chicks & grandpa updates

we had 3 more chicks hatch on monday, and 1 on tuesday. today we inspected the not-hatched eggs. they were all in different stages of development when they stopped growing. only 1 looked close to full-grown.

grandpa is staying in the hospital a bit longer. they are not yet satisfied with his recovery from the surgery (issues with numbers) and will keep him a few more days. never the less, physical therapy and occupational therapy are happening several times a day.

they're here!

when we got home from camping - one baby chick was just coming out of it's shell! they were supposed to hatch before we left to go camping (if they hatch in 3 weeks), but they hadn't. the "instructions" said they should stay about 3 days in the incubator after hatching without adding food or water, so we thought it would be safe to leave them. we were prepared to be really bummed if we missed them hatching, but also in the last few days the temperature in the incubator had been pretty high and (as they were late) i wasn't sure if they would hatch at all.

so we were surprised and excited when 1 came. 1 more came an hour after we got home, so that was fun too.

this is interesting timing as my dad goes in for surgery tomorrow and then will be coming to live with us in a couple days! baby chicks and a patient too!

church beach trip

church camping trip

every july our church goes camping in big bear. this year we camped at green valley lake. it was a blast!

on our way up, we stopped by the grieco's for dinner as they were hosting a PCC reunion! fun to see a bunch of people scott went to college with.

then we found our campsite (after much searching with no cell signal) and set up in the tent.

saturday we spent on the lake. scott took kik wheeling in the bronco. i took jo, ky, & sy out in a row boat where jo learned to row. we had lunch out in the boat and then when scott & kik got back we spent the afternoon swimming and fellowshipping with friends.

the trip was made more interesting because 1/3 of the people only speak spanish and 1/3 only speak english and 1/3 are bilingual. we had Bible study in the evening in spanish (i translated for scott). then we had morning study in english. we are just beginning spanish services on sunday mornings, so this was the beginning of the adventure. :)

CHEA convention

i attended the convention by myself this year as scott stayed with the kids and worked. (it was friday & saturday). i was planning to stay in a hotel with our pastor's wife, but she ended up not coming so i had a quiet hotel room all to myself - and didn't really know what to do! but i managed.this couple days is such a boost every year. i walk away encouraged in my roles as wife, mother, teacher, and follower of Christ.

adventures with jake & katie

the bike adventure

the beach adventure

the ruby's adventure and

the fireworks show... all in one day.

the good-bye and hello again adventure

the mini-golf adventure

quickly followed by the chick-fil-A adventure

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY KIK!

He just doesn't stop growing - and is becoming more mature too! Got a new bike and can pull the youngers in the trailer. Thanks kik!

biking like crazy!

we've had a few days of biking madness!

sunday, we rode about 7 miles roundtrip to meet up with another family at the park. it was fun, we'd not seen them in a while and everyone enjoyed the fellowship.

monday, we rode almost 20 miles roundtrip to seal beach with jake & katie (scott's cousin & wife from oregon - they stay with us when vacationing in so cal). this was a fun 4th of july adventure and pressed dear ky to the limit as she has always rode in the trailer on past trips of this magnitude. but, no training wheels = ride on your own. her first time in the riverbed too and she was a little freaked out by the drop off. BUT she made it the whole way! (thanks to much encouragement from the cousins) way to go ky!

tuesday, we rode about 13 miles roundtrip to our CC parkday. (i had pre-arranged this before the other 2 impromptu biking adventures.) oops. it turned out to be really fun. we took a friend, james, along and his mom drove ky & sy, so ky didn't have to ride any more. james had never biked to a destination before so we did some quick safety lessons about bike lanes, etc and were on our way. when we got to the riverbed, i was just reminding the boys to stay on the paved part and not do any offroading as i didn't want to deal with any flats when i got a tack in my tire! i decided to see if it had punctured the tube and it had, but i put the tack back in. just ahead was a walmart (right off the riverbed) so we pulled over to get a tire - then i realized i had put my wallet in the car with ky & sy. we prayed. i had $5 cash and the new tube was 8 because they were out of the cheap ones. i decided i would ask the guy at the register if i could bring him back the rest - and he actually lent me the money out of his own pocket! really! when i got back out to my bike, the tire was still doing well so we rode on to the park. i left the tire be until we were ready to go, and the tire with the tack was still holding, so we rode all the way home with it like that. this was really nice because i actually didn't have any tools to change the tire and wasn't sure where i was going to find them either! so fun to watch God provide!

we stopped at walmart on the way home and paid back our new friend. and to top off the fun of the day - james rode the whole trip, even though he wanted to bail once we got to the park and again when we got to the big hill on the way home - but even then he made it up the hill without getting off his bike! (none of the boys' bikes have gears.) yay for james!

and that is the fun of biking 40 miles in 3 days with newbies!

hatching chickens

as a follow-up to our whirlwind zoology course, we are hatching chicken eggs. we had planned to do it earlier, but this is when we were able to get the equipment & eggs, so this is when we'll do it!

we ended up getting eggs from a vietnamese store in westminster and picked up our chick feed in midway city so we're ready when they hatch. it should take 3 weeks.