Lake Almanor, day 6.5

Josh assumed picture-taking responsibilities for Gene's birthday party. Gene and Gail invited three other couples to join our family for cocktails, sushi and other appetizers on the back deck to celebrate Gene's 75 good years. Josh catalogued it all: we have a picture of the door, a coaster, a beach ball, Gene's gifts, the wine bottle, and several other inanimate objects (or objects d'art, depending on your point of view).
He did manage to get at least one picture of each attendee too, which I have to admit is better than I would have done. He is usually surprisingly adept at framing the picture well too, but this night he was a little off. Must have been the champagne. (JK) But since they are the only pictures I have, here are Josh's slightly askew photos.

Monica, Lucas and the birthday boy:

Gail:

Curtis mid-chopstick:

A composition study of sushi and wasabi:

The Markleys (v. 1.0):

Another thing Josh is good at (besides looking cute in his own pictures, see below) is getting good pictures of Lucas. Lucas just loves his big brother. While he will try to take the camera from me or otherwise not cooperate with having his picture taken, Lucas gave Josh a great smile, and Josh got by far our best picture of Lucas all week.

Josh and Papa's "old bear for an old (Cal.) bear" wine stopper:

Lucas smiling for Josh:

Josh smiling for Mommy:

An example of Josh's still life photography (discussed above):


It was a nice party, followed by a wonderful dinner and some nice reminiscing. Happy birthday again Gene, we all had such a great time celebrating with you!

Luke's first haircut

Today was a monumental day--Lukey's last day as a baby. He is walking, talking, eating table foods and feeding himself, moving from the infant room to the wobbler room at daycare, completely out of onesies and into big boy clothes, but he still had his baby curls. No more. After much deliberation, I let him get a haircut today. He didn't even need to sit in my lap. He was such a big boy. I teared up a little. He's a toddler now.

Josh went first (along with Iron Man):

Oversmiling for his "after" picture:


Luke's "before" pictures, with a close up of those baby curls:



He was breaking in the race car seat even before it was his turn:

The action photos:




All gone!


Luke was happy with the end result at least (as were we, even though I'm a little sad to see the tangible proof that my baby is growing up):


Maybe now people will stop saying how pretty she is when he waves to them.

Lake Almanor, Day 6

Day 6 was Friday, August 1, Gene's 75th birthday! And birthdays mean one thing to Josh: cupcakes! Josh's class makes cupcakes for each child's birthday, then they eat them after naptime. So as soon as he heard that PaPa's birthday was during our vacation, all he wanted to know was when we'd get the cupcakes. He helped pick out the cupcake foils, the candles, and the sprinkles, and showed them to every employee of the grocery store, explaining it was PaPa's birthday. He was so excited!
When the day finally came, Josh was all business with mixing the batter. The marble cake we had chosen proved a little frustrating at first, but once we got all the batter in the cups and just had to stir and mix them, things picked up. By the time we were adding frosting and sprinkles, we were in high cotton.



Ta-da!

Lucas was napping during the cupcake-making experience due to his extremely early waking hour. Due to unknown reasons, possibly related to the amount of sun coming in the room in the morning (praise the black-out shades we have at home!) but probably just because it was our vacation (and therefore Murphy's law applies), Lucas was waking at about 5:30 every single morning. It was rough. Most days, I got up with him and tried to nurse him for the first hour or so, to keep him quiet until at least close to 7. By then, I would need coffee and would let him play a bit too, and Josh generally wakes up around 7 anyway.

On Friday, John rose with Lucas and took him out of the house so he wouldn't wake anyone. They drove around the lake, went to a restaurant for breakfast (the only one open that early), went to a church bazaar, went grocery shopping, and fueled the car, and still only returned around the time the rest of us were waking! (Of course we all woke a little later without Lucas there to sound the alarm!) It was such a big help, and it was really nice to get some extra sleep.

So Lucas was napping when Josh and I made the cupcakes.
John and Curtis went golfing, and in the afternoon, all of us (Gail, birthday boy Gene, Curtis, John, me, and our boys) went to the beach.

(pictures from Gene's birthday party to follow later in this post, check back)

Lake Almanor, days 4-5

My last post covered Sunday through Tuesday. Tuesday night, Curtis arrived, an event much anticipated by Josh. There were parts of Sunday and Monday during which it was all Josh could talk about. Like last year, we eventually had to prohibit him from saying the word "Curtis" until Curtis arrived.
John and Curtis went out Tuesday night and had a fun time. There is not much night life at Lake Almanor, which is very quiet and low-key, but one of the guys John and Curt grew up playing with at Lake Almanor now owns a local restaurant, so they went to have a few drinks at his bar.

Wednesday, John and Curtis went golfing. Josh, Lucas, Gail and I went for a deer-viewing walk, and after naps, Gail and Gene drove all our gear down to the beach for us and I took the boys swimming. Although Rec 2 is only 1/10 mile from our house, we have so much stuff (toys, towels, sunscreen, swim vest, sometimes the rafts, water shoes, etc etc) that a car is necessary. Curtis and John thought ahead and left our car for us, taking Curtis's car to the golf course, but unfortunately didn't remember to leave the keys. So Gail and Gene drove our stuff down, and I walked the boys down, and we had a nice afternoon of swimming and playing. Gail and Gene played with Lucas on the slide while I swam to the dock and practiced diving with Josh. The slide is a two-person job with Lucas--one to take him back to the top, one to catch him at the bottom. He is very eager to keep going and gave them a real workout!
As we walked back to the house, Josh thought he saw a man in the woods and claimed it was Daddy. I figured he was just associating any man with "Daddy," but lo and behold it was Daddy! After golf, John planned to meet us at the beach while Curtis ran out for groceries, but again forgot our car keys and left them in Curtis's car. So he was cutting through a yard on his walk down to meet us when Josh spotted him.
I don't have pictures from Wednesday's trip to the beach.

Thursday, John and I took Josh and Lucas up to Juniper Lake in the Mt. Lassen national park. We have done this every year for four years now, and we always love it. There is hardly anyone at this lake, which is at the end of a 14-mile, mostly unpaved road. The lake was formed by a volcanic eruption that clogged local streams and rivers, backing them up to form this lake. It is pristine--so crystal clear at any depth. As you can see in the pictures, we had the place completely to ourselves most of the time.







There was a HUGE monarch butterfly population, more than I have ever seen in my life. One of the cutest and most amazing scenes was Lucas toddling through them, as they rose from the beach and fluttered all around him. Unfortunately, I could not get a picture of this (Lucas would just run over to me whenever I approached with a camera while he was with the butterflies), but it was gorgeous.

More pics from Juniper Lake coming.

The last boat ride

John also got to take Lucas out in our boat on Juniper Lake, a hallowed tradition since Josh's "young man and the sea" photos from a few years ago. Unfortunately, in carrying the boat down from the car a tree branch put a hole in the boat, which caused a slow leak. This was the only boat outing of the day, and then the boat was retired permanently (i.e. it's in the garbage).
Here is the launch:


Josh pushing them out to sea:

Josh returning from a job well done:

Taking it in:

I have BIG muscles:

Finding rocks to skip, and throwing them:

Mommy and Lucas:


Lucas as we pack up to leave: "Where's everyone going?"

Body Parts

Josh's class has been doing a unit on self-study. They have drawn self-portraits (Josh's had lots of legs; he said it was so he could run really fast); used mirrors to examine themselves, and done similar projects. Yesterday's project asked each child to pick a favorite body part and explain why it was picked. The teachers photographed the chosen body part and quoted the child's explanation as the caption. It made for an interesting-looking collage, with a leg, a tongue, etc all disjointed but together on the big white board.
Here's is Josh's entry. At first, it seems like he hasn't answered the question, but when his teachers redirect him to the question, watch how he brings it all together, in the best way possible.

Josh age 4

Josh: My Lucas. I'm a big brother. I cuddle a lot and tackle a lot.
Teacher: What part of your body makes you a big brother?
Josh: My heart.

(This is his photo for the collage, of his little hand on his heart.)

Lake Almanor, days 1-3

So after arriving on Saturday afternoon, it appears we did not unpack our camera until Tuesday. Actually, Sunday was busy, and Monday was a bit rough with Lucas teething, so Tuesday was our first long afternoon on the beach. So no pictures from Sunday or Monday, but here's the activity report.
Saturday night we took it easy and unpacked. Sunday, John and I both went on good runs (my only one of the week, boo; but John managed to stick to his running schedule) and we took the boys to the playground on Rec 1 in the morning. There are two recreational areas, "Rec 1" (the larger and more child-friendly, with a longer and sandier beach and a bigger playground) and "Rec 2" (rockier and smaller, but less busy and, more important for our purposes, no lifeguard to tell Josh no diving from the dock!). Also, this year our house was about a tenth of a mile from Rec 2, making it even more attractive.
After playground time, it was on to lunch and naps, leaving just a little bit of time to go to the beach before the Family Dinner held every Sunday. Each Sunday, everyone on the Lake Almanor peninsula comes down to Rec 1 for a BBQ, with a long line of grills going and long rows of picnic tables. The kids play on the playground, the dads grill food, and everyone moves around catching up with each other. It's a nice start to the week, fun to catch up, socialize, and make plans for later in the week.
Family Dinner is at 6, so after naps, we had just an hour for the beach before we needed to bathe and get ready for dinner. We headed down to Rec 2 with no toys, rafts, etc, but quickly decided we needed more action for the boys. John and Josh filled up the boat (an inflatable raft) and took some spins around the swimming area, but I didn't have the camera, and that would turn out to be the only time Josh was in the boat this trip. Bummer. But it was fun, and a nice start to our week in the water.
Monday, John went golfing in the morning (plans made at Family Dinner) and the boys and I went for a morning walk to see deer. There are a lot of deer on the peninsula, and in the morning and evening, they head to the par-3 golf course on the peninsula to eat grass. Our house was pretty close, so we walked down to check things out. First, I had just taken Lucas on a walk to get him out of the house so Josh could do one of his new puzzles (a gift from Gammy), but since we were seeing so many deer, we came back for Josh and took him along too. Gammy also joined us, and we all four had a nice walk and had fun seeing the deer so close by.
Monday afternoon, Lucas was really struggling with pain from his teething, so we let John and Josh head to the beach without us. It took me almost 3 hours to get Lucas to sleep for his nap. He "cried it out" for fully the last hour. I had decided if he wasn't asleep by 3:30 I would just get him up and he'd skip nap for the day, and he fell asleep at exactly 3:30. It was a terrible afternoon for him. He woke just as everyone was returning from the beach, so Lucas and I took a quick 5-6 pm trip to Rec 1, where we played in the sand and enjoyed the warm shallow water. It was really nice, especially after all of his pain earlier in the day.
John and Josh had fun at Rec 2 too. They figured out how Josh could "swim" to the dock without the boat or inner tube by John gently pushing him along as Josh swam with his life vest (now called his swim vest) on to keep him above water. They practiced jumping and diving off the dock and had lots of fun.
So, Tuesday we finally all got to go together, and I got to see this diving for myself. I also got to swim out to the dock with Josh and do some diving myself. It is a lot more fun that you'd think. We all had a blast at the beach.
So here at long last are our first beach pictures, from Tuesday afternoon.

Lucas excited to be heading to the beach (and looking remarkably grown up for his 13 months):

Josh donning his "swim vest":

Ready with the tube:

Cute:

Another favorite activity, throwing rocks into the lake:

Just over his shoulder is the dock for jumping and diving:

Family photo:

Vacation report

We've had a busy weekend--playground, nap and zoo yesterday, then air show and softball world series today. We still have not finished unpacking from our trip, in part because we seem to be home so little. Must work on that tomorrow.
In the meantime, it's time to start sharing pictures and stories from our Lake Almanor trip. (We do have some air show pics, and I'll get those posted too. It was cool.)
My plan is to post one day's activities each day this week. Cross your fingers for me.
We start with the drive. We left on Friday July 25, and drove four hours south, spending the night in Grants Pass, OR, about an hour from the OR/CA border. We got a late start, and probably ended up driving about an hour longer than we should have--Luke started crying (and doesn't stop once he starts crying in the car), and Josh couldn't fall asleep. We finally got checked into the hotel around 10:30, and didn't get everyone to sleep til almost midnight.
We broke up Saturday's drive. From Grants Pass, we drove 3 hours to Redding, CA (still on the I-5 corridor). We had planned to stop at a very child-friendly pool (with a children's water activity center in the shallow end), but by happenstance it was closed that weekend for cleaning. We found a city park with a water feature: bubblers for the little ones, and a huge spouting volcano and water cannons to squirt for the big kids. We had a picnic lunch there, and spent almost two hours playing. It was a great break out of the car. From there, it was less than three hours on to Lake Almanor, so it was pretty easy from there (the boys mostly napped).
Here is Josh being the bait for another kid's turn on the cannon squirters:


Lucas in the shallow pools that formed from the spouting water:

and walking with Dad to the baby section:

I took variations on this picture 6 or 7 times, trying to get a good picture of Lucas during our picnic. If he ever complains about having less pictures and blames second child syndrome, I hope I remember how little he was willing to cooperate in getting his photo taken so I can return the blame! This one's not so bad though: