Birthday Hikes

The time is quickly approaching when I will be more than a year behind on this blog.  I will not be surpassed!  So, I am going to try to make a blog post each morning.  We'll see how that goes.

On birthdays, we try to do the things birthday person likes best.  So, in June last year, we did a lot of hiking in June.  This was my birthday.  We took my new pair of binoculars and went bird watching at Lake Cuyamaca.

 Some birds you don't need binoculars to see, only a bag of bread.

 Stare down.  She held strong.

 Sadly, I can't remember what this was.

 This is one strange part of hiking in the west - the burnt out forests.

 A little oriole bathing.  Sorry, I will try to crop pictures better in the future.

Happy Birthday to the Momma.

Another be with-er

I often wonder if I generally have a look of being out of control or just out of it when I am out in public with our kids.  I pretty regularly have people reminding me where my kids are and what imminent danger awaits them.  Now, I will be honest, there has been a time or five when one of them slips under the radar for a minute.  Like the time we all got off the tram at the Wild Animal Park and went one way and Joseph went the other.  Actually, poor guy, that has happened to him a couple of times.  But those times aside and despite the look on my face in public, I do have a pretty good grasp on our kids and what they are up to.  

I heard the other day of a friend of ours, a dad who also homeschools, saying how he does not feel like the years are slipping by.  You know the sentiment - the kids are growing up so fast, etc.  He said, "We are with them constantly.  I am not missing a thing."  I have to say I feel the same way.  I do not feel at all that the days are passing too quickly (too slowly sometimes, but that is another conversation). 

Anyway, that is my point in all this.  Despite the look on my face, I do know my kids and in general what they are up to.  For example, one might think the kid in the first 5 pictures is under fed, always begging for food.  On the contrary, he just likes to be with.  Wants to be doing what we are doing.  And while one day I will miss this little beggar, I do not think I will feel like I will have let these days slip by.

Last Year's Tears

Well, with three quarters of a year behind us, these emotions are quite as fresh.  But imagine a balmy, June evening, just after dark.  Two best buddies are soaking up every minute they have left together before one of them flies off to Germany for the summer.  Playing ball under the street lamp.  

I love these boys.