Thought this was kind of interesting....

As I was posting the beach pictures, one of MaraJade kept reminding me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I remembered, and found this picture of me at the beach. I must be 2-4? Anyway, thought it was fun.

Summer Fun - Benson Lake - July 2009

What do you do when it's over 100 degrees and you just can't take another day in your boiling house? You go driving around, trying to find a place to cool off. We found Benson Lake, where I'd been a few years ago with some church friends and the boys.

It was really nice - places for everyone to sit with shade, shallow, silty water for a long way out, very nice.

Monster chose to hang out with me on the towel and eat most of the time

Mace as Harry Potter

Summer Fun - Beach Day - July 2009

Again, what do you do when it's blazing hot? You leave town. I heard the forecast, decided I couldn't handle it, so I packed up the kids and the dog and headed west.

We ended up (eventually) somewhere I suddenly can't remember. It's just north of Seaside, in Gearhart. You can drive on the beach and just park there. It was a great day - I can't remember having such fabulous weather at the Oregon Coast - I was in my swimsuit and wasn't even cold! I guess that's what happens when it's over 100 in the city.

Ronan discovered his long-hidden water dog roots - he may have had the most fun.




Camp BocekKite FlyingAll 3! In one picture!Best Buddies

Monster refused to wade in the surf, so here's where she hung out:
Trying to get a long shot of everyone's relative positions - hey, I'm no photographer

Cash Cab - Portland!

This is absolutely hilarious (at least to me)! I am a big fan of Cash Cab on Discovery Channel. Mace has really taken to it, too, for some reason. Last week, I'm in the other room, and I hear Mace & MaraJade doing their own version, so I grabbed the camera and got some video of it. This is totally unscripted - he just remembers every little line and detail from the show, apparently. I really love the part where he says, "You don't say anything! Only (Ben) Bailey says something!"

Maceism of the Day - 8/12/09

I got up a couple hours after the kids (hey, just par for the course here lately, people - I'm tired!), and I'm in the bathroom washing my hands. Mace comes in and starts talking - here's a rough playback:

Mace: "We can't eat smudges, cuz when we do, we get chocolate up our noses and they're not good and they go into your nose."
Mom: "Mmhmmmmm......"
Mace: "Yeah. We don't like smudges. They're gross."
Mom: "Yes, I guess we shouldn't eat smudges." (Thinking, why/how would you eat a smudge? But, hey, Mace is Mace - we just go with the flow.)

So I'm done and we head to the kitchen to get breakfast going. There on the counter is......a bowl with some old dried up pieces of .......... fudge. And the light bulb turns on. He'd been wanting a piece of that fudge since we brought it home on Sunday, but we'd forgotten all about it. I wonder if he'll ever try fudge again?

Maceism of the Day - several

So I've got a few Maceisms to catch up on:

First, back in early July, Mace was attending Safety Town (if your kids are in N Clack. Schools, I highly recommend they go!), where they learn about Stranger Safety, Bus Safety, Poison, Guns, Police, etc. for 8 days. So, on Friday he learned about Police and 911. We picked him up and left straight away for our weekend at Kah-Nee-Ta. There, in the teepee campground, the kids would ride their bikes around the street and paths, where we could keep an eye on them.

So, Saturday morning, I'm washing the dishes outside the bathroom, right by the pay phone. Suddenly, a tribal police officer is there, checking out the phone. He asks me if I've seen any kids messing with the phone - someone has been calling 911 and hanging up all morning. I tell him I've seen a bunch of kids, but can't think of anyone around the phone ---- wait, my son has been making his rounds, picking up the phone & hanging it up, but he doesn't know how to call..............oh, crap. I tell the officer I suspect it was my kid and I'll handle it.

We catch Mace on his next circuit and ask him to show us what he's been doing. He picks up the phone, pushes 911 and hangs up. So we have our culprit. We explain to him that 911 is only for emergencies, like if there's a fire, or if you're lost, or hurt, and never just for playing. We then tell him that the police came here looking for him, because he was messing with 911. To which he calmly replies, "The police didn't come last night." Awesome. So he's been pranking their phone for the past day and a half. We thought we'd noticed an awful lot of police patrols.

Primary Maceisms:

We're so lucky that Mace's Primary teachers love and appreciate him, because he's really something. Each Sunday when we pick him up, there's a new report of something he's said or done. Recent gems: The Holy Ghost is actually the Horny Ghost, and one week they made a paper cow with little flaps that was a Holy Cow. At least we can amuse the teachers.