I find myself very fulfilled lately as my personal life goals are fruitful lately.  I am coordinating a ceremony for a friend expecting her baby in a month,  a ceremony for a young lady who recently turned 18 and planning to facilitate my very first retreat in November.  I’ve been apprenticing for the past 8 years with my amazing mentor, Glenda, who can be found at The Fellowship of Comparative Religion’s website www.towardcommonground.org.  She said I am ready for my own retreat and I’ve learned that when an elder tells you you are ready, you are.  It’s been so nice to be able to sit down on my laptop and start writing away with emails and ideas for these various activities and actually be able to accomplish something while the boys play away.

It’s meant so much to me to be able to accomplish something.  Household chores are important and of course raising the boys is as well.  The time that I spend with them reading stories or looking at pictures, answering questions or showing them new scenarios for playing is incredibly important and fulfilling. But I have been longing to accomplish goals for me, things that fulfilled me with a more immediate end in sight then 17 years from now. And here I am.

So for all the other twin parents out there, those in the pregnancy or with infants, fear not. It does get easier and easier and by 3.5 they are playing with each other so well that you might even get an entire hour to yourself!

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I remembered I used to always close my eyes to help be less scared but otherwise they were fun.  I vaguely remember them effecting my stomach but nothing that a little time in between couldn’t fix.  So anyway, there we were, Brad and I along with his recent high school graduate niece and her boyfriend riding on our first ride of the day.  It was a lot of fun that first one, got jolted around a lot and I mostly kept my eyes closed but it was still fun.  But when it was over, oh wow.  I couldn’t stop moving, had to keep walking.  I got hot and flushed.  My stomach was still trying to find itself again after all those loops and cork screws.  I drank down a coke and we slowly walked to the next one while I wondered aloud if maybe I was 1.) too old for this or 2.) really out of practice.  Up until the moment I was strapped in I wasn’t sure if I was going to ride the second one or not.  It was my first stand up coaster and I was bound and determined that I could do this.

It was a very humble experience.  I kept my eyes closed the ENTIRE time on this one.  But I relaxed and enjoyed it.  As we came to a stop Brad is on one side of me saying “oh, that one got me” while the niece is on my other side saying “let’s do it again!!”  Yes, we were humbled.

It was hot and humid but we found an air conditioned food court and sat for a bit, sending the young people off to ride more without us.  Waves of nausea ran through us repeatedly.  We even tried walking some more around the park at one point only to have to turn back, laughing at ourselves the entire time.  Some greasy fried chicken and french fries finally settled our stomachs but even later that night we felt a bit off and our stomachs still seemed confused.  It was a lot like a really, really bad case of seasick.

So there you have it.  I will never ride another roller coaster that goes upside down again.  No really, I learned my lesson the hard way.  I wish I had been more brave when I was younger and my body didn’t protest so much.  But now that I’m less fearful in my mind, my body is a lot less convinced of my invincibility.  Such a great balance.

Before going we spent time giving the boys options of activities, looking at websites and getting excited. I created a calendar to count down the last two weeks and using it we made some headway in teaching the boys about days and weeks, the definition of “yesterday” and “tomorrow”.

We spent a lot of time in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool, a day at Legoland, a morning hike on Mt Baldy, an afternoon at the Beach, and lots and lots of time with family. The boys loved having three cousins to play with and I loved watching their interactions.

I have decided that Legoland is the end-all-be-all in kids amusements parks and can’t say enough good about that park.  I highly recommend it for the 3-12 year old crowd.

I absolutely loved vacation with the boys at this age.  Traveling was a breeze, even when our flight was delayed two hours on the way home.  The boys have flown several times a year since birth so they seem to understand the processes and adjust quickly to new homes and beds.  I personally found this a very happy and enjoyable vacation.

Here are some pictures I snapped with my phone while we were out and about and I’ll probably have more images to post in the coming week.

At the beginning of June a mother cat and her four kittens moved in under our back porch for about a week. It was very sweet and a great experience for us all as we talked about compassion with the boys and then demonstrated. As a family we put out food and water for the cat family and researched how to capture and get a feral cat spayed for inexpensive or free in our city and how to get her kittens into homes so that they wouldn’t grow up feral. Unfortunately, one night they went off for their usual wanderings and never came back. The boys said prayers for their health and new homes and hopefully someone else was a bit more familiar with what to do and how and acted faster then we did.

From June 2010

It got hot here, as it always does, and we pulled out the sprinkler for some fast and furious energy burn off. Forest had a great time.

From June 2010

From June 2010

This past weekend we explored a new summer hang out, a sprinkler park about 20 minutes north of us. I had read a great review about it being ideal for little ones and we had a total blast, it was a huge success and will definitely be worked into the norm of our lives for the rest of this summer. It’s even completely enclosed so that I can take the boys there by myself.

Here is Forest:

From June 2010

And Logan:

From June 2010

From June 2010

Logan is pretty nervous about water and gets upset when he gets water in his face so we were really proud of him for being willing to do just that at the sprinkler park. He had so much fun challenging his own fears on his own terms.

From June 2010

From June 2010

Forest:

From June 2010

Logan had a great time doing this cute little slow jog around the area and in and out of various sprinklers.

From June 2010

Brad and Forest:

From June 2010

Water is the only way to get through summer days in the 100 degrees, so the past week has been all about finding places to do just that! It’s been a lot of fun for Brad and I but also very exhausting. Everyone has slept hard the past few nights!