HAWAII: Need I Say More!

I have finally decided to blog again-- it took me 6 months but I thought Hawaii was blog worthy.

Jake and I got to escape to Maui for 6 days at the end of Jan beginning of Feb. w/ some friends of ours-- Josh and Angie. Besides missing the kids, we had an excellent time.

We did a ton of things, but not a whole lot of beach bumming(the thing I wanted to do the most). We went to a luau, went zip lining (cool, but nothing that I absolutely need to do again), snorkling (my favorite)-- we got to see whales, Sea turtles, dolphins, an eel, and several fish, we did a dinner cruise, and lots of eating. I did manage to go hot tubing every night (something I absolutely love) and wake up each morning and head to the beach (w/ my book-- something I do not usually get to do) and watch the whales- they call this time of the year whale soup-- it is absolutely impossible to not see a whale.

Gracee's 2nd Birthday

Gracee's has offically hit 2 and now has a reason to act the way she does. Jake asked me the other night "do you think she is going through the terrible 2's" and I said "if this is not them, then shoot me". I hope people understand--2 and red-head should not be aloud to go together. I tell people she acts like a 7 yr old but is really 2-- I think a lot of this comes from her trying to keep up w/ her brother-- her vocabulary, her aggressiveness, her attitude.

Some of the things Gracee loves to do: read, draw, dance, play w/ her kitchen and all the new food she got, dig in her mom's purse (to find gum and chapstick), and pick on all the little kids her age.

What she can say: she has a ton of vocabulary. she mainly says 2 worded phrases and every once in a while gets out a sentence-- I dont want it, no want go nana's (the babysitter).

She went to the doctor yesterday for her well child visit and did not want a dang thing to do w/ Dr. Julie (of which is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person). she weighed in at 25.11 (35%) and 35 inches (20%). Last time in March she was 85% for height--guess she is going to be a midget. She was such a big girl when she go her flu shot-- her brother on the other hand cried like a baby.

Family Pictures

We took these a couple of weeks ago but I am finally getting around to posting them. My vary patient friend Annette took these--doesn't she do a fabulous job.

Silverwood and Stoneridge Resort

We took our little vacation for the summer up to Idaho to enjoy Silverwood and stay in a resort, that I used to stay in growing up, called Stoneridge. I will let the pictures do the talking-- its much better that way.


some nice lady took our picture after we got off the log ride



Krae being a nice big brother and taking his sister on a kiddie ride-- the helicopter's. Truthfully I think he enjoyed it just as much as she did.


Gracee and I shared a snow cone while waiting for Jake amd Krae to get off a roller coaster ride. she pretty much took care of the whole thing herself, little stinker. I might add that Krae rode every single roller coaster ride there and LOVED them. I took him on the 1st one, a mild one, it only lasts about 30 seconds but it beats your head around and as I am screaming in the seat next to him he is laughing his head off because his little head I am sure is just being beat to heck. I forgot to add that Jake lost his voice from all the screaming he did from riding the rollercoasters, but krae still has his voice.



We spent the 1st couple of hours on the ride side of the park and then headed to the waterpark for 4 hrs during the heat of the day. I must say Gracee LOVED this part, a playground and water all in one



Krae loving the water also-- his dad and him got to go and enjoy some of the more thrill seeking water slides while Gracee and I stayed at the kiddie zone.



Jake being the good sport he was, took Gracee down the little kiddie slides and cut his finger (trying not to wipe out another little kid) but would not tell me because he was afraid I would make him stop and go get it fixed (sound like a little kid to you)




Here are the Stoneridge pictures. I first have to add how I love this place-- lots of good memories. we used to go there once if not 2 x a yr with all my aunts uncles cousins and Grandma and spend our whole time in a one bedroom condo-- I have no idea how we managed that. Anyways this place is surrounded by a golf course and has a mini golf course, and indoor pool and hot tub, 3 raquet ball courts, a basketball court, an arcade, 2 tennis coutrs, a playground and much more-- who wouldn't have fun.

Gracee at the Playground-- I finally got a face picture-- I have about given up on taking pict of her because all I ever get is the back or side of her head


Krae at the playground


All 3 of my kids mini-golfing-- I know this particular picture does not look like a golf course -- this would be the reason why my daughter was more interested in "swimmin" than golfing. all she could say the whole time was go swimmin


Gracee about the 1 and only time she hit the ball other than that she was too busy throwing a fit wanting to "go swimmin"


Krae mini-golfing--nice form I might add


The hot tub-- we spent a lot of time in here. I remember as a kid going swimming the minute we woke up then eating bkft, then going again, then eating lunch, going again, then eating dinner, and then going for a late night swim-- so we tried to live up too that-- we almost made it but one of those swims Gracee and I traded in for a nap-- it was the best, I do not even know the last time I had a nap.


I had to include this pict-- isnt it the sweetest, they are actually getting along. Or should I say Gracee is actually being nice enough for Krae to touch her-- he can get so mad because she does not want to have a thing to do w/ him at times. Maybe I should clarify-- when he wants her to do something she does not, but on the other hand when she wants to, he does not want her around- go figure

Happy Fathers Day and Misc.

By the way I hate how these pictures download, I can never get them in the order I want them. so in no particular order...

OK now that I have that all clear I wanted to wish all the fathers out there a Happy Fathers Day. We spent out day in the mountains fishing (I figured it was something that both the kids and Jake would enjoy). We went with my sister in law and her husband and son, and met my parents up there (although everyone was invited, not all we able to join). It rained most the day :( so we were soaking wet, but that did not stop us. We did stop and cook some lunch and made a fire so that we could warm up.


ok, these were suppose to be last but because they are here there is nothing I can do about it now. I included these pictures to show what we have been doing the last few weeks around the house. For those of you who do not know, this is our back yard that is FINALLY all picked up and organized (I have only been trying to get that done for the last 5 yrs and something else always seems to be more important). Usually it has tall weeds and it is where we pile everything when we do not know what to do w/ it, or have the time to deal w/ it. As you can see, my husband collected wood and we finally have it in a nice, neat pile instead of a heaping stack. We mowed all the weeds down and removed some shed bases (3) (left by the previous owners), weed ate ? eated ??? around the fence, hauled 3 loads of junk to the dump, saw 3 snakes (but no mice), got stung by wasps, etc, etc, etc. I am just sooooo glad to finaaly have it done. I wish I would have taken a before picture because some of you are probably thinking it still looks like a pig sty-- believe me it is a 100% better than it used to be.



Gracee and Jake fishing-- she loved the idea until she fell in, then she was too stinking cold to care.


Krae and his cousin Quinten w/ the days catch-- not much, nor very big, but is sure made these 2 happy.


So beside cleaning up our back yard, we finished up our 6 week swim lessons last week at the court club. This is Krae, and for some reason it was just the 2 of them on the last day, usually there were 4.


Here is Gracee and I-- on the last day they learned about water safty so they all were wearing their life jackets. This was a parent/tot class so yes, I had to get in the pool everytime, besides having to do that I enjoyed the class, especially the last 5 mins of every class where we went and sat in the hot tub. Gracee liked it the first week, cried the whole time on the 2nd and 3rd week, and then the 4-6th week she decided she was quite the fish and became a dare devil-- so much that she now scares me around the water because she has no fear. I do not know if that is a good or bad thing.


And here is Jake (my 3rd child) on the way home. He decided to put our nephews swim goggles on. When he let me take this picture I am sure he did not even think that I might possibly put this on here

Its About Time !!!

Well after the comment I made on my last post, 2 months ago, about being excited for spring quarter to begin because I would have so much more time. I was DEAD wrong we have been SOOOOOOOO busy. Krae did babseball and that ate up a BUNCH of our time 3 days a week. By the time he got to baseball by 5:30 and stayed until 7 and did not get home until 7:30 we did not have a whole lot else going on for those 6 weeks and boy did we pay for it later. We basically only got around to mowing our yard but ignored the weeds and was that ever a big mistake. I think we are going on 3 or 4 weeks now of doing nothing but yard work on weekends ( in addition to the othr home improvement projects we had going). I still wonder how working mothers are able to get everything done when they have more than 1 child in an acivity. When do you fix dinner, when do you clean house, How do you keep on top of everything? WOW-- it has me scared to get him involved in anything else.

Anyways now that I have rambled on--Here are some picts of what we have been up to lately:

Krae @ Baseball-- look at his pants-- how cute-- he does not even come close to filling them out-- with the genes he has, I am sure that will not be a problem someday.


Jake's sister's fam and us went on a vacation to the OR. zoo and beach at the beginning of May

Here we are at the zoo-- minus Jake who is taking the pic


Here we are on the beach-- notice the sandhill in the background-- people climb it all the time. This is the 3rd time I have been to this spot and I finally climbed it. Last time we were here in July and Krae climbed it and made it look so easy-- that was not he case, but I eventually made it to the top-- poor Jake carried Gracee all the way. Good thing it had rained the night before and made the sand not so soft.





As you can see I was the last one up because I am taking the picts-- krae is ahead of us all


and finally the view from the top--- itwas worth the climb


family pict


Our house project: we finally got the patio cover done-- or done enough for now-- Jake would like to add railing in between the posts and he still has to enclose the underside so that we do not get a done of wasp nests (at the rate we are going that might be next summer).



And while jake was working on the patio cover I got the pleasure of shoveling all that rock (most of it) in the playground area. Now the kids have a nice little area to go and play, and let me tell you, they have already got some good use out of it and so have our friends. I have to give Jake the credit for putting together the swingset-- if you have never put one of these things together before-- it takes more time than you think-- it probably took him a good 2 full days or so.