Cousin Visit

Auntie Karen, Uncle Jesse, and cousins Grady, Colin and Adam came all the way from Maryland to visit us!  We had a whirlwind 10 days of time together, both at our house and down on Grandma's farm in Rochester. It was so much fun for the boys to get to play together. Six boys under the age of 5! Are we crazy?!

We took a trip to the Centralia Children's Museum one day. Adam was thoroughly excited.

 Auntie Laura and Aaron built some towers...

 which Aaron promptly knocked down.

 Five of the six playing almost together.

Daniel and Chris spent the entire time building with legos.

 Back at the farm, the sheep were a big draw for Adam,

 and Aaron, too! He spent most of his time yelling "BAAAAA!" at them.

 Six boys in a wheelbarrow.

 The big brothers give Colin a ride.

After Mass photo at St. Mary's in Centralia, where Uncle Jesse and Auntie Karen were married 10 YEARS AGO! Look how sweet they are! We took pictures of Karen and Jesse here, too, but those pictures must've been on somebody else's camera...
 

 The Southwest Washington Fair was going on, so we took a trip down to check it out. Matthew loved the airplane ride.

 Uncle Jesse earned a parenting merit badge...he stayed at the fair almost all day with Daniel and Grady (an additional 4 hours after the rest of us went home for naps) so they could ride all the rides they were big enough for, hundreds of times over.

 Another day trip: Westport! It was raining when we got there, but by the time we got home we had a few very sunburnt boys. :(

 Grady was a little upset that Washington beaches are not nearly as warm as the Jersey Shore.

 Daniel didn't seem to mind....until he fell in.

 Colin didn't seem to mind either.

And Matthew....well...Matthew really enjoyed the sand.

Oldest to youngest.

 Boots!

 So many fun/dangerous games on the farm. Like, "play on the broken picnic table." (Which wasn't broken until we got there...)

 "Play on the broken picnic table with a bucket on your head." Leave it to Aaron to add new dangerous aspects to the game.

Back in Seattle, the boys found safer but still exciting things to do. Like watch for the garbage truck.

Traffic jam while playing with bikes, trikes, and other vehicles.

 Fudgesicles! Hooray for visits with cousins!

Eusterzelishcror V

Two days after Chris got home from his school/work trips, we packed up and headed down to Olympia for our annual Eusterzelischror vacation: four days with some of our closest friends and their kids. This was our fifth year getting together for a bit of summer vacation together. When we started, each family only had one kid and now there are nine! We had lots of fun adventures together...

 Dinner the first night: pizza party at Dirty Dave's in Olympia!

The boys definitely outnumber the girls in this group. Here, Chris chats with the youngest three.

 We made a trip to the Olympia farmer's market, then walked along the waterfront to...

the Heritage Park fountain...

 where Aaron kept a safe distance from the water.

Lunch Break!

After lunch, the fountain was turned off for awhile but these kids were still suspicious.

The "big" kids watching The Sound of Music.

 A morning trip to Burfoot park to hike and play on the beach.

 Of course, no trip to the beach is complete without throwing rocks in the water. 

 Aaron and Daddy take some time to check out one of Aaron's owies,

 while Noah and Daniel worked on a rafting scheme.

The raft did not float with three kids on it.

 Playing "train."

The obligatory kid photo. All nine of them. What a fun time we had...can't wait till next year!

Daddy's Home!

 DADDY'S HOME!

 

Here's how it went by the numbers:

16 days with Daddy gone (12 in Minnesota for school, then 4 in Oakland for work)

13 nights of interrupted sleep for Mommy and at least one other person in the house (why does this only happen when Daddy leaves?!)

12 days of quarantine in our house due to 

3 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease

1 incident of carsickness

6 tries to get the vomit smell out of the car

1 bloody incident involving 

1 broken glass

2 very much needed nights off for Mommy (thank you Emily, and Nana and Papa)

1 blessed 15-hour layover in Seattle between Daddy's trips including

1 dinner date for Mommy and Daddy while

3 boys stayed the night at Nana and Papa's house.

And in approximately 345 days we will do it all over again. Hopefully without the quarantine. Or vomit. Or blood.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that terrible....

We shared a few blurry snuggles in bed together...

Without Chris making my morning coffee, I was really able to practice my foam techniques...

We worked really hard at putting away zucchini and other veggies in the freezer for later...

We went crazy with fun activities like this ball-run...

Sick, cranky babies will sit on my lap longer than happy, healthy ones...

...and even though they have a hard time napping on their own, they sure are cute when they finally fall asleep on the couch...

On one of my nights off, I was able to do some car-knitting and finished a bib that was taking me waaaaay too long to finish at home where there were too many other things to do...

...like sew this quilt for our new little goddaughter...and alter a pair of clearance capri pants into a pair of bermuda shorts. [Ok. So maybe my lack of sleep wasn't solely due to the boys waking up. I should've gone to bed or taken naps instead of working on my other projects.]

Other highlights:

Aaron learned how to ride a scooter

Matthew learned how to ride a tricycle

Daniel got his training wheels off

Aaron said his first prayers (for "dada" and then, "on-lawda" [auntie laura])

Most of the time, the boys played well together

and, because we were stuck at home, we were able to spend time working on our manners and discipline, which is hard to do when you're running in 10 different directions all day. (That's kind of a lame highlight, but there it is.)

We're excited to have Daddy home, and we're looking forward to a great weekend with some of our closest friends. Maybe we'll keep up with this blogging thing and post some pictures when we get home. Maybe...

In the army now

Matthew wants to be an army. Not a soldier, an army. He's been sporting this outfit as much as possible. Camouflage right down to the socks.

Garden Harvest

This is the first year we've had a real garden space, and we've taken advantage of it to the fullest. We had lots of peas earlier in the summer, and now we're harvesting kale and zucchini nearly every day. The boys have been great helpers in all of this...especially in eating the different zucchini bread recipes we've tried out. I'm bound and determined to not let any of the vegetables go to waste, so we've been working pretty hard to eat what we can and freeze a bunch for later, too.

 One of our harvests from last week: all the onions came out, a bunch of kale, five zucchinis, a bunch of beets, and some "accidental" potatoes that we discovered growing in our compost pile.

 Helping to get the kale ready to cook--tearing the leaves off the "bones" as Matthew calls the stems.

 Washing the leaves.

 More washing.

 Mountains of kale, all clean!

Loving those baby red potatoes!

Hitchin' a Ride

Papa came to visit. He has a cool car that the boys love to look at and play in...