Random Seattleness

Gymnastics


Park time


Shopping!


Puzzling

Breaking umbrellas


Eating


Getting messy. This may look like chocolate but it's actually dirt. Really Doobie?

Fathaversary

Because I'm posting remotely, I don't have the photos I want for this post. So allow my eloquent words to paint the pictures for you...

Today is Father's Day. It is also my 12 year anniversary. As usual, hubby and I are not together on our anniversary this year. I think this means we've only been married for about four or five years...

First things first though...

Happy Father's Day to my Pops!

You are the best Pa a girl could ask for. Thank you for all you have ever done for me, with or without my knowledge. I know you worked very hard so that I could have a pony for Christmas that one time, years and years of dance classes and horse shows and hair taming products. You are an awesome dad and I love you the MOST! I love you more than most! Yes I can!

Happy Father's to my Husband!

What? I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome you are. Thank you, Babe, for being such a terrific daddy to our babies. Thank you for being the kind of dad who gets on the floor and plays with them so that I don't have to! I love you to pieces and I know our babies do too.

Annnnnd, happy anniversary for the twelfth time (I think that may be the first time ever in my life that I have spelled the word "twelfth" and it took a while). I love you so much. Can't wait to hug you when we get home.

Gimme S'more

Is there anything more awesome than a s'more? Yes. A s'more made with a peanut butter cup. But we didn't have any of those so we made regular s'mores.

Still awesome.


Along with being a master hot dog roaster, I boast of phenomenal marshmallow roasting skills as well.


My kids call them "smarshmallows" hehe



Her shirt says, "Gimme S'more" and after hot dog roasting, she went into the house and changed into this shirt for s'more time.


Smarshmallow perfection. You cannot stop this.

Hot Dog Roast

While my babies have participated in hot dog roasts in the past, it has been a while. For me as well. But I am a roasting master and while I burn dinner every night at home, the skillz needed for cooking over an open flame have never eluded me. So I mentored and assisted and coached and eventually completely took over.

Because they never listen to me.

The following are examples of what not to do.

Don't stand up and dip only the tip of the dog into the open flame. Or the ash for that matter.





DO get low and hold the dog flat over the hot coals, turning slowly.


Jake adopted the low stance but not the patience and perseverance needed to fully cook the dog. So I took over.


And it was gooooood.




Hurray for mustard on your arm!

Golf. Sort Of.

The weather has not been awesome on this trip but every few days the sun busts through the cloud cover and I force my kids to stay outside for as long as it lasts. And they complain about it constantly. And I don't care. I wait for summer for nine months and nothing is going to convince me that we need to be inside for any reason.

GO FIND SOMETHING TO DO AND LEAVE ME TO SUNBURN IN PEACE.


Today we golfed.



Well, they golfed.



Mostly they just aerated the lawn.

Botched Back Flip

He arrived home from fishing with Peepaw about twenty minutes before we arrived home from shopping. In that time he taught himself to do front and back flips on the trampoline. He showed off for me. He was awesome. I was in the middle of commenting about getting the video camera out when he busted out one more back flip. He went up, but his legs never went over. He landed on his face and his body collapsed backward so that his butt landed on the back of his own head.

Yeah, are you picturing that?

I took off running for the trampoline because I thought he broke his neck. He stood up immediately (not broken!) but was in the middle of one of those breathless, panicked silent screams. He stumbled off the trampoline into my arms where he promptly passed out (from the prolonged silent scream).

Grandma helped me lay him down in the grass and calm him down. He started complaining of lower back pain which was weird to me because I saw how he landed. But any back pain is bad back pain and Peepaw mentioned calling the ambulance, just to be on the safe side. None of us really wanted to lift him and move him to the car to go get checked out.

So the ambulance was called, the EMTs arrived and they took excellent care of my baby.


Looks awful doesn't it? It really wasn't. This was just a precaution and he said it was mostly fun. THANK YOU LORD!





Even before we made it to the the emergency room, Jake was feeling better. They checked him out, mentioned he probably has a little muscle strain and set us free.

No more back flips on the trampoline. For now. I still kind of want to get it on video...

Man Time

Whenever we come to Seattle, Peepaw tries to do some one on one bonding with Jake. A little man time if you will. Sometimes it's tinkering in the shop, messing with wood or screws, mowing the lawn or wrapping things with bungee chords. Not sure if we ever did manage to free Peepaw's shop stool or not...

Now that Jake is a little older, Man Time is a little more serious.

The boys are going fishing.

I'm not sure who was more excited, Jake about going fishing with his Peepaw or me about going shopping without him. *shrug* We may never know.

I had a pep talk with Jake before he left, "you better do exactly as Peepaw tells you because I gave him permission to throw you overboard."

I also had a pep talk with Peepaw, "Jake is kind of a talk-your-ear-off-know-it-all, so...please don't throw him overboard."

Let's go fishing!

"Thiiiisss, is a fishing pole. NOT a light saber. Let's just make that clear right from the start."


It quickly became obvious that Jake was a better fisherman than anyone. Ever. Here's one.


Annnnd, two.


Yup, three.


Got number four on the line there. We should all take note of his very professional leg on the bench ninja fishing stance.


And since he's better at everything than everyone, Peepaw made him drive the boat back to the dock.


You can't out-fish this guy. He was made in Alaska.

Since Jake won the Catch The Most Fish Contest (everything is a contest with this kid and you never know you're even IN a contest until after he declares himself the winner) he made Peepaw buy him Oreos and a Payday. That's man lunch.

Whilst fishing, Jake mentioned to his Peepaw, while he watched Peepaw club the fish over the head, that he'd never seen anything die before. Except a bug. So he took some time to inspect the carnage by feeling the teeth and poking the eyeballs. Fascinating. Then he ate one for dinner. And he loved it.

I should also mention that Peepaw did manage to catch three fish as well. And we couldn't be prouder.

We Found...

A Merry-Go-Round at the zoo. So we rode it.