Given To Garrulousness

Raeden's Birthday

2010-04-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Raeden!

Today is Raeden's 5th birthday. It certainly doesn't seem like 5 years have passed since that Sunday that we ran to the hospital after Gospel Meeting to see brand new baby Rae!

Yesterday, while Dani was getting the house ready for today's big "Enchanted Unicorn Party" the girls went roller skating with Carol and the kids. Dakota's friend Josh also joined them. Raeden got the hang of skating pretty quickly and had a good time.
Reecie even skated for her very first time!
For a mid-day skate on the Friday of Spring Break it wasn't very crowded. So the kids had a really fun time.
Josh and Dakota had a really good time skating together. Long after everyone else was tired and pretty much done skating they were still having a blast.

Yesterday evening we celebrated Rae's birthday early with dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Cha!Cha! the big treefrog mascot visited our table. Little Reecie loved Cha!Cha! and kept watching for him all evening.
We were also visited by a roving balloon maker. He made Raeden a pretty pink poodle on a leash.

And Dakota got a green monkey with a banana.

Reecie is at such a cute age.

Raeden was super excited when they brought out the awesome volcano dessert and sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

Make a wish!Mmmmmm... delicious lava! Rae got to open a couple of her presents. This little one is from us and it is a......purple unicorn "My Little Pony"! Her mommy and daddy got her real ballet shoes. Raeden has been taking ballet for a little while now and she is very serious about it and does a great job! Happy Birthday, Rae! We can't wait for your magical fantasy unicorn party!

First Day of Spring!

2010-03-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of Spring. Where does the time go?!

Carol and I had a lovely morning. Marina babysat for Aaron & Dani overnight last night and Dakota stayed there too. So it was just the two of us this morning... doesn't happen very often! We got up to a beautiful sunny warm morning for the first day of Spring. We went out to breakfast together at the Sunbreak Cafe in downtown Auburn - our favorite local breakfast spot. It was relly nice to spend that little bit of time together!

After the kids came back home we headed out for an afternoon of Geo-Caching. Found a couple of fun caches. First stop was a tiny little park right here in Auburn that we had no idea was there. It is a little oasis set aside just for the birds and there is a neat tower you can climb up in to watch them. A family of swallows had a nest in one of the birdhouses; we watched the blue-backed daddy swallow swooping around catching bugs over the field while the mommy swallow poked her head out of the birdhouse now and then as if to keep an eye on him.

Our next stop was a tiny park at the top of the hill on the west side of Auburn. Just across the road from the Mountainview Cemetery and with a gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier the park is called "Mountainview Park". Makes sense. And the view is nice.
The kids are so strong... they can hold up the mountain. OK, daddy didn't get the angle of the camera quite right while squinting into the sun... so they're only holding up the top half of the mountain. Geo-Monkey met a new friend... Geo-Deer and got his picture taken with the cache. This cache must've been here for a while. It was made from a REALLY old round Altoids tin... I don't even remember Altoid tins being round!

We headed back down the hill and toward Federal Way. Stopped at the old Blue Heron Outlook Park at the base of Peasley Canyon and found this nice big ammo box cache. We stumbled around looking under all the wrong stumps until Dakota finally thought to climb down a little further and found it quickly. Should've been a quick & easy find but we stumbled around in the bushes longer than we should've. Silly us. Good thing we did this one in early Spring while the stinging nettles, which were abundant, were still nice and small!

Dakota makes the find!

Our last stop of the day was up at West Hylebos Park in Federal Way. We found a nice cache in this park a year or so ago and were pleased to see that there was another cache placed here to find. We love this park and it was a great place for a nice walk on the boardwalk on this gorgeous Spring day. Unfortunately we weren't at our best for caching today I guess. Should've been an easy cache from reading the other logs at www.geocaching.com but for some reason we came up empty handed on this one. But we weren't too disappointed because we had a really great walk through the park. We saw several bunnies, two snakes, a couple of duck families (no baby ducks yet though) and had a blast identifying different types of trees and plants.

It was a lovely, fun day with the family. Happy Spring, Everyone!

TEENAGER!

2010-01-14T05:28:00.001-08:00

Thirteen years ago today I held my baby for the first time. I rocked her to sleep and held her late into the night. She was a C-Section baby so Carol was drugged up and fast asleep. Marina was asleep and the hospital was quiet. I just sat and held her, talking to her about all the important things in life, singing hymns to her and praying for the wisdom to be a good dad to her. The weight of that tiny baby in my arms was almost nothing but the weight of responsibility I felt was crushing. It was outweighed only by the amount of love I felt for her that day.

I remember thinking that day of all the landmarks and milestones that lay ahead. And I remember anticipating "someday this sweet, tiny little baby is going to be a big teenager." It seemed so unreal that day. So "far away". One of those things that you know is inevitable but way off on the horizon somewhere. Intangible. But, like a flash, here it is. Thirteen years gone by and my tiny baby cruised through toddler years, little girl years, "I'm-a-big-girl-now" years, elementary years and now we've stepped over the threshold of "teenager years." And I've loved and cherished every one of them.

As she lay in my arms thirteen years ago, I sat staring at her for hours. Soaking it in. Trying to remember exactly what she was like. Urging myself to remember just how much I loved her. And to a degree I can remember what she was like: I can conjur up the feeling of her head cradled against my arm, I can remember the powdery sweetness of her breath, I can remember the smooth softness of her skin as I gently brushed the back of my hand against her cheek. But I can't remember how much I loved her... because I continue to love her more and more every day.

There is no love like a father's love.
Happy Birthday, my sweet Marina!

Holiday Brunch Post-Script

2009-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

So of course because of my goof-up, thinking I had Dad's name when really Dani had dad for the gift exchange, Aaron was giftless at the Holiday Brunch. I felt really bad. So he had to wait until Christmas Day when we were all together again for his gift.

So here he is, sans delicious brunch, festive Salish Lodge ambience & snowy backdrop, ready to open his Seahawks shirt and Carhartt jeans.

Christmas Dinner 2009

2009-12-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Every second year, this being the "on" year, we have an extended family Christmas Dinner get together at the clubhouse at Grandpa & Grandma Wheeler's park. It is always nice to see everyone.

Rex and Donna...

Grandpa & Grandma Wheeler, mom and Marina with little Reece and her new dolly.

The kids all play pool in the back room. Even Reece.

Aaron & Rex chatting and dad napping...

Enjoying a quiet game of cards.

Mom, Jenn and Kay...

Dakota shows Uncle Aaron his new DS.

My table centerpiece that Grandma asked me to make for the buffet table.

Christmas Morning 2009

2009-12-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas morning is always such an exciting time. This year Dakota, my early riser, woke up TOO early and had a really hard time trying to go back to sleep so we could all get up at a reasonable time... like 5:00.

Christmas morning starts with the opening of stockings. The rule is that when you get up you can get right into your stocking but everything else has to wait until everyone is awake and up. After finally going back to sleep for an hour or so Dakota was still the first one up.

Dakota, surprised and excited by the size of his pile of presents.

Dakota couldn't wait for Marina to open the present he had bought her.It was three pretty scarves for her to wear with her outfits. He saw them in an ad and had Carol take him to the store so he could buy them for Marina all on his own. He is so thoughtful!

Then Marina gave Dakota the gift she had bought him...

...a Matchbox car VW Thing and a big Matchbox Truck that carries other cars on it. Dakota is a huge Matchbox car fan.

I wish we saw more of this at our house:

Marina is looking pretty excited about her pile of gifts too, even though most are too big for wrapping.

Marina had been wanting to redo her bedroom so she was pretty thrilled to find a whole new bedroom just waiting to be put together and put into place!

To go on her bed she got a new comforter/pillow set in the black & green color scheme that she wanted.

Clothes are an OK gift if they are as cool as this Harry Potter T-shirt!

What could be in the nice big package this messy-haired-daddy is holding?

Ah! Exactly the new Memoryfoam pillow I was hoping for!

Posing with mama and the cool present they picked out for her...

...a special Monkey Bread pan so she can make more of her famous Monkey Bread!

Hooray for new Playmobil sets! Kota got a new float plane and also a cool log cabin.

Shhhh.... don't tell Carol what's in those boxes but it's jammies and a pair of sweats.

Here is Dakota with his last packages...

... the Nintendo DS that he has wanted for 3 years! YAY!

What a terrific Christmas Morning! Dakota celebrates with a little "happy dance".

I love my new sweater and turtleneck!

Marina didn't waste any time getting down to putting her new bedroom furniture together. Here she is working on the bookshelf/dresser/desk from Ikea.

This was the first Christmas in a long time that mom & dad and Aaron & Dani & the girls hadn't spent the morning at our place and had brunch with us. We really missed having everyone there but it was fun spending that time with just our family. With an early Christmas Dinner at Grandpa & Grandma Wheeler's house there just wasn't time for everyone to come over in the morning. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Dinner will be the subject of a separate blog posting...

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

The tradition at our house on Christmas Eve is that right before bed the kids open up the gift of a new story book and then we read them together and head to bed. It is something we've done since they were both toddlers. They look forward to it, it is a sweet time that we share together as a family and it is also a good way to unwind and settle down on Christmas Eve. I remember as a kid how hard it was to settle down and get to sleep with all the anticipation of what Christmas will bring. This quiet time we spend together before bed helps.

Dakota's excitement comes through loud and clear in these photos!

We all take turns reading...

...and listening.

What special traditions do you have for Christmas Eve?

Salish Lodge Brunch

2009-12-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

One of our Holiday traditions is that every year around during the winter holiday season Aaron & Dani, Mom & Dad and Carol & I go out to a nice dinner together. We used to all exchange gifts at Christmas but it got to where it was more obligatory than celebratory. So we decided that, since none of us really go out that often, it would be really nice to all go together once a year, leave the kids at home and have a really nice adult dinner together. To make it even more fun we added a little gift exchange to the tradition. So every year around Thanksgiving we pick names & get something special for that person and bring it along to our holiday dinner.

This year we settled on my favorite restaurant... The Salish Lodge. We altered our tradition just a tiny bit by deciding to do a brunch rather than our normal dinner. I was thrilled. It's been several years since I've been to The Salish and I love to have their multi-course Country Breakfast.

Sunday afternoon after morning meeting we met at Aaron and Dani's and all carpooled up to brunch. We've had mild weather this winter but this was one of just a few really cold days and we expected there would be snow up in the foothills of Snoqualmie. It was a perfect day for a holiday brunch!

Waiting for our table. The gift-wrapping gets fancier every year!
Mom and Dad in front of the Salish tree.
And Aaron & Dani too. Seated and pouring over the choices. While we were waiting for the food we got the gift exchange under way. Aaron had mom's name this year. She got tickets to the Flower & Garden Show and pictures of the grandkids. Aaron had taken all 4 of the kids to get their pictures taken together; they turned out pretty good too! Awwww... aren't the pictures cute! Dad had Carol's name...

....and he got her a beautiful sweater in autumn colors that looks really nice on her. Then came a little shocker. It was Dani's turn to hand out her present and she handed it to... DAD! Yikes! I thought I had dad's name! Figures that I would get mixed up and shop for the wrong person! So dad opened the first of two nice fluffy soft navy blue bathrobes.

Dani received her beautifully wrapped present from Carol. The little box had a pair of nice earrings and a bracelet with a subtle snowman pattern.

And the big box was a Panini maker... exactly what Dani wanted!

Hmmm... this is familiar. Dad is opening up more gifts! This time a work shirt and, yes, you guessed it... a nice nice fluffy soft navy blue bathrobe.

My turn. Mom handed me the best-wrapped gift of the night. In the smaller box was exactly the gift I most wanted... a new can opener!

You can't tell from the picture just how sparkly the tree gift-topper was... it was as sparkly as can be! You also can't tell from the picture that inside was a very pretty half-zip taupe-colored sweater that I love wearing.

At that point the food arrived and everyone had an enjoyable meal as the snow continued to come down outside and the real fire in the fireplace crackled merrily. It was all very festive.

By the time we finished brunch it was almost dark outside.

We walked over to the Snoqualmie Falls Lookout for a few more pictures.

It had been cold for several days and there were all kinds of beautiful ice formations around the falls. As the waterfall hits the bottom it splashes out and sends up a mist which froze all along the perimeter. It was really beautiful.

Finally it was time to head home, all squished into Aaron & Dani's Durango, heading out into the snowy winter night.

Christmas Cruise

2009-11-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

Every year around mom's birthday we spend the day together, just the two of us. It is one of my favorite days of the year. It's a day to celebrate her birthday and also to transition into the holiday season. This year we started the day at Fidalgo's in Seattle. We hadn't been to their new store but we used to love the old place down by the stadium. The new store is a lot smaller but still very nice. From there we headed north to Molbak's in Woodinville. We really should've gotten an earlier start because we were a little rushed to see everything at Molbak's. We took a nice picture in front of the Poinsettia Tree too but unfortunately it's on mom's camera so I don't have it to post on the blog. After Molbak's I sprung the surprise on her- we were heading to Kirkland to board an Argosy Christmas Cruise!

Here we are in Kirkland. It was a sunny, beautiful day. Cold but not so cold that we needed our coats and very sunny.

Getting ready to board... we had tickets on the lead boat they call the "Christmas Ship". It's the big one on the left at the end of the dock up ahead.
It was crowded on board. Many people had obviously arrived very early and had selected all of the seats by the windows. We had some hot chocolate and found some seats in the center of the boat but soon realized it was more fun to wander around and go up on deck.
So we explored the ship and took pictures in front of the big tree on top. As the sun began to go down it got a bit colder; time to put coats and hats on.
The sun took its time setting. It was a very prolonged, beautiful sunset.
The small parade of boats made three stops along the way. On shore large groups of holiday revelers gathered around crackling bonfires awaiting the well lit-up ships and the choir singing on board.

As the choir beautifully heralded the holiday season the sky darkened and the colors of the sunset deepened.

Soon it was dark enough for the lights on the boats to be seen...

...but still the Heavenly sunset outshone them.

It really was a beautiful day and a very beautiful sunset.

I'm not sure which jolly fat man looked better by mom...

...me or Santa.

As night crept in and darkness overcame the gorgeous day we retired inside and found seats where we could enjoy the final performance of the choir.

Outside we could see the other well-lit ships passing in the night.

The Seattle Girls Choir Allegra sang songs of holiday cheer.

Rudolph came along in a speed boat and pulled up alongside the Christmas Ship. He delivered a package to Santa... could it be the pictures of each of the passengers that were taken as we boarded the ship?Finally our beautiful lake cruise had come to an end. We appreciated the other boats bedecked with lights and decorations as we made our way back down the dock.

One last view of the Christmas Ships as we drove away...

Famished, we headed to Bellevue for our dinner reservation at P.F. Chang's. Probably I should've left enough time for a quick lunch after Molbak's... oops! Our hunger might've influenced our opinion but either way we had one of the best dinners ever! The lettuce wraps were mom's favorite and I especially loved the crispy beans but everything was exceptional. And the blueberry jasmine iced tea...mmmmmmmm!

All in all it was a fabulous day. One that we will carry the memories of for years to come.

And we are already looking forward to mom's birthday next year!

Mom's Birthday

2009-11-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

We celebrated mom's birthday down at Aunt Carol's house. Carol cooked a very nice dinner & invited the whole family down- it was quite a crowd! It was a very nice day. Aaron and Dani got mom a nice sweater. My present hadn't arrived yet... there was more to come!

2009-11-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Friday night we celebrated the end of a long hard week by going Roller Skating. Marina and Sydney skated and skated for hours, talking and laughing. They are so cute and sweet. Sydney took skating lessons from when she was very young and is a speed skater but Marina is a pretty good skater too so I don't think she slowed Sydney down too much.

Dakota didn't have a friend along this time so he was a little bored but he did have fun. Next time we'll have to plan just a little further ahead so that we can arrange to have one of his friends come along too.

Dakota has learned to be a really good skater!

Skating along... I'm not sure how I accidentally cut Sydney out of this picture... it's kind of hard to get the digital camera to "snap" at just the right time when the kids are moving so quickly!

Still going!By this time Dakota was pretty much done.

We had a fun night skating! Next time we'll get some of Dakota's friends to join us too. And Marina and Sydney are looking forward to getting their whole group of friends to join them as well. It's kind of fun to see her growing up and entering this teenage phase. Bittersweet.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

On Halloween the kids and Carol went Trick-or-Treating with the Ramirez family- Marina's good friend Summer and Dakota's buddy Reece. A lot of Marina's friends also joined them. Marina and Summer made matching costumes: Ketchup and Mustard.
Here they are joined by their friend Dorothy. Er.... Sydney.
Here's the whole gang. Carol didn't take any pictures of just Dakota but you can see him on the left in his awesome Hillbilly costume.

Marina wore her Mustard costume all day Friday at school and paused to take this picture with her awesome fast-pitch coach.

They had a great time on Halloween. And I had an OK time staying home and handing out candy to the neighborhood kids here too. I was pretty tired after staying up LATE Thursday night sewing mustard and ketchup bottle dresses!

Pumpkin Patch Time

2009-10-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

After our walk in the woods Dakota and I went to the Pumpkin Patch. Halloween was only a week away and we didn't have a single pumpkin yet! We called mommy and she met us there at the pumpkin patch. Marina was, of course, at Megan's house for the weekend. So no pumpkins for her!

We went on the hay ride. We're a little older now and the excitement has shifted from the sheer fun of riding around in a trailer full of hay pulled by a tractor to the fun of hoping that the tractor will run over some pumpkins.

One daddy pumpkin, one mommy pumpkin and one teeny little baby pumpkin. Well, actually the "baby" pumpkin was daddy's... I suppose it's a sign of being "old" that I have gone from looking for the "perfect big pumpkin" to looking for one that looks "good enough and pretty cheap." Oh, man, I really am getting old.

Dakota is getting pretty good at pushing the wheelbarrow, even with the pumpkins rolling back and forth in it. He wouldn't offer me a ride in it though.

Time to weigh and pay.

We're back to having just one kid in our annual "Pumpkin Patch Picture". Seems like such a short time ago that that "one kid" was tiny little Marina when she was little!

Dakota did still enjoy "driving" the tractor. He would've been a lot happier if he could've gotten it started though... there was a whole field of pumpkins just waiting to be smushed-up by a tractor!

Dakota did such a great job of carving his pumpkin! He took his time and carefully carved out a big crescent moon and a whole sky (er...pumpkin) full of twinkling stars all the way around. It turned out great!

Later in the week, one night after school, we stopped by the pumpkin patch for Marina to pick out a pumpkin. She carved the crazy cannibal pumpkin below. Dakota got another tiny little pumpkin and carved a funny face into it.

Don't they look awesome lit up?

It seems that I entirely forgot to take pictures of the adults' pumpkins. So now, 2 weeks later, I went out to take pictures of them for the blog. Mine still looks pretty good...

But Carol's has suffered the undeniable, unavoidable fate of the Jack-o-Lantern...
(It was a cool spider surrounded by its web. Rats... sorry we didn't get a picture before it went all smooshy!)

A Walk In the Woods

2009-10-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Dakota and I went for a walk in the woods. The girls were out shopping & then Marina spent the night Saturday at Megan Ward's out in Key Peninsula. So Dakota and I had the day to ourselves. We had a picnic lunch and then went for a nice walk in the woods up at Federation Forest. It was a beautiful crisp but sunny autumn day. We didn't see much wildlife but enjoyed the giant trees and fall colors.

Some of the old growth Douglas Firs are very large!

This was a pretty cool tree. Apparently it blew over in the wind. When it fell it got caught, wedged between two other trees. This caused the root ball to come completely free of the ground where it remains suspended in the air.

Another gigantic Douglas Fir tree. Dakota was most interested in the "nurse logs" and "nurse stumps" that were hosting Western Hemlock saplings of various sizes.

Eventually the trail took us to the White River and followed its shoreline.

We took a side trail down to the river and threw rocks and sticks in for a while.

When our hike was finished we drove on up to Crystal Mountain. At the tops of the hills we could see where it had recently snowed but there was no snow down at the ski area where we were. Driving back down the mountain we noticed, looking out over one of the vast valleys, a single yellow tree nestled among a forest of deep green. It was really stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, taking the picture into the sun and with a soft fog coming into the valley the picture is not very clear.

Dakota had a good day in the mountains.

And so did daddy!

Sunset

2009-10-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

The sunsets this fall have been gorgeous. To me a sunset is a tiny little gift from God. It reminds us of how he can create something beautiful out of absolutely nothing. The colors are so intense and so beautiful that you want to cling to them- to make them last and last- but they are so fleeting. Here and gone. To me a picture of our time in this life on earth. Fleeting. Sometimes I just want to cling to things- for them never to end- but so quickly they are gone. When the kids were babies it was like that; I would hold them and just want the moment to go on forever. But now they are growing and changing so quickly. And as I look back over the first half of my life it all flashes by so fast. Which is why I don't want to spend my life clinging to the things of this world- the things as temporary and as fleeting as a sunset- but want to be looking toward the promise of an eternal day. And thank God every day for the little things, like the sunsets, that inspire me and encourage me to think beyond the temporary.

Dale & Mary Young

2009-09-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

Today we drove to Portland to witness the marriage of my cousin Dale Young to his beautiful new bride Mary. The wedding was very lovely, the bride was gorgeous, the ballroom was nice, the decorations were tasteful and the food was delicious. My Marriage Outlook Prediction based on the always reliable Wedding-Cake-Deliciousness-Factor: a 10 out of 10. I had the chocolate and it was not polluted with nasty raspberry (such a common mistake). The frosting was delicious and not overly sweet. Cake very moist, dense and chocolatey. Overall extremely satisfying. So their marriage is destined for success with many happy years together in perfect wedded bliss.

It was really fun to see some of my cousins and Aunt Linda that I haven't seen for 20 years or more too. All in all a wonderful day. It was one of those times when I felt blessed and grateful to have been invited and allowed to be part of the event.

I will say one thing about Dale and Mary. They are perhaps the most thoughtful and kind couple I've ever known. I wish we all lived closer together because I just love the time I spend around them. Dale couldn't be luckier to have married Mary... I think she is positively terrific. They are so cute together- so obviously in love. And it is a mature love. A caring, gentle, understanding love for each other. A wonderful and inspiring thing to see.

I wish you absolutely all the best, Mr. and Mrs. Young!

Monster Truck Showdown

2009-09-18T22:59:00.001-07:00

So the signs that I am getting OLD are starting to show. I forgot that I had told Marina she could go spend the night at Sydney's house tonight and so I decided to get tickets to the Puyallup Fair to go see the Monster Truck Showdown. Kind of an expensive outing but Dakota's always wanted to see the monster trucks so it seemed like a great idea. At the time. So then Marina reminds me that she will be at Sydney's. So last minute Raeden comes along instead. Lesson number one: if you're ever tempted to hit "pay now" and finalize an order for two children's tickets and one adult ticket to go see a Monster Truck Show ask yourself this question... do I really want to take two small people to a Monster Truck Show without another big person to talk to? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's try and keep this in the order of the pictures.

OK. We got there in time to wander around and tire out our feet a little bit. And we saw the cows. Cows are cool. Cows with big horns are even cooler. Cool enough to get your picture taken in front if them. With sunglasses on.So then that takes us up to the Monster Truck Show. The kids were excited and anxious so they got us over to the grandstand well in advance of the show starting. We got to go down into the "pits" and see the trucks up close. And take pictures next to them. That tire would make one huge tire swing!
This one was the kids' favorite because it was painted camo. American Thunder or something like that.
And then we found some good seats.
So how come you can't get two kids to both smile & look at the camera at the same time? It's either one...
or the other.
But it's easier to get them to smile once you get them some soda pop and cotton candy!
Mmmmmmmm! I love you, cotton candy!

So all was going well. And then the show started. Somehow all of our talking about how loud it was going to be and how exciting it was going to be didn't quite make the impression that the actual deafening roar made as the monster trucks revved their engines!

Here they all are, lined up to be introduced.

One of the really loud ones was El Matador. It wasn't any of our favorite or anything but it happened to have the picture that turned out the least blurry so there it is.

First thing up was the wheelie contest. Here goes Dream Catcher, I think the loudest of the bunch.And the American Something-or-another. OK, the wheelies and unbelievable loudness was much more memorable and impressive than the names of the trucks.

So by this time I was getting, "Is it almost over?" "How much longer is it, Uncle Sean?" "Let's go do something else."

The El Matador did end up being one of the coolest trucks. Very loud and aggressive. We wondered if he was going over backwards on this one.

After the wheelie contest we watched the local guys with their weird looking rigs do tough car races. That was kind of a laugh. The dude from Buckley in his modified used-to-be-a-Jeep lost part of his drive shaft on his second run. There were 3 local guys and one guy that came up from Louisiana... he wiped the local guys out doing the run in about half their time. Then came the Monster Truck Races where two of the big rigs at a time would crash & smash over the row of cars and race to get across the fastest. By that time I was hearing, "I gotta go bathroom!" So off we went to the bathroom and to see the rest of the fair. Lesson number two: one hour of plugging their ears and feeling their seats shiver from the reverberations of sound is plenty for an 8 & 4 year old.

But they like bunnies a lot.

And baby goats.

And they are very impressed with milking cows. "You mean that's where the milk comes from that we DRINK!?" Which then leads to, "can we have ice cream?" We decided we'd stop and get ice cream cones on the way home. I'll let you in on a little secret: I was hoping they'd both fall asleep before we left the parking lot and we could just let the cotton candy/soda pop sugar rush be enough.

They liked the huge pumpkins too.

But I do believe that the highlight of the whole night was the stuffed flowers with wire stems that they won playing the duck-pond game. OK- I got one thing right: if kids are dying to play a game at the fair make sure to choose one where they are guaranteed to win.

They were also impressed with the colored fountain by the exit. Do these two look like a couple of kids that are going to be asleep immediately in the car or like two little kids that are so hyped up they're on a second (or third) wind and will be asking, "when are we going to get ice cream?" "Where are we going to stop for that ice cream?" "I can't wait for ice cream!" until I stop, 2 blocks away, at the closest possible McDonalds and fill the promise?

So bye-bye Puyallup Fair. Bye-bye Monster Truck Showdown. See you in another ten years.

The kids did have a great time. And they talked animatedly about how cool the trucks were. I could personally have enjoyed it a bit longer but one hour was good for them and after all it was for them that we went so it was good. Final lesson: you can get into the fair a lot cheaper if you don't include Monster Truck Showdown tickets... and you can watch monster trucks on YouTube. But I bet if you do that you'll spend the whole evening hearing, "I wish we had tickets to the Monster Truck show!" "Daddy, how come we can't go see the monster trucks?!" "It would be so awesome if we could have seen the monster trucks!"

Ocean Shores 08\21-23\09 (222 photos), by Sean Young

2009-08-29T10:51:00.001-07:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Ocean Shores Weekend

2009-08-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend away at Ocean Shores along with Grandpa Marv, Grandma Verna, Aaron & Dani and the girls. We stayed together in a nice condo and were lucky to have really nice weather the whole weekend. We left bright and early for the ocean Friday morning, arriving at Ocean Shores before anyone else had even left home. We spent the morning doing some geocaching around the area. Above Marina and Dakota found a small cache behind this "Soft Sand" sign.

Marina signs the log.

Wading through the high grass we found the next cache in a large ammo box under a log out on the dunes. This one was a puzzle-cache so we had to figure out some math to find the final waypoint and the cache. We laughed and laughed- our day off to a great start.

Next we headed for the biggest cache we've ever seen: "Mondo Cache". When we finally found the area where the cache was hidden we found signs noting recent cougar sightings in the area. Despite Dakota's serious reservations we set off for a bit of a hike to the big cache. One of the landmarks in the hints for the cache was a bench where the trail turns. Marina decided to be the center of attention in the picture I took of Carol & Dakota on the bench.

Here we found the cache. It was in a large 10-gallon Rubbermaid tub and was full of really cool cache prizes. Best cache we've found in a long time.

A big cache calls for big prizes... here Marina tries on a pair of Mondo sunglasses found in the Mondo Cache.

Heading back to the car. Dakota stayed good and close to mom! Searching for the next cache location we noticed a large number of deer in the area. Here we saw two young bucks lying in someone's yard. We searched and searched for this one. It shouldn't have been so hard to find but somehow we overlooked it several times, tangling ourselves up in one spiderweb after another. Dakota finally made the find.

Behind him you can see the small lagoon that the cache was named after.

Marina at the marina.

Geocaching does help us find and see a lot of things we wouldn't otherwise ever see. Here is something called the "lone tree", located by the Ocean Shores Marina, which used to be used as a landmark from the ocean.

We have always known the jetty was here but didn't realize we could walk out onto it until we found that there is a cache out there. It was cool walking out on the jetty!

Found under a large rock, this was another fun cache.

Another of Marina's favorite caches of the day, this one was called "Marina Mountain". The small film canister cache was hidden up inside this pipe sticking out of a hill next to the marina. A funny little bent wire attached to the cache allowed it to be stuck up into the pipe and still be accessible.

Marina is putting the cache back in place while mom and Dakota and the Geo-Monkey look on patiently.

Next we spent some time at the Ocean Shores Discovery Center. It was surprisingly large with a lot of interesting things to see and touch. Here is a sign outside the center describing the history of the area.

After leaving the Discovery Center we got a call from Grandpa Marv letting us know they had all finally arrived. We met them at Home Port for lunch and then headed to the beach to play.

Grandpa helped Dakota and Raeden build a sandcastle.

It was barely windy enough to fly kites but we didn't waste any time getting the kites out and giving it a try. Marina had good success with Grandpa's kite which only requires a slight breeze to fly.

Reece loved playing in the sand and picking up shells, sticking them into her watering can.

Splashing in the soft sand.

Dakota and Raeden are proud of their fine castle-building work.

They also admired the castle built by some people next to us. Here they pose trying to look like this was their own impressive work.

Dakota hanging out in the condo.

In the evening we went over to the beach to watch the sunset.

Aaron and Marina playing King-of-the-Log.

Letting down our hair at the condo in the evening.

Good morning, Reece! Enjoy that delicious banana for breakfast.

Dakota and Raeden playing with Playmobile 4-wheelers on the blow-up bed back at the condo.

Aaron and Dani made a delicious dinner: shish-ke-bobs, tasty potatoes and watermelon. Yum!

Group picture on the beach... it was already our last day at the beach!

Quick... Reece is about to start crying like crazy!

Raeden flying her kite one last time.

We sat up on the rocks and saw a giant grey whale right off shore along with several sea lions. It was so exciting!

Marina was entirely thrilled to get to see a whale.

I didn't manage to get a very great picture of the whale but here you can see his dorsal fin in the lower right portion of the picture.

A shoe-full of sand.

After lunch Grandma & Grandpa and Aaron & Dani headed home. We wanted to try and miss traffic by leaving late so spent a little more time on the beach and found one more geocache in the dunes.

Posing in the dunes.

We did a little more shopping in town at Sharkey's and then headed for home. It was a really fun weekend. We were so lucky to have such perfect warm weather.

Convention: Olympia One

2009-08-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

We usually go to second Olympia but this year went to Olympia 1. It was such a perfect convention. There were a lot of people there; this was a much bigger convention than second Olympia usually is.

Dakota was looking smashing in his little black suit. He especially enjoyed going for walks between meetings with Grandpa. Because Grandpa is tall enough to reach the best blackberries!

Marina was glad to get to have her best friends Missy and Megan with her. She got to sit next to Megan the whole time and they slept together in the dorms too.There were a lot of young people and children at the convention. Here we tried to round up as many of them as possible for a big picture. Marina is standing next to Megan and Dakota is sitting next to his buddies Devin and Levi... can you find them?

I was also excited to see my cousin Rosemaree and to finally see the new baby Deacon! He is so cute. He's kind of a wiry little guy- no chunky rolls on him like my kids had. What a good little guy.

Here's big sister Cecee!A few gems I especially enjoyed:

Psalm 84:10 - "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." The tents of wickedness are not labeled that; they're labeled "I want."

There is a remarkable difference between separation and isolation. God doesn't ask his people to be isolated.

When we say "yes" and bring our all to the storehouse it doesn't add much to the storehouse but it does bring us to the storehouse where all provision is.

The vessel can only be in the hand of one potter at a time.

Jack Carroll's list of 7 Chapters that we should read every week: I Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, Romans 12, I Peter 2, James 3 and Matthew 18

Dakota's Last Baseball Game

2009-08-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Last game of the season. Grandma Verna and Carol were both able to be on hand to cheer him on. He got a couple of good hits and had a good time. Dakota is a real baseball player!

Baseball Night

2009-07-30T20:32:00.001-07:00

It was Dakota's baseball night again. He has games every Tuesday & Thursday. On Tuesday night it was almost 100-degrees so they only had the kids play one inning and then called it a game. Tonight it was much milder- only about 90-degrees. So much more comfortable.

Here he goes... getting warmed up for his first at-bat.

Taking a practice swing. Hmmmm... do I notice that somebody forgot to wear his glasses?!

Here he is. Ready for a good solid hit.

They use a mechanical pitching machine and give each of the kids 5 pitches. If they don't get a hit in 5 pitches they get to T-up and hit the ball off the "T".

There's two...

And he had to hit off the "T". Usually he doesn't have to use the "T". But usually he wears his glasses. Actually tonight on his second at-bat he got a nice solid hit. He is a pretty good little baseball player! I am pretty proud of that little guy.

A Hot Day of Geocaching

2009-07-25T20:54:00.001-07:00

It was really hot and muggy today. The sign at the bank said 86-degrees. But we ventured out to do a little local geocaching around town. We loaded up the GPS, the Geo-Monkey, our box of geocache swag and headed out.

First we ventured up to Sunset Park in Lakeland Hills. Dakota's baseball team has played here a few times so he likes this park. And he was the one to find the first cache- underneath the light pole.

Here's what the cache looked like. An Altoids tin painted black. Cache, Geo-Monkey and Brother-Monkey.
Here was the second cache at the park. This one was down a trail through the woods. It was so HOT in the sunshine! This one was a pretty cool container made out of a big PVC pipe.

Sydney spent the night with Marina last night so she went along with us. And Corrina Dirks joined us for the day too.
Trekking through the woods back to the van.

Two caches and Marina & Sydney were done. Too hot. So they were ready to head over to Sydney's house where they were planning to go swimming. Along the way though we made one more stop at Roegner Park for another cache. Turned out this one was a bit more of a hike than we were thinking. Only a 1/4 mile walk but the heat was just a bit miserable.

Corrina found this one in the big tree.

Here are the wilted hot girls.

Feeling better on this part of the trail... in the shade. Dakota suggested walking behind dad because "dad makes a LOT of shade!" Thanks a lot you little weasel!

After dropping the girls off at Sydney's house we continued on our geocaching adventure. Corrina found the next one too. This was a fairly easy one- just a black painted tin hidden in the bushes at Fulmer Park. We took a geobug from this one and left our little monkey treats.

Corrina and Dakota found another one in the branches of this tree next to where the old YMCA was. It is sad to go by there now and see just a scrubby field where our old YMCA building and fantastic summer camp used to be. I think back to all the amazing activities and fun we had on those grounds and it is weird just seeing an overgrown field. The only sign that the YMCA and summer camp were ever there is the berm that used to create an amphitheatre seating area in the campfire area where we used to have the big stage where I painted the giant Indian Thunderbird so many years ago. Sad that it is all gone now.

Next stop- Game Farm Park. This was our first "DNF" (did not find) of the day. The GPS took us right here to the corner of the tennis courts and the clues led us to believe the cache should be fairly simple to find but there was nothing to be found. Either we were going cuckoo from the heat or this one has been muggled.

Our last stop was a simple magnetic cache. We zeroed in on it quickly, found it under the picnic table, signed the log and left behind our tiny monkey trinket for the next to find it.

We were happy to be headed home to the air conditioned house for a nice big glass of cold water and some cold watermelon. Very refreshing after a HOT day of adventure.

Happy Birthday, Dakota!

2009-07-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Dakota turned 8 years old! He had a huge birthday. On Friday, his actual birthday, he started the day with a couple of presents at home.

He got a new batting helmet for baseball!
Pretending to be surprised, Dakota opened up the car drawing book that he picked out himself. "Oh, look, it's just what I wanted!"

He also got a cool twirling kite and then got dizzy spinning around in circles to make it spin.

And inside this lovely bag? A rubber stretchy frog.

Then it was off to Dennis & Diane's to go swimming with Raeden & Reece in the pool. It was a nice 80-degree day... perfect for a swim!

Reece has her very own pool. A little shallower, a little safer, still lots of fun!

Uh oh... taking after her big cousin Marina already at only 1 year of age. Here is Reece trying on Marina's shoes. I see a closet full of shoes in this girl's future!

Swimming together is fun!

Here goes Raeden... right off the diving board!

These are three cousins that love to swim and play together!

After swimming time it was off to Aaron & Dani's house. Dani made special birthday cupcakes and everyone iced and decorated their own. She even made lime green frosting just for Kota!

Then, when I got home, it was off to Chuck E Cheese! Grandma joined us too.

Dakota's first and most frequent stop... Skee-Ball.

Racking up the tickets!

Raeden & Marina played air-hockey. They were both really good at that!

Reece was having fun too!

Pizza time! Uncle Aaron is ready for his dinner...

More presents! What is in this bag? Well, sorry, but you'll have to wait and see after everyone's done eating!

Yummy!

Cool! Dakota's very first model airplane.

Oh boy... clothes.

Back to playing games. Reece played "Funky Monkey". She didn't get it of course but it was still fun to push the buttons and see the monkeys going around in there.

Dakota loves the simulated roller coaster.

And Rae loves Chuck E Cheese!

Whac-A-Mole!

Bob the Builder... can we fix it?

Bob the Builder... yes we can!

Grandma got her picture taken with Marina.

Time to get ready to go... look at all of Dakota's tickets!

Back at Aaron & Dani's house for ice cream and cupcakes.

And more presents!

These presents were all from Grandma & Grandpa. He got a cool lime green water bottle! And UNO Spin... one more version of UNO which is Dakota's favorite game.

A new swim suit. And it's lime green and blue!

And a brand new green baseball bat. Awesome!

Aaron just told Rae she had permission to spend the night at Grandma's house along with Dakota & Marina. "Oh, daddy, I get to spend the night at Nanna's house with Reena and Kota! You're the BEST!" she said.

(Small interlude. Saturday morning the kids were at Grandma & Grandpa's house. So I don't have any pictures. Carol & I went out for lunch for our anniversary and then stopped to get the bike we wanted to get for Dakota's birthday before picking the kids up in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day just picking up the house and messing around. In the evening Marina went back to Aaron & Dani's to babysit the girls and then she stayed there overnight. So the pictures now pick up at Sunday morning when Dakota got up and found, in the kitchen, the new bike he has wanted for so long!)

That boy is a sleepyhead! You can hardly tell how excited he was. Unfortunately, the bike he's been wanting for months and months (because it looks like a motorbike) ended up being too small for him. Turns out that kids grow. Who knew? So there was a bit of disappointment when we decided it would be for the best to return the bike for one that will last longer.

After meeting Sunday afternoon we returned the bike and he picked out a new one that is more his size. Look at the awesome spokes on that thing! And it has two hand brakes. What an awesome bike. He loves it.

Errm... the helmet didn't fit either. And we didn't make it back to Fred Meyer to trade it in...

And then comes Monday... Dakota's grand party at the Glo-Golf in the Supermall with his friends. It's hard to take pictures in there... with the blacklights everything glows and looks so cool but you can't capture that very well in pictures.

But I tried.

So I gave up on that and just turned the flash back on. You can't tell how things are glowing but at least you can see Dakota's guests having fun. Here is his friend Kalei from his second grade class.

Tianna was good at that game!

Here's Dakota's friend Josh from school.

And there's little Mircea in her cowboy boots.

Auntie Dani brought Raeden and Reece.

Raeden LOVED golfing!

There's Josh... still having fun.

Here's Katelyn and Madyson from school.

There's Tyler and Tianna.

Marina loves that little Rae.

Look at these two cutie-pies!

The birthday boy.

When they were finished with golfing the kids each decorated their gift bag and filled it with take-home goodies.

"Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday to You.

Happy Birthday Dear 'Kota,

Happy Birthday to You!"

Cake time!

Make a wish, Dakota. Not that there is much left to wish for after 4 days of birthday!

Time for presents. Kalei wrapped his present in bubble-wrap... so the wrapping was almost as fun and exciting as the gift itself!

He gave Dakota the coolest remote controlled stunt kite you've ever seen!

Madyson gave Dakota a "Splash-Out" ball with lots of extra water balloons to go with it. It will be so fun when the weather gets back up in the 80's this weekend! He also got an awesome water bottle from Madyson. And the coolest idea... Madyson gives books in place of birthday cards! So he got a nice "A to Z Mysteries" book. What a great idea.

Kate knows about Dakota's affinity for lime green. Out of her large lime green gift bag came a lime green golfing hat, a lime green Lego Bionicle and an awesome green car Lego set!

Tyler and Tianna know Dakota pretty well too. They wrapped his gift in the Sunday comics!

CAREFULLY removing the comics for reading later revealed an awesome Nerf gun Dart Tag set. I bet Tyler can't wait to come over to our place to play it with Dakota too!

Mircea and Casper got Dakota his very own awesome camping chair. I guess they were feeling sorry for him after seeing the state of so many of our camping chairs when we were camping on the Fourth of July... several are held together with wire and twine and a couple, well, a couple just aren't held together any more at all. Mircea gave Dakota a bag full of fabric paints so he can personalize his new chair. Then he'll be all ready for camping again!

And Kota's bestest cousin Raeden gave him an appropriately lime green wrapped gift with a little green squirt gun on top. Inside it was all filled with cool summer clothes. New shorts & shirts... that kid is all set for the summer now!

Here's a good shot of Dakota with his friend Josh... two very polite, nice boys.

And back at home... one last gift from daddy. Wrapped up to look like a snake.

Cool! An air-rocket! "I wonder if we can shoot it over the house?!"

So now my little tiny baby guy is 8 years old. What a big guy!

Happy Birthday, Dakota. I love you to the moon and back. And all the way over the house.

Fourth of July 2009

2009-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

We spent a very hot but fun Fourth of July long weekend camping out at the property in Shelton. Bryan and Porsche Appleman were along as usual and we were also very happy to have Marina's friend Emily Brown with as as well as Bryan's sister Candy and her husband Steve and Bryan's brother Brad and his wife Esther. The heat was, well, hot. Which made us all a bit sweaty and stinky and lethargic during the middle part of the day. On Friday I ran to Shelton and got the kids squirt guns and ice cream from Wal-Mart. I won't say I hurried... the air conditioning was a welcome relief!

On the Fourth we drove up to Hood Canal in the evening and watched fireworks over the canal. That was very fun too. People sure spend a lot of money to blow things up in the sky.

Lots of pictures below of the weekend. Too many pictures to post them all here so I put them into a slideshow. Here are a couple of my very favorites though:

Dakota wading out to go swimming in order to cool off.

Mircea being her cute self.

Casper being his cute self.

Marina being her cute self.

And Dakota being his cute self. He caught the tiniest little frog and was excited to show it to me.

Marina on the rocks in front of the Hood Canal where we were watching fireworks, wearing all of her glow-bracelets and glow-necklaces.

The girls had a blast with the squirt guns in the lake. I'll never quite understand what the point is of squirting each other when you're already entirely wet, swimming in a lake. But judging from all the screaming and laughing I guess it's fun.

A very patriotic little Casper.

Being the good auntie that she is Candy knows that Casper's favorite thing to do is hang upside down.

The heat melted Emily's Strawberry Malt Balls into a big Malt-Ball-Brick!

Four days together out in the woods without electricity, running water or showers and they are still willing to get this close to each other... now that is LOVE!

2009-07-05T21:39:00.001-07:00

The Beautiful Girl

2009-06-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Marina's friend Janie turned 12. For her birthday party she had a mystery dinner. Marina and a lot of her friends came dressed up as various movie stars and enjoyed a fancy dinner while in character and trying to figure out the mystery. It was kind of weird to see my sweet little baby all dolled up and looking so gorgeous in her costume.

Marina was "Shady Gnomes-Bruise", married to "Dom Bruise."In the end it turned out that the culprit (who had stolen a vial) was Marina's "husband" Dom played by her friend Chris.

It sounds like they all had a really good time. They are a creative bunch of kids- a perfect group for a mystery dinner!

Welcome to Auburn, Mike & Carol!

2009-06-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

We're so excited that Mike & Carol have moved to Auburn. It will be nice to have a Sunday Fellowship Meeting right here in our town. We're going to miss being at the Hagboms' very much but are thrilled to get the chance to meet at the Robertsons' too.

To welcome our new elders to town we thought it would be fun to have a little sing Friday evening.

Applemans aren't going to be in our meeting but we invited them anyway. And we needed Porsche for playing piano too.

Casper was so cute. He is crawling all over now. He was excited to find cold air blowing out of the register... he smiled and laughed and waved his hands in the cool air blowing.
I was so glad Judy made it too, after such a busy day and exhausting week.

What's all the laughter about?

Ah... of course. Porsche and Casper horsing around.

Bryan with three kids all sitting on his lap eating watermelon.

I love singing so much I could've just kept singing all night. But everyone brought so many delicious dessert treats we had to stop and have a snack and talk for a while. It was a fun evening. Too bad Carol had to work. Now we're looking forward to meeting at Robertsons' on Sunday.

Welcome to Auburn, Mike & Carol!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

I got lots of special attention and treats for Father's Day from my little pumpkins. See the picture frame, above, Dakota made me at school? And below is the really cool handkerchief that he made too.

Here's my first sweet baby. What present do you think I liked best... the package or the hug?

Well, the package was good too. See the cool shirt Marina picked out for me?

Didn't Dakota do a great job of wrapping my gift? And also wrapping his head?

DJ Dad and MC Kota... a couple'a real rappers...er...wrappers. And a hug for this little guy too!
Being silly together... what makes every day, including Father's Day, special.

After meeting we went out to mom & dad's for a Father's Day BBQ. Grandma & Grandpa Wheeler were there too. It was really nice & mom, as always, made way too much good stuff. Unfortunately I forgot the camera. So no pictures of my own dad on Father's Day! Anyway, thanks dad for everything.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Carol's Birthday - Part 2

2009-06-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a fun, busy day. With the kids both gone Carol and I went to breakfast at the Sunbreak Cafe in the morning. We had a very nice breakfast and enjoyed the opportunity to talk about real-live-grown-up-stuff. And breakfast was wonderfully delicious as it always is at Sunbreak Cafe. Mmmmmm....banana bread!

After breakfast we ran out to mom & dad's to get Dakota. Then time to hurry to the PTA BBQ... Carol and I somehow ended up getting chosen as the co-secretaries of the Terminal Park PTA. Because, apparently, we didn't have enough things to do & needed something more to keep us busy. Anyway, then we stopped at Roscoe & Eileen Strimple's to install a grab-bar in the bathroom for Roscoe.

Dakota was a huge help. He loves to learn how to put things together.

Showing off his finished work. We hope it will be a help to Roscoe.

When Marina got home in the evening it was finally time for Carol to open her birthday presents. Doesn't she look excited?

Smile!

Oh boy... a fancy Sudoku book!
And... could it be? Really?! A Bluetooth for her phone! Now Carol doesn't have to be hampered from talking on the phone EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF THE DAY! WHEEEEEE!Happy Birthday, Honey!

Happy Birthday, Carol!

2009-06-19T22:59:00.001-07:00

It's Carol's birthday today. She went to some sort of a party tonight at Porsche Appleman's house. Some sort of a thing where this consultant tells you what body type you are and what kinds of clothes you should wear to look good. Thanks, but I don't personally need anybody to tell me my body type... FAT! "Yes, sir, your body type is FAT. And as for the type of clothes you should wear, I'd say REALLY BIG ONES should do it..... Next!" Anyway, I suppose all the ladies had fun. Carol isn't home yet so that probably means she's enjoying herself.

Marina's at Sydney's house for the night and tomorrow they're taking their Babysitting Class together over at the hospital.

Dakota is spending the night over at Grandma's. He was over-the-moon with excitement. I don't think he's ever stayed at Grandma & Grandpa's without Marina before. So he got to have Grandma all to himself tonight! He was enjoying eating his McDonald's Happy Meal and telling Grandma all about the last day of school, below. Later they played "volleyball" with a beachball in the house. They were both whacking the ball all over the place like a couple of cuckoos and laughing the whole time. When I left they were settling down for the night and watching Tom & Jerry cartoon on DVD.

In the morning Carol and I are going to go out for breakfast for her birthday. It will be nice having a little breakfast date without kids... we seldom get to do that! Anyway, Happy Birthday, Carol!

Grandma Judy

2009-06-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, Grandma Judy flies back home to Iowa tomorrow. We have enjoyed having her around off & on for the last couple of weeks! She has been at our place during the week but on weekends has been seeing the other kids. The first weekend she spent in Moses Lake (well, technically she spent AT Moses Lake... if she spent any of it IN Moses Lake there are no pictures to prove it) with Logan & Mikey. Then last weekend she drove down and stayed with Bill & Alisa in Tillamook, OR. It was sure nice she got to see the grandkids. Dakota especially enjoyed going to the Mariners game right after grandma arrived and then Marina had a special "moment' when grandma took her to her orchestra concert last week and they stopped for ice cream on the way home. Yesterday she took the kids and me to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma which was really fun too... I don't think I've been there since last time she was here! It was a very nice visit. Seems, though, like there were so many things going on & she was off visiting people so much that even though she was here 2 weeks we didn't get to really see her very much! Next time Grandma will have to come out for three weeks!

Thanks for visiting and staying with us, Grandma Judy!

Spring Flower Update

2009-06-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

My pots are starting to fill in just a little bit. Mom and I were talking about flowers in the truck on the way back from the funeral yesterday so I thought maybe it was time to post some updated pictures. I wish I could remember what the big tall-stalked plants are with the pretty rose-like red flowers that have grown so tall. They have only started blooming in one of the hanging pots but the flowers are profuse and so beautiful! I am so pleased with the coloring in the pots this year. The red and blue blooms are set off nicely by the chartreuse foliage. Can you see the red-stalk kale in the back of the pot? I hope it doesn't grow so big that I regret putting it in there. For now I really like it.This little pot on my old rutic picket bench is doing well too but I can't wait for the fuschias to start blooming.
My bigger blue pot is doing very well too. It too will benefit from the fuschias blooming. I don't see buds yet but hopefully soon!

We're only 2 weeks away from the official start of summer. Here's to lots more nice sunny days so the flowers continue to flourish!

Don Swan (1927 - 2009)

2009-06-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

"The memory of a good person is a blessing." - Proverb 10:7

Saturday we joined family at the Greenacres/Moles Funeral Home in Bellingham, WA to celebrate the life and mourn the death of Uncle Don.

I didn't know Uncle Don very well but I am very pleased to have had a little time together with him at our family reunions in 2006 and 2008. It was clear that he loved his family and although his health and mind weren't what they once were he was always anxious to do what he could to be a help and to join into the fun. I feel blessed to have had the chance to spend those moments with Uncle Don and will remember his easy smile and frequent guffaw-laugh. The stories and remembrances shared by his children and grandchildren point to a wonderful man with many traits I'd like to be worthy of having said of me at my own funeral:

He had a wonderful sense of humor and kept those around him smiling.

He was able to laugh at himself.

He was a very hard worker, willing to go the extra mile and do more than was required of him.

He had faith in God.

He smiled easily and he smiled a lot.

He was faithful and reliable.

He was helpful and didn't always wait to be asked for help but just jumped in and did what needed to be done.

He loved his family and earned their love in return.

The formal obituary:

Donald Keith Swan

February 18, 1927 - May 21, 2009

Donald Keith Swan was born February 18th, 1927 to George and Mary Swan in Bellingham, Washington. He passed away in his sleep at the age of 82 on May 20th, 2009, at Saint Joseph's Hospital.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 46 years, Dorothy Swan, and his granddaughter, Hayley Erickson. He is survived by 7 children: Cliff Erickson (Fran), Bill Erickson (Chris), Debra Sofka (John), Tom Erickson (Mary), Renee Swan-Waite (Steve), Scott Swan (Kim), and Jay Swan. He also had 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Don worked at Swan's Moving and Storage from before the time he was 16 until his late 70s, broken only by a short stint during the Korean War in 1950 and '51 where he served as a short order cook. Most of his career was spent as a long-haul driver, moving furniture across the lower 48 states and Canada. He never worked in the office, preferring instead to work in the field. Even in his 70s, he worked 10 hours a day with only a 10 minute lunch break, much to the chagrin of his younger (by 5 decades) coworkers.

Don enjoyed walking at the Bellis Fair Mall with his walking friends when his health permitted. He loved to window shop, closely monitoring sale prices in the shops and seizing the opportunity to buy when prices were at their lowest. Some of the friends he made in fellow mall-walkers were his closest in his later years.

Don was always known for his sense of humor, something that ran in his family, especially with his sister Bette. He teased his children so much that whenever he told a story, the first thing his kids would do was to ask their mother if any of it was true. Don would laugh with his characteristic “AH-HAAH!!” when he was found out. To anyone who knew him, that was probably the most mimicked laugh in history, and the most recognizable trait to identify a single person known to mankind.

He will be sorely missed by all of his family and his many close friends.

Mariners Game With Grandma Judy

2009-06-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Marina is camping with her friends for Sydney's 12th birthday this weekend. But Friday night Dakota and Carol went to the Mariners game with Grandma Judy who is visiting from Iowa. The Mariners were playing the Twins. Unfortunately they lost in the 10th inning with a score of 1 to 2. But it was a nice night to be outside and they had a good time!

They arrived at the game really early because it was Train Night. So they wanted to make sure they could get a collectible train car.

Which also left plenty of time for Dakota to play around on the playground.

Would the real Ichiro please stand up?

Dakota also got to go meet the Moose!

Looks like the game started getting a little bit loooooong!

...and chilllllly!

They had a good time though! Safeco Field is a beautiful park and it was a beautiful night to be outside with mommy and grandma. Thanks for taking Kota to the ball game, Grandma Judy!

Sprinkler Weather

2009-06-04T18:09:00.001-07:00

Usually around here when the word "sprinkle" is included in a weather report it is because we need to take along an umbrella. We've been lucky this Spring to have such fantastic weather... it's Sprinkler Weather already and it's only early June! Yesterday and today we had weather in the upper 80's, almost 90-degrees. Tonight Dakota was outside running through the sprinkler. Marina was not quite up for spending time in the sprinkler but kept him company while jumping on the trampoline.

What is it with kids sitting on sprinklers?

AAIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Waterslide!

Whee!

Brrrrr! That was COLD!

"Cheese!" Marina jumping on the trampoline. She's wearing her brand new shirt from Justice... "Friends Have S'More Fun".

Look, dad, I can levitate!

Next Dakota combined the two activities: jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath!

Reece Is One Year Old!

2009-05-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Reece, that sweet little Cupcake, turned one year old! She had a very fun cupcake party with all her friends and family.

How lucky... it was a really sunny and warm day. We got to enjoy a picnic lunch outdoors. Yes, that's a Cheeto Reece is munching on.

Reece loves her daddy!
All the kids were excited about making cupcake crafts. And Dani was excited about the glitter being outside so she didn't have to clean it off the floor for the next 6 weeks!

Mmmmmm.... picnic lunch! (Don't you just hate it when people take your picture while you're eating?!)

Time to open presents! Reece got lots and lots of fun new toys and summer clothes!

Rae gives Kota a big hug.

More presents for Reece!

Hey! I like this pretty bow best of all!

We got Reecey a new "car" swing. She was outgrowing her old "baby swing" and didn't like how it made her lay back... she wanted to sit up tall like a big girl!

Wheee! Grandmas are so good at pushing swings!

I LOVE this new swing, her face clearly says!

The kids enjoyed playing in the ball pit too.

Pinata time! Look at little Reece reaching for the ribbons... she had no idea what to expect, but she was so excited.

All the kids held a ribbon and pulled all together until...

...tons of candy and toys fell out!

Cake time!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Reece!

Happy Birthday to you!

And many more...

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

2009-05-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

We spent Memorial Day Weekend down at the property in Shelton. I believe this is about our tenth year of this tradition. And the nicest weather we've even had! The kids spent lots of time in the boats and swimming in the lake. It hasn't been very warm so far this spring so the water was still cold but it didn't stop the girls from doing plenty of swimming! This year we enjoyed having Aaron & Dani and the girls join us for the very first time. They came down Friday night and stayed through Saturday but couldn't stay for the whole weekend. Rae seemed to have a really good time on the boat and splashing in the water.

Also joining us this year were Bryan & Porsche Appleman with Mircea and Casper, Troy & Beth Burgess with Joe and Danny, Connor Modin came along to play with Dakota and Missy Walker & Megan Ward joined us to keep Marina company.
It is so fun to see how much the kids have grown and changed year-to-year. When we first started the tradition it was just Marina!
I couldn't get one of my camera cards to download the pictures to the computer so I'll have to work on it some more tomorrow & will update the blog with lots more pictures from the weekend. There are lots of pictures of "breakfast-in-a-bag", the Memorial Day Egg Hunt, catching a snake and just relaxing with friends. For now, I'm heading to bed early tonight!

Volleyball Game

2009-05-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Marina had another Volleyball game Wednesday after school. They played at Olympic which was kind of nice. Not only is Olympic nice and close to our house but some of Marina's old friends from Terminal Park Elementary days were there. She played against her old buddy Katelynn and old friends Kennedy and Alissa too. Her team won all three games of the match but Marina's serving was better during the last match. Still, she did really well!

And it's official. I need a new camera.

Campfire Night

2009-05-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

After work and school on Friday Aaron and Dani invited us to come enjoy a campfire with them. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and had s'mores and talked and laughed around the campfire. It was a really fun way to relax after a challenging week. We had a great time.
Mmmmmmmm.... hotdogs!

Rae-Rae cooked her own hotdog!

Look at all the yummy stuff!

Ah... here's the smart girl. She found all the S'Mores stuff!

Raeden cooks her first marshmallow. It looked somewhat like an Oreo... black on the outside and white on the inside! But once you stick it in between two chocolate graham crackers and add a big hunk of chocolate it tastes just right!

Nice and warm around the fire. It was a beautiful sunny day!

More marshmallows ended up in the fire than in the tummies, but half the fun is the roasting anyway.

Look at my first S'More that I made all by myself!

Kota cooking another one.

Time to run off some of that sugar energy! Kota and Rae played and played, running around chasing each other, playing pirates, playing house and here they were driving their ship. Driving it fairly crazily you can be sure!

Look out for the sharks!

Those two play together so well. They both like to make up very creative make-believe-type games and they tell elaborate stories as they go. They are fun to watch. Rae just looks up to Dakota like he is the perfect playmate... which he is!

Getting dark... time for another S'More! As it got dusk we watched the bats swooping around overhead, catching mosquitoes.Remember, when it catches on fire you blow it out, you don't swing it around. Nobody wants a flaming marshmallow on their forehead!

It got a little cooler as it got dark. Ultimately it was time to go home. Hard to drag ourselves away from the warm fire and fun chatting & laughing. But Uncle Aaron has to get up at 3:00 in the morning to go meet Grandpa to go turkey hunting... he's not going to get much sleep!

So we had a wonderful evening. Thank you, Aaron & Dani, for the invite!

Fun With Sheep

2009-05-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

OK, it was never my intent for this blog to be a place where I post a bunch of stuff off the internet, funny stuff, random videos, etc. But now and then I may make an exception. Hey, it's my blog, right? This is easily one of the most bizarre things I've seen. Where do people get these ideas?! I haven't decided if there is any kind of a lesson here. For now I'm just enjoying... FUN WITH SHEEP!

Introducing: "Volleyball Talk" with Marina!

2009-05-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

Today after school Marina had a Volleyball game. Er.... Marina tells me it's called a "match." They played at Mt. Baker Middle School so they were the "Visitors". She played in two games and I only arrived after work in time for the second game. And since I went straight to the school after work I didn't have my camera so I had to just take a couple of pictures of her at home in her costume. Er... Marina tells me it's called a "uniform." Whatever. So Marina is going to write all about the Volleyball Match. If she starts focussing on who won please remind her that winning doesn't matter... school sports are about having fun, being active, making friends, learning and improving skills and practicing good sportsmanship. And now, introducing.....MARINA!

I played in the first game and the last. The first game, WE WON!!! YAY!! We won 25 to 12, and I even scored the first point of the meet. My team was really good, and we worked really well together. I scored the first point because I was tall enough to block a return hit, yay for me! My second game I was in, we lost, but we played really hard, and at the end felt proud of ourselves. WE lost 23 to 25. Oh well..

My coach is really nice, and an eighth grade manager we have is making up cheers all the time for us to do so that we always feel supported. Our latest is a version of Jiggalo. "Hey Rainier, Hey What, Hey Rainier, Hey What Hey What? Show us how you jiggalo! We set up high we bump down low and this is how we jiggalo!!" We always have lots of energy, which makes volleyball fun, and everyone is always really positive, and there with a smile if you mess up, which we all have done.... oops... So, that's pretty much our volleyball match... Back to dad!

Here she is in her Volleyball sweats. Her team name "Ree Ree" is on the back, below.

DeeDee got her hair cut today too... doesn't she look good when she's not a big hairball? She certainly smells better too.

And I just couldn't resist the urge to take a picture of one of my hanging baskets... they're going to look so good once everything starts filling in!

So that was pretty much the day. Now I need to get online and do some work. I have so many accounts to refer that I am never going to get caught up. We're just beginning our busiest season and already I feel so overwhelmed that it is debilitating. Today I had my "Roll Out" meeting/training for the staff to introduce the renewal of my Select Hotel program which renews every year on 6/1. That went well. But between that and the other meetings scheduled today I didn't have time to do any of my own work. So I need to do some tonight. The good news is that tomorrow is my Friday off. I work extra long days so that I have every-other-Friday off. And tomorrow is my "off" day. I am excited. I'm going to choose to spend it at work. Because I have too much work to do. At least I am thankful to have such a wonderful family to come home to in the evening!

Dakota Plants His Own Flowerpots

2009-05-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

To pick a flower is so much more satisfying than just observing it, or photographing it ... So in later years, I have grown in my garden as many flowers as possible for children to pick.

- Anne Scott-James

Yesterday I put together my hanging baskets and planters in the front of the house. All of the things that mom & I picked out on Mothers Day worked together really well and for once I bought enough and didn't end up with holes and wishing I'd bought just "one more of those". Dakota helped me out a whole bunch and we had so much fun together that today I stopped and got him some flowers and a nice sized pot of his own to plant.

He was pretty excited to get started!

Scooping dirt is one of the best parts!

Poking your fingers into the dirt and making a hole for the flower is fun too!

Dakota planted lots of yellow Marigolds and blue Lobelia. He had a bunch of Lobelia starts left over so he made a second pot of just Lobelia. When it fills in it will be a big puff of blue!

Here he is with his finished pots.

Don't they look beautiful?

Now we just need to do some work on that garden.....

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a nice Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday we did some housework, ran a couple of errands and generally had a relaxing day. In the evening we went to dinner at Jimmy Mac's with mom and dad for Mother's Day. We wanted to go to PF Changs but we didn't figure out what time everyone would be available until late and we couldn't get a reservation. But Jimmy Mac's was good and the kids were thankful for the reprieve from eating Chinese, which they have decided they don't like. Dad had some crawfish chowder that he said was terrific. The kids mostly enjoyed throwing peanut shells on the floor. It was fun spending time together.

Sunday was Mother's Day. At breakfast Carol opened the beautiful outfit the kids got her from J-Jill. It ended up looking really nice on her!

She also got a really neat magnetic note-holder with a flower pen that Dakota made for her at school... it was a really special gift!

Our meeting was very small- Larry & Carol Hagbom were gone, June & Dudley Bickford were absent and Connie Lombardo and her kids were missing and Evelyn Brock was out sick. So meeting was fairly short. After meeting we went to mom & dad's for lunch; mom made delicious BBQ Beef Sandwiches and it was nice enough that we ate outside... first time this year! After lunch mom and I went flower shopping at Carpinito Brothers in Kent and the Fuschia Lady's. Mom already had a lot of her annuals and bedding plants but I hadn't bought any yet this year so I loaded up. Got everything I needed for my hanging pots and my other pots out front. All red-white-and-blue this year. Mom and I always have a good time flower shopping together. We came back to the house to find that dad, Carol and the kids had gone shopping for scrapbook supplies and were working on dad's "Hunting & Fishing" scrapbook. I NEVER thought I'd have seen the day when dad got into scrapbooking but this is his third book already!

But our busy day wasn't over yet! We all headed over to Aaron & Dani's for pizza dinner and to celebrate Aaron's Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Mom & Dad got him some shirts and an iPod Shuffle that he can use when he goes running. We were boring and got him giftcards... to Salty's (his fav) and to Cabela's. I really, really wanted to get him a huge loud air-horn for his truck but it didn't end up working out. So... boring old giftcards.

WOW! It's a.... a.... another box!

Reece will be the next one with a birthday... she turns ONE in less than a month!

Saturday Morning

2009-05-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. The day before Mother's Day. We have a little last minute shopping to complete but not much more planned for the day. Perhaps some yard work out in the back... it needs it bad! So while dad is up drinking coffee, munching on a bagel and updating the Blog, here's what the rest of the house looks like:

Carol has been reading the Harry Potter books to Dakota. They're about 1/3 way into book four.

Marina's still in bed too. She was playing Dakota's Gameboy and feeling a little shy about having her picture taken. Nice elbow.

Marina's Spring Orchestra Concert

2009-05-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Marina's sixth grade orchestra concert. It was the "Auburn School District Orchestra Festival 2009" celebrating "Music of Many Cultures". This is Marina's second year of orchestra; the program starts in fifth grade in Auburn. The concert was held at Mountainview High School. We got to hear the fifth graders, sixth graders, combined seventh & eighth graders and the high school as well as the Harp Ensemble. The concert was wonderful and we were impressed with how much the sixth graders have learned in two short years of orchestra. Seems just yesterday they were struggling through "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

I recorded one of their songs, Menuetto from the "Royal Fireworks" by G.F. Handel. I again apologize that my camera is not working right so the video quality isn't good but at least you can hear them play. Marina plays cello and, while you won't likely be able to pick her out on the video as her back was to the camera, she is just to the left of the conductor.

Marina was very happy that she got to share a music stand with her great friend Sydney. Here is a picture where I pointed them out so you can see where they were. Marina is in a black top & Sydney is in (what else?!!) a pink top.

Deacon Cole

2009-05-04T06:49:00.001-07:00

I got a couple of pictures this morning from Auntie Carol of Rosemaree and Nigel's new baby. His name is Deacon Cole and he was born on Monday April 20th at 10:13AM. When he was born he weighed 6lbs. 3ozs. and was ninteen inches long. From the pictures he looks very alert and attentive. And big sister Cecee looks so proud!

Here he is at 3 days:

And at about one week.

Welcome to the family, little guy. Your Grandpa Marlin would be so thrilled and proud; I have no doubt that from his place in Heaven he is watching over you.

Boys' Night

2009-05-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Marina is spending the night at Sydney's house again tonight. It's becoming kind of a trend on Friday nights; the girls switch around houses and sleep over. I remember how fun it was when I was that age, spending the night at friends' houses. So tonight was a boys' night at our house again. Dakota and I went to the park and he rode his bike for a while. It was a beautiful spring day. Weather in the 70's and an absolutely lovely evening.

Poor 'Kota... his little bike is shrinking I think! Maybe he'll need a bigger one for his birthday this year.

He rode his bike and I walked along the trail at Gamefarm Wilderness Park which follows the White River. We took a break and went down by the river. Kota immediately started throwing rocks.

Including some pretty big ones!

Somebody that was at the park earlier made some really cool sculptures by stacking river rocks. We got into the idea and added some rock stacks of our own!

It was a really nice evening and, as always, it was fun spending time together with just the guys!

Story Time With Dakota

2009-04-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

The other day Dakota was reading himself a story before bed. Fairly loudly. I asked him, "Dakota, buddy, can you read that story quietly inside your head?" To which he responded, "NO! Then I can't HEAR it!"

Well, my many friends, here is your opportunity to join in and hear it too. I present to you,

"Story Time With Dakota!"

I have to apologize for the video quality. My camera seems to be going out... guess I'll be buying a new camera soon. And of course I had to have the goofy radio on in the background. That's what quality you get, I guess, when you're trying to surreptitiously get video of your kid singing a story. I did try having him go back and do it again for me with a different camera but it just wasn't at all the same when he knew I was videoing. So you get the original straight-from-the-heart story telling version, terrible video quality and all.

Babysitting

2009-04-24T20:55:00.001-07:00

One more "catch-up" post tonight. Last weekend we watched the girls for Aaron & Dani while they went to Raeden's preschool's auction fundraiser. Isn't that big Four-Year-Old a cutiepie? And here's that precious Reecey with her new fancy hairdo.
Dakota and Rae made the biggest train track ever, filling up the better part of the living room and going under the chairs and the couch too!

Yummy! That Auntie Carol sure knows how to make a baby happy!

Mmmmmmm.... mashed 'nanners.

OK, nothing that exciting but I couldn't resist posting these adorable pictures of the kids.

Just a Thought

2009-04-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Uh oh, here comes the garrulousness.

I wonder why they always title blog entries by the date you write the blog. I guess the idea is that you are supposed to blog every day and put up the stuff you did that day. But who has time to keep up with that? So on my blog I apologize but you're going to find that the date shown on the title, the day I finally got around to writing things, is seldom going to match up with the date things actually happened. Maybe some day I'll get into some sort of a routine and blog each night at a certain time or something. But for now I'm lucky to just get the kids fed and into bed at a halfway respectable time each day with all of their homework done. I've thought about doing my blogging at lunchtime while I'm at work but then of course I don't have my pictures accessible. So that would be boring. If I just blabbed like I'm doing right now with no pictures or IMPORTANT stuff it would be, well, way too garrulous. But I guess I am given to garrulousness. Oh well.

Chuck E Cheese

2009-04-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

On Friday the 17th we had dinner at Chuck E Cheese. When we were making our Spring Break plans the one thing Dakota wanted to do was go to Chuck E Cheese. We ran out of time during Spring Break so we celebrated our first week back to school & work with a trip to Chuck E Cheese on Friday.

One of Marina's BFF's, Sydney, joined us and Aaron & Dani brought the girls too.

I love Reecey's new hairdo! Dani put baby oil in there & it didn't all wash out. So she spiked her hair straight up!

Watch me, dad! Dakota tried out the pinball.But Skee-Ball is still his favorite.

The girls played air-hockey several times and messed around in the photo booth.

Dakota hit the JACKPOT at Skee-Ball. He had a whole huge armload of prize tickets!

Rae on the slide.

Dakota turns in his armloads of tickets. He ended up with 500 tickets... enough to get a really cool stringy-stretchy-ball for a prize. He was feeling pretty good! Guess it was worth the wait.

Raeden's 4th Birthday - Farm Party

2009-04-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

We picked up Carol from the airport Saturday morning, April 11th and then went right to Raeden's birthday party. She had a Farm Birthday and it was held right in Grammy & Pops' barn! All of the kids got to go for horsey rides, hay rides pulled by the four-wheeler and did tons of activities around the barn and in the hay. Dani did such a great job of putting it all together!

Brad drove the four-wheeler and took the kids on hay rides all around the farm.
My turn! My turn! My turn!

Aaron and Tyler took the little kids for horsey rides up and down the driveway. Here goes the Birthday Girl Raeden... she gets the first ride!

Dakota didn't admit that he was scared to get on the horse, but the death-grip on the saddle horn gave him away.

No throwing hay!

Clippity-clop, clippity clop... here he comes again!

OK, the horse was maybe a little out of Dakota's league. Here he is back in his comfort zone... shooting cans with a pop gun with Grandpa.

Apparently I somehow didn't get a picture of Marina on the horse. But here she is getting warmed up. Marina loves riding horses. Giddy'up, girl!

Cow bowling. The bowling ball looked like a cow. And it even "moo-ed"!

More hay rides. The kids couldn't get enough of it!

Reecey woke up with a bit of a frowney face. That lip can really stick out!

Enjoying BBQ fare in the barn. True to the theme and spirit of the day the dog climbed up on the table and ate one of the kids' hotdogs.

Reece feeling a little better. Took a Grandma's touch I guess.

Here's the hay pile where Dani had hidden lots of little plastic farm animals for the kids to search for. Rae had just finished opening all of her presents (you've never seen so much loot!!) and here comes farm mama Dani with the Birthday Cake! Mmmmmmm.... cake!

Pin the Tail on the Piggy.

Reece is feeling happier now, riding on the haybale horsey.

And the big finale... Raeden got her PINK FOUR-WHEELER that she had wanted SO badly! She had been riding Dakota's four-wheeler up and down her driveway for weeks and she was absolutely certain that the ONE thing she really wanted for her birthday was a pink four-wheeler. Happy Birthday, Rae!

Friday: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

2009-04-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

It was Raeden's 4th Birthday! Happy Birthday, Rae! We spent the day with Aaron, Dani, Rae and Reece at the zoo. It had been several years since I'd been to the PDZA and it was really fun!

It wasn't the warmest day in the world. Reece stayed nice and warm though, all bundled up in her stroller.Is that Horton I see? Marina was trying to catch up with the peacock so dad could get a picture of the two beautiful birds.

One of the coolest animals we saw was the polar bears. This big guy was swimming all around in the water. He would swim right by the window and give the kids a good stare. Hungry, Mr. Polar Bear? Marina & Rae both have just a little bit of growing to do before they are as tall as a polar bear. Keep eating those Wheaties! Snack time!Reece just wanted to walk and walk and walk!

And walk!

Grandma and Reece. When she was taking a little break from walking.

The Marine Discovery Center was open and they had lots of critters in the touch-tank. All of the kids enjoyed touching seastars, sea cucumbers, urchins and anemones.

We spent quite a while in the aquarium watching the fish. One of the zookeepers was feeding the reef fish and talked to us for a while about the different fish in the tank. Reece loved watching all the fish swim by!

After the zoo we went to Aaron & Dani's place for dinner (I need to get Dani's white bean turkey chili recipe... delicious after a cool damp day outdoors!) and Rae opened her birthday presents. She was excited about the Princess sleeping bag we got her. She is all ready for camping this summer now!

I can't believe you are already four years old, Rae.

Happy Birthday to you! (Cha-Cha-Cha!)

Thursday: Pacific Science Center

2009-04-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

Probably it would be a good idea if I did just a little more research and pre-planning rather than just winging it. So, we decided it would be really fun to stay for the "Laser Beatles" show at 8:00PM. No sense hurrying to get there early then, right, since we're staying so late. So we didn't get to the Science Center before noon. How did I know that they close at 5:00? And how silly is that, anyway? Close at 5:00 and then you have a laser show at 8:00 but nothing at all to do for three hours in between? Nah, nobody would be silly enough to set a schedule like that.

One of the main things we wanted to do was to visit the Geocaching exhibit. It was really fun. We were glad we were there on a weekday when it wasn't too crowded... I can't imagine how that geocaching maze would've worked with a full weekend crowd of people in there!

After that we had a little snack in the cafe and then went to watch "Monsters Vs. Aliens" in the Imax. It was fairly funny and quite impressive on a 6-story screen in amazing surround sound and in 3-D!

We played outside with some of the water activities.Then we started checking out the exhibits. The touch-tank was cool.
The music exhibit was neat too and the giant musical instruments that really worked were very impressive!

We saw the dinosaurs... And a real live meteorite that fell out of the sky. It was super duper heavy- way heavier than it looked!
Then, just when we were getting going, we realized the Science Center was closing. So we spent a couple of hours... well, three hours... wandering around the Seattle Center. Not much going on. We had dinner in the Center House, wandered around the Fun Forest (which is dirty and rundown) and went over to the Space Needle for a bit. It is amazing how tall that thing looks from underneath! We warmed up in the gift shop for a while and then, well, wandered around some more. Finally it was 8:00 and time for the Laser show. We headed back to the Science Center and enjoyed a nice hour of craning our necks up to the domed roof of the laser show theatre listening to awesome Beatles songs and watching the laser show. It was really fun and well worth the wait. When we came out it was dark and we couldn't wait to get home to bed. The Needle sure looked pretty in the dark!

Tuesday & Wednesday: Camping at the Property

2009-04-11T22:59:00.001-07:00

We picked up Marina and headed to the property in Shelton. First thing we noticed: dad's motorhome cover must've been just a little less snow-proof than the box said it was supposed to be. The legs were all bent and the top caved in. Must've been a lot of snow down there this winter! The kids had a great time shooting their new Airsoft guns. Well, actually it turns out that just because an Airsoft gun is bright orange and therefore very attractive to Marina, it doesn't mean it will shoot very well. Marina's gun didn't shoot at all. Dakota's worked great though so we all took turns with that one.

Dakota was also very excited to play catch with his brand new glove.
Off we went for a ride in the paddle boat around the lake.

We saw a whole bunch of big frogs in the water. We could paddle up very close to them but just as we'd get close enough to reach out to grab them they'd disappear quick as a, well, quick as a frog that doesn't want to be grabbed by some grubby little kid.

"Daddy, how come those two frogs are hooked together?" Hmmm... I'm starting to see now why there are so many frogs around here, all "peeping" and "chirping" all around the lake!I'd be lying if I didn't say that we ate like royalty. We brought hotdogs and marshmallows. Well, that was for dinner. For breakfast? Hotdogs and marshmallows, of course! And then chocolate doughnuts for dessert. Mmmmmmmm!

We played games for a while until it got dark. Then we sang songs and talked around the campfire for a while.
We should've brought some nice dry firewood from home because the wood at the property was still wet. We had to keep adding lots and lots of little twigs and small sticks to keep our fire warm! What a beautiful sunset!
The morning after: it was hard to get out of those warm sleeping bags into the damp cold morning air... but chocolate doughnuts did help us make the transition!

Monday: NW Trek

2009-04-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Your best bet here is to go visit Porsche's blog:

http://andhowboutthemapples.blogspot.com/

She was the smart one who didn't forget her camera. Dakota did bring his camera and these are the results:

YOU decide which one is the "wild" one.

Spring Break 2009

2009-04-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

Carol decided at the last minute to take a trip to Iowa to visit her mom, Grandma Dirks and Aunt Jo & Uncle Fred. Which left the rest of us home for the week to fill the days with fun things to do. And we did find a lot of fun things to do! Monday Marina spent the night at her good friend Sydney's house and Dakota and I spent the day at Northwest Trek with Porsche, Mircea and Casper Appleman. I forgot my camera and Dakota only took a couple of pictures but we did have a really fun time. A stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home didn't hurt! Tuesday morning we picked up Marina and set off for a night out at the property in Shelton. Our first campfire, boat ride and night in a sleeping bag of the season! Wednesday afternoon we zoomed home in time for a wonderful Bible Study at the Modines'. Thursday was spent at the Pacific Science Center and Friday found us heading south again to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It was Raeden's fourth birthday so we spent the day with Aaron & Dani & the girls as well as Grandma Verna. Saturday morning we picked up Carol from the airport and then spent the day at Raeden's "Farm" Birthday party in the Schwartzenbergers' barn. We lucked out weather-wise; it was sunny & warm for our campout and the rest of the day it just sprinkled here and there despite being overcast most of the time. We had a terrific week and are not at all thrilled about going back to school/work on Monday.