Fun at the Zoo

To start off Jason's week off, we took the bookends (aka 1 and 4) to the zoo with us. The weather turned out to be nice and cool so the animals were fairly active. 

Isaac, shockingly, still isn't as tall as male polar bear. Gotta work on that.

 It is always fun to touch the wildlife.

Sadly, Isaac's favorite exhibit is no longer there, but he and Josh did spend a few minutes in the Hurricane Simulator. It was hair raising.

As usual, Isaac took a spin on the carousel. He is the only one who wants to and will do this, but based on his facial expressions it may not be his thing much longer.

We ended with a trip to the gift shop where we spent more than we should have. Then a final pic with the gorilla and our time at the zoo was done.

Fathers' Day

 

I don't know how many more of these we'll get all together, but all the boys were here for Fathers' Day! 

There's a Ginger in Town

A little over 10 years ago, I called my Dad to tell that Josh had been hit by a car. Josh was fine. After I recounted the entire story to my Dad, he asked me if I would please, in the future, lead with "Josh is fine" before breaking the rest of the news.

That was fair. 

That memory came to me early in the morning on June 1st when Michael texted me "mom something crazy happened."

See, that particular phrase could go so so so so so many ways. And it was 6am which would seem to indicate that "crazy" probably wasn't a good thing.  

Turns out:  

"Crazy" is code for adorable ginger kitten that Michael dubbed "Calvin".

Calvin was an early birthday present from his girlfriend and since that slightly worrisome text early that morning, I have been getting videos and pictures of Calvin in texts. The anticipation has been intense, but Michael brought Calvin down with him when he came home for the weekend.

No matter how darling this bundle of fur is, he could not stay at our house. Josh kindly allowed Calvin to stay at his apartment.

Annie was not pleased.

We all think Calvin is adorable, but we're all Team Annie when it comes to being sympathetic to having her home turf invaded by another cat.

During the times when there were no human referees, Calvin lived in Josh's bedroom and Annie had run of the apartment. But when people were there, Calvin and Annie had the opportunity to hiss and watch each other closely.

Calvin is tiny and we found his hissing adorable. Annie was not amused.

Isaac was also a little unsure of Calvin as an animal with claws and little self control.

But he enjoyed playing with Calvin.

Eventually, Isaac was confident enough to hold Calvin. Though, I don't think that Calvin was confident about being held by Isaac.

Michael and Calvin are back home but we enjoyed seeing them both.

Spartan Weekend

Josh may or may not be addicted to Spartan races. 

There are definitely worse addictions! 

In any case, this is the only explanation I can come up with for why we found ourselves taking him to back-to-back races this weekend. 

May 2 | 10k

May 3 | 5k

A Weekend of Two Cities

Jason and Ben drove off to Bellingham this weekend bringing Michael's car back to him. Not to be outdone, we had our own adventures in (unusually) sunny Olympia. My first thought was to ask who you thought had a better time. But happiness and enjoyment are not a zero sum game, so I will just share some lovely pictures of both.

BHam

OTown

Spring Celebration

We had Michael and Josh in the building and it is pretty near the equinox so Spring Celebration it is! As we were not in a good position to celebrate in the great outdoors (thanks a lot seasonal virus that has outstayed his welcome), the boys bonded and made memories (probably) playing video games together.

We did manage to take a break long enough to have the boys get their goodies.

So many goodies! The games were a hit; the Trader Joe's "peeps" were not. 

Hopefully we will soon also be celebrating the end of this cold as well. 

Getting our Pi(e) On!

 With the musical in the evening, we gathered earlier in the day to celebrate what today is all about: pi!

Well, most of us celebrated. Some us are anti-pie. 

Hot Chocolate Run 15k, ft. Josh

I am not going to lie, of all the kids I thought would ask me to drive them to Seattle to do the chocolate (choc-o-late) run, Josh wasn't even on the list. And yet, Seattle for the Hot Chocolate Run is exactly where we were this morning.

Josh is upping his running game these days. Look how excited he is to run!

Of course, since he would be RUNNING, I assumed that the excitement would last the whole time. 

He did great, recovered quickly, and posed well and patiently for some photos.

I did insist, as a chauffer and parent tax, that I would get the post-run goodies that would literally kill him.

I am sure this is just a sign of things to come. They do have some cool medals for this race, though.

Josh/Michael Family Birthday Party

This year the birthday/end of school insanity is especially epic. Today was the best day to celebrate Michael and Josh's birthday with family. For dinner we had brisket, ribs, and stuffed shells with cheesecake and brownies for dessert - an ideal mash-up of the boys' food preferences. Then gifts!