Geocaching!

Geocaching: A nice tromp through the woods, or yet another reason I love my new cell phone (even though I have yet to figure out how to actually make a call on the thing).

Have you tried geocaching? I hadn't, until I saw a little description on Wendy's blog (sorry, she's private, or I'd link), and curiosity got the better of me. I looked up the geocaching website during dinner, signed up, and convinced the kids that this was a good use of our evening - with a little help from this video:




So, we looked up our closest cache, put the dog on a leash, and went on a treasure hunt with a GPS-enabled cell phone. Lo and behold, we found it (see Pink with the container under her arm?)!



In retrospect, the 95 degree temperatures, mosquitoes, and black-panting-dog-who-hates-heat should have been a little bit of a deterrent, but what's a little suffering in the name of treasure hunting fun?

There are over a million geocaches out there, and I can't wait to find some more. Long live technology!

Vacation, all I ever wanted.

We travel. Not extensively or fabulously, but we have no qualms about strapping our kids in a car/plane/train/boat and heading out somewhere to see something new. In the few years we have been doing this, I have discovered a few things for keeping my kids (and therefore the adults) happy in-transit. I hope you have some tips too, and will share them as we enter the summer travel season.

* Rest stops are not for resting, they are for running around like mad. Resting is done when strapped into a seat with nowhere to go.

* Stopping to eat is futile. Kids who have been strapped in need to move. Feed them while they are strapped in. Eating kills time, and keeps tired parents awake while driving. Don't ask what my upholstery looks like.

* Strange amusements. I found these wax sticks in the dollar bin at my local craft store. They provided 2 full hours of entertainment on a recent plane ride. Better than the game system, far quieter, and lighter too.

* Leave early, stay late. If you can manage it, travel while the kids are supposed to be sleeping. They might sleep in the car/plane/train/boat.

* New toys. They don't have to be fancy or flashy, but something small and interesting, preferably in a difficult-to-open package will buy a lot of mileage.

* Don't forget the lovey. Whatever my kids love (we call them snuggle kitty and new bear), they travel with us. We're down to just one snuggle kitty because we lost one in the Honolulu airport, so they now travel exclusively inside suitcases, but when we get where we're going, the kitty and bear are there.

* Hotel pool (thanks to my friend Charlotte at Memories for Later for this one). The hotel pool will tire out a small child so much that they will sleep no matter how unusual their surroundings - and it might be their favorite part of the vacation anyway.

* Dishsoap-soaked paper towels. This one sounds odd, but before we leave, I drizzle a little dishsoap (we've already established that I like Dawn) on some paper towels and let them dry for a day, then fold them and put them in a Ziploc bag in my luggage. They go through security because they are not "wet", and it lets me do some dishes - like reusable water bottles and sippy cups at any hotel sink.

Bon Voyage!

What is an oil spill, Mommy?

One of my jobs as mom is to try to explain the world in language that a 4-yr-old can understand. When I got the question, "What is an oil spill?", I tried an explanation of drilling, pumping, leaky pipes, and environmental catastrophe, but eventually had to go with a demonstration.

We started with a bowl of clean water:

Added a few drops of sesame oil (it was the darkest oil I had, and also the smelliest):
Swirled the oil around a little, and found out that even though there wasn't very much of it, it stuck to our fingers when we put them in the water:

Then we tried to clean the water. We added Dawn detergent, and it certainly moved the surface oil out of the center, but there was really no place for it to go:

Finally, we stirred the detergent in, and ended up with an evenly dispersed, foamy mess:

I don't know how much of this Blue and Pink understood, but they got that adding oil to the water meant that 1) we didn't want to drink that water or swim in it and 2) we had a hard time getting it cleaned up. My heart aches to think about the disaster in the gulf right now, and I hope that somehow the health of that area will someday be restored.

Happy Birthday, Red!

You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

We want to sing to you today.
One year older and wickeder wiser too!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy 34th to Red, whose real birthday is tomorrow, but who got to spend the whole weekend on birthday fun - guess it's an advantage to be born right around a holiday!

Some Like It Hot

The only real advantage to the Texas heat is that our water toys come out a little earlier than they might in some places (like where Red and I grew up and it snowed today).

We had our first ever adventure with a slip n slide.

Blue gets it:

Pink, as always, has her own way of doing things:


And where siblings are involved, there is always a new twist:

Here's to a long summer with no water restrictions!

Blogging around the block

Hi! I'm doing something different today - guest writing with my friend Lolli!
Have you met Lolli? I hope so - she is as sweet as her name! And she's amazing - the mother of 5, super blogger, and awesome photographer. She'll be speaking at the Casual Blogger Conference coming up soon, and she'll be at BlogHer later this year (I'll be there, too, but that's not the point).

I shared a few of my thoughts that I was able to share in church this past Mother's Day. Lolli added the pictures. Take a look HERE, and let me know what you think! Neither the pictures nor the bodies or babies are mine, they're all Lolli's photos. Pretty amazing!

When you wish upon a star

Family Vacation, 2010 - the video montage: