MY Museum:

So the first Tuesday of every month is $2 Tuesdays at what is suppose to be their children’s museum.  So…we went!  It was super fun!  Very small compared to our 5 star children's museum in Indy, but still it was cute and fun and didn’t take all we had! 

They had a little golf area with 3 holes to play and a cart to play on :

 a fun tree house:

and farmer’s learning corner with a farmer’s market: 

   a dr. sues playhouse, a theater with tons of costumes, a few other fun things to play on:

 and a craft corner.  Ella and I were in heaven!  They take recycled donations with construction paper, crayons, markers, paste (to eat? NO), and hot glue guns and then you just create whatever! So she and I did just that! 

this was the horn mommy made.

 And now I have a crafter on my hands cause the rest of the day we did crafts back at home!  Anyway, this was a great place.  Daddy played with the boys while Ella got some much needed “just Mommy” time!

77 degrees

Today, Wednesday it got up to 77 degrees!!  It was a much needed heat wave…it’s over now, although tomorrow is suppose to be 71!  Let me explain…it IS beautiful here no matter what the temp.  and 60 = shorts and even a t-shirt but it also means you might add a jacket or a sweatshirt.  I’m NOT complaining but it got to the point where I was starting to think my bathing suit would NEVER see the beach ever!  We do go as often as we talk about it…by this point, 1 month into our time here, our van floor actually looks like a beach!  But most of the times we’ve gone I’ve had something – pants, sweatshirt, or even a blanket around me.  The wind is just a killer here.  And it’s cold which then turns my finger’s colors…yah! 

But today was SO beautiful and SO warm!!  I was able to show off my puke-making self in my suite and play bad-mitten…then I had to guard our stuff and ended up warring against this stupid little Seagull!  That little poop pecked his way INTO our bag and pulled clothes out to get to the bag of chips in which he popped a hole into, then called all his friends over to party!  It was pretty funny…as soon as we saw our stuff all spread out in the sand I yell out, “Mine…Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine!” Cause they really sound like that – from the Nemo movie!  As I go running waving my arms and screaming to get them to run.  They all left except for their leader…him and I went at it for awhile!

Anyway, I was SO used to wearing clothes that I ended up super tan super quick cause I forgot to put my sunscreen on.  The kids even got a little toasty! 

SO: P.S. If you have time please pray:  I know this is silly but nothings too small for God.  So I ask this in all seriousness.  Please pray for Mark, Mike, Gregg, and I.  We are all here with none of our own furniture.  We are ‘renting’ the basic furniture from the apartment complex.  Our mattresses are at least 20 years old if not older.  They are hard and causing a TON of pain.  As I sit here to type if I turn to my right too much or even look down too far I can’t breathe.  They brought us a nice egg crate thing to try to help…but I have a feeling there’s going to be a little fight!  We CAN’T do this for 5 more months…so just pray that God will touch our backs and heal the pains that we are having a hard time getting over.  I’m stretching daily sometimes multiple times but I can’t even workout right now!  Anyway, the guys are also at a point where they are working in a 4 foot tunnel…and have to crouch anyway…so this is REALLY paying a toll on them and their bodies! 

Ok…bed time…I’ve got tons more pics I’d like to add they just take FOREVER to add them…so I’ll try to get to them asa I can!!

Love and Miss you all!!  HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all you AMAZING MOTHERS!!  

Ready to laugh?

Just some funny stuff…I wasn’t going to share these stories, BUT as I got to thinking…IF you know me at all then these stories are what makes me the mom I am…and they are the reason my kids are…well, just the way they are.  These are true stories of my life!

                                                                           So…awhile back the kids and I were doing something original before they headed off to bed...we were watching a movie – ha!  Meanwhile I was probably blogging when I was skyped by Jeffrey.  I was super excited to chat with him, but I knew it would end up in chaos because the kids were still up, but I took my chances and answered!  He wasn’t alone.  I mean it was just him we could see but it was obvious that his room was full of other buddies. 

                                    Cause isn’t that always how it goes! 

                    We got to talk forever, a good 20 seconds before the kids realized who it was…then slowly they each one by one crept into the frame.  This time they were genuinely excited to see Uncle Jeffrey and not just watch themselves on TV…the computer screen.  But just like all skype calls the kids all got to the point when they are all pretty much on top of me and my shoulders pushing me flat and taking over.  It took me a while to get back control and we were getting ready for ‘taking turns’ with Jeffrey and Ella was first so she was making her way over and stops short, points and touches my huge black mole on the side of my neck and says, “Nipple!”  She smiled and both Skype ends got super quiet and still.  I was in shock trying to digest what had just happened…and about a second of complete silence (which felt like a year) the laughter totally broke out.                                                          Coming to my senses knowing full well what the laughing was going to do I tried to get Ella out of the room…to NO avail and so she preceds yelling, “Nipple, ha, ha, Nipple, Nipple, Nipple, Nipple, Mommy has a nipple on her neck!” 

                       Holy what just went down! 

   At this point I could clearly see Jeffrey in tears because he wasn’t able o breath in-between the laughter…and the entire room was in an uproar of laughter!  I thought I was going to die.  I should have just closed out and cried…but I’m too proud to just walk away so I gave Ella the “YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON”T GET OUT OF THIS ROOM” look and just said to Jeffrey and the room full of guys I couldn’t see but could hear, “OK…well…now that you’ve all had a good laugh, and I am humiliated to no end…I’m going to go now before Ella decides to write a song about the MOLE…aka nipple on my neck…love you Jeffrey, BYE!”  Then I hung up. 

The awesome thing is as soon as I got off I should have ripped Ella to pieces with how rude that was and how she knew that was a not good choice, etc. but I just fell onto my knees on the floor and laughed for a good 5 minutes. I sat up to find all 3 of the kids on their knees laughing as well! 

                 So then I MUST ask my friends who told me, “don’t make up silly names for your private parts…they are going to sound silly…” WHAT??  Because THIS is exactly the reason for making up funny names for these body parts so then at least only I would have known what she was saying! 

                                          Oh, hummm!

San Fran; Alcatraz Gay Guys.

Ok…now please understand that this is NOT my way of bashing gay people.  I fully believe that people that take this route are sinners…and I totally believe that homosexuality is wrong; read: 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

but I also don’t hate these people either.  I know a handful who have gone this way and I we were great friends in high school.  I feel just as sorry for them as I do for the husband that fell into temptation while being married, or the habitual liar who knows what’s he’s doing. 

I really try to love the sinner but hate the sin and I have a hard time with bashing them because the Bible also tells us that “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.  Which really means that I sin just as they do. 

Anyway, just wanted to make that clear. 

We are at Alcatraz and the kids are coming close to their ends.  They really did an outstanding job.  But we were walking slowly thru the gift shop checking out all the memorabilia and at the same time Mark stopped to look at the magnets I noticed the kids' jaws had all dropped almost to the floor.  I followed their eyes to see what was causing this and that’s when I noticed 2 men having way too much…hmm…I can’t say fun…so…let's say they were being VERY not cool (I would seriously be saying the same about any boy/girl couple doing this).  And so here I am trying to push them along without being totally obvious.  I whispered, “Come on kids, let’s keep walking...” nothing.  “Mark, honey…let's move…come on…please listen to mommy!!”  Still no movement. 

This time I just simply said, “gays” and he moved super quick. 

I was expecting a question beat down from my kids…NOTHING!  Sweet!!  As I thought back about it they were SO into each other that it was hard to tell that they were both guys…so later we did talk about being appropriate in public places and acting our best.  I think the gay community tries TOO hard to be recognized…they are really just hurting.  But it was pretty funny!

Just more fun pictures!

So Keegan had daddy put the duerag on his head, and I was going to just take a pic of his face, then he got ALL excited and said, "Mom, takea picture of my letter 4! This is so hard, no one can do it! Mom, quick, I'm serious!!"

Craft Day!!

Mommy made the coolest horn @ the museum this morning!!  Super fun!

The kids play in their little 'house' a.k.a. their little closet!

Dr. is a favorite to play...my future healers!

Grissom came right at my face...I caught him saying "Ma, Shot!"

JUST LIKE DADDY!! This wasn't set up!

MORE Cell Pictures...

Grissom after his MESSED-up haircut from the NON-English speaking stylist.  He's eating a chip...the stylist gave each of my kids a bag of health chips afterwards!?! OK.

Yay, Easter Eggs!

We gave these Easter Rice Crispy Treat crafts to our neighbors!!  And enjoyed them as well!

Just on of the sunsets...breathtaking!

Easter Egg Hunt - Ella's Craft

Easter Egg Hunt funness!

Eating lunch after the hunt...before the beach

Easter Morning...the ONLY pic I was able to get BEFORE church!

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!  Can't you see how creation celebrated Easter?  It was SUPER beautiful...I know, it looks fake...but we were really there!

You can't see them here, but the kids got colored bubbles for Easter.

Here's the purple bubbles.

Favorite...mine. Notice the hands.

Ella left her first Savannah in a hotel one the trip out here...so sad, but she handled it very well...we got her one as soon as we could to replace her...so this is the New Savannah...Ella says, "Shhh...no one else can tell she's different, not her horse or her dog so lets keep this a secret between you'ch other!"

This was our Easter Cake Dessert.

Cell Phone Pics...

Keegan IS SO funny! He put this on his head and came over to me and said, "Hey ma, take my picture and send it to people so they can laugh!" I sent it as a text and told him it was done and he says, "Mom, did you send it to everyone??  In the whole wide world?? Even satan?? Cause I don't want him to get it!"

Going out to dinner...SO COOL!

SO Pretty!!  She's all of a sudden caring how she looks...hmmm.

Our first Sunday heading to Shoreline.

Our first Sunday in Monterey, this was where we watched the baptisms from Shoreline Church.

Beautiful!

I love these pics!

I ALSO love MY sleeping babies!

This was from the 17-mile drive, some of these might be repeats...so just enjoy them again!  This was Point Joe, the Restless Sea!

Another from the 17-mile Drive!

An Awesome tree on the 17-mile Drive.

Carmel Beach...this was the picnic that a squirrel seriously walked up within 1-2 inches from Grissom's hand holding his sandwich and ALMOST took it...this was funny...we have a video...I wonder if I can get that on here? hmmm...

This is the little stinker eating the apple Grissom threw at him because he scared him so! ha!

Cuddle time/nap time with mom!

Ella and Keegan very seriously playing 'Bear' (Man vs. Wild) This is their fire, they made fishing poles too!

We walked down the pier @ the Fisherman's Wharf and Ella and Keegan took notice of all the floating buoys.  Keegan asks, "So is that God's bobber from Him fishing too?"  Ella said, "No, silly those are the fisherman's bobbers!" HA!!

They are everywhere out here; sea lions...

My beautiful family next to an awesome fishing boat.

Oh, the sea lions STINK!

San Fran take 2

So tomorrow is here…it’s Saturday and we’ve had another fun day.  A little late start but that was ok cause the kids got to rest and I got to talk to Christina, my SIL!!  We headed out walking to our pier 33 for Alcatraz…on our way we stopped at this fun French Café to get lunch on the go to eat at our pier.  They had animals made out of bread…and of course where there is fun animal bread there are OUR children wanting that bread…so that was their lunch…they each got a bread turtle with blueberry eyes!  This actually filled them up for a nice long time!  Mark and I ate normal sandwiches that were super tasty!  We sat and waited for our fairy to take off to get to the island and ate our food…slowly but surely the seagulls showed up to try to sneak a bite…so Grissom pegs one in the head while Mark was getting our tickets.  It was a perfect hit…the bird kind of staggered a bit…I was laughing SO hard then felt bad cause I figure some freak might come running over to ‘rescue’ this thing…he ended up coming back for more!

Before we loaded the boat we gave Ella and Keegan a good pep-talk…about how we were going to see a jail and we’d be on an island and all this fun stuff, so we were feeling a little over confident.  As we boarded the boat the guy took our tickets (we only needed 3; Mark, Me, and Ella), gave them back and said, “So you got 2 you are leaving there?” I replied, “Yes…we are leaving the boys!”  Keegan turns around very concerned.  He punches me and says, “Mom…you better not leave me, the police will come get you!”  Now…funny sounding but I knew that was the start of something we’ve been noticing with Keegan.  I think he’s a very sensitive kid and this hurt his feelings and so he blessed us with a nice mini-meltdown on the island (thank goodness it was while we were waiting for the return fairy!)  We are going to start being very aware with how we joke with him, cause he’s getting hurt and reacting to it…I feel terrible!  Good one mom!!  Anyway, we boarded, found seats and noticed that the excitement was too much for Grissom for he’d already fallen asleep! 

                We got to the island and I was totally amazed by again, the beauty of it all, not to mention the old building and flowers.  We started our time watching a short movie about the island.  It had subtitles in English, French and Spanish at the bottom.  We sat in a crowded room to watch with tons of other people.  When the subtitles started Ella used the quietest moment in time to announce to all who could hear, “This is great, now I can read it in Spanish…cause I speak it…” we interrupted her before she could recite her 10 Spanish words out loud!  It was cute.  We then took an audio tour of the prison.  It felt like we were listening to a movie and yet walking thru it at the same time.  Ella and Keegan were totally enthralled by it for a good 90% of the tour…it was cool to actually see the fake heads a few of the guys used when they escaped as well as the spoons they used to dig the wall out and the pipes they climbed to get out…too bad they were never found (assumed lost @ sea…or did they escape? hmm).

I had no clue that the prison workers actually lived with their families on the island with these super dangerous men…I also found it intriguing that some of these men were put in this prison just because everyone was afraid of them!  It was VERY educational and Mark LOVED it!!  Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, but we went because daddy really wanted this!

We sat on the top floor of the boat coming back and had to wait until everyone else was off the boat to exit but at least we had bathrooms cause everyone ended up having to go at different times during our wait!  We ate dinner and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.  We’d planned to walk across it but by the time we got there the sun was setting and the wind was picking up and we were all pooped from walking the island!  So we crossed and stopped for ice cream before heading back over! 

I wanted to at least see China town…so we drove thru it.  It was neat!  The darkness was setting in so we started home all agreeing that we needed more time here…so we plan on at least another day trip.  It’s only 2 hours north of us!  We had a heck of a time finding a bathroom for mommy and Ella.  Did you know they have 7-Elevens out here without gas pumps…it’s just a store…a store withOUT a bathroom!  We found ourselves playing car-hopping, cause then we tried a Starbucks…CLOSED @ 9p.m. what?!?  So we ran across the street to an opened Chinese restaurant, thankfully they didn’t mind letting us in without buying dinner!  Whew!  We come back to the van to see Keegan peeing on my front tire!  Irritating that boys can just go wherever!  Anyway, we PJ’ed the kids and headed home! 

We took the ‘Scott’ way back without knowing it.  What is that you ask?  Well, Scott, my father-in-law loves a good drive…scenic…and so that is what this was.  I am good with it, BUT I always prefer the straight interstate method…Mark enjoyed the ride while I almost lost my dinner!

When we got home we were welcomed by a nice haze of smoke from our neighbors by our parking spot.  It was nice…very strong and very willing to follow us all the way around our building and into our own apartment!  The kids slept in until 9!!  Which made it too late for church…so…we…headed to the beach?

This was our first taste of what summer will be like weather wise here…it got up to 72 degrees and the wind wasn’t bad at all.  Grissom fell asleep again and we had to battle the seagulls for our things.  We left our bag of towels to build a sandcastle and the birds were for real pecking in our bag and trying to take it out and run with it!  It was funny and irritating at the same time! 

Mark is having a ball perfecting his castle building skills!  All the Chinese and Japanese tourist wanted and took many pictures of it…they all thought he was a professional star! 

I started this week by getting my hands on a free family pass to the aquarium here…that’s worth $100 to get our family in just once!  The libraries out here give away 100 free passes at the beginning of each month! Yeah!!  Free fun!

I’m going to post pics soon!!

San Francisco weekend

So we left this morning (Friday) around 10 just to get away for a night.  We started by having lunch at ½ Moon Bay…we decided not to pay the entry fee of $11 just to park for 1-2 hours and so we parked about ¼ mile away and walked…but what we didn’t expect to have to do when we got to the beach was scale down a nice dirt wall to get to the beach.  Mark went first, he climbed…I mean ‘fell’ and almost tripped at the end…then he came back and helped the rest down.  Ella and Keegan have been taking serious notes from Bear (Man vs. Wild) and they did great going down…Grissom was carried safely down by Mark…and then Mommy started the first 3 seconds walking but lost my gumption and sat right down and scooted in the dirt screaming the entire way down!  It wasn’t nice or pretty and I had a beautiful dirt stain on the bottom of my jeans the rest of the day, one that made it look like I was unable to hold my…self, but I made it down dag-gone it! 

                 Oh, and I must say again, I AM camping!  And I AM becoming my mother…the last few times we’ve been to the beach I have to go…you know to the restroom, bad…without any hope of a potty nearby…so I’ve been totally wing’n it!!  Yea…my girls’ be so proud!!  I went after Keegan and he yelled, “Mom, careful of that wind; you will tinkle on you!” ha!!

It was VERY windy at the bay beach…but we did what we do best and that’s have fun!  Daddy and the boys played a little football while Ella and I walked along the water looking for sea shells…it was so cold that we jogged back to get warm.  (Plus Ella told my mom over the phone awhile back that she was trying to ‘workout’ everyday here!)  That’s my girl!

Going up the bank was much better then coming down…again we took what we learned from Bear and climbed up the steep bank…we found a better spot where we could stair step up on some rocks!

We then stopped at this really cool Spanish outdoor store/place.  They sold yard ornaments?? Or statues and they were super awesome!!  We thought about getting one for You, Roxanne…but they didn’t have any gigantic Flamingos!!  (love you!!) 

Beautiful sights to see all over California.  We headed straight for the Twin Peaks in the middle of San Fran…breathtaking…really.  I mean we ‘hiked’ (I use this word very loosely for Dana’s sake cause she’s a true hiking beast not to be compared to!!) but as we walked to the top of 1 of the peaks it was so windy we almost got blown over…I’m SO thankful Grissom was in the backpack!  And boy oh boy was that wind COLD!  So cold it took our breath away! The sight was gorgeous too!!  San Francisco was awesome!  I’ve never seen so many places to live ON TOP OF EACH OTHER!  It was almost as if there was a race to see who could live the closest to their neighbor!  And STEEP…holy, holiness those roads were so steep I had to prop myself up by throwing my feet to the dash just to keep me in my seat! 

We drove down Lombard Street which pretty much zigzagged all the way down!  Mark and I totally agrees that IF we’d been the type who married and didn’t have/want kids THIS is where we would have gone to live…a flat on one of these contemporary streets…but that can be our ‘next’ life!

We are staying a few blocks away from the Fisherman’s Wharf and so we got Crabs @ Joe’s Crab Shack and afterwards we walked along the piers and just had a great time! 

                We invested in a ‘family’ kite.  The type that’s stronger then the plastic ones, this wind would ripe those babies to shreds, so as a family we picked one – a neon Green Jellyfish (Thinking of you, Lauren!!).

We got a map of the area before heading out to dinner.  Keegan decided that he was in charge of that.  We finished dinner and as we were leaving he totally remembered it was his job!  I was so proud.  Before we left the restaurant Mark took El and Keeg to the bathroom.  Keegan had his map with him, but failed to return with it.  Mark had this look on his face that told me there was a story here!  He comes up and says, “Keeg needs as much sanitizer as you’ve got in your Mommy Bag…he went in to the bathroom and comes out all proud of himself and tells Mark, “Don’t worry dad, the map fell all the way into the water in the potty, but I got it out!  I saved it!” and then hands the map to Mark!  Mark went on to tell me that he washed their hands a good ½ dozen times!

Tomorrow we are going to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge!

He is Risen indeed!

We went back to Ft. Ord Beach Easter afternoon when we got to missing home!  His beauty does great to detract one...breathless!  Praise Him!