sun.

Ben took us to a local seafood restaurant for dinner.  We sat outside, next to the pier and it was one of my most favorite dinner experiences.

Colin had some fun taking pictures during dinner.

This week

Ben left for a work training in San Diego, last Sunday.

Dinners are always different when he's gone.  They are always much more low key and Monday night we just ate whatever was left in the house.  I turned on some silly songs (aka preschool learning for Colin) to listen to while we ate, but the kids really wanted to watch the videos that went with them.  Most people would watch TV, but our kids huddle around my little phone.  I was the most surprised that Alison enjoyed the songs as well...some times I forget that she still a little kid too.

And still constantly surprised by the games the boys make up.  I wonder when the novelty of boys will wear off.  I went into their room to find that they had taped all of the "bad guys" onto their bed and lego table.  Why?  All I could do was laugh.

Tuesday, the kids and I drove to San Diego to crash Ben's work trip.  We only had to pay $10 to stay in a family room on base and I packed all of our food for breakfast and lunch.  It was pretty much a no brainer to pack up and cool off for a few days.

We spent Tuesday afternoon at Balboa Park.  We got there right at lunch time and had a picnic lunch right outside the park, only because that's the only place I could find parking.  San Diego traffic is not something I'm a fan of.

Pinterest largely mislead me on this adventure, but we made it work.  I snagged the last parking spot somewhat close to the park, but we were never able to find the trolley to take us up to the main park.  So we walked a lot.

 

We stopped by the visitors center for a map, which this one would not put down.

 

I was under the impression that a few museums were free, but found out once there, that we were a week early for the "free" days.  Every thing in San Diego is super expensive and I wasn't ready to commit $50 for a museum I wasn't positive the kids would enjoy/learn from.  So we settled for a little train ride, that the kids thought was a blast.

 

Our last stop was at the botanical gardens.  The highlight of the spot was seeing some little ducklings near the pond.

 

We met up with Ben for dinner and then crashed for the day.  We spent the rest of the week in San Diego and there are lots of beach pictures coming soon!

Nana and Grandaddy's visit

We had a great visit with Elizabeth and Kent this past week; non of us were ready for it to end.

Grandaddy graciously enters into the kids world and plays Minecraft with them.  They were just a little excited to snuggle on the couch with him.

You know people love you when they come to the dessert in July to see you.  I am so glad they didn't melt away!  I think our coolest day was 106°.

 

We were curious how the Fourth would be here in Yuma and were pleasantly surprised to find it really quiet.  Ben bought a couple of fun things for the kids to do, but we didn't see anyone else out and only heard a few big booms late at night.

At first, the boys were pretty timid of the little fireworks,

but slowly warmed up and by the end of our stash, they were begging for more.

We ate a TON of yummy food.  

We made a stop for donuts and burritos one morning.

We went to our favorite taco truck, but maybe chose the wrong night.  It was 115°!  We've been before when it was above 100, but this night was different.  I was crazy sweaty, but the food was still so yummy.

 

I pretty much spent the entire time misting the boys and eventually took the kids to "cool off" in the car.

We also tried a new restaurant recommended to us by the lady who did Elizabeth and I's pedicure.  It did not disappoint!  They made the best fish tacos I've ever had and Ben was thrilled with his red snapper.

 

The kids were so intrigued by the fish right there on the plate.  I thought they would be freaked out, but they wanted to touch it.  Eli said, "Next time we come, I'M getting a fish."

 

 

Nana and Grandaddy got to see Alison and Eli play basketball.  The kids were excited to show off their skills.

We also stopped by the Colorado River one night and the kids swam in the river some and played at the park.  Maya got in the water a little for the first time, but mostly sat right by the edge, keeping a close eye on her pack.

Apparently we had just enough fun, because we wore this little boy out.

 

We had a great week and look forward to a future visit when we can really enjoy the outdoors.

A fun week

Ben took Monday off and we took the kids to 'Finding Dory'.

I missed the nice reclining chairs that the theater in Virginia had, but we still had a great time.

Tuesday, Ben headed to Canada to go fishing with my dad.

Wednesday, the kids and I pretty much spent the day on base.  We went to the library for their summer reading program, then to a free movie of 'The Incredibles' (and snuck in lunchables) and then to basketball practice.  The kids said they had almost as much fun as Christmas that day.  I love that they are so easy to please.

Thursday, we met some friends from church at the "Children's Museum".  I put it in quotations because that's what they're calling it, but I would call it more a children's exhibit.  They have set up some activities for kids in the art center for a couple of weeks and opened it up free to the public.  

Alison spent the whole time making up plays and dressing up.

It was nice to have a cool place for the kids to play and use their imaginations and the moms got to sit and talk.  Win, win.

The only bummer of the week came on Friday.  The kids had been working hard to earn an extra fun outing on Friday.  They talked all week about going to gymnastics...a website I've been following for Yuma information said there's a gym that has open gym time that you can play on the gymnastics equipment without signing up for a class.  They were beyond excited about going and Alison even had a list of everything she was going to do there.  We pulled up to the building and they were literally packing up the place and there was a big 'Sold' sign on the door.  There were some tears and we sat for awhile trying to come up with a plan B.  I came up with nothing.  

We ended up just going home and read a bunch of books.  Maya could not handle that we were all snuggled up together and she wasn't part of it.  She kept jumping on the red chair, trying to get in our laps.

Ben comes home today and Nana and Granddaddy come tomorrow, so I have a feeling the fun is just going to keep on rollin'!

Eliot James, 6 yrs and Colin William, 4 yrs.

 

Eliot James:

31% for weight

70% for height!

He's grown 3 inches since November!

Colin William:

At a whoppin' 31.6lbs, Colin is in the 14th percentile for weight.  

56% for height.

Both boys are doing great...no concerns from the doctor which is a first in Colin's life.  They play great together and it's not uncommon for them to get lost in a pretend game for the afternoon and will come to dinner and say, "Hey.  We didn't have quiet time today." And they would be right.  If they are playing, I let them play and don't interrupt for electronic time and some times even count it as some of their school time.  I think this time that they have to play together is one of the most valuable things in life.