This post is
ancient history in many respects. Unfortunately, I have gotten farther than 3 months behind on blogging. I made a book of our October trip pictures for Samuel for Christmas, so we have looked at them innumerable times, but that doesn't mean that the rest of you have seen these pictures over and over!
A beautiful October day in the Pacific Ocean at Newport beach.
While Anthony got some work done, the boys and I got to play with Phoebe, Max and Sarah! Having these friends in our home group years ago seemed like cool
history to Micah and Paul.
Micah shows Phoebe and Max a magic trick that a Masai man from Africa taught him.
After our first visit to the Lundes (photos will follow later) our zoologist enjoyed the wild sea lions at La Jolla Beach.
Anthony enjoyed showing the boys places we had visited years ago.
Our little family enjoyed La Jolla in May 2005,
back in Micah's bald stage. How about those two photos for
ancient history?
My, how much more our family has changed than the
ancient cliffs!
My four men playing on one of the most beautiful soccer "fields" in the world.
Yes, Anthony had to rescue the soccer ball from the waves
and cuddle with his boy who is no longer a bald baby.
While camping in San Diego at a KOA, we got to visit with Ray Posey, (also a friendship formed in our
history) but I forgot to take a picture. Oops! We also enjoyed the beautiful San Diego Zoo.
Micah was excited that some Koalas (who sleep 22 hours per day) were awake when we visited them!
Anthony used to research dung beetles (more Tongen family
history for you) and the boys have a beloved dung beetle poem, which should stay in the
history books rather than at the dinner table, where it is frequently recited.
Elephants are by far Samuel's favorite. The real ones are in the background.
I treasure any one-on-one time I get with my sons, even in a gondola.
You can see who loved the petting zoo.
Historically, Orangutans have been Micah's favorite, and this 7-year old even entertained him with peek-a-boo!
Pandas have also been popular with Micah and Paul, so it was cool to watch them eat bamboo.
Micah planned and photographed this San Diego Zoo scene.
Legoland was so much fun!!! I found that I had a smile on my face the whole day!
While Paul enjoyed riding big roller-coasters, Micah and Samuel were amazed by the cities built of Legos,
historical towns made of Legos,
animals made of Legos,
and people made of Legos.
Ironically, the boys' favorite part was getting to build their own Lego cars
and race against dad!
We also thought it was brilliant to allow kids to build Lego towers while we parents waited for rides in lines that wrapped around the kids' building area. Can you believe that when we gave the boys the choice between a second day at Legoland or a second day at Joshua Tree National Park (climbing the boulders) they chose Joshua Tree!?
In order for Anthony to give another Math talk in L.A., we went back to the beach (Laguna Beach this time)
where Micah and Paul made some friends whose last name was ironically "Wave."
Samuel built castles with me. As I am writing this in February, I realize that it is no wonder this winter has felt short (we've had a very mild one). It was summertime on the beach for us in October!!
The Lundes' sweetness is manifested many ways; humoring us by looking at our photos is just one.
We love the Lundes. How crazy it is that the Lunde twins were Micah's age just a blink ago, when we lived next door in Chicago. What a privilege to share
history with this super-star family.
Cheering on Connor and Trevor in their Cross Country meet and eaves-dropping on Doug's running advice served to light a fire under Micah athletically. He now runs back and forth to pick up Paul at preschool while I try to keep up pushing Samuel's stroller.
Here's a pumpkin patch, L.A. style
where Jon and Pam gave the boys a big train treat!
The
ancient boulders and Dr. Seuss trees beckoned our boys to come back to Joshua Tree National Park.
"I want to go up there with my brothers." - Sam
Don't worry, Sam, you have a great big brother who climbed down to help make your hike fun, too.
Each boy had a painful encounter with a coarse rock or prickly cactus by the end of this fun-loving hike.
They made a good choice; these smiles were even bigger than their Legoland smiles,
but there was one point when Samuel sat down in the sand and didn't want to hike any farther with his bouldering brothers.
Don't worry; we got out of the hidden valley (just like the historical cattle thieves) to see this view of Joshua Trees.
It was dark when we set up camp in this Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M. land) dry lake bed. When we awoke the next morning, the boys thought we had camped on the surface of the moon! From this spot, Anthony and I got to watch a spectacular moon-rise!
"Paul, please stop hugging the boulders and eat your breakfast." - Me
It's curious how history becomes even more interesting when you are a part of the story -- Micah enjoyed returning to his birthplace.
I know that many of you remember when we took you to the Desert Museum near Tucson 7-8 years ago. We didn't get to see any live javelinas this time, but Anthony and I were able to tell some good stories from our history!
This cactus is a teddy bear cholla, but one good story from the history books is about a hike when Grandma Bev's sleeve "caught" a jumping cholla!
Can you see the mountains of Mexico from here? That's where we are headed next year! (How is that for foreshadowing?)
It even seems like ancient history when Micah had a gap where teeth are now found!
Pregnancy history -- 1) All you can eat salad bar at Sweet Tomatoes 2) Carne Seca (beef dried on the roof) and 3) Mariachi bands playing for our new baby boy
More Megan history -- Ventana Canyon Country Club, where I taught lots and lots of tennis with Micah in my womb (and then at home with Nora, his nanny.)
The par course will be the memory for these boys of "mom's workplace." Have I mentioned lately that Paul has incredible balance? He has been proving it lately with his snow skiing prowess.
Historically, we used to stroll up and down Sabino Canyon.
Micah is still leaning towards going to the University of Arizona, where Anthony did his post-doctoral research.
Luke was in one of Anthony's Bible studies in recent history, but has since moved to Phoenix, where we got to meet Hannah. They are about to be married, but unfortunately we aren't making a second cross-country trip in in a couple weeks.
In Utah, we got to hike Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.
How's that for perspective?
Two Junior Rangers were diligently filling out their assignments, learning about how water changes the shape of rocks. Home schooling has served Micah and me well this year, ranging from geology activities to reading a really good book of ancient history together. (The Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer)
Sand Dune Arch was Samuel's favorite hike in the history of his life!
Are you convinced yet?
Who can blame him?
Micah and Paul often sing "
Ancient words, ever true, changing me, changing you. We have come with open hearts, oh let the
ancient words impart." We were all amazed at what God can do with rocks, sand, water, time and sunlight.
Landscape arch is wider than a football field!
Do you believe us now?
We may have taken our break a little early on this crazy high, long, challenging hike, but these boys proved that they are tough.
Yes, some other hikers looked at us like we were loony,
but they didn't know about what good balance Paul has been given.
Can you see all 5 of the troopers?
The destination of our 5 mile hike was Double-O arch, but the benefits were even bigger than that.
New vocabulary words of the day included "cairns" and "fins."
By the 7th mile of the day, Paul just kept walking (without complaint!) when he was holding his dad's hand.
The boys cheered for the gopher snake.
Anthony cheered for Landscape Arch, which meant we were almost back to the car.
The next day, we got to hike the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands National Park.
I'm pretty sure these views were Anthony's favorite of the whole trip. I was scared to see my boys so close to the edge, though!
Canyonlands brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "spectacular vista."
Again, we were amazed at what God does with rocks, water and time. The geologist in me loved seeing the
ancient layers of rock.
I really, really loved this whole trip. There were many times when I realized I was with my 4 favorite people.
After lunch, the boys made up songs as we hiked up the back of whale rock.
Yes, the whale's back was steep,
beautiful,
and the boys enjoyed the adventure.
They had a plan to set up a zip line to get back down to our car, but we ended up hiking back down instead.
I am thankful to have a picture of the five of us in such a breath-taking place.
It would have been literally breath-taking for me if we had agreed to Paul's request to walk along the top of Mesa Arch, high above the canyon.
How about this sight for
ancient history!? All five of us were amazed by the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.
The whole day, Samuel said, "Look! Kiva!" and half of the time he was right.
While Micah climbed in and out of a kiva,
and his brothers tried their hand at ancient history with the metate and mano
and chose which room they would want in the cliff palace.
Wow, what history!
Didn't I have cute traveling buddies?
We were on our way up, out, and homeward bound
with just one last stop in New Mexico to visit my Aunt Faye's favorite, Chaco Canyon. We saw a herd of elk
and pueblo bonito.
Here is a typical Tongen trip meal; soup over the propane stove while boys rode scooters at sunset.
After the sun went down, we got to see the incomparable night sky of the Southwest through some amazing telescopes!
After driving for hours and hours (hooray for Anthony's ability to drive through the night), we were home. I actually was sad to see the trip end, but the next day I was glad to see the beauty of our historic hometown even in the midst of red lights during mom's taxi service route.
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