A Minivan Archaeologist

Last Monday we returned from a week on the road. Kristen made the comment that she felt like an archaeologist uncovering different layers of civilization while cleaning the minivan.

I guess in our case, she could have carefully sifted the accumulated trash and debris from the minivan and noted where we traveled on our road trip. The first layer of debris would have contained the candy wrappers from visiting the grandparents in Sumter, the second layer would have found sand from visiting the grandparents at the beach, and the third layer of books, puzzle pieces, and portions of Old McDonald Happy Meals would have indicated a long trip to the North. If she found the receipt stuck between the spilled coffee and book, she could have proven that we traveled to Cleveland, Ohio.

Corndog Saturday

Corndogs on a nice spring day. You can't beat that.

Days of the Week for a Four-Year Old

For a four-year old I imagine its hard to keep up with what day of the week it is. However, as a four-year old do you really need to know what day of the week it is? In Annaka's world, there are only three days.

Church Day (Sunday) - This is the day we get to stay around the house a bit later than usual, before we spend the morning at Church. Honoring a family tradition, I make pancakes, eggs, and bacon for lunch after church. Annaka is my number one helper with the eggs. She is actually getting quite good at cracking the eggs and mixing them up. The afternoon nap is mandatory for every member of the family.

School Day (Monday-Friday) - These days long after Dad has made an early morning commute, Mom drops the kids at Daycare, or what Annaka calls school. Mom teaches and Dad does his thing. Most days Mom picks up the kids, while Dad is still working or driving. This week Annaka asked me who my teacher was at work.

Stay at Home Day (Saturday) Before kids, Kristen and I enjoyed our Saturdays as times for kayaking, hiking, and other worthy outdoor adventures. These days it feels better to stick around the house with the TV off and just laze around. Although some Saturdays are spent on house projects that can not be delayed any longer.

Today Annaka asked if it was "Stay at Home Day". I said yes and Annaka immediately asked if we could play a game. Let's play.

No work. No School. All Play : Snow Day 2007

We don't get much snow so when it does snow its pretty special. Today, we had a couple of inches of snow which was enough to shutdown the entire Upstate.

No work. No School. All Play. We explored the outside this morning. I don't think Jack had ever seen any snow.

Mission Possible : Another Geocaching Adventure

We went geocaching again this Saturday. It really was just an excuse to get outside and enjoy this nice "winter" weather. I actually remembered to bring the videocamera this time and was able to take enough footage to create a little movie. The music is cheese, but it was fun organizing the clips around the music.

Geocaching with the kids

From Annaka and Ja...

Kristen had a great idea to enjoy the beautiful weather today. She thought it would be fun to take the kids geocaching. We had never tried that with the kids.

So, what is Geocaching?

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

We told Annaka and Jack, however, we were going to look for Pirate treasure. So we set off with our coordinates plugged into our GPS unit. Our cache was located in some woods right on campus. After a good half-hour searching, we found the cache inside a tree stump. You never know what you will find inside a cache, I mean a Pirate's treasure chest. There were some trinkets and oddities. Both Annaka and Jack left some Clemson memorabilia and Annaka took some nice sunglasses (see picture) and Jack found a small Superman doll. All in all, a good day was had by all.

No Me

Tonight I got to listen to a back and forth volley from Jack and Annaka of "no me". I had asked them who wants to say blessing. Annaka said she would but before she started Jack said "no me". Now, little Jack has no clue of how to say the blessing, but that did not stop him. Immediately, Annaka blurted out 'no me", then Jack hit back with another "no me". The exchange was on.

However, I was able to offer a truce and we were able to eventually have a blessing. Amen.