Navy Jedi Seal Snorkelers

Sometimes the boys and girl are fun loving and can't stop laughing. Other times, they wield their double bladed light sabers along with all of their snorkel gear. Do Jedi's even have snorkel gear? Once space exploration got going, it's like we ignored the ocean.Matt and Emery are ready for their next mission. Notice how serious Matt is.And now, Emery is ready to be cute again. Can you see mini-Sandy?

Romans 3:23

We're working on some Gospel verses now with Matt and Emz starting off with Rom 3:23.

Don't miss the wink.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Andrew has memorized some 20+ verses this year for Awana. But I've also wanted him to memorize other verses that are more specific to him and his struggles / needs. In the evenings, he memorizes Awana verses, and I use our 5 minute car ride to school to memorize other ones. He finally managed to get Ephesians 2:1-10 down...for the most part.

Today, Matt and Andrew were having a debate about how many wives king Solomon had. So Andrew asked Sandy - Mom, didn't King Solomon have something like 400 wives and 300 Cubans?
Sandy: I think you mean concubines not Cubans. And Solomon actually had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Andrew: Wow! He had like 3,000 women then!

That would explain the "B" in math from his report card today...

Biker

Our little guy is growing up! It's hard to believe sometimes. We've talked about taking the training wheels off his bike for a while now. Matt's been gearing up for the big day. Here he goes!
Can you tell that he's the second child? Andrew trained him how to ride! Just kidding - Actually, I was with him the first time he went off on his bike and Andrew had the video camera. Let's just say, no amount of image stabilizing could help that clip.

Here he is going on his own. I think Andrew was just as excited as Matt that he could ride.

Sandy went off to a conference overnight so I had the boys and girl if you're wondering where she is. I was a bit worried about how I was going to feed them for 2 full days, but thanks to some ready made meals (and my great wife!), things went pretty smooth. It was actually a really special time caring for them. But it's good to have mom back!

Weakness

The other day, out of no where, Andrew asked me - "Dad, what are my weaknesses?" Wow, I thought, what an opportunity! What a teachable moment I have here! Thank you God! So trying to be casual in an attempt to lead him to a pivotal moment of self illumination, to that epiphany that would turn his life around to complete brokenness and dependence on Christ, I asked him, "Well, what are some of the things that we talk about, that you need to work on?"

Andrew responded, "No, dad. Not that. If I were a superhero, what would be some of my weaknesses?" Me - "Oh...I'm not sure." Who knew?

The beach

Have you ever been in water that is so cold that your bones feel cold? That's what this felt like.But it didn't stop Matt.Eventually, it stopped Emery.Andrew was the smart one this time - he stayed mostly dry working on his engineering project.

Family time

I think the best thing about visiting CA is seeing all of our family. Actually, to be more specific, it's seeing how much our kids love being with family. It makes our family relationships even more special.The boys and girl got to see my parents.And Sandy's grandparents. I love seeing how our kids are the 4th generation of our living relatives.Cousin Natalie and Emz became bosom buds.I know they don't look like they were having fun, but they had a blast with their cousins on my side of the family. It's amazing to me that my brother and I have a total of 7 kids.

Waffles

Andrew volunteered to make us waffles this morning! Parenting has become so much more fun lately.He made the mix...poured it onto the waffle maker...And voila! Breakfast is served. I keep telling Sandy - we're just 2 years away from sitting back and watching the kids cook and clean the whole house!

We're back!

We took a little road trip out to CA (only about 3,000 miles) and just returned. 24 hours each way in a car with the boys and girl starts out pretty fun but the special family time wears thin after a while. I hope the boys and girl remember our family trips with fondness when they get older and forget about dad's selfish tirades about being quiet and keeping the car clean!We managed to take a little trip to Legoland while we were out there. God blessed us with 4 free tickets! Can you tell Emery had a great day?We got to ride Lego boats.And drive Lego cars.We even flew a Lego helicopter. Can you see how relaxed I am?! I kept trying to bring the copter down and Emery kept trying to push it back up! (I am afraid of heights)It was a great day. Legoland is perfect for a family with little kids.