My favorite Holiday

The fourth of July is by far my favorite holiday. It is warm and sunny and usually involves water, barbecue and fireworks!!! There is no pressure like at Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter. You just get to have a carefree day and get a chance to legally be a pyro. We had a great 4th this year. Mom had a craft booth at the Auburn festival and so we went with her and spent most of the afternoon there. They had a ton of things to do and we were kept busy the whole day. From there we went out to Whidbey Island. One of my longest and dearest friends has a family house on the waterfront and invited us out, we are so glad she did!!!! The kids got to ride on a ferry and then run around on the beach for a bit while waiting for it to get dark. Granpa Frank and Aunt Mem made hamburgers and hotdogs and then the kids got to start with the little fireworks. The great thing about having a beach house is that the neighbors are rich!!! The ones next to us must have spent a few thousand on their fireworks. They went for about two hours and none of them were the small kind either. Across the water we saw the whole coastline lighting up and got to see Everett's big firework show as well as a few other cities. It was such a great day and I am so glad that we got to spend it with family and friends. Sariah was teething and had a fever so she was kind of out of it the whole day until we got some tylenol into her.

The children got to ride on all the inflatable toys at the fair. Ont his one Seri is on the other side and they are attached by the rope coming out of the middle. The goal is to make the ball into a basket at your end, put you have to pull the person you are attached to in order to do it. Mike was having a bit of trouble and so in this pic the guy that was running the booth jumped up and held on to the rope for him so that Seri could not make it to her end. It was great to watch!

Matt and the kids has a great time playing fetch with Olivia, Aunt Mem's dog.

Sariah enjoying the sand which she must have ingested too much of because the next afternoon she had a diaper full of poop and sand!!!!

Isaac takes a break during a long day.

Sariah inspecting the fireworks.

Of course, no 4th is ever complete without sparklers!!!!

The children intently watching Aunt Mem light snakes. When Mem first asked if the children wanted to see the snakes Isaac went in the house and asked me where the snakes where so he could see them, too funny.

Not to be left out, it is Sariah's turn to watch.

My sweet baby at the end of a very long day. Jenni decided that Sariah's head was probably cold and so gave up one of her bandana's.

Hanging with Jen and making faces.

Happy Fourth of July!!!! This was one of the neighbors displays.

Jenni's legs got cold and so Mem sat in front of them to warm them up and eventually all of the children gravitated to Mem's legs to keep them warm for her, I think the fact that she has a blanket may have had something to do with it. That and the fact that they adore Aunt Mem.

Sariah's first fireworks. She slept through the first part and then woke up to enjouy some of them, but promptly fell asleep again and slept through the rest.

Our first planted letter box!

The hitch hiker. Almost all stamps are hand-carved and this one was really impressive.

Our first carved stamp.

At the park where we hid Michael's box there was this. Not sure if this is what you are supposed to do with it or not. but Michael held on while we "pushed" his legs around.

Some guys just never grow up. Matt was not about to let Michael have all the fun. Such a dork :)

The tree where at it's base, Michael's box is hidden.

In honor of Michael's birthday we decided to plant a letterbox. Daddy carved a stamp into the shape of three balloons with an eight tied ot the bottom. We got the box ready and tonight for family home evening we went and planted it. for those of you nearby here are the links.

http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/showboxinfo.html?gBoxId=45690

http://www.letterboxing.org/BoxFind.php

We had a great time hiding it and writing up the clues and then playing at the park.

Our Letter Boxing addiction continues to grow.

Saturday we went searching for a few. The first one we didn't find although we know we were at the right spot. It is either missing or we somehow missed it. From there we went on to find two others at a nearby school. the first one had us stumped for awhile untill Matt found it. I was ready to abandon it and move on, but I am so glad we didn't. In this box there was also a hitchhiker that had come from MS. It had a goal to get to San Fransisco, made it there and then started it's way up here and we found it!! Such a rare find. It is also one of the most beautiful stamps we have seen yet. We are going to take it on our trip this summer and plant it along the way.

There is also a letter box in our area that we have been looking at the clue for. it is in the form of a riddle and has a math equation in it (which that in itself is enough to deter me) however it had never been found and the thrill of a challenge was more than we could take. The title was "All things Irish" and it did not tell you exactly where to go, but Matt suggested I look up names for the parks in the city. Sure enough there was one named "lake Killarney" and I knew we had stumbled on something. Turns out the park is exactly across the street from where we go to church! Through a series of misadventures our dilligence paid off and we found it!! The first to find it out of 98 views!!! I was elated!!! We so need to go on "Amazing Race". Matt and I work so well together.

Happy Father's Day!!!

A few nights ago I walked into my knitting group and one of the young ladies had her baby with her. She explained that her husband did not want to babysit and so she had to bring the baby. I guesse it showed on my face that I was shocked by her statement. She proceeded to say that when the baby was smaller the husband would babysit but would always call about a half hour into it asking her to come home. I commented that my house would have to be burning down or a child literally dying before my husband would call me when I was out having alone time. Not because I don't want him to call but because he realizes the importance of me having alone time sometimes more than I do. I guesse I must have made a few other comments about my husband because one of the ladies commented on how I "must have married a really great man". Youn know what? She's right, I did. Often times I will go over to someone's house or have the chance to observe couples interacting and I end up coming home and telling him how grateful I am that I have him for a husband. I am so fortunate to have this man in my life. He is the perfect companion for me and the perfect father for our children. I think we have a picture of Matt in this position with all of our children. He loves his children so fiercely. While I don't neccesarilly think I am great at the baby stage, he truly is. He has an amazing way with babies (as many mothers who have let him "borrow" their babies can attest too). When I was breastfeeding Michael (The Baracuda child), I was very sore and bled every time he nursed. He would cry to be fed and I would cry in anticipation of the pain that nursing him would involve. Knowing how important it was to me that I breastfeed our children Matt would walk back and forth with Michael for how ever long it took for me to finally give in to feeding him, never once giving in to my pleading to feed him formula. He went on to breastfeed past his second birthday and I treasure those memories, possible because of a patient and dilligent father.

This picture is one of my absolute favorites. It was taken just moments after Sariah's birth. In it I imagine Sariah's fear and confusion at being in this strange environment. She looks at her father as if knowing that he will provide answers, comfort, and all the love that she will need. In his arms she feels comforted and secure. In this one moment he transends communication to tell her in a gaze that he will protect and cherish her from now until eternity.

It takes a willing and patient person to put up with me. Matt is just such a person. He not only puts up with all of my ideas and passions but he supports me in them. I see other mother's whose husbands balk at some of the things I now insist on, even when the mother has a strong desire to do certain things for her family. He has supported me through natural childbirth three times, supports us financially so that I have always had the choice to be a Stay-at-home-mom, he also supports my efforts to home school our children and not have them vaccinated without cause. He truly trusts my ability to do what is best for our children. In this picture you can see him crouched behind me. He stayed this way the whole time I was laboring beacause I would not let him move. As I was pushing I could feel his legs trembling with the strain of holding that position and as much as I knew he wanted to move I desperately needed him to stay right there, so stay he did, without ever once complaining.

I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is the best Dad I could have ever asked for to raise our children. I guesse in some ways I am jealous of the fact that my children do have such an awesome dad. Michael gave him a card that said "I love you because of tackle Daddy". Each day when the children discover that Matt has come home they all yell "tackle Daddy" and you hear the thundering of footsteps and the banshee yelling of children who are incredibly enthusiastic. Then they spend half-an-hour tackeling him and wrestling around on the floor, no matter what. Once in-awhile the children will be engrossed in something too fascinating for even "tackle Daddy" and you can tell how dissapointed Matt is.

Saturday and Sunday morning's are the best, the children come in and snuggle with us and while mom adjusts to haveing to wake up, Dad entertains them by tickling, giving rides on his legs, or playing hide-n-seek under the covers. It is amazing how much we all miss him on Monday whe he has to return to work. When he was in the Army he would save his leave so that he could take 30 days to be at home after I had a baby. Others said that it would drive them crazy to have their spouse at home 24/7 for that long a period of time, we all reveled in it.

He is always willing to help the children with their hands on projects, which is good, because a lot of the time I do not have the patience for it.

His efforts to build the biggest snow man on the block.

So for all this and so much more I say thank you dear.

Wild Waves, the official start of summer!

As I mentioned last year, no summer is complete when you live in the Pacific Northwest without a trip to Wild Waves! This year we went a tad early as Michael wanted to go for his birthday. Wild Waves had advertised throughout the homeschool community that the day before the season opened was "homeschool day". They offered tickets at $10.00 a piece (about a twenty dollar per ticket savings) and the code to purchase was "homeschool". So we were very excited. Only to find out as we were pulling up that it must have also been official school field trip day. There were a ton of busses and a ton of PS kids without adequat chaperones! ARGH....... Definetly one of my pet peeves!!!!!!!!
Anyhow, we had a great time dispite my initial annoyance. It was not as warm as it probably should have been for frolicing in the water, but hey, this is Seattle and it never is!
Isaac at the wave pool, just a tad bit cold.

Sariah's avoidance technique clicks into gear "water, cold, quick go to sleep".

And this is why we take Nana with us! So the other two and I can play, while they take a nap :)

Can this possibly get any colder?

Michael all set to fly in a hang glider ride.

They have this big pond with a ton of fish and ducks that you can feed. It is always a big hit to stop here and watch them. All the little black specks are really huge fish and there are a ton of them.

Auburn's Hidden Treasure

Quite awhile ago while driving around completely lost (yes, I know, typical) we came across an old Drive in theater. the thing is that there were recent movies on the Marque. Come to find out that it is an actual working drive-in theater and the best part is they only charge $7.00 per adult!!! On the weekend nights they show two features back-to-back and you can bring your own food and drinks!!! So we run by the dollar store and fill up and then open the back of the van, turn the seats around to face out and enjoy the show without the kids having to sit still and be quiet!! Amazing!!! WE went and saw Shrek 3 and the Last Mimsy the other weekend. Part of Michael's month long Birthday Celebration. The only drawback is that it is a really late night. The first feature usually doesn't start until around 9:00.

More Letter Boxing

We started on the Letter Box set called "A Pilgrims Journey" in Point Defiance park. This is a set of six and we were trying to find all of them, but #2 (again) had us stumped and we waisted a good deal of time looking for it. We did find 1, 3, and 4 though. 1 was in a cute Japanese Garden with a Coy pond. Three was in the forest on a hiking trail, and four was by the beach. We tried to find 2 which is supposedly on a cliff near the Marina. Didn't find it, but we really enjoyed the Marina! After searching for #2 for awhile we found this park at the top of the cliff, guesse the climb was good for something. We let the boys play for awhile and of course Seri found a group of boys playing football and had to join in.

The second box was impossible to find, we looked for a good couple of hours and then even came back to it after we had skipped it and found 3 and 4. It was somewhere up on this cliff, which was literally a VERY STEEP cliff. I was wearing sandals with no grip on the bottom, so after attempting to scale the cliff I came back down and watched from the bottom. (Note to self, when letter boxing, wear decent shoes!). Then Isaac slipped and slid halfway down the hill. there was nothing to do but convince him to continue sliding and ruin a good pair of pants. This picture shows Matt with the baby on the left. The small dot in the center is Seri and Michael is off to the right.

Out on the peir we noticed there were hundreds of little jelly fish, some larger ones too. It was amazing how many there were. You can see two of them in the above pic, towards the center, around the brown stuff.

Sariah once again trying to get a good look at the sea creatures by leaning way out of her sling.

The children playing "King of the hill".

Isaac, Daddy and Sariah finding box #1 in the rock wall.

Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday we headed back to the "Never land park" at Point Defiance. It was still bothering us that we hadn't found "Jack" from Silly Story. I had emailed the last person to find it, which was back in Jan, and she had given us a few clues. Sure enough it only took about five minutes, literally. Part of the clue was wrong because of the revamp done to the park after this winter's storms.
We tried to look around for two others, but apparently a walking path now runs through where one should have been, and the starting point for the other one was damaged in the storms and removed, so without that point of reference we were not sure where to start out at.
From there we went to the zoo since we had promised the children we would go the other day.

Sariah has been in a sling since she was about three months old, however now that she moves, it doesn't always contain her well. Here she is trying to get a good glimpse at the aquarium.
Michael as a field zoologist.

Sariah looking at the lizards.

Riding down the slide with bubba, who isn't that much bigger than she is!

For some reason, Sariah is definetly an out-of-the-house girl. She is so happy when we are out and about.

Sariah and daddy playing at the park. (Matt would like it if I would stop pointing out his bald spot, so from here on out no more references to......you know.....)