Fish On!

During Josh's dad's visit from China, he showered us with gifts. Two Father and Son fishing poles were among the Chinese treasures. He was very excited to take us fishing and show us the poles. I was excited because it would be Joseph's first time fishing!


These are telescoping poles so you could tuck them in a pack and not have to worry about them hanging out. There is no reel, just a line, bobber and hook.

Joseph was game! He sat very patiently with his line in the water, but didn't even have to wait that long. He caught his first fish!


Maybe a little perch? I don't know, but he wasn't too happy about being stuck in that bucket. Joseph checked him out for awhile then we threw him back. Joseph really wanted to help so as he barely started to tip the bucket over the water, that crazy fish made a flying leap out of there into the pond! It made us all laugh and Joseph really got a kick out of it!





Then it was time for a banana break, of course. And let me tell you, it was HOT. Hot hot hot. No two ways about it. It was so hot, if we hadn't left when we did bad things probably would have happened. Like 'spontaneous combustion' bad.


So we ran over to the playground to hit the slide a few times and headed back home to the wonderful air conditioning. It sure was a fun morning though!

I crossed over this little pile of sticks the other day walking in from the garage. I smiled to myself and thought it was so cute how Joseph loves his sticks. Still to this day. Always with the sticks.


Then later that day I went out back to water some plants and glanced over to see another little pile of treasures.


As I came back in I realized there were more sticks right at the back door in the living room. And that long one is BIG. Ha ha ho ho, that's my little guy. Yep, how "cute".


Ok, now wait a second. In the bedroom too? If there is a stick to be found, I think he can find it. Those rocks are from our Oklahoma trip...so even state lines can't stop this little nature pack rat.


During nap time I settled down with a book and cup of tea and lo and behold, there is a box of LEAVES sitting staring at me. Are you kidding me?! Upon closer inspection, these are more from Oklahoma.


Later that afternoon....yep, more sticks. On top of the dryer. I am serious here folks. This is not a joke. There are stick piles everywhere. No stick is safe from Joseph.


The next day...in the car. A few old ones and a few new ones from a trip to Dallas to visit a friends new baby. He really liked those magnolia leaves and was so proud of them. Who am I to say he can't keep them? Apparently I have trouble with that.

Check out this weird ol' bag worm that was hanging around the other day. I was hoping I was seeing a butterfly bustin out of his cocoon so I grabbed the camera and started snapping. After waiting and hoping I finally figured this ain't no butterfly.


Then moments later, I got my monthly email newsletter for gardening and yard care and lo and behold the bag worms were highlighted in it. I guess this guy was living on the walnut in the back and was making his way back up after falling.

Yuck. My skin is still crawling.

My Sweet Boys

Thank goodness for sweet moments like this or I might go crazy raising a two year old. Joseph usually stays pretty wound up until the moment the lights go off so our story times can be 'interesting' to say the least. Every now and again he'll settle in to our laps or find a nice cuddly place to listen from.


He found a nice cuddly place right on top of daddy this night. There is nothing like a good naked baby snuggle once in a while. And there is really nothing like it when he actually listens and gives us his full attention. I don't mind the nights when it seems like Josh's only audience is me, but these quiet nights are a treasure for us.

Love that little monkey.

Joseph has been so crafty lately! He's always enjoyed coloring and dabbling in play dough but good grief...I had no idea his very first pair of safety scissors would be the gateway to picture after picture of colorful abstracts.


He's always loved cutting with the 'big' scissors on a special occasion but I was hesitant to get him his own pair of scissors, as the mother of any two year old should be. But I guess hours of cutting funny little shapes calls out to his creativeness like perfectly ripe avocados call out 'guacamole' to me.


So we sit and cut, and paint, and draw, and glue until our little fingers can't take it anymore. I need more refrigerator magnets.

How many chapsticks does one household need?


Not too sure. But if you need to keep a toddler busy for a few minutes, we've hit the jackpot.

"Take My Picture!"

That is what I hear many times when I pull out the camera. But most of the time, he runs to the camera and sticks his big ol mischievous face right in the lens and it's all an out of focus blur. This day, I got some pretty good cheese out of him....albeit up close and personal.

Here is Joseph's new fun thing! I LOVED tents when I was little. I remember making them in the dinning room with all the chairs and big table. See the thing is, if you can utilize something like a table and incorporate that into the blanket engineering, then you can maximize on the scale and top out on the coolness factor. But I'm sure you remember all this from your tent making days.

This little guy will make a tent out of anything. One of his favorites is stacking a few pillows on the couch as the support devices and draping the living room couch blanket over them. It's about a foot and a half high and only as deep as the couch and he'll lay in there and pop his head out at us over and over.

The other day he made one with his itty bitty rocking chair as one support, couple of boxes with toys in them as another support and a couch pillow as a third support. It was a funny little shape, his legs stuck out, and he couldn't really sit up in it, but man did he have fun.

He of course has to take his favorite things in his tents with him....monkey, blankey, baby, juice and perhaps a book or little plastic animal. You know, the important stuff.

Lately, he discovered some cardboard boxes that I keep on hand and loves to use them as tunnels. I think I feel a combo tent with tunnel coming on. It's only a matter of time now.

Oklahoma: The Trip! Day Four...

On our last day in Oklahoma we headed back to the national park for some swimming and relaxing. We walked some trails and splashed around in the water. Joseph was really into having us hold him and walk in the shallow areas, but not too into getting in by himself. That was ok...we got some good exercise, I guess.


This area is called Little Niagara and had several small water falls. Everyone was jumping in off of the falls and the water was ICE COLD. I didn't go in past my knees cause it just wasn't pleasant at all. After awhile, Josh figured he better jump in since that's what all the cool kids were doing. ;)


Does everyone else also wonder if he is thinking maybe this is a bad idea? Joseph was excited and that's all that counts, right?

Well, that and Josh making through ok, and without frost bite.

So we counted down for him...

...and although I would have loved to see a graceful swan dive, I didn't.


...maybe a swan flapping??


And there you have it folks! A not so graceful entry into a refreshing pool of spring water! A good time was had by all!

We got to see the wonderful sites, gaze at a bajillion stars (and even see a satellite wiz by in the night sky), listen to the deafening symphony of the tree frogs, read a little, play dominoes, and have our first Carl's Jr burger (it was soo good!).

I hope Joseph will have some memories of his first real family vacation. All in all, we give it two (or four....or six even) enthusiastic thumbs up!

Oklahoma: The Trip! Day Three...

I could have snapped pictures the whole time. And thanks to photoshop I can fix 'em up real good to make them look as beautiful as in person. Check out this scenery. It was amazing.

Day three arrived and we packed up and headed to Turner Falls. At this point I'm getting real good at this daily packing business. Got it down to two bags! One big ol bag for all the water toys and other fun necessities and one bag for snacks and diapers, etc.


The park was a lot smaller than I imagined. I thought it was going to be really overwhelming and figured we'd want to go back to see it all. When you pay at the gate there is a big swimming area with a water slide and such by the front, then a beautiful winding stream back through the park from the big falls, then the swimming area at the big water fall. And that was it. Simple enough!

We parked and walked back to see the falls but didn't take stuff to set up camp yet. After we walked back to the water fall area we decided to just set up closer to the car so we wouldn't have to haul as much. There is parking all along the stream and it ended up being the perfect spot.





The falls were beautiful, but the so-called "sandy beach" that they boasted of was nothing more than a hill of red dirt. I don't think it could sustain a sand castle nor could I sustain the mess I imagined it would make, so we poked around there for a bit more, stopped off at a playground, then headed back to set up along the stream.

*This photo was borrowed from the following website as I surfed the web trying to find more information on the castle once we got back home; http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/collings.htm

We past a castle along the way back from the falls and checked it out. It was super cool! Joseph was a bit weary of the steepness of it all.....it was built into the side of a really steep hill and as a result there were many different levels to accommodate the grade. Joseph and Josh were ready to get back on solid ground so we didn't stay long, but I can't wait to get back and look around some more. And take more pictures!

There were stairs everywhere to get up and down in it and we found this one itty bitty stair well in one part of the castle. "There are stairs and doors to every rooftop." (Quoted from the afore mentioned website.)


*This photo was borrowed from the following website as I surfed the web trying to find more information on the castle once we got back home; http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/collings.htm


The castle was built by Ellsworth Collings in the early 1930's who was dean of the University of Oklahoma. The castle is now owned by the government who is slowly, but perhaps dragging their feet, trying to preserve this awesome building. It's actually two separate buildings but I'm not sure if one was the main home and one was guest house or what. There is also what is speculated to be two bath house and also stables all arranged around each other and plunked in to the hillside. Sounds like there isn't much information on the castle and it makes it so intriguing!


Super cool but not exactly two year old-friendly!


This was just funny! These guys were dipping their heads in a ritual to benefit from the healing powers of the water. Or maybe they were just workers maintaining the grounds and they were really hot.




Later that day after nap time, we ventured to the springs in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.






And here is one of the springs. Pretty anti-climatic huh? But there you go. This one was super stinky too from all the minerals. It smelled like the intersection by our Walmart. I've always wondered why our Walmart smells so bad. Maybe it was built right by a secret medicinal mineral spring?




Another perfect moment in time caught on camera. The trip just kept getting better but I was also ready to get back home. One day left to enjoy our vacation then back to reality...and internet and satellite television.