Day 4: A Day at the Beach

Day 4: Oceanside Beach

On our first full day staying in Fallbrook with Chaney and Mary, we spent a glorious day at Oceanside beach. It was Maximus and Maggie's first time to visit the sea.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's one that sums up how we all felt about the beach:

Sheer Delight.

Lucas and I arrived at the beach about an hour before Chaney and Mary and Elisa (Mary's mom), who were coming in another vehicle. While Lucas was gone to meet up with them and bring them to where we were, I was sitting on the beach alone, watching the kids play in the sand. This is what I saw:

I'm not quite sure what it was– It might have been the look of pure happiness on their faces, combined with that fresh salty breeze and the sound of the tide rolling in and out. Perhaps it was the cute way that Max poked a tiny pinky-sized hole in every sand castle to make a door and then examined it closely to answer some unspoken curiosity in his mind. Or maybe it was just the simple beauty of a moment with my children that will always be locked away in my heart. Whatever it was, the tears just started rolling down my cheeks.

It felt right– like salty tears of happiness were at home by the sea. I'll never forget it.

Days 1-3: On the Road

Day 1: Roswell, New Mexico.

First stop on Roebuck Road Mania 2010: Roswell, New Mexico. We left Siloam Springs at about 11 p.m. on a Tuesday night and drove 10 hours through the night to the home of Bill and Polly, Laura's parents. They are the king and queen of hospitality. We enjoyed a lovely day and evening with them– the kids loved running and playing in their yard, and it worked out well that they didn't have to sit in the car for 10+ hours straight two days in a row.

Laura's sister, Joy, and her husband, Brent came over for dinner and brought their oh-so-adorable little guy Sealy. (Hmmmm.... Hope I'm spelling that correctly...) He is PRECIOUS. Here's a picture of him with Bill and Polly. Anyway, it was just so great to be the beneficiaries of the legendary Hartman Hospitality.

We won't mention how Lucas was blowing chunks the whole time we were there. Poor guy. But we will mention how thankful we all were that whatever he had, the rest of us somehow avoided. [Insert huge sigh of relief].

Day 2: White Sands National Monument

Day 2 on the road was a LONG day in the car, about 15 hours. Thankfully, the kids were really fantastic travelers. We only had to reprimand Max about four times for whining, "WHY is it taking so long?" Overall, not bad for a 2-yr-old and 4-yr-old.

On the road from Roswell to Calexico, California, we stopped at White Sands National Monument. It was the brightest place I have ever been. Like somebody-get-me-some-heavy-duty-sunglasses-or-I'm-going-to-be-forced-to-scrape-my-eyes-out bright.

I didn't have any sunglasses. But I decided against the scraping my eyes out thing, after considering both the pain and the inconvenience of that particular option.

Other than the extreme brightness, the sky was bluer and the sand whiter than anything I've ever seen either. The sand was so white, and there was so much of it, that this is what Maggie did as soon as she was out of her car seat:

Sand Angels. Interesting.

This little maneuver brought quite a bit of sand back into the car with us upon our departure. Oh, well.

Found a shady spot with my favorite little buddy.

We may or may not have given them something sweet

in order to produce this show of sibling affection.

Day 3: Calexico, California

Late, late, late at the end of Day 2's long drive we arrived in Calexico, California, the border town between Mexico and California. The town on the Mexico side of the border is Mexicali. I know, so creative, right?

We would have arrived a decent hour in Calexico if not for the fact that we got stopped on the freeway while the military was doing some missile testing in the Middle Of Nowhere, New Mexico. Some guys in orange vests slowed us all down, and then proceeded to park us all on the highway like a parking lot.

Then we sat there for about an hour, parked on the highway, and watched some explosions in the distance. Then they dismissed us from our parking places. Only we still couldn't move our car because the guy parked in front of us was sound asleep. I found the whole thing really hilarious.

So.... late, late, late that night we arrived at the home of Tio Manlio and Tia Alva, Lucas' Dad's brother and his wife. Lucas' Dad and Maria met us there and we enjoyed a day with Manlio and Alva.

Alva has some sweet little granddaughters a little younger than Maggie, and she was kind enough to share her girls' princess booty with Maggie. Maggie thought perhaps we had already arrived at Disneyland. She pranced around the house all day just as happy as she could be!

Manlio owns a large tree nursery in Calexico. The kids loved checking out the nursery and learning about plants that grow in the desert and looking at all the palm trees:

Lucas with his Uncle Manlio and Aunt Alva

After we left Manlio and Alva's, we header further west still toward Fallbrook in North San Diego county, where Lucas' Dad and Maria live. On the way, we stopped at this cool stone monument house on top of a mountain:

Coming soon to a blog near you: Maximus and Maggie's first day at the beach!

C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A

Let the Roebuck Road Mania 2010 posting begin! Coming up: more than you ever wanted to know about our 18-day adventure to:

And back! Enjoy the journey with us!

Conversations with Maggie

Maggie: Where is my dad?

Me: At work.

Maggie: Well, where is my Uncle Jake?

Me: He's at work, too.

Maggie: Oh, Man! My two dads are both at work!

I thought this was hilarious! For those of you who haven't heard, Lucas' twin brother Jacob accepted a one-year job at JBU and just moved to Siloam Springs! (Laura is making the transition in California with her job and will be here in a few weeks!!) The kids love, love, LOVE having their Uncle Jake around every day.

Mini Reunion with College Buddies

Before I jump into posts and pictures about Roebuck Road Mania 2010, I had to post a few pics of a special visit we had the day before we left on our trip!

Several of my dear friends from JBU days happened to be coming through Siloam Springs all at the same time as they were visiting their families in the area, so we worked out a few hours of fun together. Paul, Kris, Jenna-Clare, Jeremy, Rheagan (her husband Steve wasn't able to make it this time- we missed seeing him), Lucas and me plus all the kids had a great visit!

We enjoyed a crazy and wonderful few hours with pizza at Fratelli's, hanging out in the afternoon with about a million beautiful kids and babies, and then a fantastic dinner hosted by Jeremy's parents at their lake house in Rogers. I so enjoyed getting to reconnect with these special friends! A real highlight was getting to meet Paul and Kris's adorable newborn son, John David.

Here are just a few snaps.

Jenna-Clare, John David, Kristine, Maggie, Me and Rheagan.

The oh-so-charming William (belongs to Jeremy and J-C). If any of you have met Jenna-Clare's brother Colin, don't you think he's the spitting image? Adorable!

Paul and Kris are multi-taskers: Keeping Maximus intellectually engaged and snuggling newborn John David. That's talent, folks.

It was basically a crazy madhouse with six kids under the age of 4.

Jenna-Clare shares her mad maraca skills with Maggie.

We had the extra-special treat of having Rheagan and her two little adorables stay with us for a couple days.

Thanks for the great visit, everyone!

Home Again, Home Again...

18 Days
4,500 miles
68 hours in the car
7 games of "I Spy"
38 Capri Sun juice pouches
2 amusement parks
1 car floorboard covered with beach sand.
9 places to rest our heads
2 IKEA cinnamon rolls
1 Grand Canyon
2 In-n-Out Burgers
And MANY hugs and smiles from people we love!

Roebuck Road Mania 2010 has now drawn to a close– We are back home safe and sound after a crazy 2.5-week trek to California and back. We had a great time, the kids traveled well, and we have LOTS of pictures and stories to share! Give me a couple days to crawl out from the mound of laundry and the pile of stuff we pulled out of our car, and I'll be back with more. Ahhhh, Home Sweet Home!

Monologues By Maggie

Maggie:

Hey guys, I know: Let's have some ice cream now, and then we can have some lunch later! Okay? Okay. That's the end of the story. Yes."

Busy, Busy, Busy

Whew! These past few weeks have been a real whirlwind for our little Roebuck crew. All fun stuff, but just LOTS of stuff!

Saturday night we had a fun night of celebrating the retirement of Professor Gary Warner. Some of you may not know that Lucas and I were both journalism majors at JBU, although not at the same time (He graduated 5 years ahead of me). So even though we weren't at school at the same time, we had the shared experience of learning to write from Gary Warner. And let me assure you, that is an experience! Those of you who have taken News Writing I from Gary Warner know of what I speak. :-)

Anyway... Saturday night we attended a surprise retirement celebration for Gary Warner at Emelia's in downtown Siloam Springs. It was a fun night to reconnect with journalism alumni who had flown in from all over the country and honor our former professor. And the food was DELICIOUS. Lucas had a lot of the responsibility for planning the evening, and the program and the whole night really could not have gone any better. He did such a fantastic job!

Here are a few pics of our fun evening:

Gary Warner and colleague Arnie Mayer.

Lucas was the emcee for the event.

Professor Warner has been heading up the journalism program at JBU for 17 years. That means that there have been about 17 student editors of the JBU paper. 12 of those former editors were in attendance Saturday night- they flew/drove in from all over the country!

All the journalism/PR alumni who celebrated with Professor Warner.

Little Boy Bliss

Last week we had a wonderful visit with my Grandma and Grandpa. It was so special for me to see Max and Maggie spending some quality time with their great grandparents. Both the kids completely loved our little retreat to see The Great Mama and the Great Papa (as they call them), but Max was especially on cloud nine. I'm afraid I just can't seem to keep his little scientific mind quite stimulated enough during our normal day-to-day life around here! But at the Great Papa's house– that's another story. As I heard my grandpa explain to Max about flotation and simple machines and all kinds of other things that are interesting to little boys, I couldn't help but smile as I remembered Grandpa teaching me about electric currents and various other science lessons when I was a child. Max was drinking up every bit of information and having a blast the whole time.

Well.... TODAY the kids got a great surprise when a package arrived. It was addressed to them and was from Great Papa and Great Mama. They were pretty excited to open it up:

And what they found inside was pure bliss for a little boy! The box was stuffed full with string and wooden rods and rubber bands and wires and hot glue and rubber connectors and sheets of plastics and all kinds of other building materials. Max tore into it like it was the most expensive toy money could buy at Toys R Us! His mind was spinning with ideas from minute one.

First he pulled out a sheet of plastic and ran to the drawer to get some scissors. He had to make a map "to show the divers how to find the lost city of Atlantis." Maggie made a map, too.

After maps, we had to break for lunch. But the whole time we were eating, Max was planning what he was going to build. He decided on a submarine.

Here is his first creation! I helped some, but many of the design ideas were his. He has been playing with it all afternoon.

Thanks, Great Mama and Great Papa, for such a fun and creative package!

Conversations Between Max and Maggie

Overheard this morning between Max and Maggie as they were looking at Carl and Ellie from Pixar's UP:

Maggie: Look at them!

Max: They are married.

Maggie: No, they are not married.

Max: Yes, they ARE married. Remember we saw them in the church? That means they are married.

Maggie: What's 'married'?

Max: You know, when you always stay together, and you live together in the same house and you are not friends.

Maybe I should insert here: I think Max was saying that when you are married you are more than "just friends," but I thought it was hilarious that he actually just said "you are not friends." Perhaps I'll have to make sure that he does indeed know that Lucas and I are both married and friends. :-)

One Tough Cookie

Maggie has a little buddy at church who is her exact same age, same height, same build, and same hair color and length. Even my friend Julie (this little buddy's mom) and I have occasionally had to look twice when we see them from the back to see which one is ours!

Anyway, this morning Julie and I were talking about our precious little strong-spirited ones and marveling at how similar they are, both in appearance and personalities. We discovered that they are both super tough– they can get hurt pretty badly and not even let out so much as a whimper. I told Julie that sometimes I'm concerned that Maggie is going to get significantly hurt, like break a bone or something, and I might not even know.

Well, fast forward three hours from that conversation with Julie. Maggie started looking a little sick and droopy in her eyes, and she had mentioned to me once or twice somewhat nonchalantly in the past couple days that her ear was hurting. After my conversation with Julie this morning, I got to thinking that her ears might be worse than she was letting on, and maybe I should go ahead and get her into the pediatrician.

The doctor looked at her first ear and said, "Wow- this one is really infected. Is this the ear she was complaining about?" I told her no– it was the other one. She looked at the second ear, and it was even worse. The doctor said that on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most infected an ear could be, Maggie's was an 8.5. Woh– she wasn't running a fever or even acting sick at all until late morning today. But she's got a severe double ear infection.

This sweet little Maggie is one tough cookie. I really am going to have to watch her closely since she has a pain tolerance that she CLEARLY did not inherit from her mother!

More Conversations with Maximus

Max: How do birds die?

Me: Well, lots of different ways. Some just get old and die. Some might get hit by a car.

Max: Remember at the park we went to with Addison and Preston and we saw that dead bird? Why do you think that bird died?

Me: I'm not sure. Maybe he was just an old bird and it was his time to die. It's a little like G.G. Huckaby. Remember? She had lived a long time and her body just stopped working right.

Max: But Grandmama's not going to die.

Me: What are you thinking about?

Max: Grandmama Vicki. She's not going to die because she's not old yet.

Me: You know, Max. Sometimes when grown-ups have cancer, the tiny parts of their body called cells don't work right. If the cancer is serious enough, even grown-ups who are not old can die. The kind of cancer that Grandmama has is the very serious kind. The good news is that God has the power to heal her body if He wants to. But He might also decide that it's almost time for her to go to Heaven with him. And that's okay, too, because she loves Jesus so much.

Max: (silent and thinking)

Me: You don't have to worry about it today, though, Max. Today Grandmama is feeling good and we can go spend some time with her.

Max: She is feeling all the way good? She's not sick anymore?

Me: No, her cells are still sick. But she feels good today. And we can enjoy every good day with Grandmama.

Max: When we were in Idaho, I was sick three times. But Daddy gave me Gatorade and it made me all better. And then when I was at the park with Anna and Jakin, I threw up.

Me: Everybody gets sick sometimes. But you don't have to worry about getting sick like Grandmama. All of your cells are working just right.

Max: Yes!

Conversations with Maximus

As I'm hugging Max, just after spanking him for throwing a fit:

Me: Maximus, I do not like spanking you. It makes me so sad when you make choices that mean you have to get a spanking. I always hope that you can make good choices so that I won't have to spank you.

Max: (tears streaming down his face) But.. Mommy... It's really hard to go the whole day without making bad choices!

Me: I know, buddy. None of us can go a single day without making bad choices.

Max: Why?

Me: Because we are all sinners. That's why we need Jesus so much.

Max: But why did Jesus die for us while we were his enemies?

Me: Because He loved us so much that He wanted to make a way to forgive us of our sins so that we could be in His family.

Max: But Mommy, your only bad choices are arguing with Daddy.

Me: Oh, I have a lot more sins than that. Like when I'm lazy and don't do the work I should do. Or when I don't treat others with real kindness.

Max: Woh. That IS a bad choice.

Me: I know. Big time.

And then he smiles at me and scampers away to play, eyes red and swollen, but hopefully with the seeds of the Gospel planted in his tender heart.

.