First Day of School! First Day of School!

Well that summer went fast!  We barely even had time to get to that super bored, what-should-we-do, when does school start phase of summer.  

So here we are:  mid-August and we're back at it.  Although I didn't nearly dread school starting this time like last year, when I was juggling a 10 day old baby, 3 schools, a new kindergartener and a new middle schooler.  THAT was insane.  

No, today was easy.  A piece of cake.  Totally relaxed.    We even had plenty of time to take pictures! So here we are at 7:15 a.m. on the front porch before heading out to do drop off.

"Mom, what's 'rad' ?" said Grayson.

"You are rad, Grayson!!"  Totally awesome, dude.  Here's my first grader, headed off to school with his big brother...finally.

And my totally chill 4th grader.  His main concern?  "Mom, what if Marisol is in my class again??" (she's had a crush on him since 2nd grade.)  Turns out she IS in his class again, along with his BFF, Matthew (for the 3rd year...score!).  Oh, and least 5 girls like him now.  He counted.

 This girl was very excited to be in the 7th grade.  All different teachers for all subjects, including yearbook.  And an average of 45 kids per class.

And here we are at Balboa for the requisite 1st day of school picture.  I can't believe they are almost the same height.  They are so excited to be at the same school and to be able to play together on the yard.  

 
I was surprised by how sad I felt as I dropped each of them off.  I actually found myself a little weepy as I said goodbye to each one.  Derek even refused to give me a kiss!!  (Guess he didn't want Marisol to see).  Thank goodness I still have Brooke to keep me company!

Passing Time

 We've tried to keep our days busy this summer and, until this week, we've done good job of going on outings several times a week.  One attraction we couldn't miss was seeing the "Endeavour" down at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.  After retiring the shuttle, NASA flew it into LAX sometime last year and paraded it through the streets of LA en route to the museum, where it could be enjoyed by all for a small fee of $2.

Cali was chosen as her final resting place in part because she was assembled here in SoCal back in the 90's, after the Challenger disaster.  Endeavour made 25 missions, I believe, and was named for Captain James Cook's ship, the Endeavour.  It was cool to see something so massive up close and realize where it had been.  Because the Museum is in the process of creating a permanent exhibit, there is hope that eventually people will be able to get closer and possibly go inside some parts of the ship.  We were all struck by the spongy look of the white paneling, and the thickness of the heat tiles.

We had hoped to get to all of the exhibits, along with about 10,000 other ppl and summer camp groups that day.  We had a prolonged stop at the aquarium area because Brooke was entranced.

I've NEVER seen her hold this still for anything other than sleep.  She stayed here until I moved her out of the way of a crushing throng of summer camp kids.

Sadly, the electricity totally went out right after this and the museum closed early, which was odd considering it was only mildly warm that day.  But at least we got a head start on traffic!

Another day we took advantage of the cooler weather and headed out to Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce, so named for the 19th century bandit, Mr. Vasquez, who hid his stolen horses in these rocks.  Ali and Susie will remember the thrill of bringing 5 small children over these rocks, 2 of which (Grayson and Ben) were in backpacks.  I was surprised at how easy it was this time, not carrying 2 year old Grayson.

The kids were up this high before Lee and I got out of the car.  He had to run up after them just to get a picture!

Can you see Brooke and me?

My ever-cautious Carissa.

There we are!  Brooke would have nothing to do with the pack without a fight.

 
Almost to the top!   There are so many different ridges and formations that you could spend hours exploring them all.  We stayed until the sun broke through the clouds and became too hot.

 Of course, summer wouldn't be complete without trips to the beach.  This has been the summer of volleyball training for Carissa.  She has been working hard with Lee, having taken a huge interest in the sport. She's improving rapidly, too!

We'll see how long the father/coach thing works out, though.  Prediction:  not much longer.

"Dad, come swim with us."  Not when the water is about 68 degrees, boys.

Carissa getting out of the sand.

 

 

Derek always wants to race.  Lee still lets him know who the Alpha Male is, but I am long past being able to out sprint this boy.  Sad.

Doing their "wall sits"

And no summer would be complete without a backyard fire and campout.  We had FHE this night and made s'mores.

And after sleeping 3 nights in bear country at Wright's lake in tents, they all got scared at about 11:30 and came in to sleep in their own beds. Seriously?!?  What am I raising here?  City kids??

The local park is always a great place to finish up the day.  They have free swimming from 3-6 everyday and if you're 8 or older (or just happen to look like you're 8- wink, wink), you can go without a parent!  Although swimming at a city pool means mostly being afraid that the 15 lifeguards are going to yell at you ( "don't run!", "don't dive", "don't splash!", "don't go under the ropes!", "don't breathe!!!")", the kids like to do tricks off the platform ( but you must jump STRAIGHT OUT! Lee discovered this when he got yelled at after doing a can opener on the lifeguard standing to the side) and they like to swim in a really deep pool. Most days we take along the only neighbor friend the boys have, Aracelis, who is 10.

 They finish it up with a round of tag on the playground equipment and, on this day, Grayson just pooped out and fell asleep on the wall.

I gotta say, after this summer, that's exactly how I feel.  I think I'm ready for the craziness of school! ...well, sort of.

Lake Pal

After a year off, we resumed our annual Lake Powell trip in June.  We were especially excited to tow 2 jet skis, a water mat, a tube, the water trampoline, and the stand-up board in addition to everything else.  So what happens when you add a lot of extra weight to a trailer that, unbeknownst to you, has an already weak tire??

You continue in the Steed tradition of vacation breakdowns, of course!!  Luckily, this occurred immediately after merging onto the freeway, and a short 2 miles from a tire store.  Nearly 3 hours later, we were on our way.

We enjoyed our trip through the desert.  The highlight is probably passing the Zzyzx exit.  Thanks, Zzyzx, for helping us with the alphabet game!

And look who we found on the Windwalker with us!  At this point Ali and Jeremiah were fairly excited, unaware of the toll that 2 weeks on a houseboat with a zillion other ppl takes on you.

And look who else!  Kephanie!!  Also super excited!

I thought I should include one of the 3 pictures of myself that were snapped during the trip.  I've read these sad articles by moms who never took pictures of themselves and their kids look back and forget that they ever had a mom because she's never documented via photograph as ever having participated with the family in any way.  Sounds a little extreme, but in truth there are few pictures of myself, so here's the obligatory top-o-the houseboat couple shot.

75 miles upriver, we approach our beach spot.  The lake is so low this year, that everything looked very different.  Just two years ago, we anchored well above where you see the bushes in the middle of the hill.  Jeremiah and Chuck get ready to untie the anchor ropes.  Poor Kevin, he has no idea of the digging that awaits him.

Dig, Lee!  Dig!!  We don't want to blow away! Kevin got horrendous blisters on his palms doing the same.  Too much office work the past year, I suppose.

Typical dinner shot.  Looks like taco salad night!

My babies.

Aside from digging many, many holes (which may or may not have included approximately 8 or 12 latrine holes), Kevin was our AV guy, as well.  Thank goodness!  He saved movies up top by figuring out what the problem was and spending some time upside down looking at wires.  Thanks Kevin!

Father and daughter off the front of the boat.

This is what it feels like to go on a houseboat with a walking 11 month old.  All day.  All the time.  It actually wasn't a very relaxing trip.  Fun, yes.  But not relaxing.  At all.  Thanks, Brooke!

But she sure is cute eating her Cup o' Soup topside (mother of the year, right here).  This is probably my favorite time of day on the lake, when the sun starts to disappear and it cools down and the water becomes impossibly perfect.  

Seesters!  On our day trip to Escalante River.  It was a long way, but fun to see some of the amazing rock formations.

No day trip would be complete without rock jumping!

Lee doing his best to knock the kids off the water mat.

Waaaay off in the distance you can see Steph totally photo bombing this shot..  She had this really amazing instruction on the SUP and was pretty much tearing it up on this flat, glassy water.

Hey, there she is!

All of the boys.  Grayson and Mason (gray rash guard in front)  are 5 days apart in age.  Mason is older.

About half way through the trip we moved spots to this fabulous sandy beach area. It was much better for playing outside.

And hanging out.

And for wearing your Duggar suit.

And holding your new wife/husband on your last vacation for a really, really, really loooooooong time. (j/k lol, Kephanie- just a long time)

We had such a great time and were so stoked that family could be with us.  Although we neglected to take a single shot of wake boarding, surfing, wake skating or tubing, there was an awful lot of that, too.  

Until next year....

This was the hottest temp of the trip, BTW- going through Baker, CA on the way home.  Yikes!