More Fun with Aunt Sherri

Sherri just sent me some of the pictures she took during her trip here, so I thought I would add some to the blog.  Especially the ones from her last day here when I spent most of my time chasing our monkey and took no pictures.  

On Tuesday, I let the middle boys play hooky.  This is the first time in their lives that they've met her and we don't know when we'll see her again.  So, three kids plus the weather wasn't great plus Sherri needs the option to sit down periodically equals Children's Museum.  

Michael horded all the money.

Ben made pizza with double the toppings.

He also visited with a questionable dogtor.

Luckily, he was in good health.

You could say he was in good hands.

Aunt Sherri made friends with a local.

Isaac rode a trike (with some help from his mom).

We returned inside and the middles made their mark on the stage.

We finished our visit with some building blocks.  The middles building and the monkey destroying.

Josh has a more vigorous schedule at school and with basketball practice, so we didn't get any pictures with him until we dropped off Aunt Sherri at the airport.

Good times and hopefully she doesn't wait 13 years before she visits again!

Naval Undersea Museum

More adventures with Aunt Sherri!  Yesterday we took what was supposed to be a scenic drive up to Bremerton to visit the Naval Undersea Museum.  We were hopeful that we could get some nice views of the sound from the bridge from Tacoma (which is pretty cool) and then in Gig Harbor.  Alas, the weather was not cooperative and we drove an hour and fifteen minutes in a gray, rainy haze.  My first reaction is often to be bummed out by this kind of situation, but I am learning to let it roll and realize that if we stayed home in rainy weather we would be home a lot.  

Anyway, back to our adventure.  We made it to the museum safe and sound.  And with four boys who were more than ready to get out and move around.

This museum reminded me a lot of the Airborne museum in Fayetteville - a nice size to roam around for about an hour or so and some pretty cool real stuff, in this case old school diving gear (seriously, those people were crazy!), torpedoes, and the control room of a nuclear submarine.

The boys had a marvelous time.  I would like to say I learned a lot; however, I spent most of my time chasing Baby Rage and he was on the move.  I tried to read a little in between pulling him off of and out of the exhibits.  It's definitely a place I would like to visit again and hopefully enjoy the views with nicer weather.

Pics from the Park

Aunt Sherri. Four-square. Playground. Sunshine. Basketball. Rocks. Fun. 

Valentine's Celebration

So inconvenient when a perfectly good holiday lands on a Tuesday.  That is just what happened with Valentine's Day this year.  The only thing to do in this uncomfortable situation is to hold a party on the Saturday before.  I say "party", but we really just invited over one other family.  However, when you bring an additional six people into our house, it feels like chaos a party.

The kids had a blast and I think everyone ate more sugar than is strictly necessary.  And if we needed extra proof about how much fun our kids had last night, the fact that it was terribly difficult to get them out of bed this morning confirmed it.

The evenings festivities included: cookie face, heart stacking, marshmallow toss, air marshmallow hockey, cupid's arrows, root beer or cherry sprite floats, and Valentine's mad libs.

Committed

Do you have someone in your life who encourages you to do crazy things?  Well. I do and I am related to her.  And she likes to give birthday presents really, really early. 

This year she talked me into going on an adventure with her.  In Portland.  A thirteen point one mile adventure.  In October.

Wish us luck!  Oh, and Happy early Birthday to me!

In A Split Second

I thought...well, there you go, that was the problem...I thought I would take Isaac and our wagon for a test drive and see if I could add it to our repertoire of ways to transport Isaac that don't involve my arms.

It started off well.  Mostly because my stuff was in the wagon and Isaac was not.

But that's okay because he was really into walking and exploring.

My, my isn't he a cutie.

Just warms the heart.

Don't worry about any excessively warm, fuzzy feelings you are having about him.  They won't last.

And why?  Why, you ask?

The better question is HOW.  How do we go from sunshine and smiles into a raging mass of anger?

Well, it starts when your mother has the freakish audacity to insist that you wear GLOVES in the 30 degree weather.

It all goes downhill so very quickly from there.

And by downhill, I mean after I took these pictures he threw himself onto the dirt road and flailed in the gravel and leaves for a bit.  And a big thank you to all the bird watchers who passed us by and refrained from commenting or giving advice.

I eventually got Baby Rage up and we had snack time.  That always helps.

It is chilly today (hence the gloves), but we have beautiful blue skies.

We also had a very friendly heron who seemed to want his picture taken as he was not at all scared of the noisy toddler and nosy camerawoman.

And then I ruined it all by insisting he ride in the wagon on the way back since he wouldn't walk and I wouldn't carry him.