Winner Winner

So I may or may not have talked the little people into letting me get one of the giant stuffed animal prizes from the fun center with all of their ticket winnings.

To be fair I did earn more than half the tickets myself.  The kids weren't really getting the games.  That's because I'm such a good parent and have them doing wholesome, brain stimulating activities at home all the time and so they don't know what a video game is.....yeah, or something like that.

The girlchild was more than happy to spend her time riding the Ferris wheel while I worked on my amassing copious quantities of tickets.

Grumpy bear had me at first glance with his Zorro mask and cape.
He's so handsome and fits nicely on my bed next to Eeyore.  The other melancholy, rainy cloud love of my life.

Eats, Sleeps, and Breaths

Sleeping with the newest addition to the transformer collection.

Bob was not joking when he said he geeked transformers.



Little Fish in a Big Sea

The Girlchild started first grade Monday.  We are planning on taking a picture together for every first day.  It will be fun to see how she grows and changes.  Assuming I don't forget the tradition by grade 4.  Let us not even talk about the baby book's completion status.  Also keeping with tradition, there were first day of school gifts.  I'm fairly sure that my mother was so ridiculously excited to be sending her 5 children off to school after a torturously long summer of having us underfoot, that first day of school presents were really party favors for herself.

Well played mother.  Well played.

I don't have the luxury of being driven crazy by summer vacation but still.

Folders and candy and new travel neck pillows for everyone!

Except Burrito. 

He doesn't start school for 2 weeks....so his prize is still hidden in my closet.

This is the girlchild's first experience at a school with more that a handful of kids.

I was a bit worried.

Kind of like this mama.

But, there have been reports of touring the library and meeting the music teacher and making new friends on the playground.

It's easy to see that there is plenty of room to grow for my tiny fish.

Tut Tut It Looks Like Rain

The best part of these 100 degree days is the afternoon thunderstorms they bring.

It calls for taking a break from weeding and riding bikes

and running for shelter on the porch.

They never last long,

which is probably why they are my favorite.

If heaven were a trail

It would be a dirt one

lined with sagebrush

 twisting around bends

and through low hanging trees

Lucky Dog

So the boy had some business to do last weekend up in Alaska.  Which also happened to be our 10th anniversary.  Kind of a big deal.  So he figured out how I could tag along, and we headed up to Juneau sans kids for 4 days.

I'd say this trip was equally as fun and carefree as our honeymoon to Disneyland was 10 years ago.  Minus the just married on the back of the car and all the horn honking.

Here are just a few pictures from the weekend.



My king salmon




Fishing on the Lucky Dog Adventure



The boy's salmon



zip lining school at Alaska Zipline Adventures



Always hooked to something so you don't fall out of the trees



Tracy's King Crab Shack.  Sorry Joe's....this might be my new favorite!!


Now that the summer is coming to an end, we are filling our days with back to school shopping, lounging under the cooler to survive the heat, and killing time till it's apple hill season. 

Getting Geeky

Bob: I geek transformers

Our books are growing up

It has not escaped my attention that we are slowly thinning out the board books and trading them in for books with more than 10 words on each page and fewer pictures overall.  Every time I try to put goodnight moon in the giveaway pile I find myself setting it off to the side.  We still enjoy looking for that sneaky little mouse on every page.





And so, to sum up our baby to preschool favorites (and maybe you might find a few to add to your nursery library) here are some of our favorites: 

Goodnight Gorilla - Peggy Rathmann

Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown

The Paperbag Princess - Robert Munsch

Love you Forever - Robert Munsch

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - Bill Martin Jr

As hard as it is to pass these books along to younger readers, there are adventures at pooh corner to be enjoyed and little houses in big woods to dream about at night.

Brand Names

One of the subjects studied while the girlchild was off learning things with favorite auntie was horse brands. 

Emma has decided that my brand would look like this:

Why I get a firecracker H....I have no idea.

I just don't know how that will look tattooed on the bottom of my foot.

Recentering

Hey Bob, let's go outside and wait for sister to finish gymnastics.

Hey Bob, what are you doing?

Shhhh, mom.....I'm re-centering.

A hidden Nevada Gem

A post about working on some check marks on my new year's resolution list.  One of them was to visit the Ichthyosaur State Park in Berlin, NV.

We gathered as many Newmans as possible and headed out for the weekend.  The museum is small and the tour is short.  So if you aren't already a Nevada desert junkie then you might want to plan some other activities to make the trip seem worthwhile.  You could tour the Diane Mine since you're already there.  It's a 45 minute tour into the mine complete with hard hats and flashlights.

There's also quite a few geocaches in the area if you are into that sort of thing.  We hit up 4 between Middlegate Station and Ione.

Auntie and Bob, bonding in the back seat



My idea of nice scenery.  No wonder I feel claustrophobic in California.



Grandpa Hal and Bob, two of my favorite old men in life





Bob got dressed himself.  I love that kid.

 

to scale mural of an ichthyosaur





After the museum tour we headed out to look for fossils

You should put the museum on your bucket list.  It's a little known fact that this desert of ours houses the bones of the some of the largest sea dinosaurs ever known.

Things you might miss

Some things are in plain sight

and you still might just float on by

without ever really seeing them

My funny little bird man

After a solid three weeks of begging I caved in and got the boychild some water wings.

And you know what, he swims pretty dang good with them on.

He hasn't quite figured out the breathing routine for the snorkel but we'll get there.

Someday.