June 2009 archive

Anniversary Trip Pics

Finally, some pictures from our trip. You can see the view from the back deck of the house we stayed in on Hood Canal, some wildlife we saw up close, our bike ride from Blyn to Sequim, sights from our whale watching cruise to San Jaun Island, and some shots of the Ranger Hole hike we did on our last day.

Posted by Bryan on June 28, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments

I've never

What have I never done?

• been skydiving
• been to a foreign country
• touched an electric fence
• Gone cow tipping
• fixed a sprinkler, Bryan does that.
• Visited the east coast of the US
• gone hunting- nor do I ever want to
• Finished reading Huck Finn by Mark Twain
• gone sailing
• failed a class, though I was horrified to get kicked out of one once at BYU. They don’t let you take a language class there until you take a placement test (to avoid letting the Returned Missionaries get easy A’s in language classes) and I did not know this policy. I was an honors student, I cried when the teacher kicked me out. That had never happened to me before.
• slept under the stars. I always have a tent over me… I am not that brave.
• gone wind surfing or kite surfing
• completed a whole triathlon. I have done a relay for it, but never done the whole thing.
• read the Hunger Games, which all my friends are buzzing about.
• been in a play. I have been in a musical and a ballet though.
• watched Lost.
• Licked a spark plug…
• I don’t look good in leggings… and I’ve never…
• Been to Boston in the Fall.

(okay the last three were stolen from the Veggies tales Song “ the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”- great song, you should listen to it!)

What have you never done?

Posted by Ily on June 25, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments

The trip part II

The continuing saga of our vacation from kids and responsibilities.

Monday:

The main event today was biking from Blyn to Sequim (it’s not obvious from the spelling, but those two almost rhyme).

Lazy morning

Found a grocery store in Port Ludlow proper, bought marshmallows, chocolate, and firewood in order to make smore’s. They were all out of graham crackers. We spent $15 on those few items.

Drove to Blyn with our bikes to pick up the Olympic Discovery Trail. We went into the tribal center Library and the woman at the front desk was very friendly and helpful. She told us we could park there at the tribal center and pointed out where the trail was. She printed out maps for us, told us where the bathrooms were and gave us some good tips.

After chatting with her a bit, we set off down the trail. Most of the trial is a paved path along where railroad tracks used to be, so it’s not too curvy or steep, though a few parts left where the tracks where. We spent probably a couple hours pedaling through the lush Olympic Penninsula forests with glimpses of Sequim bay always there through the trees, stopping to take pictures and drink water or snack. It was amazing. Then we arrived in Sequim. Sequim was a bit dissapointing. Sequim is in what’s called a Rain Shadow, which means the mountains around it squeeze all the rain out of any clouds before they get a chance to rain on Sequim. If you ever been to eastern Washington or Oregon, where I grew up, you’ve seen a large rain shadow. Sequim is the Kennewick of the Olympic Penninsula. It was windy, flat, and nothing special to look at.

Ily was tired and our bottoms were saddle sore, so we decided to ride the bus back to Blyn which we had heard ran every half hour. Well, it doesn’t run every half hour to Blyn, And we missed the first bus by about 3 minutes. And the 2nd bus pulled up, but was doing a different route, and did not park by the bus station and the driver got out to change the sign on the bus telling us where he was going and did not tell anyone and then drove off. We called the bus system via Bryan’s new fancy cell phone and asked what happened to the bus and found out we had missed it even though we had been sitting there for over an hour and seen every bus go by. They were kind enough to send a small Jeep over to get us and our bikes and take us back to Blyn. Ily was quite distraught that she could get a degree in mathematics in college but not figure out how to ride the bus system in Sequim.

Once we got back to our car, we drove back into Sequim and had dinner at the Three Crabs which was right on the water and quite yummy. After dinner we found another store to shop at and finally found some very over priced graham crackers for $5. That means we paid $20 in smores supplies for this trip. Then we came back to the cabin and watched Nacho Libre for the first time. Jack Black is hilarious. What a weird show. Definitely worth watching.

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Tuesday:

We spent the day with Puget Sound Express (add link). We rode a boat up to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Ostensibly this was an Orca watching boat trip, but there were no orcas in the area today. We did stop near Whidbey island and watched two gray whales for a while, and on the way home we followed a minke(?) whale for quite a while. We had 2 hours in Friday Harbor to eat lunch and walk around. We ate at some crab place in Friday harbor that had nice outdoor seating high above the harbor where we watched boats come and go. After buying some souvenir t-shirts and walking around a bit we got some ice-cream and sat on a bench to watch two big ferry boats load and unload cars and people. It was all very slow paced and relaxing today. We even fell asleep leaning against each other for a nap for part of the ride home.

This night we finally made our fire and enjoyed the most expensive smore’s ever. Fires are always fun. Even if it starts to rain a bit. Which it did.

—-

Wednesday:

We packed up our belongings, said goodbye to the cabin, and set off to find a trail to hike. Headed south on Hwy 101. Stopped at first visitor center (actually before 101) and didn’t get too much help finding a hike. Headed south to Quilcene(sp?) and the ranger station there was very helpful. We decided to do the Ranger Hole hike from the Interrorem(sp?) cabin in the Duckabush(?) recreation area. It was about a mile to a cliff overhanging the Duckabush river. The heights at the cliff made Ily pretty nervous, but I took the last bit of trail down to the water’s edge.

Then we drove home to our chillun’s and awaiting extended family. We were ready to be back believe it or not.

Posted by Ily and Bryan on June 24, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

You have reached the Murdocks, we aren't home right now so leave a message and we will back to you as soon as we can. (BEEEEEEEP)

That is right, we aren’t home. Well, the boys are home. Aunt Julie and Uncle Andy are with them and they are probably having the time of their lives. But we the parents have flown the coop for a short getaway. This is the first time in 9 years that we have been away from our kids for more than one night. They boys don’t even seem to miss us. Aunt Julie must be good. Or they were glad to get rid of us.

The occasion for our getaway you ask? This summer marks our 10 year anniversary. Our dream trip would have been to go to Croatia, where Bryan served his mission for our church for two years when he was 19 and 20. But the reality is that we are not ready to fly to Europe ($$$$$$$) AND leave our kids home with a sitter for that long yet (cause who goes to Europe for 3 or 4 days?.. it would have to be at least 10 days for me to go and I am not ready to leave the kiddos that long yet) . So the compromise was that we would leave for 4 nights to someplace closer to home. We tried to go to Victoria, BC, Canada, but they changed the border crossing rules as of June 1st, 2009 and we weren’t able to get proper documents in time (headache!). So we settled on the Olympic Peninsula and are renting a cabin up here in Port Ludlow on the waterfront of the Hood Canal.

Trip Highlights so far:

• We actually drove out to White Salmon, WA on Saturday to look at houses that would be in our price range in case we actually wanted to move out there to shorten Bryan’s commute to work (the hour and ten minute drive each way will get tiresome in the bad weather). The choices are pretty bleak- I almost cried at one of them because it was so awful. We thought we would try to stay out there overnight and check out the ward (LDS church congregation) too but all the hotels were full or way too overpriced so we drove back to Vancouver and stayed at a nice hotel in town overnight. It was so nice to not have to get up with the kids and get breakfast going and make sure they get baths and all the other stuff that normally happens in a day with kids.
• Now we have driven a few hundred miles without anyone arguing in the backseat,
• Nor have we dealt with anyone complaining about the snacks,
• And we have napped unmolested on the couch. It is quiet here. Bliss. Sweet bliss.
• We rode our bikes around the neighborhood near the beach house we are staying at and actually saw a deer, complete with antlers and everything, in an quiet lot just chomping away at the overgrown grass. He didn’t even run off when we approached him and started taking pictures. * Note: the pictures didn’t really turn out- sorry, it was too dark already for our camera to do well.
• We also watched a little bit of TV that was not PBS kids. That was weird, and refreshing.

Posted by Ily on June 15, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Unwanted Diet Soda

We went to the carnival at Isaac’s school last Saturday evening. Isaac did well at the pop-bottle ring toss and won two cans of root beer. Excited with his win, he patiently waited in line again and this time he won a 2-liter bottle of Diet Dr. Thunder (bargain version of Diet Dr. Pepper). We aren’t big pop drinkers at our house, and the thought of letting our energetic boys down 2-liters of a caffeinated variety didn’t sit well with me. As I pondered what we could do with this diet pop, short of drinking it, I finally remembered Mentos. This is was the result:

Very satisfying.

Posted by Bryan on June 9, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Greasy Reece

Sigh… Saturday was long. Bryan went to help a gentleman from our ward, Brother Garstin, move out of his 3000+ sq ft home and was gone all day. I made the boys do some work around the house and out in the yard before they could go play with friends on the street and they were kinda bummed about having to actually do work. They sure gave me trouble for it at least. Reece also managed to have two of his only three potty accidents yesterday and ended up getting a bath after each one because he was just that gross. By 1:30, I was really missing Bryan and decided to go visit him and take him lunch and hopefully shoo him away from the move feigning an absolute need for him at home.

So I loaded Reece up in the trailer, collected the boys, and we all rode over to the Garstin home together on our bikes (Note* I have ridden my bike 4 days this week, yay me! I have a lofty goal this summer to not drive 3 days each week… meaning I will be riding my bike or walking or not going places instead so I am starting to get used to the bike and enjoying it so far).

We got to the Garstin house and saw that they had most of the furniture and belongings loaded up, they were really just trying to figure out how to load the last 20 of the 30 chairs that the Garstins’ have into the 2 semi trailers that they were loading and squish in other odds and ends too. Seriously, the Garstins had a lot of stuff. I am still amazed they had 30 chairs… and none of them were of the folding variety. Sister Garstin, who is currently living in Utah awaiting her husband, must have loved to throw big dinner parties.

While Bryan ate his lunch, the boys played in the house, in the yard, and in the cul-de-sac that the Garstin home is on. Just as I was getting myself about ready to go, I notice that Reece is up on the fifth wheel of the trailer covered in black stuff. Upon further inspection, we find that it is grease; thick black, sludgy grease. Eww. And it won’t come off with soap and water. And the more you try to get it off, the more it spreads around on him. And while I have Reece at the sink in the bathroom trying to get him clean, it gets the bathroom hideously greasy too. I am mortified. I am about to leave and cry and take my grease monkey home when I chance upon the Oxyclean left in the laundry room closet. I figure since it is safe for our clothes and no one has had a bad reaction to it, then maybe it will be safe for skin… Thus begins the hour long scouring of Reece in a strange bathroom in a home with no towels left unpacked on a chilly day in June.

See how greasy he is? This is AFTER the first time trying to clean him up. Some of the grease is already removed.

Long story made short…. Oxyclean is amazing. Reece’s clothes were covered in grease and I refused to put them in my washer to see if they would come clean and risk them getting all my other clothes greasy so I had to throw them away. Reece himself wasn’t perfectly clean after the whole scouring adventure, but pretty close. I scrubbed Reece in the sink, then stuck him in the shower to rinse while I ran over to a neighbors’ house to borrow a towel and a small t-shirt to keep him warm on the way home again. He hung out in the shower happy as can be for quite a while. Brother Garstin, the fellow moving, came in to use the restroom and wondered why the shower was on, opened the door to it, saw my naked little boy having a great time in the shower and walked out again shaking his head wondering what was going on. I returned with a towel and a t-shirt and got us ready to go home to find more appropriate attire to hang out in the rest of the day.

We rode home a bit grumpier than before, without Bryan even, and now three fewer outfits for my boys since we chose to trash their clothes too. They are the ones who instigated the whole playing in the grease thing and though their clothes were not as bad as Reece’s those clothes also were not going into my washer either. Years ago we had a whole load of whites ruined in a laundry mat because of someone who washed greasy clothes in the washer the load before us. I was not happy about that back then and would hate to have it happen again!

By the time Bryan came home, he was dead AND I was dead, AND we still had to go to the school carnival. Sigh, it was such a long day! I don’t know how we managed to make it to the end. I am so looking forward to my getaway with Bryan next week. Saturday can’t get here soon enough!

Posted by Ily on June 8, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Warning, if you come to visit us this month, be prepared to witness nudity. Sorry.

I mentioned earlier that Reece used the potty on his own while half naked last Sunday. Well, he has continued to do well this whole week using the potty as long as he is completely naked from the waist down. He also will only use his favorite IKEA potty. Not so helpful when you want to go out yet have to lug a potty with you which does not fit in a diaper bag. So we just haven’t really tried to go anywhere yet in a diaperless state. Amazingly he only has had three accidents- all when he was wearing a longer t-shirt that covered his bum. Out of sight out of mind I guess. As long as he runs around in the nude, he is a great little potty user, but cover things up even just a little, and it all goes down the tubes.

*****Warning, only read on if you have had children or can handle graphic details of the messes children can make***** And only if you think you can laugh at the situations that follow too*****

The accidents were pretty memorable. Once he pooped while sitting at the kitchen table on one of my nice dinette chairs which was thankfully covered in marine vinyl and easy to clean and disinfect. Another time he was sitting in his high chair eating and he peed in a giant fountain across the room (ok only 4 ft away really) onto two of my nice dinette chairs and the table. It was pretty amazing how much furniture he hit. The last accident occurred when he was playing in the sandbox and it all ran down into his rain boot which he was wearing. He really did not like the sloshing. So no more long t-shirts or rainboots for him since they cause him accidents. It is Naked Boy Reece for a month or so.

He really has done well at home. We are not ready for him to be out there in the world without a diaper yet though. Since he can’t seem to handle controlling his potty activities with clothes on, and we can’t take him to the grocery store without clothes on, he remains officially untrained as of yet. Next month though, maybe I will have the news that he is so good at potty usage that we have a potty party for him. And you will be able to visit us again without fear of seeing naked people running around.

Posted by Ily on June 7, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Like a good neighbor...(humming in your head)... State Farm is there...

Well, not State Farm in this instance, but Country Companies insurance instead.

We have had some questions about insurance with Bryan’s job switch and needing to reevaluate how we allocate money to life insurance and stuff. We have a great home and auto insurance agent named Tim White who is always very helpful at explaining everything that we need to know, and a little more, about insurance. We have really liked having him as our agent. So I emailed him at 10 pm Sunday night while the questions were in my head. That way he could look at it at work later and get back to me when he had time.

Also at 10 pm Sunday night Bryan was investigating a nasty leak from our dishwasher… never a fun thing to have an appliance malfunction. Water came raining out of our dishwasher when we ran it last night and that is very bad actually. So we had to address it right away.

I noticed a few minutes after I emailed Tim that he had emailed back saying he was at work and that he could call us to answer our questions if we were still up. I emailed back saying we were still up because we had a dishwasher problem but that it would be a good time for me to talk since the kids were in bed and I would have very few distractions. So he called and he said it was bonus night because he has a ton of rentals and has to deal with dishwasher problems all the time so he helped Bryan over the phone with the dishwasher and me with insurance questions. He was on the phone with us until 11:30 at which point I was too tired to comprehend the math and statistics involved to understand any more about life insurance and the dishwasher had stopped raining so we were good and done for the night.

The moral of our story? What a helpful guy! Our 15 year old dishwasher now works correctly again (so far) and we know more about life insurance. I haven’t bought any life insurance from him yet, but I likely will tomorrow just because of the excellent dishwasher service he provided. That and he really does have deals that are not any more expensive than any other places we have researched and the company is decently rated. Man he was really there when we needed him.

Like a good neighborrrrrrrrrrrrr, Tim White is there…..

Posted by Ily on June 1, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments