Construction in Our Neighborhood

We have had construction in our neighborhood for months now.  They were finally right next  to our house this past week.  It has been interesting to see how they do the work - putting in bigger sewer and waste water pipes, as well as working on the storm drains - and the boys LOVE watching the trucks and tractors.  It just makes it tricky to drive around.

 Our front corner.

 Digging up the street and putting it in a dump truck to haul away.

 This metal thing that they put in the trench seems to hold the walls in place while they put the pipes into the ground.  They have several in varying sizes and widths.  The trench is deep - you can just see the top of the guy's helmet inside the metal thing.

 

 We were lucky enough to have the equipment parked by our house all weekend, so we could get a really close look.  They also chained a cooler of something to our street sign.  I REALLY wanted to look inside.  Alan thought it might be cement core samples, but he didn't know why they would leave them chained to the street sign all weekend.

 There were large metal plates covering the holes in the road, but we could peek down into the hole underneath the metal guide (which was also covered with a metal plate).

 I thought it was funny to have a port-a-potty outside our house for weeks.  I was tempted to send my kids there and save on toilet paper!  :)

Of course we took advantage of the situation for some photos!

Robert loved exploring everything.

 

 

 

I don't know when they will be done, but I'm sure it will be awfully quiet when they are gone.  They usually start before 7am, and work into the evening.  They have been very nice and polite, and have talked to the boys a bit, so we have no complaints.  Our roads are just inaccessible a lot!

Photobooth Fun

I was emptying out my diaper bag, and found these fun photo strips tucked into a pocket.  We took these at a photo booth at my cousin Lindsey's wedding last summer.  If you click on the picture, you can see it bigger.  The first one is my mom, my sister Kari and I goofing around.

 The second one is me and my boys.  They are both kissing me in the second frame, but you can't really see them doing it :)

It was a fun thing to play in!

Playing in the Pipes

We have had construction in our neighborhood for months now.  They are building a new housing development, and as a result installing bigger storm and sewer pipes.  We have been watching all the construction with interest, and tonight I took some of the kids and took some pictures in the pipes.

 According to the forklift driver, this pipe weighs 9,000 pounds!

 These pictures were taken in the shovel of a bulldozer.

 This pipe weighs 27,000 pounds according to the forklift driver.

We had a good time!  Maybe I can get all the kids home and in some pictures before they install the rest of the pipes.  They make for interesting props and backgrounds.

Trek Handouts From Ma and Pa

I searched the internet for ideas on things to make for my trek family, but really couldn't find anything.  I wanted to give them some handouts to go with our daily devotionals, and some other little items unique to our family.  I decided to share what I came up with, since there doesn't seem to be a lot of sources out there yet.

The first thing that I made was chapstick with a handcart company on it.  I figured that everyone was going to need chapstick, and that they would remember the pioneers every time they put it on.

 

 This is the finished product.  The kids really liked it.

 I bought chapstick at the Dollar Store, found a picture I wanted on the internet, and found a free chapstick cover template on the internet to download.  Here is one site  http://www.brambleberry.com/Lip-Balm-Label-Templates-Free-Downloadable-File-P5172.aspx, but there are many more.

 I used packing tape to attach the picture to the chapstick.  It was the right width, and gave a laminated look and feel to the chapstick.

This is one of the handouts that I made.

 I wanted to get them gum, but my husband nixed that idea.  He didn't think other groups after us would enjoy gum all over the trail.  :)  So I bought Mentos chewy candy at Walmart.  I used the packing tape again to attach the quote to the candy.  We used them to go along with a devotional that we gave.  It had a double meaning because we used it to talk about choosing to follow God, but it was also the theme of "Coming one step closer to Christ through Service" that day, so they needed to choose whom they were going to do service for.

The other handouts that we made were just quotes, and then we had treats like licorice or hard candy to go with them.

 I didn't have anybody throw them away on trek.  Although who know what they did once they got home.  We had 8 kids - 4 boys and 4 girls - and they all asked for them each day.  One of the boys called them spirit cards.

 I made sure that they went along with the theme of the day, and the pioneer stories that we were telling, as well as our devotionals each night.

This last one was our plug for working together as we pulled our handcart.  Last trek, some of our kids were impatient with the ones who couldn't (or wouldn't) go as fast as some of the others would have liked.  This time we started off by making sure that they understood that we would go as slow as the slowest and leave nobody behind.  We talked about some pioneer stories where people pulled and carried family members, and the kids really got it.  We had a girl who ended up having some painful foot problems, and our kids were really patient, caring and willing to go slow.  She ended up being an awesome example of enduring to the end, and was able to finish the whole trek with the help of her trek family.

What a Mess!

My little candy monster wanted a big Tinkerbell sucker that he saw up in the cupboard. Since the sucker had been there for a while, I thought "Why not? It will keep him entertained for a while." So we put him in his high chair and let him enjoy himself. A little while later, he yelled for me and told me that he was done. I went in the kitchen and here is what I saw:

What a mess!  Some how he had grabbed a cup of water and made his own finger paint to play with.  His shirt, hands, and face were all green and sticky and wet.  However, he had a good time :)  He was very happy and proud of himself!  We sent him up to the bathtub, cleaned up the mess, and disposed of the sucker.  Thankfully he kept most of the mess on himself and the tray!

Whale Watching With Lani

Leilani and I went whale watching in Newport with her biology class.  We had to be there by 8:45 am, so we left our house about 6:30 am.  Once we all got there, we got on the boat and went out on the ocean.

 It was a pretty calm day on the ocean - only 2-4 foot swells - but I still had some motion sickness.  I took a pill, but I should have taken two.  Leilani wasn't bothered at all.

 We were able to see some whales.  We watched a mother and her calf for a while.  I couldn't get any pictures - it was too hard to anticipate where they were going to come up, and snap a picture fast enough.  I did get a little bit of the whales on video, though.

 We also saw sea lions, seals - see above - and dolphins.

 The kids also got to dissect squids.  Leilani watched, but she refused to touch it.

 They also caught crabs and learned about them.  Apparently you can tell male and female crabs apart by the markings on their abdomen.  Male crabs have  marking that looks like a lighthouse, and female crabs have  a marking that looks like a beehive.

 Leilani was willing to hold a crab, and she helped throw them back in the water after they were done studying them.

They finished up the ocean cruise by studying some plankton. Leilani helped pull in some ocean water, and then they looked at it under a microscope.  It was interesting to see all the things in the water sample that were not easily seen with just our eyes.  It was a fun field trip!  We both really enjoyed it, and we learned a lot too!