Another post without pictures

"But how can one possibly read a (post) with no pictures?"  asked Alice.

An excellent question.  Can anyone recommend a good camera I can buy?

Today I signed up Henry, Oscar and Alice for Taekwondo classes.  It turns out one of their new teachers went to school with Oscar's teacher from Sherwood.  It's a small world after all.  This is going to be our sure-fire way to get out of the apartment regularly.  You have got to see Alice in that little uniform with her ringlets bouncing around her face as she shouts, "Hi-Ya!" and strikes a fighting pose.  She swears that she will not wear anything else this summer, and I think I believe her. She is sleeping in it this very moment.  Part way through the class one of the native Korean instructors came over and asked me, "Girl or boy?" pointing to Alice.  This was the first time anyone had ever asked me that.   Took me off guard.  "Girl." I said.  "She VERY strong!"  Yes, indeed.  If he only knew!

Waverly leaves in the morning for Girls Camp.  She is really excited.  I'm kind of jealous. Sounds like a nice vacation right now.  When you were 12 years old would you have been so thrilled to be going to camp without ever having met ANYONE there?  OK, she saw the girls last week at church.  Seriously!  I would be terrified.  My girl is amazing.  Nothing scares her (except maybe a rogue wave at the beach...).  She is the most social, friendly, not awkward 12 year old I have ever known.  She has prepared very carefully by gathering all of the supplies on her camp list, and most importantly, by creating bracelets and other girly crafty things for the friends she is about to make.  I have supplied her with ample duct tape in her favorite colors for the week.  She is going to be just fine.  But I will miss her.

Here is something.  The water tastes super gross here.  After the first 3 or 4 days I realized I was becoming kind of dehydrated because I was subconsciously not drinking water... only soda.  (Yah, reeeeeal good for me.)  Who knew that right after my Oregon friends, Oregon water would be the thing I missed the most.  So what kind of filter works best, people?  I can't keep killing mother earth with all of these Kirkland water bottles.  And I've tried adding Crystal Light to the tap water.  Blech!

On Saturday we took the kids to Knott's Berry Farm.   I love a good roller coaster, and I was surprised to realize that my kids have never really been on one... except the little one at Oaks Park.  I don't think that really counts.  :)  I was also very surprised to realize that my two oldest were pretty much terrified to go on the coasters.  But 7-year-old Oscar was NOT!  He happily accompanied me on the scariest rides and didn't even scream once.  (All pictures in this post have been stolen from random places on the interwebs. NOT from my camera.  Lost, remember?)

We did this:


Henry went on this one, too. Somehow it was less scary because everyone gets soaked at the end. Go figure.

And eventually I got the three oldest to try this one:



 And just for the record, they LOVED it and went again.  My kids never cease to amaze me.  We spent 12 hours in the park, mostly standing in long (hot!) lines, but completely enjoying ourselves. On such a hot summer day, there was a feast for the eyes of strangers' flesh and tattoos.  There isn't too much else to do while standing in those lines other than de-code the tattoos and play the "I wonder why....?" game.  It isn't like Disneyland where there are characters running around entertaining the masses.  Knott's version of the Disney characters is Snoopy and friends.  And my kids were like.... who????



Yah, not the main attraction.

No outside food is allowed in the park, and for a late lunch we indulged in an all-you-can-eat meal in one of the only sit-down, air-conditioned places in the park.  I tried really hard not to make a gagging noise as I handed over $99.84 for this one very mediocre meal.  "Mediocre" is kind.  I had to try really hard to enjoy that meal.  I mostly enjoyed the AC.  Oh, and just as we started eating, Oscar tripped over his own feet and smacked his chin on a chair.  There was blood and a paramedic with oodles of questions for us.  Those people sure don't want us to sue them.  Let's say that part of that $99.84 went to cover medical expenses in the restaurant. We got a free bandaid out of it.  That makes me feel much better.  And, oh, Oscar was fine. He gets the award for being the most difficult child to figure out: screams hysterically over a tiny cut and whimpers about it for a good hour.  DOES NOT blink at a 300-foot free-fall.  He keeps me guessing.



Don't tell my kids, but I was secretly glad that this had not yet opened.  I think I would have wet myself.