Vacation Day 3: critter barn, girls' afternoon, beach

Over this vacation Flurry spent a lot of time in our bedroom.  I had moved her food and water there, so she only had to go out to go to the bathroom.  She also found a vacation spot on Joshua's sleeping bag and could be found there most of the time.  Unfortuantly, Joshua didn't want Flurry to sleep with him. :(

Getting ready for going to the Critter Barn.

We ended up all going our own ways at the Critter Barn...even Ben and I split up.  It was a little sad, but at the same time made things a lot easier to go to the pace of just one child instead of a large group.

Isaac sat in the bunny pen very patiently.  Then he moved over to pet the bunny.

The kids went in the outside area of the cat room.  I think Isaac was on a mission to give all the cats one brush of the brush.

I know, it's a terrible picture of Isaac.  But a nice one of me.

Joshua latched onto Ben and pretty much didn't let go the whole time.  Near the end we tried getting him to move to me so that he wasn't hanging on Ben so much.  He refused to take my hand and about ten seconds later would be back to Ben.

Lunch!  It's nice that the kids could more or less eat by themselves.

The ladies went to Craig's Cruisers for our time away.  Here we are about to get on the bumper boats and the others were saying that they didn't want to get squirted.

About two seconds into the boats though Katy started squirting.  We did avoid Laura though, who was quite sure she didn't want to get wet.

We played some mini-golf.  We also did Go-Karts (twice).  I won, somehow.  I don't feel like I'm really that good at mini-golf, but it was working.

Heather and I also did the jumping thing.  It was fun to jump but rather uncomfortable.

And then we had dessert.

We came back and found all the kids alive!  (There was some doubt as it was mentioned that there might be a fight club...and after what Isaac and Marshall had been doing, it wouldn't have been that out of character.)

We hit the beach that evening.

Ben showed Isaac how to make a good sand castle.

We had put our towels about half way down the beach.  Somehow the kids didn't get the memo that they should play in the sand by the water, and so half of the time was just going to fetch water.  No one complained and it burned energy, so we just kept going.

Ben played Frisbee for a few minutes.

Joshua watched.

Then Joshua and a friend played.  They did a great job...one would throw the Frisbee and the other would go get it, no matter where it landed.

I really like this one.  It looks as though she thinks she made a bad throw but Joshua is running to get it anyway.

Saturday: breakfast

It was quite a breakfast this morning.

It started by Isaac announcing that he couldn't eat our house because [the house] was made of feathers with tasty water.

Joshua then got mad because he had to use a fuzzy wipe to clean up.  I know he doesn't like the fuzzy ones and had given him a non-fuzzy one.  But Joshua had completely pushed that one in his yogurt container and so it was messy.

And then Isaac went crazy.  I had him do it again for the video, but I think the first time was better.  Or maybe just more out-of-the-blue.

Vacation Day 2: people hang out

Upon starting vacation day 2, we thought we might pick some strawberries.  That plan quickly fizzled as 1) the place was closed on Sundays and 2) they were almost picked out Friday morning.  So we just had an easy day around the house instead.

We went to the beach by our house.  Several kids worked really hard to build a trench.  You put water in at the top and then it goes down.  I think it was a pretty standard trench by all accounts, but they enjoyed it.

We got the boats out.  Some of the kids loved the boats and some took one ride and were done. Isaac swam pretty far out into the water; farther than he's gone before and was rather thrilled by it.

While lunch was being prepared, Isaac started giving out his name tags.  Most people were very gracious about getting them.  Doug's didn't fit and so was just on his head like a crown.  Isaac proceeded to spend about two minutes slowly inching it down.  Doug just continued talking the whole time.

Mine didn't fit.  It wasn't even close to fitting.  After Isaac came to the same conclusion I got a new one.

After lunch some of the kids had a nap.  I started making a quilt with one of the girls.  It was a simple patchwork, but got all the steps of a quilt.

After nap and rest time, it was time for a few more boat rides.

Ben went out for the first time.  He said it was ok, not great.  I feel like as though I look strong in the picture.

Then just some play time.  Isaac loved a game that one family brought with them, Outfoxed.  So much so that he got it later in the week as a host present. :)

I started quilting with help.  This was the first time I've had a child on the quilter with me, but it went very well.

In the evening we were about ready to go to Tunnel Park and quickly changed our minds as a thunderstorm was fast approaching.  So it was more random stuff for the rest of the night...

Joshua cornered Ryan to show him about Mr. Potato Head.

There was some crazy game of chase/catch/tornado going on.  (And we felt the rain in the middle.)  The adults looked at each other a few times wondering if we should put a stop to it, but we waited.  There were some tears from Joshua at one point, but he got down off my lap so fast that the game hadn't been stopped yet.  No one got hurt and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

A few kids got put into the air.  Because, why not?

At the end of the day Isaac and I learned a new game.  The game hadn't been played with four people before, and it didn't work well with four.  The board killed us several times, but we kept going because we wanted to see what is supposed to happen.  Isaac said he didn't really enjoy it because it was too long, but when just the two of us played it later it was better.

The last two people also showed up late, late that night, so then we were all there!

Friday: activities

I didn't have a plan for today, so I asked the boys what they wanted to do this morning.

Isaac: blueberry picking!
Amanda: It's not quite time yet.  Soon.
Isaac: ...it's a bit expensive...but..the bounce house place?
Amanda: I had thought of that, but the best time for us are Mondays or Wednesdays.
Isaac: a new playground?
Amanda: yeah, we can probably do a new playground.

We also hit several garage sales (finding just two small things).  Then we went to Donutville because we were sort of in the area.  While we were having donuts, Joshua said, "Let's go see Grandpa!"  And so we did.

After rest time, the boys were on my lap and we were making a birthday wish list for Joshua.  I sadly didn't have a lot of ideas that I had stored away.  Anyway, we were going along and I went to the main page of Amazon, which had a moon on it.

Joshua, excitedly: A moon!
Amanda: You want a moon for your birthday?
Joshua: Yeah!!
Amanda: I don't think you'll be getting a moon.

We also had our Small Group over for dinner.  We got to the lake and the kids had a good time playing and many of the adults tried the paddle board.

Thursday: hmmm

Today didn't really work for me, again.  Oh well.  I'm not really sure why it didn't work...the boys were mostly good.  Maybe it was that I was trying to get work done and it was harder to do it without interruptions than I had hoped.

Anyway, Isaac started one of his birthday puzzles.  Joshua helped a bit, but it was mostly Isaac.  It's a bigger puzzle than he's done in the past, and I wanted to see how it would go.  Although he didn't finish it all, I think it was more that there were other things to do than he was having trouble.  Joshua is enjoying a sea puzzle, and has now put it together about five times in the last two days.

After dinner we went to Mr. Tom's beach, by our house.  For about twenty minutes Joshua would go in the water, get a can full of water, and then sprinkle the pizza he was making.  Each round took about five seconds...it made me a bit dizzy.  But he didn't seem to get bored!