Helm's Away!

C (catches a jelly fish): Isn't that cool?
Granddad: It should be. It's been in cold water.

Me: Did you guys watch the eclipse today?
D: Yeah! And we saw the moon! (haha, yes... tho he was referring to the crescent moon shaped sun being obscured by the moon)

J: Can we have a little bit of screen time? Like one piece?

J at 6:45: Mom are you still resting?

Me: Yeah, because it's early! 

J: Well, we can get up! 

Me: ....

Me: You guys can watch a little TV.
D: Does it have to be e-jun-ation-col?

D: Is this how you do a back float? (while lying on his back on a floatie )

Getting passed near North Bend, Westbound I-90, by a cop car ~
Dad: ... Wow. Union Gap Police. He's a long way from home.
S: What's he doing out here?
C: Probably the world's longest donut run.

(8/18) Work day for me, and Dad and the bigs were getting ready to head out on their ghost town road trip.  They are going to have so much fun! It wouldn't be a road trip without a few speed bumps - so they ended up in a different car, but the bonus was that it had air-conditioning.  They got outta here and safely to their hotel tonight, and are ready for their adventure tomorrow!


(8/19) While Dad & the bigs were touring ghost towns, Nanan and I took the twins down to Remlingers for the day.  We petted goats, climbed in the fire truck, and rode some rides. The boys played and played and played, and really wanted to go back again tomorrow.


(8/20) I took the twins to open swim to use up the last punches on our card.  We've been swimming a lot this summer!  But the kiddos are really figuring it out, so that's awesome.  Dad and the bigs got home late this evening. C was reportedly feeling a little home sick, and I guess the traffic was positively miserable. But it looks like saw some really amazing things!


(8/21) Work from home day for me, in the office for Dad, and Amanda had the twins.  Dad bought us eclipse glasses and we were able to watch it from our front porch.  So cool!  It was so weird for it to get so dark in the middle of the morning.  Really neat to experience!


(8/22) Work day for Dad & me, and the boys were with Amanda.  Tuesdays are always filled with meetings and playing catch up. After the twinsies go down, I like to take an evening walk to decompress from the day.


(8/23) Today we went up to swim and Auntie Amber's house.  C took his snorkel stuff, and the cousins had a blast playing inside and out.  Us adults had a great time too and plan to do it again soon!


(8/24) Work day for me, and Dad had the boys.  He took them shoe shopping and had to go to four different places to find shoes for two of the three.  Oy!  Dear boys, stop growing!

(8/25) Work day for me, and Dad had the boys.  Dad went furniture shopping today and selected a new sectional, since our poor couch has withstood a beating these last few years.  We did some furniture tetris tonight and decided what we did/did not need.  More to come tomorrow, but we were tired!

(8/26) We did some more furniture re-arranging today.  I'll show you guys next update when we're all done.  We are loving the new couch ~ it's a whole new look and feel to the living room!  This afternoon, I took the boys over to Sarah's house-warming and spent the evening hanging out and watching the kiddos swim.  I love having them so close!

(8/27) What a fun day!  We left early this morning and walked on the ferry to head to Grandma & Granddad's new house.  We got to see their neighborhood and the construction of their house.  Super cute!  And I know they will be so happy there!  Then we went back to the marina, and the boys caught jellies and minnows with the net.  It took us half an hour to go down to the dock where one of the tall ships was docked because we had to look at and catch everything.  We toured the Lady Washington, and the twins talked the ear off the engineer working down below.  After we got back to the boat, we headed out to drop crab pots, and then put up the sail, while we waited for the tall ships to come out and battle.  It was super cool to watch them jockeying for position, and hearing the cannons fire.  We then stopped by and picked up our pots.  Only two keepers today, but that was perfect with some other snacks for dinner.  We headed out to catch a ferry in the evening, and just missed it, so I ice-creamed the boys, and we grabbed the next one.  What a beautiful day and night!   

(8/28) Work day for Dad & me, and the boys are with Amanda.  I was telling D we were all off again next Monday for Labor Day, and he announced we should go sailing again.  I hope the grands have recovered from our invasion.  LOL!

Raise Your Hand

Much yelling from the back seat ~
*Sarah raises hand*
D: I SAID RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU FARTED!

D is soaked ~

D: I found the sprinklers!  Is okay if I play in them?

Me: What if I said no?

D: *blank stare*

Dad: How was the zoo, buddy? 

C: Well, a puffin almost pooped on my head...

D: Where are we taking S?
Me: I already told you, and you would know if you had been listening.
D: It was just too quiet so I couldn't hear you.


J: This tastes good but not very good to me.

C made breakfast ~ toast with eggs and lettuce on top. Yum?

C to J: You need to stop being so picky! You need to eat the lettuce! 

Me: What is your new friend's name? 

J: I don't 'member. I wish she had a different name. 

Me: One that you can remember? 

J: Yeah.

Me: I'll see ya later today.
D: You're free til Monday, okay Mom?

Me: You better not be spitting, Mr. JJ-beans!
D: Why do you call him beans and me berry?
Me: Why did I call you a dingleberry?  Cuz sometimes you are.


(8/8)  I'm on vacation this week. I took the kiddos to see the Emoji Movie this morning.  It was really cute. And I'm the meanest mom ever that forces her kids to go swimming after we've done nothing active all day.  Just so you know.  We joined Laura, Sarah, & kiddos at the pool for open swim and, wonder of wonders, my boys had a good time.


(8/9)  The boy that complained about swimming at open swim yesterday actually asked if we could do it again today.  I told them if they all got themselves ready, we'd stop for a snorkel for C and googles for D on the way.  That was a deal!  The lifeguard told C he couldn't use the snorkel at the pool for some odd reason, so C wanted to leave and go to the lake.  Sorry kiddo, no time to do that today.


(8/10) We're off camping ~ we went down to the North Fork Bear Group Site in Randle, WA. It's along the Cispus River, "Biscuit River" to D.  We're hoping the haze will clear so we can watch the Perseids. They peak Saturday night, but we caught a few tonight.  Rob, Melissa, and Marc pulled in not long after us.  We had a great group dinner followed by s'mores and card games.


(8/11) Today was fun!  We checked out Layser Cave next to our camp, and hiked down a short trail to the cave.  It was pretty cool.  Then we piled back into the car and went over to Tipsoo Lake.  The meadows are so gorgeous!  We haven't been there for a few years, and it was fun to re-visit. It was a super-easy loop around the lake for the kids. Back at camp, we hung out til Rob, Melissa, and Marc all got back and then started dinner.  After the kids had gone to bed, us adults continued on playing card games.  C came out and asked what those flashes of lights were.  When we stepped beyond the lantern light, sure enough there was a big storm brewing.  We scurried to get the rain flys up.  We sat outside enjoying the light drizzle with periodic glimpses of shooting stars, and turned in when the lightning show turned to LOUD thunder and a downpour.


(8/12) We woke up to drizzle and packed up camp.  There wasn't anywhere very dry to hang out, so we hit the road around 9a and headed home.  We got home for a late lunch, and decided we didn't want to cook dinner, so went to our favorite sushi haunt.  Yuuuum!


(8/13) Nanan had a belated birthday lunch for Jake & me today.  We met up at Freedom Park for subs and good conversation. We headed home after it clouded over and started to get a bit chilly.


(8/14) Work day for Dad & me, and Amanda had the twins.  C stayed home and loafed around til cardio boot camp for hockey this evening.  He was done about 20 minutes in.  Yay for ramping up to the season!


(8/15) Work day for Dad & me, and Amanda had the boys. I had book club with my work peeps after work tonight, and Dad got to take everybody to C's hockey camp. He built a "Canadian Christmas tree" tonight so we can properly dry C's gear.  I can smell the season... er. yeah.

J: I don't think I can eat breakfast like this.

"Canadian Xmas Tree"

(8/16) Work day for Dad, and I had the kiddos.  Sarah & I took the herd to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.  It took fooorrever to get there/back due to construction, and we heard many exclamations from the backseat crowd that "I FARTED!" Boys. Gah.  There was an amazing trash art exhibit, which was both sobering and awesome to look at. My favorite part is still the aquarium - it's so peaceful, even with all the children hollering "MOM! LOOK AT THIS! MOM! MOM!"


(8/17) Work day for me, and Dad has the kiddos. He's going up to fetch the teenager today for their ghost town road trip tomorrow.  I hope they have a great time!