The DeShong family experienced quite a plethora of events at the end of this glorious week! It all began Thursday when our homeschool group took a fascinating tour of the
Winchester Cheese Factory. This is the only farm handcrafting cheese out of raw cow's milk the old fashioned way South of San Luis Obispo, making this a unique place indeed. We watched a video about the cheese making process, sampled several varities of Gouda (my favorite part), walked through the storage refrigeration units where the cheeses were aging (some were older than Luke and Vance), visited the cows and the milking rooms, and then bought some cheese to take home. The staff was extremely knowledgeable and kind to us, and we all had just a wonderful time.
After catching up on school, laundry, and housecleaning Friday, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at our friends, the Nardones' beautiful home. We had some awesome sausage sandwiches with grilled peppers and onions, baked beans, and a beautiful salad. Gene built a fire in their pit outside, and we enjoyed an evening outside with coffee, dessert, and smore making for the kids.
Saturday morning, we were off to the Awana Bible Quiz at Camarillo Community Church, where Austin competed on a team against 5 other churches. This was such a great experience for Austin, and he did remarkably well. We were so proud of him, as he answered all but one question correct, helping his team to win 1st Place in his division! Go Austin!!! He was calm the whole time and we could tell he enjoyed himself thoroughly. We had a great time watching the competition alongside some of our other friends whose kids were also involved. It was one of those great and shining "parent moments" that you always used to see on TV. I am so thankful for our church's Awana program that has helped our boys memorize God's word faithfully each year. I know our boys will always remember their Wednesday night Awana classes, and I pray they will have firmly planted roots from the seeds God is planting in their hearts through this program.
We followed that up with a walk in the park as a family that same evening. It was such a beautiful and warm evening, and I truly enjoy the enormous park we have across the street from our house. It is like having my own huge and beautiful backyard. There are great walking paths that work wonderfully for walking, biking, scootering, or skateboarding. Dave and I walked the perimeter of the park while the three rode their bikes and scootered along the paths together. As Dave and I were walking up the hill in the back of the park, we noticed something move in front of our feet. It was a toad! We both knew we had to catch it to show the boys, especially our little froggy lover. So Dave put it in his pocket, which I am confident brought back some memories of sorts, and we found the boys to show them what we had found. They really wanted to bring it home, but it needed an environment which we would have to spend hundreds of dollars simulating at home. So, uh-uh. The boys really enjoyed holding him, chasing after his energetic hopping self, catching him, and so on. We decided to walk him up to where we found him, and as we were putting him back, we saw another one hopping around, so we put him with his froggy buddy. The funny thing is, not two minutes before, Austin told us that there were probably hundreds more where he came from, since frog mothers lay 2000-5000 eggs at once. We laughed at him when he said this, but he proved his intelligence as we literally saw toad after toad after toad as we continued down the path. It was like a scene out of a science fiction movie. It was like the invasion of the frog snatchers or something. The boys insisted on picking up each one we saw, and must have picked up a dozen or so! They had so much fun giggling and catching frogs, putting them down, finding others, etc. It was such a production! We then proceeded home to scrub their hands (twice) and send them to bed. It made me feel like the quintessential "boy Mom"! So here's to Gouda, the Bible, and frogs. And boys that love all three.
A little footnote: Did I mention the fact that Vance has literally been begging us to buy him a can of sardines? Who even knows why....but Dave picked up a can for him when we were doing our shopping the other night. When we got home, he gave them a try. What do you think? Yeah, or nay???? Let's just say he ate the entire container. Ewwwwww.........
Pics to come, as I totally messed up the whole thing!
13 years of marriage today!
