From the backseat today

Annie: you're a porcupine

Bethany: no, you're a porcupine

Annie: you are such a porcupine

Bethany: you are...you are..you are an EYEBALL porcupine

Annie: and Jack, you are a hairless zebra

Thank you, Mr. Nintendo--and Happy Bday, Jack and Annie

Just finished the Annual Birthday Vacation Family Adventure road trip. Jack turned 8 on the 1st and Annie turned 10 (!). Every year we go somewhere new on vacation rather than having birthday parties and this year it was to Silverwood, an amusement/water park in Northern Idaho. Great weather and lots of fun, we spent three days there and then drove to central Washington for three days and stayed in Wenatchee.

We took a day trip to a little town called Leavenworth, which is famous for its Bavarian-style buildings. It's surrounded by mountains and you'd almost think you were in the Alps. We also took a tour of the Aplets and Cotlets factory, okay--not too exciting, but there were free samples. Aplets and Cotlets, if you've never had them are kind of a firm jellied candy made of (surprise) Apples and Apricots and walnuts, then covered in powdered sugar. They are pretty good, though it's the kind of candy I always associate with my grandma. One of the best days on the trip was the day we did practically nothing, except play in the hotel pool all day.

And seven hours one way in the car would have been much worse without those Nintendos. It didn't stop all the "are we there yet"s but made the trip bearable (mostly). Here are some pictures.

A Day with Grandma

My kids adore their Grandma. Each one of them absolutely loved Grandma and Grandpa from the moment they saw them at the airpot when we came home. There was some kind of zing, a connection, a planetary alignment, something that meant they were bonded in a special way forever.

Today we went down to see my Mom (my dad was out birding, his obsession). We went to the Dollar Store and Grandma gave them each $5 to spend. We were there for a very long time--big decisions to be made on the best 5 things to buy. Then out to lunch and time at Grandma's house. It was nearly impossible to get pictures with all of them smilng and looking at the camera, but I think you can see how much love there is between them!

more pix

Home again...

Just back from a week at the beach. The weather was beautiful and sunny, then foggy (and beautiful) and then back to sunny again. The 4th of July parade was amazing this year - the biggest one ever, with TWO marching bands, a belly dancer troupe and the return of the Coast Guard Helicopter, which follows the parade route (all 6 or so blocks of it). Pretty cool all around.

Random Stuff

Me to new Chinese hostess at our favorite Chinese restaurant: Where's Jenny (Jenny being the owner who has run the front desk for the last 12 years)?

New Hostess: She is working at her other restaurant now

Me: That's too bad, We will miss her. My kids are Chinese and from the same part of China as Jenny and they really love her

NH: Oh, I thought you looked Asian!!

Me (a little startled): Oh, they are actually adopted from China

NH: It must be your necklace - that makes you look Chinese!


My necklace is a little jade circle on a red thread.

Summertime

I've been pretty lax about updating the blog lately, maybe due to being in summer mode, though we haven't had too many sunny days so far. The kids are out of school and in summer day care, Bethany is taking a summer reading program (she's not exactly thrilled about that) and we are all looking forward to 4th of July at the beach. So here are some recent pics.

They really do love each other

Saturday, Sunday, Monday in the Park

One of the things I like best about where we live is that there is some kind of park about every mile or so. Since Charlie works on Sundays, in the summer the kids and I try to find a new park at least a couple of times a month. Last summer we went south of our house. This summer we are going west.

On this long weekend, we visited 3 parks and today's park was especially nice. It was full of kids of all shapes and sizes. We brought a picnic lunch and the kids ran around for almost 3 hours. Annie found a little girl to teeter totter with and Jack and Bethany found sticks to be Samurais with. I sat on a bench in the sun, and read a little, but mostly watched kids and dogs and squirrels and birds and moms and dads enjoying the spring.

Two Picnics in a row

Yesterday we met some friends for a picnic in a park and then had our first experience geocaching - it was pretty fun! We found 7 of them with their help. The kids really liked finding "treasure." Charlie liked messing around with the GPS and I was just happy we got out and about and the weather was decent.

Charlie worked today, so the kids and I went to see my Mom for another picnic in another park. Weather was a little iffy, but we got some good play time in. These are pictures of the weekend!