Easter 2010

Our Easter was fun filled with all the kids running around. Marc made this great poster for the kids to play "pin the tail on the rabbit". Miss R ended up being the closest and was very excited to win her little prize (a bubble gun). We start out our weekend dying Easter Eggs. Take 4 kids times a dozen each and we have a lot of eggs to dye. This year, we let them do 8 each and then had some plastic eggs with money. I reminded the kids that they had to wake up early in the morning because we had to be at Grandma's at 11am. At 3:30AM I hear voices in the living room (the eggs weren't hidden yet). We went out and told the kids, waking up early does not mean 3:30AM! I was thinking 7AM. They had been sleeping until 8 or 9 while on Spring Break. Mr C wasn't too happy that we were sending him back to bed and kept trying to sneak upstairs while the "bunny" was hiding eggs. He finally went to bed and we all woke up at the reasonable hour of 7:30AM. The kids found their baskets and were very happy to find their toys. We were then able to have breakfast, get dressed and get to Grandma's EARLY!! We never arrive anywhere early.

The kids were so happy to be at Grandma's and find their Easter baskets she made them. There was chocolate, toys and a stuffed animal for each. After their baskets were all emptied into their bags. We were ready to head outside to find the 128 eggs that were hidden in the backyard.

We were proud of Mr N did so well this year looking for eggs. Last year, he would only pick up an egg if it was green or yellow with a hint of green. This year, he was willing to pick up any egg he could find!

Mr C found 38 eggs and the others found about 15-25 each (our nephew Mr T was there with us). I think we were only missing 1 egg in the end. I hope they found it before they had to mow their lawn!

65/365

Sun, March 7:

We decided to have a family fun day that includes a trip to Ikea. Yes, I know...everyone's favorite family fun day. We are out looking for a new bed for Mr. C. He has our hand me down queen size bed. Sounds great until you look for cool sheets for a 7 year old in queen size. Plus, the bed takes up the majority of the room.

We arrived at Ikea and we straight to Smalland to check in the youngest two. Everything went well for about 5 minutes. Then I was paged to come back. Turns out Mr. N (4 years old) and Miss R (5 years old) have to go into seperate ball rooms because the age cut off is 4. Mr. N was having none of this. He wanted to play with his sister and wanted to come out. He did a great job in the store, Marc and Mr. C found a bed while I was getting Mr. N and we were able to browse ideas for our house for the next 1/2 hour until it was time to pick up Miss R.

F

Finding inspiration for my home: $399

Swedish meatballs with lingonberries: $1/plate

Feeding a family of 6 for $6: priceless

19/365

Yes. It's true. I have finally finished my Christmas cards. Once Christmas passed, these went on the back burner. But, I sat down and said these are important. Mostly because I made the effort to get all of us into the studio to get our yearly pictures taken and ordered enough wallets for everyone to enjoy our perfectly coifed smiling faces. So, Wednesday, January 20th, I will lick these envelopes closed (yuck), add a forever stamp (pricy) and put these beautiful hand written notes of love in the mailbox.

Next year, we will do our family portrait (as is the tradition I started) and order only 5 X 7's for our wall and make candid photo cards for our friends and family.

Cama State Beach

Sunday we went for one of our "wanderings" as I will call them now. We usually have a general idea of where we are going, but half the fun is the journey and then the destination. This day, my brother calls and says, "let's go to that beach on Camano Island." So, we're off. It's about an hour North of us. We see the turnoff to Camano State Beach and a sign for Cama State Beach in 1/2 a mile. So, we go off course and go to Cama State Beach instead.

It is property converted from private ownership to state ownership 2 years ago. They have small cabins, deluxe cabins and 2 bungalows that can be rented any time of year. The great part is they are only $35 in the off season. It's a great little getaway spot. They have horseshoes, TONS of shells on the rocky beach and a few swings for the kids. In the summer, there is a wooden boat house that you can rent boats from to paddle out into Puget Sound.

Our little offbeat path led us to a new find and a great day walking the "beach" with the kids. We went around the corner to eat lunch on the beach at Camano State Beach to finish up our afternoon and then wandered back home.

5/365

The mill creek library is my sanctuary. I was able to read 54 books last year because of the library. I discovered new books that I loved and some I didn't even finish. Buying them all would have been more than my Starbucks spending. The kids love going to the library too. They love to go and and ask me if it's time to "pay". On occasion we find a new book for Mackenzie and Cameron to read too. Today I got 4 new books. I love putting books on hold, but I hate when they all arrive at the same time. I'm not sure I'll finish all these in 3 weeks.

365 days, 365 photos

It's a new year. 2010. We have been busy as usual. This past year, we traveled to Redding, CA several times. In March, June and August. While in California during our August trip, we took the kids to Burney Falls, the Subway caves, Humboldt National Redwood Forest, and into Fremont for ribs at Emil Villa's. We took a few local trips including visiting Forks, WA twice to stay at the Oceanside Resort in La Push (great cabins on the beach). We went to the Olympic Rain Forest and then made a side detour on the way home to the Makah Nation and the NorthWest most point at Cape Flattery. We went camping for the first time at Lake Easton and stayed in a cabin at Hyak (near Snoqualmie Pass).

I realized we take our kids many places as well as visit many local sights and parks. I've decided to challenge myself by posting a photo for every day of 2010. Highlighting both the mundane and extraordianary things that we do. We are busy making travel plans for the upcoming year. My cousin lives on the other side of the country and we will see them before they move again. 

The current plan is to meet somewhere in the middle. I prefer to meet them somewhere warm. After a NorthWest winter, I want to see and feel the warmth of the sun. My current plan includes driving to California for my Dads wedding in March, then heading over to Santa Cruz. We will show the kids the California coast, a few sights in Los Angeles, a trip over to the Grand Canyon and a few days in Albuquerque (where we will meet up with my cousin and his family). We will then take 3 days to drive back home to Seattle. We are planning on taking 2 weeks. My other big trip will only be realized if my cousin isn't moving until end of summer. I would like to drive the kids cross country. Taking 1 week each way and spending 5-7 days with the family.

Our other possible plans include camping on the Oregon coast and a few trips over to Eastern Washington. We've lived here almost 7 years and have never been to the other half of this state. Maybe we'll be so global as to finally get our passports and head up to Canada. It takes as long to get to Calgary as it does to get to Redding. Here's to plenty of travels in 2010 and many photos.

first airplane ride

We survived a 3 hour flight to St. Louis, MO. The background story is my husband, Marc, didn't want to go. He says it's a hole and never wants to go back. I, of course, want to see everywhere and really want to go. 12 hours before our flight, my husband was still trying to cancel our hotel. Secretly and outwardly, I was happy that he was unsuccessful.

We went to the airport 3 hours early. We needed to check 4 bags, 2 car seats and walk with 4 kids (ages 7, 5, 3 and 2). We ended up using curbside check-in. Saved us a lot of time and hassle dragging our bags. It was worth every penny. We took a 11 am flight so we had enough time to grab some breakfast and let the kids run off some steam. We boarded last and had a great flight. We managed to snag a free upgrade at Thrifty to the new Town and Country mini-van. The seats turned so that the kids could face each other. It was great fun and entertainment for them. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown St. Louis. We had a HUGE room with 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. The best part was we had a view of the Mississippi River and St. Louis Arch from our room. We found a great breakfast place about 2 blocks away at Panera Bread. It was non-smoking (smoking is still allowed in Missouri restaurants) and had great bagels that we could take with us everyday.

The sites - there is a lot to see and we only had 3 days. Unfortunately the timing and weather didn't allow us to go see a Cardinals game, but we will be back for that. We spent the first day sight-seeing. It was the nicest day of the trip. We viewed the museum at the base of the Arch. It is small and easy for the kids to see everything. We bought a ticket to the top of the arch and had time to do a riverboat cruise first. It was a beautiful bright day to ride on a paddle boat. The Mississippi was smaller than I thought, but it has a fast current and the driver had fascinating stories and facts to share with us. The beginning of April is a great time to go to Missouri as everything was relatively uncrowded. We went back to the Arch and got in line for our ride to the top. This is NOT for the claustrophobic people. The elevator is tiny!! It has 5 seats (we held our youngest on our lap) and is small enough that I had to lean forward to not hit my head. It crawls up slowly to the top. The top is very small. I never realized that I was afraid of heights until we were up there. The kids loved climbing the walls and leaning out over the windows that look down at the water and ground. The views of downtown were impressive, but after 10 minutes, I was ready to go. My family got a thrill out of watching me stand in the middle with my arms crossed and panic trying not to set in.

We drove around town and into Indiana for the rest of the day. We stopped at the Cahokia Mounds in Indiana and walked around for awhile. It was closed and would be more interesting to see the museum. We made a pilgrimage to White Castle for burgers. The kids and Marc LOVE them, I think they were pretty gross and opted to eat a few fries instead.

The next day we went to City Museum. For anyone with kids, this is the place to go. It is 4 stories of exploring for kids. The museum uses recycled products to make everything. There is a giant whale for them to climb in to get to the 2nd floor. There are paths and tunnels and slides everywhere. The bad part is trying to keep track of where they are. It is not a place to carry a bag because you need to crawl and stoop through many narrow openings if you are trying to keep track of them. The top floor has an art studio and a train. There is even a circus performance twice a day. There was a great outdoors area for them to explore (if it had been open). Due to rain and chance of thunderstorms, the outside was closed. We spent many hours here though. Afterwards, we went for pizza and got my coveted St. Louis toasted raviolis. They were delicious. We went to the Union Station mall after that. It looked wonderful online and is very pretty to see a converted train station. But in the end, it was just a mall.

The last day was reserved for Forest Park. An amazing HUGE park that has museums and the zoo. We could have spent all 3 days here. We didn't make it to any of the museums, but we spent 5 hours at the zoo. The zoo is free after paying $10 to park. We bought wristbands for the children's zoo, caroseul and train ride. We used our local zoo pass to get 1/2 off. The zoo has the BEST penguin exhibit I have ever seen. Also the hippo exhibit. The hippos have a glass wall to watch them swim underwater. They were swimming along the glass wall and pushing off to turn around. This scared my 2 year old, but was awesome to watch for the rest of us.

We flew home on a Saturday on an 8am flight. We didn't have the luxury of curbside check-in because our car rental was off site. But the driver was really great to carry our luggage over for us. We managed to get everything inside in one trip and hold on to all the kids. We got checked in and had time to grab coffee and pastries from Starbucks at the airport. We managed to sit behind the same man going both to and from St. Louis. The kids must have been really good because our flight wasn't full and he didn't ask to move. We had coloring books and puzzles for the younger two and our PSP and Nintendo DS for the older two. The movie was the same both ways and wasn't geared towards children. The way home felt a lot longer, but they did good. I am looking forward to more flights and vacations with them.

The only thing I would change would be getting suites when we travel. It would be nice to put them to bed and go into another room to read or watch TV without disturbing them. They all had a hard time falling asleep with the TV or lights on. And Marc and I weren't ready to turn in at 8pm each night.

sledding

We got a few days of snow this year. The first few times allowed enough snow to fall, look pretty and melt. The last time gave us enough snow to go sledding on our hill.

Our first sledding day was at a rock quarry outside of Granite Falls, WA. I was trying to get to a snow park, but the road was so icy and covered with snow that we didn't make it. We turned around and stopped at the rock quarry where we saw a lot of other people sledding. The walk up the hill was nice, but the actual sledding was more for teens and adults. We're talking a 60 degree slope down the hill. My older 2 barely made it up the hill. They came down so fast that neither wanted to do it again. We hiked back down the road and played in the snow with my Dad, Brother , his wife and their 2 year old triplets.


Two days later, we tried heading out to the snow park again. This time the road was clear. We made it to the end of the road and walked down the slippery closed road that has a nice hill to slide down. This snow park is actually a closed road. There were a lot of teenagers coming down the hill (2 at a time). They would get going so fast. We kids hiked up the hill several times and came flying down. We had to jump into the left lane to pull them off their sleds (occasionally) because the older kids would double up (meaning twice the speed) and catch up to ours. There were a few accidents, but nothing major. The snow was so deep that our 2 year old lost his boots a few times. When the snowboarders arrived (with their sharp edges) we decided to leave. Great place (Deer Creek Rd outside of Granite Falls, WA), but their are no bathrooms (a bit of a problem for the girls).

Our last and longest day sledding was just outside our house. Our hill is steep enough to get some good runs in and short enough for the kids to hike up quickly. We taught them how to roll off their sleds if they got too close to the cars parked on the side. When our hill gets snow and ice, it's impossible to drive out. The poor DHL man drove down the hill to turn around and never got back out. My kids sled until it was dark out and were cold to the bone. Great winter!!!