Nammy's Spring Break Trip

March 16th
Well, have not journaled in awhile – this year, had two enrichments (How to Bee, and Soup and Service) two book clubs, two joy schools at our house, two joy school field trips, birthday parties, baby shower, Doug has been to Canada twice (is there right now) he went camping with the boy scouts, then we went camping as a family, we just got back from camping with Nammy.

Thursday March 12th 2009 Joy school field trip to the woodlands children’s museum. They have moved it sense the last time we were here – now it is in the mall. It was a rainy rainy day, we had to walk through the rain pouring down on our way out. Heather still in school, sad to go without her. They had a grocery store, school house, trains, medical center, dinosaur dig, and a reptile show with live reptiles. The kids had lots of fun. I got the kids to bed early, then that night, back up again, to pick up Nammy at the airport for the late night flight. She made it in even though it is spring break and the airports are crowded!




Friday March 13th
1st day with Nammy – had to take Heather to school, a rainy day, so we drove. We went to the Woodlands mall again, this time we went to their science museum. They had alittle maze that Autumn went under the walls on, I had to bend down and could just see her bare feet running around in the maze. They had the Alazka Imax showing in a little room, we got through a little bit of it with the help of some snacks. There was a cave with glow in the dark rocks, and a big dinosaur dig at the end that James really really got into. They had a big stegosarus skeleton, James quickly made some friends, put on goggles, passed out brushes etc. to everyone, and they went to work. It was serious business. Nammy go them toys out of the shop – a transformer dinosaur, geodes for Heather, and little dinosaur set for Autumn. Let the kids play in the mall play place, got cookies and brownies. We went by the animal pet store to look at all the cute puppies / kittens, ate at the food court, and let them ride the merry go round. On the way back through the mall, went past the little hermit crab stand, and Nammy got them each a little critter. The stripe one is D.D. – named “Dinosaur Dinner” and the green one Heather named “Patters” after the patterns on it’s back. The kids have been swinging them around, sand flying – they only got dumped out once. Mom watched the kids at night so that I could go to a baby shower which was nice.










Saturday March 14th 2009
This day Heather can come with us! We spent the whole day at the rodeo – the first half of the day at the kids adventure zone, with a petting zoo – they spent a lot of time here, Autumn trying to feed the animals anything and everything, hugging them tight around the neck, etc. They had rabbits, little chicks, baby cows and pigs. We watch the sheep dog tryouts. Then we went to the lamas, and horse show, (rainy day, did not bring a wagon for the kids, should have) then ended the day at the rodeo in the arena with barel racing, cow roping, bronco riding, bull riding, wagon races, and it ended with a concert. Nammy got them cotton candy, we had nachos too. Then walked and walked back to the van – poor little James said he thought his legs were going to fall off.








Sunday March 15th 2009
Day of rest! We all went to church together, and then had a big long nap. I think everyone needed the rest after the last few days of excitement. Took picts of the kids out front in Easter cloths.







Monday March 16th 2009
Spent morning getting ready for camping, oil change for the car, then shopping while mom watched the kids at home. Then pack up the car, and got to Lake Livingston around 3:00. Went back and forth, finally got a good camping spot, and set up. We rented their little yellow bike/car and rode around. We got the fire started (with the help of a bunch of lighter fluid Nammy ran to the store to get) and cooked hotdogs and corn on the cob for dinner. Then we made smoores, read stories, let the kids play in all the rain puddles – we were lucky, it had been rainy all weekend, but cleared up today for our camping trip. The puddles made for lots of frogs, we heard them, but I never saw any. We climbed up their tower, it was a beautiful sunset.










Tuesday March 17th 2009
Woke up early, read a little scriptures, fixed some outmeal, got everyone dressed ext, then off to ride horses. Heather got to ride all by herself on her own horse – lightning (Heather called her thunder). James and Nammy rode together on “peppy” and Autumn and I rode together on “Red”. Our guide was a character, Nammy was in the front, he sat sidesaddle, and talked the whole way there about how he had been in 3 car wrecks or he would be riding the bulls (like the stock show) how “Peppy” had bit him, and he bit peppy back, and how Ike did $20,000 damage to his house etc. etc. James saw him sitting on the horse sideways so he had to try it too, and Nammy had to try and get him to sit right again. Little Autumn and I had a tug of war over the reigns, I elt her have the reigns for awhile, but was afraid she would confuse the horse by shaking them up and down and pulling on the etc. She did pretty well though. At the end the gentle swaying of the horse put her right to sleep. Heather was smiling and smiling the whole time, talking to her horse. They fed us breakfast #2 – eggs / sausage / hasbrowns etc. then we went to pack up, and for a little walk around the duck pond. We had lunch at their little park, then rented the paddle boat. Little Autumn and James wanted to touch the water, so most of the trip Nammy held on to their lifejackets while they dangled over the edge of the boat. Heather and I were in the front paddling. We went all around the whole little cove of the state park. By the teim we got back the sun was finally up, the fog lifted, and Nammy got us all ice-cream. Heather chose this really big drumstick thing, and ate it all. Autumn and I switched half way through – ice cream and fruit bar. We let Chaco run around one more time, then headed back for home – everyone covered in mud and ice cream and very tired. Took some pictures of a field of flowers on the way back. Got home, Nammy gave them all baths while I unloaded all the camping stuff. We went to “Black-Eyed Pea” (kids eat free on Tuesdays) for dinner, came home, watched “The Incredibles” and copied the picts onto a CD for Nammy. It has been a fun visit for all of us! Nammy leaves for the airport tomorrow morning, and Doug gets back in from Canada at noon.

Recovering from vacation!

Tuesday Jan 13th 2009
Well, the last week has been trying to get back into the swing of things. Spent last week working on the car, took it to a shop next to us, they said the water pump was leaking, but we should take it to the dealer to fix as it is still under warranty. Luckily Planet Dodge had a free shuttle service, and I talked them into driving me and all the kids back home. Poor guys, had to move all the car seats out, Autumn was crying the entire way back, I gave the guy a tip even though he said they were not supposed to accept them. We survived without a car for a few days, with rides from others and using the bike.



Doug got me a computer for Christmas! He is getting it all set up for me, I told him he could have the new one and I would take the old one, but he said no. It is down in the guest room so when we have visitors they can have a computer to use if they need it. He is linking it to the computer upstairs so we can copy stuff back and forth and use the printer. I need to fix up the area outside the guest room, so I can be on the computer, and let the kids run around outside in the greenbelt. It was really sweet of Doug to do this for me.


Another Christmas present, from mom and dad, I used their gift certificate to go get a bread maker. I have wanted one for quite a while, this will save money, and let us have better bread! We got it yesterday, and made our first loaf of bread. It made the house smell sooo good! When we went to pick up Doug from the park-n-ride, he asked if we had food in the car, I guess all of our cloths smelled like bread. All you do is throw the ingredients in, it mixes, kneeds, warms it (rise) and then bakes. You can make 3 different sizes of loafs, and it has a little cubby to put nuts / raisens / cheese etc. in for fancy breads. We have only made a plain whole wheat bread so far. There are instructions for how to start a sour doe one – I might try that next although it takes 5 days to get the starter going. It will be really nice to have fresh bread every day. Thank you!!!!

We had our book club meeting, our next book is “A Grief Observed” by CS Lewis, reading it I am going to try and get everyone to watch the movie “Shadowlands” first as the book makes more sense when you know all the background behind it, and who “H.” etc. is. Comments on Amazon were:

Amazon.com Review
C.S. Lewis joined the human race when his wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer. Lewis, the Oxford don whose Christian apologetics make it seem like he's got an answer for everything, experienced crushing doubt for the first time after his wife's tragic death. A Grief Observed contains his epigrammatic reflections on that period: "Your bid--for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity--will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high," Lewis writes. "Nothing will shake a man--or at any rate a man like me--out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is the book that inspired the film Shadowlands, but it is more wrenching, more revelatory, and more real than the movie. It is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"A very personal, anguished, luminous little book about the meaning of death, marriage, and religion." -- Publishers Weekly

I also started reading “A Purpose Driven Life” chapter a day for 40 days with my mom. It is a generic Christian type book, so I would not agree with all of it, but I am trying to read it for what it does have to offer rather than does not. Mom and I are talking on the phone about it every day which is really fun to talk scripture together, and just chat about our days. Talk to you tonight mom!

Dog Sledding!

Monday Dec 29th
Thank you Sharron! Every year she sends Granny and grampy money so we can all get together and go do something. This year mom set up dog sledding. It was really fun! The weather was great, lots of snow and sunshine. They had a sled hooked up to a snow-mobile, and a sled with dogs. We all took turns mushing (or hikeing) the dogs - Heather, and even James got to lead them!



Little Autumn with her boots on backwards. We were a little worried to leave her on the sled all by herself, no seat belt or anything, but she did good!






They did not have a suit that was Jame's size, so ended up in a grown-up suit - he looked like a little marchmallow! It was really funny to watch him walk.



Grampa Moose ended up flipping the sled shortly after this picture was taken – little Autumn went flying, Heather skidded along for a bit, then rolled off, luckily no one was hurt, and everyone got back on after making snow angels on the side of the trail.



Horse-back riding.
Camille and David took Heather horse back riding on “Dancer” while we were there, which was very special. It was windy out, so we went to the indoor arena. Dancer did really well, following David around like a little puppy dog, until another horse came in. Both horses were trying to show off for one another, and Dancer started “Dancing” a bit, Heather lost one of her red cowboy boots that Grampa Moose had picked out for her, but she held on tight, and did not fall off. Later she got to give Dancer some apples, and brcuh him down, see inside the barn where all of his stuff was kept, and where they can give the horses a shower. Dancer had a funny haircut – what they give them so they don’t get too hot while riding. Heather was really really excited as she really really likes horses.





We spent one day with Kent, got stuff for a pic-nic lunc and went to the park by their house. It was cold, but a really nice park. Kent has this huge train set at their house that James remembered from last summer when we came that is a lot of fun. He also has a little terrier dog that the kids chased around all over the place.






Mom and I went after-Christmas sales shopping, got a bunch more toys (the toy store was going out of business :( ) and a few outfits, it was a fun little outing.
We spent a day with Travis / Angie / Seth. We spent 2 hours at a McDonald’s playland talking politics while the kids played. Then we went to the butterfly pavilion. Everyone (including Autumn) held the big tarantula spider, and we got to see their daily butterfly release. We were going to get some ice-cream afterwards but all the stores were closed as it was new years.







For new years we stayed up watching Gilligan’s Island, woke Heather up at midnight to go out on the front porch and blow our little horns and do our poppers. It has been a wonderful year, and a wonderful trip.

Dorothy and Harold watched the kids so we could take dad out for his birthday dinner. We went to a Mexican place that made fresh guacamole at your table. It was fun but sad at the same time as it was our last night there. The next day mom and I tried to take the kids for a little hike in Golden Gate – James was not in the mood for it though, so James I just walked around a little pond in front of the nature center while Nammy took Heather and Autumn. Then we went and met dad for lunch at Lion’s park in Golden. Dad took Heather and James on a little motorcycle ride before we left.







It is always sad to pack up and say goodbye.