Day 135: Surrender

For three days straight, Sonic the HedgeDog keeps stealing my bra out of the laundry basket, brings it downstairs and dumps it onto the couch. Where Juno proceeds to snuggle with it. Every night. 

I surrender. Just keep the damn bra you stupid dogs.

Really, it's been such a busy couple weeks, they could start wearing the bra and it probably wouldn't phase me. I need a margarita served to me at a tropical destination, please. 

Juno's cuddle-buddy (weird-ass). 

Day 134: Farting Blackberries

It was another chill day today. A late start and some summer reading, and then the boys' buddy Calvin came over and they played Legos before we all went to the pool an hour earlier than normal to blow off some steam before swim lessons. 

After dinner Brad and Camden had a date (upstairs, playing Lego Jurassic World per Cam's request) so Calen and I took a walk with his dog (who we've officially renamed to Sonic the HedgeDog) and his pal Robert (and his mom). Their age is my favorite so far, and it's fun watching little-big kids together with their friends, picking blackberries and talking about boy stuff, like Pokemon and how many miles an hour they can swim and what kind of farts would come out if they ate a hundred pounds of blackberries. 

Because that's what normal seven year old boys talk about. Super human speed and farting blackberries. 

Boys are the best.

Day 133: Down Time

After all the festivities this weekend, and being out extra late last night, I was beyond tired today. And so were the kids, who decided to get up at 7 (sleeping in for them) even though they went to bed at 11:45 last night. 

So I declared it "movie/video game day" and we all threw ourselves uselessly in front of the boob tube for the entire length of the day, until obligatory swim lessons and flag football practice this evening. 

Even Onyx the Wonder Dog participated in being a couch potato. 

catatonic. 

Day 132: Independence Day

What a great weekend. I mean really. 

Between yesterday's parade and today's festivities, I'll have a lot to smile about for a while now. 

We hosted a neighborhood BBQ in our backyard this afternoon for the second year in a row. We have a fantastic group of neighbor friends on this base (old and new) and the kids all get along famously. And the best part is they're all BOYS the same age (today: 10 boys, 2 girls). My kids were in little boy heaven. 

We ate early so that we could leave early and head to town to get a good parking spot for the fireworks show. They shoot them off at the racetrack we frequent so we parked across the street from it in a huge shopping center parking lot, threw a blanket on the roof of the SUV and called it good. Since we were there so early (it filled up fast), the kids and their friend watched the Sandlot on our car DVD player and then crawled up on the top of the truck to throw Pop-Its onto the pavement until the big show started. For being a small town, the firework show is impressive and lasts a long time, and since we can park so close we feel like we're right underneath it. 

Last year, we learned the miserable way that once the firework show ends it's a mass exodus out of the parking lot, and it took us (are you ready...) TWO HOURS to get home (normally 20 minutes). This year we planned ahead and said NOT THIS TIME and purchased a huge box of (totally legal) fireworks to shoot off in the parking lot while everyone else suffered in their unmoving line of cars. So the kids stayed on the roof of the truck and we shot off fireworks like rednecks and once we ran out of those, we abandoned the kids on the car and Brad and my friend Sarah threw themselves into two abandoned Target shopping carts while her husband and I pushed them around in a sudden shopping cart race, which I could barely push because I was laughing too hard at Brad and his legs sticking out and the humongous hole in his pants that he had caused tonight. 

Who says you have to act old once you hit your thirties?!

Once we actually got in the car to leave, the traffic jam was over, and it took maybe five extra minutes to get out of the parking lot. 

Brilliant. 

Happy 4th of July!

The boys and their buddy Calvin throwing pop its from the roof of the truck

Look guys, I'm in a picture! 

The Dads trying to get the fireworks to light. Jess was trying to stick a flag in one of them. 

Our own personal show, and the boys got a front row view on the truck!

After each firework, Brad would jump high and stomp on the depleted firework box and the boys would laugh and laugh. 

Day 131: The Grand Marshall

Brad's duty section here (honor guard) is wonderfully unique, in that often times the whole family gets to be involved. That's a lot better than the whole "Sorry I have to spend the night on the boat for watch duty" that we're used to. 

Being it's a holiday weekend, Brad and his honor guard team were assigned to lead an Independence Day parade in Penngrove this morning. And since I'm all about parades, especially during 4th of July, we decided we would all go to enjoy the festivities. 

Penngrove is a cute little town with not much tourist involvement. It's strictly a working farm town, filled with co-ops and feed stores. We threw a blanket down on the street corner and watched Brad and three of his students head the parade, then of course stuck around for the rest of it. Super cute and fun way to spend the day. 

Photo dump!

National Anthem. Brad is carrying the American flag

"Hi Dad!!!"

Day 130: Embracing Your Inner Nerd: Pikachu Edition

Note: This really should be a guest post written by Brad, since it really has nothing to do with me. But since he has enough on his plate and he probably wouldn't know how to write out a story on this blog if he tried, I'll do it for him. 

See how nice I am?

We spent the first part of today's afternoon at our next door neighbor's 3rd birthday party at the lake on base. Nice weather, nice view, a playground, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours. We even brought the puppy. After an hour or so, Brad and Calen left to pick up Calen's friend Robert and his dad to go to...are you ready...a Pokemon training session at a local card shop. 

Everyone here knows we're nerds. We play video games (including me), aren't above watching (certain) animes, and I've spent half my life playing Magic the Gathering. So let's just face the music and embrace the fact that three out of the four of us also play Pokemon card games. 

The only thing I know about Pokemon is what Super Smash Brothers taught me. I know Pikachu and Jigglypuff and Charizard and that's about it, really. I'm almost embarrassed considering I worked for Nintendo for a time. 

According to Brad's account, the card shop is super cool, has multiple tables and tons of people just sitting around playing Pokemon. The owner directed Brad, Calen and company to a girl no more than 13 that sat the guys down and taught them how to play Pokemon.

Seems like an ideal daddy-buddy date for Calen and his friend, and the Dads had just as much fun too. 

Endnote: Brad came home with card protector sleeves for the kids and at first I rolled my eyes because the boys' cards are already bent and worn since they're left on the floor and taken to the playground and eaten by the puppy. But then I saw that the sleeves were two different colors on the back (red for Cam, green for Calen) and instantly I said "thumbs up Brad!" because then the boys can't argue over whose card is who's. 

One less fight to break up. 

Pokemon date with Dad!

Nerd-dom

Day 129: Room Swap

When we moved from Cape May to San Diego two years(!!!) ago, we let the boys pick out their own rooms themes. Calen picked Star Wars (awesome) and Cam "picked" a sports room (double awesome...he was also barely 3 so I got to pick for him). Since we were only there for a whopping 11 and a half months, their rooms followed them to this house. 

A couple weeks ago, the boys were playing in Calen's room, and Cam announced "I wish I had a Star Wars room!" This doesn't surprise me since Cam is suddenly completely and totally obsessed with all things Star Wars. 

And then Calen goes "well I wish I had a sports room!" and I had one of those epiphany moments where you're like DING! I can do that. I have all the shit for it already!

While it would have been easier to just have the boys swap rooms instead of tearing everything off the walls, Calen gets the bigger room because benefit #1 of being the oldest child, and because he has the TV in his room. Benefit #2 of being the oldest child. So while the kids were entertained downstairs watching Zootopia with Brad, I snuck upstairs and secretly switched their rooms. A few clicks on the Amazon app to get a couple fun extras (like an over the door basketball hoop and some Golden State Warriors stuff for Calen, and a newer style Star Wars bedding set for Cam), and we were set. 

The kids are THRILLED with their new rooms. Calen wants to show every friend that walks by the damn house his new sports room, and Cam happily spends hours in his room playing with his Star Wars "guys" humming the theme song to himself. 

Without further ado, Calen's sports room:

A few little Star Wars things remaining. He's still a total Star Wars nerd. 

And now for Camden's room (Can I get a Star Wars opening theme song please?)

I still have to nail in that tin that's hanging sideways

Half of Cam's room is still super heroes, per request

Super heroes and Star Wars. What could be better. 

Day 128: In One Photo....

In one photo, describe summer. 

Here's ours (in cell phone quality). 

A horde of boys, the pool, endless jumping. This is our summer. Every.single.day.

Day 127: Summer Nights With Cam

Here is what summer evenings look like for Camden, after countless hours of hard play, swimming lessons, and football twice a week. 

Asleep sitting up watching Shark Week

This was at 6pm before dinner. We barely got him to wake up to eat. 

Life's tough when you're playing hard. 

Day 126: Christmas In June

When the kids were very small, they had an abundant collection of Imaginext toys. Castles with knights and space shuttles and pirates, especially. Over the years they had stopped playing with them, but I boxed up the pirate ship and accessories, thinking that they were so timeless we could store them for whenever little cousins come to visit, or even grandkids 100 years from now. 

We happened to go to Toys R Us today to fit Cam for a new bike that we plan on getting before school starts (darn growth spurts). The boys were drooling over a new line of Imaginext pirate toys, which made me think of this abandoned cardboard box up high in our garage. So I pulled it down today to see what the kids would do with it. 

You'd think it was Christmas morning. 

The kids spent the next two hours playing pirates. Calen went back and forth between it and his beloved Legos, but Cam was hooked. He snatched two pirate "guys" and they had an entire afternoon of dialogue, adventures and peril. 

I should do this with all their toys. Reduce, reuse, recycle.