Don't Worry Be Scrappy!

WHEW! What a weekend! On Thursday night, Carly and I left our respective children with their very capable fathers (and grandmas), boarded a plane and took off for Seattle. We both had a hard time leaving our kids because we hadn't been away from them for more than a few hours their whole lives. I didn't think I would cry over it, but I did.

I detest flying. So during our very turbulent take off, Carly and I chatted away like we didn't have a care in the world while we both secretly prayed our way to a comfortable cruising altitude. We passed the time by gabbing about kids and watching Pride and Prejiduce.

We landed in Seattle and found my mommy. She was amused at the the size and weight of our scrapbook supplies suitcases. My carry-on held my clothes for the weekend and it was only half full. My gi-normous suitcase was crammed to the gills with every scrapping supply I could possibly need. Most of which, it would turn out, I wouldn't even touch.

We could hardly sleep that night for the excitement the next day would bring. Wow. How lame did that sound? But it's true. I'm easily excited I guess. We each slept for about three hours before we had to wake up, get ready, and drive through rush hour traffic from Monroe to Bellevue. But we made it in plenty of time for our class and even had a chance to stop at Starbucks on the way.

Our first class was a whirlwind, high paced, get your layouts done in less than an hour class. That was fun but difficult that early in morning. This is Carly, working diligently...

After our first class, we had an hour to kill at the vendor fair before our second class started. We walked into the hugest room at the convention center and were brought to a standstill by the vastness of it. Only another devout scrapbooker can possibly imagine the depth of our glee at what our eyes beheld. It was utterly overwhelming and we didn't know where to start. This picture captures our feelings, but fails miserably to capture the enormity of it all.

After our second class was over, we rushed home to grab mommy and headed to the outlet mall. Mass hysteria ensued as we layed down some serious carnage to our bank accounts. We rapidly ran out of time, rushed home for dinner and rushed back out to the convention center for the nightly crop party. We arrived late and couldn't find the right room anywhere. That's because we were at the wrong venue. The crop was being held down the street at the Hilton. So we scrambled over there and spent several minutes trying to find a table we could sit at together. But we found one and we tiredly went about scrapping for four hours. The highlight of the night was when we met our favorite "scra-lebrity," Ali Edwards! She writes and scraps for our favorite scrapbooking magazine and as we informed her, we just love her.

The next day we were able to sleep in a bit, mom and I went running, then we all went shopping again at Target. More carnage but massive amounts of fun. We were late for our one and only class of the day but because we are so awesome, we caught up withing about 15 minutes.

After that class we rushed off to have dinner with mom, dad, JR and Kate. I'm so glad we had a chance to visit with them, even if it was only for about 30 minutes. Because then we had to rush right back to the Hilton for another crop party!

We stayed at this crop party for an extra hour because it was our last night and we just couldn't let it end. When we were finally ready to keel over from exhaustion, we drove home and spent the next couple hours (until 2am) trying to cram all our new scrapping supplies, class projects, prizes and shopping loot, into our already full luggage. We got it done, but it wasn't pretty. In fact, my large suitcase was overweight and I had to unload a couple items and stuff them in my carry-on.

The flight home was uneventful, long and boring. But it was all worth it for the greeting I got at the airport. Jakey ran and gave me the biggest hug and Jordan raised her arms and screamed, "MOMMMMMEEEE!!!" From her stroller. I missed my babies so much! And my Darrin too of course. He was such a super-star for letting me have this weekend away.

Ahoy there!

Happy Halloween! My adorable pirates didn't want to take their costumes off all day. They are very excited for trick-or-treating tonight.

Joshy is walking!

Here's a little video of my big man walking down the hallway.

Photography

So I've been toying with photography for a few years now. Never really had any really decent equipment but I got by. I've done a ton of portrait sessions with friends kids and of course my own adorable models. Yesterday I used my brand new (high tech and fancy) camera and did some maternity photos of my sweet friend Lucy. We took about a hundred photos but these are my favorites.

Turning 30

I suppose I expected turning 30 to be a little more emotionally difficult than it was. Everyone always talks about how awful it feels and what a struggle it is to wake up that morning and realize how old you are. But honestly, it wasn't bad at all. Maybe it's all that running but I feel pretty good for being old. But I will have to go through my closet and get rid of a few things. There are some outfits that thirty year olds just can't wear. Don't we all wish a few more people would come to that realization???

Anyway, here are some pics from my big day.

Camping

For my birthday this past weekend, the family and I headed out camping in our new RV. We drove south to Girdwood and camped in the Portage Valley. I rained and snowed on us. Here are the excited kids on the drive down.

We set up camp, started a fire and went out for a little hike. When we got back we roasted hot dogs on the fire. Jake did alright but Jordan kept sticking her hotdog in the dirt. She hates hot dogs anyway. Joshy just sat in his stroller and cried the whole time.

After dinner we baked some cookies. Jake was amazed that they didn't look like cookies when we put them into the oven, but they looked like cookies when we got them back out. They turned out burned on the bottom and raw on the top. Tasty though.

We put Josh to bed in his travel crib and closed ourselves off in the back of the camper to watch movies with Jake and Jordan. I feel asleep pretty quickly and we ended up turning off the movie and going to bed at about 8:30.

Darrin and I woke up to Joshy crying at one point. We ignored him for awhile and then decided that maybe he was just up for the day. So we got him out of bed and looked at the cell phone. It was 4:30 in the morning. So then we had to play with Josh for about an hour before he was ready to go back to bed.

We all got up again around 8am. Jake wanted to eat cookies for breakfast and he got into an argument about it with Darrin. I laughed when Darrin finally said (very sternly) "We aren't eating cookies for breakfast, we're having cinnamin rolls!"

We took another hike before packing up and hitting the road around 10am. We decided to drive throught the wildlife park on the way home.

We made it home before lunch. It was a whirlwind 21 hour camping trip. Here are my sleepy kids on the drive home.

Knee High Naturalist

Every once in a while Grandma takes Jake out to the nature center in Eagle River for activities pertaining to preschoolers. One time he learned about snow and another time he learned about animal tracks. This time he learned about bugs and spiders. He got this fuzzy toy spider to bring home and he refuses to touch the legs. In fact, he was carrying the spider at one point and he suddenly got creeped out and flung it through the air. Jordan is petrified of it so of course Jake torments her with it. Here are a couple of pictures from his spider adventure.

RV

Well, we finally did it. A long time goal has finally been achieved. We got ourselves a "wheel house" as Jake calls it. Meet the newest member of our family.

And this is the living room and master bedroom...

And this is the kid's room. They have already staked claims to their beds.

Ugh

This morning we woke up to this. Woo hoo. We are so excited.

*sigh*

My first 5k!!!

Today I ran my first ever 5k race. It was a fun experience and I met both of my goals including not finishing dead last! I actually finished in 29 minutes 39 seconds which was my other goal, finish in under 30 minutes! Little Jakey and grandma were out on the course cheering me on and taking pictures. This is before the first mile mark. I was at the end of the pack because I wanted to run with some friends. It wasn't long before I was forced to ditch them in favor of meeting my goals.

This is the end of the first of two laps around the lake. Just coming up the big hill. Okay, it wasn't big at all but it really felt big! This was about the half way point.

This was nearing the end of my second lap around the lake before heading to the finish. I had just given my baby a high five. I was so happy he was there cheering me on! That's why I'm still smiling despite wanting to throw up. And yes, that is a six year old running behind me. I barely beat him, OKAY? But I creamed his four year old sister. Sweet!

And this is me posing proudly with my first place plaque! I won first place for women in my age division (19-29 years) but don't get too excited. There were only two people IN my division. But I beat her and that's all that matters.

One Year Old

Here are some pictures of Joshy that I took today. It was a beautiful and warm fall day in Alaska. Perfect for some official One Year portraits!

Joshy's Birthday

We got a one day break and then it was time to party again. I can't believe my baby is already a year old. He got some fun presents and he and his siblings have been fighting over them ever since.

And despite everyone's best efforts, Josh was just not down with getting messy in his cake. I don't think anyone was more dissapointed that Jake.

Birthday Boy!

Today little Jakey turned four years old! He was so excited waiting for his birthday to come. He's been counting down the resteses! (That means bedtimes, i.e rest). This morning he woke up raring to go. Darrin came home for lunch so that Jake could open his first present and not have to wait all day. He got a giant Rescue Helicopter with battery operated rotors. He's been flying it all over the house.

I made a cake and decorated it myself with some frosting tubes I found left over from Christmas. Like my car? Well, Jake did and that's all that matters! It took him three tries to blow out his candles.

He opened his presents and spent the rest of the evening playing with them non stop. Jordan can't figure out why it's not her birthday. She's going to be really bummed out on Wednesday when Josh has HIS birthday and she, once again, doesn't.

A Chick Weekend!

Right now I'm am super-duper excited. Somehow, my friend Carly and I managed to find a way to fly to Seattle for a weekend (NO KIDS!) in November for a scrapbooking convention of all things.

How strange will it be to walk through airport security and not have to remove three coats, three pairs of shoes, collapse a stroller, try to get Jordan to let go of her blanket so it can go through the xray machine AND try to keep everyone calm as I send them through the xray one at a time?

And how strange will it be to walk right onto an airplane without collapsing a stroller at the end of the jetway, not lugging on two carseats, three carry ons, herding a preschooler and a toddler in the right direction all while carrying a squirming baby?

And how strange will it be to sit in a seat on an airplane and not get barfed on, or cried on, or spilled on, not have to go to the potty every 15 minutes, not get dirty looks from the guy in front of Jake because he's kicking the seat, not get dirty looks from everyone else because someone is crying and not have well-meaning but annoying passengers walk back to tell me what they think I should do to handle a situation?

I am going to sit and read or watch TV or listen to music or talk to Carly and that is it. What will that be like? And what will it be like to walk off the plane and just walk away? No picking up a stroller, no balancing carseats and kids all on one stroller, no millions of bags at baggage claim. Just me and my backpack. What will that be like?

And what will it be like to spend two and a half days with no kids? No feeding anyone, no resolving fights, looking for lost toys, no fighting over bedtime.

Hmmm. I miss them already.

Baby Shower

This past weekend I had the honor and joy of co-hosting a baby shower for my sweet friend, Lucy. Her baby girl, Katelyn Reese, is due to be born on November 2nd. We are all hoping she decides to come a little early!

High Five

Joshy's offical first word has finally occured. He says, "high five" and gives high fives. It actually sounds more like, "hi bob," or "fa fa" sometimes. But he's trying to say it and he says it when he means it. Like when he's actually giving out high fives.

He has said a few other things prior to this, including "mama," "dada," "baba," and "uh oh." But he says them whenever he feels like and doesn't mean anything by it other than babbling.

So "high five" it is!