Hellllllooooooo

As Facebook and other social media outlets take over there seems to be a general downward trend in blog land... or at least a number of the blogs that I visit... as well my own personal blog. While it is far too easy to overlook the blog, truth is that I miss it. Or rather, I miss looking back at the memories. In order to be able to look back at the memories I must first jot them down.

Like starting the mower the first time of the season, it may take a couple of attempts. I make no promises, but I hope that I can blog more than once a year. :) So here we go!

The kids. Surprise, surprise, they are doing awesome! Truth is, they make this parenting gig pretty easy and I feel so blessed to be their mom. As kids do, they are growing like weeds. The girls are quickly turning into young adults. Spencer hit a winter long growth spurt and (shhhh) we believe he is officially taller than Abby. It's not been a huge deal around our house because truth is; he is going to be taller than all of us before we know it!

They all are thoroughly enjoying school. The girls have hit the magical year where they can become involved in numerous clubs... Student Council, BLAST Club, Tiger Explorers, Golden Sower Club, Sandoz Singers, and Orchestra. I often wonder how often they are IN class.

Their extracurricular activities keep us going on weeknights and weekends. We're enjoying a nice break in activities at the moment as the girls just wrapped up their 2nd winter swim season. Over the past year they had some really cool opportunities to meet and swim with Olympic swimmers Josh Davis & Kathleen Hersey. Most recently they had an opportunity to meet Kim Vandenberg as well. We're all really looking forward to attending the Olympic Swim Trials that will be held locally.

Abby has continued to show interest in basketball and recently tried out for a feeder team through our high school. We'll know soon if she made the cut or not... I'm not sure what we are hoping for. :) Ellie is super geared up for Triathlons and is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to participate over the summer. Both Abby & Ellie also had an opportunity to apply to join the XYZ Club (youth volunteer club) at our amazing Zoo and were selected. We get to find out more about this commitment very soon!

I think I also managed to skip blogging during the period where Abby managed to break her left arm/wrist then like 6 months later break her right arm/wrist. Upside... we now have an Orthopedic that we really like! Both incidents happened at times where we would have otherwise taken family photos. Needless to say, we still need to get "official" portraits taken.  Bubble wrap, anyone?

Spencer is really enjoying his school year as well. He has really blossomed into an amazing reader and he totally loves all things math.  His class was selected to participate in the Classroom Champions program given them the opportunity to hang out with Olympic swimmer Kim Vandeberg.  We're also enjoying a small break in his activities as his basketball season recently came to an end and baseball hasn't "officially" started... except that pre-season clinic we offered him. The dad of one of his basketball buddies was trying hard to recruit him to play in their soccer league this spring. Thankfully we came to our senses and opted out of that opportunity given the number of baseball games he will be playing. Perhaps fall soccer is a more likely option.

One of the coolest things, I think, is that they all are significantly more involved in Church. Not only are we physically attending more, but they truly have a vested interest in their involvement. It's been amazing to witness this unfold and to know that it is their thing, their desire. There are some really cool opportunities coming up this summer. I think it is safe to say that we are all excited about them.

Now onto the parents...

Carie continues to be a rock star at the "SAHM" gig in addition to providing childcare to the twins she has cared for the past (nearly) 9 years AND is in her 2nd academic year working as a Paraprofessional within our school district. She is a mom of many hats and wears them all quite well. She is also rockin’ this Pinterest thing and has discovered some delicious recipes that have received thumbs up from our kids.

For my day job, I continue to work outside the home as an IS Project Manager. Exciting, eh?

I'm thrilled that I was also given the opportunity to help coach our swim team this past season. It was a really cool opportunity and I'm looking forward to future seasons! I continue to be quite involved at school and am wrapping up my 3rd and final year as PTA President. While I've had a great experience in this role, Carie and I agree that term limits are a good thing. :) I was quickly reminded that I would be available to serve in another capacity and have been asked to be the PTA Treasurer. Time to shift hats! I'm also thrilled to have the honor in participating on an "under the radar" committee forming through leaders within our school district... I don't even know if we have an official name. LOL I am constantly blown away by the support and dedication our allies provide to ensure GLBT equality. This group is certainly all that and more. It would be really cool to be able to witness the movement and success of this group as our kids grow within this district.

Ready. Set. GO!

This is the the week that starts the craziness.

For a family that likes to not be over-committed, in this moment it feels like we have sure committed ourselves to A LOT for the long haul.

Sure, we are always on the go. We like to get out and do things and explore things... on a whim! When the calendar starts filling up I start to get overwhelmed. There's a lot less "on a whim" time!

I know a lot of families with way busier schedules than ours. It's not really a competition. We've intentionally avoided signing ourselves, our children, up for that intense schedule. I know it will all work out. I'm actually looking forward to every single element. It's just... cumulatively it kinda freaks me out right now.

So what's going on?

Swim team started this week. The girls are way excited and so are we. But this is a huge commitment! They have very lengthy practices 3x a week. During their practice Carie and I are able to get a good workout in, a bonus. Spencer and I also get some great time to hang out and shoot hoops together, something we really enjoy. Oh and then there's the swim meets that are one weekend (Saturday?) a month. I'm hoping we'll get these details soon!

Spencer starts swim lessons this weekend. He's SO excited because he gets to go up a level. We could have (should have?) taken the easy route and signed him up for the same place A&E are in swim team. But the swim team program is different than the swim lesson program and we REALLY like the place we've been taking lessons for years. The kids love it there and we love it there. So, we went back even though it will make things a little more challenging for the next 8 weeks.

This past weekend we were invited to a BBQ by some friends. It turned into a reunion of sorts. There were quite a few (same sex) families that we used to hang out with more frequently. We hang out with a few of those couples semi-regularly. But someone decided we should ALL get together more often, like we used to. So it looks like monthly events are in our future... we're hosting the next one. This would be optional, but it would be quite a bit of fun and it would be good for all of us.

We also just discovered that our girls are old enough to participate in the "Tween Scene" at our Church. Boy did that surprise us! Us? We have kids old enough? Why yes, yes we do! This group meets once a month for "fun, fellowship and mission projects". The first event (at camp) looks like tons of fun and totally something our kids would enjoy... which we fear will open us up to more events at this camp! But this will be a great family day! So I've added this recurring monthly event to my calendar. Gotta love how easy that is!

It's also (past) time to re-new our family membership to the Rose Theater (performing arts for children and families). Thankfully I'll get it submitted in time that we won't miss the first performance! But it's a GREAT family activity that our kids really enjoy. We'll get to go to 7 performance this season which is nearly 1 performance a month. So I've carefully selected our show dates and times and I'll hope for the best! (If you're keeping track, that's now 3 different events that each take up just 1 weekend day a month... in addition to swim stuff)

Tonight we'll sign up Spencer for early-bird basketball, which also means there's a 2nd round of basketball after that. He's SO looking forward to playing. That schedule is totally unknown. All I know is that we've got another 6 weeks before it starts... I think. Hopefully he'll go right from swimming lessons into basketball. It can be that easy, right?

Oh, and yes I almost forgot. The girls, Abby in particular, really want to join Girl Scouts. I've finally caved and sent an e-mail to the leader today to find out more details. I don't know how in the world we would do this, but I'm looking into it as promised.

Let's not forget that I continue to be the PTA President and I've got quite a few huge events planned for the academic year. It's really a rewarding position in that I get to plan and do things for our school. But it's a heck of a lot of work and far too many parents have no idea what we do for our students. I'm already feeling knee deep (heck, chest deep!) in this area and we're just getting started! There's just so many amazing ideas up in the air and so many things on my plate all at once. Once a few of those things get resolved I'll be good. I just need to make it through November! Thankfully I've got an amazing team of parents that will help pull it off. More events added to the calendar!

Oh and yes, Carie started a PT gig with our school district this academic year so our home schedule has shifted. It's all good, really really good! (Side note, unfortunately no- she's not making anymore $$ than she was before.) She has signed up for some classes through work. They are all really cool classes, they are all free to us, and they all provide credit towards what she does. She's really excited, as am I. Just one more thing added to the calendar.

But this weekend... THIS WEEKEND... we are taking a family trip to our favorite apple orchard. It better not rain! Oh and we'll also be watching college football, of course! And doing swim lessons, swim team & Church.

Labor Day Adventures

Labor Day weekend marks our last weekend of activity free-ness. That is... the final weekend before we begin running all over to get kids from point A to point B several times a week. Oddly though, it's a routine we are looking forward to.

While it was still busy (seriously though, when isn't it?), it was relaxing still the same.

The weekend got started a little early for us and I didn't waste much time getting starting on my mission. I was determined to (deep) clean at least a portion of our house. Thanks to Carie's hard work, our home is most often "clean" but there are just those rare tasks that often don't get attention or often go unnoticed. Well, I was starting to notice them and it was driving me nuts! What a great weekend to tackle such tasks. We could devote some of the weekend to cleaning and still have an extra day for fun! So I got a good start Friday afternoon/evening and then the plan was to continue our cleaning effort on Saturday morning. We didn't want to spend the entire day cleaning. But a good couple hours of solid elbow grease by all members of our family would certainly do wonders. Well, we (I) just kept going and going and going. One task lead into another. I'm sure Carie wasn't the least bit surprised! The kids were less than thrilled from the get go and a couple of them were less than helpful. But they enjoyed hanging out at home all the same. Abby was our most incredible helper, eager even! She had such a great attitude and she really made a difference in what we were able to accomplish. For all that, she earned some unexpected dough! That certainly drew some attention. :)

Saturday evening some friends came over to enjoy dinner and some good ol Husker football. This was a day we've all been looking forward to. It was great fun to watch the game with our friends and the kids had a blast hanging out and playing. Score for everyone!!!

After a late night, Sunday morning was pretty slow going. We were all up in time to make it to Church but opted to veg out instead. We did make it out for a yummy breakfast at Bruegger's. We're loving that the kids have become Bruegger's fans! That afternoon Ellie had a birthday party to go to so we opted to stick close to home, veg out, and have a stay at home day. The kids love stay at home days! That night Abby and I headed to a late showing of Nanny McPhee Returns. I figured it wasn't a school night and the girl is most often still awake at 10:30 anyways, so why not? She loved it! I think I just found my "movie buddy"!

We had big plans for Monday. All along we had planned on going to our favorite apple orchard. We would certainly pick apples, hopefully peaches, and possibly raspberries. Heck, we may have even made a trip out to the pumpkin patch! We would have certainly done the corn maze, visited the butterfly garden, and climbed the mounds of hay bales. I don't know why, but late Sunday afternoon I decided to check their hours and confirm that they were open only to find out that they are closed every Monday. Even more specifically, Labor Day Monday. Huge bummer! But I was oh so grateful that I checked before we made the long journey.

So we scrambled to come up with a plan B. Instead of risking our experience at a new orchard (after being so pumped up about visiting our favorite), we opted to make one last visit to the Lincoln Children's Zoo before they closed for the season. In the end this turned out to be an excellent choice as we discovered our favorite exhibit, the butterfly pavilion, would be closed after Labor Day. So we enjoyed a good long visit at the zoo and particularly enjoyed a good long visit in the butterfly pavilion.

After a full day at the zoo we headed back to Omaha just in time to hang out with some friends for a BBQ. Before we arrived I was tired and feeling ready to just head home after our long day. But I'm so glad we went! There were a lot more people there than we anticipated and we knew a lot more people than we anticipated. It was great fun for all of us! We got to sit back and chat with friends while the kids ran wild with their friends. I think at one point we counted 6 couples (2-mom families) and 12 kids ages 3ish - 9ish plus a couple other families that we didn't know.

As we were sitting outdoors enjoying each other's company we were also enjoying the cool front that had come through. While it was getting really dang chilly to be sitting outdoors without proper layers to keep warm, it was so nice to feel that fall weather come through. It was a good kinda cold! Though as soon as we got home we turned on our heated mattress pads! After getting Abby all set for her "star of the week" and getting the kids through their bedtime routine, we climbed into bed and enjoyed the heat! I just wish we could open up the house. Poor Ellie's allergies have gotten the better of her. So until the pollen levels ease up, we'll keep the house closed up in the hopes that it helps.

First Day of School... version 2010

What a big day!

Today marks the first day of 3rd grade for Abby & Ellie and the first day of Kindergarten for Spencer.

End of Summer = Big Change

I think this blog could definitely file for neglect.

As any family with young children, there's so much life to document. There are so so many thoughts bouncing around my head each and every day. Getting it down on the proverbial paper seems to have taken the backseat. Heck, even capturing our memories through photography has taken a backseat... and when I do take pictures they sit on the huge memory card indefinitely. Photography has been a passion of mine and yet I feel as if I need a jump start. I know what triggered this funk... I just can't seem to get my groove back.

Since I last wrote (ahem, nearly 6 months ago) Abby & Ellie wrapped up their year as 2nd graders and Spencer completed his final days as a pre-schooler, complete with a graduation ceremony. Carie wrapped up another year of volunteering at school. Saying "goodbye" to our teachers continues to be difficult. This year may have been the hardest yet. I wrapped up my first year as the PTA President and found myself elected to continue those duties for another year. It is quite rewarding to be involved at school on this level, if not also challenging and time consuming.

In early May both Abby & Ellie opted to join a local swim team for their summer season, which then quickly consumed our life with a lengthy practice 3 days a week and a longer swim meet on a 4th day. It was an amazing experience for all of us. They love swimming so much, it was incredible to watch their progress and witness their joy. We get a short break in August and the Fall/Winter swim team starts up again in early September. The girls are already looking forward to the next season. Oddly, we are already looking forward to getting back into that routine.

Spencer played baseball during the spring season and absolutely loved it. We've opted to skip the fall season (unbeounced to him) in favor of keeping our month of August totally activity free. Though now I'm feeling horribly guilty about this decision.

All three kiddos had a birthday this spring. Spencer turned 5 in late April and the girls turned 8 in early June.

To celebrate Spencer's birthday we had a combo friend and family birthday party at a nearby activity center. We love going to this place and having his party there was a huge hit.

To celebrate Abby & Ellie's birthday we had a special adventure! They each invited a friend to hang out with on their special day. We went horseback riding, played miniature golf, did mani's and pedi's, had a bonfire, and had a sleepover. All four girls had an absolute blast hanging out with each other. I'm so glad we went this route over a larger party. We then held a family party for them at my Grandma's retirement center. While my Grandma thinks she can get around our house with all of our stairs, we think differently. It was super nice to use a room at her facility that had easy access and a large enough room for all of our guests. And to be totally honest, setup and cleanup was more than a piece of cake!

Our summer is about to wrap up. All school registration is this afternoon, open house is next Monday, and their first day of school is on Wednesday. We've had such a great summer that I don't want it to end. I do look forward to the end of the summer season, if only we could continue their break and our family time. We are busy over the summer doing fun summer camps and such. But there's something about sending them into the next grade that isn't desirable for me.

Speaking of summer camps, it was another successful summer. We typically have a full week-ish off at the start of summer and a full week-ish off at the end of summer but everything in the middle is booked with activities. Outside of their camps and activities, we also get to do other fun family activities... Library reading program, Royals Baseball games, big zoo, little zoo, our Children's Museum, Lincoln Children's Museum, Activity Center, Splash Parks here and here, Papio Bay, Mahoney Water Park, Bowling, Go Carts, etc... While there were many things I think we wish we would have done, I think we had a fabulous summer as a family!

All the kids were able to participate in our districts "summer school" (summer camp) program. I wish they would call it something other than "summer school" because it's not at all like their other (more mandatory) "summer school" program. This was Spencer's first year of eligibility and he was thrilled to be able to participate with the older kids. It's totally a fun summer program where they can take enrichment type classes in science, music, Spanish, math, etc... This program is held at a new "host" elementary school each summer. It's just a morning program over the course of a few weeks and it's very reasonably priced, which we love.

The next couple of weeks were dedicated to swimming lessons at our High School. Since Abby & Ellie were swimming so much with swim team, they opted to take the spectator role this round. Spencer was so incredibly pleased with himself that he passed his level and gets to move onto level 3! Of course, he wanted to start that "right now".

Then Abby & Ellie got to participate in a Totally Cool Math & Science Camp through UNO. They were so excited about this opportunity. This was quite possibly the highlight of their summer. We drove by the night before to check out directions and parking. As we turned onto campus the girls’ eyes got REALLY huge. It was then that they realized they were "going to college" (their words). We've talked all along about how it would be at UNO but it became quite clear that they didn't really know what that meant. Abby thought it would be at another elementary school like her other summer camp. We were then bombarded with hilarious (but very real to them) questions. They were clearly a little (more than) nervous! Thankfully they seemed satisfied with all of our answers and drop off the next morning went very smooth for all of us. At the end of the day they were so excited they were bouncing off the walls. Needless to say, they had an amazing week. They think they are hot stuff now that they've gotten to go to college. Thankfully for us, as incoming 3rd graders, they could only participate in one class. But next year there are 18 camp options. They are going to have to make some tough decisions!

Last week was all about Spencer and his "camp". Our elementary school was awarded a grant that allowed them to offer a Jump Start to K program. All incoming K's were invited to participate. It was a very short afternoon program that allowed him an opportunity to spend time with his teacher (whom he already knows) and his classmates. While they got to do some school work, they also got to enjoy all the perks of going out for recess, snack time, and play time in the classroom. While we believe he is totally ready for K, we thought it was a great opportunity to meet some friends before that big first day. He seemed to really love going to Jump Start once he got there, but the first few days he would say "I don't want to go today" or "I'm taking today off". We think he just didn't want to leave the other kids and whatever fun they were having without him.

Somewhere in there we found a perfect time to dedicate a long weekend towards a family vacation. We got out of town but stayed close to home. Limiting our drive time seemed ideal and something we appreciated when we were en route and heard "are we there yet" numerous times. We got to spend a fair amount of time swimming at the hotel, a huge plus for our kids. We enjoyed a full day at Adventureland and a couple of days at the Science Center. Total kid vacation. Making them happy makes me happy.

But now, like it or not, it's about time to move onto the next chapter. Abby & Ellie are headed (full force) into 3rd grade and Spencer is headed to Kindergarten. All three of our kiddos are full time elementary students. How did that happen?

Thankfully, for us, they are all super excited about going back to school. The girls love school so much; it makes our jobs as parents easy! Spencer is really looking forward to being a Kindergartner and we think he'll share his sisters’ love for school as well.

With all the kids in school full time, Carie has taken the opportunity to find work outside the home. She was very fortunate to get hired on for a part time gig in our school district which will allow her to be available before school, after school, and during school breaks to continue to be the awesome SAHM that she has been for the past 8 years.

Zoo Pics

What a beautiful day to go to the zoo... and enjoy the outdoor exhibits!

Field Trip Time

It's that time of year! Spencer's preschool class went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch/farm and Abby & Ellie's class went on a field trip to the Children's Museum.

The moon and stars all aligned and both Carie and I got to go on Spencer's field trip. We were also successful in taking pics that I'll post below. While it was a little chilly on the day of the field trip, we all had fun! And since I'm a veteran field trip goer, I knew that we needed to bring our winter gear. As we were walking out the door I'm not sure Carie believed me. But once we got to the farm she understood and wished she had grabbed her warmer gear.

A week later, the day of Abby & Ellie's field trip was incredibly crazy but we somehow made it possible for Carie to go along. Carie had every intention of taking pics but unfortunately the camera got left behind. She felt bad and wished she was able to get a pic of Ellie as she was a volunteer in the science exhibit. The photo op was when she practically got swallowed by "Stuffy"... a giant 7' tall stuffed person with a zippered in his chest... as she was trying to locate his lungs.

At the farm... Spencer was thrilled to be able to hold many many little friends, hang out with his hands down most favorite teacher (out of the 7) Miss K, play in the corn, mooo at the cows, ride on bikes, and his favorite thing of all was to swing in the tire swing.

Reconciling The Expense Of Texting

Yesterday afternoon we finally had Abby & Ellie's 7 year well check... just a couple of months late.

The crazy thing is that we had it scheduled for shortly after their birthday. Then with all the craziness of the accident and subsequent appointments we cancelled. Because seriously, we had enough other appointments scheduled that we didn't need this on our plates. Right? Ultimately, it didn't matter! We should have just done it back then. Over the past couple of weeks we have had no less than 3 appointments a week, plus school events, plus PTA events, now school is back in session and soccer started last night. Craziness!

So during the appointment their Pediatrician and I are chatting about various things while the girls were being shy, silly, and pretending to be their guinea pigs. The shyness was because they absolutely did not want to go, even though they knew there wouldn't be shots. According to Ellie "you just never know what surprises there may be". I get why Abby didn’t want to go, she is just done with appointments. I can’t blame her.

So at some point in the conversation I was trying to casually clarify a slight concern with their Ped so she understood what angle our concern was coming from. A couple of months ago we were going to call in and discuss this with the Ped prior to the appointment so we weren’t bringing it up in front of the girls. Then on the way to the appointment yesterday Carie happened to remember this plan of a couple of months ago. Ooops! We decided it wasn’t the big deal that it seemed to be a few months ago, but we would still casually make note of it. Amazing how things change in a matter of a couple of months!

As the Ped and I were talking I mentioned something about how it doesn't do any good to spell out the words, which didn’t surprise her in the least. I then said that we've been through a phase where we would omit vowels and our most recent tactic was spelling words backwards. All of that would work if we were trying to fool Spencer who is a full 3 years younger, but nothing works with the girls anymore. The Ped laughed and said she hadn't thought about omitting vowels before.

Then without knowing it, she gave me a great tip! She said that we'll have to text each other!

Now I'm sure this isn't a new revelation to a lot of people. However, we are too cheap to pay for a data package, thus we don't text, and thus this simple option never occurred to us.

But perhaps we should realize that we are in fact trying to teach them to be smarter than us and ultimately we aren’t going to be able to get anything past them. So perhaps we should at least consider the options of the 21st Century!

Or we could continue to humor ourselves and try to outwit them.

The appointment itself was fairly non-eventful. The traditional height, weight, blood pressure, etc… Every single ear looked fantastic… a first! Anything else of concern we are already addressing with specialist or have upcoming appointments where we will address with a specialist.

Three Week Recap

A busy and fun summer... as usual.

The weekend of June 26th, 27th 28th...
Friday was the last day of the kids’ FUN summer school. I think they (and we) were all bummed when it came to an end. It was a 3 week mini-morning session and they got to do a lot of fun things! They are already talking about going again next year.

Friday night we got our babysitter and her best friend to come over and hang out with our kids and our friend’s kids. Our master plan was to take our friends out for an adult evening in appreciation for all that they have done for us. They truly made a difference while we were in the hospital. After a superb evening we returned to pick up the kids and headed up to our Church lawn to watch some incredible fireworks that were being set off at a nearby park. We arrived just in time, the weather was incredible, and the kids had a blast. We enjoyed the fireworks and continued to enjoy watching the kids run around and have fun. It was another late night!

Saturday we went to Spencer's t-ball game and then we spent the afternoon swimming at the Y. Sunday after Church and lunch the girls had a friend come over to hang out. That evening we had our neighbor friends over for dinner to thank them for all they've done over the past several weeks. More great company and another late night.

Independence Day Weekend...
We took a "mini vacation". We decided that instead of spending money on blowing up fireworks and hosting a BBQ as we have in the past, we would do something that we KNEW that Abby could fully participate in and enjoy. We haven't setup our swimming pool yet... and probably won't because we are concerned about sun exposure and burning.

So we went downtown (which feels like out of town to us) and stayed at a brand new hotel with a really cool indoor mini-water park. The rooms were really inexpensive, spacious (2 king beds with a lot of room!), clean, comfy, and a great location to all that we wanted to do. The water park was just the right size to enjoy swimming, hot tubing, and sliding on the huge body slide. We also got to spend some fun time at the Farmers Market, Heartland of America Park, Lewis and Clark Landing, the Pedestrian Bridge. We attempted to watch a huge firework show on Friday night but rain changed those plans. We did meet up with some friends on Saturday evening and enjoyed an awesome firework show. It was so much fun watching the fireworks and watching our kids enjoy it all.

After hearing how things went in our neighborhood this weekend, I think we'll be considering going this route in future years!

Last weekend... July 10th, 11th & 12th
All the kids finished up with swimming lessons on Friday. Spencer is now officially in Level 2. Long (but good) story there. The girls passed Level 4 and get to move onto Level 5. YAY! I decided to take Friday off due to a funeral that morning but at the last minute we all decided to go to memorial the night before. So I got to watch their last lesson and got to see first hand the huge progress they all had made from the week before. It is amazing seeing the girls stacked up against all these BIG kids. They were easily the youngest in their class... by a solid 2 years.

After a late lunch with some friends we decided on the spur of the moment that we would go to Lincoln to visit Great Grandma. While Spencer has been to her new place, the girls haven't. So we went home, got cleaned up, packed up, and headed to Lincoln. We managed to get in town in time for a quick trip (our first of the season) to the Children's Zoo! Then we visited with Great Grandma for a good couple of hours. Our visit was a total surprise to her and we had a good time visiting with her. We then headed back home. Another late night!

Saturday was another full day with yard work, birthday party, t-ball game, grocery shopping, carpet re-cleaning, a swim party, a play date. Then ultimately Carie and I ended up having the house to ourselves for nearly 3 hours in the evening, quite an unusual occurrence. Once the kids all returned home at about 8:30, we started a bon fire.

Sunday was our planned trip to CoCo Key Water Resort to make up for the trip we couldn't take on their birthday. As expected, we closed the place down.

More adventures this weekend... stay tuned.

Gymnastics Love

To say that they are enjoying gymnastics would be an understatement.

They asked me to take pictures last night. So here they are! The parent area is off of the gym rooms and unfortunately large glass windows separate us.

Abby & Ellie are in one room and Spencer is in another room. We setup camp in the corner and can watch all three of them do their thing. Every now and again they look over at us with the biggest smile ever and we exchange a thumbs up.

Spencer went right into class again without looking back. He did grab a teachers hand for their first activity, but that is what she did the first week and I think he really likes her. It appears that the feelings are totally mutual. Historically he’s wanted us to participate in his events and having us watch on the sidelines hasn’t been acceptable to him. Perhaps he is getting over that phase? He’s totally growing up!

After class last night one of Abby & Ellie’s teachers sought us out to tell us how they love our girls and how they are “good seeds”. It was really sweet of her!

Google & God

Conversation at the breakfast table...

Mom, what is the Erie Canal?

Carie: Well, its a place, but I don't know much about it. We should go google it.

What's google?

Carie: It's a computer company that has created a way to research questions on the internet. You type in your question and they give you a bunch web sites to answer your question.

Ellie: A bunch of answers...it's like GOD!

Abby: ... except you can see it.

Pacific Northwest 2009... In Text

Just the other night as I was working with the girls on their homework... trying to wrap up on the work that they missed. It was then that I realized that I needed to get the basics of the trip written down before I forget. I haven't even gotten to the pictures yet!

About the homework though... we had high hopes of getting it all done before we even left. Especially since they had a couple days off of school! We knew that we would all be tired and it would be hard to get back into routines upon our return. But it just didn't happen. Sure, we could have made it happen but it just didn't and it will all be good. Their teachers had absolutely no worries about them missing a few days of school! Thank goodness they had a great start on their homework (a great way to kill airport time!) but there were still several more pages to complete.

After book club we sat down with them and they knocked out their regular homework (to stay current) and several more pages from what they missed last week. It didn't take all that long and we called it quits come dinner time. They were able to turn in their entire folder by the end of the week. Unfortunately we didn't get to these pages before we left! We discovered that part of the material covered last week tied right into our vacation and the things we experienced. At least we were able to say "remember when we saw.... ". Made for great conversation!

So what did we see and do???

Saturday (Valentine's Day) was our day to fly out. Our tickets were booked for a late flight but we managed to fly standby and got in about 3 1/2 hours earlier. Thank goodness! The airplane flights and the train ride (Seattle airport) are tops on Spencer's list of favorite things we did. And the final hour-ish of the flight into Seattle would be the only time that the boy slept on any part of our travels. And slept he did! He was so passed out that I carried him through the airport, on the train ride, and all the way to baggage claim where he slept and slept and slept while we sorted out our luggage deal and van rental.

Sunday - Carie, Spencer & I took care of baggage stuff at the airport (giving the boy extra airport time) and exchanged our van rental while Grandpa, Yia Yia and the girls went to Tumwater Falls. After lunch we dropped off extra vehicles at Carie's Granddad's house and then we began our journey to the beach! That afternoon just before sunset we pulled off in Lincoln City to have our first of many beach experiences. We were all in heaven! We then stopped for dinner in Depoe Bay before heading onto the final destination... our beach/house rental in Newport.

Monday - The great thing about the time change was that sleeping in still meant a great start to the day! After breakfast Grandpa and I took the kids to the nearby beach while Carie and her mom made a quick trip to the store to beef up our food supplies. After spending the morning at the beach we had lunch and moved onto more adventures.

After lunch we visited the park with the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. With the nice weather we kept our adventures outdoors. We timed our arrival such that we could explore the natural tidepools. Walking on the lava rocks at Cobble Beach was also way cool. While it was hard work walking across the rocks, it was a really cool experience. As Yia Yia put it, the rocks talked to you as you walked on them. We opted to visit the lighthouse the next day when the weather was more questionable.

Next stop was "old town" Newport. I'd also refer to it as their Pier. I'm not sure what it is officially called. We were entertained by enormous sea lions yapping at each other and their onlookers, the masses of boats, shops, and a fish processing place. We watched guys bring in tons of fish, saw the fish go through some washing process (slimy!) and fly off this conveyer belt into huge bins, then saw forklifts moving those bins all around. Fascinating stuff... but the smell was overwhelming to say the least.

Carie and Spencer then went back to the house to rest. I offered to stay back with him but she insisted! This would be the only day of the entire trip that he would nap. The nap was a good thing! While they were resting we took the girls over to The Port of Newport Public Fishin Pier where people were crabbing. That was quite fascinating. They got to see folks loading up their baskets with bait, tossing them in, checking on them, etc... At the end of the dock there was a group of guys (likely drunk) sitting back, shooting the breeze, and waiting for their catch. In front of them they had several star fish that they had caught and didn't (but should have) release. The girls were of course instantly attracted! The guys quickly caught onto this and offered them up to the girls. Uh... no! After several more trips to check out these star fish they return with the littlest (and cutest) one in hand. It looks quite... well... not with us. Yia Yia agrees to hold onto it for now and the girls are over the moon excited. They also saw several other folks catch star fish in their baskets and throw them back in.

We then ended up at the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center. This was a pretty cool place! We happened to talk to one of the volunteers about this star fish and after a great Q&A dialogue we decided that it was still best to return it to its home. The girls were quite sad to say the least. Ellie (all teary eyed) asked the volunteer if we could give the star fish to her to take care of. Unfortunately they had plenty of star fish and didn't need any more. So we proceeded through the museum and enjoyed many of the exhibits. One of my favorite memories from this place will be Abby and the crabs. There was a huge tank with a few huge fish in it and at the bottom was a lone crab. Abby knelt down next to the tank and started talking to the crab. She was talking to it and doing some crazy hand motions. Next thing I know the crab is responding to her! The crab got up on its back claws and was totally interacting to Abby. After they had interacted with each other for a good long while Abby moved on to check out other things. Then Abby got Ellie's attention and they both went back to check out the crab. Abby showed Ellie how she talked to the crab the first time and the crab was quick to respond again. They both had so much fun!

After the marine center closed we took our star fish friend and returned him to the water. Then we headed back to the shop area to give Abby & Ellie a chance to spend their vacation and allowance money they had brought. Then it was time to call it a day! We returned to the house, vegged, played, grilled dinner, played some more and called it a night. The kids had so much fun playing hide and seek! It was so nice that they could run around and just be kids!

Tuesday - After breakfast we made our way back to the park where the Yaquina Head Lighthouse is located. We looked around the grounds a bit and spotted a Bald Eagle, one of many that we spotted throughout the trip. Then we headed inside the light house to catch the tour that was about to begin. It was quite a fascinating tour! As part of the tour we got to climb all the way to the top of the light house. The guide was really great with our kids (the only kids there). He engaged them and asked them questions, questions that they were able to answer. Surprised the pants off some of the other visitors. One thing he said that they thought was so exciting (and had nothing to do with the actual light house) was that "you are smarter than most 12 year olds". Man they thought that was funny and they didn't forget it for a good long while.

The day was a bit overcast (and we were looking for a little less walking than the day before) so we took a little trip up to Tillamook to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had been there before and while it doesn't sound all that thrilling, the kids have a fantastic time. They still talk about all the different parts of the cheese process. Even better, we get to enjoy the absolute best cheese and ice cream! Oh man that ice cream is the best! Too bad it doesn't travel well... but thank goodness cheese does! Oh man it is so good.

That afternoon we stopped at another beach on our way home. The kids collected some fantastic shells (nearly filling their buckets) and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the sun set while the waves crashed against the coastal line. It was here that Grandpa wrote the kids names in the sand (Spencer always had a stick!) and they watched the water come up and wash them away. Grandpa would tell the kids that the ocean was taking their name and would always remember them. Spencer especially thought this was way cool.

We picked up some pizza for dinner and headed back to the house for the night. The kids played another exciting round of hide and seek.

Wednesday - This is the morning I don't want to ever forget. After breakfast we loaded up the van to begin the next phase of our journey. I would have loved to have stayed longer, but 3 nights on the coast is all that we had time for. Before heading out we stopped at a beach we had been meaning to get to over the prior days. The sun was out and the sky was beautiful. This was our final ocean experience of the trip, a time to say goodbye for now. Abby had been begging to take her sandals off and if there was a time to do it, this was the time. She quickly learned that it was still too cold to walk barefoot! Seriously though, the Pacific Ocean - especially Pacific Northwest - is not a prime place to go wading... any time of year. But that didn't stop them from pushing the boundaries and going in farther and farther each time the waves came in. All was okay since we had clean and dry pants, socks and shoes at the ready. They were in the ocean and loving it! They didn't seem to mind the frigid temps! Their lips didn't seem to turn blue. Ellie wasn't so sure about getting in; after all it was cold, wet, and dirty. All things she cares about. Then Abby started dancing in the ocean because really she could care less about the wet and dirty part. I could have stood there and watched her for hours on end. She was having the time of her life!

Then at some point the tide started to turn and the water came up farther. We were all moving back up the beach... to stay on the dry side of the water’s edge. The kids knew the drill and they were paying attention. They were running to stay on top of the water. Then Spencer fell and Carie ran in and got him... one more person with wet shoes, socks and (slightly wet) pants. Carie was thrilled! Just as we were wrapping up and getting ready to go Abby fell (and recovered nicely) and ended up soaked herself. Neither one of them cared much that they got so soaked. Though the process of getting everyone into dry clothes is a time that I will very happily forget.

After saying goodbye to the ocean we were on our way. Next stop Grandpa & Yia Yia's house! But on the way we stopped at a park to see Multnomah Falls... the 2nd highest year-round waterfall in the United States. It was a beautiful park with an incredible waterfall. While the kids did super fantastic on every leg of our travels, that was a nice break in the drive.

Thursday - Grandpa & Yia Yia gave us a scenic tour where we got to see a portion of the Oregon Trail followed by a trip to the Columbia River and the McNary Dam. I also loved hearing Spencer talk about the Umatilla River. That afternoon the kids enjoyed vegging out, playing Webkinz hide and seek and reading. They also sorted through their sandy and smelly beach buckets. They set all their shells and drift wood out on benches to evaluate and select the precious few to take home. Yia Yia plans on packing up the rest to mail to us! That evening we had a great home cooked meal. Then we assisted the kids in glazing some special ceramic pieces that Yia Yia picked out for them from Carie's Granddad's place.

Friday - After sleeping in a bit and having a fantastic breakfast we loaded up to begin our journey back to Seattle. En route we stopped at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. The kids had a fantastic time feeding the fish and ducks. There were tons of salmon and even more empty tanks. The weather was wonderful, the sun was shining, the grounds were green and beautiful. This was a really cool place to stop and stretch.

Saturday - We checked out of our hotel and headed to Pike Place Market and on the way we spotted the Space Needle (of particular interest to Abby). It was fun to walk through the market with the kids and they each collected new and very cool souvenirs.

That afternoon it was time to begin our journey home. By about 2 - 2:30 we made it to the airport to return the van. Our flight left at 5:00 Pacific Time. With a short layover in Denver our flight was scheduled to land in Omaha at 12:09 am Central Time. We were on time if not a bit early on all our flights that evening.

Sunday – A total lounge day! We all slept in. We vegged out and caught up on our favorite shows that we missed. The kids took marathon baths, played, read, and simply relaxed. We left the luggage alone... after all most everything was clean! I was happy to leave all the sand and smelly ocean water in Oregon. Or so we thought! We opened up the container with their selected shells and the odor was amazing.

Throughout the entire trip Spencer's favorite words were strange and gross. Try it; you can use them in almost any sentence!

Almost a week later and I just downloaded all the photos... all 651 of them! It didn't feel like I took that many. After looking through them pretty quickly I noticed quite a few pics taken from a small child perspective. I can't wait to go through them to make our selections for our album.

Valentine's Day Party... First Grade Style

Being the 1st grade parent chairperson thingamawhatever... I (and by association Carie) got to be highly involved in their Valentine's Day party today. We were fortunate enough to arrange a playdate with Spencer and his neighbor friend. It was really good for him and fantastic for us.

We had a party planning meeting a few weeks ago and had a great parent turnout, lots of ideas, lots of help, and lots of donations. I was blown away by the donations! We have money to spend on the 2 parties we get to have. We didn't spend a dime of that allotted money! We are going to have a crazy awesome curriculum party come April!

But today's party for Valentine's Day rocked. The kids had so much fun. They didn't want to rotate to the next station... there were four stations total. They didn't want the party to end. One friend said "this is the best memory ever!" Awww! That was so sweet!

The parents, oh my gosh the parent help was incredible. The smiles on their faces and all the laughing was so so wonderful. The teachers seemed to have a great time... and the smiles on their faces when we took the leftovers to the teachers’ lounge were priceless! Gotta take care of those teachers!

On our way out we dropped off a container of cookies to the K teachers. Carie was hoping to make frosting but it just wasn't in the cards this week. They said that they heard our party was the best ever. LOL... the party hadn't ended but just 30 minutes ago! I'm like seriously... the party just got over! How is it already dubbed "the best ever" and how do you know about it already? Word travels fast!

As Carie and I were walking out to the van I said I think we just hosed ourselves. Where do you go from "best ever"?

Now onto Habitats! I have to say, I'm not all jazzed up about a Habitat party. I was hoping for Space! But the moon, the stars and the teaching schedule just didn't align. :)

Proud Moms

We had another round of parent teacher conferences last night. Carie and I both like to attend sans kids so we tested out a new sitter option. After getting off to a rocky start (she forgot!), all was well. She is a bit younger than we typically go for sitters, but there is great potential there. The kids also know her quite well and they were stoked to hear that she was coming over to stay with them. We thought a couple of hours would be a great test!

I very much enjoy having their conferences scheduled back to back! But that also proves challenging as you shuffle from one teacher to the next while trying to shift those mental gears.

As usual we start off with any questions or concerns that we have and then move into reviewing the teacher’s assessment. While nothing shocking was revealed it is quite nice to have that dialogue with their teachers as we always pick up some background info on the tasks that they are doing.

We then popped in to meet and greet a 3rd teacher by recommendation of their regular teachers. This quick conversation got Abby & Ellie on her radar and provided some valuable information to us.

Then we took inventory of all the donated items for their Valentine's Day party that is tomorrow. Wow we have some generous 1st grade parents. Then we headed towards the door.

But of course we then run into the K teachers who are always great to chat with. They are so funny! Two of the teachers were there to start with and the first thing they asked was where was their frosting (and cookies). Soon after the third teacher came around the corner and asked... where’s the cookies? We had a great conversation and then finally hit the road.

I’m sure I’ve said this before and I’m sure I’ll say it again… I absolutely love our school. I am sad that we had a Principal change from last year to this year, but we knew that was coming. So far we’ve had nothing but a fantastic experience with the teachers and support staff.

After finally leaving school we went and grabbed a quick bite to eat, stopped by a store to see if we could find a magna doodle (you wouldn't believe how difficult this was!), and then headed home.

All was well on the home front. They ate, played, the house was still clean, they were in jammies, had brushed their teeth, had read books and were even in bed (not asleep). They weren't really supposed to be in bed yet as it was a bit too early for them. We’ll just have to be more specific on the instructions next time.

All in all… a great night!

Going On A Jet Plane

And the roof of this house is about to blow off with all of the excitement!

There are so many reasons we shouldn't be doing this... so so many. But after a couple of days of intense deliberation we concluded that it was an opportunity that we couldn't pass up. An opportunity to take this entire trip within the range of what regular priced airline tickets would cost. Not the most responsible decision but sometimes you've got to live outside the box.

It also feels like a higher power has led us down this path. There are so many things that have fallen into place and so many things that have happened recently for this to not be the case. The timing of it all has to be orchestrated! The timing of so many of the circumstances is huge! More importantly, we have to trust in that.

After getting our biggest responsibilities taken care of and securing the tickets we shared our exciting news with the kids. Perhaps we should have waited!?!? We had to tell them sometime since we leave in just a few short weeks! Since breaking the news to them they have been bouncing off the walls.

● They can hardly sit to eat.
● They can't stand still (within a 5' radius) to hold a conversation.
● Within 10 minutes of hearing the news they decided what they were going to pack.
● Spencer has decided that he is afraid of "being up high". I concur!
● Ellie came down (out of bed) to tell us she had "so many (exciting) dreams that she couldn't choose what to dream about". LOL
● There was a discussion between Spencer, Carie and I about airplanes having restrooms and how he could go potty and (emphasis) poopy on the airplane if needed. He then told us all about "potty parachutes". Ick!
● They were so excited they couldn't choose what to eat for breakfast.
● Every conversation and question is now about flying. It is rare to not have a conversation about flying every 3 minutes of every day.
● Spencer is convinced that the airplane is going to come down our street, pick us up, and fly us straight to Seattle. Wouldn't that be nice!
● They are locating all our toy planes in the house and wondering if "this" is the kind of plane we'll be flying on.
● Spencer: "Momma, where's Ellie? Maybe she's on an airplane?"
● Spencer: (Insert whine) "Momma, I really want to go on an airplane." Repeat every 30 seconds.
● Spencer: "What's that sound? Is that the airplane?"
● As we are driving in the newly fallen snow Spencer inquires about the runway. He's concerned that the plane won't be able to fly if there is snow on the runway. Carie tells him that the airport has big snow plows to keep the runway clear and safe. They have a lengthy conversation about this topic. Ultimately Spencer decided they must have a "gigantic hairdryer" and it will all be good.
● We've also discussed seating arrangements! It seemed important for them to know well in advance that they could not choose where they got to sit on the plane.
● Mom, can we sleep on the plane? Absof'nlutely! I won't believe it until it happens though!

Needless to say we are all quite excited about this opportunity. It is so fun to witness their excitement. It feels somewhat spontaneous and that is exciting for both Carie and I. It will all come together in short order... because it has to.

Kid Activity Hiatus

The month of January (with 2 full weekends still ahead of us) has been filled with family activities. We’ve had some new experiences and some of our old favorite experiences. So far we've been ice skating a couple of times, swimming, and roller skating. It has been really nice to have this hiatus from typical kid activities and schedules to do fun family things... active things. Never fear though, the kid activities kick into high gear come mid March!

Ice skating has been our new experience this season. The kids were really excited to give this a try and it has been great fun. We go to an activity center that offers great opportunity to run, jump, climb, slide, and everything you can imagine to burn up their energy. Then in the winter they also offer ice skating. We can easily spend 4-5 hours there at a time!

Carie was reluctant to go skating and I thought she was brilliant in holding back. I wanted her to skate if she wanted to. But she was a bit nervous and worried as it seems that the Walles women can jack up their backs without effort. I offered to take the kids skating under one condition, they had to take turns. I'm very much a novice on skates myself and I couldn't imagine all 3 of them hanging on me all at once. We compromised and I started out with Abby & Ellie. They rocked! They didn't really even need my help. I gave them a few tips that I was figuring out as I attempted to stay standing on my own skates. They took those tips and they were off. Their independence shines through again!

I went around the rink a time or two to help out with my own comfort level before getting the boy out on the ice. It was all his idea to go skating and he was adamant about giving it a try. Once out on the ice he insisted that I "hold my hips momma!" Now, he's a very tall boy but I'm also on the tall side and (my back) could have benefited from being a bit shorter. But hold on to his "hips" I did and he had a blast. I think his favorite parts were wearing the skates, stomping on the ice (in his skates), sitting on the ice, and groovin' in his skates off the ice.

Our 2nd attempt at skating went even better. Carie opted to join us this time and she did fantastic. The girls stepped out on the ice and took off where they left off the prior week. It was truly amazing to see them do so well. Spencer did fantastic and I didn't even have to hold his hips! My back praised him! He often requested to go faster and then we'd hear him yell "I'm a big kid now".

I'm sure the girls' had their fair share of falling but it didn't seem to faze them. Carie didn't fall at all. I managed to fall once on each of our trips and man, those are hard falls. The first weekend I fell just as Spencer and I were about to get off the ice. We were near the exit and suddenly I was on the ground. It happened so fast I have no idea what happened. The second weekend I again was doing just fine until the end. I had decided that I'd skate until the break (10ish minutes) when they were getting the Zamboni out. Ellie and I were skating along together when she made a sudden move and cut right in front of me. Next thing I know I'm on the ice and I feel the back of my head hit the ice. My sunglasses flew off and landed about 3' behind me. Man that hurt! I helped Ellie get up and then I made my way to the exit. I was done for the day. Both Abby & Ellie though, they skated their hearts out. We had to practically peel them off the ice when it was time for the place to close. While both of the girls have really enjoyed skating it seems to really hit home for Abby. It is so fun to watch them enjoy and excel at something so new.

A lot of pictures for your enjoyment... all taken the first weekend. Ellie is in the pink hat and Abby is in the green hat.