Joshua Tree Overnight

We wanted to go away for the long weekend, but also needed to get a few things done and so compromised on a quickie overnight trip to the desert. Our day today in Joshua Tree was packed full of hiking, wildlife viewing, and fun. We dragged the kids on a 3 mile hike in the desert promising good animal sighting and somehow the kids managed to totally rock the hike and the animals came through! We saw at least 4 kinds of lizards, quail, hawks, ravens, AND bighorn sheep. Super cool. 

I love this self shot of my boys. Porter was so excited with the new backpack water hydration thing. 

 Tim had a bit of a shoe malfunction. Luckily this happened right as we returned to the parking lot from our first hike.

 A wild (very mediocre) dinner at Sonic in the car prior to the drive home. Both of these filthy, dusty kids are now sleeping in their no-longer-clean beds.  Matilda hiked more than 5 miles today-such a trooper!

We also stopped to see the dinosaurs on the way home. Turns out, they are terrifying at night time!

The Name Game

Passing time in the car tonight thinking of a sweet one year birthday boy!

Gio
Gio
Bo Bio
Banana Fana Fo Fio
Me My Mo Mio
GIO

Headed out to the desert under a beautiful HUGE moon. Lots of hiking and lizard chasing on the agenda for tomorrow.

Porter's Personal Aquarium Field Trip

Matilda came home from her field trip talking all about the aquarium and Porter was completely enthralled. The last time we went he was a baby so he had no memory of it at all. After an hour or two of listening to Matilda's tales, he very sweetly asked if he could go there one day, too? With such a polite request I couldn't turn him down. Combine that with the scorching heat wave and I decided a day inside the lovely AC was in order, right away. 

As Porter stood looking into this corner of the tank a diver came swimming down, head first. They waved at each other and Porter was just giddy with the whole encounter.

We discovered that the penguins are super curious and friendly. Porter was waving his hands making a shadow on the floor of their enclosure and the penguins would all chase his shadow around.

This ray looked so silly trying to eat a broccoli head with his big flappy mouth.

Porter was happy to get completely drenched in the spray zone.

He also spent a lot of time cooling off with his arms in the cool shark petting tank.

The sea lions can swim under the walk way in this tunnel exhibit so Porter got some extra exercise chasing back and forth between the windows as they would go under.

First Grade Aquarium Field Trip

I was one of the brave chaperones for Matilda's class field trip last week to the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had not gone there in years so Matilda was pretty excited to get back there but the idea of going with 100+ classmates made it extra special.

Last year I chaperoned a field trip also and we had to keep the whole class together. This trip we were allowed to take our charges off and move through at our own pace, which was really nice. Luckily I got some of Matilda's closest friends from class with me. I can assure you that they had a wild, good time together.

 The animals also put on a good show for us, but I didn't get many pictures of them as I chased my fast paced crew.

Lorikeet fun.

 After the fun, tiring day we passed the long bus ride home with more funny faces and laughing.

Check-up Time

The kids both had a physical this week and were thrilled to chit chat with their beloved doctor. Porter came in at 42.5" and 43lb, 90th percentile all around. As our pediatrician pointed out, the size of your average 5 year old. We also talked with her about Porter's speech because his pre-school teachers had brought it up at the last conference. He drops some consonant sounds still and has a hard time with saying the 'S' sound at the start of a word. The pediatrician reassured us there is no need for concern at his age. She reminded us that often people have higher expectations for kids who are large for their age, expecting them to act older based on their size.

Matilda is 49" and 52lbs, which keeps her on the same growth curve as last year of 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. When she was so sick with pneumonia in January she lost a bunch of weight and had me worried but by now she has regained and is right back where she should be.

Look at those long legs! 

Porter will get a blood pressure check, vision and hearing screening at his next check up so he watched very closely as Matilda demonstrated those procedures. 

He was also super calm for his vaccines and told his sister she should learn from him how to not worry so much for shots. Matilda didn't get any this time, but gets herself worked up at each visit about the possibility.

Beatin' the Heat

Holy cow, I am not mentally prepared yet for this 100 degree weather.

Exiting Mama

Despite the insane heat, we had a nice Mother's Day yesterday. The kids each brought home fun artwork and projects for me. Below is the awesome card Matilda made me at school. She may be right, I am often trying to exit. 

Mama portrait by Porter:

Delicious Boy

They had a little Mother's Day celebration at school Thursday and this sweet boy wanted to wear his new pink "handsome shirt" from Grammy. He drew me a picture of myself and on the back it says, "I love my Mommy because every time she is gone I just want her." 

I might just eat him for breakfast. 

Free Comic Book Day

As you may know, if you are friends with Tim, the first Saturday of every May is Free Comic Book Day. It is practically a holiday in our house. The comic book industry started this event a little over 10 years ago as a way to get new readers. I can't say that we are new readers, but the new pile of comics is a surefire way to get us reading around here. 

Superheroes aside, there was some real good guy-bad guy action at the comic shop today to add to the comic book day excitement. A police car chase ended right in front of us as the driver hopped out of her still moving car and dashed into the crowd at the free comic book day event. It was a little too exciting for me in the first moment of uncertainty, but after things were under control the kids were quite happy to eat their free ice cream and watch the police surveying the scene.

Shortly after leaving the comic shop for lunch we realized Porter was maybe under the weather. He skipped lunch to lay on my lap and shortly later verified my suspicions that he is the latest victim of the stomach bug that has been slowly making the rounds in our household.

We spent the rest of the day reading through big stacks of comics and taking it easy. 

The worst of it seems to be over for Porter so hopefully he will be back to feeling 100% tomorrow. 

He's Got the Look

Porter found some abandonned glasses at the park today and we had a little fun sending goofy pics to Tim.