Adventure Awaits

As soon as Daddy-o made it home from Ireland, I was ready to get going on the next adventure. While he was gone, I found a Ford Transit for sale--which I've been looking for seriously since getting back from my van trip in the spring.  It's incredibly hard to find these things these days, and this one was not only the high roof and extended length that we need, but had AWD as well, which we wanted.

And. . . we came home with it a couple nights later!

(Excuse the bad picture--this was the snapchat I sent Bean to show her what we'd found.)

This blank canvas is waiting for us to turn it into a vehicle that we can go use for some serious adventures. Lots of work coming up, but I'm so excited for what this will mean. It's been a dream in the making for years, with different iterations of the vehicle, and if things go as plans, it will be ready by next summer.

While the Cats Away. . .

. . . the mice got to do some playing, but also a whole lot of keeping up with the day-to-day chaos that is our lives. But we did have some fun mixed in while Daddy-o was on a boys' trip to Ireland for 9 days (I'm going to try to get him to do a post about all his fun soon). 

We had homeschool park day fun for two of us. The weather has been great this month and some days we end up staying at the park for 3 or 4 hours--as long as there are friends there, who wants to leave?

And I took pictures of lichen, because when do I not take pictures of the little things I notice when we're out?

I snuck out for an evening walk while Peanut was at a church activity. I did get out 3 mornings to swim with a friend, but wasn't going on my usual morning walk, so this was nice.

Got to take this kiddo to his Senior pictures. I do not know how we are already here, and it feels extra weird because he's only 16, but ready or not, the senior stuff is all happening.

We played with paper airplanes in science--the kids all loved it, and some of them even did the measurements and calculations, not just the flying of the planes, haha (I made them all do the experiment, but there were a few who would have been very happy to just keep flying their planes all morning.)

And Bug played 9 water polo games in 9 days. The tournament in Sacramento was the first weekend Daddy-o was gone, then 2 weekday games, and we finished off with another (local) tournament of 3 games. 

This was a smaller tournament without different divisions, so harder teams, but they won the final game.

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Bug was sick (caught a cold from someone the weekend before), so he wasn't enjoying it all quite as much, but still managed some good plays and goals. (He's #15, in front of the goal being drowned by two guys.)

After the last game Saturday, we stopped by Eden Landing Ecological Reserve so I could check out the site of my next nature hike.

So many cool places around the Bay--I wasn't disappointed by the options at this one.

And then, we had Daddy-o's homecoming to look forward to the next day. When the kids were little, a 9-day absence would have been really challenging to deal with (and that is why he never would have done a long trip for fun  back then!) But now, even though it ended up being a crazy busy week, we were okay. It was more a matter of Daddy-o being disappointed that he had to miss so many water polo games. We're glad he got to have fun, and glad that we survived! 

Sacramento Weekends

We had a mini field trip one Saturday--we had an errand in Sacramento, so stopped by Old Town for a couple hours before we had to rush Bug home for some other plans.

Checked out the trains

and the paddle wheel boat.

There was a music festival going on across the river (and sea lions on the dock in the river--I didn't realize they swam this far up the freshwater river!)

We spent half our time in a really cool gift shop--with all types of fun, including these little miniature "rooms"--I think they're meant to put on a bookcase between books. Wish we had extra space on a bookcase somewhere because this little bookshop was so cute! But I think we're maxed out for the time being.

And the next weekend, the boys and I headed back up to Sacramento for a water polo tournament. Bug left earlier with his team, and Peanut and I came up for the second game after our nature class.

The away games are really good for them as a team--lots of time together, both in the pool and out. They really seem to play better when they're together like this.

They lost their first game Friday morning (barely! 9-8), but that dropped them to the lower half of their bracket and they won the next three games, putting them at 9th place out of 16 teams in the Bronze Division. And they looked really good when they got to play against teams that were of a similar skill and speed compared to our normal league. It was fun to watch them communicating and passing and stealing the ball. They all looked like they were having a lot of fun, too.

And Peanut and I had our own little adventure, too. Instead of booking a room at the same hotel as the team, I decided we'd camp. Having only the two of us, we were able to throw a full size mattress in the back of our van so no tent set up (and we ate out, so only snacks to pack). It wasn't real camping, but by the time we finished dinner, it was already late, so we didn't really have time for much anyway. But the campground was on Folsom Lake, so I pulled us over to the water first thing and we got to enjoy this view! 

We went for a walk by the lake after we got up and got going.

Lots of fun topography and birds to watch.

I think this is the ideal way to start every day. Wish I could get him out of bed this easily when we're at home!

Definitely more fun than a hotel and it was only 15 minutes from the college where the games were, so very convenient. We did get lucky that we were able to sleep in the overflow parking lot at the campground since it was completely full--California campgrounds on the weekends tend to fill up months in advance, and we only knew about this tournament a couple weeks before, so I was hoping to find a cancellation, but this worked, too.

And just a little more between games fun. We had a few hours to kill so we followed the team to Bass Pro Shop.

Glad this kid got to have some fun in between all the sitting around a pool. He always brings books to read, so that helps, but he's spent a LOT of time on the pool deck for his siblings in his life.

A Peek at the First Couple Weeks of School

Peanut and I have had a couple of dog check-ins with these two pups. Sophie, the smaller one, loves to play hide-and-seek and we've got her pretty well trained. She's awesome (and Brinkley, after 4+ years of us visiting, still won't come near us voluntarily, haha.)

This one spends a lot of time on homework now, although he also spends a lot of time getting sidetracked and diving deep into things that really aren't required. But the love of learning never stops.

Peanut and I took our read-aloud to the pool. Might be my new favorite spot to read.

Bob is coming along nicely!

We fit in an evening swim with dinner at the pool one night. Probably should have let Bug stay home to get started on his homework, but it was just too nice out.

I got out for an early morning walk, which I haven't been doing much of this summer, and was blown away by all the wildflowers down by our creek, which still has water in it! Unheard of at this time of year. It's really beautiful to see what a wet winter can do for our state. Maybe not quite as wet as last year, but it has made for some different plants popping up, or lasting longer than normal.

Peanut started LAC again--practices two time a week and he says he might do a couple swim meets this year. We'll cross our fingers that he's at least willing to give it a try. But I'm glad he gets the swimming time either way.

School water polo started again. Bug is a captain this year and trying to do everything he can to improve the team. He started a lunchtime club last year that meets one day a week to go over different rules and plays and just help the kids learn the game a little better. They're going to film the games this year and watch some of the footage, too.

First game could have been worse (and would have been if Amador hadn't pulled way back after being up like 15-2). 2 of those 7 goals were Bug. Our team just doesn't have the coaching to dig them out of this history of losing badly to most of the teams in the league (and our league happens to have a lot of REALLY good players in it--the ones who are going on to play D1 polo in college at some of the top schools in the country.)

Love seeing these cute moments with all the animals cuddled up in one part of the cage. I spent 3 hours doing a deep clean on the cage that morning and I think they were all so excited to snuggle into the fresh bedding downstairs in their stink-free cage. I love animals, but sometimes wish we had outdoor pets without cages to clean. Not sure what that would even look like, haha.

And finally, I'll end with this awesome burger that Peanut made for us the other night. He gets a monthly cooking kit and these burgers and drink were from a couple of his kits. He was actually testing out the recipe so he can make it again in a few weeks for some friends he wants to have over. I can't wait for him to be able to take over a night every week all on his own.

We've had some other fun these past weeks, but I'll give those days their own posts.