Today's Field Trip

Today we joined g/nephews McQueen, Mr. Thomas and their mom on a "field trip" to Nojoqui Falls. (That's pronounced NAH-ho-wee or nah-HO-wee, not no-JO-kee.) Beloved Niece gave me a great bit of trivia: These falls are the same height as Niagara Falls. Just a lot narrower. You can't get this close to Niagara.
A short walk up a narrow canyon leads to this beautiful sight. If you are alone, it's very restful and meditative to sit and gaze up at the falls. If you are a mother, constant vigilance is required as the falls pour into a pool of water surrounded by rocks. Rocks? Boys must climb on rocks. Climb? Not just climb, but ninja. In our house, ninja is now a verb, meaning "jump from thing to thing while your mother frets that she will have to take you to the ER."

But, TA DA! He survived without major damage. And hopefully his cousins will not copy his ninja-ing.

Wind part 2

By morning the bluster has died down.
Still raining.
Trees OK.
Plastic lawn furniture blown around a little.
No new leaks! Yet. Knock on wood.

Ernest and I are leaving in 2 hours for McQueen's birthday party. We also have a present for Mr. Thomas.

Centerpiece #3

On Saturday we had an improptu visit from the Beloved Niece and sons. Her sons are technically our great-nephews. That makes me feel old. I'm only 47. (Handy Husband just turned 48). So I cheat and just call them nephews.

So the older (11 in January) g-nephew, a real car guy, provided our centerpiece for the evening. He knows everything about cars.

I was going to call him CarGuy, but that's just too... ordinary and garage-mechanic-y. So I'm going to call him McQueen (as a tribute to both Steve and Lightning) which is uber-cool. If he would prefer another name, he can e-mail me.

His 3.5 year old brother will be called Mr. Thomas. Because he is obsessed with... yeah, you know. Mr. Thomas loves to visit us because we have Thomas videos and Thomas toys (...from the early 1990's. We don't know if they are lead infected but Frank and Ernest survived them OK.) There's "Small Thomas, " the small box of metal Thomas toys. Then there's "Big Thomas," the huge yellow box of Brio trains with some Thomas trains added.

So, McQueen and Mr. Thomas, come back soon.