Charades

When you want to play "Charades", you should put in words like glacier, beanie baby, and chameleon. Here's how you act each one out:

glacier: while in downward dog position, walk your hards forward dragging your feet behind you

beanie baby: lay flat on your stomach with arms flopped to your sides

chameleon: on all fours, crawl around like an insect, alligator, or animal of your choice

These actions will guarantee that your team will guess the right word, and you'll have a great family activity. :)

Car(a)ful...

Highlights for this past week...

1. All--creating terrible puns using Cara's names
2. Scot--surviving finals week, then getting sick to prove he did
3. James--juicy fruit gum science experiments
4. Amy--attending pottery birthday parties, including both the crockery and Harry kind
5. Cara--putting on weight and practicing smiling
6. Paul--practicing his mad backgammon skills, which include not losing pieces
7. Maggie--hypothesizing, proving, evaluating...all the cool kids do it
8. Brian--creating a magical space where cars can be parked

In addition, another church basketball season has begun, the basement is filled with dirt (on purpose), and the new shed is already almost full. :)

2012

The year 2012, for me, can be captured in one photo:

The same probably can't be said for everyone else in our family, except that every house project, big and small, was enveloped in preparing for Cara.

What else did we do? School, work, scouts, NYLT, activity day girls, Hatch cruise, concerts, birthday parties, gardening, 5Ks and cross country running, loads of dishes, mountains of laundry--a typical year with lots of untypical events. I'm looking forward to highlighting some of the fun things we did in 2012 and posting more in 2013!

Back to Ohio

We're back from a great vacation in California in time to get ready for school, harvest a little from our neglected garden, and enjoy the last couple weeks of summer break.

Climbing the rock walls at Beech Acres.

The boys trying to help Maggie get down. She psyched herself out and wouldn't take that first step of faith down.

One of James' knitting projects--not scout related. :)

First day of school. No quicker way to lose that tan!

...and they're off! Paul & I are off to play without them.

California Adventures Part IV: Newport Beach House

What's not to love about a week at the beach? We were so glad to spend this time with Brian's immediate and extended family. They came from all over to enjoy the sun and play Rook. :) It was decided that we needed to move to the beach, especially as we saw Paul's eczema clear up with the salt water and sun.

A few extra highlights:

• the park
• paddleboard "plank off"
• running the board walk
• sunset walks
• riding bikes
• eating dinner at G/G Hatch's house
• watching at all the gawking people--"did you see how many people are in there?!?"
• running across the hot sand
• digging for lost Rainbow sandals
• frisbee & paddle ball

California Adventures Part III: Grandma & Grandpa's House

What else could we possibly do in California?

How about shopping with Grandma for some sweet shades and new shoes? (It may have been a little overwhelming for Paul.)

Or how about hanging out with our cousins--swimming at the pool, playing at the beach, paddleboarding, taking advantage of their projects... :)

Whether we were relaxing, helping serve the homeless, making do' boy sticks & bags, shopping, making cookies, or replacing glasses and other items that were swallowed by the ocean, the days filled themselves up, and we loved every minute of it!

California Adventures Part II: Thornton Reunion

We loved hosting this year's Thornton Reunion in California! We knew not everyone would be able to make the trip, (it's usually us who can't come!) but those that braved the distance were rewarded with paddleboarding, sandcastles, a diner dinner, jumping waves (with and without the accompanying somersaults), a bonfire at the beach, a new campfire treat, a nearly-sunrise hike, family history, playing with cousins, crazy games with fun prizes, a trolley ride, a mexican fiesta, and a stroll at sunset. It was a wonderful time spent together! Here are some photo highlights: