An Adventure Filled Black Week

One of my most favorite people (and college roomie) came up from Oklahoma with her kiddos to spend the week with us. We had so much fun! They lived in Hawaii for the last several years so Charlie and Manu (as she refers to him on her blog) had never met and I had never met either of her boys.
 

They all hit it off well (except for a few skirmishes between the two older boys...).

Jane is holding a berry for D to smash with the rock in his hand. :) Jane referred to D as "the baby" up until the day before they left. Manu kept on telling her that D was a toddler, not a baby.

 

"The baby" wanted to come inside but this face was so incredibly funny that we left him out for a while just to get some pictures of it.

 

We made the most of our week together and did something fun each day. One excursion was to the butterfly house. I could hang out there for a long time. Watching butterflies is so relaxing.

 Manu was the first to have a butterfly land on him.

 By the end all of us did, except for the littlest two who moved around a bit too much.

 

 Newly created butterflies!

 Spending time with this wonderful woman makes my heart happy. (notice the blue butterfly photo bombing in the foreground)

 Oh, and if you could knew what sound bees made you got a free honey stick at the gift shop. Yummy sticky goodness.

Hanging out at the super cool playground down the street.

 

 Jane in her "popcorn."


When Charlie found out that Manu had never made a baking soda and vinegar volcano before we absolutely had to do one. Complete with dinosaurs in peril.

 

 Manu walked with me one day to get Charlie from the bus. As we walked he told me of his inner conflict. He loved being here but also missed his dad who was back in Oklahoma. Sweet boy.

 

One afternoon I heard the rumble of thunder and said that it sounded like a storm was coming. Manu, in complete seriousness, looked up and told me that he would go outside and take a look because, as he put it, "I am a meteorologist."

 

 I hadn't taken a good ol' ramble in the woods since coming here so we took the opportunity to do so. The extensive Busch Memorial Conservation Area is about 20 minutes away so off we went. It was incredibly nice to be back in the woods. It is comforting to me to be surrounded by trees. Almost as if they are sheltering me from any outside turmoil. Even a short time in the forest makes me happier.

 

 It is fun to see how much my kids enjoy it too (at least almost always ;)  ).

Friday, their last full day here, I excused Charlie from school and we spent the better part of the day at the super cool science center. In the picture above our budding statisticians are learning about probability curves.


The Black's make promising paleontologists.

Much to my surprise, Jane's favorite part was the big T-rex that moved and roared.


Charlie's favorite part was the excavator with real controls. No surprise there.


This was cool. as you made mountains and valleys with the white sand the computer shining light from about would adjust to make topographical lines on the sand formations.

Watching cars go by on the freeway below the science center bridge.


The week went by entirely too fast. Come back soon Deb! We miss you already!