August 2009 archive

Beaver Campground 2009

We are a little slow at posting these days. Sorry. We are too busy to write. Which means we have a lot to tell about it. But too much more will have happened before we tell about it and we will forget to ever tell about it because so much more has happened…

So here we try to recreate memories for you a few weeks after the fact.

This year we joined the McConnells, the Barneys, the Faklers, and the Atkinsons on a camp out at Beaver Campground in the Gifford Pinchot Nat’l Forest. We went for two nights. The campground is about an hour and a half away.

To prepare beforehand, we bought a bigger tent because our boys are getting bigger and taking up more room than they used to. And our old tent, which is an awesome hand me down, has one split pole which meant it might not last through another camp out. So I went shopping. With three boys. Which means a headache. And hearing lots of “Can we buy this? Can we buy that?” The first tent we bought was too big. It took up our whole front yard. We returned that, again having to listen to the “can we buy this Skateboard? Can we buy that Cool flame bike helmet?” arguments and picked out a smaller one that looked rectangular on the picture but ended up being a squashed hexagon (meaning not very much room even though it was bigger than our other tent. This tent ended up with two broken poles and the storage bag broke on this campout, and we weren’t even that rough on it, so it got returned to the store also. So now we are back to the same old tent that we will probably just have to fix with Duck Tape and hope we can all squash in there still for a while longer.

We took bikes with us for the kids which proved to be very fortuitous. The boys were off exploring and having a grand old time. The campground was mostly empty so it was nice to not have to reign in the boys much. Reece had his little friend Lee there and also he made friends quickly with THE GIRLS. The girls are of the age where they think little kids are super cute (age 8+) and he was pretty much their little puppy. He loved them, they loved him, he was off playing with them, we could read books and chat. It was heaven!

At one point Reece and the girls were filming videos at our campsite and they all assumed stage names. Reece’s stage name was joey. Now each time he sees any of those girls, he refuses to answer to anything but Joey for a while afterwards.

We did get rained on during our camp out. Rain is not a surprise. We had to eat dinner in our tent the first night because of the rain. I have to admit I found out a horrible fact of life from that dinner. It turns out that if your Doritos are on your plate in the rain before you seek cover and they get wet, they lose all flavor. So I suggest you never eat a soggy Dorito.

Other activities we did while camping:

• We took our little raft into the cold Wind river.

• The kids performed skits.

• We played kickball

• We roasted lots of marshmallows

• We sat around a ton of campfires and boiled eggs in paper cups.

It was a ton of fun. We hope we can join that crowd again some day!

Posted by ily on August 30, 2009 | Filed under: | 0 comments

Seattle Fun

We had the opportunity to visit Seattle this last weekend and we had a blast. Grandpa Doug came with us and as always, it was nice to be with him.

• West Coast Estonian Days Song and Dance Festival

This was the reason in the first place that we needed to go to Seattle. I joined the Portland Estonian folk dance troupe called Tulehoidjhad and they were going to perform at the West Coast Estonian Days Conference on the University of Washington campus. The big event to culminate the week of Esto activities in the Song and Dance Festival. I got to be a part of it this year and boy was it fun. I was with a group of dancers that ranged in age from 5 to somewhere in the 80’s.

We all had to wear Estonian folk costumes and my costume was made for a tiny woman so I had to let the skirt out and then make a new top for it because it was not going to fit on me no matter how hard I sucked in. I also had to make some white pants to wear under it (long bloomers) so I would not flash anyone should I twirl and my skirt flare out enough. I was sewing all week to get ready!

I had a day full of rehearsals and sitting around waiting for my turn to dance. It was fun to be a part of a show and see all the various costumes. I also got to know some of the Portland Estonians better. The other dance troupes and singers were amazing and it was a great show.

Add to it that I had free time in between rehearsals without kids and it was pretty darn fun.

• Pacific Science Center

Bryan and Grandpa took the kids here while Ily was busy at rehearsals. They enjoyed it. I keep hearing from the kids about the things that go bang show they watched. There also was a cool submarine replica with an eel slide that they like.

• Swimming in the hotel

This month the boys had swim lessons with friends at a local pool and they are so excited that they are swimming really well now. Isaac was already swimming, but he is better now, and Micah has become a regular fish now that he knows how to swim. I am sure they were thrilled to show off to Grandpa their new goggles and skills.

• Aquarium

Saturday morning we took the bus from the hotel down to the waterfront and visited the Seattle Aquarium. Isaac really wanted to go here. It does have a cool octopus. My thought is that we have now been there 2 times with the kids and we need never to go back. It is not that big and not much has changed since the last time we went so I think we are done with that for a decade or more. Maybe we will take our grandkids there some day. Will we ever have grandkids?

On a side note: We were impressed with our bus driver that morning. He made a guy who had just left his coffee cup on the ground before he got on the bus get off the bus and go throw it away. What a good citizen! And he was a nice bus driver because he helped us find our way to the Aquarium.

• Bainbridge Island

Our friends Matt and Tiff Weighall live on this island now which is a short 30 minute ferry ride from the waterfront in Seattle. It is a beautiful Island. We got to walk with them down the main strip to get ice cream and then on to their apartment and cuddle with their 2 month old twins Lafe and Gwen. The highlights of this portion include: riding the ferry which the kids described as “just like the airport during an earthquake,” holding babies, walking through the quaint little town of Bainbridge Island, holding babies, seeing Matt and Tiff, and holding babies. The boys were so thrilled to see the babies and they were happy that they all got a chance to hold one of the two babies at almost every minute of our three hour visit. I was pretty pleased to hold babies too. They are such cute babies! Way to go Matt and Tiff for making such cute kids! I worry that our kids will renew pleas for a baby of our own again thanks to the snuggle time with Lafe and Gwen.

We rode the ferry back to Seattle and took public transit back to our car at the hotel and boy were we footsore by the time we got back. Here is what I think about big cities. Cars are useless there. There is no place to park them, and when you do find a place, you still have to walk all over to get where you are going. Public transit is not much better than walking because it took us 1.5 hours to get from the island back to our hotel to get our car to drive home. If we weren’t tired, we might have walked faster. Riding the public transit is a bunch of waiting to get on the next bus, hoping you don’t miss your bus and then your stop (nor go too far past it so you don’t have to spend a lot of time walking back…) Not a very efficient way to travel. Especially with tired kids. Oh well, it added to the adventure. And now we are home to our suburban life which I am so happy about. I love driving to a store with a big parking lot and driving home again without having to carry all my purchases in my arms. Parking lots are AWESOME. Cars ROCK. The only thing buses have over cars is that you do not have to use car seats. Love that. But it doesn’t make want to move to a big city anytime soon so I can use public transit more.

Reece has become more independent now and he kept disappearing the whole trip. He was a hard one to keep track of. On the ferry I chastised him for trying to wander off and he just looked at me with his grumpy face and said “I want to go look out the window” which was not close to us. His expression was one of those “duh mom, how could you be so stupid to not let me wander far away to go look out a window?” faces. I told him he had to have a buddy at all times and he should take an older brother and tell someone before he goes off anywhere. At the Aquarium earlier in the day he actually disappeared completely. For a long time. He was there, then he was gone. It took us a long time to find him. He had gotten bored and wandered back several exhibits to something more interesting. He was chastened by both Grandpa and Dad and earned the right to stay BUCKLED tight into the stroller for the rest of our stay at the aquarium. We have him a little more leeway on the ferry and again he tries to wander off. He has no fear darn him. We may have to start leashing him.

At least it was awesome to have him be potty trained on this trip. This was our first trip EVER with no one in diapers. Wow, life is good.

Posted by Ily on August 30, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

A careful list of what I have forgotten lately

Lately I have been forgetting a lot of useful stuff. Important stuff even. I am not even pregnant so I can’t use that as an excuse. I am a victim of too much summer maybe?

Here is a careful list of things I have forgotten:

• I forgot paper towels when we went camping. Not devastating, just really annoying. To make myself feel better I should add that I did have spare clothes and plenty of food and pillows.

• I forgot to take the trash out on Friday. Dang.

• I forgot to go to a movie with friends last night. Double dang.

• I forgot to get presents for two birthday parties this week. I even forgot that one of them was happening. Oops.

• I lost my swim bag that has my swim fins, my swim paddles and goggles in it. I am super bummed about that.

• I bought school supplies for Isaac and forgot where I put them. I have since found them, but wow I was mad I had lost something again!

• I forgot what my 3 year old son’s name is. I thought it was Reece, but he informs me it is Joey.

• I had a doctor’s appointment this week and realized the DAY OF that I had forgotten to get a sitter for my kids so I didn’t have to take them with me to the doctor’s office. Afterwards, I found out I had forgotten that I HAD asked someone to watch my boys a few weeks ago and she was not the same person who did end up watching my kids. She came knocking on my door to see why I had forgotten to bring my kids over only to find no one home. Her boys were disappointed not to play with my kids. She saw my kids at the park later with another friend and realized that I must have forgotten… I felt so dumb when I realized what had happened. Boo on bad memory!

• Our county has switched to ballots by mail only now and I forgot to vote on August 18th in the Primary elections for mayor and city council positions. Who sets an election to happen in August when most people head out of town? We live in a silly city as is evidenced by our current mayor, who we wanted to purposely NOT VOTE FOR because he does dumb things with our tax money and is all proud of it.

• We tore our house and car apart looking for a Book on CD case from the library that we needed to return only to find that I had returned it minus the 6 CDs that Bryan was still listening to in his car… Yep, that made me feel relieved and dumb when a note from the library came in the mail asking me to pay $50 to replace the missing CDs. At least I know I don’t have to look for the case anymore.

So there must be a bright side to all this forgetfulness I am sure. I am humbled to find out that I am for sure not Superwoman this week. Next week will hopefully be better. I don’t think I will claim Superwoman status, but maybe I won’t forget so much. I better not forget the garbage again at least!

Posted by Ily on August 22, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

You may not care about this, but I sure do

Here is our amazing news. Brace your self.

Reece.

Wore.

Underwear.

To.

Church.

Today.

I about panicked when I realized that he was indeed wearing underwear, his preferred underpants of choice lately, at church. I would not be there to watch his body language and help him not have an accident because he would be in nursery. We both had primary duties today. The nursery leaders sure have a hard time when the kids all pop up saying they need to go potty. One says they have to go, and then they all have to, and it takes at least 20 minutes to make the potty epidemic stop. It is a serious hindrance to class progress.

The final report is that he did well and did not have an accident….until in the car after we got home. Mind you, he was in Bryan’s car, not our van with leather seats that are easily wipe-able. He was playing with the buttons and switches while I ran the first load of junk in from our trip to church (you know the church bag, treat left-overs from my class, car seats since we were in Bryan’s car today rather than the van). We shall choose not fret over that info too much right now. Tomorrow maybe I will.

We made it through church successfully. Wow. He really must be potty trained. Crazy!

Posted by Ily on August 9, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

This is hilarious!

Have you ever checked out the improv everywhere site? They recently did this and it was hilarious!

http://improveverywhere.com/2009/06/15/the-mp3-experiment-six/#more-1087

The goofball/dancer/actress in me would have loved to participate too!

Posted by Ily on August 9, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments