End of a Thankful Day

So many things to be grateful for today. So many things to be grateful for everyday. It's good to have a day that forces me to put it all into perspective.

Thank you, Lord, for the abundant blessings that I do not deserve but gratefully accept.

And if I were to make a list of all those things, this would be at the top...

Happy Thanksgiving.

8 Years Old

Dear Padyn,
I can't believe you turned 8 years old today. Long gone are the days were I could rock you to sleep or pick you up and swing you around. Actually, I can still do that last one, but only at risk of injury to one of us.

I can't believe how grown up you are becoming. You certainly look more grown up. Your face it maturing and you are getting taller. You don't like to be called "cute," even though you certainly are. Would you prefer beautiful? Pretty? Adorable? All those are true. And you are much more capable and confident than you were a year ago. You read, you spell, you solve math problems, you try to help me solve problems. I'm so glad you are finally interested in doing things for yourself! And when you choose to be, you are extremely helpful, especially with your brothers. These are things I really look forward to as you grow older.

But I also fret. I worry as you get older that you will stop talking to me and telling me things. It has always been incredibly hard to get you to talk about anything, and I fear it will only get worse as you get closer to your teenage years. Already you show signs of the future years...moodiness, attitudes, crying even though you don't know why....sigh....I am so not looking forward to that. I would love to just stop time and have you stay 8 forever. In third grade. Innocent. Happy. Carefree. I know you want to grow up, but trust me. Later you will wish you could remember more of this time, enjoy it a little longer. I know I will. I pray this 9th year will be full of joy and friendship and growth and happiness and fun. I hope you know how much your Daddy and I love you. It makes me cry, you growing up. Soon you may want to have much to do with us for a bit as you can sort out who you are and what that will look like. I pray that will be a very long time from now. Until then, enjoy being 8. Be nice to your sister. Enjoy your friends. And keep giving me hugs and kisses. Keep telling us that you love us. We feel the same about you.

Love,

Mommy

Favorite Comic Strip of the Week

You can see it bigger here.

Photo Sunday-Playing with the Fishies

On Friday we headed out to the fish hatchery on the American River to watch the amazing quantities of salmon that are spawning at this time of year. And while we often visit a fish hatchery when we visit Grandma and Grandpa in Oregon, this one was humbugs in comparison. It was a bit of a different experience. Plus, I think it's the first time I've let Robbie out of his stroller to feed the fish. You can see that he thought this was the best thing since the yogurt he had earlier in the day... There were two areas with these troughs of trout and salmon, each the length of a football field. In each area there were at least twelve troughs. At one point the feeding truck came through row by row, shooting fish food into the troughs. What a scene. Between the fish leaping out of the water to get all the food and the mass quantities of children running behind the truck screaming with joy, it was pure, delightful chaos.

Then there was the extra long fish ladder. I'd seen a few fish ladders in my day, but never one this big. In this picture, we are about a third of the way up from the gate entrance on the river. What you can't see is at the top of the ladder, it makes a sharp 90 degree turn to the left and continues another considerable distance.

The kids (and their friends) could have spent a hour walking along the ladder, watching and cheering for the salmon as they made their way up stream. They were especially fascinated by the gate. Salmon packed in gate to wall, fighting for their chance to get past the gate and up the ladder. And they just seemed to keep pouring in from the river. Really amazing.While the other kids were watching the fish, Robbie spent some time enjoying the vegetation. Kooky kid.

Happy Sunday.

Photo Friday-Funderland

Thanks to the teacher in service day today (sorry, teachers, that you still needed to work today and we didn't), we had a random Friday off of school. And since it was a beautiful sunny (yet chilly) November day, we decided to take a family outing to somewhere we had never been-Funderland. Yes. That is what it is called. It's a little tiny amusement park in our state's capitol city. There are only about 9 rides. We only rode on 8...but the kids loved every minute of it.

The Octopus Ride (Padyn was too big for this one)

The Cars

Padyn as a train

The Carousel

The TrainThe Log Ride

The Airplanes

The Dragon Rollercoaster (the girls favorite)

The Tea Cups (Mommy refused to go on this one)

Happy (Fun) Friday! Hope you had as great of a day as we had.

Happy Halloween!

Here they are...all decked out for Halloween last night. We cruised the neighborhood with the kids in our hood. There was...

Kate! The "Karate Girl"

Padyn-the Hip Hop Dancer

And Robbie-Dragon Boy...He got into the whole trick or treating tradition. By the third house, he was running down the street yelling, "I want some CANDY!"

Hope you had as great of a night as we did...and collected the same absurd amount of candy.