Our day in phrases, cuz mama's too tired to think

coffee with the one I love
picnic packing
waking children
yogurt, fruit, pecans and chia seeds
mcgriddles - yep, you read that right :)
1.5 hour drive through the gorgeous hills that we call home
VW westie cruzin'
happy children
peeing on a gravel road
exploring the hilly slopes, weeds and creek after the pee
sanctuary with UU's
Pathways Spiritual Sanctuary
meandering hike
babies and snacks
picnic lunch under a shady tree
sleepy stroller ride
Buddhist water ceremony
carrot eating horses
sun and blue sky
ice cream with beloved friends
playing and falling more in love with ZJ
lots of nursing time 
giggles and funny faces, enough so to warrant picture taking by passing bikers
left-overs
pitiful fire pit fire
but hot enough to burn little fingers :(
snuggles with my biggest boy
sleepy time

Summer Snapshots

A half hour after this photo was taken, we all loaded up to go join the Halo: Reach prelaunch party at Game Stop. Well, Saylor enjoyed the festivities, the rest of us hung out in the car and read Harry Potter. And slept. ;)
Big Daddy on the Rope Swing.
Saylor on the rope swing.
Sunshine Girl.
Hangin' with the friends.

Little moments...

So, these are kind of in 'reverse order', but that's ok. Here, Beautiful Stone turns 9! We had a small gathering of friends join us at Peppy's Pizza where we ate pizza, played games, had some lazer tag fun and gorged on chocolate cake - well, I gorged. I love chocolate cake.
My lovely sister and my sweet baby daughter. Simply kissable, both of 'em!
Max, our old dog. He was brought home about a month before I got pregnant with Saylor. Saylor turns 12 in January. Old dog. Deaf now, but still totally loyal and protective of our babies.
Daddy and Baby Girl.
One of 4, yes, ***4*** visits from Diana and Hayden this summer. I love these people. I believe we're playing a very fun game called "bullshit" here. I highly recommend it.

Pictures from Mayflower Co. Park

Our Big Backyard... just beyond the lagoon that you see here, is the Colorado River, and a small beach upon which we spent nearly every day...

The boys discovered some large fish that had made their way into the lagoon, and so wouldn't be convinced to take a break until they actually *netted* one. Here you have it!

Saylor and Dustin; Dustin is the biologist who was here researching the lagoon area and who's vowed to us to do whatever he can to NOT let them dredge the area. The crazy noise that comes from this area every evening, did, indeed, turn out to be a toad. The Colorado Toad, to be exact. Loud little buggers!

Saylor and Erin making hummus

A friendly game of Chinese checkers... Sage, Yewan, Holden and John

Captivated by one of John's crazy, yet quite entertaining (i laugh every time i hear one, and i've heard them all dozens of times) stories from his childhood

Andrew celebrated his birthday while we were here! Between Erin and I, we were able to scrape together a cake, which was quite tasty with her scrumptious frosting...cashew butter, maple syrup mixture

The boys are gathering here to watch John and Andrew come floating on down the river.

John hauled our umbrella down the first day we were here, and this is where it stayed the entire two weeks, chairs and all. Nobody bothered them, and they were available whenever we needed them. The baby sure appreciated the shade! Thanks, honey!

Mayflower County Park

After our time in Joshua Tree, we were ready for the water again. As it turns out, on our last night there, we met a beautiful family (from Canada... I told you!!!) that had decided to head toward the river, as well, so we agreed to meet up there. We've been here for two weeks, and have put the beach and river and lagoon to good use. The weather was magnificent, except for the couple of days that were so windy you couldn't be outside because of the dirt, sand and dust flying everywhere. It was great going to bed every night, knowing whatever you left out wouldn't get rained on. Desert living, I guess, but strange not having to pop out of bed in the middle of the night and do a mental run-down of what might be outside when you hear raindrops on the roof.

We experienced out first earthquake while we were here, too. The boys slept right through it, but I woke up thinking someone was outside pushing on our bus. The movement was enough to make the bus groan and creak, but nothing fell off of/out of anything. We went back to sleep thinking maybe the boys were just rolling over in their bed (that was John's explanation, but I really couldn't see how little bodies, even if they both rolled over simultaneously, could cause that degree of movement); and it wasn't until the next morning when John mentioned something to Erin (of our traveling partners for the time) said, "WHAT? *I* woke up thinking someone was outside pushing on *our* trailer!" We did a little research on-line, and sure enough, earthquake.

Saylor and Stone had some bigger kids to play with the whole time, too; Gio (we met him last time we were in this area, a couple weeks back) and Star and JJ (they live here in a house, their dad works for the park system). They were on their bicycles daily and worked on a fort in some jungle like growth that borders the campground.

Our time here was magical in many ways. We spent 2 weeks creating a new relationship with friends, having the most *real* conversations about *real* stuff. We learned so much from each other. The boys enjoyed their children (they've got 3 boys, as well: 5, 4 and 4 months). I ***adored*** their children, and it was sweet cuddling on the baby. Andrew graciously accepted my plea to teach us some new drum rhythms, so we did quite a lot of drumming together.

We're leaving today, heading toward Las Vegas where we'll meet up with Erin, Andrew and boys for a night or two so Andrew can share some of his bouldering knowledge with us. We're also planning a Trader Joe's run and a stop at REI while we're there. Then, it's onward to Hurricane, UT where we'll spend a week at Sand Hollow State Park with my mom, who'll drive from Reno to meet us there on Monday. After that, we're taking the road north to Rapid City for a couple fun-filled weeks with friends before we go east to Minnesota for John's work season. I **reeeeaaalllly!* hope that the weather decides to behave itself while we're making our way north-ward, and while we're actually there. It is spring, after all, so I do hope it decides to act like it!

Blythe, CA

Blondie boys.... A day after we'd arrived here in Hidden Beaches (just outside of Blythe, CA on the Colorado River), a lovely young couple crossed our paths. They're full-timing with their 10-year-old son and we were lucky enough to spend some time with this sweet family.
Geno even cooked us some soul-satisfying Italian grub...Amy pitched in, too...apple pie for dessert. Didn't I tell ya we were lucky??? Thanks again for the delicious dinner and thought-provoking conversation! :)
just hangin' out......in our new backyard (for the week)
We've got quite the neighbor, here, too! This young lady is nesting in a tree right beside the bus. She just sits there and stares at us like this all day. Ok. We do plenty of staring at her, so it's a mutual thing. Daddy owl comes in for nightly visits...I hear him hooting outside right now. Ruka (our cat) was out the other day, and a little too close for Papa Owl's comfort, so he swooped down at her. She hasn't been quite so excited to dash out the door, like she usually does. I guess between him and the pack of coyotes we hear from across the river, she's decided inside is a decent place to spend her time.
On the dock at sunset

Slab City, USA

Slab City, located just outside of Niland, CA, is a trip, for SURE!! We first heard of this uniqe place a couple years ago, when we were parked at Lake Elsinore for the winter. A 'young-at-heart' couple stopped by to chat with us about our bus conversion and told us all about theirs, which happened to be parked, at the time, at Slab City. We'd planned to travel there before the rally, but fate meant for us to share this place with friends so we were there with a couple other families and had one interesting experience after another!

In the photo above, we're watching Into the Wild. Way cool to see that movie in *this* amazing place. "Alexander Supertramp" spent time here. See the movie, then come to Slab City, then see the movie again. Groovy, baby!

What is there to do when you're sitting around in the desert and the temps are topping 92 degrees? How about a solar oven? Brownies, anyone? ;) ***disclaimer*** this solar oven didn't result in entirely cooked brownies. We had to scoop them, quite drippy, but still yummy! into cups for everyone.
Solar Oven: take 2. The next day, we tried our hand at a batch of ham and bean soup. It cooked for most of the day, but I think the temp inside the oven only topped out at under 200 degrees. Slow cooking... :) We did, indeed, end up feasting on scrumptious soup later this evening, but we had to finish it off on a stove, but only for about 30 minutes or so, not too bad!

Jason and John...aka Goofy Face. We all (or maybe it was just me???) sort of drug our hot, sweaty butts around all day in a bit of a haze. When the sun went down and cool air filled up the space, people came to life. I know, we're wimpy. Jason is a skate-boarder (slash/singer/songwriter extraordinaire), and Slab City just so happens to have an empty Olympic sized pool that he put to good use. He was kind enough to give Stone some pointers and we all ended up spending quite a bit of time hanging out at the 'skate park' while we were there.
...soaking up some Girl Love...with Ocean and Avery...

Late February

The campground at South Carlsbad State Beach overlooked the ocean; so we had to climb down those really looooooooooong stairs to get to the actual beach. It worked quite nicely, really; by the time you'd climbed those many stairs most of the sand had fallen off...y'know, outside, where it belongs, instead of in our bed!
Steve and friends worked on this doozy. It's a sand-replica of their skoolie...complete with solar panels on top, see?
This photo (of Eddie, Steve, peeking Caleb, John and Saylor) was taken at Oceanside Harbor--notice the harbor in the background. We'd heard about this parking lot that was on the beach and allowed overnight parking. (which is oh-so-rare for Southern California) For $15 a night, we thought we'd check it out. Well, it turns out, they have the pay structure set so that you pay $5 to be there for the day (days end at 8, with a grace period til 10), and then $10 to be there for the night--which, here at OH, gets you from 10:00pm to 4:00am. But, they were kind enough to offer a grace period until 8:00am. If you leave by 8:00 am, that's all you pay. If you're like us, and not even awake quite yet, you better get your butt over there and pay an additional $5; so it really came out to be $20 a night. To park in a parking lot. No hook-ups. I can handle those. It's the crazy parking lot patrol that quickly turned our little pow-wow into suck-city. We couldn't have any.thing. outside of our designated 'parking space'. And the spaces were very, very narrow. We were scolded when we had a few chairs sitting between a couple of the rigs so we could chat. No ticket, luckily. One of our traveling companions wasn't so lucky and ended up with a $200 ticket for drinking a beer in the parking lot. We probably won't spend any more time at this particular place. Luckily, we've found so many other wonderful places to be! :)
Our little round-up for the night at Oceanside Harbor. Though the parking-lot-crazies tried to rain on our parade, we did enjoy the big playground structure that sat directly in front of all our rigs, and then beyond that, the grand pacific. The harbor seals put on quite a show, complete with nearly round the clock concerts. Noisy little critters! The kids found over 50 whole (as in unbroken) sand dollars on the beach here, as well, so they were psyched. They also found a couple live crabs and a starfish. So, it wasn't *all* bad! There's a blessing to be found in every situation.

South Carlsbad State Beach

John and little ones, enjoying the surf...
A rare photo, indeed! Thanks, Kara! ;)
Dumpin' the poo...at least the view is nice!
Barber John! :) And my sweet friend, Winston. Where's *my* red head?

...making music with friends...

These shots are from a couple weeks ago, taken right after we left the rally in Newport Dunes. I'm playing a bit of catch up. Such is life when the fun never stops...tiring, but wouldn't trade it! I'll get some more posts up and hopefully get us caught up to where we actually are right now. (colorado river) And I really need to do our taxes somewhere in there, too. whew.

We update our status on Facebook quite often, so if ya'll wanna be our friend, look for me!

The Grandest of Grand houses...a kid's dream, I tell you! And this house just happens to be stocked very well to keep children of any age entertained for a long, long time!

Preparing the water rockets.

Adding the pressure necessary to make it FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!


I wasn't quick enough to get the bottle leaving the launch pad, but I did get this cool shot of the water escaping. Can you see it?

A Really Full, Fun Day!

Whew, still catching our breath here after a long day that began with me having to raise sleeping children out of bed (but they wanted me to!) We went on a field trip to an organic farm that's structured as a CSA (consumer supported agriculture). By supporting a CSA, you make a commitment to the farmer by signing up for a weekly 'basket' of fruits and veggies, whatever is being harvested at the time.

Farmer Donna did an outstanding job showing us around her most gorgeous Morning Song Farm.
The kids were able to gather macadamia nuts, throw them into a big nut cracking machine, then sort them from the shells and bad nuts. Oh, yes, and they got to eat a bunch too! One of their main crops is macadamia's. They crack them on Sundays and ship them out on Mondays. Ya don't get much fresher, organic, raw macadamias than *that*! They were so good, and really the only way to improve them would have been to cover them, of course, with some nice dark organic chocolate!

She had the kids plant some high quality heirloom seeds, the only kind Farmer Donna uses, in some little starter trays. Saylor and Stone both planted Black Beauty Eggplant. Thinking of how these seeds began, with my boys pressing them into the soil, and knowing they will end up on someones plate someday, was really something cool to envision. I wonder who will eat "their" eggplant? Then, we all made the trek down a steep, windy road where the children mulched a large heirloom potato patch. (is that what they're called? a farmer i'm not...though, this would be so much fun to do, i'd just have a whole lot to learn!) We picked kumquats, my favorite! right off the tree, saw avocados and lots of other exotic fruits that I've never heard of but would love to try. We were all able to meet her exotic chickens and llama's and hear so much great information on what it takes to operate a farm and why she chooses to do things the way she does. It was truly very inspirational and such a beautiful, peaceful place. I'm thankful I was able to see this 'side' of California. Perfectly breathtaking...

After the 2 hour field trip, we met Sue & Steve at the park, had a fast food picnic and watched the kids play for another couple of hours. And then, as if we hadn't already played our little hearts out, we went to their house for a while and enjoyed the late afternoon sun and played a few rounds of a card game, which I'm not forgetting the name of...something like Spite & Malice. (i think?) Whenever we go there, Stone just disappears with Harry and they play and play and play. We never see them, they're just off doing their thing together and playing so great. I'm happy for Stone to have this, because it's generally always been Saylor who's had the 'buddy', and Stone gets to tag along as best as he can. Now it seems the tables have turned a bit, as Maddy isn't always quite as eager to play with Saylor as Saylor is to play with her. But, there's something to be learned from this experience, so it's all good!

Now, I've got lavender in the diffuser and a sleeping babe at my side. What a way to wrap up a glorious day!