Wednesday: New Year's Eve

Today was just a stick around the house day.  It was cool, so we didn't do as much outside.  We played several games, I took a walk with the boys, and we got in the pool/hot tub in the afternoon.

During our walk we saw this pretty tree and a pencil cactus.  We may have also made sure the boat was protected by toy army men.

Joshua enjoyed jumping in the pool if someone counted for him (1-2-3!)  So we did a lot of 1-2-tree! to try and trick him.  Most of the time he caught it, but sometimes we got him.  He also enjoyed being pushed in, as long as he was in his swimsuit.  (I think he pushed Isaac in on the first day as Isaac was drying off, so that was very unexpected and resulted in a very wet towel.)

While the pool was heated, it was also rather cold.  I spent most of my water time in the hot tub.

After a nice dinner, six of us played hand and foot.  Jamie and I got really far ahead on the first hand, and it set the tone...at least for us.  We were having a great time!  Isaac and Cheryl almost caught up by the end of the game and Ben and Ashlyn...well, they were good sports.

While we were playing the game, Joshua helped Larry build the Star Trek Lego shuttle pod.  We have a video, which still requires editing, but it was cute.  Joshua did a very nice job "teaching" Grandpa how to put it together and was very encouraging.

Everyone managed to stay up until midnight - I think this is the first time either of the kids (have been allowed) to stay up.  Joshua said it was one of his best parts of the trip, but there wasn't anything all that special.  We watched the ball drop, we clinked glasses, and we went to bed.

Thursday: lunch and rock climbing

Hmm, overall a pretty normal day.  Natalie and I almost had to cancel our lunch plans, but then we realized that we could just push it back an hour.  It's been over a month since we've seen each other, so it was a very nice lunch.

Rock climbing was nice, although a bit weird.  There wasn't an official practice for Isaac, but he was expecting others to still be there.  Well, several of the people left shortly after we got there.  (There were normal reasons for them to leave.  It made sense.)  Isaac was a bit down because he thought everyone left and so didn't think he'd want to stay the whole two hours.  Ok, so I didn't leave as planned.  But then he realized that two others were there, and he semi-stayed with them the rest of the time.  We did leave a bit early, but I could have easily left, done some stuff at home, and then come back to pick him up.  Oh well, I talked to a lot of people, walked on the treadmill, and did a bit of work that I could do on my phone.  It was still a nice night, just not what I was expecting.

Tuesday: Margaritaville

Today was forecasted to be a rather cool day, but we elected to head to Margaritaville anyway.  (It was the right choice.)  

The boat ride was cold.  We could have sat inside, but we bundled up and enjoyed the outside instead.

We got there just in time for lunch.  It worked well because I was only going to get in the pool once - it was too cold to sit around in a wet swim suit.  When we were protected from the breeze it was pleasant.  I really like the picture below because Isaac looks so teenager-ish too me.  Messy hair (from the boat ride) and just a teenager look.

Ben and I took shifts so that Joshua could stay in the pool longer.  The water was perfect...as long as you stayed in the water.  Jacob was there at first so we tossed a ball around.  We walked back and forth in the pool several times.

We really liked this sign.  There were a few others that actually had a range.

Ben and the kids played monkey in the middle after I got out... And immediately changed into warmer clothes.

Joshua was all about the fruit.  He likes fruit, but he really went after it.

Isaac was willing to take a walk on the beach with me.  There weren't many shells, although still enough to have to watch where we were walking.  It was a lovely walk.

On our way home we got stopped by the coast guard for a routine check.  They were very polite as they went through their checklist.  I was really glad we had grabbed Joshua's life jacket - we almost left it at the house.  Ben also took a moment to ask about e-Foil regulations...since they were right there.

It was also Isaac's birthday!  We celebrate more in June so we didn't do much, but we did get a cake and sang to him.

Ashlyn Joshua, and I were sitting around, talking about how things have changed.  I mentioned gps, and then Joshua started talking about TVs.  There is one in the bedroom he usually sleeps in, but he's never used it.  Ashlyn said that she watched tv on it when she was young, and Joshua says, "is it black and white?" We cracked up.

Wednesday: groceries

My schedule today was odder than most Wednesdays.  I usually get groceries earlier in the morning, but today I decided to do it right before lunch because I had lunch with a friend.  I only had one frozen item and it was really cold out too, so it worked well.

I may have come home, taken care of the frozen item, and left the rest of the food in the car.  It was nap time!

Tuesday: classes start

I didn't sleep all that well last night.  There were several small stressors running through my head, along with classes starting, and having more lunches to make in the morning than normal.  Were those the things that woke me up at 4:30am though?  No.  I was worried about dinner.  What were we going to have for dinner?  Tacos.  Have I made tacos lots of times?  Yes.  But I was very worried that I needed to do some prep for tacos in the morning before work.  I told myself it would be fine!  No, I disagreed with myself.  However, at 4:30am and only partially awake it is really hard to reason with oneself.

Classes started fine.  I had a person from CIT come for the last 20 minutes to help get all the laptops set up.  We of course sent several emails ahead of time, but not everybody reads them.  It was nice she was there - I'm hoping to avoid all the "I can't get this to work" over the next few weeks.

During rock climbing I mostly succeeded on a route that I haven't even managed to start in the past.  I had to use two holds from a different route, but I was still really excited.  The routes on the tower are rather hard levels right now, so we tried some 5.10+ routes.  We got half way up two of them and couldn't start a third.  However, this is the first time we've tried such hard routes so that was exciting.

Monday

It was a nice day.  I got a surprising amount of things done, had coffee with Pat, and worked on a puzzle with Elizabeth.

We went to a high school info night too.  It might not be our top choice, but it would be a good choice.  We brought Isaac too because he's old enough to have a say in the decision, but I think he ended up pretty confused.  That's ok.  It is a bit confusing and you need to see schedule things a few times before you can even start to make sense of it all.

Sunday: Yahtzee and pick-a-brick

We visited Great-Grandma today.  We played a game of Yahtzee and she lit up.  She did a nice job playing it, although there were a few funny moments.  Namely when she was trying to get a large straight.  I think she rolled about six times before she got it...we were all confused as to what was happening but let it happen.  What does she tell us at the end but, "Now I've shown you how to win!  Maybe you'll win next time."  Yeah, no kidding.  :)

After dinner we finished our pick-a-brick creations.  These cups were a bit more interesting because we had some very on-sale Lego sets that were also added into the mix.  We had some newer parts to play with, although we all lamented that there were several cool pieces that we weren't able to use.

Amanda: while I had a bunch of large plates, meant for more of a landscape, I ended up making a water dragon and a waterfall/river.  Not the butt fluffle on the back of the dragon.  I made that up but think it describes it perfectly.

Ben made a magical bonsai.  Different kids of weather cause it to grow different types of branches/flowers, which you can then sculpt.  It takes years for these plants to grow.

Isaac made healthy and dying landscape.  (It is dying due to on of Joshua's creations, not shown tonight, but that has a butt fluffle too.)

Joshua made a bunch of mini builds to go with a story that I don't really remember.