Summer Flyin' By

How can it already be mid-July? Didn’t we just start summer? While we’ve definitely stayed busier than I prefer there are still so many things we want to do this summer and I’m feeling the pressure to fit it all in. Scheduling around three kids, even at their young age, is already proving to be difficult. Especially with a little guy who sleeps most of the afternoon. While Jason naps, the girls have spent nearly every afternoon outside with neighborhood kids. They are already sporting sweet summer tans.

One of the few occasions the girls are playing in the backyard instead of the front yard

Jason also loves to swing; too bad he can’t push himself yet

Of course the girls have their “jobs” they need to do each day. On this particular day they were asked to trim the grass around the playset. It sure took them awhile using their little scissors.

Otter-pops are a daily treat around here.

As if Jason’s helpless without his sisters

Jason upon rediscovering his abandoned otter-pop


What better way to cool off than to play in the sprinklers

Victoria, BC

As a result of the I-5 adventure my Mom and I experienced last summer, I was issued a credit on the Clipper ferry. Justin and I decided we would take advantage of the opportunity and go to Canada for an overnighter on Monday. We stayed at a great hotel right in the harbor near the famous Empress Hotel.

Legislative building (by day)

(and by night)

A huge portion of any outing for us is the food. We decided we wouldn’t eat anywhere we’ve been to before and found some amazing restaurants. Our favorite was The Tapa Bar where we both tried a cubanette… seriously, one of the best meals I’ve had. Unique and incredibly flavorful.

When we started planning our little trip and I found out Victoria had a zipline course I knew I wanted to try it. The idea of soaring through the air sounded wonderful to me even though I am somewhat scared of heights. It was awesome! Definitely a little unnerving to step off the edge of the platform. And feeling the tree you’re standing on (150 feet in the air) swaying in the wind was slightly worrisome, but sooo worth it!

We went on eight different ziplines. Here’s Justin on the longest zipline at 1000 feet and the highest at 150 feet off the ground.

To make the following zipline a little more exciting (it wasn’t very high or fast) we were given the challenge to make two 360’s before reaching the other end. Much harder to do than you would think.

After a fabulous and very filling breakfast at the Blue Fox Café we headed over to the Butchart Gardens.

This is my favorite view – the Sunken Garden… very Garden of Edenish. Justin and I enjoyed listening to the ooh’s and aah’s of people as they walked onto the overlook.


The Rose Garden was in full-bloom

Even the trash cans were lovely


Thanks for watching the kids Grandma Fletcher, they had a great time!

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th of July a little early by watching the firework show at the horse racing track last night. We found a little gravel spot nearby nestled between a busy street and the railroad tracks. Not the most comfortable location, but it provided a descent view of the show.

Summer Adventure

Every summer Justin and his Dad tube down the river that runs behind his parent’s house. Because I’m not a good swimmer (and because in the eight years we’ve lived here I’ve usually been pregnant or had a young baby) I never joined them. It was in the 90’s yesterday so we got a babysitter, found me a life jacket to ease my mind and spent the afternoon on the river.

All these years Justin’s been telling me how safe the river is, that he’s never fallen off, and that in most parts you can touch the river bottom if you stand up. Wouldn’t you know it, the current pushed Justin into a rock wall and he flipped off his tube – in water he couldn’t stand in.

Because of all the flooding this year there was quite a bit of fallen trees to maneuver around. While Justin was asking someone where we were he punctured his tube on a tree limb sticking out of the water. That put an immediate end to our tubing trip but thankfully, we within 20 feet of our ending destination.

I was surprised how beautiful it was (unfortunately, I left the water camera in the car so no pictures.) For the most part it was peaceful and serine. I did learn that it’s better to not speak with anyone you run across along the river as they are either completely wasted or have indecent propositions to make. Aside from that it really was a great afternoon and I’m hoping we can find time to go down again sometime this summer.

Treasure Hunts

So I know it’s time for an update and although last week was busy, it was a normal everyday non-thrilling busy and the week ended completely pictureless. This week we are commitment free… no classes or speech therapy for J, no summer camps or swim lessons. Although I love the option of staying home (which we did most of today) we have lots of fun options for the rest of the week.

Yesterday we got together with the Fletcher family to visit with three of Justin’s Aunts who are in town for the HUGE quilt hop in western WA… I believe it’s becoming an annual tradition for the sisters. And once again his Aunt Joann organized a treasure hunt for the kids to enjoy. Clues were hidden all over the yard and each kid had their own clues to follow with lots of fun prizes, treats, and even a personalized goodie-bag. I hope she knows that since she’s done it two years in a row that the kids are already looking forward to the great treasure hunt of 2010.

These two are becoming great little buddies – they also participated in the treasure hunt, but were much more interested on eating the prizes and running around

School's Out for Summer!

Yesterday marked the 29th consecutive day that Seattle has not received any precipitation, tying the record for the driest May-June ever. It’s been an absolutely beautiful spring… ironically until today when school lets out for the summer and we had plans to spend the afternoon playing in the sunshine.

Today was the last day of school (if you can call 2 hours of school an actual day… which, according to our school district you can). We spent the morning at the end of year assembly where Abigail was recognized with an academic honors award. I received a letter from the principal earlier in the week notifying me she would be recognized in the assembly, but I didn’t know what the award would be. Apparently each teacher is allowed to choose two students from their class to present honors to. We are so proud of Abigail and all her hard work. Abigail was born with a desire to learn and she is always striving to be better. I couldn’t be happier with her achievements. Her teacher wrote a note which I’m hesitant to share for fear of being “one of those Moms”, however since I already shared Carly’s sweet note from her pre-school teacher I feel like I shouldn’t leave out Abigail’s note.

“I have really enjoyed having Abby in my class this year. She is extremely smart, caring, and has a sweet personality. She has continued to make tremendous social and academic gains this trimester due to her good working habits and determination to be successful. She has become an amazing reader, writer, and mathematician. Way to go! Abby is always pushing herself to a higher level. She is a special person and should experience lots of success in the second grade. Her teacher is going to be so lucky to have her next year. Thank you for sharing her with me!"

Abigail and her awesome teacher

Our Graduate

It’s official, I have a kindergartener. Carly’s last day of pre-school was today and her teacher had both her morning and afternoon classes meet at a local bouncy house to celebrate.

Carly and her fabulous teacher

Carly had lots of fun climbing, sliding, and bouncing with her friends. Jason thoroughly enjoyed himself as well and I was surprised that he was able to climb up all the toys by himself… before I know it I’ll be sending him off to school too. {sniff sniff}

While I wasn’t looking Jason climbed up this steep slide completely on his own.

Miss C and Miss C – these girls played non-stop (well, except to eat pizza and cake)


Carly’s teacher wrote each of the kids a special little note:

“Carly is awesome! I enjoy her serious nature with her bright, beautiful smile. She is so incredibly smart, well advanced of the rest of the class. She is good at everything, always gets right to work, and is one of the first ones finished with her table work. She is a great example for everyone. Carly is one of the kids whom I use as a leader for others to follow and as a helper. I love Carly’s questions about things that are going on. It’s been fun to see her love of babies earlier in the year… I will seriously miss her next year while her Kindergarten teacher will be lucky to have her in class!! I love you Carly!!”

It’s always wonderful to hear how much people love your kids. I completely agree. Carly is bright, inquisitive, and so full of personality. She is a friend to everyone – younger, older – boy, girl, it doesn’t matter. She’s such a joy to have in our family! Congratulations my sweet girl!

There wasn’t an official graduation ceremony so I pulled out Abigail’s pre-school graduation cap and bribed Carly into letting me take her picture.

the only Fletcher men

Three generations
and my favorite shot

Family Pictures

Justin’s sister’s sister-in-law (which I suppose could be me, but it’s not – maybe it’s better to say our brother-in-law’s sister) was visiting over the weekend and took pictures of us and the extended family on Saturday. She’s posted a small sample on her blog with more to come. Here’s some of our favorites so far:

She asked him to “blow” which Jason interpreted to mean “eat”

We went with a totally casual look - so I told the girls to wear their flip-flops. It wasn’t until we got to the photo location that I noticed Abigail was wearing her big ole clunky black shoes… oh, well.

As I was saying...

Can’t turn your back on this guy
Looks like we’ll be having a wet summer

Waterboy

Jason loves water. He’s always loved taking baths and is fearless in a swimming pool. When Justin waters outside Jason will run through the water and even when he is soaking wet he doesn’t want the fun to end. Here’s what I found Jason entertaining himself with this morning.

Can you tell how wet he is? He just kept spraying himself in the face over and over again.

"All Done"

Jason has asthma and while I realize there are much worse health issues my boy could have besides allergies and asthma, it can still be difficult to deal with. Every so often his asthma acts up and he sounds like Woody’s friend Wheezy from Toy Story. After his last episode I bought a nebulizer so we would be able to treat him at home. Yesterday was especially bad so we broke out our new contraption only to realize we were missing an essential piece to use the face mask. We attempted to stick the provided inhaler into Jason’s mouth and struggled unsuccessfully to get any medicine into our strong, hysterical little boy. By the time we got home from church at 4:30pm he was completely wiped out from having to work so hard to breathe that he quickly fell asleep and slept til 8:30 this morning (that’s even after sleeping for two hours before church).

This morning he was still wheezy, but much better and he was VERY happy (who wouldn’t be happy after sleeping 16+ hours?). I called the pediatrician office and picked up the missing piece to the nebulizer. While we were there the doctor wanted Jason to do a treatment in the office. What a workout. I literally had to wrestle with him to try and keep the mask on his face. The only time he wasn’t trying to pry the mask away was when he’d hold his little hands up in the air signing/pleading to be “all done.” Thankfully, the doctor came in after five minutes and told me we could stop even though we hadn’t finished all the medication. Jason and I were hot, sweaty and grateful to be done…very traumatic for us both.

Isn’t it wonderful how quickly children forgive their parents? But just to be safe (and since I still hadn’t eaten breakfast) we swung by Jamba Juice and tried the new Blackberry Bliss… just what we needed. Jason is once again a happy (wheezy, but happy) little boy and is sleeping it off.

Outdoor Fun

Memorial weekend was awesome. In addition to a great camping trip we managed to fill the rest of the weekend with even more fun. We had a BBQ with Justin’s family on Sunday after church. The weather was perfect so we walked back to the river.

The BIG kids

and the little kids

We enjoyed another BBQ on Monday, but this time with friends. A couple recently moved into our ward who just so happened to be in my singles ward at BYU. In fact the wife was my Relief Society president. She organized a little reunion with one of my college roommates. We had a great time – so fun to catch up after all these years.


and who doesn’t love a little badminton?


Monday night we enjoyed another pizza dinner at a local park
(Papa John's this time... much better!)

These girls really are best of friends - I hope it stays that way forever!

Tuesday evening we had an amazing Dutch oven dinner prepared for us courtesy of Justin’s parents (they were the winning bid at an auction). It was so yummy that we are even more committed to improving our Dutch oven skills.

The rest of the week and this past weekend has continued to be busy, busy. The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Although, I must admit I am already VERY grateful for my little air-conditioned haven. Happy June!

Camping

We look forward to camping over Memorial weekend each year. This was our sixth year – we’ve camped in the pouring rain (unfortunately, more than once) and the hot sun. We’ve camped with kids as young as 2 months old and we’ve camped when I was enormously pregnant. Even in the most miserable of circumstances (wet sleeping bags, muddy everything, and swarms of mosquitoes), we have always had a good time. A lot of the fun comes from spending time with great friends.

We wanted to be back home for church on Sunday so we took Abigail out of school early on Friday so we could get a jump start on the weekend. The food is always a highlight of camping. We had a great Dutch oven dinner, peach cobbler, and smores… yummy!

Yummy Watermelon

Just after our kids went to bed and we were ready to relax by the campfire, two large vehicles pulled into the campsite next to us and out poured a group 10-12 teenage boys. Thankfully we were at a church campground so they had a few responsible adults with them to help keep them in line. They proceeded to set up camp and act as teenage-boys do until well after 1am. I thought for sure our kids would wake up in the morning before them (when I was a teenager I could sleep til noon without a problem), but at 5am the boys were up chopping wood and having a good ole time. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most restful night for me, but to my surprise Jason (and the girls) were completely unfazed by the noise and slept til 8am.

This year we tried a different campground that offers lots of fun activities.

We went a canoe ride.

We spent most of Saturday enjoying the giant slip-n-slide.

One of the rules of the slide is that you have to wear water shoes. Justin wears a size 16 shoe so finding water shoes for him with only a few days notice was impossible. And since I wasn’t feeling any desire to use the slip-n-slide Jason was going merely spectate. I was curious if Jason would enjoy the slide so I asked a friend to take him down with her. I half expected him to refuse to go with her (he can be quite the mamma’s boy) but he completely cooperated and…

He LOVED it!

Of course then he wanted to go again, and again. As soon as he got off the tube he signed for “more”. Justin borrowed water shoes a few times, but a size 11 on a size 16 foot is quite awkward. Thankfully we were able to pawn Jason off a few more times with friends.

Lots of work for only one night, but once again we had a great time and look forward to next year. Hopefully we’ll actually make it on another campout before then.

First of Many

Before we had children I imagined we’d have a house full of boys. To our surprise (and my relief) our first child was a girl… two years later we were blessed with another daughter. Even though Justin said he’d be perfectly happy if we only had daughters, I knew he’d love to have a son. Justin loves to be active, play sports, and go camping. When Abigail was just a toddler he took her to the annual Father & Son church campout. They both loved it and I thought it was sweet that he wanted to experience that with her. Last year both of the girls joined Justin on the campout – they thought it was great fun to sleep in the van with their Dad. Now that Justin has a son of age, the girls have seen their last Father & Son campout. I didn’t really expect Justin to take Jason this year since he’s still so little (only 21 months old), but after throwing together a few necessities they were ready to go. Although Jason had no idea where he was being whisked off to, he was thrilled. Apparently Jason had a great time and was still happily soaking it all in at 11pm (WAY past his usual bedtime). Justin decided sleeping in the van didn’t sound so comfy after all so they headed home for the night, but I’m still considering this the first of many more Father & Son campouts to come.

We sure love this guy!

Family Fun

Man, have I been missing out or what? I’m loving having a bike. We borrowed my sister-in-law’s bike trailer and have gone on several family bike rides.

Our new family hobby has come with quite the wish list: new bike for mom, bike trailer needed for Jason, bike rack so we can take the show on the road, and a hitch for the van so we can attach the needed bike rack.

Mother's Day Tea

This afternoon was the Mother’s Day Tea for the first graders at Abigail’s school. Over the years I’ve heard from friends about how wonderful this event is and Abigail and I have really been looking forward to it. I was greeted at the classroom door by my sweet daughter. She gave me a tissue paper corsage and led me to a chair right by her desk. The desks looked adorable and I immediately wished I would have brought my camera. Abigail then served me a delicious plate of goodies. We ate our treats as she showed me all the projects she’s been working on for this special day. I opened a card with this adorable picture in it and the following poem:

I miss you when we’re not together
I’m growing up so fast
See how big I’ve gotten
Since you saw me last?

As I grow, I’ll change a lot,
The years will fly right by.
You’ll wonder how I grew so quick
When and where and why?

So save this card in a safe place,
And take it out each year.
The memories will come back of me,
When I was small and dear.

I was so touched I almost couldn’t finish reading it. Then there was a slide show presentation. The first part displayed pictures of the kids throughout the school year, then “Let them be little” by Billy Dean started to play and pictures of our first graders were shown as well as pictures of them as toddlers. To top off the afternoon all five first grade classes and their moms gathered in the gym to watch the kids’ performance. They did a phenomenal job. Excellent choreography, music, and costumes. As we walked home hand-in-hand I couldn’t help but feel incredibly grateful to have this sweet girl in my life.

I can’t wait to do this again in two years with Carly!

New Wheels

Justin and the girls go on bike rides a lot. Sometimes they are gone for hours while I get left at home (usually I don’t mind). As Justin previously mentioned we recently decided it was time for me to get a bike.

My last bike – age 6
(Hey Bird, can you believe how little that tree is on the right)

The guy at REI basically only showed us one bike. Based on what I would be using it for (riding around with the kids) he thought it was the perfect bike for me. After explaining its features (which I still know nothing about) he told us they encourage customers to take it for a ride in the parking lot before making a purchase. I hesitated while Justin quickly told the employee to get me a helmet. I was nervous – butterflies in my stomach nervous. I hadn’t been on a bike for decades and this was a nice new one. I thought for sure I would fall, and even worse that I would fall in front of my kids. I was very cautious and to my surprise I didn’t fall, in fact I really enjoyed it. REI’s big anniversary sale started this past weekend and we picked up my new wheels on Saturday. Too bad it rained all day, but I did manage to take it for a spin around the block a few times – so much fun. Now all we need is a bike trailer for Jason (if anyone sees one at the community garage sale next weekend let us know).

Isn’t she a beauty?

Happy May Day

Jason has started working with a speech therapist and has also been attending a toddler playgroup to work on his communication skills. Although I can’t necessarily credit his improvement to the early intervention program (this is only our second week), we have definitely seen some improvement. No new words, but he’s making different sounds and has picked up a few animal noises, etc… He loves going to his class and quickly became a favorite of his teachers.

Here’s a clip from earlier this week. Pay special attention to the fierceness in his eyes when he growls. Oh, and yes he loves to tackle, which we all think is kind of fun, but doesn’t go over so well with kids his own age.

You may also notice our new rug arrived this week (my anniversary present to Justin) which I love, love, love and can completely credit to my ubber-talented-beautiful-home-decorator friend who just so happened to have a sample of the rug in her car and didn’t mind that I completely copied her. Now I just need to see what she picks out for curtains and pillows. ;)

Justin had meetings every night this week so we are looking forward to a date night tonight and a fun weekend with the kiddos.