Nature and Science Center

My kids beg me to find excuses to drive into 'the Big City' just so we can visit this magical place.

What is it, you ask? In a nutshell, it's an educational complex nestled in the heart of the sprawling metro park in downtown. 

It has a mini nature museum (which is all hands-on for kids...the 'awesome' points just skyrocketed for that detail), a small zoo, nature paths to explore, a dinosaur dig for kids to excavate giant fossils, and educational activities. Did I mention it's all free?

If you time the trip just right (which we make a point of doing), you can catch the professional Naturalists who staff the center.

They host a super-nifty area called the Trade-In desk.

Kids bring treasures they've found in nature (sea shells, fossils, rocks, bones, bugs, etc) and learn more about it with the Naturalists. 

Here Sarah shares some of her recent findings from our pasture- some animal bones. She was able to learn what animal each bone came from and what type of bone it was. 

Can I just say, we LOVE the Naturalists here.

 They never just straight-out tell a child what the object is. They help the kids discover for themselves all the information they can. 

Instead of saying, "That's a raccoon/possum/deer/cat skull", they show the child a dozen different skulls and ask them to find out which one their sample matches the best. When they have a match, they learn what animal it belongs to. Then they discuss in detail what every little orifice is for, or why the teeth are shaped the way they are to accommodate dietary habits, or why the eyes sit on the head a certain way, or a million other details about zoology you ever wondered. 

Our kids love the exploration process here! Here Sarah and Matthew review their notes to figure out what animal they discovered.

The naturalists make exploring nature a grand adventure with their contagious enthusiasm, and even grown-ups enjoy listening to the details. 

Kids can trade in their treasures for points which they use to 'shop' the Naturalists' store. 

The store is a wall of shelves stocked with all the treasures other kids have brought in (see the background in the pic above? That's part of the store.)

Here Matthew and Daniel deliberate over potential prizes to cash in their points for. This is the hardest part of the visit as they agonize over their choices. Which is better: polished rocks or fossils? A huge cow skull or butterfly collection? Should they just save points for a bigger prize the next time we visit? 

Usually my kids have collected animal skulls, turtle shells, and various antlers or horns. 

For years Sarah also had her heart set on getting the most expensive prize- a preserved butterfly collection.

For years she had been saving up points for this goal.

Today was the day she finally earned it. 

We have one VERY happy girl.

Birth of a New Day

One morning we rose early to watch the sunrise over the beach.

 (There goes another item crossed off my bucket list. Yay!)

The predawn beach was so incredibly peaceful. 

It felt slightly mysterious in the darkness.

There was no sound except the birds morning music and the rhythmic waves washing ashore.

We had the beach to ourselves as we held hands and watched the sky lighten by subtle degrees as sunrise inched closer.

Here is a beach sunrise in an instant- no waiting on the sandy shore for an hour:

See the sun just barely peeking out from under its covers? 

It's so cute! (Yes, I really do mean the word 'cute'.) 

It reminded me of a newborn baby blinking its eyes blearily as it wakes up. 

It felt so new and fresh. It even felt innocent- it was a clean slate ready to be filled.

It was so neat to watch the birth of a beautiful scene.

While we waited for daybreak, we took lots of pictures (the sunrise did take an hour after all....).

We danced on the beach.

We held hands and reclined on the sand.

We discussed ways to improve our parenting and teach our children better.

We walked along the beach collecting sea shells. (Which happens to be another bucket list item)

We played in the surf watched crabs scuttle across the sand.

It was a perfect morning. 

I couldn't stop humming the triumphant song, "The Morning Breaks" as the sunrise burst onto the landscape, cheerfully brightening everything in sight. 

I felt full to the brim with pure joy and gratitude.

I thought about all the millions of people around the world, most of whom would be missing this gorgeous sunrise today. So many people were likely rushing to work or otherwise busy 

and taking this free work of art for granted.

I wondered what beautiful moments I had missed back at home 

in my routine dash to get through my 'to-do' list everyday. 

I do try to stop and enjoy the beauty around us on our farm, but today I realized

 there is still more to be appreciated if I just take a moment to do so.

The world is such a breathtaking place.

The Lord is indeed generous with His gifts to us!

I hope you are able to enjoy God's free gifts today as you celebrate Thanksgiving!

More glimpses of our anniversary

Here is our angel mom-in-law reading her famed pop-up books to the children while Nathan and I were out of town. This is our kids' favorite thing to do with Grandma. Her pop-up book collection is extensive and our children are delighted every time she reads to them.

This was the one thing our kids requested: pop-up book story time.

(Regular readers may remember that she faithfully read her books to our kids during the week she helped us move in. She even read to them at midnight the day we actually moved, even though she was exhausted after spending 12 hours loading and unloading the moving truck.) 

Back on the island:

Nathan and I visited a great birding sanctuary and looked for the resident alligators in the marshy pools. We didn't find the gators, but did enjoy getting close to a plethora of wildlife and watching the pelicans soar over our heads.

We played on the beach (again) and caught this shot of the surf dancing around our feet:

We were surprised to discover a prankster in our hotel. Check out this plant in the lobby. 

 See the stowaway?

Each day the hiding toy changed to something new. One day it was Mutant Ninja Turtles, the next it was Hello Kitty. It gave us a good laugh throughout the week.

We also visited a Mexican ice cream shop for a cold treat.See the orange and red striped ice cream below?

Care to guess the flavor? 

It's mango ice cream with red chili sauce. 

Hmmm. 

I didn't taste that one, but Nathan did and thought it had merit.

We ended up choosing Coconut Almond ice cream (words are helpless to describe how refreshing the flavor was!) and Dulce de Leche ice cream (my new addiction....the flavor exploded in my mouth! Too bad they don't sell this at home!)

Bucket list- Lighthouses and turtles

Nathan enjoys a sunset on the beach.

I'd always wanted to climb to the top of a lighthouse, so we visited the lighthouse in Laguna Madre. 

It was surprisingly scary to me. I don't like heights, and the inside of the tower is one big spiraling iron staircase. Without any sort of handrail or barrier to keep one from slipping off the stairs and falling down the middle. Yikees!

The view from the top landing was quite lovely. Check it out:

We enjoyed yummy seafood for lunch and picked up some shark tooth necklaces for our kids from a local craftsman. In the shade of a palm-topped bungalow, we found a man playing with several parrots. 

He let us play with his birds for quite a while. It was really fun- I love playing with animals!

We also visited the sea turtle hospital, where injured or sick turtles are rehabilitated and released. I always wanted to get close and personal with majestic sea turtles. It was delightful to lean over their tanks and watch them swim right next to me. They were so beautiful to observe. 

This baby sea turtle was so cute to watch bobbing around in the water.

This adult loggerhead turtle was swimming laps for us and waving his flippers in the air. Gorgeous!

I felt in awe of  God's beautiful creations and deep gratitude that I could see and enjoy them. I'm so thankful I'm not blind!!

Bucket list- Sea fishing and Dolphin watching

 I'm posting this as a story without words. 

I'm busy prepping for Sarah's birthday party and have no spare time to type. 

I'll give just minimal notes, okay? 

Yup. I'ts alive. I threw it in the sea right after this pic was taken.

We fished for 4 hours on the bay and brought home this:

We actually only caught 3 of them- the rest caught by the captain and first mate.

Most of what Nathan and I caught were inedible saltwater catfish.

We still had a blast and the sea was peaceful at night.

We held live rays, fish and starfish during the dolphin tour..

We also enjoyed feeding Sunchips to seagulls while the boat chugged around looking for dolphins.

The birds ate out of our hands. That was really exhilarating.

Less-than-flattering picture. I was trying not to gag. Try doing that and smiling sometime. 

The starfish feet were groping wildly in the air....it looked surprisingly gross.

 We had a great time. We spotted a few dolphins and a calf with its momma. It was pretty cool, but hard to catch on film. We stopped trying to catch a shot of the dolphins and just enjoyed watching them. 

Ooo- we ate seafood all week at different restaurants. (that's a big deal, because I really don't like seafood of any kind. Not even lobster.)

For the first time, I enjoyed eating shrimp. I never liked it before, no matter how many times I tried. 

The Gulf shrimp we ate was super-fresh and monstrously huge. 

It took THREE BITES to eat one shrimp. 

They were delicious! There's a first.

It was an adventurous day. 

I felt so incredibly blessed to be alive and able to enjoy the wonder of God's creations. 

Bucket list- horses on the beach

This was definitely the highlight of our trip for me.

I've always wanted to ride horses on the beach, haven't you? 

We unexpectedly canceled our snorkeling plans.

 (After learning about the resident sharks, alligators, and sting rays in this area 

my enthusiasm for snorkeling quickly became subdued.)

So instead of snorkeling in the bay, we opted for horseback riding for the afternoon.

I think Nate was pretty nervous- he'd never ridden a horse before. 

(Don't worry though, he did a great job and drew compliments on his horsemanship skills from the guides.)

He was always amazingly supportive of anything I wanted to do on this trip though, 

and I found out later that he had been completely uninterested at the thought of snorkeling and 

never mentioned a thing about it to me until after we canceled. 

He was so relieved we didn't do it!

This trip was something I saved up face painting money for months to finance, 

so he was adamant that I could choose everything we did, 

especially since he knew many of our planned activities were 

fulfilling life-enriching dreams I had harbored for years.

I was touched that he was so encouraging in my plans even when he was uncomfortable with the activity. 

What a nice guy I have the privilege to share my life with!

Let's get back to the horseback riding.

It looks so romantic in movies: 

the breeze teasing the horse's manes into the air, 

the surf dancing along under our feet, 

the breathtaking view of the ocean spreading out before us, 

splashing our horses into the foamy surf, 

and the pure magic of being astride a beautiful horse.

(Here I give a blissful sigh with dreamy eyes.)

It was everything I'd hoped it would be. 

Sand Castles for Fun

Nathan and I left all our responsibilities behind for a few days while we ran away to South Padre Island (on the southernmost tip of Texas, right next to Mexico) to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. 

(I know- our ten year anniversary was technically last year. We couldn't run away at that time though- Diego was still too little to be left behind. So technically this would be our 10.8 year anniversary. Don't bog me down in little details like that.)

One of my focuses on this trip was to see how many items I could cross off my bucket list. 

(Just in case you're wondering, we did a dozen items on my list. Yay!) 

Hidden among my bucket list was to build my first sand castle on the beach.

(Did you know I had never built a sand castle before?).

Check out our first try effort:

We worked on this baby for a looooong time. 

Are you impressed?

Do you notice anything wrong with the picture below?

Look closely.

Did you catch the impossible problem?

There's no way he could be stepping on those two towers. 

One tower is from the back wall and one tower is located on the front wall.

Not happening.

You're right. It's a trick. 

 Here is the true perspective on our sand castle:

Beensy.

That's what we get when our only building tools are a plastic dixie cup, a spoon, and our smuggled ice container from the hotel room. (No worries, the ice box was safely returned home and was not harmed in the making of our castle.)

The trick photography was really fun to arrange though.

I really loved living near the beach for a week. The ocean has its own captivating magic that entranced my heart and made it so hard to leave. 

We missed our children dearly (we were constantly saying, "Oh, the kids would love to see this!"), but I was secure and at peace knowing they were being watched over by my angelic mom-in-law. She's a much better mother than me, so I knew the kids would scarcely notice my absence for a few days. 

(Did I mention that she is in the middle of moving across the country, but she dropped everything and came to serve my family? Words are useless to describe her. She's unbelievable. Everyone who knows her adores her. If I can just become like her I would consider my life a success.)

I have so much to share about our trip and the thoughts I had. 

 My spirit was full of joy to spend all my waking moments with my best friend.

It was wonderfully rejuvenating.

Adventures at Arches National Park

I know what you're thinking. (Wait, didn't they do that trip in July? Is this old news?) 

Yup. 

I'm completely behind the times on this blog regarding our family's doings. 

Don't worry, I'm catching up!

Obligatory guilty explanation and sneak peak for upcoming posts: I've been so busy with lots of home-improvement projects/home organization/back-to-school shopping/time-demanding callings at church/SELLING OUR OLD HOUSE (The deal closes next week! Hallelujah!), so blogging admittedly slipped down the slippery slope of my priority list. But there's good news! This is almost the end of the summer pics! {This is where I do a little happy dance and cheer.}

Then you get to read all the exciting details of our poultry harvest day (killing a flock of roosters and having a Peruvian feast, plus the comical mishaps of the day), our memorable family traditions for starting the new school year, and lots of tutorials I made regarding how to refinish furniture and create unique and gorgeous organizers for the home. 

Until then, enjoy the pictures I snapped while hiking through the Arches National Park in Utah this summer. 

Nathan insisted on climbing the rock formations with Diego in tow. That man is part mountain goat! 

(Did I ever tell you about the time we were visiting ancient castles in Turkey and he scaled the walls with his bare hands?)

Sarah contemplates the scenery while working on the Junior Ranger program.

Some of the arches conveniently have stairs leading to them. Nice, right? What they didn't tell you was there are 200 of these babies leading up to the rock formation. 

Daniel sits on the edge of a cliff. 

(Yes, my heart was pounding- I'm afraid of heights. I was so scared he'd slip!)

Nathan surveys the landscape from the top of a cliff.

He always climbs someplace scary like this, then says, "Honey, come over here and take a picture!"

Do you realize what that means? It means I get the privilege of also clamoring over whatever path he took, trying to get close enough for a good shot, all the while holding my camera gingerly with one hand and trying to not look down. Fun.

The boys had a wonderful time, scaling rocks and calling out from new vantage points. This was the best sort of playground they could imagine.

The boys found a little cave up high on a tall rock formation. They pulled out their trusty binoculars and are looking for treasure.

Look at this cute arch that we found along one of our hikes!