Ben's Hawaii

We realized early on in the planning of this trip that this would probably be the best trip of Ben's life. He's so young still and the world is so magical, so even if he goes on more amazing trips in the future, the chances that they will compare are slim. So I apologize in advance to Ben's future wife, when after their honeymoon Ben will surely exclaim, "Well, dear, that was the second best vacation I've ever had!"

Ben chose Hawaii as the destination for his Nana and Papa birthday trip because my boy loves volcanoes and wants to be a vulcanologist when he grows up. This has been true of him for quite awhile. It was about a half-a-year before Zach's 8th birthday, on the drive from Washington to Colorado, that my mom and I first talked about how neat it would be if the boys could take a special 8th birthday trip just them and their grandparents. At the time we asked the boys where they would want to go if they could visit anywhere in the United States. Zach decided he would like to visit D.C. or perhaps New York (he ultimately decided on D.C.). Ben, on the other hand, said he would like to go to Hawaii. My mom and I both chuckled a little bit. Of course! Smart kid. Who wouldn't want to go to Hawaii...sandy beaches, sunshine, flowers year-round, relaxation...sigh. But then Ben said, "I want to go there because I want to see a volcano." Well, that about melted his geology-loving, experiential-educating Nana's heart, so instead of navigating him towards a cheaper destination over the following years, she began thinking about all the fun they would have and how amazing and educational the trip would be for a budding vulcanologist. (She also dove right in to planning the ultimate educational/fun visit to D.C.).

And then the years passed, it was amazing how quickly it felt that the day for Ben to go on his trip had arrived. In early February I found myself writing to the school to arrange the absence, gathering permission forms and emergency medical care info, planning the unaccompanied minor traveling Ben would be doing for the final flight home from Washington to Colorado and finally packing bags. I couldn't believe the day had arrived, we would miss our dear Ben, but knew he was about to have the adventure of a lifetime. And I don't even need to say it, but Ben was SO SO excited.

There are a TON of pictures in this post, but hey, it's not every year that a kid gets to go to Hawaii!

Adam had the opportunity to do some work at his company's Everett office, and Ben hadn't been on a plane since we moved out here to Colorado, so we thought he might get nervous flying alone, so Adam started the journey with Ben. He is a kid who loves adventure, but also is a bit of a Nervous Nelly, and we wanted to start the trip off with a good feeling. After staying one night at my parent's house, they set off in the car for the Portland airport. Portland? Yes, Portland. My mom wanted to take Ben by Mount St. Helens before going on to Hawaii. It erupted in 1980, so there is a lot of information on volcanoes and eruptions at the visitor's center. Plus it is a different type of volcano from Kilawea (the name of the volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, where they were headed).

Setting out on the journey!

It was a hit! Ben loved seeing the videos of the eruption. His camera has a ton of blurry photos of the eruption and its aftermath. His love for volcanoes grew. And he also fell in love with a volcano lava lamp thing that he keeps telling us about. I hope I can find it online for his birthday!

They arrived at the airport in the afternoon and took off on their flight. My mom had kindly been sending me texts all day, alerting me to their whereabouts and the progress of their journey. Ben called from the airport, excited for his flight to the Big Island.

The first photo taken after arriving in Hawaii. It was warm and alive. Ben was ecstatic and also pretty tired.

The first day there started a little late. It's 3 hours earlier in Hawaii than it is here in Colorado, add that to a long day of travel, they spent the morning taking it easy. But come lunch time, they headed to Bubba Gump's for one of Ben's favorites: shrimp!

After lunch they went back to the condo so Ben could practice snorkeling in the pool before trying it out in the ocean. I received a text about this time: "What do Ben's swim shorts look like? We can't find them." OOPS! I had insanely forgotten to pack Ben's swim trunks. In my defense, I didn't really forget, but they weren't with the rest of his clothes, they were down in the swim bag in our laundry room, so when I was done packing everything else, I took the bag down to get the swim shorts and got sidetracked by something else. I also forgot to pack his DS charger cord...but that might have been accidentally on purpose. :)

And my dad, being the committed Hawaii snorkler that he is, got rid of the 'stache, just so the snorkel mask would fit properly.

The day also included a great deal of beach exploration. I gave the go ahead to repurpose a pair of Ben's regular shorts to be swim shorts, as to not waste a moment close to the warm waters of the Big Island's beaches wanting to swim but not having shorts. Later in the day they went to the market and bought Ben a new pair of swim trunks, a rash guard (there's a lot of coral on the Big Island) and a new pair of crocs--lime green--because the pair he brought had long ago lost their heel strap and the waves were trying to wash them off his feet. Ben loved being on the beach, playing in the sand and testing the waters.

The following day, Monday, they got going early and headed to Volcano National Park, where the Kilauea caldera is found. This was the pinnacle of the trip! As they got closer to the park, the black rocks became much more abundant and the vegetation more sparse. Ben was about to see an active volcano!!!

Ben and Papa at South Point, this location is the farthest south you can go and still be in the United States.

Every trip to a rocky beach requires an exploration of the tide pools, and Ben found a good one.

Ben and Papa relaxing on the black sand beach.

A sea turtle doing the same. They spotted a couple of honu on their trip; the sightings felt like a gift!

The volcano would have to wait for lunch!

And there it is. The Kilauea caldera. This is as close as you can get with the zoom on the camera maxed out, but you can see the orange glow of the lava as it flows just beneath the rocky surface. Ben said the light kind of pulsed.

And there's my little vulcanologist, living the dream.

The temperature was definitely higher near the hot spots.

After seeing the caldera they continued their exploration of the park. These are sulfur vents. I am sure you can imagine how delicious they smelled...ewww.

And these are steam vents.
And they even hiked deep into an old lava tube.
Way deep!
The Kilauea nighttime glow. Beautiful and creepy, isn't it?The next day called for some snorkeling. My parents think he was a little over-warned about swimming too close to the coral, because Ben was a little nervous about snorkeling close to where the water and the coral met, so a lot of his exploration kept him close to the beach. But he said he saw a lot of humuhumunukunukuapua'a, Hawaii's state fish. He can actually say the whole name perfectly, thanks to his Papa. My dad grew up in Hawaii, living there between the ages of 3 and 12, and he is very proud of his Hawaiian heritage. It was one of the first Hawaiian words I learned too. Ben came home telling me he was part-Hawaiian. Well. Um. OK!
There was boogie boarding too. Ben loved it! This was one of my favorite things to do too when we went to Hawaii when I was younger. That and body surfing.

Wednesday started with a delicious breakfast overlooking the ocean {jealous!}.

And then a trip to the Hilton, which was a destination all of its own! Boats transport you to different parts of the resort.

There are dolphins being trained.

And a lagoon to swim in and picnic by.

And waterfall caverns to explore. It was a full day!

The next few days were spent enjoying the sun and the water, exploring the Big Island, seeing ruins and waterfalls, and doing some hiking, along the beach and into the rainforest.

Ben didn't let his nervousness about snorkeling near the coral reef ruin the fun, he still snorkeled with Papa out deeper, but on his own he did a lot of snorkeling near to the shoreline. I don't know if he saw a lot of fish there, but he was happy.

The cutest little King of the Lava you ever saw!

Exploring Anaeho'omalu Bay they came across some petroglyphs from Hawaiians long ago. This one was Ben's favorite--the honu, or sea turtle.

The rainforest

A hike to Akaka Falls, the water falls over 400 feet from top to bottom.Akaka Falls

Pe'epe'e Falls

Rainbow Falls

Here is Ben buying his precious flute (he rubs coconut oil into it every day!). The woman he bought the flute from was named Maile, and she taught Ben how to find the puka with his lips and also about he spirit of the flute.

After exhausting themselves hiking, they had to get a snack of fresh malasadas to revive their energy. Ben would have only eaten malasadas the entire trip if it had been possible.
Ben's dreams of being a vulcanologist may have been destroyed on this trip. Not because he didn't love the volcano, but I think he loved the Kona Boys kayak trip a little more! He now wants to move to Hawaii and become a Kona Boy!

The secluded bay, only accessible by boat, where Ben, Nana and Papa snorkeled, saw dolphins, picnicked and toured with the Kona Boys.

Ben received an underwater camera for this part of the trip. It comes in a close second to the flute in the race for favorite souvenirs!
Waipi'o Valley, The Valley of the Kings...the place where the kings and queens of the Hawaiian Islands reigned for centuries.

They toured around the old palace complex in the Valley of the Kings, ruins now. The ranger educated them on ancient Hawaii and its monarchy...and played a nose flute!

It was rare when a meal was eaten not overlooking the water {sigh}.

Which afforded for some pretty spectacular scenery and sunsets.

My very favorite picture from the entire trip. Ben playing his new flute watching the sun set. Love!

It was hard to say goodbye as the plane left the ground in Kona Saturday morning. Ben had definitely had the time of his life. He was happy to be coming home and couldn't wait to see his family again, but he missed his new favorite place on earth and his grandparents greatly. And it was no surprise that he immediately started campaigning for us to move to Hawaii.

Thank you, Nana and Papa, for showing Ben the world! We love you!!!

Derby Day

For some reason, the day our Cub Scout Pack has its Pinewood Derby is always a crazy-busy day for us. I remember last year's insane Derby Day clearly, and think that this year was competing to be even crazier.

For some strange reason, a few weeks back, I volunteered our family to help clean the church building this Saturday morning, the day of the Derby, even though it was already looking to be a full day. Adam stayed home with the still-snoring littles, while I took the big boys. As we left, Adam said, "Have fun!" I kind of rolled my eyes at him, and said something like, "Shyah, as if." But it actually was a fun morning, scrubbing toilets and urinals with some great families from our ward.

After that, we dropped some books off at the library and went home. I had a quick work-out with Adam and Jillian, and a speedy shower (alone!), then Ben and I dashed off to Target to grab a birthday gift for one of his closest buddies. After much-too-much debate over what to get Owen, we made our purchase and I drove up to Gleneagle to drop Ben off at the party. Then I zoomed (at speed limit) back down to watch Zach play his last basketball game of the season. It was a great game for Zach, and his team ended up winning with upwards of 40 points to 4 (they mercifully stop keeping track when your team is 10 points up, so I don't know what the actual score was, but it was pretty rough for the other team).

I was starving after the game and suggested we go to Five Guys for lunch. Oh, bad idea! Not that it wasn't oh, so tasty, but we just didn't have the time for it! We pounded down our lunches and drove back up to get Ben from the birthday party. We quickly realized we didn't have time to get his basketball stuff from the house before the game, but luckily we had another kid in the car with all the necessary uniform items. Zach was a total team player, and with only slight protests, stripped down to his skivvies and gave Ben his too-large basketball gear. I had to give Ben my ponytail holder to twist around a handful of the waistband of the shorts so they wouldn't fall down during the game. We dropped Ben and Adam off at the Y and they ran in just before game time; the kids were in the middle of the Pledge of Allegiance.

I felt a little sad, as it was Ben's last game too, and I had to miss it because I needed to make a quick batch of rice krispies treats for our post-Derby snacks and pick up the Pinewood Derby cars and scout shirts. But Adam took pictures and I was given a full play-by-play as soon as I picked up Ben and Adam at the Y, a mere 25 minutes after dropping them off (warm rice krispies treats in hand!). Ben's game wasn't over yet, but he and his friend Dallin from church, who we also picked up, were able to play the first half and leave to make it to the Derby in time. Ben had played well and had scored 5 baskets, to give his team 10 of their 12 points at the half.

The Derby was fantastic. All the boys' cars looked great! It was an exciting day for Ben, his first Derby, and a little sad for Zach, as it was his last. As he does every year, Adam really just let the kids do their own thing with their cars. They design it how they want it, Adam does the cutting with the table saw, but then the kids do all the rest of the work: sanding and painting and finalizing. After arriving and weighing in, we ended up gluing on coins galore to make them heavy enough...this is true of our cars every year. Adam says we have many Derbys ahead so I should probably pick up a small scale so we can stop losing our spare change to our Derby cars.

Zach's car is on the left, Ben's car on the right. All weighed-in and ready to race!The kids had a great time, as they always do.

Ben and Dallin were grinning from ear-to-ear (it was Dallin's first race too)

Luke LOVED watching the cars go down the track. He was pretty entranced!

We were surprised, to say the least, when Ben's car started winning, and then kept winning, and was winning some more. Like I said, the boys do all their own work, no special treatment, so to have a car like Ben's come out fastest in the end, without purposely doing any of the hundreds of things you can do to make a Pinewood Derby car faster, is pretty amazing.

Ben's car is on the far right here, yes, it's behind in the photo, but I assure you that it pulled out the win in the end!
Ben's car ended taking fastest car overall, he beat out all other Wolves, all Bears and all Webelos. I had to remind him once about being humble, when his car first started to look like it was winning it all, but after that he was a classy winner {mostly}, at least he was trying to be a classy winner. :)

Zach's car came in 7th place overall. Second of the Webelos, but it won the award for "Most Expensive." Not that we put a lot of money INTO it, but we put a lot of money ON it. $3.04 to be exact! I could tell he was a little annoyed at first that Ben's car was winning, but he seemed to get over it quickly, congratulated Ben, and loved the prize his car took.

I have to say that the best part of the day for me took place during the races. One of the sweet boys in the group, who had worked so hard on his car, almost entirely by himself, was really upset at coming in last. The tears were flowing and I just felt terrible. But in this boy's despair, I saw both Zach and Ben go up to him and try to cheer him up. Zach told him about how he came in dead last of 15 cars his first Pinewood Derby (I don't even know if that's true, but that's what he said!), and how that finish was worse than this one because we only had 13 cars this year. I think that actually helped the boy feel a bit better. Ben told him how much he loved the boy's car, and that it might win for most creative because it had an actual driver. It was really touching to see them reach out to a friend in need. All the Scouts were great and supportive; what a fabulous group of kids!

It was a wonderful, and busy, day. We finished up the day at Rizutos ice cream (6 inches of soft serve for $1.50!) celebrating with some of the families/friends who had been at the Derby, all of us wearing drippy chocolate-butterscotch-cherry grins.

Saturday evening right before dinner I received a call from one of the members of our ward's bishopric. They wanted to come talk to me that evening. Just before bedtime they arrived and asked if I would be willing to serve as the first counselor in our Young Women's Presidency, and be released as the Wolf Den Leader. Of course, I accepted the calling. But I was pretty floored. I thought that I would be in Scouts for life, and I'm not joking.

I am a little sad, I really did enjoy my calling in the Cub Scouts, even though the boys can drive me bonkers sometimes, and, after three years serving in the Cub Scouts, I was starting to feel kind of like a pro. Plus, I know I am a boy-mom through and through, so I work well with these boys, and I loved sharing the experience first with Zach and then Ben. I've really enjoyed the other leaders I've worked with over the years. I know it might sound crazy to some of you, but I will miss it greatly. In addition, the woman (a friend of mine) I am replacing is pretty irreplaceable, her testimony and love of the Young Women's program is as strong as mine is of the Scouting program. But I am also so excited. I am ready to experience girl-life, something I don't have a great deal of experience with other than the fact that I am one. The young women and the leaders I will be blessed to serve and work with are wonderful. I know I am going to learn so much and grow incredibly through this calling. I have been and will continue to pray for the Lord's guidance and for these dear young women as I walk this new path. And I am glad that my last official day as the Wolf Den Leader was at the Pinewood Derby, one of the best days of the Cub Scout year.

Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of the shirt. I am 99% sure that this mom of five boys will don it once again one day.

How To Say Goodbye?

How do you write about a weekend spent saying goodbye to someone you love?

Do you talk about the joy you experienced in seeing family, some you have never even met who now feel as close as someone you've known all your life, and the comfort you found in sharing the heartache with others who were feeling what you felt, and probably even more, and how you felt like you were circling your wagons, protecting, sheltering, giving and receiving?

Do you reflect on the feelings that were almost sometimes too much: like the deja vu you felt sitting once again as your aunt slowly leaves this life, the memories of doing this once before, six years before, so thick they mingle and mix and you go to sleep feeling like the two events have become one; or the realization that even though the moments are hard, they are memories so deeply treasured; or the outbursts of laughter, almost desperate, but so nice it felt like you were applying salve to a wound; or the feeling of nostalgia for moments captured in pictures that happened long before you were born; or the tenderness of a touch, the strengthening of a hug, the goodness of a smile; or the pain and sadness of a goodbye that will not be a hello for a very long time?

Do you share about the mother-love that pours out of you when you see someone you love so sick and fragile, even though they are 49 years older than you, that you want to hold on tight and comfort, and cradle and rock and heal, but your heart breaks because you can't do more than hold a wrinkled hand, rub a swollen foot or sing a gentle song?

Do you tell stories of the endless comfort eating that went on every day, all day, including your consumption of four of the most delicious cupcakes you have ever eaten..all four...minus only about 8 bites, and how you came home weighing four pounds heavier, one pound for each cupcake?

Do you talk about the goodness of God, who at the moment when you and your mom were about to leave the house to go pick up your dad from the airport, gently nudged you to tell your mom to stay, stay to be with her sister, because it was then, before you could get back from the airport with your dad, that your aunt passed on to the next life, and your mom had been there, because of His grace, to say a final goodbye and watch her go?

Do you share about your discomfort in sitting in the room after she passed, her left-behind body in the room with you, eating dinner and watching one of her favorite movies, and when your cousin says, "If the mortuary people come now do you think they will think we're weird?" and you say, "YES! This is weird!" and you both laugh a little, but you still feel awkward about it, and later that night your Dad and Mom offer to put the inflatable mattress on the floor of their room so you don't have to sleep alone because you have the heebie jeebies, and you feel like a numbskull and a baby, but your parents get you and love you?

Do you reflect on the sweet life and the love story your aunt lived, with six wonderful children, eight beautiful grandchildren and a husband whose love only grew stronger from the day they met at church camp 61 years ago; or the memories of piano lessons and lollipop making; or dinners around the table and walks through her beautiful garden; or the sweetness of the moment when the love of her life fell asleep at her side as she struggled to breathe her final breaths, holding her two hands in his?Do you count the tears that fell when she was gone or the minutes you had with her in those final days?

Do you say how hard it was to leave to come home, even though you missed your boys and your man terribly, but letting go of the security of the shared experience and the people you experienced it with is a little scary, and getting back to living your life that has been moving on as it always was, with the expectation that you should be feeling mostly normal and back in gear, is surreal, and you know you will be changed, a lot and a little, forever, and you hope people understand that?

Do you rejoice in the knowledge that you will one day see her again, because you know, without a doubt, that you will?

How do you write about a weekend spent saying goodbye to someone you love?

You sit. You write. And the words come with the love.

I love you, Aunt Barb. Until we meet again....

Removed

They're off! No more brace-face. At least for now.

Zac was originally supposed to have his braces removed on the 1st, but our district had two weeks of CSAP testing (Colorado Standardized something something tests). So he had to wait. He was pretty bummed, and so was I! I was ready for those babies to go just as much as Zac was! It is really hard to get a "that's clean enough" kid to get braced teeth actually clean, so I was usually helping him brush every night and having to tell him at least 2 other times a day that he needed to brush his braces because something was in them. Leftovers. Yucky. So he and I counted down the days together, along with the last of his fancy braces dental floss (which ran out the night before he had the braces removed).

And yesterday was the day. We called it "B"-Day. At last.

It almost didn't happen. I dropped Zac off, then unloaded the rest of the kids and followed him in. He was sitting watching Ratatouille on the TV in the waiting room. After waiting for about 25 minutes (we've never waited that long at Zac's ortho), I finally said, "Zac, you did check in, right?" They have a computer right inside the entry that you enter your name into when you arrive. It's standard practice. That's what you do when you arrive: you walk in, enter your name and sit down. And Zac was well aware of that. "Of course I did," he said. OK. So we waited a minute more, and then I saw him drift over to the computer and enter his name. "Oh, you already did, did you?" "Well, I think I did, and it won't let me enter it now, so there must be some kind of problem." "You're sticking to that story? OK, well, you need to go talk to the receptionist." The "problem with the computer" was only that it was so far past his appointment time that he wasn't allowed to enter his name anymore.

The receptionist nicely said, "Your appointment was at 10:30." I said, "We've been sitting here since 10:33" {Uh, it's not like the FIVE of us weren't obvious, we take up half the waiting room!} It was an accident, and no one's fault, but I couldn't help feeling annoyed and worried. Annoyed at Zac for forgetting the procedure, and a little annoyed at reception, I mean, it's really not a huge room, and when we got there we were the only ones in there. Did I say there were five of us, me, Zac, Josh, Luke and Tommy? And we were sitting maybe 12 feet from the reception desk? It's true. Oh well, it was no use being annoyed with anyone, and I know they are busy back behind that desk, so she just must not have been paying attention. She kindly said, "Let me check to see if we can still get you in." We were lucky. We were relieved. They could still squish Zach in. Forty minutes later we were walking out the door sans braces.

So my darling boy now has shiny, white, brace-free teeth and a retainer in the making that he will wear for 2 to 3 years (at night) and then get the braces back on for one more year once his permanent teeth are all in place. Hopefully he will be better at brushing by then {not likely}. It's good to see that smile again!

The Trampoline of Life

The past week has been full of the ups and downs, tricks and flips that life can give us. Some good, some bad, all part of the experience.

I went to another great baby shower on Saturday! I know five women in my church family who are expecting babies in the next two months. And four others beyond that who are expecting in the same time period. BABY BOOM! It's such an exciting time! Babies are so wonderful. Life is such a gift. I find myself feeling a little jealous. Is that crazy? Yes! Time to go read the pregnancy posts! :)

I realized today that my winter snowmen/"let it snow" decor is still up from January. This is not because I have no Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day things. It is just because I've been ignoring it. But I don't want it to snow anymore, so I need to take it down and stop encouraging any bad weather. Not that we are having any. It's been downright lovely the past few days!

Ben returned to us on Sunday afternoon from Hawaii! I was so happy to see him, I even got a little teary. He's a little tanner, a little blonder, has been smiling like his face is stuck that way for three days, and is happy to be home yet sad the adventure is over. I will post pictures and stories once I get them from my mom. Final verdict: Amazing. Simply amazing.My beautiful Aunt Barb, my mom's sister, is very sick. I am making a last-minute trek to Washington this weekend, hoping to see her and hold her hand one more time before she goes to be with our Father. I wish I could be there with her and my family now. It's times like these when living far away actually feels far away.

Ben is facing two weeks worth of homework this week. It's daunting. It's not fun. For me either. He is homework-resistant, so it falls into my hands to make sure he's getting it all done. I'm close to raising up the white flag and surrendering to big fat zeros on all the assignments just so I don't have to play task master anymore!

Adam is off on another business trip this week. That's two weeks in a row. Blah. This one, however, is two full days...but only one night. Yes!I have wonderful co-Scout leaders who have taken on my Wolf den the past two Tuesday nights so that I didn't have to haul the entire Chaos down to the den meeting with Adam gone. It has eased my mind and soul greatly. I've said it a lot, but I hope they know how much I appreciate their willingness to let me off the hook two weeks in a row.

I was more than irritated to find that Zach had snuck his iTouch into his room last night and played games until 11:00pm. Not only are video games not allowed in bedrooms, not only is it a school night--so no video games at all are allowed anyway, not only is it the week of CSAP testing (Colorado's Statewide assessment testing) so he needs extra good sleep, not only is his bedtime 8:30, the worst of it is that he did it knowingly and willingly and broke that sacred cord of trust in our home. Video games are his absolute kryptonite. Of course he's facing many consequences, oh yes, yes he is. But I decided that one of them should not be to take away the iTouch forever as I had originally intended (don't worry, I'm not a sucker, he still loses it for awhile). I think I need to make this stage a learning time for him, a time to help him walk through this challenge, navigate this vice, so that when he's older and I don't have as much say in his choices as I do now, he will be better equipped to make the right choices for himself. Lord help me!Even though I am so plumb tuckered out by Thursday afternoon when my second class of the week ends (don't I sound like a total wuss?!), preschool has been so fun these past few weeks! We've been learning about artists, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Pollock and Seurat, and experimenting with colors and art styles. Fabulous to do with kids! And ahead we are doing some weather studies. Fun, fun, fun! p.s. Moms who also have jobs outside of the home, you are my heroes!

Basketball and soccer seasons are in a brief three-week crossover for Zach. Already tired. Me, not him. He loves it.

I don't get to fly out at the end of March to see my new baby nephew after he's born because of this weekend's trip. I am so glad to go now, but it makes me sad that I won't be able to go then too and hold that tiny new baby in my arms and be helpful. But I do get to see his mommy while I am there, my dear friend and sis-in-law, Alea, in her full glorious 9-months pregnant radiance!I signed up for BYU's Women's Conference that takes place at the end of April this week. I cannot wait! It is so spiritually and emotionally uplifting, and I get to spend time with some of my favorite girlfriends to boot. We have a blast. I cannot wait! Oh, I said that already.

One of the supporting posts for our fence in the backyard completely dry-rotted away. The spring winds that have started to pick up are knocking the fence around pretty good, but the ground is very hard right now, so digging the old post out and placing a new one will be challenging to do ourselves, but we refuse to pay someone to do a job we can do ourselves...when it warms up. So I guess the fence will be blowing back and forth for the rest of spring. Classy!We've been finalizing our plans to head to California for Spring Break in two weeks. By a cruel twist of fate, my Grandma's place is being lent to some strangers the week we are going to be there (one of only 3 weeks this entire year someone has borrowed the place!). It almost ruined our plans...but we sallied forth and decided to go anyway. Perhaps we still have nowhere free to stay for two of the nights we are there, but sheesh, details, details! If we must, we will fork out for a hotel, even if that feels frustrating to me with Grandma's place just around the corner. BUT I can't wait for sunshine that is warm, green growing things everywhere and the smell of orange blossoms!!!! But mostly I can't wait to see my sister, and the ocean, and Mickey Mouse. YEP! We're going to Disneyland! EEEEEEEEE! How old am I? 4? Yes. Perhaps when it comes to Disneyland I am mentally 4-years-old. Don't judge. The best part? The three oldest boys are now tall enough for all the rides in both Disneyland and California Adventure. Well, Josh can't go on Indiana Jones or California Screamin' for 1/2 more inch, but we're on the lookout for some tall shoes. Yipee!

Josh and Luke have been driving one another bonkers. To be honest, Luke's driving me a little bonkers too. The whining!!!! Josh finally snapped and purposely hid a toy that Luke was desperately looking for to play with. Oooooh. What a meanie! He got in big time trouble, but I also made sure, later, that he was getting the love and kudos he needs. He puts up with a lot. Both Luke and Tommy are major attention hogs, and Zach and Ben are so easy. I always try to be careful about making sure that Josh doesn't get lost in the middle, but I don't always succeed in my efforts and I think his actions this week were a reflection on that more than on anything Luke was doing. Since the breaking point though, he's been fantastic. And I've made sure to let him know I think so.
Ben brought me home a ukulele from Hawaii. It's a fun little instrument! I am terrible at strumming, and I've yet to get it in tune just right. But I'm having fun playing around with it. When I told my mom I wasn't any good, she said, in a very mom-like fashion, "Practice makes perfect!" Ah, yes, it does. And I need a lot of it. But wouldn't it be fun to play the ukulele for preschool circle time?! I think so!

During Tommy's nap on Monday, I settled into my soft bed, cuddled in blankets, reading a book, with Luke nestled next to me watching a Go Diego! Go! video. The problem with the bed was that it was waaaaay too comfy. The problem with the video is it doesn't stop when it gets to the end of it's 5-15 minute episode run. It starts over. So I ended up falling into a nice deep sleep...for two point five hours. HOURS! 2.5! I didn't even stir! And Luke was still sitting beside me happily watching Diego's Halloween episode for the third time when I woke up to Tommy's post-nap cry. I was surprised, and felt slightly guilty that Luke had just watched TV for hours while I slumbered, but I also felt soooo good. At least he was learning about the fruit bat and the pink Amazon river dolphin.

I can't believe it's already March. Can you?