Joining the Tribe

Love this photo of the three girls with the race cars on her head!

A few months ago Zadie was the lucky recipient of an invitation to go camping with her two cousins and her Auntie Kim and Uncle Eric. I think there was about 100 kids and they're all part of this Y-Indian Princesses organization, so Zadie was the only oddball not in the group. From my sister's report, however, this didn't concern her one bit. She dove in 100% to all the group activities and was her normal obsessive, competitive self about bead collecting, bead trading, getting candy from the pinata, and racing the little cars pictured above. Kim could do a better job writing about all her little eccentricities, but I'm proud that Zadie fit right in to the Kiowa "tribe" and that she got to have such an amazing time with her family. She's much better than I was about getting along with her peers and adjusting to new environments!

Scavenging with Grandma Linda

She spent a whole month here and this is the best photo we have! Hanging out at Grandma Linda's favorite spot...

Linda came to visit for a whole month recently, thanks to the birth of my new nephew (welcome to the world, Wyatt!). We didn't get to see her much during the week since we live way out in the suburbs, but on the weekends we got to soak up our Grandma Linda time.

Zadie has a special relationship with both of her grandmas. She talks about why she loves both of them and her reasons are very different. When it comes to Grandma Linda, she loves bike rides, beach adventures, international travel, going to garage sales, and scavenging through people's trash together. Zadie and Linda both love the thrill of the hunt, and there are some good finds in well-to-do beach communities. They found some great beach chairs (with the tags on!), two nice kid bikes, balloons, fishing line, and so much more!

Zadie and Linda also share an interest in the divine. Once when they returned from a bike ride, Linda told me that Zadie had asked her all kinds of interesting questions about Jesus and what forgiveness means. We called Linda just now to find out what the specific questions were, but none of us can remember -- take our word for it that they were very interesting!

Linda is always saying how Zadie is so fun to talk with and to share adventures with and what a great travel partner she would make. Like I mentioned in my last post, it's always nice when people have wonderful things to say about your children because it makes you appreciate them so much more!

Friends Without Kids

Like a good park ranger, I dragged my friends out to our visitor center before they headed back to the city!

We had an overnight visit this past weekend from a bunch of grad school friends, none of whom have children (though one is due in less than a month!). In addition to the fact that these are good, quality people who I enjoy being with, I always notice how much I enjoy being around friends who don't have kids.

Friends without kids are typically much more interested and amused by your children than friends who have kids and are either too busy dealing with their own kids or are just so thrilled to have a break from dealing with little people that they can barely give your kids the time of day. I'm not judging because I do the same thing. But to friends without kids, our kids are so funny and interesting -- probably because they don't spend all day long with kids!!

Anyway, it's refreshing to be around people who find my children fun to be with. It's like seeing your kids through rose-colored glasses. It makes me enjoy them more and feel like they have unique, creative, and sweet little personalities.

Just look at this photo. See those three little goofballs and their funny personalities? I saw them more clearly this weekend because of the dear adults in this photo. A good visit that was good for my soul!

Skip Thinks He's Getting a Horse for His Birthday

Skip's first time on a horse. This was Sleepy.

Zadie with my dad's cousin Mark, who owns a working ranch and is a roper with excellent roping horses (that hopefully my kids' didn't screw up!)

I think I've mentioned before that Skip really think he's a cowboy. My dad outfits him with Wranglers, boots, and cowboy shirts and I have to admit he pulls it off pretty well. He's got the swagger and everything. Sadly for him, he lives in L.A. with parents who have zero equestrian ties and so he's about as far off from being a cowboy as he can get. I feel kind of worried about when that reality sets in.

He actually had his first experience "riding" a horse when my parents took the kids to the ranch recently (I think Zadie sat on a horse when she was younger for a bit). My dad's cousin Mark and his wife were kind enough to go through a great deal of hassle and hauled horses down from their ranch to meet up with Skip and Zadie and their cousins. And then they let all the kids take turns riding the horses in the corral.

Both Skip and Zadie absolutely loved this experience and it was the highlight of their whole trip. They came home talking about good ol' Walter and Sleepy, their two favorite horses.

Now Skip thinks he's getting a horse for his birthday. My dad thinks it's karma since I badgered my parents so much about buying me a horse. I was very persistent and truly couldn't understand how they could stand in the way of my life's calling. Not to mention my older brother had a horse named Lightning when I was very little (maybe someday I'll devote a blog post to all the really cool experiences my older brother got to have that I'm still very jealous of!). Anyway, I've been trying to explain to Skip that there's no way in the world that he's getting a horse for his birthday, so hopefully he won't be disappointed.

If so, I blame my father.

Skip and Zadie in South Texas

The kids love cruising around in my parents' electric golf cart. He even lets them drive!

Skip loves his Granddaddy Hal. This is the two of them at Max's Cafe in Tilden, Texas.

Wow, it's been a very long time since I've posted. I wanted to post some nice photos from Skip and Zadie's trip to the ranch with my parents, but getting those photos off my mom's camera (which is in San Diego) proved to be quite the challenge. So then I just got in a rut and stopped posting. But I'm just going to post some cell phone photos and hope this conveys some of the trip.

What a special experience for Skip and Zadie to be taken to the ranch with their grandparents. And with their cousins Sophie and Izzy, too!

My parents spent four days with them in Texas (and a few more before that in San Diego) and the kids had  a great time going on rides, playing with other family members, having water gun fights, and riding horses (more on that soon).

It makes me very happy that my kids get these very special opportunities to be with their grandparents and to be connected to this piece of land that's been in the family for so long.

Dear Old Friends

Just having a trendy micro-brew in Longmont, Colorado. No big deal.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I require a lot of adult time to keep myself happy and healthy. I follow the "secure your oxygen mask first and then assist your child" philosophy of parenting. They really do have a point with that.

I recently spent a great weekend with some dear old Peace Corps friends in Colorado. I've already written about my two closest friends from Peace Corps, so these folks need no introduction! My friend Erin was visiting from Kenya with her brand-new baby and so of course Jenna and I had to go visit during her limited engagement here in the U.S.A. 

I really love being with these two people. It just so happens that I loved my Peace Corps experience, but even if I hadn't loved it (which some people don't), it would still have been worth it just to get to know these wonderful, slightly crazy, individuals.

Granddaddy Hal's Influence

My dad imparting his fishing expertise to Zadie.

The fishing gang. Tori stayed home with Charlie while he napped.

I like how my dad takes his role as one of my kids' male role models very seriously. Last fall when they were babysitting our three kids for our anniversary, my dad wanted to play catch with Skip and was very disturbed that Skip is terrible at catching a ball. He asked my mom whether that was normal and apparently even Googled it. Something about my dad being driven to Google "normal age for boy to catch ball" just makes me die laughing. It's very sweet that he's so concerned about the matter. (Just for the record, Skip is really athletic but is so boisterous that he hasn't shown much interest in the focus required to actually catch a ball. But I'm determined that my kids will be well-prepared in the sports department and won't suffer from not having a dad to play catch with -- Tori and I both love sports!).

It was with these manly mentor intentions in mind that my dad really wanted to take our kids fishing at a little trout pond near our house that I had told him about. My dad was really intent on doing this fishing thing right and making sure my kids could catch a fish. Everyone around us was catching fish and for some reason we weren't having any luck, but my parents (especially my dad) were determined to catch one for the kids. You can see how serious my dad looks in the photo above.

My mom actually caught the first fish (she grew up in Alaska catching boatloads of fish!) and then finally my dad caught one. Everyone caught one except my poor nephew, who was quite frustrated. Skip and Zadie couldn't hook the fish, but they could bring them in once they were already on the line, which was triumph enough for them.

So mission accomplished. Those were some seriously expensive trout, but my dad got to give the kids a fishing lesson and I think the adults enjoyed it even more than the kids!