Escaping the Heat

Sunday, after church, we headed to the beach to escape the 106-or-so degrees we faced at home. We needed the family time too. It's been busy around here with Papa working hours every morning to build our kitchen cabinets, then heading off to work in the afternoon (six days a week!)

Escaping the wind :)

Exciting News! :)

I know, I haven't been blogging much lately. I don't know what it is. I think a pervading sense of discouragement that has been plaguing me lately is the culprit. I just don't feel like making the effort. :(

Truthfully I am very up and down these days. Not all down, for sure :)


Anyway.........

I am working on starting an etsy store to sell some of my photos!!! :) Yay!!!!! So, at the moment I am working on choosing a photo lab to print my pictures. I will be ordering samples soon from the two labs I have picked after hours of searching for and reading customer reviews on six or so different photo labs.


AND, I am once again considering a trip to Liberia. Maybe early next year. I'm so up-and-down about that too...

I NEED TO GET IN SHAPE!!!!! LIKE, NOW!!!! Sheesh. I seem to let so many things get me off track. Especially allergies. Which don't feel like a little thing when your head is pounding and your throat hurts and you DON'T FEEL LIKE MOVING let alone working up a sweat.

But, in light of the bigger picture, WHAT AM I WAITING FOR?????? Maybe the end of the world so I don't have to worry about it after all...

Song Lyrics I Recently Learned From My 5-Yr-Old

"Oh, I've been working on the railroad, all them live-long days! Oh, I've been working on the railroad all them live-long days!

Oh, I see someone in the kitchen with Dinah! Oh, I see someone in the kitchen with Dinah! Strumming on the old banjooooooooo!"




"Oh, I wish I was an ekker miner wiener, Oh, I wish I was an ekker miner wiener, then everyone would be in love with me!"

Us at Turtle Bay Museum

The Sundial Bridge
Grandma Karen and Grandfather took us to Redding, Ca for two days last week. We went to waterworks water slides the first day and Turtle Bay Museum the next day. It was such a fun trip we decided to do it again next year:)

In the botanical gardens

This looks like a fun place to play! I want to do it in my yard :) The kids didn't see it cause they were too "hot and tired" (at 9 am! lol) to walk that far...

Going back over the bridge to get to the real fun. Who wants to look at silly old gardens anyway! We have those at home.

Cool tree roots

An aquarium that mimics the Sacramento river. (Most of the indoor pics will be blurry cause the museum doesn't allow a flash or a tripod)

A room full of very cool lego sculptures

What day would be complete without some lego building of your own!

We watched a very fun wild animal show in which numerous birds of prey swooped over our heads and then wandered around to see the rest of the outdoor sights before heading in to see the best part of all---the t-rex skeleton! :)

Feeding some parakeets

In the butterfly house...

A snake skeleton and a stuffed snake

There was a fun display were you could here the calls of many different breeds of owls, that was interesting.

Joshua was very cute, lining each fry carefully with mustard before stuffing it in with obvious enjoyment :)

I don't have any pics of the water slides. The boys loved it. Joshua was a little daredevil and had his Papa take him on the biggest rides several times. Brannon liked things a little slower so at least I had someone to stand in line with me for the tamer slides, ;)

T-Rex

This week I had the privilege of viewing a real(a cast of the real thing of course, I imagine the actual bones are too valuable to cart around the countryside) t-rex skeleton. The largest and most complete one ever found actually. After all the pictures, videos etc of dinosaurs in general... I wasn't expecting the level of awe I felt. Just standing there staring up at such an amazing creature I felt a surge of joy and gratitude for the variation and magnificence of God's creation.

My Ducks :)

I almost got a pic of three or four heads peering over the edge :)
My silver and chocolate drake

A little champagne colored hen. The woman I bought her from said she wasn't sure what color she was going to be, maybe buff. But she looks too silvery to be a buff to me...maybe a 'new' color; or maybe her adult feathers will be buff color. We'll just have to wait and see.

Remember those cute little yellow ducklings from a few weeks ago??? Here's one of them. When they have yellow down with a little black on the tail you can tell they will be barred as juveniles. Most likely when their adult feathers come in they will be solid black rather than bared. I'm almost sure this one is a drake.

Hopefully a hen (this is 'Meadow' )

The "champagne" hen and two chocolates... I need to come up with names for these ladies... assuming they really are ladies :) I think I'll wait a couple weeks before naming them.

The other yellow duckling...this is "Morton", the one i helped hatch...maybe a drake, he has such a big head :)