A Party Fit For A Queen

I've been so busy sitting here editing pictures from Sammy's (one of Camden's girlfriends) first birthday today that I almost forgot to post tonight!

The party was held on base in the non-air-conditioned Pavillion, which in today's 500 degree weather made for a pretty good large scale toaster oven. But it was a really cute little circus themed party with popcorn bags, circus peanuts and a smash-cake that looked like a giant Sno-Cone. Of course everything in shades of pink and purple. 

Birthday shopping for little girls always gives me shell shock. I don't think there is anything more alarming than those bright pink aisles. It's all so complicated and full of accessories. I'm far too used to my familiar vehicle, Lego and action figure aisles. Luckily, first birthdays are easy and all she wanted was beach toys. Perfect.

Sammy and her birthday smash cake

 
The base pavillion is really awesome in that it has it's own playground so we can just the older gets go while all the parents and babies stayed inside in the shade. Calen got to make his own cupcake with sprinkles, marshmallows and cotton candy. Because what good is sugar unless it's coated with more sugar? Just sayin'.  

Camden says "Who needs a refill?"

Poor Caminator didn't last long at his lady friend's party due to the heat (and due to mean Mommy's waking him up so he can make it to said party) so we had to take him home and give him a second nap. Calen walked in the door and promptly put on his swimsuit and spent the next 3 and a half hours outside in the pool with neighbor buddy Kyle.

Thank God for the heat! My kid never wants to go inside! I managed to weed the entire front garden this afternoon while they played. 

One more of the birthday girl. How can you not love that sweet face?

 



 

 

Pool Boys

So we had a power outage today at a very inopportune morning since I woke up with Cam's cold and all I really wanted was to throw the kids in front of the tv and die on the couch. But instead, the power was out for over two hours for no apparent reason. 

There better have been an explosion somewhere. Or a dam bursting. Or a plane that crashed into a major power plant. Or something equally spectacular to make up for my lack of electronic babysitters this morning. 

God thinks he's funny sometimes. 

So my kids made up their own fun. We went to Costco last night and I left out the gihugant bags full of paper towels and toilet paper out because I was too lazy wasn't feeling well enough to put them away last night. Calen created a "bridge" out of them and walked back and forth on it while Cam pounded on it like a drum. 

Hey, whatever keeps you busy. 

Make your own entertainment using Costco supplies.

The neighbor boys were out in the big plastic pool early today (probably due to power outage boredom, also because it hit 91 degrees today) so we had an early lunch and went out to join them. Calen was in the pool for basically five and a half hours straight today. You couldn't get that kid to go inside if you wanted to (luckily, I didn't). He and his big buddy Kyle were swimming, boogie boarding, leaping, splashing and playing games in that pool for literally hours and hours. We also hooked up a little bubble machine that we bought yesterday which was a pretty big hit for the bigger kids (Cam wasn't impressed, but he was being a crab anyways). Even when Kyle went in for a breather, Calen stayed outside and had an Otter Pop refueling before going back at it. Even I had a good time playing in the pool with the kids. 


My excuse was that I was "keeping cool". But really I couldn't pass up the opportunity to prove to a 7 and 3 year old that I still had game and could run from one side of the pool to the other by jumping on floating boogie boards. Don't be jealous of my mad skills.

My little tadpol

I was even productive my neighbor and I bathed our combined four dogs while the kids played. And their enormous yellow lab kept launching herself into the pool and wiping the kids out which of course was our own interactive comedy show so like the good parents we are we kept encouraging the dogs to jump in and knock down all our children. 

I have an astounding sunburn on my stomach and Calen's face is dark (from tan, not from burning). The kids were basically too tired to eat dinner and were ready for bed immediately following, which to me means an extremely successful day.

A For Effort

Well, you got to give him some credit, blowing bubbles is really hard (when you're three), and he gave it his all. 

Not that he wanted any tips from Mommy, but maybe, just maybe, if he had kept the bubble wand in front of his mouth, that big gust of air you just blew might have created a single bubble. 

Good try buddy.

 

Caught in the Act

This was going to be about how great it was that the kids were asleep, complete with a picture of my favorite 3 and 1 year olds asleep. Because we had a day. Oh man, did we have a day. 

Okay so it wasn't all bad. We went with friends to a public pool just outside of town. Yeah, I know we live on the ocean. But sometimes, you don't want to pack up your whole truck with beach supplies and get bit by greenhead flies and continuously stop your 14 month old from eating sand. Oh, the hardships my life has.

I brought a ring-seat-floatie thing for Camden so I wouldn't have to hold him the entire time. And I brought Calen's water wings so I wouldn't have to hold him the entire time. 

...Camden hated the floatie almost as much as Calen hated swimming without at least being held up by one hand. So I basically held them both. The whole time. (my friend was gracious enough to help with Calen). But we had a lot of fun and it wasn't too crowded, and it was good practice for Calen (who seems to have a water fear that we're trying to tackle). 

Fun, until we left that is. We would have stayed longer but Cam was starting to shiver and my arm was turning into a limp noodle from holding Lard-Butt Cam the whole time. The moment I said the words "time to go", ensue an amazing, gold medal deserving temper tantrum. Screaming, wailing, tears, snot, flailing (in 5 foot deep water no less), the works. 

Oh, THREE has not treated us well. The terrible twos are such a lie. 

The uncontrollable flood of whining and crying pretty much didn't stop for the rest of the day. I'm practically convinced that some little angry sprite or gnome or something was hiding in Calen's hair and pinching his ear to make him cry the whole time. Or something. The only thing that cooled his jets ever so slightly was ordering pizza. And eating said pizza. 

So anyways, bedtime was extremely welcoming today and as we did stories and songs and prayers I'm gleefully cheering in my head "thank GOD this day is over! I need a DRINK." 

So I waited an hour or so anticipating both kids to be asleep and to capture lovely sleeping pictures of them, but Cam was still stirring so I canned his photo op and snuck into Calen's room. 

CAUGHT IN THE ACT!! There was Calen, laying obediently under the covers, with his little toy Handy Manny flashlight "reading" a book. And then looked up at me and gave me the biggest shit eating grin I've seen in a while. 


And how could I reprimand my little bookworm? I just couldn't. So I told him "goodnight" and to stay in bed and closed his door, leaving him with his little flashlight reading his book.

Endnote: I'm pretty sure he KNEW that he was being so cute it would void all the cataclysmic whining and tantrum-throwing he did today. Smart kid, smart kid.

caught with his Handy Manny flashlight and his Little Critter's book (All By Myself). Too cute for words.

 

 

Back In the Summer Saddle

I couldn't really ask for a nicer summer day today. It didn't get above 73 degrees (hey, in my Pacific Northwest mind, that's just a few degrees below perfect) and there was a nice constant breeze. We gave the middle finger to housework today (well I did...the kids didn't...obviously...) and played outside alllll day. 

outside fun

Cam is down with the cold that Brad has now (thanks for sharing!) so he took a FOUR AND A HALF HOUR NAP which meant lots of you-and-me time with Calen. We ate lunch on the deck and then pulled the pool out to the front yard so that he could splash and play with our neighbor boys Tyler and Kyle. 

Calen LOVES them. Especially Kyle (who's 7). He pretty much looks up to him like he's the big brother and does ANYTHING he does. Even splashing water over his head (those that know Calen know that he will NOT put water on his head for anyone -- except Kyle). 

Who needs the beach?  Kyle and Calen surfing in the pool. How the cool kids do it.

Then I spent the last like two hours researching little 50cc dirt bikes. I really want to get Calen one because I think it will help him with his self-confidence and give him something really fun to do in (almost) all seasons. I really don't want to pay the price. Even on Craigslist they are pricey. I made a couple offers that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a big laugh over. Oh well, doesn't hurt to ask, right?

Torture Devices

I had to go to the dentist today. Again. I went right before we left for Seattle but of course I had cavities (like I always do) so I had to go back today to get them taken care of. 

I'm so prone to cavities. I even gave up Pepsi for an entire YEAR back in the day (those that know me know my love affair with Pepsi) and it didn't stop me from getting cavities. So I figure I might as well continue to drink Pepsi and earn my cavities. 

The dentist is pretty much my exact idea of a torture chamber. It has a chair and there's needles (which I'm not necessarily afraid of but not fond of either) and drills and tubes and everything makes terrible grinding whirring noises that sound like they're going to drill and suck out your brains. 

If insurance would cover it, I would get gassed every.single.visit. But insurance doesn't cover it. So I don't. And suffer.

The combination of having your mouth stuck wide open by some horrible mouth-widening device and the sound of the drill on my teeth is basically the ultimate torture device, and I will tell you anything you want to know. Name, address, social, bank account numbers, I'd even give up my family and friends to make that shit stop. And then to put the frosting on the cake you get to pay out the ass for it! (and we have good insurance). Evil jerks. 


In other news it was like Hurricane Cape May today. We had severe thunderstorms, rain and wind for over 12 hours starting at midnight last night. Yet, it was still 80 degrees! My boys spent a lovely lazy day indoors watching Iron Man cartoons and continuing cleaning the house (well, that's was all me. Not the kids). But right in the heart of the storm I hear my two little neighbor boys outside and take a peek out the window to find them shirtless and shoeless playing in the rain. 


And this is why boys are awesome. 

my favorite neighbor boys playing in the storm

 

Overclocking

You ever have those days where you wake up with a pretty good amount of energy and think "I am going to tackle everything TODAY so that I don't have to do anything else for the next several days", and then you attempt said feat, and by the end of the day you are a puddle of mush on the floor?

Yep, pretty much. That's me. Totally overclocked myself. 

I woke up to Hurricane Hansen inside this freaking house this morning. All of our shit suitcases from last night's trip were flung all over the house. You couldn't even see the dining room table and the amount of dust in the house (after 3 weeks of not dusting!) was enough to pretty much condemn the whole property. Plus Brad woke up sick so he was out of commission to help with the kids while I tackled this disaster. 

Perfect.

But since I am all that is awesome I assumed I could tackle it all before the day ended and have energy to spare. 

Because I'm a cocky, over-ambitious smartass.

I managed to tackle two-thirds of Mount Laundry (11 loads) and deep clean two rooms and unpack all the suitcases and slowly tidy things up and cook and clean up dinner before I ran out of energy and was ready to flop on the couch like a useless boob. Until I opened the fridge.

We have like, NO food. 

F*#$!

We also had like NO cat litter which spells cat poop disaster if I didn't do something about it immediately. Who cares if we starve to death, we need something for the cat to crap in! So at 8:45pm I drove to Petsmart to get some pine pellets for the litter box (And now a word from our sponsor: you can never go back to regular litter once you try the pellets!) only to realize that it's Sunday and they were closed. So I drove to Lowe's (wood stove pellets work too and are cheaper).

They were closed too! Eff me! I hate Sundays!


Luckily the grocery store was open and luckily they sell pine pellets. So I did some basic grocery shopping so that we could eat for the rest of the week too. We are planning on a ginormous Costco trip this week but none of us are ready for a car trip ANY time soon. 


I got home at 9:50 and totally threw ALL of the groceries (minus the cold stuff) on the kitchen counter to not deal with tonight. Then I toasted some Pop Tarts and plopped by ass on the couch to watch Deadliest Catch on Netflix. Screw anymore work tonight. 

(In other news, the kids had a blast playing at home today for a long-awaited day of relaxation)

Cam thinks no one can see him as he's playing Peek-A-Boo

   

Travel Expenses

The day of travel is over and we have safely arrived back home in Dirty Jersey. And I'm not sure who is more relieved that the day is over, me, Brad, or the boys. And since everyone but me is already in bed, I'll take the Last Man(Woman) Standing Award, thank you.

We started at 5 in the freaking morning (Pacific Time) and everything at the airport went smoothly except for the fact that my awesome bottle of Soviet Leninade was considered "too big of a liquid" for a carry on (totally didn't have room to check it in the luggage) so they made me throw it away. Asswipes. 

The first flight was okay, but neither kid slept and it took a lot of patience and creative engineering to keep them quiet and occupied. Like watching Yo Gabba Gabba on the portable dvd player and having the boys take turns with the headphones. 

They really were good on that flight. People commented on how quiet they were. Probably because they were so infuriated with this douchebag who was allowing his maybe 2 year old to run up and down the aisles running into people and literally SCREAMING at strangers and the dad wasn't doing ANYTHING to stop it. Seriously, I was ready to shove that kid in the overhead compartment. And I think everyone would have cheered and bought me mini bottles of scotches. 

Luckily our layover was in Minneapolis again so we made a bee-line to the indoor playground and let the kids run themselves ragged. We bought like 193293 millions dollars worth of THREE lunches (why is airport food so expensive? It's not even good) and then we boarded our second flight in which both the kids slept the entire time. Bless them. 

The drive home was smooth except for a minor temper tantrum I threw over the $237 PARKING FEE we had to pay for leaving our car at the airport for 3 weeks. Really? It's a painted piece of pavement that was there already. It's like 400% profit. Now we're home and the house smells like dog hair and cat piss because I haven't cleaned the house in 3 weeks. But the neighbor girl did a great job of taking care of the house and our critters are alive and there isn't poop anywhere so that's good enough for me. 

There was also this horrifying bowl of potato salad from MEMORIAL DAY in my refrigerator that basically said "good evening" to me when I opened the lid to figure out what it was. Yikes. Note to self: REMEMBER to clean out the fridge before you leave for 3 weeks.

Big boy dragging his own bag

 

Hometown Tourism

Now that I'm back at my inlaws with a computer that my camera can actually plug into, let me tell you about yesterday.

Downtown Seattle as viewed from the middle of Lake Union

 We had our last big hurrah yesterday and took the family (Brad's parents, sister, and brother in law) out on the town into Seattle. First, we rode the "Duck." It's actually a car. That is also a boat. That is also a tour bus. And stuff. Basically we sit inside whatever it is and they take us through downtown Seattle and also into Lake Union and talk about the city and the landmarks and whatnot. Not that we don't know Seattle but it's fun to see it from a tourist's perspective, and learn little tidbits, etc. 

Me and the big man on the Duck

 Afterwards we had lunch at our ever favorite Rock Bottom Brewery and then the family parted ways with us and because we are so brilliant, also took our kids with them so that Brad and I could spend the rest of the afternoon/overnight alone in Seattle. Hooray Date Night! 

The inlaws on the Duck

 We decided to be unorthodox and had dinner at like 10 different stands at the world famous Pike Place Market. Basically think fresh, delicious local produce, seafood, baked goods, etc. And since Seattle is a huge international melting pot, we had a little taste of everything. Fresh (I mean like, swimming in the Sound that morning fresh) locally caught seafood and organic peaches, nectarines and blackberries, Russian on-site cooked meat-filled pastries, Chinese baked something or other that I couldn't pronounce but tasted amazing, and so many other little bites of food I was pretty sure my stomach was going to explode from happiness. Then we stayed the night up at a hotel two blocks away, and this morning went back to Pike Place for some fresh breakfast.

Fresh seafood at Pike Place Market. A work of art

 And because I'm so awesome, I TOTALLY had fresh salmon on a stick and crab cocktail for BREAKFAST. 

Breakfast of Champions

 Today once we got back we took it easy, packed, printed boarding passes and mentally prepared for the all day flight back home tomorrow. Did I mention how much I hate flying with kids? I really do. 

25th Floor

So this is another short blog, as I'm in the middle of DATE NIGHT and I have important things to do. Like spend time without my kids for once.

The hubby and I are staying at a hotel in downtown Seattle tonight kid.freaking.free on the 25th floor overlooking Pike Place (or so they say, it's actually overlooking an even larger building that's in front of Pike Place) right in the heart of the city. I'll tell all about today's events tomorrow, but I'll leave you with this.

(I also am using a hotel lobby computer so no pictures tonight)

Brad and I are sitting on the window ledge looking 25 stories straight down onto the city streets and talking about how if the glass isn't there we'd certainly be not sitting on that ledge because inso doing is just asking for shit to happen and we'd be splattered all over the street, and then we were challenging each other as to how ballsy we each are and whether we'd bungee jump or base jump off the top of the building or not. (I said hell to the no. Brad said he would)

Because that's what we talk about on date night.

I'm not afraid of heights. But I am smart enough to not do stupid things that have the potential of making me a crater on the Seattle streets.

Brad then came up with a great quote that I think I'll carry around in my back pocket.

"I am NOT afraid of heights. I am afraid of GRAVITY."

Fairweather and Ferry Rides

It was like, 70 degrees today. Only the second sunny day since we got here 2.5 freaking weeks ago.

Ummm, heck YES. Let's get some flipping vitamin D around here.

We basically spent the whole day outside and are continuing to do so for the rest of the afternoon/evening (it's only 3:15 here, I'm an early bird today). I actually found a baseball mitt for my little lefty Calen at Fred Meyer (only the best department store in the history of ever) so we took the opportunity today to practice playing catch with Calen.

I'm pretty much convinced that if he doesn't play major league baseball I'll put him up for adoption. Or something. But with my luck he probably won't even be interested in t-ball.

In front of the ferry (minus me)

Since my inlaws live so close to Mukilteo and it was such a nice day, we decided to take the boys on their very first ferry ride. (Washington State Ferries are like, world famous or something). Of course it isn't a real ferry ride unless you are standing outside on the observation decks (which of course we were). The ferry went to Whidbey Island but we didn't actually stick around there (because we are too GOOD for those rich snobs) so we just turned right around and walked back onto the ferry to go back.

On the ferry! So excited

Once we got back to Mukilteo we had ice cream at Ivar's on the docks and watched all the Boeing planes fly overhead and the trains rush past (and all the cars load onto the ferry). Super great Northwest day.

Watching another ferry pass us

The OTHER Family Reunion

We forced the kids to deal with one more long car ride today for our last big visit of our trip here and went back to Leavenworth to see my grandparents and mom. But this time we were in for big surprise since my stepdad (who rarely comes) and my aunt (my mom's sister) AND my oldest cousin on that side of the family AND her four year old son were there too. Which basically meant we were only three people short of an entire family reunion on my mom's side. Totally unplanned.

Because we are just that awesome.

ALL of the great grandkids in one place with their happy meals

Calen really got along with his cousin Ryder. They played the whole time they were there out on the deck and exploring in the brush on the property and climbing big rocks. It was of course good to catch up with the taller family members as well.

My grandparents with two of their three great grandchildren

And because eastern Washington is still far superior in the weather department it was a gorgeous 80 degrees and sunny. Unlike the 50 degree rainy weather that we've had every.single.day since we got here. Really Seattle? It's June. In case you didn't notice.

It was a great visit and we were sad that it was only for one day, but I'm pretty sure if we did one more overnight stay somewhere else the kids' heads would literally explode and I'm not really ready for that type of biohazard cleanup.

Gramma (my mom) playing with Calen on the deck

Down Time

We did nothing today. After 2 weeks of constant movement, we did absolutely nothing.

And it was all I had hoped it could be.

Brad's sister, brother in-law and grandparents did come from dinner. But the important part is that we didn't do anything and more importantly the KIDS didn't have to travel anywhere. Or else I'm pretty sure there would have been a violent riot against us.

Great Grandpa Hansen reading to Calen

 

Can You Pronounce Shawrogknabski?

Our reunion banner. Complete with red Solo cup lights. Because we're THAT type of family.

We survived the non-wireless world of our family reunion campout weekend. And because I'm so interesting, let me tell you all about it.

The family reunion is a big thing. Like, big. It combines my grandma's extended family (including her TEN kids, and all of their kids and grandkids) with her siblings and their extended family (kids, grandkids, great grandkids etc). Which basically equates to a crapton of people that are all related but we're not always necessarily sure how we're related so we call it the Cousin's Reunion and just assume that if we're not sure how someone is related to us, they're a cousin. And we spend a weekend each summer camping out together and catching up, meeting new "cousins", letting the kids play, have a big picnic on the main day (Saturday), games/contests, and a huge firepit at night.

Footnote: in recent years we have changed the name of the reunion to the Shawrogknabski reunion. It's a bunch of last names smushed together (Shaw, Rogers, Knabe, and "ski" is just for fun). Spelling test on Friday. Start studying.

So it used to be at this campsite on the Snake river every year but due to lameass park rangers not letting us drink and be loud unforeseen circumstances we decided to let the families start hosting them on their enormous properties. This year was in Warden WA (a "cousin"s house). Aka middle of nowhere farmland USA. Absolutely beautiful country and since it's in Eastern Washington, nice weather.

Lost in the middle of nowhere, on our way to the middle of nowhere

We spent Friday just hanging around catching up with everyone/pitching tents/etc. Luckily Ann and Scott (the hosts) have an enormous trampoline that basically sucked out Calen's soul because he was physically attached to the thing for the next two days. Even Camden liked bouncing on it. The big boys shot off rockets in the field and everyone else spectated from the house. Super awesome redneck fun!


The first night was our first experience tent-camping with little kids, and it was AWFUL!!! The boys had their own tent but Cam hated it so he basically cried all night and kept all of us awake. I think Brad and I made an agreement somewhere around 4:30am that our tent-camping days are over and from now on we will use a tent-trailer or RV of some kind.

COUSINS! Playing ring around the rosey. So cute you want to kill yourself.

Saturday was full of the usual reunion awesomeness. All of the little boy cousins (and there are a LOT of freaking boys in this family) were running around the property in this never ending Super Soaker battle, while taking breaks to jump on the trampoline. The really little cousins played endless rounds of "ring around the rosey" on the trampoline too which was pretty much the cutest thing since piles of fuzzy puppies were invented. We had the big family picnic that afternoon followed by the BIG family picture. Trying to get ten thousand people to stare at one camera is like, rocket science.

2012 reunion photo! Naturally neither of my kids are looking.

After the picture came the games, including potato sack races and some fun team games like Tacky Tourist, where teams of five do a relay to dress a teammate in the most ridiculous tourist costumes ever. I got to be the one they dressed this year. And my team totally won first place. From now on you can just call me Champ. I'll even sign an autograph if you ask nicely.

Tacky Tourist CHAMPS. Beth, Samantha, me (dressed lovely for the occassion), Ashlen and some kid I don't know.

The second night was way easier as Cam and I said screw this and slept in the basement of Scott and Ann's house. Brad and Calen roughed it in the tent which basically nearly blew away into Idaho because the wind was so bad.

Today we had breakfast and had planned on hanging out for a while but the boys were all "I'm done with this camping business" and had complete meltdowns so we decided it was time to strap them to a carseat and force them to fall asleep make our way back to the west side.

Super awesome weekend. Really hope we can fly out for next year's.

Roughing It

I'm somehow capable of posting tonight at the campout. We're in the middle of nowhere where there is only 2G cell service and the only way we have wireless is by leaning against the house.

Seriously,we're roughing it out here.

I'm not sure if we'll survive.

On The Road Again...

So this is like 12 hours early but I won't have much of a chance to blog later today. 

We are on the road (a-freaking-gain) to Warden WA for the annual family reunion campout weekend on my side. Think like 60+ people, camping, games, cousins, craziness, fun. 

I will attempt to blog tomorrow via Brad's evil tablet in order to keep the daily streak alive, but no promises that the thing won't chew off my fingers. 

Victory

The first time in Camden's life when big brother is napping and he is not.

Calen's toys are exposed and unguarded.

No one is going to stop him from touching them this time! Sweet sweet victory for Cam.

 

Well, At Least It Was A Close Game, Right?

Brad and I had a date tonight with the Seattle Mariners. We bought terribly overpriced lower level (row 9 RIGHT in front of first base) seats that we had to sell our firstborn for but you are so close you can hear the players cuss and are put at risk of being wiped out by flying baseball implements which on it's own makes it totally worth it.

close enough to see Ichiro's butt cheeks

We used to buy the cheap seats about 8 miles up in the upper atmosphere. Then I made a mistake last season by sitting in the lower level. Once you go down there where you can actually SEE the game, you can never go back up to the bleachers.

It's against state law to go to a Mariners game without buying a classic "Mariner Dog" and a basket of the smelliest, strongest, burn-your-tongue (and everything else), tastiest garlic fries on.the.planet. You know it's good when people three sections away are looking around wondering WHAT is that lovely SMELL?

garlic fries that'll make you want to slap yo mama

In true Mariners fashion the starting pitching was awesome and our offense sucked big fat monkey balls weren't as good as they should be and we lost a heartbreaker against the Padres 1-0 tonight. Which, if you're like me, you go to the game expecting a loss. Kind of like going to the casino and expecting to lose your $20 and if you do win anything you are shocked and text all your friends and take a picture to post all over Facebook. OHMYGOD I can't believe this actually HAPPENED! Brad was pissed the M's couldn't even score one run but I tried to console him by saying "hey, at least we only lost by ONE. It could be a normal night where we lose by like 150".

So I bought this awesome natural disaster-sized fountain Pepsi in a souvenir Mariners cup that is all super-cool, and then after the game we were walking back up to the concourse and we discovered that a bunch of morons abandoned their super awesome souvenir cups at their seats, so we wandered around and snagged all that we could find (we went home with six cups). That's a pretty good consolation prize in my book.

Legos and Leninade

Here we are still in Leavenworth visiting my grandparents. Leavenworth is a fun tourist town that is totally in America but likes to pretend it's in Germany (specifically, Bavarian). There are sausage eateries and beer gardens that specialize in German beer and even most of the shop owners wear and sell lederhosen. But not the wooden clogs. Which they totally should be wearing. Wait, that's Dutch isn't it? I've got my international silly clothing mixed up. 

So we went into this store today and they had a chicken section. Everything in this little corner was a chicken. Chicken statues and chicken salt and pepper shakers, chicken towels and chicken signs. And then were was this chicken fan. It's a fan. But it's a chicken. I'm not really sure why this is so. But it totally worked and it was blowing chicken air at me. I really wanted it but Brad said no. 

A fan that's a chicken but it's also a fan.

I also found the coolest bottle of soda on the face of the earth anywhere ever. It's called "Leninade" (like Leningrad. You know, Soviet Union? Watch the History Channel here or there) and it had the best slogan ever "Get hammered and sickled!" And it commanded you to "drink comrade! Join the socialist flavor!". So I bought it and plan on flying it home and displaying it in my house like a normal human being. Everyone needs to own a bottle of communism.

Because the only acceptable soda is communist soda.

Calen got his first real Lego set today (he usually plays with Lego Duplos - larger Lego pieces for smaller hands) but this one was just too fun to pass up, like five thousand different little cars and a tow truck to pull them around with. Calen couldn't really put them together himself but he was good at installing the wheels on the cars and was pretty excited about something new to play with. 


I also learned today how lame real Legos are in a household with a one year old who likes to pick things up and slam them down on hardwood floors. It was basically raining tiny little pieces all over the house today and me desperately trying to put cars back together for the 29th time before the Caminator found and swallowed all the pieces. 


But Legos are so cool, how could we resist buying them?

Putting wheels on his Lego cars

Road Trips

If I never sit in a car again it'll be too soon. 

I do remember saying that exact sentence to Brad after six DAYS of driving 3100 miles from Seattle to Cape May two summers ago.

This isn't quite as severe. I guess. But I still want to whine about it. 

We drove all over Washington State today. My inlaws live in Everett. My mom lives in Winthrop. My grandparents live in Leavenworth. We basically zigzagged across the state today. Well maybe not the entire state, but it felt like it (and it's a pretty big state). I think a total of seven hours in the car with a three year old and a one year old. Equals = FUN FUN FUN. 

Actually it was kind of fun in a really long car ride sort of way. The North Cascades Highway is a gorgeous drive of breathtaking mountains and crystal clear rivers and lakes. 

We stopped for lunch in Concrete (awesome stupid name) at a picnic bench in a park that happens to have a real steam locomotive engine hanging out on the side of the road. Which also happens to have a long rope hanging on the ground that when pulled rang the train bell. Calen of course thought this was outstanding. Cam even had a good chuckle when Calen would ring the bell. 

Concrete, WA

 We spent a brief couple hours at my mom's remote cabin outside of the town of Winthrop WA way up on top of a mountain (basically). The boys liked to explore all over her 80 acres and play with containers of water on the deck (best thing to ever entertain a kid is a few containers of water. Who freaking needs toys anyways). And because it's the mountains a buck deer hung out munching on her bushes watching us and like 45 hummingbirds hovered around her front window. 

Calen on Grandma's garage roof enjoying the view

 We spent a little amount of time in downtown Winthrop and let the kids have ice cream for dinner. Because we are that awesome of parents. And not just ice cream, homemade ice cream. Homemade raspberry cheesecake ice cream. Think about that one while you go to bed tonight. 

Cowboys at the ice cream shop in Winthrop WA

And then more driving as we headed to my grandparents house in Leavenworth (still in the mountains). By then the kids were over-tired car-weary basket cases and basically said "hi and goodnight" to the great grandparents and went right to bed. 

It was a fun day regardless of all the driving.


But we are SO not going in the car tomorrow.
 

Mr Rogers Ate Lots of Melons

I definitely figured out why Mr Rogers goes through all those sweaters and shoes during each episode. 

He ate a lot of freaking watermelon.

We had a big family barbecue on Brad's side today and I ended up changing the boys' outfits like three times because all of the godforsaken watermelon juice that oozed all over them. 

I  NEED MORE WATERMELON

In celebration of this barbecue, God decided to be nice and we had our first sunny day of our Northwest vacation. All afternoon spent outside in the backyard in gorgeous 60 degree weather. It really is nice being outdoors and not sweating your buttcheeks off. I think the kids liked playing in real soft, silky spongy grass too instead of their usual crappy crabgrass. 


And then Uncle Todd (my brother in law) showed up with his State Trooper car and totally made Calen's day because he got to sit in the front seat and turn on the flashing lights. This was after a nap and an hour of quiet time reading with daddy, because the first time we put him in the patrol car he cried and whined and wanted nothing to do with it, which to us meant he was either about to drop dead, had an identity crisis or was switched with some other three year old, because no Calen of mine would pass up any opportunity to sit in Uncle Todd's car.

My junior WA State Trooper

Sitting Still is for Pussies

Since we got to Seattle on Sunday we pretty much haven't held still for any more than five minutes. Or so. We're pretty hardcore. But when you only get to come "home" once or twice a year, the list of family/friends/activities that you want to check off while you're here gets long fast. Thus all my incredibly short blog entries the last week. And still two more weeks before we return to Jersey!

Today we spent pretty much all day in Bumfudge Egypt a remote area way East of Seattle towards Mount Rainier called Maple Valley. The boys' little cousin Colt had his first birthday party this afternoon out there, and conveniently our good Coast Guard friends (who used to be our neighbors in Cape May) live like eight seconds from where this birthday party was being held. So when we weren't celebrating with Colt, we were hanging out with old friends. 

The boys definitely felt the pace of the past week today and had nuclear meltdowns (which quickly transformed into sleeping angels -- funny how that Jekyl and Hyde crap is so effective at this age) this evening as we piled in the car to head back to the house. I think it might be a good thing that tomorrow is a little low key and doesn't involve any car rides.

Or so I say now. I'm sure by 9am tomorrow we will discover some sort of new plans to squeeze in. 

Because we are just THAT hardcore.

Brad's cousin Jen and her birthday boy Colt

 

The Pregame Show

I have a lot of cousins.

Like, a lot.

I'm pretty sure there's like, five thousand of us floating around in the general Northwest area. 

Next weekend is the big annual family reunion that I'm super excited to attend since it's been two years since I've been in the area at the same time as it. But today we did a little pregame-prereunion-reunion. Or something. A lot of cousins at my aunt and uncles house. Including a TON of little boys. 

What IS it about my family breeding little boys? Out of like 12 little kids there were 2 girls. It's like a boy plague epidemic. 

Calen stayed up until 11-freaking-30pm PACIFIC TIME (that's like, 2am his standard Eastern time) playing with all his cousins. 

And that was just a sliver of the amount of cousins he gets to play with next weekend.

group shot! Tonight's party crew

 

 

Silence is Golden

My kids got up at 4:45AM this morning.

They may not be used to Pacific Standard Time yet, but I am. 4:45am to me is still the middle of the freaking night. Needless to say, getting up that early meant an especially crabby day for Calen, who still assumes is too big for naps. So we had an especially low key afternoon for him, including reading all 392 books in the house with Auntie Kristi. He went to bed tonight without a fuss (Auntie Kristi and Uncle Todd hung out with the boys tonight while my mother and father in law, Brad, and myself went out for enormous margaritas a nice Mexican dinner). Ahhh, silence is golden.

Camden on the other hand had a great day but took two naps, so he took forever to fall asleep. And as I'm sitting here typing on the loudest keyboard in the United States of America, he is four feet away stirring in his crib. So we're keeping it short. Because I am not interested in having any children of the awake variety any time soon.

some non-whiny storytime with Auntie Kristi