Singing in the Rain

It rains a lot here. Yesterday and today lots of rain. Today it rained all afternoon. I love the rain and I love walking in the rain. Charlie got out his umbrella and went outside and I couldn't resist, I had to go out too. I borrowed Becca's mostly-broken umbrella that still provided enough protection to take my camera outside and snap a few pictures.
Later we pulled out the rain ponchos and went to the deserted beach for a family walk in the rain along the shore. We only have four ponchos so the little girls were wrapped in towels and carried. I didn't feel brave enough to take my camera to the rainy beach - so there are no pictures of our lovely walk of the blue covered figures roaming the solitaire beach (it was awesome - not a single soul in sight - I guess we were the only ones crazy enough to go out on a lovely rainy afternoon).

Awsome

Here is a video of awesome things. It will definitely bring a smile to your face.



And here is a link to the blog 1000 Awesome Things

That blog held a contest to give away his new book and asked for people to post comments of what they thought was "awesome". Here are some of my favorites:

ya know what’s awesome? Generous Fellow-Customers. I work at a Starbucks, and some dude couldn’t get the coffee he ordered because his debit card didn’t work. a lady noticed this while she was doctoring her cuppa at the condiment bar and came up to buy his coffee for him. i also appreciate the little generosities of that stranger behind you in line at the groccery store who will lend you the 5 cents you’re missing. or how about this: One day at a Starbucks drive-thru, someone decided to buy a drink for the person behind him in line. when that person drove up and found out his coffee was paid for, he decided to return the favor for the person behind him. this continued for 11 cars! true story. big or small, whether it’s for me, or even if i’m just a witness, those donations always make me smile and renew my faith in humanity. Awesome! :)

Pumping gas to the exact dollar.
You’re watching the numbers digitally whiz around, dollar amounts climbing at a disproportionate rate compared to the gallons you’re getting. No matter, when that thing shuts off you have two options (given that you’re willing to disregard the warning against “topping off” at the pump): 1) leave the amount as-is, forcing yourself to pay an uneven amount: $23.47. OR 2) Squeeze that pump, watch those numbers after the decimal, and work your magic until you can click off at an even $24. Yes, that is awesome!
Note: There is a rare third option which is that your pump randomly and accidentally shut itself off on an amount that just so happened to be an even dollar amount. With this you’re scoring, like, triple awesome points, so be sure to celebrate the rarity of it.

 

Our Adventures

We've been busy out and about having fun and learning about nature and animals.
We went to the "U Pick" farm to get strawberries to make strawberry freezer jam. We met with three other families, so there were 14 children total. The kids had a fun time gathering strawberries. Lydia was the cutest to watch. She had a little green basket and gathered her own strawberries. She was insistent to carry it herself and every time I tried to carry it for her she protested, holding it tighter to herself. She dropped the basket many times and re-gathered her berries into the basket, covered in dirt. Even when I put her in her car seat she insisted to hold them on the ride home.

The picture of Tom in an apron fast asleep in his bed was from last week when Tom had been playing "kitchen" in the girls room at bed time. He was sad when I said it was time to put it away and go to sleep. Always one who wants to be prepared, he went to bed in his chef uniform, ready to play when he woke in the morning.

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These last pictures are from the "Imaginarium" - a wonderfully fun, hands on learning place. The kids got to pet a baby alligator, a tarantula, a snake, and stingrays. Even little Lydia petted each of them - she was particularly taken with the tarantula. Charlie got to feed the stingrays, the other kids were a little too nervous to feed them.

I don't have any pictures, but my sister Susan came to visit for the weekend. It went all too quickly. We picked her up Thursday night at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and had dinner at the IHop before coming home. Friday we went to the beach for a few hours. Saturday we spent many hours at the pool with other friends and later Sue and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen - so I could share my favorite dinner of "Pear and Gorgonzalla Pizza" with her. Sunday it was rainy all day, but we were able to take her to the beach one last time at sunset, so she could enjoy it one last time before she had to leave early this morning.
Thanks Sue for coming to visit - it was short, but worth it, we enjoyed having you.