Hurry and take the photo, Mom. --the boys were very good to oblige me for photo ops throughout our trip. You can see Ryan in the background waiting his turn to purchase admission tickets. :)

L to R: Logan, Jude, Caleb, Toben, and Jorja

The whole crew! L to R: Spencer, Logan, Toben, Jorja, Jude, Caleb, and Skylar

My twin nieces, Skylar Rose and Spencer Sage

Photo creds to my brother Jon for getting all five of us in the same photo, and even with some smiles!

Legoland was a fun place to go with my little Legomaniacs. They were super excited about this park, and it had a bunch of neat attractions. Two items of interest that I want to remember and pass along to other families with small ones: They had a 'build area' for kids at some of the major rides, where the kids could go in a fenced-in area to build with Legos while the parents waited in line for the ride. You were always within what we called "grabbing distance" of the kids, and there was an entry gate and an exit gate near the front of the line. This was fantastic with boys our ages and we heard very few complaints about waiting in line. Also, if you go... make a snack stop at some point in the day for Granny's Apple Fries. DELICIOUS!

Three happy boys with their toes in the sand, before venturing to the water.

Keeping it real here, people. This is really what my photos of these three are like.

Caleb would have stayed there the rest of the week if we weren't going to Legoland the next day.

Three soaking wet, totally happy (and loony...trying to be moony) boys. Remember how I mentioned we didn't have a change of clothes or a towel with us? How do you think we went back to the hotel? :) Au naturale, folks. With their hats held in their laps. We did make a stop for me to run into a Ross store for a couple of hand towels and one package of underwear...but it was interesting for a while!

Watching as our airplane arrives. It was all so fascinating! We flew at night out to California, which was awesome as it allowed us to not spend a whole day just traveling.

My boys love staying in hotels, and do incredibly well with all of us in one room.

We stayed in Carlsbad (you'll see why in a coming post) but made the 20 minute drive in to San Diego for a day at the zoo! The San Diego Zoo truly is the best.

Can you identify the three animals above? Of all the amazing creatures we saw that day, I went home with my three favorites.

Logan. He has really come into his own and is such a ham for the camera!

The boys took advantage of the moving sidewalks (that weren't crowded with people) to rest a moment. Goofballs.

Photo by Logan.

We saw so many beautiful animals and several babies -- here are two young giraffes. One is nine months old (with the head turned away) and one was just eight weeks old (facing us). Gorgeous animals!

There are so many more photos I could add from our time at the San Diego Zoo! It was a perfect day to experience this fantastic place.
Next up, a spontaneous trip to the beach (that we weren't quite prepared for)...

Toben had finished his Ring Pop and thought it worked well as a mouthguard.

Look at that boy juke!

There were two awards handed out to the team when the season was finished - one was for Most Improved, and the other was Most Sportsmanship-Like. Caleb was awarded Most Sportsmanship-Like! {Proud parent moment} I couldn't care less if he was the star of the team, I desire for my boys to be good sports and leaders for their teams in that manner! Way to go Caleb!

Two Clone Troopers of some kind and Jango Fett. Jango is in the middle.

The highlight to Logan's fall baseball season was his Kindergarten teacher, Miss Ables, coming to watch him play one evening.

Logan is six years old! We had his first "friend" party at Inflatable Zone, on the most perfect day to be indoors on inflatable bouncy things -- it had been so cold and drizzly outside for several days, and all the parents THANKED us for having the party so that their kids could bounce out some pent up energy!

He wanted a "football field cake"

Hopefully I can post a bit more regularly. I probably should install the Blogger app on my phone, and post some more day-to-day photos from there!

We are in a really, really good season right now with Logan. He has amazed us with how well he's adjusted to elementary school and it can only be directly attributed to the Lord's hand in his life. So many prayers have been showered over that boy in the past few years due to his anxiety and self-confidence issues, and BOY has God answered!!

Here's just a couple of funny little stories to shed some light on what our talented, funny, insightful middle son is like these days... Both happened in his kindergarten classroom, and his teacher shared these little encounters with me yesterday.

First Week of School
Miss Ables (an A&M grad): So, Logan, I hear you like to watch Aggie football.
Logan: Yes! I like the Aggies. It's fun to watch the games.
Miss Ables: Do you think you'd like to go to Texas A&M and play football for them one day?
Logan (apparently very seriously): Yeah. If Johnny Manziel can't cut it, I can go in and play quarterback for him.

Just This Week
The schools in our district are focusing on anti-bullying strategies. Logan's class had watched a short video about bullying, and the teacher was leading them on a discussion about what to look for in order to tell if someone was being bullied. She asked the class what sort of actions would make them think someone was in danger of bullying. Several students raised their hand, and she went around letting each have a turn to share. Logan was about the fourth student to answer, and here's what he said... Put your 'thinking cap' on and try to imagine this with me...

"If someone is holding someone else." -- as he's gesturing, holding his right hand up in a fist and his left hand holding his right forearm, just as a football referee would if calling a HOLDING penalty.

So, basically, relate everything to football (or baseball) when teaching Logan, and we're good.

Caleb, age 7.5: likes any and all things LEGO, enjoys coloring, playing Wii, swimming, bears, the color orange, Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, going out for frozen yogurt at U-Swirl, pickles, cucumbers, has lost 7 teeth, wants to be just like Daddy. Will be playing flag football this fall.

Logan, age 5.75: Likes any and all things dog-oriented, LEGOs, Star Wars (especially Darth Vader), Aggie football and baseball, playing baseball, running, jumping, and cartwheeling everywhere, playing Wii, ketchup is a food group, has lost 4 teeth, still wants to be a meteorologist, can make his bed better than his brothers (and is proud of it).

The face of a Kindergartener who says "I've got this, Mom. You can leave now."

The 2nd-grader fake smile. :) He was ready for me to leave, too.