Westport Camping Trip... Kind Of A Nightmare

We have been gone for pretty much the past 2 weeks camping around beautiful western Washington.  We started our adventure a couple weeks ago at Westport with my parents.  My dad loves the ocean, and so do I... not so great out in a boat in the ocean (I do not have sea legs) but I love the smell of it, the wind, and I love when it is actually sunny on the coast!

We left Friday after Kyle got home from work and right before we left, I noticed that Little man felt warm.  I gave him some Tylenol just in case, and then packed the kids up, hooked up the trailor and off we went.  Well, accident after accident, it took us almost 4 hours to get there.  We had some super cranky little ones, and exhausted parents.  Luke refused to sleep in the car so as soon as we got hooked up at the campground, Kyle took Blake down to the beach so that I could get Luke to sleep... what happened next is what set the tone for the entire trip.

I fed Luke a bottle, and we were laying on my bed, and then all of a sudden... projectile vomit EVERYWHERE....my bed, the floor (even went in the heater vent) the bathroom door, the sink, and all over me.  got to love a mixture of Gatorade and hole milk all over everything... it was like pink goo.  I quickly called Kyle and had him come back and help me clean everything up, and we got a game plan down.  A quick dose of more Tylenol and rocking to sleep finally got him out.

My parents got there later that night, and I was very happy to see them.  Somewhere in all the mix of everything, Kyle had burnt his hand (really badly) thank you Dad for burn cream, and Blake got every pair of shoes wet and only had his crocs left, and Luke only slept for 40 minutes.  He would feel good for about an hour before the Tylenol stopped working.  So that hour was the only time that I could put him down.  the rest of the time, I had a baby attached to my hip.

Next day Kyle and Dad got up really early to go Salmon fishing, and me and mom held down the fort.  Blake got to spend some really fun time with her because Luke only wanted me, so I am glad that she was there to help him have some fun too. Me and Luke just kind of hunkered down in the trailer with all the comforts of home...NOT!  When you have a sick baby, all you want is a rocking chair and some black out drapes!   We did take a little break and went into Westport for some ice cream :)

That whole day was a lot of crankyness from Luke, and I was so ready to throw in the towel and go home.  I didn't want to be there anymore, and I was tired of getting up-chucked on, but we stuck it out and I am so glad that we did, because the next day, I had a happy and fever free baby :)  Sun and happy kids always seems to happen on the day that you leave right?  

We decided that we didn't come all the way to the ocean to not go down and see it, so before we left, we took a trip to the ocean, and it was a lot of fun!

This is how our time at the ocean went...

Luke finds dead crab...

 Luke Steps on Dead crab...

 Blake sees dead crab...

 Blake chases Brother with dead crab...

Blake decides to go swimming in the ocean with his clothes on...

 Lets take off the sweatshirt..

 Mom hanging with a tired little man...

Blake trying out his Sports Illustrated pose...

Luke was so tired that he fell asleep in the sand while playing with Kyle.  Poor Guy...

Oh, Yeah... they caught some Salmon :)

So, it was one of those trips that kinda sucked but at the same time, we had some really fun times... and on a side note, after Blake got done rolling in the water and sand, he smelt like a dead animal!  he even commented on how bad he smelt, so we had to go back to the RV park before we left, and gave him a shower in the bathroom... Little boys are oh, so gorse!

Blake's feet after 3 days of camping at the ocean and refusing to wear shoes...

I sure wish this one had been feeling better... he has a few days at home before we leave for Lake Cushman!  Stay tuned :)

Love his Baby Blues

This boy has some fierce blue eyes... along with that platinum blonde hair... 

I am going to have to fight those girls off some day!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

This Is Not A Fairy Tale, It Is Reality

I recently read a blog post by Lisa-Jo Baker " You Think Your Love Story Is Boring" and absolutely loved it!  It gave me a little inspiration of my own :)

I am a sucker for love stories... Dear John, Love Actually, The Notebook, Safe Haven, You've Got Mail... The list goes on, but that Nicholas Sparks sure must be living in a fairy tale!  I wonder if he has a wife and maybe he acts out all of his novels with her?  I wonder if she would agree with what I am about to say??

I do not believe in fairy tales.  I think that we all can have fairy tale like moments in our lives, but our lives are not all... Running after someone in the airport, stacks of love letters, moments where your eyes meet and a passionate kiss follows, meeting your true love on top of the Empire State Building, or a rowboat caught in a rainstorm under the magnolia trees.  I think that my life is so much more then a typical romance movie or novel and, it is not a fairy tale.

At the end of the movie, the lights come on... Reality sets in and life starts again, and as you exit the theater, you usually here women asking their husbands " why don't you ever say those things to me". "Why don't you ever kiss me like that". I am GUILTY of just these things!!  Little do they know that the fact that their husband just sat through a chick-flick in public says a lot about how they feel about you...

My husband has never spent months annonomously writing me love e mails and chatting on AOL, and then met me in a garden in NY and gave me one of those sweep me off my feet kind of kisses as strangers passed as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" plays in the background.

He comes home after a hard days work, and sees me all disheveled and gives me a smile and kisses me on the forehead as he takes a clingy 14 month out of my hands so that I can finish dinner.

He has never ran through an airport and met me at the gate just as I am about to board the plain and declared his love for me.

He was there at the birth of both of our boys.  Encouraging me, holding my shaking legs and swolen ankles.  Getting me a cold rag for my head, and telling me that I am strong.  He held my sweaty hand as I gritted my teeth and brought our boys into this world, and he was glad to do it.

He has never gotten us stuck in a old-fashioned rowboat in a rainstorm.

We can't wait to see him.  As soon as that white Hermanson work truck pulls down the road, the boys throw everything down that they are doing and run to him.  He grabs them. Kisses them. Hugs them  and loves them.  He comes into a house that is in slight disarea with hockey sticks on the floor, shoes in the door way, and a new finger painting on the fridge and he says white a smile " looks like you all had fun today."

He has never sent me 10 dozen roses.

He gets up at 2 am to help me sooth a teething baby so that I can get some sleep even though he has to be up at 4:30 to go to work.

He has never stood in the middle of a crowd and shouted his love for me while everyone has stopped and stared.  Followed by their applause...Well he kind of did that when he proposed :)

He has gone out in the middle of the night for milk when we have ran out.  He has driven babies to sleep in the car, he has folded laundry, emptied the dishwasher and vacuumed up cracker crumbs.

He has never said " you had me at hello"

When we fight, he is always fair and kind when I sometimes lose my temper.  He never goes to bed until we resolve our issues, and he always kisses me goodnight. He is the voice of reason when I get lost in my own thoughts, and even though we can have arguments that drive a wedge between us, we always fight to find our way back to each other.

We have never met on the top of the Empire State Building on Valentines Day.

He kisses me goodbye every morning, he calls to check on me during the day, and makes silly jokes that only we understand.  He lets me put my frigid feet between his legs at night, he gives me the chocolaty bottom part of the Drumstick, and he sleeps with kids feet in his face, and a snoring dog on the floor.

My life is not a fairy tale, and my husband is not a knight on a white horse fighting off a dragon to rescue me... the lights have turned, and our eyes are wide open.  My reality is so much more valuable then a romantic fantasy.  This is a life that includes hockey practices, dirty dishes, mounds of laundry and special memories that we are going to make together... and we steal small moments that are just ours.

My life does have something that a fairy tale has... a happy ending :)

Mama, why do we have eyebrows?

We were sitting on the floor playing Lego's, and Blake walks up to me, and says:

Blake:  Mama, why do we have eyebrows?  Is it so we can go like this ( he started moving his eyebrows really fast up an down making an excited face and then a frowning face over and over again)

Me: HAHAHAHA Thats probably one reason (as tears come out of my eyes from laughing so hard)

Blake:  What are the other reasons? (acting all serious)

Me:  Well, I am not really sure... Maybe we should ask Daddy when he gets home (thinking Kyle would get a kick out of the question.)

Blake:  Can't you just BING it, I want to know now.

Me:  (SHOCKED)  Sure, go get me the ipad.


First of all... BING IT?  He actually knows what a search engine is?  I must use that phrase more then I thought HAHA, and second, I cant believe he is starting to ask questions that I don't know the answer to.  I wonder what he will come up with next!

FYI, the reason we have eyebrows:

As we evolved and lost most of the thick hair on our bodies, why did we keep that little bit over the eyes?
Scientists aren't entirely sure why we kept this hair, but they have a pretty good guess. We know that eyebrows help keep moisture out of our eyes when we sweat or walk around in the rain. The arch shape diverts the rain or sweat around to the sides of our face, keeping our eyes relatively dry. The most obvious advantage of this is that it lets us see clearly when we're sweating a lot or out in the rain. Without eyebrows, getting around in these conditions is a little more difficult. The shape of your brow itself diverts a certain amount of moisture, but eyebrows make a significant difference in your ability to see. Diverting the sweat away is also good because the salt in sweat irritates the eyes, making them sting a little.

Frumpy Housewife Vs. Domestic Engineer

I don't know if what I am going through is normal, or if I am experiencing something that is out of the ordinary, but however I categorize it, it's just a rut.  I feel frumpy, tired, hot, and I am tired of watching Little Bear and Bubble Guppies. I love talking to my kids, but am in desperate need of an adult convocation without being interrupted by the babes, and maybe something to do where I can actually do my hair and makeup... If I can actually find my makeup.  I feel like I have kind of become a bit of a hermit.  I do go out, but only to my parents or in laws, the park with the kids
and to the grocery store, but believe me... I don't dress up for that.  Yoga pants and a tee-shirt with my hair in a pony t ail has been my ensemble of choice.    I need to get out of this...find a reason, or even the time to work out, take the kids someplace new, or maybe plan  a date night with my husband??

I have realized that there isn't much difference between what I wear during the day and what I wear to bed... I don't watch soaps operas yet, but I can see that in my near future with Bon-bons if I don't get my butt in gear soon.   What am I doing to myself?  Why do I not have any desire to feel or act like a woman, but instead, a frumpy old housewife?  I need to find some balance between caring for my children (which I believe I do very well) and caring for myself (which I do very poorly).

A woman that I used to work with years ago told me something that has always stuck with me, but I obviously don't follow.  She said " you need to take care of yourself first, your husband second, and your children last because if you don't feel good about yourself, then you can't fully give yourself to your husband and that wont make a stable environment for your children"  I think that she got it from a book that she was reading, and I thought that she was nuts at the time... your children always come first right?  I am beginning to see what she was talking about.  My husband, bless his heart loves me no matter what, but I recognize that I need to start loving me more, and making more of an effort for me... somehow, with the little itty bitty time that I have :)  Otherwise, I am going to be sitting on the couch, watching days of our lives in my bathrobe and drinking a beer.

We all need to get out of the house, and do something new or things are going to get destroyed!  

Running Around With 3!!!

My friend, Carissa, whom I used to work with, has a little 6 month old boy that I got to spend some time with last Tuesday. Boy, was I sure busy!  No one really slept at the same time, no one eats the same food, 2 are in diapers, and no one sits in the same chairs HAHA, but one thing that all boys have in common... they all like to grab at each other and lay on each other!  These boys sure had fun, but let me tell you... Two babies are as many babies that I am going to birth out of this body.  I loved watching little Carson, and also being able to give him back to his Mama :)  I look forward to more visits in the future!!!

Blake kept asking me if Baby Carson was OUR baby, and I told him no, and that he was just visiting, and then Blake said...well, he can stay if he wants to :)

They were very interested in Carson... Luke didn't want anything to do with the activity center when he was that age, but now that Carson is in it, he wont get off it!

wont stop touching Carson!  Luke just rolled all over him, and Carson was a champ!

Luke totally passed out!!

Weekend in Anacortes

We spent the weekend in Anacortes for the Samish annual meeting.  Monty took the kids up with him so that Kyle and I could attend Dawns Celebration of Life, and then we headed up to meet up with everyone.  Anacortes is such a beautiful place, and the kids really like it there!  We had fun on Saturday playing in the pool!

Luke has this little sleep monster inside him that goes crazy when we are not at home... he sleeps HORRIBLY!!  Lets just say that it was a restless night!

The annual meeting is pretty serious, and not really a place for little ones, so while Kyle listens to the business, the kids and I go play outside!  Mind you, that it was 95 degrees that day!  Lots of sunscreen, but you cant really go wrong when you are playing on the Puget Sound!

eating rocks... AGAIN!

Playing in the tide pools

Our little curious man!