We spent a chilly Saturday at the beach. I was freezing and I was fully clothed. But Jason and the kids still had a good time.
Riggin goes around screaming and throwing dirt.
And then he discovered chasing the birds is fun.
Mijken, Jason wanted me to assure you he has shorts. He even asked me to take a picture so you could see.
Of course pictures can’t do it justice (especially since I wasn’t using a tripod), but it was pretty cool. We hope to go to a launch someday. Kache is already planning going to Mars.
As unsocial as I am, this new experience is so cool to me. Maybe novelty is the right word. We live in a neighborhood with lots of other kids who run free after school and always have a friend to play with. I just wish we didn’t live so close to a busy road and I would let my kids run free as well. When the school kids are gone during the day, Dallie and her little friends jump on the tramp and play on the swing set together. It’s really fun.
In other news, our old Nebraska neighbors are now our new Florida neighbors. We’re excited to have them here, even if it is just for a short time.
I can’t believe I’m sending one of my kids to pre-school. It’s never been necessary, or even realistic because of where we lived. But I feel like Dallie and I need some separation in preparation for kindergarten next year. Kinder here is all day, every day, and with the bus ride over an hour each way, it’s going to be a long day. In Lakeside I wasn’t worried about that kind of a day because I knew all the school kids and I knew Debbie would take care of Dallie. I don’t have that reassurance here. So even though pre-school is only 3 hours a week, hopefully it will help us be ready for next year. And Dallie already loves having her own school to talk about and look forward to.
Jason took us out to the orange grove the other day. It’s such a strange life we’re living now. We live in a place where oranges and grapefruit grow. And alligators live. It’s January and 80 degrees and we went swimming in the ocean. We have neighbors and Walmart is 20 minutes away. I walk the boys to the bus stop every morning. Dallie is even going to pre-school. This is not the life I imagined. It’s not a bad life, just different. It doesn’t feel real. Like we’re on a long vacation. Strange.
This little lizard has been in our back porch for a couple of days now. He was pretty quick, so it took Kache a little while to catch him.
The boys (and their mother) survived the first day of school in Florida. The school is huge (anything is huge compared to what we are used to), there are 6 classes of each grade, but the class sizes only average 16ish students. So I figure it is comparable in size to my graduating class. Kache didn’t say much about the first day of school. Ryder got lost once during PE and somehow ended up with Kache’s class. But thankfully they both got on the right bus and made it home safely.
The unpacking is coming along. I can see the floor and counter tops now. It’s been hard trying to figure out where to put the stuff that was in all our out-buildings on the Star. Our garage stinks like horse tack and dog food. I still haven’t figured out how to work the house thermostat (our my own body’s thermostat either). I’m freezing one minute and the next I’m sweating.
Unfortunately, one of the dogs has already been run over. Star got out of her collar and was run over when chasing cars the other night.
This shot was taken from our front porch. We were a little sad that it was Stake Conference (only 35 minutes away) this week so we couldn’t walk to church.
Our “sub division”. The kids all ride their bikes and play on this gravel road in front of the houses.
The view out back. Mijken, I was sad I didn’t have my camera with me when I walked the boys to the bus stop this morning. I would have had the perfect header shot with the sun rise (what we can see of the sun rise) and the fog in the trees.
The great room. It just needs a great couch.
The front room.
The master.
The boys’ and Dallie’s rooms. Riggin is asleep, but his room is the same as these.
After getting some work done Friday morning, we had to go to town for groceries and so the boys could get school physicals. Then we went out to the coast so the kids could see the ocean. They were a little hesitant to put their feet in at first, but after the first wave hit them, they loved it. They can’t wait to go back (Jason included). It was a cold and misty day (for Florida standards) so the beach was pretty empty.
