Dinosaurs

For our last day of school before we leave, we took a field trip out to the dinosaurs near our house. We had completed a mini-unit on archaeologists and dinosaurs, thus leading us here. I neglected to take a picture of the entire dinosaur, probably because it was so ridiculously windy that the kids were insane with energy, but they are standing next to a life-size t-rex...that is his foot.

Here they were supposed to pretend the dino was eating them...some are better at this than others.  :-)

The moving dinosaurs that were inside were not their favorites.  Most of them were a little to a lot scared of them.  Aly was crying.

Descpite this, K agreed to take a ride on one...she claimed she loved it.

Em, of course, actually did love it.

Next, we went outside to a 'dino-dig' and looked for rocks.  Em rolled up her sleeves (literally) and got into it.

Z dug with her feet so her hands wouldn't get dirty.

Eventually they all found a rock with a dinosaur name on it and we took them inside to claim our prize (a toy dinosaur to take home).

After that, we 'panned for gold' with the rocks and dirt around us.

In case you couldn't tell by the girls' hair, it was SUPER windy that day.  It is always windy out there since it is right in the pass but this day was knock you over wind and a bit irritating.  It didn't seem to bother the dinos much tho.

After all the hard work of listening while I read the signs to the girls, it was time to climb and take pics.

The original "Musketeers".

I was trying to get the sisters up front but the two in the background kept getting into the photo.  :-)

Last but not least, we climbed into the giant t-rex.

Most of them were not thrilled about being up there...of course, the second children in each family loved it.

Beautiful girl!  Her adventurous spirit is one of the things I love most about her.

A would have stayed all day if we had let her, and she is the youngest.

I told A to scream like he was being eaten by the t-rex...such a good boy.

Well, now we really are off to our vacation.  A wedding, a stay at Nana and Poppys and we will fly out Monday.  Oh, and I saw the GI today.  Apparently there is a difference between IBS and IBD...who knew?  They actually think I have the later.  There is little difference, one is an irritated bowel the other is an inflammed bowel.  The key however is that inflammation can be helped with anti-inflammatories and medication while the other is only helped through a change in diet.  I will have a biopsy of my large intestine done about a week and a half after we get back and then hopefully that adventure will be over.  I hope.

God Bless!!

Been Too Long!

Wow! Just a few too many days have passed since I updated last. My appologies! Life seems to have gone crazy and only part of it fun. :-( Our last few weeks have been filled with doctor's appointments, day trips, colds, and loads of last minute 'emergencies' needing our attention for hours or days at a time. I will try to keep it all brief and see how it goes.

As per the doctors, we saw the neurologist as a follow-up to confirm Em's brain is normal and agree we need not see him ever again, Lord willing. In a saga that began last October, I had a regular check-up with my doctor, and having been complaining of the same symptoms for two years now, she finally did blood work. This got me to the rheumatologist looking for an auto-immune disorder. I am happy to announce, no auto-immune disorders here, simply IBS. I am seeing the GI specialist this Friday to determine the source of it, but since the most common problem is food, I checked myself in to the allergist. It turns out that I have several food allergies, including soy, malt, nuts and some other healthy foods. I have begun cutting out these foods but mainly started by cutting out my morning coffee (something I only started not quite a year ago and several months before the primary symptoms began). Amazingly, or obviously, however you want to look at it, my symptoms have diminished dramatically and my energy level has gone back up to almost normal levels. When I return from vacation - we head out next week - the allergist is going to have me do a full elimination diet to determine which foods I have an intolerance to as well as which of the allergies give me symptoms and which I can not worry about. Hopefully by the end of that, I will be able to adjust my diet and get back to life as normal. That is my prayer anyway.  Before I was diagnosed, I was praying and saw a vision of myself carrying a small backpack.  It wasn't particularly heavy but had to be carried.  That is how I feel about all this.  The journey to discover the foods causing problems is and will be a pain in the rear, but then it will all be bearable burden.

Otherwise in health, we are all on the healing side of a nasty cold, though Kylie managed to make a sinus infection out of it.

Let's get to some pictures.

This was just the girls one day deciding to be silly and try to remake some pictures they have seen of them when they were young and riding this toy. The original pictures are a sequence of them falling off the horse.  These are just funny because Kylie has such great expressions.

We spent one Saturday playing frisbee golf with my cousin and his wife.  Then we decided we should run to the beach...it was not a good idea.  It was sooooo cold.  Em didn't seem to notice.  We collected shells for our treasure boxes we are making for our ocean unit and she was thrilled.

We had a Valentine's party for the girls for school.  They made Valentine's cards for each other before they arrived.  Then in school we made crafts and cookies and learned to draw hearts and X's and O's and whatever else, I am not sure.  I was not in charge of this day...I know it's hard for you to understand why.  :-)

I made the cookies...dairy free, egg-free...and they tasted good.  I know, Martha Stewart.  Thank you!

Oh, wait, this craft was my idea too...yes, I did do stuff.  :-)  This is Z posing for me while she puts her valentine into one of the heart-shaped card holders.

Lined up and ready to go back into the classroom for the rest of the party.  Drew makes it through the first part of school with us now.  He is interested but believe it or not, he is the one we can't get to stop talking!

Yep, heart tatoos.  Only took K five years to be willing to put one on her skin.

Just thought it was cute having them all sit and chat during their break...they always have to sit in our ocean.  So, v-day doesn't really fit with my ocean theme or our dinosaur theme, but it was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.

On another Saturday, we went up to Big Bear to go on some hikes.  We put the girls in Dad's new car...oh yeah, Dad got a new car too...a ruby red Ford Mustang.  He is pretty excited and the girls LOVE it.  He did, however, manage to get Emily sick on the way up the super curvy road.  Two bouts of throw up later, Em was sitting on M's fleece and wearing my sweatshirt.  No, we aren't the people who buy new clothes for our kid, we just let her look like, well, that.

After the second throw up, we went on a nature hike right where we had pulled off so Em's stomach would settle.

We were listening to birds and trying to identify them, but I took the pic because I was cracking up at her outfit, carrying a stick, gloves on, and so serious about two things: listening and being first down the trail.

The second hike was quite steep.

Thankfully, it was short too.

We found snow (a teeny-tiny bit in the shadow of the rock) and K drew Elsa in it.  We need rain/snow soooo bad!  Up here it should be covered in snow.

The hike is called Castle Rock and it is very fun.  There are just a million rocks to climb on, in and around.

A rock overlooking Big Bear Lake that we chose to have lunch on.  Since I can't eat food, I made my own granola bars for this hike.  They were actually pretty yummy, though next time with less butter, they will be great.

Dad kept the girls hiking by hiding M things all over the place.  It stems from their audio books we listen to in the car and they loved it.

They climbed all over.  Up and down.  I left my watch on and they did almost three miles...like this.  That's my girls!

Dad showed them which snow to eat.  K pretended to like it but she soon quit because she hates cold things. Em ate two or three.  Then it turned into a snowball fight.  Since neither of them can hit the broad side of a barn, the only thing that happened was that their hands got cold and they quit.  :-)

Man, she loves this dog.  She always plays with him, pets him and makes beds and houses for him.  It's gonna be bad when he goes.  I am glad someone gives him the love he deserves.

On another Saturday, we went for camel rides with our cousins...

And had face-to-face encounters with a jaguar.  Yep, this cat found Emily too.  He kept nipping at her as he walked by.

Well, life is not slowing down, but we leave in one week so it doesn't matter to me.  Did I tell you our sweet deal?  My brother, who was out here at Pt Hueneme, has now been stationed in Hawaii.  He has a nice house on the base on Oahu and we are able to stay with him. Since he bikes to work, we can have his car as well.  So, no need to pay for lodging or a rental car.  We bought tickets to Hawaii and because our expenses are so low, we are going to stay for three weeks.  And as a double bonus, my brother got the last two weeks off so we can all have some vacation together! We can't wait!  God Bless!