Carp-e-Diem !

Spending Saturday afternoon at Arroyo Hondo Nature Preserve. We had an archery demonstration and a boomerang clinic. Then we walked down to the beach through a tunnel that was built under the freeway to allow the steel head trout to get upstream.
Near the beach there were 2 geocaches, so some boys and I climbed up to the top of a couple of bridges and the boys threw rocks down while I hunted for the geocaches. I found the first one and before walking the 1000 ft. to the next one, I told the boys not to play on the railroad tracks. I told them that all gravel was off limits. About 90 seconds later, a train came barreling down the tracks. Whew! Since there were no crossings near, the train didn’t blow the whistle, and I didn’t hear it until it was very, very close.
Dinner is tri-tip and hotdogs and stew. Good stuff.

Can you spot the boys in the trestles?

When not at climbing, the boys were swinging

The best part of camping, the food!

Gran and GranDon were amazing this past week as they made sure that each morning the kids made it to VBS on time.  This allowed Toby to sleep in.  She isn’t really falling asleep until 2 or 3 in the morning so being able to sleep until 9 or 10 is very helpful.

On Friday of VBS, the kids put on a presentation for the parents that showcases what they have done / what they have learned over the last week.  As you can see from the videos below, Lucy loves being on stage.  Max only tolerates it, but he did a good job this year.

Max at VBS from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

Lucy at VBS from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

Lucy has been eating a bag of cherries for the entire weekend.  In an effort to slow her down, I told her she could only eat 5 cherries and then she had to take a break.  Over the course of the weekend, she’s been piling up her pits.  After throwing away a bunch of piles of 5 pits, I told her she needed to throw away her own pits.  She replied that she was saving them to make her name.

I just came inside from doing some yard work and saw the results of her cherry eating.

It looks like her next set of 5 cherries will complete her name.  I guess this is ‘Pit Art’.

Guitarist

Cowboy

Our friend Kevin Callaway has a fun hobby in the Autumn.  He has an apple press that he uses to make his own apple cider.  He throws in the apples, grinds them up and presses out the juice.  We are grateful to have received the fruit of his labors in the years past.  This year, he brought over some fresh cider in a 2-liter bottle. 

This morning, Lucy asked me for some juice to drink with her breakfast.  I got out the cider from Kevin, and she commented on the bottle and how it was different from the normal bottle (TreeTop Apple Juice from Costco).  When she took her first sip, her eyes opened wide and a big grin spread across her face.  She said, “Dad, this tastes just like real apple juice!”