Day 45: It's Incredible

Today is Calen's last day of being nine. The last day he's in the single digits, the digits he's been in literally his entire life. 

Where did the time go, seriously. I mean that as a literal question, like I need to put "Missing Years" on a black and white poster and staple it to a telephone pole. 

It was also our first full day with our family friends (so much so that they are "family friends", that the kids have suddenly starting calling each other "cousins", which we encourage of course).

Friends that have become family! Calen (9), Joshua (8), Elijah (6), Camden (7)

We spent the first half of the day at the beach, because San Diego, obviously. And although I lived there for an entire year and it didn't drop below 70 degrees, it was a very chilly 55 degrees today. But we are in San Diego and we are there for the beach, dammit! So we suited up in hoodies and long pants (except the boys of course, who are insane), and trekked to Gator Beach, collectively our favorite beach in San Diego. It's a private Navy beach (where the Navy SEALs school is) on Coronado with a lot of soft sand and some nice waves. But, the water was way too cold for us adults (but not the boys of course, because they're insane!) so we sat and enjoyed the nice views and the boys went to town digging holes and jumping waves.

Camden's all time favorite beach game is to take his plastic toy boat and shoot it out to sea on the outgoing waves, and watching it ceremoniously crash into the oncoming waves, and celebrating gloriously (like, hopping up and down, shouting and waving his arms) at the carnage of the boat "sinking into the ocean storm", as he calls it, and then picking it up and doing it over and over again, for HOURS. 

Cam and his ill fated boat, ready to set sail

Later today, we celebrated Calen's last day of 9 (not really, but it was a fun little to-do so we might as well say we were celebrating something) by all going out to John's Incredible Pizza. Think basically Chuck E Cheese, without the crappy pizza, or the crappy arcade games, or the crappy dirty tables and sticky floors. But same idea. It's got pretty good pizza, super rad arcade games, and it's clean (or clean enough, anyways). 

We had found a Groupon for 2 hour unlimited games to go with their pizza and drinks, so the four boys just played and played and played well into the night. They did arcade games and bumper cars and Camden and Elijah did air hockey like five times, and it was great. 

Their faces!! Haha!!

My favorite 9 year old

Calen and Joshua are a year apart (and like, 6 inches apart) and are like peas and carrots

Also, Camden kept playing this game called Tanks!! And it takes your picture so your avatar in the game is your face. Cam kept making "war faces" to make his avatar and it was SO funny. 

Happy last day of 9, Calen. 

Day 44: Let's Go To San Diego. Right Now.

On our now famous (at least, famous in our house) California Bucket List....

...let's pause for a bit here. I feel like this Bucket List is going to be an ancient relic or something. A huge unrolled scroll (of Costco butcher paper) taped to a closet door with scotch tape, with scriptures of desired things to do and places to go written carefully in multiple colors of Crayola Markers. Someday in 300 years, scientists might unearth it, and marvel at the places that no longer exist, and wonder what ancient civilization "Stock Car Races" is. 

Anyways. 

On our bucket list the boys wrote "San Diego" and "Legoland", in hopes that we could muster up one more trip down to our favorite sunshiny city, and throw in one of their favorite theme parks to boot. Unfortunately, with the government shutdown earlier in the year, we had written off San Diego as an impossible financial feat. However, the boys kept it on the List, ever hopeful that maybe a miracle might happen. I mean, way to stay positive, you know. 

Luckily, we received a lot more from our tax return than we anticipated, and I picked up a couple extra cleaning jobs, so we decided that we would surprise the boys with a trip to San Diego over spring break, and then surprise them even more by going to Legoland for Calen's 10th birthday. Besides, we are going to need some Vitamin D and some beach time before we move to Alaska where the closest thing to beach time is a polar bear plunge. 

Except, Calen's birthday was the week after spring break. So for the third surprise we decided we would wake them up for school the Monday after spring break and announce that we were going to San Diego. 

Cue the big show. 

We set the clocks in the house to 7am (when really it was 5:30am) to make it look like they were getting ready for school like normal. I woke the boys up, had them get dressed and do their morning list as usual, and then they sat down to eat dinner while I stood at my usual morning post (the bar directly in front of the coffee machine, because obviously) and casually said as they ate their oatmeal:

"You know what, I think we should go to San Diego....(no real response from them)...RIGHT NOW."

Immediately after "right now" their heads jolted in unison to me. "Wait, are you serious?" Calen asked. "Like we are going to skip school?!" Cam shouted gleefully. And then I said "Want to go to Legoland?" And their eyeballs literally fell out of their faces, and then Brad walked in from the garage (the boys thought he was at work) saying "Let's go the car is packed!" And the boys jumped for joy. 

But, we had business to attend to first. Since we were going to be gone for a full week, Calen had some birthday celebrating to do beforehand. So we sat him up on the table (that we had decorated the night before in preparation) like we always do, took a picture with his birthday banner, and let him open his gift from one set of grandparents (a huuuuge big kid (i.e. adult) telescope), a small gift from his brother (a How To Train Your Dragon play set), and a birthday card from us announcing that his gift from us was a shopping spree at the Big Lego Store in Legoland on his birthday. 

And then, we threw ourselves in the car and drove the 10.5 hours to San Diego. Not a whole lot of photoshoots for that time, but you get the picture. Tablet playing, movie watching, snacks, bathroom breaks, traffic, etc.

We rolled in to San Diego just in time to watch their "cousin" Joshua (he isn't a cousin, but they are such close Coast Guard friends our boys and their boys call each other cousins) play in his baseball game, and then went back to their house for the first night of many nights of trampoline jumping, Nerf shooting awesomeness. 

Welcome to paradise. 

Watching his "cousin" play baseball

Day 43: The Red Ryder Carbine

Camden had a haircut in town today, and the wait took FOREVER. I guess all 40,000+ of the citizens of Petaluma decided they wanted their kids to have haircuts too, since it's the last day of spring break and all. 

Meanwhile in the waiting area, Camden came across a Boy Scouts magazine. He's really excited about joining Scouts in Alaska, so he was pouring over it page by page. 

And then, as if we were transported back to 1941, Cam turned the page to this advertisement:

Yes, they do sell Red Ryder Carbine Action 200 Shot Range Model Air Rifles. Just like Ralphie wanted in A Christmas Story. 

Actually, I don't know if it is carbine action, or holds 200 shots, or is a range model. But it sure as heck is a Red Ryder. 

And on cue, Camden goes "MOM! I WANT THAT!"

Of course you do, Ralphie. 

Day 42: My Head Is Down On The Ball

It's no secret that Calen loves baseball. 

It is a bit of a secret that Calen really, really, hates going up to bat. 

Truly, his least favorite part of the game. He's a total head-case, no confidence, afraid of being hit by the ball or striking out. It's built up and built up into this monster that he believes he can't defeat. And so, he stands up there, puts up a minimal effort, and either draws a walk (and is elated) or gets called strike three (and gets very down on himself). If he does get a hit, it's usually just a dribbler to short or third, and unless the infielders bobble it, a sure out. 

I talked to a couple baseball mom-friends about this. How do you convince a kid that they are capable? One mom, who's been with us from the beginning since Calen was drafted onto his first team here with her son (and is now once again on the same team as him), sang the praises of this hitting coach that apparently works specifically with getting kids out of their heads. 

She sang his praises so much, in fact, she paid for Calen to have a hitting lesson with him this weekend. 

I take back what I said before about hockey moms being better than baseball moms (that one's for you, Tanja). 

This evening we headed up the road to the hitting lesson. It was literally in a big hangar type shed, with just some astro-turf and painted batters box, a tee, a pitching screen and a few bats. And this guy Dan. 

This guy Dan only worked with Calen for 30 minutes. And wow, I gotta say, those 30 minutes were so helpful. It was all about changing your mindset when you're up to bat, chanting almost a cadence of what your body is going to do (since "Focus", he says, is the brain telling the body to move, and until you can focus without thinking, you need to say it outloud to train your brain). Within 10 minutes, Calen was hitting complete rockets off the tee, all while saying outloud "My head is down on the ball and I'm on my big toe" (no more "squashing the bug, you guys. It's all about pivoting on your big toe). 

The mechanics are great. But the big takeaway? The confidence. Calen was relaxed, laughing, and then would focus and say his cadence, and when he hit a bomb off the tee, the look of joy on his face and the praises of coach Dan made the entire lesson. Calen walked away bouncing up and down, saying how much he loved it, and "did you see me Mom? Did you see the ROCKETS I HIT?! Can we come back?"

We will be back, oh yes we will. 

Day 41: FriYay

The sun finally came out a little today and the kids were basically outside the entire day, playing basketball, epic Star Wars Nerf battles and whatever else happens out on the playground by our house. How should I know, I just stay inside and wait for someone to come screaming (literally) into the house wailing that so-and-so didn't give them a chance to shoot them and it's not fay-errrrr. 

Some things don't change no matter how old they get. 

During lunchtime today we decided to picnic in the front yard together. Except, it was too wet to picnic, so we laid the picnic blanket out of the patio and sat there. The kids had a super healthy, homemade meal of Pizza Lunchables, while I enjoyed a bowl of tomato soup. 

We just aren't fancy around here. 

And then, they were off again, having a great time with ten of their closest neighborhood friends. 

Living on base is the best. 

The best part of the LAST pizza in a lunchable is it gets ALL the leftover cheese and sauce

Day 40: Everything Is Awesomer

It was another low key day today. I decided I didn't want to overplan spring break, mostly because it was raining, partly because I'm feeling lazy and also a little bit because we have a BIG week planned next week. But stay tuned for that. 

The boys played outside for a good part of the day, watched a movie or two, and played a LOT of Legos. Since the current obsession in the house is the new Lego Movie 2, Calen spent the better part of the day building his version of the "Rexplorer", a humongous space ship (built of Legos of course) featured in the movie. 

Pretty awesome, actually. The engines even pivot and it has room for Emmit, Batman, Rex and his raptor assistants. 

Day 39: Take Your Kid To Work Day

When I was a kid, I envisioned Take Your Kid To Work Day as this super amazing day where the kid actually gets to DO what their parent does for a living. Like say, if your Dad was a cop, you get to be a cop and arrest people. Or for example, my mom was a bus driver when I was young, so if I went to her work for the day I should be able to drive the school bus. 

See, if children actually operated Take Your Kid To Work Day, it would be a much better holiday than what it actually is. 

What Take Your Kid To Work Day actually is, according to boring 34 year old me, is being forced to drag your home-for-spring-break children to your place of employment because you have no where else to dump them off to, and pile snacks and iPads in front of their faces and tell them to "sit still and be quiet" while you finish your work as fast as you can. 

Today was Take Your Kid To Work Day. 

Luckily, I "only" clean houses for a living, so I hauled the boys to one of my weekly homes, plopped them at the kitchen table with snacks and iPads and basically cleaned around them for a few hours. I did bring art supplies, and Calen amused me with drawing a Mickey Mouse out of a Learn To Draw book, but mostly they just gleefully played their iPads without a peep of complaining. 

You know why? Because they're never allowed to play their iPads freely. They are always required to do chores (i.e. housework) in order to "earn" screen time. So me just saying "Whatever I don't care how long you play as long as you stay out of my face!" is basically the equivalent of opening a very full bank vault and saying "load up with as much moolah as you can carry". 

The currency for kids in 2019 is Screen Time Minutes. 

Day 38: Et Random

Today was kind of a free for all. We didn't have any actual plans, just a "run amok" spring break day where we hung out at home and made up our own agenda. 

Camden has been crazy into jigsaw puzzles lately and scored a bunch of Star Wars 100 piece puzzles for free from a neighbor this week, so he spent the majority of this rainy day taking over our dining room table with puzzles. 

He also went outside during a short break from the rain in this getup:

Calen got into a bit of trouble with his mouth and wrote me a nice apology card. I especially like that he apologized "for being a turd". 

And then we drove the two blocks up the base to the movie theater and paid $11 for the three of us (Brad was in bed with a headache) to watch Lego Movie 2 for a third time. 

It was nice to be a little unstructured today. 

Day 37: A Walk In The Park

Today is the first day of Spring Break, hooray!

It's also, according to the weather predictions, the only sunny day this week, so we had a plethora of plans to punch out while the weather was good!

We better get used to this mindset, where it rains or is dreary the vast majority of the days in Kodiak. If it's going to be sunny, we better prep the barbecue, mow the lawn, and hit the beach, STAT!

Brad came home for his lunch break, and we all set out on a walk/bike ride around the base paths. Rebel lived his best life chasing the boys on their bikes and crashing through every mud puddle he could find. The boys enjoyed their freedom on their bikes, able to ride half a mile or so ahead of us, something that really isn't a possibility anywhere in the world anymore (off-base anyways). 

After lunchtime, we marched straight to the base pool for a swim. I mean, it's not actually Spring Break if you haven't gotten into a swimsuit and dove into a pool, right?
Also note I was not swimming because the water was something like 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

We wrapped up the pool about half an hour before Brad got home, so that we had time to change, make (and pack) a picnic dinner, give Brad a chance to change out of his uniform and head out to our next adventure of the day. 

We spent the evening about 20 minutes down the road at Helen Putnam Park. It's a large, stunning park in Petaluma that features lush green rolling hills and Coast Live Oak trees (no, I'm not some kind of tree nerd, I took a picture of one and Googled it when I got home), a true testimony of the beauty of Northern California all rolled into one park. 

We ate our picnic dinner (ham and cheese wraps, Wheat Thins, and apples) in a tree, because picnicking on the ground is so last year, and then set out on a nice hike up (emphasis on UP) and around the park. It was cool this evening but sunny, so the hike was practically perfect. Calen caught a lizard and named it...okay I can't remember the name..., Camden fell in love with it and cried when he released it, then decided he wanted a bearded dragon as a pet someday. Calen decided he wanted a komodo dragon and we had to explain to him that a komodo dragon would most certainly eat Rebel as a snack. 

I also dressed the boys up fairly nicely so use this as an opportunity to take spring/birthday pictures, because somehow beyond my comprehension, Calen is turning TEN next week. 

It was a great family evening together and checks another destination off our California bucket list.

Day 36: Spaghetti Dogs

I don't have much to report today. I wasn't home hardly at all, busy down the road making money! (cleaning a house for a family that recently moved out). 

So here's a photo of Calen's dinner request: a hot dog, with spaghetti meat/sauce on top. 

A Spaghetti Dog. 

Eww. 

(though he says, was absolutely delicious)