What a difference a week makes...

10 days ago we were in sunny San Diego.

Now: cloudy-rainy Spokane. Welcome Fall.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fall. I love pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, apple picking, crisp evenings with warm sweaters...but the gray clouds I could do without! None-the-less I am looking on the positive side and trying not to focus on the many months ahead of no blue sky and enjoying all the fun activities with the boys.

These are the sunflower seeds we planted in may with the boys. It has been a great visual on how plants grow and patience as well (We all know we could use some of that!) seeing how much they grow each day and waiting for the day when they would bloom.

This is one of the giant ones that Jack claimed as his and was kind enough to relegate all the "baby ones" as Cooper's sun flowers.

The boys making monster sounds at me (these are the faces I envision when I am having a frustrating day) practicing for Halloween.

but these are the actual faces I see... its when its quiet that I worry. Code names: Trouble 1 and Trouble 2.

10 days ago I had a sweet little boy who slept 12 hours a night in his crib and 2hours a day for nap time in his crib... now: this. This was taken on the first morning that he learned to escape.

Escape from his pottery barn jail.

No falling out of the crib and hurting himself. Just climbed out and then decided to not only pull all the toys down in his room but help himself to the pantry. When I walked in on him, he was munching on captain crunch berries and gushers. He went for for the good stuff.

Now that Jack in in Pre-school 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day I get to spend some one on one time with my second born. I absolutely love it. Its so nice to spend some quality time with him and get to know his quirks and personality better instead of playing referee as much between them. This is what I've found out so far.... Cooper still has a loud high pitched sound that he emits when excited or frustrated (it really wasn't from his brother poking him), he gives lots more kisses when its just us, he loves to secretly play with jack's big boy toys when he's in school and knows I am wrapped around his little finger if he tilts his head and smiles and asks for a snack. I cave. How could I not!? I love being able to have my Jack time in the mornings before coops wakes up and then with Coops while Jack is at pre-school.






Coops showing me how he can scoot.

Big man on campus

1st day of Pre-school at Spokane Valley Calvary Pre-School for Jack and he woke up with bells on ready for the day, more alert and ready than either his brother or myself singing "do you know the muffin man" at the top of his voice to wake me up.

He wore his new favorite shirt and posed oh so willingly for the camera for a 1st day of school shot...


And then again with his cool hat and back pack just to mix it up....

And then again with this trusty side kick (holding his version of a back pack: a lunch sack)....

Tears were at at the classroom door, but they weren't by Jack but by his little buddy...he didn't want to be left behind. Chocolate milk and a beagle fixed his tears and we picked Jack up to celebrate the first day with lunch at a park and got to hear all about how there were numbers on the walls in the bathroom and his friend Ethan had the same shoes as him.

And so it starts....

Family Vacation Part II - San Diego

On our family vacation I lost my husband to the circus.

What? you say...

Well it all started when we were at the San Diego Zoo one day sunny day....

We were watching this act in between shows and visiting exhibits and the boys were in awe of what these guys could do....

It was pretty impressive. They would pull people from the crowd (usually little kids to) to stand on them and such and then give them a prize....

And then they pulled out Flo. Oh boy.

He definitely didn't let anyone down. People were clapping and were really impressed and Jack wanted to know if they could come to our home.

It would definitely make for some good dinner conversation.

We had a great time at the San Diego zoo and spent the day taking the double Decker bus tour, sky tour, and seeing some amazing exhibits. (this panda was my favorite - I think he looks just like a stuffed one in the store). The boys LOVED all the animals up close and cooper wanted to hug every one of them.

We saw two of the elephants going for a swim and getting lots of snacks which was most impressive.

Flo enjoyed seeing the cheetah and the dog on a stroll together around the park, which walked right by us.

My little monkeys were continually trying to scale the barriers that separated us from them, which only confirmed which exhibit they should be in when we visited the monkey trail and they were hooting and monkey calling with the best of them.

Sea World was awesome. Awesome to see the Kid's faces as they experienced all the animal. Awesome to see the shows ourselves and be wowed. Awesome to pet and touch so many cool animals and creatures. We definitely had to tear the boys away and pay a special trip to Shamu so that they boys could say goodbye. Jack put his hand on the glass when she swam by and said I love you.

We sat in the soak zone for the dolphin show and it lived up to its name.

The kids enjoyed feeding little fishes to the seals through the tubes but of course that gradually morphed into just just chucking them over the wall because that was more cool to see them catch mid air rather than take out of the tubes.

Jack was fulled prepped having watched Free Willy twice before the trip but we had no idea how much he would love the whales and the show. When asked on the way home what his favorite part of vacation was it was the whales as evidence of the mommy and baby killer whales that he picked out of the shop.

I even convinced Jack after this moment to go on the Atlantis ride with me (makes splash mountain look small) and has a few drops. The kid is crazy brave.

Sea World also had an amazing play area complete with Elmo and Zoe. The meeting of friends never ended.

Kids petting the sting rays.

Group picture with one of my best friends from college - miss Ashley dean. Who played volleyball with me at Dartmouth. We spent the day at mission beach enjoying the sun, surf and sand with her!

The kids loved it. Jack spent most of the time running and jumping in a massive whole that was dug out and collecting shells while copper...

Shockingly enough spend the day running and running and running. In the water, out. In the water, out. In the water out. He got very good at spitting out the sand that he ate at least a bucket of.

It was an amazing relaxing day and the kids loved having the freedom to run and play after 2 days in the car and 5 days at parks.

this was 2 seconds after we arrived. both kids were basically swimming and rolling in the sand and Jack kept saying how soft it was. When asked what his favorite part of vacation was Cooper said without hesitation "the beach."

it was a great family vacation.

Family vacation part one: Disney Land

3 days at Disney land chalk full of fun, ice cream, rides and seeing all the kid's favorite characters = 4 totally exhausted people! We had such a blast at Disney Landon our first 3 days of vacation and crammed as much into those days as possible that I wanted to post a few pictures of our adventures...

Jack and I after driving Autotopia. The kids LOVED driving the cars that we had to go back a few times. Jack was actually a really good driver and it wasn't until he saw he make a funny nose when we bumped the wall that he started to do it on purpose!

The water park at Adventureland (key factor on the hot days!) we would just go across the park and take part for a while to cool off!

The naps in the stroller happened at some point every day while we usually rested our feet and or ate ice cream and took in a parade or show and then the kids were up and at them again ready to roar.

We were so proud of the kids. They went on all the rides that they could including splash mountain, the Matterhorn, roller coasters, huge Ferris wheels....everything. It was really fun especially since it wasn't super busy because we went during the middle of the week and hardly had to wait in line for anything!

One of the highlights of the show...the Pixar parade where the kids got to see all their favorite characters. Quite possibly the most fun parade we have ever seen!

The kids got to meet and see all their favorite characters including woody, buzz, lightning McQueen, tow mater and so many more!

I don't know who were bigger kids on this trip.....I know the place is geared toward their age group but we had such a good time with them the whole time! And, on a serious note, VERY VERY impressed with Disneyland. They not only know how to put on a good show and production but had bathrooms everywhere, changing rooms everywhere and anything you could need as a parent. It was pretty cool.

The kids were awesome and definitely got into our routine of getting in and out of the stroller for rides and exploring.

A definite highlight of the trip!!! We had to go back a few times. So cool to see their faces.

We have so many good memories from these 3 days and I know the boys do as well. It was a blast to sum it all up!

Thats A-M-O-R-E!

Grandma surprised the kids this morning when she knocked on the door (I did tell them a friend was coming over) but they were so excited when it was her! We kidnapped her for the whole day and took her shopping in Coeur D Alene and had lunch and then they showed off their skills in the back yard for her and capped it all off with a water fight (in which cooper did get one good direct shot of Grandma in!)


This is how we roll when we travel in style in the mini -van. Ready at any point for a spontaneous game of baseball of course.

We went to Tito's in Coeur D Alene for dinner and lets just say we all felt ill from eating too much! The kids even got to make their own pizzas and Jack was really good at it....

Cooper was really good at eating his toppings.

I think he thought it was a cool buffet with some of his favorite snack foods.

That kid cracks me up.

Jack trusted me to sample a piece of his pizza and it was pretty darn good. Definitely a good way to amuse the the kids when we took them out to dinner (which is a rare occasion!!!) and they loved it.

T-minus one day till road trip vacation starts. Pray for us :)

Hitting like Coach

Jack was showing me how he could "hit to the baseball guys like the coach did." 3 1/2 years old. I might bring him with me to hit fly balls to the girls next spring for softball practice.

Torture

I decided that today was going to be the start of working out regularly again for me...especially after this summer of a record number of hot dogs, lots of blended coffees and ice cream galore. What was I thinking? Technically I had not run outside since before I got pregnant with Jack. For those of you counting that is about 4 1/2 years ago. Running on the treadmill is not the same. Don't let anyone tell you differently. The pavement is not forgiving. It didn't like me. And to top it all off, there is not air conditioning but I was sabotaged with a glaring hot sun and drivers who honk. I know, I know it was my idea. What was I thinking? In order to go for a run, I had to have my two lead bricks along for the ride so I loaded them up and was treated with pushing 100+ pounds for the journey as well.

No matter how uptempo my music was or the fact that I should have been saying "this is great. this is the start to the new me." It was more like "Ugg. I hurt. I wonder if I can squeeze myself into the stroller and let the boys push me." Forget water boarding, make the terrorists run outside for 4 or 5 miles in the sun after not doing so for a long time. They would tell their national secrets after 10 minutes.

I came with back up to keep my prisoners happy and the bribe worked. So well, in fact that they were yelling "go go go go" super loud and saying things like "weeeeee" as we went down hill or "run mommy run." who needs a personal trainer?

We stopped for 20 minutes to throw rocks in the river (which the boys loved) and then headed back (I didn't). I know I am sounding pessimistic but I am convinced that muscle spasms in your legs are not normal. All in all, I must do it again so that I avoid having this initial feeling again soon. Day one down. I survived and am a little stronger. Go mommy go.