More Monday Adventures

This entry has been a long time coming! Daniel found the laptop open and running and decided to play the prankster. He somehow managed to change the keyboard assignments so that when you hit the "m" button, it typed a "5." There were many other interesting changes and it has taken some time to undo his work.

Libby is crawling all over the house and pulling up to cruise down bedsides and couches (and I thought I was busy before). Emily actually got her to laugh the other day but we have had no repeat success. I feel sorry for any young man who tries to impress her with his wit because it takes serious effort with little encouragement in return.

We have remained faithful to our Monday adventures and have even recruited friends. The Branner family joined us in an exciting field trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Ontario last Monday. I know, I know, the Bass Pro Shop but the boys really enjoyed themselves. First, we shopped for a boat. The Branners' 3 year-old Micah was "test driving" a party barge and I asked him where he was driving. He was going to Vietnam. I was impressed. Jacob and Micah thought this must be Bruce from Finding Nemo.
The store has a large waterfall the feeds a huge tank which holds about 20 varieties of fish. The boys were fascinated and had to be dragged away crying. We walked around admiring the taxidermy and then had lunch and headed home.

This week we drove down to Santa Monica to play on the beach and walk down the pier. Jake immediately ran into the waves fully clothed so we stripped him to his underwear and let him have at it. The waves overtook him a few times and once Erik or Mark pulled him up, he ran up the beach to dry off and find his bearings for about 5 seconds, then charged back into the water fearlessly. These is a small amusement park on the pier so Mark and Erik were kind enough to indulge Micah and Jacob in a quick ride. Danny sat in my lap and sulked at being left behind. I felt sorry for him as it is never fun to be left behind but the last time I took him on a ride was ugly and no repeat was needed.
After our frolic on the beach we headed to Bubba Gump's for lunch. Libby was quite happy! Notice the note on the table in front of her: I may be an idiot, but I'm not stupid.

Here is the note I got:

Very true! Mark took us by his old stomping ground for ice cream at a favorite stop by UCLA in Westwood Village. We bought ice cream sandwiches from Diddy Riese's for $1.50 each and drove over to a grassy spot on campus for a dessert picnic. What a great day to be a little boy! After our adventurous day, we crashed on the couch for rest, relaxation and a little Planet Earth, our family's favorite video.

Work, Work, Work

Erik returned from house-building in Tijuana on Sunday and the boys were so excited to see him. They really didn't want to give him 10 minutes of privacy to take a shower once he was home but I insisted as the overall aroma was powerful. This trip is always convicting as the team constructs 12x12 plywood one-room "homes" on hillsides where you can easily see across the border to million dollar homes in San Diego. Here is the team framing a wall. This is the family who will live in the house. This particular house is an addition to another 12x12 home in which the family currently lives. They have dealt with many break ins recently so the man built the wall around his home and procured a very large dog in order to protect his wife and children.
Here is the family, cute girls!


Jacob has been hard at work protecting his baby sister. Erik has taught him that Libby is our "Treasure" and he is her protector. He has taken it literally! At the mall playground this weekend, a boy came over to look at Libby as she was playing on the floor. Jake ran over and wagged his finger at the boy saying "Watch out! That's Baby Libby and she's our treasure!" He has also been helping Erik with important man tasks such as selecting the evening's entertainment.

Daniel has been doing repair work around the house. He was borrowing Libby's jumping contraption a few weeks ago and used it a bit too close to the wall. Being the responsible young man that he is, he felt obligated to do his share in repairing the damage to the paint.


And Miss Libby, as any young lady who hopes to be accomplished, has begun her training in horseback riding. Here she is with Katie riding Rocky.

Erik worked into his lesson last night that he didn't buy a Valentine's gift for me. He said he went online to see what last minute gift ideas others had and what he arrived is truly a marvel. Three homemade coupons! The first: Relax...I'll watch the kids while you clean. The second: Unwind...the dishwasher does most of the work. And finally: Treasure..."He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord." Proverbs 18:22 Do you think the last one makes up for publicly presenting the first two?

Moms are Mean

Erik left with a team of high school students bound for Tijuana yesterday. They will be working with Caravan Ministries to build small homes for the poor. It is wonderful to be able to help those living in poverty but the true purpose is to disciple the students and give them an awareness of how blessed they are as most have never seen true poverty.

I told the boys that Erik would be riding a bus to Mexico and Jake immediately latched onto the bus. Dad's leaving? So what! LEt's go see this bus. So we drove up to the church to "see the group off" and maybe check out the bus. We handed Libby off to a swarm of cooing high school girls and headed for the bus but it was a lot bigger in person than the boys expected. This is how far Jake got. I carried Dan onto the bus and tried to tempt Jake up but he would not have it! Coming home to Erik's truck but no Erik was really hard for the boys. They keep looking out the window and shouting "Daddy's home!" I'm such the downer when I have to set them right. To add to that I promised them we would go to the library yesterday afternoon. We went out and got buckled into carseats and once I walked down to check the mail I noticed that I had a very flat tire. They were none to happy to bypass the library in exchange for a tire repair shop. I know, I'm completely evil!

A Hard Day's Work

Last week our church had a work day at a couple of local at-risk schools. We told Jake the night before that he would be going to work with Daddy in the truck the next morning. You couldn't get a bigger response from an adult who won the lottery. He was so excited! They needed to be at church by 7 am so I went in at 6 am to wake Jake. I was expecting a groggy, cranky boy but instead I heard a whisper in the dark: "Am I going to work with Daddy in the truck?" I reassured him and he flew out of the bed to go eat breakfast and get dressed. He was ready in about 10 minutes and tried to hurry Erik out the door early. Poor Danny was pretty jealous.

Jake helped scrape paint, repaint and rake. Very manly!

All of these things were interesting for about 5 minutes and then he discovered the wheelchair ramp and some painters' tape. The rest of the morning was dedicated to rolling the tape and confirming Newton's theories on gravity. I pray he is always this excited to spend a day working with Dad!

Boys...

So many funny little stories to tell...

Our friend Kirsten is bribing her way into the boys hearts with candy. They got to try Gummy Worms last week, which are disgusting in my opinion. They put most of the worm into their mouths and then slowly pull them out while saying "Ewwww!" Gross indeed!

We are rapidly learning that our speech must become more guarded as Jakey's verbal skills improve. Case in point: I call Erik "honey," thus Jakey calls everyone "honey." This is quite awkward at church when he asks the nursery workers "Can I have more crackers please, honey?" His friend Riley came over tonight to play and Riley's mom calls her husband "babe." So this is how it went:

Jakey: Can I have that truck, honey?

Riley: Not right now, babe.

Jakey: Let's run, run, honey!

Riley: Okay babe!

This is going to cause issues I think... Today we went to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History for our usual Monday expedition. Jakey told me he had to potty at one point and I thought he could hold it until we arrived at the museum. I think this was simply wishful thinking on my part because I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of exiting the freeway in downtown LA and trying to find a bathroom. It quickly became apparent that holding it was not an option so we began an earnest search for facilities. I stopped at a gas station and Erik opened the minivan door to help Jake out and get him to the restroom. Jake saw no need to go to the bathroom and as soon as his feet touched the parking lot he whipped his pants down and started to go. Now picture this: we are in the middle of LA at a very busy gas station and Jake has his pants around his ankles and is already peeing in a VERY public place. Public consternation... We just tried to laugh and let him finish, what else can you do? A 3 year-old doesn't exactly have the control to stop and walk to the bathroom and we definitely weren't carrying him there midstream. I think Libby's strategy is to act like she doesn't know her brothers and fake sleeping...

Here we are at the museum...

While we are on the "bathroom" subject... Last week I kept noticing that the kids' bathroom smelled bad, like urine. Gross. I walked in while Erik was brushing Jake's teeth and noticed a mysterious puddle on the floor around the toilet. Noticing my frustration, Erik reminded me that it was probably just an accident. I cleaned it, we moved on with the day. I came back in several hours later and the smell was worse, so I began to move things around to clean more thoroughly. I picked up the fake plant from the toilet tank and there was a puddle under the plant! Tell me that was an accident! Apparently a target practice session went awry.

Oh, by the way, Emily and I are now famous. I posted about Ken Ham speaking at our church and my mom followed the link to his site and noticed that he posted a picture of us and our friend Mary listening to his presentation on his blog. Look at the picture, Mary is the one sitting on the aisle in the black jacket with short grey hair and I'm next to her. Emily is one of the two girls sitting behind us. We'll be signing autographs all week.

Celebrate!

We have done alot of celebrating lately! First we had our seventh anniversary, which we celebrated in the snowy woods of Southern California. Yes, we have woods and snow. Here is a picture of our cabin... Then we celebrated Emily's 25th birthday with a My Little Pony pinata and a Bert and Ernie cake.

Here is Libby dressed up for church. I'm still celebrating that we have a girl...

And then one of our students went off to join the Navy and Popeye seemed most appropriate...

So I've been baking alot but it's fun! I have several great boy stories but no time to post them now. Emily and I are going to see Ken Ham speak about a literal 6 day creation and it's pouring rain! He has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years as his organization, Answers in Genesis, built the Creation Museum just south of Cincinnati.

The Beach

I can hear all of you chiding me for my infrequent posting and I humbly apologize. Sometimes the pressures of childrearing shove hobbies into the corner but it is a blessing that our family adventures take up my free time instead of more burdensome tasks. I have entirely too many hobbies right now and many, many waiting in the wings.

Since weekends are so busy with church activities, Erik has Mondays off every week. This has been wonderful because we can visit all the touristy places of Southern California and, for the most part, miss the tourists. On Monday mornings we pack up the van with a sack lunch, diapers, juice, sippy cups, bottles, changes of clothes, toys, books, the camera, etc. We climb into the van and then then decide on an adventure for the day. This week we headed to a state beach just south of Santa Barbara. We parked on the hillside and walked down a path and then carried a terrified Jacob over the train tracks (we had just watched an Amtrak train pass and that was a bit awe-inspiring), then walked down a short road and carried all three kids over a large pile of rocks (a wave breaker) to a small section of dry beach. We only played for about 30 minutes because the tide was coming in and our small strip of dry beach was becoming smaller by the second but it was worth it!

These pictures aren't the best quality, I know, but with the prospect of carrying three children down a hill, over the train tracks, down a road and over the rocks, the camera couldn't make it to the top of the priority list. These were taken with Erik's cell phone. Libby was less than impressed with the beach, but as usual was simply happy to be held and loved on. Danny enjoyed digging his toes in the sand and making large holes in the sand with seashells.

None of Jake's previous apprehensiveness about the ocean is left. I bet Erik $5 that we wouldn't leave without Jake being wet and I won before I could finish the thought. He chases the water with each wave and will get distracted by a rock or shell that was hidden before. The next wave then knocks him off of his feet and he runs to tell us that the ocean "got" him. Then he is off again. It seemed silly to leave him in wet clothes so Erik stripped Jake to the striped underwear he had hand-picked that morning. I think little boys feel tied down by clothes because as soon as you remove them you can't catch them to put them back on. He was never still from that moment on. Even though this is Southern California, remember that it is January and the currents hit our coast straight from Alaska. The water is not warm by any sense; the surfers were wearing full wetsuits. Jake needed only underwear, if that.

Of course the worst part of the morning was hiking back over the rock, down the road, over the tracks and up the hill with three kids while carrying their wet, sandy shoes and clothes and precious beach finds but overall it was another great Monday adventure that I hope will add great memories of childhood.