First Day of 3rd Grade

We met his teacher last Thursday. We bought all items on the school supplies list on Friday. I washed his navy shorts on Saturday. We discussed lunch choices before I hit the grocery store on Monday night. Early to bed on Tuesday. Today was the big day. My little S started 3rd Grade. He has been so excited for days. Can you tell?


So we had breakfast, packed his lunch, made sure both shoes were on his feet, piled in the van, and headed off to Reagan Academy. We arrived in plenty of time and, hand in hand, walked joyfully across the parking lot into the school. Then -- the fear struck. We found his classroom and his desk. And then -- the trembly lower lip. We brought the requested school supplies to the table at the front of the classroom. And his eyes were huge. Then came the thing every parent loves to hear, over the intercom, "Mrs. Judd, will you please come to the office? Mrs. Judd." So, in his hour of need I abandoned S and ran to the front office already knowing what I will find there. O -- having escaped my mom and the van, run across the parking lot, into the school looking for me (after I told him to stay with Grandma) -- was there with the same, "I'm gonna cry and I want mama now" look on his face that was present on his big brother's. So with O in tow, with a longing look at the bathroom where my bladder was hoping my feet would go, I returned to S's classroom. He was rooted to the very spot I left him, only just on the verge of hysterical tears. Long story short -- after a sincere avowal of my love and pride for him, some coaxing, a promise of a surprise in his lunch, and one last hug and kiss, I told him, "I really have to pee and then I'm going to go home," (I am one classy mom) "You be so brave and I will see you after school."
I took a picture of him at school with his "best smile" plastered on top of his tearful, fearful face.

I prayed all day in my heart for him, hoping that he remembered the Father's Blessing J gave him yesterday. If he had a bad experience today, school would be a horrendous fight every day for the rest of the year.

Fingers crossed and his tragic little face swimming before my vision, I still managed to have a reasonably good time while he was in school all day. When I picked him up, I craned my neck to see what state he was in. HALLELUJAH!!! He had a fantastic day and talked my ear off all the way home. Thank you, Heavenly Father! I think I'm going to like 3rd Grade.

(For those of you who are wondering why this was such an ordeal for S and his mom, S skipped 2nd Grade this year. All of his friends from last year are happily together in 2nd Grade, while he is in 3rd Grade, poor little stumpy halfie, 3 inches or more shorter than most of the kids in his class. Now you see why I was anxious?)

Sunday Practice

On Sunday after Church we spent a nice lazy afternoon watching our kids practice casting their fishing poles. We started in the front yard and stayed there for quite awhile watching O while sitting in our $10 fold-out lawn chairs. J thought it would be good for some of our neighbors to witness the Judds being (as he put it), "so white trash." (Yeah, that's yellow trash to you, mister!) The only thing missing was a 6-pack of beer. Alas, that will always be missing from our plastic fish casting adventures!

O got the hang of it very quickly and was soon casting 70 feet or more. Very impressive.


H is our little "monkey see, monkey do"

I love O's serious expression and complicated little dance.

H's little stance lately with his hands on his hips always makes me smile.

We finally moved to the backyard and spent the rest of the afternoon catching H. He just chased around the plastic fish at the end of the poles, laughing hysterically.

And this is what he finally did to his pole.

We Love Threadless!

In case any of you were wondering about J's shirt in the previous post, it is yet another gem from threadless.com. J's been waiting for this shirt to be reprinted. When he finally received the email telling him that it was available, he lost no time ordering "The Communist Party"





Marx looks like the life of the party, no?




Here's another of J's favorites. So profoundly true. He gets a lot of stares when he wears it. One of the first times he wore this shirt, he ran into our Bishop (a church leader) at Home Depot. It was awesome!






This is the one that draws the most stares. A stare at J, a flicker over to me. Yep, I'm the one he wants. The thing I don't understand is, he got it at Target -- why aren't more people wearing them? Easily accessible, coolest shirt ever -- come on, guys! Be an animal for your woman!

Saturday Adventure

Much to his disappointment, J did not get to climb The Grand Teton (13,770ft) as scheduled this weekend, so when he got home we piled into the van and went for a hike up Battle Creek Canyon.

My intrepid explorers


A wild animal!


We're all in this picture somewhere, can you find us?


S wanted to take this little guy home with us. Thankfully J said no.


Forging ahead

This cave is right next to the trail. J asked O and H, "What do you think lives in there?"

And away they went! They were not going to stick around to find out!

H stopped J and said, "Go down there. Take my picture, Daddy."

Click on this one and look at O's face. What is he doing? He cracks me up!

Well worth the hike

My happy boys

We've decided that we are going to become A Hiking Family. We stopped by Out-N-Back to pick up a water bottle each for the boys and a Camelback for me (J already has one). Whenever I go in that store I just want to buy everything and go camping every weekend. Is that bad?

I really want my boys to develop love and appreciation for the Great Outdoors. They seem to have this attitude that everything is there for them to experiment with and, if necessary, destroy. The last time we went for a walk by the Provo River I had to impose a "no throwing rocks into the river" rule. It may sound harsh, but whereas other kids will plop a rock or two into the water, mine will single-handedly erode a foot off the shoreline. I'm not sure why. This time when J told the kids we were going to go hike by a waterfall, O moaned that he didn't want to because they couldn't throw rocks into the water. J shot me a look that clearly said, "Party Pooper" and told them that it was ok where we were going today. Well, we found the river, the rock-throwing commenced, and after 10 minutes of watching S and O clear their immediate space of any and all throwable rocks, J decided he needed to intervene. No more rock-throwing. Okay, they could live with that. Hike on. Then S gets the idea to pick up some of the rocks from the trail and chip away at them, like an Indian making an arrowhead. Problem is, chips are flying, chunks of rock are being discarded in all directions, including down the trail and that's a big no-no -- never know when you'll hit somebody coming up the trail. Veto the rock-chipping. On the way down we stopped by where the snake went slithering away into the grass so J could show the boys Snake Grass. Which promptly got pulled up. Why oh why? Can we just leave nature alone? Leave the grass hopper be. Don't poke the snake with a stick. The plants are happiest firmly rooted in the ground! These are the lessons we will teach our young offspring on our hiking adventures.

A Happy Birthday, etc

The Monday after we returned from vacation, Mom and Dad Kim drove up from Gallup. Remember that ostrich egg we bought in Escondido? We surprised my mom with it upon their arrival.

"A birthday present for me? What could it be?"


"Uh? What is this?"

"Thank you! How wonderful and unique!"

So the next morning we cooked it -- boiled it, actually, for an hour and a half.

Then we pulled J away from his conference calls to open it. The Dremel really was the best tool for it, but egg shell dust does not smell good, so we relocated outside. (BTW, the man can dress!! $80 shirt, flip flops, jeans, and an ancient floppy hat -- gotta love his style!)

Et...voila!

I had one bite, J had one bite. Dad Kim refused, as did S. H doesn't eat eggs, so he passed, but Mom Kim and O? They ate half that ostrich egg between them. Mmmmmm

My mom was thrilled with her gift and we were glad to be able to surprise her with such a novelty. She looks great for being 64, doesn't she?

After lunch we headed for the climbing gym. Here's my mighty mighty dad:

Monkeys all

H and Grandma

J and S

Now, Son. This is how you do it.

Mom and Dad Kim left Wednesday for California and Big Sister but will be back in a couple days. They left a stack of Veggie Tales movies which have occupied my kids while I've battled hay fever and irritability. My brother calls the movies, "Relig-tables" which is true, but which I also have absolutely no problem with. If they don't seem to listen to me when I tell them to be nice to each other, but somehow Bob the Tomato or Larry the Cucumber resonates with them, then thank goodness for Veggie Tales!

Home Again, Home Again

Our last day on Coronado was spent at the beach and at the hotel pool. I made this strange volcanic-looking thing while watching the kids run around. J was, as usual, trying not to get sunburned (it didn't work). That's black sand inside and around the rim. It was in the hole that I dug. Pretty neat.

Just 1/2 mile up from the hotel is a great playground that we took the kids to. I think these pictures pretty much sum up their vacation experience.

The next day we checked out, got in the van, and took a detour on the way home. I wanted to get my mom an ostrich egg for her birthday, so we retraced our path to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido to a stand just up the road from the Park that sold fresh ostrich eggs. (More on this later). Trying to get out of that city we had to fill up on gas, take O to the bathroom, and have lunch. In frustration and in answer to S's question of, "When are we going to be out of California?" J answered, "Never!! Aaaah!! We can never leave!" It was a bit frightening. By then J had lost his patience with California drivers, California gas stations that didn't take credit cards, or that actually took your credit card while you filled up with gas, and the Wienershnitzel that we were trying to give our business to but that would only take cash. Once we had lunch and found ourselves on the freeway, though, it was smooth sailing -- a total of 14 hours in the van to get home. The kids did amazingly well. And how nice to collapse into bed at 1AM on Saturday at the end of a fun and memorable vacation!

And Still More California

On Wednesday we took the Marriott Water Taxi from Coronado to San Diego to see the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Here are my boys waiting for the water taxi. That's our hotel in the background. It's a great place for families.


Last year the captain of the water taxi was a lady named Christine. She let S drive the boat for a little bit. No such luck this year. The captain was a taciturn man who sped across the harbor like there was no tomorrow. S was disappointed, but what can you do?


That big aircraft carrier is the USS Midway. We didn't go on it this time, but J and I told the kids about it. We had the opportunity to have dinner on it last year when J brought me to Coronado on a business trip without the kids. Ahh...bliss...


But I digress. Moving on...

Here is some merchant ship. Not sure anymore details. I'll probably edit this post when J gets back in town so he can fill me in on the details of everything.


I do know that this is the Russian submarine that is the reason J made me watch "The Hunt for Red October" again once we got back from our vacation.

The monkeys were especially fascinated by this original Spanish treasure chest.

This was before lunch. Can you tell by the grumpy looks?

The Star of India, a merchant ship

This was after lunch. Much happier boys, steering the ship safely into port!

We took the ferry back to Coronado then walked to Miguel's Cocina -- a great Mexican place just across the street from the Hotel Del. Go there, if you ever go to San Diego.

After dinner we walked on the beach and then walked back to our hotel to the tune of S singing a made-up song called "The Battery Hat" and O talking to himself. About 3/4 mile away from our hotel O decided he couldn't wait to pee and so left a little wet trail down his leg and behind us for a ways. Isn't vacation fun?