From the Mountains to the Sea

We hit these on separate days, but one (the mountains) was only a 15 minute drive and the other was walking distance.  The geography here is fun!

A hiking we will go!

With bonus wildlife viewing!  This is more rare that it appears on the blog; we don’t tend to be particularly quiet when we’re out on this sort of adventure.  At least our noise level keeps the mountain lions away.

                         
We’re also rather slow.  Think in terms of hours-per-mile.

But that’s okay, really.  There’s a lot of learning that happens when we stop along the way.  

Just look at those two happy faces—see how much they love all this!  Actually, they are smiling because Daddy is pulling out the pb&j.

   
Yummy!  Post-lunch, Logan plots out his next attack on the cactuses. 

Side-note/rant: Cacti or cactuses? sneaked or snuck? dived or dove?  It seems that I was taught that the irregular form (cacti, snuck, dove) is the right one in these cases and many others, but my kids’ books ALL use the regular forms (cactuses, sneaked, dived) and when I look it up, dictionaries and grammar websites tell me that both are correct!  So I’ve stopped editing the books as I read them, even though I internally cringe at every “dived”.

Woodpeckers, at least, aren’t intimidated by our noise.

A few days and only a few miles away . . .

All photo credits for this adventure go to Jake.  Mommy was home being peacefully productive.

      
Sand fun.

On the border.

      
Water fun.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog.

Thus Far

Here’s a sampling of activities engaged in around our house so far this year.  I expect this will probably be fairly representative of what we’ll be doing most of the year.

Engaging in a little creativity and dramatic play.

  
Visiting playgrounds.  (This should NOT surprise you.)

Reading.  Lots and lots and lots of reading.

 
Chore training.

Adventuring!

   
This time around we chose a small petting zoo located just up the road in San Juan Capistrano.

                                   
The kids got on very well with the extremely friendly (hungry? curious?) rabbits, chickens, goats and other animals.
  Yes, and extremely tame too.

They had just received a number of baby animals, including this calf, more chickens (who were at that awkward stage of half feather-half fuzz), a young alpaca, and a new colt.

                           
We were the first customers of the day, which probably contributed to the animals’ willingness to be fed by small hands.

They also had a “sand”box full of feed corn that Naomi thought was spectacular.

             
A small playground completed the experience and sent us all home happy.

What do you expect your year will look like?

Pretend City

Here’s how it works for us: First you get the big things (top three: church, grocery store, library) established, then you expand to playgrounds and walking routes, then you move out in rough concentric circles as determined by drive time.  In the 15-20 minute radius, we discovered this gem.  Pretend City is a child-size town where kids have free reign.  If your kids are a couple years older than mine, they can “work” at the fire station, the restaurant, the doctor’s office, etc. and get their “time cards” stamped which they then take to the bank to exchange for Pretend City dollars to spend at the grocery store, gas station, you get the picture.  Or they can just run around enjoying it all and skip the money part.  There’s a post office, library, beach, farm (you can sell your “crops” to the grocery store for “cash” too), theater . . . in short a nicely equipped little town!

                         
Naomi walks in and wonder where she can go first, while Logan immediately recognizes that you have to press the button to wait for the walk signal.  Oh yeah, they have little ride-on cars and traffic signals too.

Here’s the village square with a little park and playground; the parking spaces for all the vehicles are just on the other (unpictured) side of the square.

       
First stop: groceries!  This is fairly characteristic, Naomi goes for the veggies and Logan heads straight for the carbs.  After they load up their baskets, Logan helps Naomi check out.

A lengthy visit to the fire station was expected but, Drew, you should appreciate that Logan also spent a good amount of time at the dispatch center.

                    
Naomi seemed more interested in digging in the sand here than she typically does at the real beach.  Go figure!  The gas station was nearby, which was good because Logan’s motorcycle was running low.

They had a cute little two-bedroom house, but in the middle of all that scaled-down fabulousness, what do I find my kids playing with but the even-smaller dollhouse.  Again, go figure!


             
Logan put in some long hours on the farm and then stopped in at the cafe for a quick drink.

              
Naomi completed her shift at the fishery and then headed down to the library where she volunteers, doing a puppet show for the children’s story time.

                         
To cap off the day, Logan worked the sound and light board for Naomi’s show at the theater; she’s currently in a musical where she seems to be providing her own accompaniment.

And that was our day.  How was yours?