Great waves

The waves were amazing. I'm not sure you can see it in the pictures.

Michael and Michele trying to get further out to catch a "big one". Someones head bobbing about behind them. I think it's Evan.

It was hard getting out past them.

The whole gang. Some pretty good waves in this one.

Lots of fun.

Beach therapy

We all love the beach, but Aaron seems to thrive there. He seems more at peace and comfortable there than any other environment we've seen him in. Of course, I guess most people find a certain therapeutic something about the sand and ocean. What's not to love? Well there was that sunburn thing, but I'm blaming that on sunscreen failure - or maybe ozone layer failure? Not sure, but I'm ramping up my SPF factor next time.

He'll just lay in the sand and let the sand and water run through his fingers for ages.

He loves to lay right at the waters edge and let the surf wash over him.

And the day's not complete without a sand castle.

And a sand angel.

More waves, etc.

I'm doing these in stages and in order which will make it appear backwards to you who are reading them from the top. I'm too tired to do one long one and fight with it or do them backwards so they go in order for you all. What?!? Anyway...... Back to the beach.

Michael teaching Aaron the finer points of surfing - well not actually surfing, really, but we called it surfing. Boogey boarding? Not sure. It was fun though.

The board kept getting away from him at first.

Almost!

And he made it.

Mo-om! Yes, I'm taking another picture! So Smile!

Okay, I have boys wanting computer time, so I'll let them on and try to post some more later.

Let's go surfin' now

The boys

Various kids trying to catch the perfect wave.
I'm not sure if any of the pictures do them justice, but the waves were crazy.

Turtles, Turtles, Everywhere

Our first full day, we decided to start with the NOAA Sea Turtle Facility. We knew we wouldn't want to leave the beach, once we got there, but thought the turtles might be fun to see. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a facility whose function is to rebuild the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle population which is the most endangered species of sea turtle in the world. They had a barn full of turtles ranging in size from a few inches to a couple of feet long. They were very cute. Most of them looked like they'd really like to get out of there though. It's hard not to feel sorry for the little guys, but I guess the alternative is extinction, so I suppose it's a good thing.

Evan standing by one of the medium-ish guys (girls?)

Aaron and Evan giving a size comparison to the skull of an adult sea turtle.

This one wanted out more than any of them. He just kept crashing into the wall of his little "cell". He never stopped the whole time we were there.

My poor kids posing for yet another picture. The younger boys with their swimmer-bedhead hair-dos. Two out of four with decent hair in that sea air is pretty good. There will be no picture of me as my hair went totally whacko. Not a pretty picture at all!

One of the little ones. Very Nemo-ish.

BEACH!

We've arrived and are now hoping everyone else is leaving. It was soooo crowded when we got here. Of course I know it's a major holiday, but the beaches were all wall to wall people - yuck! We were spoiled the last time we came in early May. It felt like we were the only ones here. I really am hoping everyone has left by morning - and yes, I mean everyone - I really would like to have the entire island to oursleves - not too much to ask, is it? And we're hoping the weather holds. The reports keep changing - from mild and sunny to thunderstorms. I needed the get away just to rest, but I was hoping it would include several days of sitting on a beach, not looking at the beach through the rain out our living room window. And my allergy/migraine/whatever is now trying to turn into bronchitis. I'm hoping the sea air helps - can't hurt, certainly. I'll try and keep you posted on the (leaving) people, weather, illness and all other manner of drama and mayhem my bunch seems bent on inflicting on me - they all seem so LOUD, but maybe it's just the fifth day of a bad headache talking... Mark and the kids are playing poker in the living room with doritos and Aaron is singing "Pinky and the Brain" in Spanish beside me here in the bedroom. I think I'll take some more medicine and go to bed. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

Fun stuff

I found a fun new widget for all of us that love books. You can't see it if you're just popping in to see if I've said anything new because it's down on the page a bit, and since I have nothing of interest to say, just go see my new bookshelf. There's a link if you want one of your own, because I know you all have so much spare time (like me), except here I am blogging about my cyberbookshelf, so obviously, I have my ways of squeezing a little fun into my otherwise boring workday. When I was building my shelf, I didn't know you could have layers of shelves, so I was just trying to pick a selection of my favorite authors and some of the books my kids loved, plus I wanted to get it on the blog and see what it would look like. I'm sure I left off some great ones, so I'll be adding more when I get time. And it will work on facebook too - and it can all be done by clicking buttons - no fancy coding stuff required. And now I'll stop rambling about it so you can go see it.

Happy Birthday, Michele!!

My baby girl is 16 today!! It's hard to believe. I don't have any baby pictures on this computer, but she was a doll. She's pretty cute here with Katherine too. It's been a wonderful 16 years. I can't say I have much to complain about with Michele. She started out sweet and peaceful from the moments she was born. (And believe me, it really was noticeable from the moment she was born. The difference between her temperament and Michael's was totally different from birth. He came out "supercharged" and has stayed that way. She came out with this hard to described peaceful glow around her.) She continues to be sweet and peaceful - a joy to be around. She hasn't exhibited any of those crazy teenage girl hormonal episodes or anything else associated with the negative side of teenage-ness(?) She's been a help to me from the time she was a toddler, or before. Since Aaron came 18 months after her (surprise!), she quit being the baby quickly. Although, frankly, I think she's one of those "old souls" you hear people talk about. She never acted like a baby - always seemed to exude this wisdom beyond her years. So she fell quite naturally into the role of big sister and became a "little mother" to the littler boys. She's still filling that role in helping with them. I really don't know what I'd do without her. I can really see God's hand in the design of our family. Any other "configuration" of children would not have worked quite as perfectly as this, especially as it relates to life with special needs. She has been an absolute wonder with Aaron. They've always been very close. She can get him to do things that the rest of us can't. I could go on and on about her, but I'll just say that she is completely wonderful. I really don't know what I did to deserve such great kids. When I hear about people who's kids are complete messes, I know how blessed I am. I mean, I know I did some things right, and I'm an okay parent, but I'm so far from a great parent, I know it's nothing but the grace of God that has carried them to this point in such an amazing way. I will forever be grateful for the blessing of raising my great kids. They are a joy. And Michele is the posterchild for Joy. I'm so thankful God blessed me with the one girl - a kindred spirit in our very male dominated little world. So today, on the dawn of her 17th year (oh dear, I'm not sure I like the sound of that - but I guess it does make 16 not sound quite so bad!), I want to thank her for being such a complete joy and blessing to us. I want to thank God for entrusting such a sweet little spirit to our care.

Happy 16th!!
I love you, sweet 'Chele!!

I'll try to post some pictures of our weekend and party, etc. after I do my taxes. And no, I haven't done them yet. You can see some ballpark stuff on Genny's blog. And now, we'd better get out of town so I can get the dreaded taxes done - bah humbug!!

Okay, this is smaller print on my edit page but it keeps staying big on the post - and I don't have time to try to fix it, so just pretend it's small print.

Autism Awareness Day

Oops, I missed it. The United Nations passed a resolution declaring April 2 World Autism Awareness day in perpetuity with yesterday being the first. Oh well, it's pretty much been Autism Awareness Day every day for the past ten years at our house. It is good to see Autism becoming more widely known and understood, but the only reason for that is the huge increase in numbers of children diagnosed and that is not a good thing. Our life with autism is so much better than some people's, and for that we are very thankful. Aaron continues to be a joy and amaze us with all the new things he accomplishes that he was never supposed to be able to do.

One of his latest things - Upon hearing of Clayton Ross's trip to Africa over Spring Break, he is certain that there must be some way that he can go too. After much explanation of how and why Clayton was able to make this trip, he decided that he'd like to be a missionary so he can live in Africa. We're not telling him yet that Clayton is returning for an entire semester. He might try to stow away. He's talked of living in Africa for a long time. It used to be mostly when he was angry or upset. It continues to be a strong fascination for him.

Finally Michele!

Okay, she's up and running in blog land. Check it out at justachele.blogspot.com
Sorry I've not been around much - too much travel and work. Thank you all for the suggestions. Sharon, you'll see she went with a variation of yours. We changed it a little bit, I think. She'll probably post way more than me, but I'll try to do better.......

Michele's blog name?

Michele is thinking of making herself a blog and wants input on a name. Any ideas? She says there's nothing clever to do with her name.

She's been updating mine. She's adding neat features I don't have time to figure out. Notice my cool new music player and my new colors picked to match the music player. The designer in her just couldn't stand unmatched elements. (Have I said lately how great she is?) And my new favorite song is "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman by the way. Check it out if you haven't heard it yet. She's going to add a slide show when she has time and whatever else fun she can find. Anyway, let us know any name ideas.

Brrrrrrr!

It's 17 degrees below zero this morning. Crazy! But there's no wind, so it really only feels like 17 below. See - it could be worse.

Starting Home

We start home this morning. We had even more snow last night and the temperatures have been way below freezing for days so there is lots of snow and ice packed on the roads. If any of you read this this morning, pray for safe passage down through the mountains. It shouldn't be bad once we get out of the mountains, but it will take us awhile because we'll have to drive so slow.

Day 4

Our second day of skiing dawned with a heavy snow and the ducks. Evan was trying to get one particular duck to come to him. We fed these guys too. They were quite serious about their food.

The view out the front door. The doors were frozen shut on the cars.

Here's what we were skiing in. Very windy, very snowy all blowing in our faces.

Michele and Evan braving the elements. I was braving them too. Not fun! This picture doesn't do the wind or the snow justice.

Aaron's sledding adventure. Fun but also very cold, especially since they kept sinking into the massive drifts they were sledding down. He was definitely the champion sledder. He went further, faster, higher and longer than anyone else.

ITS TOO COLD!!

and too windy. And a tree took out one of the lifts. That's all.

some day 3 pics

Our first day of skiing - I took this picture about half-way up the mountain with Michele. That's the town down there.

Michele and Logan (my nephew) on the mountain

Aaron and Michele on the lift

Evan and Michele. Michele was very sweet to ski with Evan and Aaron on the bunny slope.

Evan falling. (He got lots of practice getting up.)

Today was nasty with snow and strong winds. It's not as much fun with the snow blasting in your face. It looked really pretty, but there was so much snow that it made skiing very difficult. The snow was so deep in spots it would stop you in your tracks and throw you down.

We took the boys sledding and they kept get getting stuck in drifts. Aaron went in up to his waist once. We had to pull him out. We haven't downloaded pics from today yet since it was my turn to cook supper. Tomorrow's going to be 10 degrees but it's going to feel like 10 below.
Sounds like fun, right?

last of day2 pics

Feeding the deer on our back porch. Our back door is right at the base of the ski mountain and the deer just walk right down out of the mountains across the ski trails and come down to eat. They keep food out for them so they are not afraid of people, but they spook pretty easily.

I haven't checked out the "Jesus stuff" yet. Will try to do that soon.

Michele's attempt at the torchlight parade (since my batteries died). I must say this is the first time I can say that digital photography didn't way outshine our old 35mm photos. I know that I've gotten some good ones in the past. But digital was way better on everything else.

still more pictures

The winding road and the mountains

The mountains in Taos

There is an ordinance in Taos that all buildings have to look like adobe. That includes the MacDonalds, Burger King, the banks, and even the churches.

Lots of snow.

more pictures

Sunset - day 1

Day 2 - Frozen lake and first snow mountains. The kids wanted to stop and ice skate. I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite that frozen.

The icy climb into the mountains.

ya think!

Crazy truck driver passing us all on icy roads in no passing zones. Thankfully there aren't too many like that.