More From Our Trip

I forgot to post pictures from the latter part of our Couple's Get-Away.  On the drive home from Portland, we stopped at Multnomah Falls and climbed to the top.  This was something I'd never done before.  I've only ever been with children in tow, and for some strange reason, such a steep hike hasn't appealed to them.  Or to me either, pushing a stroller or dragging/carrying a whining little person most of the way.

The view from where we stopped for a water break.

 The view looking down from the top.  We made it!  Check out the itty bitty cars on the right side.

A little water fall, only visible once you made it all the way up.  Ryan was pretty proud of this picture. 

Ryan and myself on the platform at the top.  We used the self-timer feature on our camera, since there wasn't anyone up there to politely ask to take our picture.  And then we started the journey down to our peanut butter sandwiches in the car for lunch.

Humor

This morning as I was in my bathroom getting ready for my day, I heard my cell phone ring.  My phone usually hangs out in the living room or plugged in and laying on the kitchen counter.  I quickly dropped my eyeliner on the counter, dashed around my bed, down the hall and 'round the corner to the kitchen counter.  My phone was sitting open on the counter (hm, that's not how I left it), so I closed it before pressing "send" to answer.  Somehow I lost the call by closing the phone. 

That doesn't usually happen.

So I immediately pressed "send" twice to call back the last person who called.  This is when a couple things started coming together in my brain.

1. When my phone was open, there wasn't the usual "incoming call" screen up.  It was one of the menu screens.

2. There is giggling come from the toy room.

Oh brother.  The kids got me.  Emma found the ring tone menu and made my phone ring, making me think there was an incoming call.

And then Ryan picked up on the other end and asked, "What's up?"

Uh....  I love and miss you?  Oh, and YOUR children are into playing jokes now.  Their humor is evolving from knock-knock jokes.

Fun at church

Today towards the end of sacrament meeting, Annie patted her bum and told me, "Poop."

Not having sniffed anything foul, I did the pat test myself and there was no tell-tale bulge in the diaper.  "Did you pee in your diaper?" I whispered back.

"Go poop.  Go potty."  She was adamant.

As a little back story here, we have not been pushing potty training on the twins.  At all.  They sit on the potty when they want too, and having anything come of it has been hit and miss.  I really do not like potty training (the previous two children having scarred me for life, I think) and I have been waiting for the twins to turn 3 before I get serious about trying.

So I walked Annie out of the chapel, down the hall and to the ladies room.  Crouching on the floor, I removed her diaper and held her on the toilet.  Annie's eyes got really big when she realized there was no toddler seat to keep her from falling in.  But 35 seconds later, the sounds of success greeted my ears- of the #1 variety, that is.

I asked her if she was going to do the other, and Annie said no.  Diaper was put back on, Annie got to flush the toilet ("Yay potty!"), hands washed and we made it back to the chapel as the closing prayer was finishing up.  So I collected Maddie and we walked back down the hall to the nursery.

Annie ran right in the nursery room, but Maddie didn't want to go.  "Potty, Mommy."  Ok, sure, whatever.  I'll take you.

I was quite surprised when the same sounds of success greeted my ears again.  I started having day dreams about twins who potty trained themselves.  Wouldn't that be great?  Think of all the money we'd save every month not having to buy diapers....

I dropped Maddie back at nursery, and she went in just fine.  I walked down to the Primary room.  I was rather late in arriving, as opening exercises was about to start.  I opened my binder to find the list of songs that we were supposed to sing, and Sis. K arrived with Annie.  "Whichever one this is- She has a stinky diaper."

Figures.

I was really late when I made it back to Primary.

Washington Park

Portland has some really beautiful gardens.  As Ryan is a horticulture teacher, (and I am fairly fond of flowers and beautiful grounds myself) we decided we would visit Portland's Washington Park.  First we enjoyed the beautiful rose gardens:

Here's a few of our favorite flowers:

It was a bit damp that morning.  

Afterwards, we went to the Japanese garden.

This train was not part of the gardens, but as it was in Washington park (and it was free to look at) we checked it out.  

Idleness and Dissipation

Last weekend Ryan and I dropped our children off with their grandparents (Ryan's long-suffering parents), and set off for 5 child-free days.  It was heavenly.  We had been given a gift certificate to the Lion and the Rose B&B in Portland, Oregon, so we set off for a weekend in Oregon. 

On our way southwards, we made a stop at Cabela's giant warehouse-store.  It's seriously huge.  Ryan had never been inside, but had passed by on the freeway a few times.  I hadn't either, but I was not broken up about it and I was dying to see the inside too.  :)

We arrived at the Victorian-style mansion and were shown to our room.  I giggled when I saw how high up the bed was.

 You know it's high when you are given a two-step ladder to get into bed.  Don't fall out of bed!

This was the sort of place to bring a Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte book and read.  (Which I might have done...)  I sat in this sitting room (see below), wishing I had a corset and long skirt, or some such thing to prevent my reading position- the slouch.  But it was my vacation.  I was going to spend some well-deserved time getting lost in a book.

 Our room had its own private bathroom with a jacuzzi and a shower.  Unfortunately, we were told when we arrived that our bathroom had a plumbing issue, so we were unable to use the shower.  (At least it wasn't the jacuzzi that was out of order.)  So they threw in a free breakfast on our second morning.

Ryan tried to convince all the others there that such a fancy breakfast feast was really not out of the ordinary for us, and I was just being silly for taking a picture.  Yah right.  Like I ever fix frittatas, baked apples and pears, rolls and jam, and fruit salad for breakfast.  And get out the fancy china on our antique table for 12.  It was fun doing family-style breakfast with a bunch of people, exchanging stories about our adventures the day before.  The most unique was a couple who was doing a (this is completely true) Portland chicken coop tour.  (What?  Seriously?)

The other morning we went out for donuts.  Check out the giant-est of giant apple fritters:

 We had been told about this place called Voodoo Donuts.  It's a crazy place, with some crazy donuts.  Some with bacon, some with cereal on top, some vegan and one apparently that looked like a voodoo doll.  We did not get that one. 

The donuts were pretty tasty.

The first night we were there, we went to see Harry Potter 7 part 2 at the theatre.  That's right- the first day it was out.  Well, not quite, since we didn't go see the midnight showing 20 hours before.  But still. 

Saturday morning found us in bed until 8 o'clock.  Then we got ready for our day and found the donut place before venturing out to Washington Park.  (Pictures to follow in another post.)  Afterwards, we found a Safeway with a parking garage underneath.  We are just nerdy enough to think this was hysterical. 

The rest of our time was spent reading, walking the streets of downtown Portland, riding the train, eating and vegging out.  Ryan enjoyed the delights of the Discovery Channel, while I watched a BBC movie on Netflix.

Welcome

So I started a new blog.  In an effort to be more anonymous, I won't be using last names anymore.  The premise of my blog is still the same- there will be pictures of the kids and our various projects, as well as those (hopefully) funny stories about the kids.

I'm a little sad to be leaving the other blog, since it's been my old friend these 3 years at least.  It will still be up for a while, but I won't be posting on it anymore.

Swim Lessons

Our spring and summer have been much, MUCH cooler than usual.  So we waited to put Emma and Elizabeth in swim lessons until July.  So the girls were so ready and so excited when swim lessons finally started.

(Here's a close-up of Elizabeth's new glasses.  Another pair bit the dust, so the back-up pair is now the main pair.  And we went back to Costco to get yet another back-up pair.)

Elizabeth swimming with her face in the water.

Emma learned how to dive this year.  The first few times, Emma got into diving position on the side of the pool and then belly flopped in.  By the end of the 2 week session, she figured out the "head first" thing.  Emma was also jumping off the diving board without help from a noodle.  This is really something for the girl who used to have a hard time bobbing her head under water.  I am so proud of her!

Princess and the Pea

While Ryan and I have been working on our house, the kids have had a lot of free reign of the house.  This was one of their better projects:

They pulled all the cushions off the couch and rocking chair to play Princess and the Pea.  Luckily, we didn't have any frozen peas in the freezer, so we had to make due with some plastic food.

Summer Projects

We have owned our home for 5 years this summer.  Ryan and I have never been a fan of the color of our house.  When giving directions to our house, we say something like, "...the ugly brown house...."  Well, this summer we finally decided to do something about it.  We actually got around to checking off "Paint House" on our home improvement list.  Yippee!

(Before picture-- the dirty diaper brown house)

After a coat of primer and new trim around the windows.

 Painting the grooves of the T1-11.  What a long, drawn-out, time-consuming process!

Done!  I still do need to put another coat of paint on the front door, which is why there is blue painters tape still up.

Nap time

Annie and Maddie don't really take naps anymore.  We have mandatory "quiet time" after lunch instead, where I make sure the child lock is on their bedroom door handle for at least a half hour.  Once or twice a week they both conk out, and then another day maybe one of the twins will take nap, and the other will pound on the door to be let out.

I'll take what I can get.

Yesterday, Ryan felt like he needed an afternoon nap, so he went in a bedroom with the twins to lie down.  Elizabeth originally went in for quiet time as well, but it lasted about 3 minutes.  So I took Emma and Elizabeth to the store for a quick errand.

When I got back, Ryan greeted us at the front door.  "Did you get a nap?" I asked.

"Yes, I did."

"That's great!  Did the twins sleep at all?"

"No, I don't believe so.  I was dreaming and the dream took a weird turn.  I started dreaming about poop, then I woke up to Maddie sitting on my head.  And she was telling me 'Poop' every time she bounced on my head."

I was really sorry I missed that.  I would have had a good laugh.

The best part is- Annie had a dirty diaper too.  Ryan was stepping outside to throw both diapers away when the girls and I arrived home.  I missed both diapers!

Independence Day

We had a very busy, fun filled 4th of July.  Our day started with swim lessons for Emma and Elizabeth.  Just as soon as they were done, we put some shorts and t-shirts and walked down the street to watch our 2nd annual 4th of July parade.

(I found Dora to be just a little creepy though.)

Gotta love the rural towns- tractors everywhere.

(Waiting for the parade to begin.  Pictures are a little out of order.)

We had a fly-by of 2 fighter jets at the end of the parade.  It was loud, but great to watch.

We had dinner with two other families.  The company was great and so was the food.  It was traditional holiday fare- bbq chicken (really tasty), salad, chips, raspberry pie and raspberry cheesecake. 

After dessert, we ran home to put on bathing suits and went to our annual swim party at the community pool.  (Hm, maybe not so much dessert next time...)  We played and swam, and I caught kids at the end of the water slide.  Every one of my kids went down the water slide.  Alone.  They are all such big girls now!

At 8:30, we dried off and took ourselves home.  We got on our pjs, and then went down to the high school to watch the firework show. 

Emma, Elizabeth and Annie all enjoyed the fireworks.  Maddie fell asleep.

Leg Warmers

Maddie found these old leg warmers in the dress-up box, and thought they would would be perfect for Mommy.  After all, they were Mommy's leg warmers.  Back in the '80s.

They almost still fit.

Still Alive

I've been horrible about posting lately.  Sorry, folks.  You'd think with those nice long, lazy days of summer, I'd have plenty of time for posting on my blog.  Unfortunately, it hasn't been like that.  Long and crazy would be good adjectives for my life.

We've been doing gardening, canning, house fixing, house painting, swim lessons, playing, reading, laundry, wondering where on earth my marbles have gone, coloring, giggling, more laundry, and getting started in my new calling at church.

That's right- a new calling.  I should have known it was coming.  I was getting all together too content with teaching my 4 and 5 year old class.  We had a pretty good routine going, and while there were some Sundays I came home from church feeling absolutely exhausted, I loved my little class.  (With an average attendance of 8 or 9-- so, not that little for a Primary class....)

We got a visit from a member of our Bishopric one fine Wednesday evening.  The old Primary Presidency is being released, and the new President had requested me to be 1st Counselor.

AAAGGGHH.  My days of quietly being NOT in the limelight were done.  Over.  My fears of getting up in front of a big group of people (mostly kids, notwithstanding) were being realized.

Welcome to anxiety, sleeplessness and night-time obsession/rehearsing so not to sound stupid in front of people and replaying something dumb I've said over and over so I can make myself squirm. 

Tomorrow is it.  I have my first Sharing Time lesson.  I prepared.  Here's hoping my brain doesn't completely abandon me in front of people like it usually does.

But at least I know that Sunday night at dinner my husband will love me as much as he does now, regardless of the outcome.  He's nice like that.  He's been wonderful, trying to give me pep-talks.  He says silly things like, "You will do great," and "I'm there for you."

Lake Chelan

One evening while we were away, we took a drive out to Lake Chelan.  

 We took a walk around the river and found a nice spot to throw sticks and rocks into the water.  It's a Kannely tradition, whenever possible. :)

Itchy

One of the parks we visited had a swarm of mosquitoes that attacked us mid-day.  Yes, that's right.  Not during the twilight hours, but smack dab in the middle of our noon picnic. 

The aftermath of our picnic made itself known later on in the day.  The kids were all scratching themselves, looking like they had a case of chicken pox.  (Hey, can we come swim with you?  Promise we aren't contagious....)  I didn't get many, but I sure swelled up.

This is after 30 hours of ibuprofen and benedryl.  It was much larger and redder earlier.  Annie and Maddie kept pointing at my elbow and telling me I had an "ouch" and the older girls had a good laugh at my expense.  Even Ryan got in on the fun, and said I had a knobby elbow.

He always knows how to make me feel better.

Ag Teacher's Conference

Last week we accompanied Ryan to his yearly teacher conference.  All 6 of us in one hotel room for several days- a parent's dream, right?  I decided this was a better alternative to spending those days at home alone with the kids.  At least we'd be able to see Ryan in the evenings.

We traveled in style- we brought cereal, bread, peanut butter, honey and fruit for our breakfasts and lunches.

 Elizabeth thought the grapes made a good head dress.

While Ryan was enjoying his time of being a student, the girls and I explored Wenatchee.  We went for walks from the hotel to the Columbia River, checked out the local parks (and got attacked by mosquitoes-- but more on that later), went to story time at their much larger and cooler library and generally tried to pass the time.

 Monday night we took Quizno's sandwiches and cherries to a park for a picnic.  Elizabeth tried to make herself look like a chipmunk.

 Wenatchee has some good summer programs.  They have these splash pools and games and activities in the afternoons.  Elizabeth and the twins loved the splashing.

 And the worms that Elizabeth found when the water was let out.  (Ew.)  She tossed them (quite literally- they flew for a while) into the grass when she was done with them.

I was glad we decided to go with Ryan up until the last night we were there.  Sometime around 3 am there were retching sounds coming from the floor.  Annie decided to make our trip complete by getting sick all over her shared bed.  Maddie ended up in bed with Ryan and me, while Annie (after she'd been bathed) spent the rest of her night being swaddled in dry towels on the floor.  Those towels had to be changed out once or twice.  It was less than pleasant not being able to get more blankets, and having to keep all those smelly things in our room with us. 

Ah, memories in the making.

Dress Up

Summer is a good time for pretend play.

All of my princesses like the box of dress-up clothes.  Annie and Maddie both are wearing "dress-up dresses" over the dress they chose for the day.  Silly girls.