Earth Day and Experiment on Plane

We planted a new tree in our yard for Earth Day! Okay so we didn't actually do it for Earth Day, but it did happen to be Earth Day when we finally got around to doing it, and it seems like a good Earth Day thing to do. It is a Shantung Maple. Hopefully it will grow quickly into a beautiful tree. I noticed as I was looking at this picture that it is leaning about 6 or 7 degrees. Working with our soil is so frustrating that I will probably just call that good enough.

Clark went with me to pick up the tree, and we couldn't believe when they managed to shove the whole thing into the car. It was much chillier than expected, which is why Clark has his arms inside his shirt. 

Speaking of Clark, he had a baking class at pre-K where they made cookies and brownies. He was kind enough to share his handiwork with the rest of us.

And here is something from our trip to Charleston that I forgot to put up. I always make the kids keep the lids of their water bottles open when we are taking off and climbing to allow the pressure in the bottle to slowly equalize with the reduced pressure in the cabin. The kids wanted to see what would happen if you didn't do this, so I had them film me opening a water bottle at cruising altitude (I think 34,000 feet, cabin pressure roughly the same as being at 8,000 feet if I remember correctly) that had been kept closed since we left Charleston (roughly 50 feet above sea level). It's not that exciting, so don't get your hopes up too high, but the kids thought it was funny so I am including it.

Easter in Charleston

We had planned a Columbus Day trip to Charleston, SC, but it got cancelled due to a hurricane. So we rescheduled for the next 4 day weekend where we didn't have plans, which happened to be Easter weekend. I wasn't wild about travelling on Easter, but we were eager to go, and our free flights and hotel nights won't last forever, so we went. We had a great time.

This is the kids doing an egg hunt for FHE the Monday before Easter. We figured we wouldn't be able to hide eggs outside the room on real Easter, so we dyed eggs and did a proper hunt ahead of time. I would have liked to do it on Orthodox Easter, but it just happened to be the same day this year as Roman Catholic Easter. Oh well. The older kids were very kind with helping Eliza find eggs.

The trip to Charleston went pretty well. The kids were well behaved, even if Eliza required a lot of attention to keep her happy. The above picture is us getting our feet wet at a popular pineapple fountain in Waterfront Park. The older kids promptly got themselves wetter than we wanted, but can you blame them after being cooped up on a plane? 

 The next morning we went on a little harbor tour that took us to Morris Island, where we got to wander the beach and pick up shells. Clark found a bit of coral and we all got some pretty good shells. On the way back, the guide pulled up a crab trap that they had set in the harbor. inside was this one little blue crab. They said he wasn't quite big enough to keep, and he was missing one claw. Apparently that is a sustainable way of eating crabs - you take one claw and toss the crab back since it will regrow its lost claw and only needs one to survive.

Here we are looking around the downtown market in Charleston. The kids found lots of things they wanted to buy. It was interesting to see how many people were there on mid-morning Saturday dressed really nicely. I guess coastal Southerners take dressing nicely in public more seriously than people in Southern California where I grew up.

So this is a picture of Eliza sleeping in the hiking backpack, but it has more of a story to it than meets the eye. We went to a restaurant for lunch near the market and Eliza fell asleep in the backpack just before we got there. They seated us upstairs, where there was only one other group seated. I stood by our table for a while, worried that removing the backpack would wake the baby up. Then a guy from the other group starts talking to me about how cool the backpack is and how he hasn't seen anything like it before. I talked to him a little about how useful it was, then he joked that he wished he could ride in one. Then he asked if I could carry him around in this one. I said I'd be happy to but that I thought it had a 60 pound weight limit. He said he'd be willing to get down to 60 pounds to ride in the backpack. I said something else about how I would have to consider going into the business of carrying adults around in the backpack as a form of taxi service. Then I started taking the backpack off to sit down, and Yogurl is all wide eyed and is like, "That's Harry Connick, Jr.!" I thought, "Yeah I thought that guy looked and sounded familiar." Anyway, it really made my wife's day to know that Harry Connick, Jr. really wanted to ride on her husband's back.

Dreaming about Harry on a swinging bench by a playground the kids played at for a while.

The kids had so much fun at the pineapple fountain, we went back Saturday with a swim diaper for Eliza so they could all play a lot more in the fountains there. 

Doing a hotel room Easter morning egg hunt. 

 A little Easter picture just outside of church. It was a very nice ward. I knew my wife would approve once I saw how heavy the military population was in the ward. 

We bought these palmetto roses on Saturday from some young guys who were making them from palm leaves near the fountains where we played.

On Sunday we also went out to see the Angel Oak Tree, which is a massive, beautiful 400 year old tree. The kids weren't allowed to play on it, which was very hard for them, but they did enjoy seeing it as well. 

Easter dinner in the hotel. We had eaten some pork barbecue Saturday night, and my wife had the brilliant idea to get some more pork and beans to go. I ran out to the store Saturday after the kids were in bed and bought some bread and a salad mix and voila, we had a delicious, super easy Easter dinner in our room. We also had some birthday cake, but we didn't get any pictures of that somehow. It was super good, but not as good as homemade. 

Eliza loved riding on the hotel elevator. She would run right on when the door opened and go right up to the wall and reach up and hold a rail. Sometimes she would run to the corner and hold two rails. 

Our last morning we went to Battery Park and played around for a while. The kids thought the variety of cannons there were pretty exciting. I'm not sure they are supposed to be climbing on them, but they did and I didn't discourage it.

Right Back Where We Started From

We got to go for the kids spring break back to California. We spent a week there, mostly with my parents and brothers, but we also managed to sneak off for two nights to Carlsbad. Oh Carlsbad, why can't Texas have a spot as beautiful as you?

We didn't want to pack a stroller so we took our hiking backpack along. We got a lot of good use out of it. Above you can see Eliza snoozing in it during a hike we took with the cousins. She had pulled her hat down to cover her face and was sleeping for a while. When we turned around and the sun was more on her back I slid the hat up to cover her neck and she just kept right on sleeping. Must be comfy in there. 

On a hike with my brother's wife and kids. Their kids are really good hikers. Our kids did pretty well too, though they were pretty tired of walking by the end. 

A little make over time with your uncle sure can be fun. 

Another satisfied customer. 

All the kids had a blast playing together. We didn't get any pictures of them all together at the beach, but that was an awesome day. We played in the cold water and found shells and dug in the sand. We also saw a pod of dolphins playing in the water for a while. Then when we were heading back in the evening, we saw a couple of traveling fire performers doing a street show. It was pretty darn cool.

More cousin play time. Sabrina is trying to pull off my sock and Lily is trying to pull her back to get more power into the sock removal pull. 

Having Papa read a book. Sorry for the terrible lighting. 

The beach. These pictures are from early in the morning so we weren't in our swim clothes yet. We also realized that we didn't need our jackets, because it was warmer than we thought it'd be.

Eliza took to the ocean pretty fast and kept wanting to run in the water. Until she got tumbled by Clark falling in the water. She seemed less enthusiastic after that. 

Shortly after this picture, Clark put his shoes in the water to rinse them off and we had to go running towards him yelling to pick them up as a wave started to float them out to sea.

Hooray for beaches and family! We can't wait to get back out and visit again soon.

March Stuff

Well March flew by and I didn't put up a single post. So here is some catch up. Sabrina finally got to go on a Glow Run that they do every year at her school. We always said no because it was too late at night before. This year it was a little earlier, and she is older now, so we decided to let her go. They got to wear bright pink shirts and a bunch of glow stick stuff. They had glow sitcks in their laces, too, but they were pretty disappointing in how bright they were.

Like lots of babies, Eliza has become fascinated with other babies. I saw her pick up Twinkletoes and walk her over to her little reclining chair thing here and sit down and hold her. I think she was getting her ready for a nap. So cute! "Babies" is one of Eliza's very favorite words.

Sabrina helping in the kitchen with some muffin making. This picture brought to you by Kodiak Cakes. 

Spring came early this year, so we have already found lots of blue bonnets blooming on the side of the road. We were just driving home and saw a ton of these pretty flowers, so we pulled over and picked a few and took some pictures. One of the rare beautiful things in Dallas. 

Eliza wanted me to fill up this little bucket so she could scrub the stairs. I know you are saying "A likely story," but I swear it is true. The picture I took here came out with her looking a little grumpy, but that is just a working grump face. I swear she smiled once she realized I was holding a camera, but too late for this photo. She loves to keep things in order. Such a helpful little girl.