Logan has been taking swimming lessons and today was his last day. He has loved it so much! But here is the funny story. Yesterday his teacher (a tan and well-muscled 12 year old) told each child that the last day of class would be Free Day, so they needed to bring their Dads and Moms and brothers and sisters and the whole family could swim for free! As we talked about it on the way home, Logan’s face went through a myriad of emotions. First confusion, then excitement, and then real concern. He looks at me and says, “But Mommy, I don’t have a sister.”
“It’s ok,” I say, “Emmett and I will come and swim with you.”
“No, Mommy. My teacher said that I need to bring my sister. We have to go get one!” His quickly changing from concern to pride at his grand idea.
Chuckling, I answer, “Well bud, we can’t really go out and get you a sister before tomorrow. It takes a long time to grow a baby in a mommy’s tummy.”
“You have to do it fast, Mom!”
Needless to say, Logan was a little disappointed that I hadn’t conceived, gestated and birthed a new sister for him by the time he woke up this morning. But he still seemed to have fun at the pool with Emmett and me. And no one asked him where his sister was. Thank goodness. I feel like such a slacker.
I love vacation. That is a silly thing to say. Everyone loves vacation. But, the thing that I love almost as much as the vacation itself is planning the vacation. Really. I love all the organizing of details and creating schedules of activities that happens before you even step out the door. I have even been known to plan out every single restaurant that we will eat at on a given vacation. It is bordering on obsession.
It is really all about the anticipation. For that reason, we don’t do many spur-of-the-moment things. I like the planning and the waiting and the build-up. You take that away and it just isn’t as much fun. So when our plan for 4th of July weekend got canceled a couple days before we were supposed to leave, I was distraught. I had been building up the excitement for the trip for a while and now there was nothing. So Eric, being the kind man that he is, saw my distress and helped throw together a whole new plan so that all that anticipation didn’t just go to waste.
So instead of going down to Utah for the weekend, we stayed here in Washington and did some fun things that we had been wanting to do since we moved here. We spent a day in Seattle and rode the light rail train downtown to the waterfront. Logan was fizzing with excitement! It was great to watch.
The next day, we took the long way home and drove north to through the Scenic Cascade Highway. We dove through a mountain pass with waterfalls and a turquoise lake and trees and snowy peaks. It was amazing. But I didn’t pull out my camera once. Sorry.
Then we came home for the 4th. Eric’s parents came over for a BBQ and our homegrown fireworks show. Moxee is one of the only areas around here that allows fireworks so everyone in Yakima seems to come out here. It is one of my favorite parts of the holiday. We just sit on our lawn and watch everyone else set off their display quality fireworks. We decided to wake Logan up so we could watch and I am really glad that we did because he was overjoyed. He just sat on my lap most of the time with a look of awe on his face. Kids really do make holidays more meaningful!
Then we headed up to Mt. Rainier for our first family camping trip along the Ohanepacosh River. Once again, it was so beautiful! We had a blast and the boys can’t wait to go again! We took a hike into the Grove of Patriarchs and saw enormous and ancient trees all together on this little island in the middle of the river.
SO even though, it wasn’t exactly what we had planned for, we had a great weekend and enjoyed fantastic family time!
YouTube and I became friends last week. I borrowed my mom’s iPod to see if I was cool enough to be an iPod user. I’m still undecided on that, but I found out there’s lots of fun stuff on YouTube. I saw a great video of a guy making pancakes that look like bacon and eggs, so I had to try it out myself.
I think Logan was fooled. He ate all his “bacon” but didn’t touch the rest.
So finally time for a new post. I have been meaning to put these pictures up, but have avoided it for one soul reason: to upload pictures onto the computer means that I would first have to fight through our desk drawer to find the cable that connects the camera to the computer. If you ever come to my house PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THE DESK DRAWER! It is frightening and chaotic to a monumental degree. This is the one area of our house that is a complete and jumbled mess (really, I swear. Everything else is perfectly organized and pristine). Delving into its depths is always a quest to be feared and undertaken with great care and preparation. So I didn’t do it for a long time.
But I finally got my wits together and pulled off some pictures for you all. The boys went camping…twice (Father’s and Son’s outing for our ward and Eric’s parents ward.). And then we went on a little hike to Boulder caves. Just loving the great outdoors.
Logan actually took this picture. Not too shabby.
One of the things that we LOVE about being here in Yakima is that it really is a beautiful area. I am constantly blown away by the lush landscape and the mountains (OK Yakima ITSELF isn’t really lush or mountainous, but it isn’t too far of a drive to find it). Everything is so green and wet. For a little girl from Arizona, that is a new prospect. We really love it. We are planning on going on at least one camping trip with just our little family. Can’t wait! And I will take lost of pictures. And maybe I will brave the Desk Drawer of Doom again in order to post those pictures.
PS. You may ask why I just don’t organize the desk drawer and then all my problems will be solved. Well, I won’t do it on principle. I firmly believe that every house needs to have a drawer that is an utter mess. Like I said before, it is the ONLY spot in our house that isn’t spick and span. We need something to show everyone that we aren’t perfect after all.
Every year, as soon as tax season closes, we head down to Arizona. We look forward to the warm days, good food, visiting family, and swimming in Grandpa’s pool. Well, this year the weather didn’t really cooperate, so we didn’t really get in the pool much (I didn’t get in at all. Eric was brave and kind enough to take the boys in while I gracefully stayed by the side.)
We had fun at the Sahuarita Safari Park.
The boys took a trip to the Tucson Desert Museum…
…while Mom and I went to visit Marla who added much needed highlights and a cut to my hair.
We also had an accessory bonanza and got this…
… and this (focus on the ring, not the poorly manicured nails)…
…and these babies, the tallest shoes I have ever owned (they make me almost 6 feet tall, but I love them. I am embracing my tallness).
OK. Back to the kids. Catching some rays and learning to skateboard in Grandpa Jay’s backyard (Logan always specifies that it is Grandma Sharon’s HOUSE, but Grandpa Jay’s yard and pool.)
We loved our time in AZ and, as always, it went too fast. Thanks Mom and Dad for putting up with us!
So I am very limited in my crafty skills. I don’t draw or paint AT ALL. I mean it folks. Stick figures are all I do. I usually don’t come up with cute ideas. But I do like to look at other people’s blogs and get ideas. Mind you, these ideas have yet to actually produce any crafty item, but I am working up to it.
In Relief Society, we have been talking about getting outside our comfort zone and trying something new, so I have decided to work on my craftiness. In a good way. So this is what I want to do.
Isn’t it adorable? And I think I have almost everything I would need. And I know exactly where I would put it in my house. So all I really need to do is pluck up my courage, pull out the paint brush and jump out of my stick figure comfort zone.
Maybe, if it isn’t a total disaster, I’ll post the finished project.
We had Easter! We had a great time too. We spent most of the weekend with Eric’s family watching General Conference, playing with cousins, eating candy and other yummy food, finding Easter eggs (and for the adults, filling Easter eggs), and enjoying some great family time.
Here’s the festive pictures.
Dying Easter eggs
The kids got a little bored during conference and had to find alternative entertainment. Logan kept running around saying, “I’m a prophet!” I am really not sure why he thinks the prophet should wear a basket on his head. I guess you can never really know what goes through their little heads. (Notice Emmett’s reluctant participation in the background)
Time for the Easter Egg Hunt (or as Logan calls it, the Easter Egg Punt. We are thinking of petitioning to make it a new Olympic Sport)
Welcome the to the Batman Family Blog. Let me introduce everyone.
This is Batboy
This is Batbaby
This is Batgirl, trying to keep batbaby from flying away. (Logan actually took this picture. Quite artistic for a three year old, if you ask me.)
Batman was off dutifully keeping Gotham City safe from harm, and roving IRS Auditors.
And here, you get an exclusive look and the never-before-seen bat cave.
Uh oh. I think they spotted me.
Batboy tries to look cute to distract me while batbaby comes at me with his weapon of choice, the sippy (don’t be fooled by the innocent name. It is deadly)
Oh no! He is right on top of me!!!!!
“Hey lady, what do you think you’re doin? Give me the camera before someone gets hurt.”
We have a serious problem at our house. It was rainy for a while followed by two weeks of beautiful sunny weather(which was a wonderful relief after the gray and gloomy winter we had been having). But that is not the problem. The problem is that because of all that glorious sunshine, our grass started growing. Now, let me ask you, who else in Washington state has a lush, green, healthy lawn in March? No one, that is who–except us. We have looked around our neighborhood, and EVERYONE else has a lawn that is still flat and dead.
Logan getting lost in our jungle.
My favorite fuzzy black slippers getting buried in the underbrush.
Emmett refusing to even venture out into the craziness and staying firmly on the pavement, where he can’t get swallowed up or lost.
So why complain? So what? Spring has come early! Enjoy it! Well, there is just one little problem. We don’t have a lawnmower. We borrowed one last year that kind of died by the end of the summer and we weren’t really planning on buying a new one until May or June. We are living on a budget! You can’t throw kinks like an early spring into the budget!
Well, we broke our budget, out of fear that the house may be overcome by the growing vegetation. We have added a new, and much anticipated member to the family.
El Toro
El Toro Recycler to be exact.
Eric’s new love and best friend. And heck, if it promises to make my yard functional again, it can be my best friend too.
Logan is officially potty-trained! He still isn’t totally accident free, but he does it consistently as long as we stay at home. I’m just glad to have that part of parenting done with (until Emmett grows up some more)!
