Oreo

 
Oreo is the newest member of our family. He's a tuxedo cat. I always thought he was the stereotypical stray cat when I grew up on the dairy. Either way, he's most beloved in our home. He's usually greeted before many family members and the last to be told "goodnight." For the most part, he's been pretty maintenance-free. The only mishaps so far has been a potted plant and evidence of him eyeing the fish while we were away. The fish are fine, and though they have slid down the hierarchical scale here it would still be sad to have a fish fry for a feline.

Four

 
Our youngest is now four. I don't know how far into the future you'll be reading that kind of phrase. I don't see myself entering, "Our youngest is 54 today." I still can't believe it though. He has been quite the delight. Here are a few of my favorite things about him: He's spunky. "You DON'T have to say that again." He opens the door for the girls, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. "You already asked me to do that" when asked to go potty. "I love you my whole world mommy." "I'm gonna play my cars, for reals I am." "Meany head!" He's a gift from God and we are blessed to take care of him.

First Day

 
It's a big year over here. We have 3 in school. Ave started Kindergarten. She is doing well in school. At home she is a tired little girl. Oftentimes, one can hear Carter jumping up and down and yelling while Avery is fast asleep in their room. Kenny-Cat is in 2nd grade. We don't get a lot of information from her but I think she's enjoying it. Jace had a rough start in the friend department but she's recuperating from that and enjoying all the class academia. It's quite funny to hear her talk to Blake about grammar. She half likes his playful, mock-dramatic reaction to all things English and half doesn't know what to do with his kidding around. Being the lover of words he is enjoying the beginnings of her path down this subject.

It took the C-dawg and I all but a day or two to get used to the new changes around here too. We filled our time with a new member of the family. Pictures will come shortly.

Artichoke Field

 
Ok, last picture from our trip, I promise. I don't know how many of you like artichoke but we all like them in our family. I make a little sauce to dip the leaves in and the kids gobble them up.

Sand

 
Give kids sand and they find their own entertainment. They had fun digging caves and rolling down the hill.

The whole time we were at the beach there were 3 hang gliders. It was a great location because they could run down the hill and jump off the cliff. One guy stood with all his gear on for about an hour. We didn't think he was ever going to do it. Then he mustered up enough nerve to practice taking off and landing.

Shoes

 
We went to the Watsonville Strawberry Festival. There were a lot of booths and live music. One young girl rocked the house. She had an amazing voice, we anticipate hearing more from her in the future.

KP

 
This is probably one of my favorite pictures, EVER! I love that they did dishes at night. They have taken that over at home too. It is wonderful to teach them these skills and allow them to actively participate in this family. It is also nice to kick up our feet and relax a bit. So far there have been no casualties but I'm sure they will come. I heard the crockpot being bounced around a little harder than I would like. It IS a very heavy piece so I'm thankful they were able to persevere through it. Hmmmm...there's so much potential around here :) I guess we'll take it one thing at a time.

Choked up

 
One of the days on our trip up north we went to the John Steinbeck Center. The girls enjoyed the scavenger hunt that the center handed out to them, locating objects in the various exhibits. Connected to the JS Center was a traveling exhibit on how children learn. This exhibit was very interactive, the kids loved playing with the different objects. They had a lightbox where the kids could play around with reflection and light and colors. Outside they had a place set up with rocks, dried flowers, mortars and pestles, etc... This picture is of two dried artichokes on a mirror.

Without a hitch

 
This has been Carter's latest fascination. It has hung on for quite awhile now too. A few months ago he and I got the receiver put on the van, after a VERY long time, we left with it attached. The poor man who worked on it was understaffed, so between his helping out at the counter and then running back to the shop area to attach it Carter and I were able to leave about 5 hours later. Needless to say, he has spotted every kind from here to there. Often I can hear him saying, "Momma, did you see that hitch?" "Momma, that one had two balls on it!" "Momma, that one was a fancy hitch."

This hitch was one we spyed at the Spirit West Coast. The girls were taking rides on a pony, of which he wanted no part of.

Program

 
Blake is one who loves a schedule. He loves asking and planning out our day and week and month... He loves poring over the bulletin in church, a wedding program, the map; so you can imagine the delight he takes in this. The highlight of our trip was to attend Spirit West Coast. We had some pretty awesome kids. The concerts were held at Laguna Seca and for all you race fans you can imagine the trek to our spot. This is Blake's protoge perusing the map of the different stages and booths.

Tuckered Out

 
It's not too often that we have all four sleeping in the car. We had some busy days and long nights.

The Not-So-Lonely-Lone-Cypress

 
So we got to see what Blake thought to be the most photographed tree in the world. Whether this is true or not, I would have to say "The Lone Cypress" had some company. I'm all for fun and games and my teenage years aren't so in the past that I couldn't help but struggle with what I witnessed. I teetered on disbelief that 2 foreign teenagers jumped the fence and ran miscreantly down to the tree, touched it, and then ran back with a look of victory on their faces. I was horrified because my children watched as they hiked near a sign forbidding such an act and thinking that I was young and stupid too and would have found that rather amusing. . . back then.

Rock Collage

 
Here are more pics from the previous posting.

Rock Piles

 
Ok, we paid the $9.50 to go on the 17-mile drive. At first I was opposed to paying that much money to drive on a road (the memories are too close to paying tolls on the toll road still) but I must say it was worth it. This picture was in Spanish Bay. They had all rocks piled up, which reminded us of Vancouver. We also got to see a few over-priced golf courses and some beautiful coastline.

Beach

 
We visited Dennis the Menace Park . . . an hour too early, so we drove down Cannery Row to kill some time. As we were walking we passed a bakery and smelled some lovely smells. Carter said, "I can smell the cookies growing." Then we walked along the water and collected sea glass and explored the mini tide pool. Needless to say we made it back to the park where we really enjoyed ourselves. What a fun place to visit.

Produce

 
I always thought where we live there is an abundance of fields and crops. I can't believe how much food is grown here. We saw garlic, artichoke, tomato, strawberry and lettuce. Lots and lots of lettuce.

camping

 
It was our last hoorah! We went camping last week with our family. We had a great time and really enjoyed the cooler weather. We stayed near Monterey and woke up to misty mornings and sweatshirts.