One of those days

I should have known it was going to be one of those days last week when my five year old came into my room in the morning in great distress. He couldn't get his shirt off the hanger. What complicated matters was that he had already put the shirt on (hanger and all). The day proved to be a rough day for this particular child and myself, but at least it started with a little laugh.

When I grow up...

I love hearing the kids answer that question. Sometimes it is me outright asking and other times it is them just volunteering it in a conversation. Their interests are broad so I never know what will come to their minds at the time. But for today...

Drew wants to work in a zoo and help animals.

"M" wants to work in a zoo as a dentist. There she will only work on the animals that are not meat eaters (she doesn't want to be bitten) Then after she works on the animals teeth, she will work on peoples teeth.

Paige want to be a creation scientist. I believe this was encouraged by her love of experiments and listening to all the Jonathan Park Adventure CDs.

Clay wants to be an underground scientist. You see he has a plan that he has been working on. When he is 21 years old he will begin digging to the center of the world. He has the plans drawn out for the machine that will get the job done. His plan is to begin collecting pieces to build this machine now. As he told me, he will ask for parts for every birthday and Christmas until he is 21, then he should have everything he needs. So for this Christmas he is requesting pieces of metal. After the hole is dug, he will take people on tours to the center of the earth. Clay told me that I could go for free on my birthday and Mother's Day and every Monday so Daddy can take me on a date there. He already has his outfit ready, the pants are already too short, so I am not sure how it will work when he is 21, but he has time to figure that out. In case you like to plan ahead 14 years, tickets are going to be $20 a piece round trip.

October in a Nutshell Part 1

After looking through all the pictures I have October, I realized that one post would be very long, so I am breaking it up into two parts (or maybe three depending on how much time I have).

October ended up being a very busy month. Mom was here, we celebrated Clay's birthday, visited a pumpkin patch, went to the coast for a conference for Jathan, and had a reformation party. Those were the special things. And soccer was in the mix with games every Saturday. It was quite a busy month looking back, November thankfully has been calm, and I really like that.

Like I mentioned Mom came out for a visit. She hadn't been here since June, although we saw her in August during our trip out East, it had been a while since being here. We were all looking forward to the visit, I am not sure how many times they asked if it was time to leave for the airport. On the way back from the airport, we stopped at a cheese "factory" along side the road. It is quite the place. You can watch them make cheese, they sell the cheese (and many other things) and you can eat there. And while you are waiting for the meal, you can feed all sorts of farm animals, climb in a tree house, play pool or video games, or sit and relax a garden like area. The kids loved it. Not many places can you eat out at a restaurant and have a bunny hop by, or have chickens clucking 10 feet away. It was great.

If you look closely, Drew is peaking out one of the upstairs windows.

We were invited to a "Talk" on Pakistan by Drew and "M"'s charter school. A lady told about her life while living in Pakistan when her husband was an ambassador there. It was very interesting. They had boys and girls come in through separate doors, the girls were given scarves to wear (I forget the official name for them) and the boys had hats to wear. She told about what they ate, how they shopped, how they cooked and cleaned and other various things. She mentioned that Islam was big there and told a little about how it was arranged, saying something about the leaders, when she mentioned the Mullah, explaining they they are clergy who study their book, Clay speaks up and says my dad is a Mullah. She looked at him and said, "he is?" , I heard a lot of giggles from the adults and I piped up and said "No, Honey, he is a pastor" A little bit of difference. Clay was a bit vocal that evening. When she counted to ten she asked what it sounded like and Clay spoke up saying that it sounded a little like Spanish. She said, "you have good ears" To that he replied, "Well actually, I use to have a lot ear infections." Goodness!


Of course you can't have October without a trip to the pumpkin patch. One Saturday after the soccer games we headed to one in a nearby town. It really was a delightful day. We packed a picnic lunch, they had trails, and a train ride. They even had some fun things to climb on. The kids all loved the big tree house with a swinging rope. Clay and Jathan especially loved the rope to swing on. It turned out to be a beautiful day that we really enjoyed. As I looked through the pictures to post I realized I did not get one picture with a pumpkin in it. But it really was a pumpkin patch with so much more too!

This picture was taken close to where we picnicked. It didn't take long for Drew to end up in the pond. Thankfully it was a warm day.

This is a good picture to show what Clay loves to do. He spends most of his time hanging or climbing on things. As he says, he is part monkey.

Clay was good at guiding himself, but Jathan had to stand close by to keep the other kids from slamming right into the tree.

This picture is to help us remember our days in Indiana!

Clay's Birthday

Ok, so Clay has been 7 years old for two weeks now, but I thought I still should acknowledge the special day. The truth is the birthday is going to be drug out a bit longer still. He wants to have a sleep over for his birthday, and after discussion we agreed that we would let him invite a few boys over to spend the night. Due to soccer (which I need to post about too) we haven't had a free weekend to do the sleepover. So, we will have it Friday night. It should be interesting.

Anyway, we had a little family celebration. We went to a pumpkin patch, then came home and opened the presents he received from us and the rest of the extended family. Legos are hot in our household. Clay and the other kids too, absolutely love building anything and everything with them. So for his birthday he asked for Star Wars Legos. With everyone chipping in, he was able to get a three things. He was THRILLED! The next day he said to me "Mom, I dreamed that for my birthday I would get a hopper jet, an X wing fighter and Darth Vader's jet, then this morning I realized, I'm living my dream!"

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my sweet Clay!

Grapes + California Sunshine =

RAISINS, of course.

When you live in this dry climate for very long, you see how it is perfect for drying grapes to make yummy raisins. Nothing against the Sunmaid brand that you can buy at the store, but when you do it yourself, you can dry to the plumpness that you like. And oh, are they good!

The kids and I read a book on raisins, so when we went to the farmers market and saw Thompson grapes, one of the best grapes for raisins, we bought some to dry. We washed our grapes, measured them, spread them out on a baking sheet, slipped it into a pillowcase (keeping the birds from getting to them before we could) and placed it on the flat roof above our patio. A week and a half later we had beautiful raisins, not too dry, just right. The kids made guesses on how much three cups of grapes would produce. It turns out the way we like them, it produced one cup of raisins.

Now what does...

1 cup of raisins + 4 kids =

An empty cup!

Fun Fact: 90% of the world's raisins are grown right here in the Central Valley. So every time you have raisins for a snack, you can think of us!

Another interesting tidbit, the raisins shown above where made from green grapes.

Backyard Science Lessons

Some of our best Science lessons have been impromptu in the backyard. We do use a curriculum for Science by Answers in Genesis, which I think is wonderful. And probably because of that curriculum, the kids tend to look at their surroundings a bit closer. The past couple of weeks, we have had several backyard Science Lessons.

Spiders:

We got an up close and personal look at a spider with its prey stuck in the web. After looking closely at it, Paige asked Clay to teach us more about spiders. So he had them all sit around him and he gave a "spider talk". The other three were all ears to what he had to teach them and I even learned some things.

Plants:

One of my favorite is spending time in the garden and watching the change in plants. The kids have enjoyed our fruit trees and few veggies that we have planted, grow and produce their fruit. Lots of lessons on the seasons, pollination and harmful and helpful bugs, etc. I am excited because during one of our recent backyard plant observations, I found 5 lemons on my new tree! This will be its first harvest. And my Bird of Paradise plant that I planted about 1 and 1/2 years ago is now blooming! I have 4 planted, 2 were just planted this summer. Only one is blooming, but it happens to be the one located right outside by bedroom sliding glass door.

Backyard Pets:

Monday, I got home from taking "M" to an appointment and Jathan and the kids were excited to show me their two new finds: a grasshopper and a praying mantis. Jathan and the kids had a science lesson while we were gone. They had researched these insects finding where they lived, what they ate and so forth. They even found out that the praying mantis is one of the five types of Kung Fu taught. If you have ever seen the movie Kung Fu Panda, you can guess what the other four types of Kung Fu are. Apparently there was a reason for making the crane, tiger, praying mantis, monkey, and snake the furious five in the movie. If you watch a praying mantis for a while you will see why a type of Kung Fu is named after it. It looks like that is what it is doing. Ok, that is a bit off of the science talk. The kids and Jathan set the praying mantis up in a home, they decided to offer the grasshopper for food, since that is one of the things they read that they ate. After watching for a while to see if it would eat the grasshopper, we left it alone. Jathan even checked on it before we went to bed. I am not sure if the kids were more excited or he was. Still it hadn't eaten. Well this afternoon, the kids found the praying mantis dead and the grasshopper still moving around. So we will see what will happen with their backyard pet.

Our Final Destination

It is time to finally end this long drawn out series on our cross country trip this summer. I really did not intend for it to take so long, but it did, I haven't been as good about posting as I would like. Oh well, it is what it is, so here is the final destination...

We made it to Indianapolis! After being on the road for about a week and a half, we arrived at Jathan's parent's house. They had a sign and streamers welcoming the grandkids, specifically "M", but they did add the other three to the poster board in smaller letters. It was quite the welcome, none the less.

During our stay in Indy, the kids got a lot of grandparents time, playing outside in the big yard, and riding bikes. "M" learned to ride her bike without training wheels while visiting the grandparents. Paige has been into Monopoly and had heard stories of how much Grandpa liked to play, so that was something on the agenda that they were able to accomplish.

Besides seeing all the family and friends, I was very much looking forward to the kids catching lightening bugs. I had really hyped it up. Around here there aren't any lightening bugs. Growing up it was something I looked forward to every summer. The ritual of getting your jar with holes poked in the lid, getting sprayed down with Off, and then making the mad dash into the yard once you saw the first flicker. Our jars would be full of them. We would put them on our nightstand when we went to bed and watched them light up as we fell asleep. Of course in the morning we would wake up to a jar full of dead bugs, but that was fine with us, we were ready to do it again the next night. I couldn't wait for the kids to experience this. So on one of the last nights in Indiana, we were going to catch lightening bugs. We got the jars, we sprayed the kids, we were out and waiting, and then nothing. Once in a while we saw a flicker, but it was usually too high to catch or across the yard and we couldn't find it once we got to where we thought we saw it. The kids were getting frustrated, I was frustrated and between four kids and three adults, we ended up with 2 lightening bugs that wouldn't light once we put them in the jar. I was crushed, probably more than the kids, but they were pretty disappointed. So that dream didn't quite get fulfilled. As of now our kids do not share my excitement over lightening bugs, but we tried, and that was that.

During our time in Indy, we were able to connect with several friends from both Lafayette and Indy. Thank you Jared, Becca, Dave, Whitney, Brad and Carrie for taking the time to come over to visit us. Thank you also to Anissa for hosting us for a play date and Chris and Heather for having us over for dinner. It was so good to see familiar faces during our time there.

Believe it or not, I didn't get any pictures of the kids with their grandparents. I spent most of my time taking video, so the time is recorded, but not to put on the blog. Oh well. I am also finding it hard to figure out what to put on the blog, because most of the pictures have "M" in them. I started to try to crop her out, but I hate doing that. So anyway here are a few pics of our visit with friends.



Eventually our time in Indiana had to come to an end. We were thankful for the time we had with family, but it was nice to get back home.

This time we didn't have any plans to stop and see anyone on our way, so we made reservations in NM for a night of rest. We left Tuesday night and arrived at our motel in NM on Wednesday afternoon. It was a long time in the car, but we made the most of it with books on CD and just enjoying the landscape once we could see it in the morning. We stopped in Texas at one of their rest areas and got a kick out of seeing their Texas shaped BBQ's. It was a pretty stop and I got a good picture of the girls. After I had them stand a little ways in the grass to get a good shot, Jathan pointed out the sign that said to stay off the grass because of rattlesnakes. Yikes!

The kids decided that "Cars" was the theme of our travels. They loved all the Route 66 signs, so when we got to our motel in NM, they were thrilled when they discovered we were actually staying on Route 66. We even got to have dinner at one of the original diners.

On Thursday, we headed out again. After a bit of time in the car, we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was a nice little park to stop for a time to stretch our legs and see a few sights.



After that stop we started for our last long leg of the trip and arrived home early Friday morning. Oh it was so good to get to our house and get to sleep a few hours in our beds.

We had a great time traveling, but the old saying is definitely true...

There is no place like home!

Camping

Not too exciting of a title, but atleast I am posting, right?

Sunday night we headed to the mountains for our first camping adventure as a family of six. The kids were more than excited, I really didn't think Sunday afternoon was going to come quick enough for them.

Friday, Clay and I set up the tent in our backyard to see if our tent would hold the six of us. After reconfiguring a few times, we decided that it would work. It is technically a 5 man tent, but 4 of the "men" are little people, so we thought it would be fine. Once the tent was up and sleeping assignments were given, the kids were dying to start out on our adventure. Paige had all her belongings packed and ready that night.

Finally Sunday came, the sky was filled with clouds. If you aren't familiar with California, clouds are a rarity and when it happens it gets everyone talking and everyone wondering why on earth you would go camping when these clouds are in the sky. But being Indiana folk and knowing that our tent has weathered a few storms in the past, we decided to go ahead and head out. We checked in at the park entrance where the park ranger showed us the weather forecast which consisted of 90% chance thundershowers. Oh well, the kids are most excited about the tent anyway, so we will just spend most of our time in it.

Well, we were able to spend the whole afternoon outside of our tent. We went on a hike, started our fire, roasted hot dogs, and the kids played flashlight war with each other. It turned out to be a wonderful evening. No rain yet.

We got tucked in our beds, all snug. (actually snug is an understatement). The kids fell asleep pretty fast. After a while of Jathan and I not falling a sleep we decided that our 5 man tent was not intended for a family of six, and we were going to have to reconsider that the next time went camping. But it was fun lying there and thinking through our other camping trips. Nine years prior in the same month, our Sunday School class from Clarks Summit, PA went camping in Eastern PA. Then, it was just the two of us in that same tent. (Unless you count Paige, I was pregnant with her) We had plenty of room then. But there was certainly a contentment that came over me as I listened to the breathing of my four beautiful children sleeping. We are truly blessed.

Early in the morning the thunderstorms hit, lots of lightening, thunder and rain, but our trusty tent kept us dry. All the next morning we were in fog and it was a bit cold, but it didn't matter to us. We were together, in the outdoors. The fog kept us from looking up to the higher mountains, instead we focused more on the up close. The kids discovered a tree where a wood pecker was keeping it's winter stock of acorns. We found a mouse in a hole and enjoyed watching it nervously eat seeds around it's hole. We watched the leaves fall from the trees as the wind blew. Despite little sleep, it was a wonderful time, looking at the beauty of God's creation both the massive and the small.

I am so thankful.

A Theology Question to Ponder

Paige asked me tonight...

"If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, would we still have to brush our teeth?"

Humm???

Would our teeth still be dirty?

What do you think?

3 Weeks Down, 33 More to Go

I probably shouldn't have titled this post that way. It sounds like I want the school year to be over, when that isn't the case. It is hard to believe that we have officially done 3 weeks worth of school. Of course they are always learning, even if it doesn't count as an official week to put down in the books.

There has been a bit of a learning curve this year. The biggest is having two addition students. We are still working on the schedule to get everything in that needs to be covered, figuring out what they can work on by themselves, what can all four do together, what can "M" and Drew do together, and what can Paige and Clay do together and what do I need to individually do each one. We are figuring some things out, a lot by trial and error. I figure by week 34, I'll have it all down. The second challenge is just that we are still figuring out "M" and she is still figuring us out. Authority is a new thing to her, so getting to realize she has to do what I ask, not just what she feels like. She still wants a lot of attention, like wanting me to watch her do everything including erase a letter. I still am learning what all she knows, since I haven't had her from birth or even close to that time and I wasn't around during her few months in Kindergarten, I still am not sure what she has mastered and what she hasn't.

But despite the challenges, we are learning, and I believe we are having fun (of course that may depend on what day you ask the kids).

Today was a day that was rewarding with the older two. (I won't mention the morning with the younger ones) Paige has a few science experiments she is working on, including testing pollution, freezing water and starting a compost pile. She is most thrilled with the compost pile, which she began today. I like it because she is cleaning up leaves from the yard and taking care of all my kitchen scraps. Clay was asked to write a story in first person point of view. So now he is excited to begin a series on "The Monkey Brothers", which is the name of the club he and some other boys started. He published his first story this afternoon and he already has a fan. Paige was delighted with it and said she couldn't wait for the next one to come out.

Some days are hard and there is a temptation to call the school and enroll them all, but that isn't most days, and there are even days like today where they are excited to learn and use their knowledge or skills. I love those days!

Next Stop: Sullivan, IN

After 3 nights in Kansas, we got back in the car to visit both of my grandmothers in Sullivan, Indiana. The land began to look more and more familiar. Corn fields were becoming more frequent and the humidity was rising. Oh my goodness was the humidity high? We stopped in Illinois for lunch and I was sweating just sitting there. The first morning at my grandma's house, I tried to take video and the camera fogged up! I thought maybe I had weakened in my dry California climate. I grew up in the humidity, but I didn't think I could take it. I was told by several that this summer has been one of the worse ever! So it wasn't just me. Needless to say, I was happy to go back to the dryness I was growing accustomed to. Anyway, we arrived in Sullivan on August 3rd and stayed 3 nights. There we spent time with both my grandmothers, my mom, my sister, and aunts, uncles and cousins. The kids had a great time playing with the children of my cousins, some sort of cousin to them, not sure what you would call them. I was happy to be back in Sullivan, a place a visited all of the time growing up. I indulged myself with Grandma's strawberry preserves (about a spoonful on every bite!)

All the kids love playing Grandma's piano. And Grandma loves hearing them. No matter what they sound like! This piano was given to my grandma from her father when she was a young girl. I use to play it all the time when I would visit. Maybe "play" is the wrong word. I would push the keys and make some noise. I never did learn how to play anything beyond "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Happy Birthday to You"

My mom brought Legos for the kids to play with while we were visiting the grandmas. My kids love Legos, so many hours were spent creating.

My aunt bought all the kids a water gun to play with at my grandma's house. They loved it and it felt very nice on the hot day!



My aunt and grandma. So good to see family.


Stay tuned...next stop Indianapolis

On to Kansas

After two nights in Albuquerque, NM, we headed to Jathan's sister's home in Kansas. There we spent 3 nights. The kids enjoyed the big yard, playing with cousins and the go carts.

As we traveled to Kansas we went through Texas and Oklahoma, stopping in Oklahoma for a picnic lunch. The landscape was definitely changing from the interesting mesas to dry flat land used for farming then to the green landscape of Kansas.

During our time in Kansas, we were able to do a lot of visiting. Jathan played a lot of basketball with his 18 year old nephew and we all played some board games. The kids were amazed at the huge hay stacks that were taller than they were. From the distance "M" said she thought she could jump over them. Once she saw one up close and saw how much taller it was than her, she realized it was different.

Unfortunately, I didn't take much in the way of photographs and the ones I did take have "M" right in the middle of them, so I can't post them. I did take lots of video, so the memories will stay alive.

Before Our Trip Continues

I know that my story of our trip out East has taken a long time. I still have only covered the first stop of our multi-state excursion, and we have been home a month. But that month has been full, so here are just some random things going on in our lives...

1) Most of the first two weeks after we returned home was getting ready for school. As a Homeschool Mom, every year is different and new to me, but this year especially is new and different. First, the younger two joined a charter school. "M" had to in order for me to school her at home and Drew did because I thought I could use some help with him. So this involves learning a new system and having other people involved in the schooling. The benefits are a huge amount of resources and help if we need it. So we are testing the waters with it. I didn't want to enroll all kids before I knew what we were getting into. There are some potential down sides, so we will see. Another difference this year is I went from 2 students to 4. I am still getting use to arranging my day in order to have individual instruction time with each. It is a bonus that they are close in age (grades K, 1st, 2nd and 3rd), I have combined a few subjects.

2) We had "M's" birthday. She is now 6. So instead of two 5 year olds, we have two 6 year olds, atleast until the end of October when Clay will turn 7, then we will have every age between 5 and 8. Our family has a policy that you get a party on your odd birthday and do a fun family thing on your even birthday. However, this being "M's" first year with us, we decided to have a party. So we had a Mexican Fiesta. It was a bit of work, but I think all had fun. I think we had close to 20 kids.

3) School started. Of course that goes with #2. So far, so good. We are 2 weeks in, just 34 to go! No really, I am enjoying it, a lot.

Our family is still adjusting, although, I think we are adjusting well. A few weeks ago we had our monthly meeting with the social worker and I met with the CASA worker. It brought back the realization that "M" is still not legally ours. It is hard sometimes remember that. I can't imagine our family without her, we are to the point, that honestly it is hard to remember life with out her. So as you think of us, continue to pray. It isn't over until the adoption finalization, that could still be months. Well that is all for now, I think I will post some more vacation stuff.

First Stop: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Our first stop on our road trip was Albuquerque, to visit some friends from our Indiana days. They relocated to NM the summer before. It was so good to see our friends. Brock and Paige are the same age and have been friends since he was born. When we all lived in IN, they were together all the time. The best of friends. It didn't seem long for them to get reacquainted from the years of living in separate states.

Our families had a great time. We went to the park, visited Old Town Albuquerque and journeyed up to Sandia Peak. Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Jathan enjoying some B-ball with the kids.

The kids had fun at some of the shops in Old Town.

A very old church in Old Town that we visited.

When we got back from Old Town, this little thing was on their driveway. Thankfully Jill saw it before she ran over it. It happens that it was a runaway from the neighbors. But the kids enjoyed playing with it for a short time.

Around lunch time we headed up to Sandia Peak for a picnic and a hike. It was a bit foggy at first, but soon it cleared to where we could see the view.

I am not sure if Brock got quite the view he was hoping for :)

On to the hike.

We hiked to a shelter that was built for rock climbers to have as shelter. Boy did it have a view (see picture above.)

As all good things do, our time had to come to an end. After just two nights, we headed to our next stop.

I'm Still Here

I know that it has been a while since my last post. But there is a good reason. We've been gone, on a really long trip. 4500 miles of traveling in our minivan. So there really wasn't time to blog and several times I didn't have internet access anyways. The trip was great, though. Jathan named it our "Meet 'M' Tour". And boy did she meet a lot of people. We stopped in New Mexico to see friends that had relocated there from Indiana, stopped in Kansas to see Jathan's sister, Sullivan, IN to see my extended family including grandmas, cousins and aunts and uncles, then to Indy to see Jathan's parents and several of our Indiana friends. It was so nice! I will post more about the trip later along with some pictures.

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous before the drive. I loved traveling by car when I was growing up, and my dad and I drove across the country when he helped us move here, so I was so excited to take the kids on the trip and really see some of the country. Then I started thinking or rather realizing, traveling just me and Dad in a minivan is way different than Jathan and I with 4 kids. So the nerves got a little tight. But it went beautifully! Seriously, I really can't wait for another road trip. I have to share the beginning of our trip with you. We were just getting the final things packed in the minivan and the kids were dying to get in. I told them we would leave soon enough, to just get some more wiggles out, by the time it was time to go, they were already in their seats very excited. So then we were off. We hadn't even made it to the freeway, which is about a mile away, when Clay says from the back seat "I am really enjoying this trip" Jathan says, "Yes, the first two minutes have been great" then he turns to me and says "They have no idea what they are in for".

But seriously the best part of the trip is that after the start of the traveling "M" started calling us Mommy and Daddy all the time. I haven't heard Melissa from her since our first day of the trip when she called me that once in Albuquerque. That is such a praise. It may not sound like a big deal, but it helps the bonding so much!!! It wasn't always easy thinking of her as my daughter when she called me Melissa. So we are Mommy and Daddy all the time! She really did well. She didn't seem to get overwhelmed and as my grandma said, she seems to have been in the family forever. We are truly grateful.

4th of July

These posts are a little random as I am trying to catch up over the summer on what we have been up to.

Our college friends came to visit over the holiday weekend. Kevin and Suzanne have 3 kids close to our kid's ages. We had a great time hanging out, talking, playing Settlers of Catan, swimming, and visiting Sequoia National park.

On the actual day of the 4th, after church, Suzanne, myself and a couple of my friends went to Panera Bread to have some girl time while the guys took all the kids swimming. After that we all met at our house for dinner, then we joined our neighbor's party and set off fireworks in the street. I believe there were around 50 people. We had a great time.

Museum Grand Opening

Paige and Clay opened a museum yesterday. The museum has a collection of gems, a seagull bone from the coast, an artifact from South Korea (circa 2008) and various other things. There is even a children's play area where the kids can play while their parents do research. (They have thought of everything.) Each of the collections are displayed in a way visitors can get a good look at them, the gems even have a magnifying glass to view at a closer level. There were several visitors yesterday and they are hoping there will be more today, so if you are in the area, stop by.

Zoo

When my mom and sister came to visit in June, we took the kids to the zoo. "M" had been asking to go, so I thought it would be a good time while they were visiting. Here are a few pictures from our adventure. There were so many good pictures of ALL the kids, but I can't post those! :(

Below: Trying to pet the stingrays
I really don't know why Clay has the look on his face.