To Illinois We Go

Spring break! A week of sleeping in! Grandparents to entertain and spoil our kids! Meeting our nephew for the first time! Can you tell we're having a good week? Aaron had his turn at the fire station with Grampy, just like his brothers have done in years past. His smile could not have been bigger when he climbed in for his fire engine ride.

Ready to roll!

There he goes!

Today we made our traditional trip to our favorite shoe store here. Our boys are hard on their shoes, and were in desperate need of new ones. Tonight during bedtime prayers they all thanked God for their new shoes. Sweet. :) We're playing outside a lot, and it's warm enough for shorts. Ginger's made herself at home too. Last night Braylen built a fire in the fire pit and we cooked hot dogs and brats for supper. Ginger loved licking the grate clean, after it cooled off of course! We roasted marshmallows for dessert and sat outside on the patio enjoying the pretty night. This feels more like summer break!

Just before dinner, my brother and his family arrived! We all spent some quality time in the front yard getting acquainted with our nephew/cousin. So far this week is could not be better.

Aaron and Will :)

Will looks like he's floating on his daddy's hand!

Maybe I will stick with this type of blogging after all. I guess the best thing for me to do is just type what I know! :)

Thinking About Things

I've been home from San Diego for 2 weeks already. As fun as it is for me to keep a record of our lives as a family, I think I want to go in a new direction with this blog. Instead of keeping track of what we do every day, I'd like to pick a topic and weave our family life into it. Somewhere along the way I lost my ability to tell a story, and turned my blog into newsy, informative posts.

Part of this change comes from some things I have going on in my life right now. I feel like I'm balancing a lot of spinning plates, and if I don't keep everything balanced just right, I'll drop them all. Changing the format of my blog will free me up from documenting every little thing we do throughout the week. I hope my posts will be more meaningful and less busy. My goal is to capture our life together with our three sons, and turn it into a story of lessons learned and memories made.

I have no idea how this will work, but I'd like to try. :) For now, here's a great picture of Kaleb to wrap up this post.

Kaleb and his cousins' new puppy. Her name is Caramel.

Dolphins and Whales

Dawn and I decided we've come a long way from our play date days! :)

On our last day in San Diego, Dawn and I went on a whale watching tour. Thank goodness my aunt gave me motion sickness medicine before boarding the boat, because without it I'm sure I would have been sick. She also gave me ginger chewing gum and motion sickness bands to wear around my wrists. Bless her! Lesson learned: if you are ever on a smallish-type boat, traveling 12 miles out into open ocean, do NOT get up and try to walk around. I was fine until I did that.

We chose to sit on the top, open-air deck. It was chilly, but nice!

On our way out to sea, we saw the sights of the harbor. San Diego has the second largest Naval Air Base in the United States, so I took some pictures for my boys. (The largest is in Norfolk, VA, where Kaleb and I went last fall!) Anyway, we saw lots of helicoptors fly over our boat. We also saw some submarines--two in the water, and one in dry dock. I thought that was so cool.

Can you see the submarine barely sticking out of the water?

San Diego Skyline

 Once we left Point Loma behind, we began looking for whales. We looked and looked, but never saw any on our way out to sea. However, we did see lots of dolphins! Some of them even swam right next to the boat, giving me a great view from above. My dolphin pictures aren't that great, because I captured them from videos I took. But in person, it was an amazing sight!

Once we turned around to head back into the harbor, the swells were behind us and I felt much better. We saw a lot of whales from a distance--we were able to spot them from their blows, and the captain turned the boat in their direction. Or course the whales would dive beneath the surface and make it hard for us to see them up close. They resurfaced after 3-5 minutes, and we chased them again. The captain said in previous tours they were able to get much closer to the whales than we did, but I still thought it was a good tour!

Back at the resort, we said our goodbyes to my aunt and uncle. They really made the trip special for me! My core temperature was so low from our afternoon on the ocean it took me all evening to warm up again. Dawn and I opted for a tv night in our room with the heat cranked up! We packed our things and set our alarm for an early flight home in the morning.

This trip really was everything I'd hoped it would be--better even! I am blessed with a loving, sacrificial husband who worked overtime to pay for it. I do not take that for granted! He also took excellent care of our boys and our home while I was away. When I stepped off the plane and walked into the airport, they were there to welcome me back home. I loved all their hugs--I can never have too many hugs. :)

It's good to be home again. Oh, I almost forgot. Next time I'm tempted to complain about the price of gas, I will look at this picture.

On this date it was $3.59 at home.

It feels good to be all caught up from my trip and back in my routine at home. Before we know it we'll be going on yet another trip--this time all 5 of us will go. Well, 6 including Ginger. :) Yipee!!!

Leap Day With Rachel

Wednesday in San Diego belonged to my dear friend Rachel! Some people come into my life and only stay a short time--that's how it is with Rachel. We only had one year together: our freshman year of college, and that was 17 years ago. Yikes! It's been at least 8 years since I've seen her. Funny...it didn't feel that way when we were together this week in San Diego. She is so very, very special to me. :)

Rachel is a busy mom with 4 kids. I didn't care what we did during our day together, just as long as we were together! I feel in love with her kids right away. At our first stop, we visited the pediatrician's office with her sick son. Then we wandered around Target forever while waiting for prescriptions to be filled. We picked up her daughter from school. Lots of ordinary, everyday things that moms do. But for us to have this chance to do these things together is anything but ordinary. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved this day with Rachel. We laughed and laughed and laughed! :)

The view from Rachel's yard. So pretty!

She has fruit trees--orange, lemon, and lime. What a yummy treat to pick the fruit from the tree and eat it! I brought some home to share with my family, and they devoured all of it. Rachel, being the great friend that she is, sent us another box of oranges she picked from her tree. I'm trying to make it last longer than the first batch.

Rachel also has chickens. Too bad the eggs can't be mailed like oranges!

Around 4:00 that afternoon, she took her kids to their grandparents' house and we were on our own! We walked around Old Town for a bit, and met her husband for dinner at Casa Guadalajara. 
I think this restaurant has the bext Mexican food ever.

Part of Old Town

After dinner I invited her back to my resort so we could soak in the hot tub. By then Dawn was done for the evening, so the three of us went to the hot tub together. What a fun night filled with friendships and of course, lots more laughter! :)

Let's do this again Rachel!