Friday: Sandy Pines

Aunt Sue invited us over to visit Sandy Pines with her again. 

We played by the playground.  It was a fun looking playground and the boys did a lot of playing in the sand and making me meatballs from different kinds of sand.  I guess that Joshua did swing for quite a while, but both boys also "rolled" around in the sand more than I was expecting.

Then we played mini-golf.  Joshua was able to start each hole with the correct form.  After the first putt both boys sometimes went a bit crazy.

Even though it was a bit cool out both boys still wanted to get their swimsuits on for the water area.  (It was actually the first thing that Joshua was excited about when I told him we were going.)  They played in the cold water table for a while and in the pool for a bit.  Then we went back for lunch and then out again for ice cream.  Isaac was really hamming it up by this time and Joshua followed.

It was a lovely day, and by the time we got home and did screen time and rest time it was time for dinner!

Thursday: meet the teacher?

Tonight was Meet the Teacher night for Isaac.  Unfortunately, her little one was sick and she wasn't there.  Someone else read us the handbook.  Ben and I both thought we could have left after the open house where Isaac saw his room.

Since Isaac was meeting the teacher tonight and we were going to the old Timbertown, we also stopped by Joshua's new school for a very short meet the teacher.  (We waved at Leah!)  The teacher made small talk for a few minutes but also mentioned that all the kids that we saw today would be gone next week and new kids would be moving in...so it will be a new(ish) routine for all of them.

Then we went to Timbertown.  It was busy, but the boys played hard while I read my book.  It was a lovely day to be outside.

The cats ended up being the funny part of the day.  We found Tornado in all sorts of interesting places.

And while Joshua was eating ice cream Horizon decided he had to sit on this chair.  This cat really does like to sit on our chairs, but usually when we're not there.  Horizon also did an excellent job of cuddling during lunch, but my phone was too far away for a picture.

Wednesday: easier day

Today there was nothing on the calendar...but there was still plenty to do.  We got groceries and school supplies.  We made blueberry muffins.  We worked on my puzzle.  I made bacon for the first time...I think ever.  One reason I love going on vacations with other people is that I learn so many different or new ways to do things, including bacon.  It's not that I didn't think I could make it, but I didn't know how to make it easily.

 

Tuesday: cats and swimming

The cats found a new perch and the boys wanted pictures.

Oh, this one ended up blurry.  I'm going to leave it in since it's the only one of both of them.

It was also the last day of swimming.  It's not a super interesting video though.

Monday: Happy Birthday!

The day was nice today.  I wasn't feeling all excited about my birthday, but I also wasn't "dreading" it...I was mostly planning on it being another day.  And for the most part, it was.  We did enough stuff though that it went along rather quickly.

Joshua made me a Lego shooter for my birthday first thing when I got up.  We did our normal stuff, then some cleaning (although I think the boys just pretended to clean), and then got ready for swimming lessons.  Suddenly they wanted lots of pictures taken.

We stopped for donuts after swimming and Cheryl took us out for dinner.  (It was especially nice since I really had no idea what we were going to have for dinner.)  I got some Legos and a puzzle after that.

(Do you like Joshua's shirt...er...dress?  Theatre camp didn't do a very good job with sizes, and Youth Large was the smallest option.)

Sunday: a better day

Today went better than yesterday.  Probably because I only had to nag the kids to do chores for a short time.  I would like to note though that Isaac didn't want to come on a walk tonight because, "the basement was clean."  When I queried if that made it more fun to play in, he said yes.  At least he could see the benefit of cleaning.

During the service today Isaac made this out of clay.  Three crosses with a person (Jesus) on the middle.  He also made a separate mountain for Golgotha (he did not remember the name though).  I expect that most of the sermon goes over his head, but I'm glad he's still thinking about Jesus during the sermon.

On the way home from Captain Sundae (and the minion popsicle), Joshua announced that he wanted to make a minion craft.  Oh.  However, he brought it up yesterday and again today, so we made one.  I made him do some of the cutting and all of the gluing.  Joshua didn't seem to realize that he doesn't have arms, and that was fine by me.

Vacation Saturday: headed home

We had packed up a lot of the food yesterday, so breakfast was kind of anything we could find that wasn't packed too deep.

The boys got one more turn on the arcade game.  It was neat, but would have been neater if you didn't need to pay for it.  We had it turned off most of the time.

And slowly people started leaving.  Packing up wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, possibly because I knew what needed to get in the car and could pack a little bit better.  It was sad knowing that we probably wouldn't see them for a while, but we'll still talk when we play Kodenames.  We had to be out by 10am, I think we were out at 9:30 and the last people were just finishing up.

Ben and I decided to go to the science museum an hour away.  It was pretty much right on the way and that way we could do more night time driving.  We stayed for quite a while and had an excellent time!

The bed of nails felt funny.

Light shadows!

Since Joshua had been teasing me about being stinky so much, the other kids started to do the same and I whole-heartedly embraced it.  Then there was a toilet drinking fountain which was perfect!!  (The water was clean; it was talking about conceptions.)

Joshua used quatros to build a nice house.

We got silly in space.

And then found the water area.  They probably could have played here longer, but there was only one step-stool so we needed to be done after a while.

While we were waiting for Ben to find us we stepped into the "five and under" room which turned out to have the coolest thing of all.  It was a think that used air to blow large pom poms out at you.  I hadn't seen that much jumping in excitement for a while.

Oh, in the middle we ate at an Indian restaurant.  We don't have one near us, which is pretty sad.  The boys didn't enjoy anything, but Ben and I did.

We finally got on the road at 3:30pm.  The plan had been to stop at a hotel (which is why we stopped at the museum) but in the end we decided to push through.  It was nice to sleep in our own beds and not have to wake up at the same time as the kids.

Vacation Friday: Titanic

This picture was from Wednesday morning, but somehow it got missed.  We brought a Lego set for Isaac and Joshua to do during down time and Joshua wanted me to take a picture of the first part.  I'm pretty proud of how I set it up.

Today we went to the Titanic Musuem.  It was a pretty cool museum.  They gave people person audio tour phones, which was really cool...except Joshua was too young to have his own because he didn't turn five for another week.  It made it a bit harder because we were always trading them back and forth.  However, the audio tour did otherwise work really well.  We didn't stay a super long time as the kids kept us moving, but it was still very interesting.

No really, Joshua wanted his picture in front of the iceberg.

Isaac got to play his new favorite game again.

And since we were leaving the next day all the ice pops needed to be eaten too!

Joshua finished his Lego set and showed it to everyone.

"Leftover meal": we had tons of leftovers and they were delicious.  Katy baked some more tortillas and they were delicious too...they start uncooked and you cook them on your stove.  A bit more work, but totally worth it.  (Side note: they've been out of stock at the grocery store every week since then.  I got them once when I asked a worker for help.)

While we were getting dinner set up the kids played some sort of ring-around-the table game.  It looked totally dangerous, and so instead of stopping it we just took pictures.  No one got hurt, so everyone was happy.

We had also gotten stuff for s'mores, but it was too hot out and we kept pushing it back.  They finally were done in the oven.

Marshall loved the Press Start books...and who can blame him?

After the kids were in bed we finished up the night with some Dominion.  Isaac saw that we were going to play on his way to bed and looked a bit betrayed.

I'm being a queen in this picture, not an elk.  The kids were sure that the elk was alive and would sometimes move.

Saturday: made it

This morning Isaac was laughing hystarically because Tornado had stuck his head in the lazy susan, kind of like below.  (It was recreated after it happened.)  He wanted a picture, but I said no.

So Joshua says, "I'll get it for you Isaac!" and runs over to the lazy susan.  I though he was going to somehow get the cat back over there using cat treats.  No.  He stuck his head in like the cat did, because obviously that's what Isaac wanted to see.

The rest of the day...was just ok.  We cleaned the basement, but it was a lot of "come on, keep going" even though we took a lot of breaks.  I'm not sure the breaks helped enough and next time maybe we'll just do it all in one shot.  The basement is lovely and clean now, at least for a little bit.