Gettin' our Kicks...

We just got back from a road trip to Colorado and New Mexico.  Much of our drive was along the I-40, which runs near the historic Route 66, which kept crossing our path along our way.  It was a sometimes beautiful, and sometime humdrum drive - but the kids' fighting over the DS kept us plenty entertained.

It was a long, long drive, but we made one stop - a visit to the Petrified Forest National Park.  It was well worth the time we took out of our drive to visit.

The first thing we saw there was the painted desert vista.  The colors were beautiful!  Oranges, purples, reds, whites, yellows, and touches of greenery.  Absolutely lovely.

A little further down the road we got to see some real Indian petroglyphs!  The kids thought this was pretty exciting.  Unfortunately, we could not get up close because somebody had tried defacing the rocks at one point, so now you have to view them from above.  Still, they were very cool.  Someone had a lot to say back then.

Then on to the Petrified Forest.  Our family geologist and rock collector, Alex, was very excited by what we saw there.  

There were giant logs everywhere.  It looked like Paul Bunyan and his great Blue Bull had already cut a path through this place, and had not only cut down the trees, but had chopped the long trunks into short logs for us.  Only, the logs were not logs anymore, but solid rock.  It was hard to believe.  We had to touch them to make sure they were not wood.  The colors were incredible!

The ground was covered by what looked exactly like wood chips, as you can see on the top of the hill in this picture.  It wasn't until you touched them that you realized that those wood chips were so old that they had all turned to stone.


More painted hills.  What a pretty place!

Remnants of the old Route 66 are also there.  I loved these phone poles that used to run along the route.  The road is completely gone, but the poles remain to mark the way.  There was also a car from the glory days of Route 66 that had seen better days as well.

The boys had fun climbing on that old clunker.

I like this picture, because it shows the poles of the old route , and then the busy I-40 freeway running alongside it.  American progress!

After a long day on the road, we were starved.  After seeing so much of this great country in one day, we couldn't help but stop at this place for a good ol' all-American hamburger.  They were really big, and really, really good.  That's why the bag says, "If you are what you eat, you are AWESOME!"  Well said.

That's how we got our kicks... on Route 66!

My First Baby Photo Shoot

Last week I got to try my very first baby photo shoot when I went to visit my brother's beautiful new two week old baby Zola.  I learned really quick that taking pictures of babies is HARD!  I had to take about a million, and only got a handful that I really like.  The more pictures I take, the more I realize I need to learn.  Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.

My little boys were just fascinated by that sweet baby!

I snapped this one at the zoo.  Precious.

Elizabeth is such a beautiful mom.

And a few pics of  Zo's big brother Jon.

That proud daddy is my baby brother.

This almost made we want to have another baby, just for the chance to get that little girl.  I said 'almost'.

Sleepover

Back in high school, I would often have a sleepover at my best friend, Alicia's house.  We always had a great time doing girls stuff and talking all night long.  Well, this week, I went over to her house in Orange County for another sleepover - just like old times...

... except for the fact that now we have 10 boys between us.  So yep, sleepover with 10 cute boys!  Even better!  Maybe.

(Actually, Alicia has a daughter, but she missed out on the fun because she was in Europe with her grandparents.  Poor girl.  Her hubby is bishop, so we didn't see much of him either.)

We were there all of five minutes before the boys were busy building a fort in the backyard.  I don't remember ever doing that at a BFF sleepover.

They boys are all similar in ages and all had a great time together.  And I love that we can go over there and feel completely comfortable bringing 6 boys.  Most people have a hard time with us coming over and having a bunch of boys running around.  But they are very used to that over at their house.

Then we headed over to Corona Del Mar for some sand and sun.

One of Alicia's twins (Yep, we both have twin boys!) couldn't go to the beach because he got bit by a huge rattlesnake last month and is still healing from his wounds (Can you believe that???   My boys think that is SO cool - way cooler than head staples.  Even cooler than Nate's being attacked by a mountain lion last summer!)  Nathan stayed behind with Ryan to keep him company.

The rest of us enjoyed the sand and surf.  Sand = the little guys, well sand crabs to be exact.  Surf = the bigger guys, well boogie boards actually.

We saw a lot of this - 10 boys staring at the TV or Wii or DS.  

After the beach, and dinner, the boys all watched Wipe Out and I Survived a Japanese Game Show while Alicia and I snuck away to the mall to do a little shopping.  We went to the Tall Girl Shop, which, surprisingly is not Alicia's favorite store (she is just a smidgen over 5') , but for me it was a rare treat.  So she was kind enough to help me shop, running back and forth to the dressing room for me.  Fun! (Well, maybe not for her.  But she is a runner, so at least she got her workout in.)  I am always amazed when I can find clothes that actually fit!!! (OK, I DO remember shopping at sleepovers back then.)

Later all the boys showed off their many musical talents to each other, and hung out and played games until late into the night, giving Alicia and I more time to chat, (as required for any sleepover.)

In the morning the boys were up bright and early.  After a big breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, the boys came up with a plan to ride down to the local creek.  But they planned to ride in style!  They  came up with a riding contraption - a bike pulling a tot trailer pulling several skateboards and tricycles with bungee cords.  Quite a plan!  We were quite a sight parading down the quiet streets of Lake Forest.

We followed the guys to the tunnels under the street for the dry creek.  They loves yelling and hollering in the tunnels.

We had fun chasing them in and out of the tunnels.  While Alicia and I were in the tunnels we heard a huge, horrible racket.  We ran out of the tunnel to find this.

The boys had found an old shopping cart and immediately thought of "Destroy, Build, Destroy!"  So they worked hard to push the cart to the top of the ditch and rolled it down the steep sides.  No wonder it was so noisy!  Goodness!

It was so cool, they did it a few more times, just to get it right.

Boys.

I NEVER did that at a sleepover.

Luke liked watching his shoes slide down the side.  Not nearly as noisy or as exciting as a shopping cart.

After Derek got stung by a bee we decided the fun was done and it was time to go home.  But by then it was getting pretty warm, and none of the boys wanted to pedal the new mode of transportation all the way back ...

...so Alicia had to get them home.  That's what moms do, I guess.

We did get a little bit more girly time in, when I showed Alicia how to make beaded watches.  

I love that girl!  She is such a wonderful friend, and quite possibly the happiest, most optimistic person I ever met. (I don't know how she  can stand my pessimism.)  She is as constant as a friend can be.  As years pass, and boy have they passed, our friendship stays right where it's put.  I rely on that - knowing that Alicia is always there, and that she will always love me.

So that was our sleepover - unlike any we ever had in high school, though back then we might really have liked the idea of a sleepover with 10 cute guys running around.  But we never would have thought they would be calling us "Mom."