I got made fun of when I wanted to fly across the United States to search for shells. But who is laughing now, after our rad trip? So when I told Micah that I want to fly to Chicago to find geodes, I expected a thumbs up. But what I really got, was more laughing. How rude.
But I think he may have realized that my ideas are pretty stellar, because he found a local area to get our feet wet in the geode genre.
After a security briefing last night, we were up at the crack of dawn this morning, and on our way.
The kids took a good rest on our three hour drive, but woke up when the sun did.
When we finally made it out to the geode beds, Micah and the kids checked out the terrain.
We finally found our spot, and set up shop.
We all dug, and dug — not exactly sure what we were looking for quite yet.
A nice guy who was near us kind of explained to us, that you dig until there is white baby powderish dirt. (Ash from a volcanic eruption many years ago.) Below the ash, you will start to see rocks that have nodules on the outside of them, with a greenish color. Those are the geodes.
We still dug and dug…with drink breaks along the way.
That same guy found something rad while he was digging, and called the kids over.
Apparently, he dug right into a tarantula’s home.
So he gingerly got the tarantula on his shovel, and then his hand to show it off to the kids — explaining to them that there was nothing to be scared of.
Navy said, “Oh! I love tarantulas.”
And to the disbelief of this guy, grabbed for it, and played with it for the next 30 minutes.
Then she found a new home for it.
After putting him in his new home — she checked in on him every few minutes.
That’s Navy — brave, disgusting, and caring all rolled up into one cute package.
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We didn’t have great luck, until a man took us to the cinnamon geode beds. There, we were watching him extract a geode the size of a volleyball. It was amazing! Afterwards, we all got in there and dug some beauties out ourselves. It was honestly a treasure hunting blast!
We loved it so much, we stayed overnight in a hotel to have more rock hounding adventures the next day.
This time, we set up shop on the old Colorado riverbed where we supposed to be able to find Limonite cubes.
It was an easier find, which made it even funner for the kids.
Originally, I think Micah and I thought we would be out there for 2-3 hours.
But what ended up rock hounding until it got dark.
In true Navy form, she found another critter this time. I actually spotted this horny toad, and called her over.
And like a kid in the candy store, she grabbed it and made it her best friend for the day.
Every once in a while, we had to stop for a snack (like the hotel’s peanut butter packs).
But then we were out on the rocks again.
One of the sweetest scenes of my life came from today.
As Scout was walking in from a few hours on the rocks, he seemed exhausted.
So Dash got off of his break chair to go greet him, and offer to hold his pick axe.
Scout said he could still hold it, but Dash put his arm around him, and guided him back to the resting spot.
I literally got tears in my eyes, because it was so sweet.
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The other tears I got in my eyes, was when we were driving home.
That same little brother got frustrated at that same big brother, and…
an accidental bloody nose ensued.
So we stopped all physicality (which put an exhausted Dash right to sleep), and tried to solve riddles the whole way home from the lamest website ever!
My kids still ask, “What is brown and sticky?” and crack up like crazy. (It’s a stick.)
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Minus the bloody nose, it was a perfect adventure.
That being said…I’m off to book my tix to Chicago.
Micah was briefing the kids on our adventure in the morning — geode hunting.
He talked about the safety of tools, the responsibility of ourselves and others, our footprint on the earth, etc….
Pippi was 100% invested with her big brown eyes!
But when she found out that she wasn’t coming with us on our geode adventure, this was her reaction.
Based on the examples of her older siblings, this is Pippi’e prayer position — face into ground, sprawled out with a snack in hand.
I think it is pretty obvious that we need to work on our reverence.
Megan and Trilby wanted to make ornaments for the tree they were sending Nate and Cade on their missions. We were all supposed to be “hanging”, so here are the pre-ornament pics.
You know what they say…
The family that “hangs” together, stays together.
I told the kids we were cleaning the garage today. When I realized our time was getting increasingly shorter before bed, I called to see if Micah would get a head start by taking everything out of the garage before we got home. He did it, and I almost couldn’t believe my eyes on what fits in our garage! But we got working, and it fit right back in there. But this time, there was some sort of order — and things weren’t on top of each other.
My kids devour the apple pears Po-Le brings them.
Aa I watch them make pigs of themselves, Po-Le says, “Lindsey, they are growing kids and are very hungry.”
I say, “Po-Le, they are pigs, and we are having a manners talk in the car.”
Micah told me that he wanted to run with the kids during the next fun run.
Well, today was the day.
So we headed over — the littles were in cow costumes so they could be easily spotted, because it is mayhem!
When Navy saw them, she was cracking up!
Both Scout and Navy ran the full amount of laps.
They were good little runners today — and it was hot!
But I have to be honest — the MVP of running today, goes to Pippi. She ran and ran. Her toothpick legs never stopped, and she loved every second of it.
Even Dash knew how hard she worked, and provided her with some hydration.
At one point, the whole family joined up together, which made for a fun lap and rad photo op.
Afterwards, I took my sweaty little cows to Chick-Fil-A for a milkshake to help them cool down.
When they went in to play, I finished up my salad — then went in to gather them up to head home.
When I saw this, I knew it couldn’t be good!
And my suspicions were right!
Apparently, being a cow was “just too hot” for Dash.
Nonnie needed me to help her with something on her computer, so I put Pippi in her happy place to get something accomplished.
She will sit for quite a while in front of her vanity. She can’t be trusted with make up, so I put a bunch of her bows in the drawer that she tries them on over and over. It is the cutest thing. But like the silent little ninja that she is…Nonnie and I were both oblivious to her leaving her post….until….
she started climbing all over my back like the little spider monkey she is.
I kept putting her back at her mirror, but after the spider monkey showed up three more times, Nonnie and I tabled our work until after bedtime.
Miss Dianne has the cutest performances for her preschoolers. Thanksgiving is one of my favorites!
I mean….just look at this little pilgrim!
He sang his little heart out, and the best part of the program, was he ended his song in prayer.
This is my favorite song out of every song in every program!
It is seriously the sweetest thing.
He was so excited to have a captive audience member in Pippi, that he even thanked her in his gratitude speech.
I think she took it as an invitation to join him on stage.
And after singing, it was time to feast among his best buds.
Navy pulled her own tooth out at school. What’s new? But this time, she was determined that she wasn’t going to tell anyone, and see if the tooth fairy is really real. (Thank goodness that Scout was too eager to tell me about her plotting, and I was made privy to the scheme.)
Later at night, as I was laying in bed and drifting off…I remembered the plot!
I ran out, got a $2, and sparkled it up with some glitter. Then I went to find her tooth. But is was nowhere. I searched high and low in her bed. So I finally went to her backpack. And there was a little tooth necklace with a teeny tiny tooth in it. I snatched the tooth, and put the $$ in place of it.
When she woke up, she didn’t remember her own plot.
Until she opened her backpack and found the money.
I was so proud, and she seemed really excited….but maybe a little confused.
But what I mistook for confusion, was really her dissecting every movement that took place while she was sleeping.
She put that $2 bill down, walked right over to the drawer, opened it, and said, “Hey Mom, I know what glitter you used!” and pulled out the glitter I used.
Uh Oh.
But I told her, “What are you talking about? Trust me when I say that I wouldn’t pay two cents for a yellow and grimy tooth. The tooth fairy must be real, because only a really nice fairy would pay anything for the teeth that come out of this house!”
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