Thursday: pink shell

Today was our "big" day.  We took a boat ride to Fort Myers and went to the Pink Shell.  The weather in the morning was nicer than expected.  The temperature was in the low 60s and it was cloudy, but it didn't feel as cold as expected.

When we got there, we started by walking the beach and looking for shells.  It was still cold out and although Joshua was itching to get in the pool I wasn't sure he'd be happy out of the pool.  I don't have any pictures, but we found lots of small, partial spiral shells, a few partial sand dollars, and two blue crab shells.

We got back and had lunch...again, I didn't want wet children trying to eat when it was cold.

Finally, finally, we let them in the pool.  Isaac and Joshua started in first.

Then I joined and we played an epic game of "get the mini beach ball".  I was going to do a stint and then hand them off to Ben, but I took too long and so Ben joined us for a kids vs parents game of "get the mini beach ball".  The water was the perfect temperature if you kept moving.  It was quite warm, but if I stopped moving it was a bit on the cool side.  After that we visited the hot tub, which I found the perfect temperature but you can only stay in hot tubs for so long.  Joshua convinced Grandpa to throw around a beach ball after that...and then Grandma threw it around with him...and then he got Grandpa again. It was a good thing I threw the beach balls in my bag!  Weather-wise, around 2pm the sun finally came out but that almost made it too warm!  I know, I know...beggars can't be choosers.

The ride back was also very nice, but going fast had a ton of spray!  I moved inside but Joshua just pulled the blanket up around himself and Isaac sat on a side with not quite as much spray.

Wednesday: made it

 We left the house today at 6:30am.  We dropped off Ben's car for some maintenence and headed to the airport.

During this time, while I was driving, I got a text.  The beginning said, "Due to an issue with connect..."  Since I was driving, I couldn't open up the text.  Since the kids were also in the car, I didn't want to have the car read it to me.  Turns out, the airline was having satellite internet connectivity issues so wi-fi wouldn't be available during the flight.  Really, that was probably about the worst thing of the day.  But flying makes me anxious.  Ben does a nice job traveling though, our flights were all on time, and things went smoothly.  Joshua brought all his lovies, so I used Snaxalotl for a nap until Ben stole him, and then I used Creeper for a bit.

Once we got to Larry and Cheryl's I think Joshua was in the pool within ten minutes!  Isaac had a snack - lunch was at 10:30 - and got in right after him.

Besides getting out for dinner, that's pretty much were they stayed until way after bedtime.

Tuesday: busy

Once again, it was a busy day.  The kids only had a half day of school, so I went to get them right after I was done teaching.  I had assorted errands to do.  Ben and I went to parent-teacher conferences.  Isaac had a glowing report.  Joshua had an almost glowing report, although he needs to work on using punctuation on rough drafts.  We had rock climbing.

I tried to think of something else interesting, but any of the interesting things have escaped me.

Monday: annoying chores

This morning I was not excited about my chores for the day.  They needed to be done, but I was actively not looking forward to them.

They weren't as bad as I expected.  Two of them, while they took a while, were fine.  The third one I decided to delay.  I received an email from a company around noon with further steps.  If they don't get back to me again by the time I have time again I'll call another company because it is getting ridiculous.   I've been trying to hire them since the beginning of the year.

Sunday: other names

Last night we were talking about names our sons (because there were only sons last night) would have had if they were girls.

We never had girl names picked out, but Isaac's other possible name was Elliot and Joshua's was Seth.  They were both second choices, but we wanted to wait until they were actually born to make a decision.

Saturday: photos

These three mourning doves sat like this for a long time.  I passed the window three or four times and finally took a picture.

Since Isaac is 13 now, I realized that he needs to start sitting in the front seat.  I made him sit in the front on Thursday and then snagged the back on our way to visit some friends.  He managed to guide us to Meijer, but only with the help of Joshua.  Meijer is close.  I thought he would be more confident in his directions.

Friday: nice

 At rock climbing today, Isaac and Joshua started by making their own route ("add-on").  It went well.  Isaac stayed through the end of making it, as was decided at the beginning.  Then Joshua and I used the route as a take-away, taking away one hold at a time.  Before that got started I decided to add the holds that I wanted to the route, because I hadn't added any yet and Isaac and Joshua are both much better than I am.

I got half way through the route and got stuck.  It wasn't that high, but it felt high.  Joshua was so kind about it though.  First he just said, "come on down".  It wasn't quite as easy as he made it sound, but I got down.  Then he put a whole bunch of additional holds along the bottom so that I would be more comfortable and enjoy the take-away more.  It was sweet.