Today Verna and Randy decided to take the boys on their first little fishing trip.
We all had a great time!
We didn't catch anything worth taking home but the boys sure had a good time catching the ones they couldn't!
Both of the boys caught several fish. Our attempts to find the big ones were in vain, though.
We will go and try again.
This was such a fun experience and such a good practice for them at learning patience.
Even the worms were fun!
Do 3 year olds need finishing licenses? Looks like I'll be finding that out in not too long.
It was a super hot day and the boys didn't last as long as any pro fisherman might, but it was a wonderful first experience for them.
They caught a lot of fish, learned how to stand (or sit) there with their poles and kinda got a first idea of what fishing is like.
When we came home, though, their first idea was to go to the pool to cool off. Then it started raining! After such a fun long day we all slept really well!
In spite of how late the boys got to bed last night, they were still up and at 'em bright and early!
Auntie Verna and Uncle Randy had the bright idea of taking us to the local farmer's market. What a good idea!
There was this bakery with these pastries....
I was really glad we went!
So the boys bought some flowers for Auntie Verna.
After lunch Phil's Grandma June came over to see the boys and had a nice visit.
She spent some time with both of the boys.
Today we'll be going to have lunch at her house. In the evening after some of the heat had subsided we headed out to Claremore and picked blackberries.
The boys ate a bunch of them! I know that is shocking news.
We brought home quite a bounty considering how sparse the bushes were.
I'm pretty sure we got the last blackberries of the season. This morning Auntie Verna made them into a cobbler that I can't wait to have later today!!
We came home and checked for ticks (not something I'm particularly used to doing) and had pizza and crashed. It was definitely a great beginning to our trip here. I think I like Oklahoma a little more every time we visit.
Even after staying up until almost 10 o'clock, my "alarm" (aka Jeremiah) had me up before 7 and getting ready to start the day.
Our first stop: Graceland.
How could we not go to Graceland? It's an American Icon! I have to admit, though... Elvis was one odd duck. Even in spite of that, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to show this to the boys and see it myself. I had no idea of the scope of Elvis' fame.
The boys actually seemed to really enjoy it and are walking away with a much more expanded knowledge of the man. I walked away with an Elvis cookbook. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, here we come!
Next we were off for the National Civil Rights Museum but needed lunch first. Tyler pointed out this place:
Boy, were we ever lucky to find it! Awesome chicken in the most unassuming location... and walking distance to the museum!
We headed off to the museum after washing our greasy hands and patting our full bellies...
I don't have many pictures since photography wasn't permitted but I found the place really interesting and lead to a lot of good discussions with the boys about discrimination and segregation and why people can believe things are really true that aren't.
In the end, we took home a couple books on MLK Jr and Rosa Parks and a picture of the boys with their Uncle Tyler at the place where Martin Luther King Junior lost his life.
And thus began our drive for the day... all the way to Tulsa.
We drove across the Mississippi River and into Arkansas... and straight on into Oklahoma.
We dropped Tyler off here and headed off to Phil's Aunt Verna's house where we will be hanging out until we head back the same direction we came.
Today was the first day of driving. We went down to North Carolina. We'll be leaving Arthur behind here and heading further on our way tomorrow morning. It was a great first day!
I'm pretty sure I forgot 5 or more vitally important things... but I've only realized a couple of them. I think we're doing good!
Got a later start than I intended after I woke up feeling pretty crummy. Some helpful advice from a sister-in-law helped me feel more like my normal self and we got our stuff together and got on the road.
The boys handled the travel very well today! My guess is our last day in the car will be much different!
We stopped off the highway and got ourselves some fresh peaches. Yum!! Those were there tomatoes. I have never seen such big tomatoes!
Then we finally got to our destination! Time for a fun night with cousins and grandparents before heading off on our way tomorrow!
The boys and I are heading out on a road trip tomorrow. After the boys made a few comments yesterday about wishing "we could be 4" and missing Daddy I decided to bring "Daddy" along. I found this at Target around Christmas time. It's a Mighty World toy.
It reminded me so much of Phil I bought it for his stocking. I bought another one the other day on sale at Target so we're going to take him with us. The boys are excited! Hopefully we'll get some cute pictures along the way.
Maybe it will feel a little more like Daddy is getting to enjoy the adventure along with us.
Phil and I are doing our best to raise our boys in a way that is somewhat counter-cultural. I'm sure this is no big surprise after having read so much about us. I think this weekend was the first time I really saw clearly how we are different.
Joshua has been wanting this one game for his DS. We found it for $28 used. It wasn't that long ago that the boys had just saved up their allowance and raided their piggy banks to buy themselves a new game for the Wii so I wasn't real hip on the idea of putting out that much more for this game that only one of them can really play. I told him to save up his allowance again for it but since he only gets $3 a week that would make for a very long wait for a 6 year old. Since I don't want him spending every single penny in his piggy bank he started practically begging to put up a lemonade stand. After talking with Phil about it we decided to go ahead and let him.
We bought lemons and squeezed until we couldn't feel our wrists anymore. We found a recipe and mixed it all up. It was delicious! Sunday after church we set it up. It was sunny and super hot! I hung out with a book in the shade beside the house while Josh sat out by the street... by choice! He wanted to be where the action was! Even Jeremiah helped. They waved at just about every car that went by!
Enough people stopped and bought Josh's lemonade that he was able to go out and buy his game today. We did have to drop the price which brought in more customers but hurt his profit. Phil and I decided that the amount of work he put into this was worth putting in some of the supplies to make it happen for him.
Today I let him play for a little bit. Jeremiah watched over his shoulder. I had no idea how much they'd enjoy this together. Josh is so proud of himself. His first real goal accomplished. He is quite the little businessman!
Jeremiah is making his own improvements as well! The other day he looked up on the counter at the pharmacy and read to me the word, "on." So today we brought out one of our favorite learning tools we got for Joshua, the Bob books.
Today he read his first book! We sounded out the words he couldn't figure out and he did way better than I expected! Looks like both our boys can say they started reading before they were 4 years old!
On a side note, the Bob books are great for very beginning readers! The stories are a little funny if you point that out and the words start out with 3 letters each so they're easy to sound out. We only bought the first set with Joshua because once he started reading he didn't really need much more guidance. He pushed forward on his own and quickly outgrew them. They make several levels so we'll have to see how it goes with Jeremiah.
