Vacation Roadtrip 2014 Days 1,2 & 3

 I finally feel recovered enough from our drive that I can share about it. Man that was a long drive!

The route we took

 We left at 4am on Friday and began our trek to Josh's dad's house near Houston. As soon as we were into Eastern Washington Elli began asking if we were in Texas yet. She was not happy when we explained she had a day and a half to go.

Eastern Washington

We seemed to be traveling ahead of some storm system. Just as we were leaving each region we would get a weather warning on our phones for that area. We experienced nearly every type of weather possible. Rain, hail, lightning, thunder, sunshine, SNOW, fog and high winds were some we drove through.

I love wind turbines! These are in Eastern Oregon. Pay no attention to the crack in my windshield.  

Josh and I took turns driving and basically changed seats at each fill up. Although I think he did more night driving than I did. I don't do well at night. 

Wyoming

 When we crossed through the mountains (around 10pm PST) of Wyoming I was trying to sleep and for some reason I woke up really nauseous, so we ditched the plans of trying to make it to Denver and got a room for the night in Rawlins, WY. I am so thankful we did that. We got one room and all squeezed in. Everyone slept well, we got a large free breakfast and we were back on the road by 11am PST.

Elli playing the game she got in her Chick-Fil-A meal

 Anyone who really knows me knows I do not eat fast food, but on a road trip it's hard to stop and eat at a good restaurant. There are 2 fast food places I will make an exception for. At home it's Taco Time and I only get the salad. On this trip, it's been Chick-Fil-A! On day 1 we stopped for lunch there just outside Boise. Day 2 found us eating a late lunch there in Denver. Josh really loves their food and I find it doesn't make me sick like some other fast food places, so we'll be eating there a lot on this trip.

Josh crashed as soon as we got to his dad's

We pushed through on the second day/ night and got into Houston around 9am EST on the third day. Needless to say we were pretty tired and took our turns taking naps throughout the day.

The Tasty Kake Fairy Visited Josh while he slept!

While Josh was napping, Elli and I ran to the store and found some of Josh's favorite treats that we can't get in Washington. He used to get these all the time when he lived in Pennsylvania as a kid and I used to buy them for him online, but when I tried last time they didn't sell them online anymore. He was so excited to hear they had them in Texas. I think we may be taking a few boxes home with us when we leave. 

Kids in the pool

Josh's dad's house has a pool out back, so once we were rested a bit we let the kids play until it was time for dinner. The kids are loving it here! I'm having fun, but can't wait to get back to my home. I feel so out of place down here. I'm pretty sure the locals can sense that I am not from here. LOL

I'll share the rest of our adventures soon...Stay tuned....

The First Day of Spring

In past years we have alway done something fun for the first day of spring, but for some reason we stopped. I have no idea why, we just did. So this year I set out to bring back our celebrations!
First I made rainbow pancakes for breakfast.  Then, the kids and I got our deck all cleaned up (it was where we were storing our extra firewood through the winter). Followed by a fun afternoon together. We had a picnic lunch on the deck and did a scavenger hunt/ egg hunt around the yard.
The sun was shining on us all afternoon.  It was so nice being outside most of the day. A rare treat this early in the year in the PNW!

A Surprise for Elli

A while (maybe 2 yrs ago?)  back I thought it would be fun for Elli to try out ballet, so I took her to a free day at DFJ. She did not listen at all, so we never went again.

Recently when we would drive by she would point out "oh! there's my ballet place! why can't I go there? Please, can I go there?" I wanted to say yes but it is so expensive and I wasn't sure how she would handle it this time around. So we waited.

A few weeks ago a friend posted pictures of her daughters ballet performance at FHS online and it looked like a great group to be a part of. I looked it up online and knew right away it was the ballet group for Elli. We used some of her Christmas money to get her dance gear and pay the initial fees and we waited until the morning of her first lesson to tell her the good news.

She was so happy to finally be going to ballet.

 

They did some real ballet moves....

 

 

They danced with scarves...

 

They also did some tumbling and jumping, but those were hard to get good photos of on my phone.

 

Her group is really small (only two other girls and two teachers), so it works well for keeping her interested. The free day we attended had about 15 toddlers participating, so this is much nicer. She seems to really like it and is really interested in learning this time around. Hope she keeps enjoying it!

 

Surprise!!!

This past Tuesday (May 29th) we all loaded up in the Durango and headed off for a drive. I had already packed for everyone and had it loaded up. The kids had no idea where we were going. They came to consensus that we must be going to Auntie Trish's and Uncle Ben's because we never go anywhere else. After we past the Auburn area, they decided we must be going to visit my sister Shandi.
Shandi lives right down the road from our destination, so I let them keep on thinking that until we surprised them with the real destination in the video below!

I love how Gabe is pretending to not be excited... LOL!

Here are some pictures of our fun time!

Joshua... He's getting all grown up & stuff... He needs to stop that!

Zaccheaus warming up in the kiddy pool

Elli getting sprayed at the Fort McKenzie part of the waterpark

She loved spraying everyone at the jet skis

Having fun at the kiddy slides

Shandi, Seaira, Sariah and Shanel(pictured above) came to play (a little fuzzy I know, but it was the best I got of her)

We watched the clocktower show each night we were there... The rhythm of nature song is now emblazoned into my memory and that's not a good thing. the show was filled with "lovely" lines like "trust the great wolfs howl" and "there's nothing to be scared of here, trust in Mother Nature"... Um, ya given the chance that great wolf would eat you and last time I checked nature cannot be trusted! ;-)

The story time afterwards was good though and the younger two enjoyed meeting the animal characters. On the first night Zaccheaus got all dressed up in his outfit just like the character Oliver, only to find out they just bring out one character each night and that night was Wiley's turn to be out for story time. The story reader lady noticed him all decked out in his Oliver garb, so she brought Oliver out for story time the second night we were there.

Zaccheaus and Oliver

Now Oliver being the mischievous raccoon that he is, sometimes is known to steal things... Like the story teller's book or a kids hat. Well, this evening Oliver was so excited that Zaccheaus dressed up just like him, he tried stealing Zaccheaus! He started walking off with him & Zaccheaus went right along with him... Of course they didn't go far and Oliver quickly returned my boy to me. 

Gabe joined us for story time on the second night and Oliver gave him nooggies to get him to smile for the camera. 

We all had a great time and the kids are all already ready to go back again!

Walk/Run for Life

Hi All! The family and I are participating int the Walk for Life again this year.  The WFL takes place on May 19 at Abundant Life Church here in Bellingham. The Walk is the primary fundraiser for the Whatcom County Pregnancy Clinic, a non profit crisis pregnancy clinic downtown. If you would be interested in donating to our fundraising efforts please visit our fundraising page where you can donate or even sign up to walk with us.

Skating Fun

Josh's new work had their annual Christmas party last night at the Bellingham Sportsplex. There was free pizza and drinks and ice skating was free too! It was everyone else's first time at ice skating and it's been over 10 years since I last tried skating. Josh did OK, since they didn't even have skates in his size (he had to squeeze into some size 14s). Joshua was a little slow, but got it figured out. Gabriel and Zaccheaus did good as well, but loved the little walker things that gave them extra stability. Here's some pics of them playing around....

Gabe (green) colliding with friend Zoe

Cheaus (red) and Gabe (green)  racing 

Cheaus, Gabe and Zoe

I did get one pic of Joshua, but it was of him trying to get up after falling and he made me promise not to post it anywhere. Elizabeth looked so cute with her little figure skater skates on with one of her tutu outfits, but sadly I didn't take a single picture of her. 

I wore my skates for a bit getting acclimated to them, stepped out on the ice, moved about 10 feet  along the wall and called it quits and went back to being a spectator. My nearly 30 year old body can't do what it once did and I was really feeling each bump of the ice in my heel that has plantar fasciitis  (Little tip... don't walk long distances in Converse!). 

Hopefully next year we'll be a little better at skating, but probably not. LOL

The Fair

It's nearly the end of summer which brings one thing every year... The Northwest Washington Fair! We go just about every year, with the exception of last year... I think it was like 90+ degrees all week long, so we stayed indoors with A/C. ;-D

This years fair trip was extra special because it was on Elizabeth's actual birthday (we celebrated w/ her party a day early) and she was all dolled up and enjoying all the attention she got.

I know I've shared this story many times with people, but Elizabeth was nearly born AT THE FAIR! I had a surge of pregnant energy that year and took the city bus out to Lynden with the boys and met up with my mom and walked and walked hoping to get some real contractions going... and I did. Spent about 5 hours there walking around before Josh got off from school and met up w/ us to take us back home. As soon as I laid down at home my water broke! Called my mom (not more than an hour since we left her at the fair) and asked her to come get the boys. The next morning I was holding my baby girl! Ah, what great memories!

This year the weather was nice, sunny but not too hot. We had some yummy fair food treats, rode "big kid" rides and saw all the animals. Horses were Elizabeth's favorite. We saw lots of friends and just had an all around good day. Thanks for going with us this year, Mom!

Here's some pics of our day:

First my horrible fuzzy cell phone pics:



posing with a dairy cow




she liked the pink tractor




possible future as a dairy farmer?



Gabe playing the strong man game

 Now the pics with my moms fancy camera:

ready for the walk from grammas to the fairgrounds

my silly kiddos

my little milk maid

showing off their spoils

zonked out in her new wagon

Pops, Guns and Fun

I hope all the mommies out there had a wonderful Mother's Day this year!



Cards and Flowers from the kids

 
I was spoiled rotten by my family this year! Josh was very busy with work and other things so my mom took the kids shopping for a present for me. Gabe picked out some flowers (the yellow rose is from my church), Joshua got me a cookbook and my mom got me this cakepop maker to go along with the cookbook.

Cake Pop maker from my mom



 I have been following Bakerella's blog for quite some time and have wanted this cookbook since it came out! I was at Target the night before the boys were supposed to go shopping and was messing with them by pointing at various things saying "I like this" & "I like that", etc. and as soon as I pointed out this cookbook, Joshua lit up and was so excited about it. I knew right then, that's what I would be getting for my gift, LOL!



Bakerella's Cake Pop cookbook

Look at those little owls! So cute I want to eat them!

 

Garden stakes painted by the kids

 These are not cake pops, but rather garden stakes that the kids painted at a JoAnn's crafting class. Well, I guess "class" isn't the right term for it. They had a table set up right inside the main entrance and the "instructor" tossed a bunch of paper on the table and said "ok kids make your moms a card" and then when it came time to make the stakes she put out the paints and let the kids go at them making a huge mess. Don't think we'll be taking any of the future classes at that JoAnn's. But, I do love my cards and garden decorations still, so I guess it was worth it. ;-D

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I had planned a whole brunch thing after church. I made scones, lemon bars, choc. dipped strawberries and a few other things to go along with an overnight egg casserole that I was going to bake. But, when I removed the casserole from the fridge the whole thing looked black and disgusting. When I threw it out I learned that because my egg mix didn't cover all the potatoes, they then turned black and ruined the whole thing. =(

So I told Josh I was cancelling my brunch and he could do what ever he wanted. So he chose getting some Port of Subs sandwiches and bring them back home to just chill and watch movies. We had all my yummy treats for dessert instead. But before all that we had to make one stop...

Josh really wanted to take me shooting, since I've never shot a gun before and we own like 4 or 5 of them. So, we headed up to a little spot off of a Forestry Service road and I got a lesson in shooting.

me being dorky with the glock

I have to say the guns aren't as scary as I thought they'd be. We started with teaching me to use a pistol. Specifically Josh's new Glock (I have named it Helga von Glockenspielen), which is a 9mm.

Josh decided to get out the big guns

Josh got out the AR-15 he built and shot a couple rounds with it and then insisted I give it a try. I was so nervous with that big gun, but I actually felt I had more control over it than the glock. I couldn't aim it very well though, I think I need a lesson in lining up sights and all that. I actually hit some of my targets by just shooting to see where the bullet would go then adjusting my shot that way.  

Me with the AR-15

Not many people can look cute while holding an assault rifle, but I think I'm pulling it off well.



Hi Kids... Having Fun?

We didn't have enough ear plugs for everyone, so the kids stayed in the truck while we were shooting. They did get out for a bit and explored around the woods a bit before we left.  

 I hope everyone else had a blessed day!

Linux Fest

This past weekend was Linux Fest Northwest , held every year on the last weekend of April at Bellingham Technical College. Josh has attended a couple times before and the boys even went one year when I was off at a Women's Retreat, but this was a first for me. I have to admit I felt a little out of place. Not necessarily because I'm not a big computer guru, but more because I'm pretty sure I was the only mom w/ four kids in attendance.



Getting candy using a robot

The festival is advertised as a family event and all the stations are set up with candy and other treats for the kiddos while the vendors/parents talk computers, but I could tell a lot of the other attendees were very upset with us being there. Too bad for them though we had fun and will probably be going again next year. 

 

Lesson in building a robot

One of the organizer's took a couple of pictures of Joshua and Zaccheaus using the laptops  at the Fedora booth and said "this is what it's [the festival] all about, teaching the kids". That was an encouragement to me as I was getting frustrated with everyone looking at my family like we were some freak show.



Daddy took over to make it work

The boys' favorite part was the robotics room (pictured above) where you could build your own robot using legos, use a robot arm to grab some candy and see various demonstrations of different robots. I think we might have some future engineers in the works, here!
The kids and I ended up coming back home so Josh could take some of the classes offered. We were going to hang out and just play outside but the rain was horrible Saturday morning. Come on Washington we are ready for Spring!

First Day Of Spring

How did you spend your first day of Spring this year? I had lots of ideas going through my head on what types of special treats I would make for our Spring Party this year, I blogged about them here. But, when the time came around to start prepping for the party, I just didn't have the time. It's been a CRAZY week around here!
After church we let the kids do a little egg hunt and just as we were headed outside... my camera died, so I resorted to using my cell phone...

Like the lovely photos it took? This is the best one, most of them just say resolution error on my online album. =(
So, as you can see... Josh BBQ'd while the kids looked for their eggs, we ate lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine and then started some seeds for our garden this year. (Hopefully we can get something to grow this year and not be eaten up by the local wandering deer.) To save time I just made the kids' favorite box cake mix. I don't know why, but my kids love Pillsbury Funfetti cake mixes... Really I do know why... It's yummy and full of sugar, who wouldn't love it, LOL! Then it was time to head back to church for a special meeting. All in all it was a fun time, I got a little frustrated when my boys informed me they didn't want to touch the dirt while gardening. What little boy doesn't like playing in the dirt? Apparently all 3 of mine! LOL! But, I got over it, this having a yard thing is still kinda new to them anyways.

If you did something fun yesterday, blogged about it and would like to share link up over on Offering Hospitality's Spring Party post!