Ramblings...

Our laptop has officially gone on to a better place. It passed peacefully in the night and was found cold and lifeless in the morning. We continue to mourn...and we bought a PC. I think that's what it would have wanted. Anywho, I've had these pictures uploaded for a while but have had trouble with Internet access during the transition process.

Here are a few of the kids at our end-of-summer Sunday school class swim party. I love Dan's belly! Jake was a pirate!
And Libby scavenged for food since we never feed her. She then was the outlaw of the party when she decided to swim in her Sunday dress. Her mother didn't bring her suit because she assumed Libby would not want to swim. She was wrong.
We also had another zoo trip, probably the last for quite a while. We tried to visit all of the areas we never make it to, so here we are in the petting area.

After petting goats we decided to work harder at being the neighborhood hillbillies, even though I don't think there is much competition in our neighbors' eyes. We started the downhill status-slide when the palm tree mysteriously disappeared, then there is the way we sit in the front yard just for fun and now we have sealed the deal by setting up Erik's new tent in the front yard. Do you think we should have gotten the bigger size? A friend that Erik served with at Wright Patterson AFB came out with his wife to visit over the weekend and we had so much fun. We travelled down to Venice Beach for a morning of fun. Here are the boys buried, I promise they liked it even if this picture doesn't exactly portray that sentiment. There were better pictures but I lent my camera software and of course now we have a new computer and no software. I could put them on here but they would be turned 90 degrees as I currently have no software with which to rotate them.
Jake has been infatuated with boogie boards after our last two beach outings, here is a little more redneck fun for the neighbors...

I'm too lazy for real commentary today, we've done so much in the last month and September is brimming with activities. Most notably is a beach camping trip and our first ever Reynolds' Family Camping Trip to Sequoia. We are super excited but there is much to plan and shop for as we really don't own warm weather clothes or camping supplies. Erik will leave immediately after that trip and head up north to hunt. He'll return for a few days of work and we will ditch the kids with Mimi and head up to Hume Lake for Staff Retreat, yeah! Look at the webcam on the site and you will be jealous! The day after we return he will fly back down to Jiquilpan. Yes, we are insane.

Crossroads at the Beach

I just have to start off with this picture of a pig at the beach. I really don't understand why you would take a pig to the beach, it may have something to do with the Nascar beach chair the pig's owner was sitting in but I'm not sure. They took the pig down to the surf on a leash and it squealed mightily, unwilling to venture into the waves. Although I'm sure Emily has no love for the pig species, she was deeply grieved for the pig's cause as it struggled to escape the water and was most upset for his safety and well being. Then she had a ham sandwich...

Erik was our fearless bus driver and although he was fearless his sons had a few anxieties, thus we took a practice ride the night before with the whole family. The boys bravely charged through the parking lot to the bus but retreated in terror when the big doors flew open. Danny manned up first and cautiously climbed in but Jake had to be carried. Within about 0.25 seconds of actually sitting in his seat he was again up for the task and we headed to our favorite family fun destination, Walmart, to shop for the trip. The bravery hasn't faltered since and they ran onto the bus Saturday morning, snapped on their seat belts and yelled at the driver to get a move on it and take them to the beach. Jacob absolutely loves the ocean and feels that all waves are a challenger that must be met head on. Dan is still a bit timid and can only be coaxed into the water if his attention is focused on digging his feet in the sand and kicking mud into the air. Mom's hand is a necessity!
We have never taken boogie boards with us but Jake has always been fascinated with surfers. Many of the students brought boards with them and Jake was eager to try. Here he is waiting for the next big one...He loved it and would have stayed permanently if allowed. Occasionally he was forced to come back in to warm up and have a snack but he begged the entire time to be allowed back out.

We made them take a little nap, as always the animal towels were in tow.
During nap time we had a Bible study led by Erik. He reminded us that we shouldn't just dismiss those around us but remember that all people have an eternal soul and are going somewhere. We shouldn't just look around the guy sitting in front of us so that we can enjoy the view, instead we should pray that he knows Christ as his Savior and go tell him about God just in case he may not know. We are never on a vacation from spiritual things but are called to and blessed with the opportunity to tell the world about Jesus. The group then split up to walk down the beach and pray about those they saw and maybe talk with our fellow beach goers about our Lord.
It was truly a wonderful day, refreshing and just great fun! The boys were absolutely exhausted and slept on me the whole way home. It was a sweet time to cuddle and I didn't waste a minute enjoying it because they are growing so fast and don't often allow such pleasures.

I just realized that many of you will ask, where is Miss Libby? I didn't feel it would be a good plan for her to spend an entire day at the beach. Erik and I really wanted to spend some time enjoying our friends and letting the boys be adventurous, which is difficult with a baby on the hip. So Libby stayed with a sweet family from church and enjoyed a day of pampering and girliness. She came home with her first ever pigtail and the boys immediately pointed out that her hair looked funny.

This morning I somehow got myself out of bed before the kids were out of theirs and went to prepare their breakfasts, yes, I am a great mom! Anyway, I opened the cupboard to get our standard cereal bars out and noticed the Oreos were not in the same configuration as the night previous. I was momentarily perplexed but continued with the task at hand. All was explained when Dan walked out of his room with a tell tale Oreo mustache. He was scolded but the full story came to light when I arrived at the crib to find Oreo smears and a chocolate baby, Dan is a kind brother and had brought her breakfast as well. But as you can see she saved room for the large chunk of banana she shoved in her mouth once she reached the highchair...

Watch This!

The boys have officially reached the age where intense competition surrounds all of our daily activities. If Jake jumps off of the couch, Danny says "Watch This!" and tries to do it bigger. If Dan is praised for going to the bathroom, Jake probably needs to go too and can do it better.

Last week we were outside playing without any real agenda for the day. I was zoning a little and realizing there was no reflection coming off of our cars because they were caked with dirt. Why not combine the kids favorite outdoor game (which is anything involving the water hose) with real chores! So here they are washing the van. Emmy pulled up just in time to put them to work on her car too. We call what Jake and Daddy are demonstrating the Fireman Technique, it is quite effective.
Dan decided to spruce up every item in the garage that would fit in the water bucket.Another major event of late was the first annual preschooler bike gang ride. We got together with all of our friends and brought bicycles, tricycles and push carts to our favorite park. It was over 100 degrees but the boys rode for two hours non-stop with a few forced breaks for hydration. Next time I think we'll set up water stations around the track and hold out sippy cups as the athletes fly by.
Erik ordered a tent as we killed the last one by playing in it in the backyard for a few weeks. He has been eagerly awaiting its arrival and came home this week to find two large boxes by the front door. He was super excited until he found out they were for Libby. Mimi struck gold with the grandkids with a kitchen set. Here is Libby supervising the construction. Thank you Mimi!