DC Days 4 & 5! (Sunday & Monday)

US Navy Memorial & Shopping. They each took no more than $50 spending money and get a chance to buy souveniers that catch their eyes. The kids found fun sunglasses they're all wearing, along with snazzy DC ball caps! I can't wait to see what little goodies they come back with.

Supreme Court! They learned that there's a higher court than the Supreme one ... turns out they have a basketball court on the roof so THAT'S the highest court in the land! Hopefully this is the one & only time any of my family sits in that building!

US Botanic Garden (only 30 mins!)

Museum of the American Indian (only 30 mins!!!!!! Alex was very disappointed and wanted to explore way more of this... I don't blame him, I could be happy skipping every other thing on this tour & just hang out in this building!)

Millennium Stage - Dance from India (beautiful, wonderful show, very cool performance but they're running around so much that poor Alex fell asleep & Derek nodded off!!)

DC Days 2 & 3!

CASEY DIVING! & SLEEPOVER BUDDY & CASEY MAKES PLANKTON

Adventure, adventure, adventure... the 7th graders are exploring, learning, and eating! The 7th graders cook their own dinner, Derek says tonight they had "clumpy noodles, cold meatballs, "bite" sized lettuce the size of saucers, but it's the best meal!"

I haven't seen enough pictures of Alex on the official Franklin blog so hopefully he'll start dashing in front of the camara for the remaining days!! I look forward to seeing what treasures are on Derek's camara, & what's on Alex's!! What does a 12-almost-13-yr old take pictures of in Washington DC? We're about to find out! My mom always said "put a person in there!" Years later you won't remember where that giant tree was, or the big rock, or the majestic mountain (ok maybe you'll remember that one) but if someone dear is standing in front of it--that's a picture! And I dare say the majestic mountain is better off with a beloved in front of it too...

Casey and I had an adventure of our own. Went to Newport Saturday afternoon & let the pups run around on the beach, then we went to the aquarium for a "sleepover" which ended up being much more than that! We got a special tour while the kids did a scavenger hunt, room by neato room. Then they sat in small groups and manipulated pieces of kitchen sponge, clay, straws, and toothpicks to create Plankton that would float just beneath the surface of water (see photo!) Then it was off to the shark tunnel where we lined our sleeping bags up & tucked children into "bed" (see second photo). Followed by lights out and many many many many many minutes of whispers, giggles, inappropriate body sounds, laughter, then finally all was quiet except for the sounds of snores from the various fathers scattered around the tunnel. Did I mention all of these sounds echo fabulously in the tunnel? I think all in all I might have slept for 12 mins or so...

Then up & at 'em for Daylight Savings Time, and a very special treat of behind-the-scenes in the aviary and seal/sea lion feeding which was extremely cool!!! We saw the creatures doing tricks and earning treats, leaping out of the water, it was like a mini Sea World visit. Cutest of all was the seal baby which started out following the verbal & visual cues very closely and then just blew off its trainer to swim around the pool : ) The overnight stay came with free admission today, so after a night in the aquarium we went back for more! Extremely fun, super fun and I'm so glad we went!! (see photo!)

DC Day 1!

White House Tour! After much waiting in line, the group was told that Franklin was on the tour list but not the individual Students. So un-line. Then re-line because they sorted it out! One of the 7th graders asked if Obama was in the white house, a security dude corrected his too-casual question "do you mean President Obama? He's at his desk working." Derek said it was interesting but they filed thru pretty quickly.

Numerous war memorials later (sobering) everyone was back at the hotel for dinner. The kids make their dinners in the kitchenette; tonight Alex browned/seasoned taco meat while other kids chopped veggies so they could eat Tacos.

Alex called me when they got in LATE LAST NIGHT (I think all the kids had dropped off to sleep by 1 or 2am Eastern time...) and he called me again tonight. He is having a very good time, they were cold walking around today especially at the Washington monument which is on a hill.. but they are DRY. He didn't say specifically that he missed ME but evidently he does miss the DOGS and wondered what exuberant welcome he could expect from them!

Casey and I hung out after school to play, like we nearly always do, but I told him we could stay AS LONG AS HE WANTED so we pretty much shut that place down, even the office was closed! Then we went up to Albany for Burgerville (Casey's request) so he could get ice cream and soda (two very special treats!!) We've been having a very good time just us two :)

tomorrow (Saturday)... National Archives, Natural History Museum, Lunch at Old Post Office Pavillion, American History Museum, Millennium State "Puppets from India" !

DC Travel Day!

Casey & I took Alex & Derek to school this morning at 7:30, got hugs and Casey had big old tears in his eyes!! His 2nd grade teacher was gonna watch extra close today to make sure he was feeling ok. We'll have our own adventures here on our coast but we miss them already!

It's almost 2 and they're up in the air still on their way to a layover in Denver. Hopefully the backpack full of beef jerky, leftover pizza, Goji bars, sunflower seeds, popcorn, etc etc etc will tide Alex over for lunch and dinner, they don't expect to get to the hotel room in DC until 10 or 11 tonight!

Friday 03/11 is their first DC Adventure Day! They plan to get up at 7:00 for breakfast at the hotel, then a White House tour, Lafayette Square Eisenhower Exe Office Building, Zero Milestone Boy Scout Mem, stop to eat sack lunches at the Ellipse, then Washington Monument, Korean War Memorial, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Einstein National Academy of Sciences, then back to the hotel for dinner and lights out at 9:30.

WOW!

Follow their blog on: http://2011franklindctrip.blogspot.com/

Boys Soccer Schedule posted

I don't know yet what games I'm Ref-ing so will add those times later. Practices start after Spring Break which is sure coming up fast!

My biggest boys are gearing up for their Washington DC trip, they leave Thursday morning bright and early!! Alex had a headache/sore throat all weekend so stayed home today to Recoup! Gotta be healthy for the big trip! His teachers were appreciative that he kept those germs at home, I'm wishing the other families had done the same last week (I spoke with several parents this morning who said "oh yeah, my so-&-so had that same thing last week!")

Casey and I will help our handiman install sliding glass doors on Saturday, then head to the Newport Aquarium for an exciting night ....... we'll be 2 of 20 people allowed in after hours to explore and (try to) sleep in the Shark Tunnel!! Bwa ha haaaaa!! Then we get to see all the aquarium critters being fed Sunday morning, before the Public is allowed in. I think Sunday we'll try to crash Vancouver & hang with our Wester-friends but they don't know about it yet...

Washington DC updates to follow!

Needed Updating!

Thank you Bob and Aletha for pointing out the outdated soccer schedule on our blog! I placed a new one on there today, whew, that feels a little better. It sounds like we might have company on Friday? That would be wonderful! Casey has soccer that night from 6:00-7:15 at a nearby school so you might see some little dudes kick the ball around!

Gearing up for Alex's soccer practice tonight, then once Derek gets home I'm going to "Cloud 9" to celebrate Kimmer's birthday! Woot!

Currently watching Casey climbing on the giant mound of tree shavings in our driveway, he's singing a song while shooting hoops. He's enjoying being so much closer to the hoop, but really we should be spreading that good smelling stuff around the yard! We started in the back around the planting beds and it sure looks great!

Brag Alert! The boys in school

Fair warning, please be prepared for some bragging! Read on if you want details on the school year thus far...

Franklin is a "school of choice" so it's public but with a focus on the Core Knowledge curriculum which stresses the ol' Three-Rs. It has grades K-8 so the little people interact with the older classes. We love the small middle school (an amazing 178 compared to the 514 to 662 enrollment of 3 other Corvallis middle schools!!) The curriculum is tough, middle school is especially challenging, but they sure learn a lot.

Alex’s 6th grade Science is amazing, we were talking the other day & he added this to the conversation “well you know, water IS the universal solvent” …. For that matter his Language & Social Studies classes are outstanding too, Derek and I are mostly familiar with the vocab words he brings home but not all of them!!! I swear one of his workbooks feels like it’s college level (I searched the covers & title pages but couldn’t find a grade level on it). It’s the best Math year for him ever, the teacher is approximately twelve years old (well, he must be older than that but he is quite young & the kids sure like him). Alex is earning As and Bs in very demanding classes and we are soooooo proud of him!!

Casey has weekly homework in 1st grade but he whips thru it usually by Monday evening so we need to augment it a bit. We’re working with his teacher to nudge him some in math & reading, but we need to be more proactive about that & advocate for our little mister. It warms my heart to hear him reading, it’s like a light bulb turned on and he sees the words that are all around him on cereal boxes, video games, signs, etc etc etc… Another cool thing they do is ‘public speaking’ beginning in Kindergarten, first it’s “show and tell” then becomes oral reports which gives them quite an advantage over students that don’t get that, for these guys it’s fairly ordinary & not scary.

Both boys are fortunate to be surrounded by a good group of buddies, good kids all around, and it is so fun watching them grow. Things just feel really good! Anyway, that’s the scoop on how the kids are doing in school. It’s been an amazing first part of the year with more Adventure yet to come!

Tear It Up Boys

So, we went to Coos Bay yesterday to see Karen and Grandpa and because they were giving us some of their "old" couches. Our current couches were graciously donated from friends but they have seen a lot of good times and it was time they were replaced. We rented a 17' van, loaded them up and made the trip last night in the dark and fog. (Boy that was fun!) Today, as we were prepping the room, moving the old couches, vacuuming, etc., the boys asked for permission to jump on the old couches (something we never allow). We said, not only can you jump on them but when was the last time you were given permission to cut up a couch! Needless to say both boys dove into the couch with scissors and a knife faster than they can eat a large pizza.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, it's been a long time since we've posted. No excuses. Won't try and catch you up on everything that has happened, too much to cover here. But will post about our Thanksgiving Weekend.

We spent Thanksgiving itself with Wendi's family in Canby. A good time was had by all and we ate too much turkey too. There were darts and balloon fights. Good food and good conversation. Derek and Katri made their annual pilgrimage for "Damn Pie".

For the weekend we drove to Astoria to spend some time there, possibly gaming, definitely spending time with family and friends. Well, when we got there we discovered that several members had taken ill. The symptoms described pointed to the flu and we didn't want to risk getting sick. So we procured a hotel room and spent Saturday as a family doing some geo-caching and hiking. We had a BLAST! We got 12 or 13 caches, found a couple of ant nests and saw a bald eagle too, visited a windy beach, got the "wiggles" out of our dogs and just took our time exploring. We drove down the coast to get some Tillamook ice cream and got home Saturday night early enough that the kids were still awake. It was not what we had planned and we definitely would have liked to see folks but all in all we had a great time. It was an opportunity to demonstrate the "When Life Gives you Lemons" idea!

Snakes and Magicians

Had a great phone conversation to catch up with my little bro'. He is recovering from a nasssty virus that kicked his arse, the docs thought it was spinal menengitus & gave him a spinal tap to check his "fluids" but could thankfully rule that out. Turns out it's some morph of the swine flu, huge fever & blinding headache, he was a sick little puppy but feeling much better now. It was great to talk to him & we need to plan a trip up there to visit.

Alex called me up this morning because he's BORED. Poor fellow, nothing to do on his fabulous summer vacation. Oh if only we had those troubles!!! I came up with several very good suggestions but they weren't tempting I guess. I stepped outside my office while on the phone with him & I told him "Hey, I'm looking at a very cute snake". He said "I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!", hopped on his bike & pedeled furiously to my work. The snakey was still there & we admired it, took a phone pic, & then wondered if Alex could catch it. "If I catch it, do you guarantee it won't bite?" Uh, NO! But I can guarantee it's not venemous & won't leave any lasting scars. That wasn't good enough. Then our friend Mark stepped out & came over to see what we were up to. He channeled Steve Irwin & was quickly down on all fours poking around under the bush the snake was hiding under. I enjoyed watching both "boys" try to be brave & grab the snake's tail even though the snake was defensive & posing as a fierce critter & even 'striking' at their hands (can I interest you in a lot of false starts & cringes?!!) but finally I swooped in & snagged it, triumphantly holding up my prize which hung limp & docile in my hand. It was a pretty black snake with long yellow stripes, quite fat & sassy, not the biggest garter snake I've seen but good sized. Do you know what the first thing a garter snake does when it's been caught by a predator? I know this from experience, and it was confirmed when this guy (named BUSH) oblidgingly peed on my hand. Or is it poop? Yellow and extremely, I mean really, stinky. But hey, it's one of his few defenses! I handed him to Alex, and yes he peed on his hand too. We admired him & petted him for a bit, marveled at the soft scales & bad odor, & then let him go. Then we went inside for a good hand-washing! After which Alex pedaled back home. It was a very nice morning adventure....

Casey had his fourth day at "Little Beavers Summer Camp" & had a good time. Next week he begins his 4 day/wk swim lessons, whoopee! We came home, picked up Alex & Bear, then headed to our city's Central Park to meet up with some of Casey's school buds. His Little Peeps. They played good & hard, countless kids came up to meet Bear, then Alex tossed some balls for Bear, then we tucked the pup into the shaded car & walked to the library, where all The Little Peeps went to see the Magic Show. This was a "Join the Library Summer Reading Program" event & they had a very fun magic show, the kids thought it was hilarious & he did a great job. Now we're home, relaxing, thinking about wrangling up some sort of dinner, relaxing, wishing daddy was here with us but he's heading home soon.