Happy 60th Mom/Grandma

Happy Birthday!!

It's the big six-o. You sure make 60 look good. I'm thankful to have such and active, giving, and stylin' mother! It's a blessing to be able to live so close. I'm so thankful for how generous you've been in watching my kids whenever I wanted/needed it. You've been a great example of a mother-loving, giving, and teaching. Now with number four on the way I appreciate everything you've done even more!

The kids and I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. Here's some tributes the kids made when asked what they love about Grandma.

Tyson: "She lets us use her key to get into the pool. And she gives us a whole bunch of free stuff."

Bradley: "She's nice. She buys yummy cereal. We get to go to her store and pump up balloons and eat m&m's. And tell her I can whistle."

Kate: "I like going to her house. I like going to her house, alot." Is that all? "Yeah, that's good."

Me: Shopping, decorating, cooking, or just chatting. Hope you've having a great one!

A day at Mt. Ranier

Last Saturday we headed to Mt. Ranier to spent the day with some friends who were camping for the weekend (my friend Lori thought we were brilliant for not staying the night since she spent the night with mice in her van!). It was a beautiful drive and a great time getting together with long-time friends, the Stanfields who I have known since elementary school and the Wellers that we met in college. The kids played in the water, we went for a hike, and had foil dinners, monkey bread, and smores ofcourse. What a great day.

Pictured are the Stanfield's with their 5 boys (minus Becky who is taking the picture) us, and the Wellers with their two boys and one girl on our walk through the Grove of the Patriarchs.

What time is the baby due?

Tyson just asked me what day the baby was due. I told him October 8th, then he said "what time?" Wouldn't that be nice.
We're still at an impasse with naming the baby, any suggestions???

Our Week in Review

The boys spent the mornings this week going to Vacation Bible School at the church where they attended preschool. They had a really good time (and so did I, running errands without them!) Wednesday afternoon we spent at Renton River Days where we go every year that we are in town. The kids had a great time on the inflatables, playing games, getting prizes, and at the petting zoo. This year it was surprisingly cool, which was nice. Kate is getting geared up for the Daddy-Daughter campout. Tyson is getting excited about playing flag football in the fall.

Tooth Fairy's Visit

The Tooth Fairy made a visit at our house about a month ago when Bradley lost his first tooth. It's very adorable. Bradley was very excited about the Tooth Fairy's visit when he heard there was money involved. After pondering it for a while one day he commented "Wow, the Tooth Fairy must be rich, I wonder where she gets all of her money!?"

Kate vs. White Ink Pad

This is Kate after having fun with my white ink pad (I knew better than to leave it on the stairs) a few weeks ago. Today her brothers tattooed her with markers. She's got dinosaurs and tigers on her back. When I yelled out to the boys to stop doing it she said "NO, don't tell the boys to stop drawing on my back, I like it." Rick is hoping her love for ink on her body does not carry into her teenage years!

Our Trip to Pennsylvania

Our flight on the way out was a little rough. It was a long flight to Atlanta and by the time we boarded the plane to Baltimore we had two crying kids, but we survived the 15-hour travel day and arrived safely.

It took Kate a few days to get used to the dogs, but in the end she loved Jackson (Java) and Cocoa. We enjoyed visiting with family, all but 3 were there, which meant 23 people and one shower! The purpose of the trip was to help celebrate Grandma Rock's 90th birthday.

We were also able to take a few side trips to: Hershey where we had a great time at Hershey Park, a huge amusement park, I didn't get any pictures because our digital camera broke =-(, Gettysburg, and Palmyra, NY. All in all I think the kids would have taken just playing with their cousins at grandma's house over anything else. All 12 of them had a great time together.

Our kids enjoyed driving the country roads that felt like roller coasters. And they got to taste some Pennsylvania Dutch favorites such as fried chicken, ham balls, and homemade macaroni and cheese. And then there were the Chambersburg/Wenger traditional foods like grapenut ice cream, Utz potato chips, Martins potato rolls, and pretzels. We made an almost daily outing for handmade ice cream.

Rick's mom and her two dogs Cocoa and Java, or Jackson as Kate called him.Kate getting a pedicure from her two cousins Didi and Rian. Thanks girls!Some of the cousins posing under the train during the 90th birthday celebration.Cousins playing in the stream at Caladonia State Park where we later found water snakes!The two kids and I climbed 119 steps to the top of this observation tower in Gettysburg, for a beautiful view of the battlefield and countryside. It was a little scary with those two up there by myself and I later regretted it since I could barely walk for the next two days!On the way to NY, Rick and the boys loved stopping in Williamsport, PA to see the Little League Museam.It took Kate a while, but pretty soon she warmed up and wanted her picture with ALL of the dancers at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.It was great for the kids to see the Book of Mormon come to life during the show. We even visited with friends from Kent there, the Call and Jensen (now live in NYC) families!
'Bees were humming, sweet birds singing, and music ringing' literally as we walked through the Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith had the First Vision.
We made a stop on the way home for me, to see the house my Dad grew up in, in Sayre PA. We even had a Double Cheese Whammie at his favorite restaurant, a real dive I might add!

Luckily our travels back home went much more smoothly. I think the kids were just exhausted. Kate had a sweet lady to sit next to on our long flight to SLC and then all three kids slept from take-off to landing on our flight to Seattle, ahhh. Home sweet Home.

S*U*M*M*E*R

Ahhh, summer, my favorite season of all is finally here to stay. In the past few meltingly hot days, my pregnant belly has wanted to say contrary, but there's just something wonderful about the lazy days of summer. I have no pictures to show for it, but we've actually been less than lazy in our first week of summer. We had to pack in the fun before we packed for our big trip to Pennsyvania. We've been to free movies, free lunch, the lake, the park, a pool/bouncy house party, and we even took the kids to the new 24 hour fitness kids area to play while we worked out/swam. As Samantha brilliantly pointed out, it's cheaper than a babysitter, and the kids have a blast too (it's like a mini Chuck E Cheese). It was so hot at our house I figured it was worth the $6 just to go sit there and read a book in the AC for 2 hours! The pool felt great though.
My favorite part was today when I sat by Kate for The Arctic Tale, a National Geographic movie about polar bears and walruses. It wasn't as captivating as the typical Disney annimation film so Kate gave her own additions to amuse me atleast. It's fun to hear what is going through little 2 year old minds and Kate is not afraid to verbalize them. She made a lot of comments about the mother and baby animals. Then it went on...
Kate: "The polar bear does not have a mouth like mine. How big is the polar bear's tail? Does the polar bear sit on the toilet?"
Mom: "No"
Kate: "Does the polar bear wash his hands?"
Mom: "Yes, in the ocean."
Kate: "How does the polar bear get soap?"
To which I didn't have an answer for. Luckily she didn't press me. I wouldn't want to disappoint her that some people/animals don't use soap. I'll keep her good habits while I've got them (actually her habits are mostly due to the fact that most public places have pink soap which is of course her favorite color, so she is delighted to use it).
Kate's last funny of the week is when she walks up to me and says "The baby just kicked" refering to the baby in her tummy! Although she has noticed that my tummy has gotten a lot bigger, while hers hasn't over the past few months. Sometimes she just looks down and says, "My baby is not bery big."