Innocence of youth

On Saturday I took the boys into town (the big city nearby of course, not our town) to do some shopping and errand running. One of our errands took us near the Lloyd center area, a much more urban setting than we are usually in. While we were there a transient who smelled like a liquor store exploded on him asked us for money- twice. The boys were really taken aback by this. Grayson, trying to make sense of it in his own way said "I bet he just wants money for a Wii". Before I could explain Fuller explained to him that people that ask for money usually need it for food or a home, not video games. Grayson just couldn't grasp this concept. The thought of someone not having a home or plenty of food is just unbelievable to him. He thought for a minute and then said "well if people gave me money I would buy a Wii". How nice it would be to be blissfully unaware of the bad things in the world. It left me wondering when that change happens. Somewhere between Fuller's age and Grayson's it seems like a lot of those innocent attitudes are lost. Maybe it's because we lived in the city when Fuller was Grayson's age, and he was exposed to more of a variety of people and life.

today

I got up this morning and enjoyed a few minutes in the yard by myself. I have been hoping to find where the little frogs are hiding. We have been hearing them a lot, and occasionally one of them hops around near the lavender, but have yet to get a closer look at them. I'm hoping the boys and their friends didn't scare them off yesterday. We had 4 neighborhood boys over (plus my 3)being loud maniacs in our backyard. They all had a great time, but I told my kids that the only way they are playing with friends today is if it is at someone else's house.




I am so excited to start eating things from the garden!

Blue and yellow wonderfulness!

Today is an exciting day for me. The first IKEA store in the state of Oregon opened this morning, and it's less than an hour from my house~! I can feel my house on the verge of complete organization, just knowing there are IKEA products so close by. It's killing me to wait to go check it out, but I'm not feeling foolhardy enough to try to brave the crowds of opening week. They had allowed people to start pitching tents on Monday in anticipation of this mornings grand opening. You have to be way crazier than me to spend to night in a parking lot just for a chance to shop. The only thing more exciting this week is the new Harry Potter book, which I just finished. I'll be going to bed really early tonight to catch up on the sleep I missed the last two nights while reading until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I'm so sad to see it come to an end, those books have been totally addicting! Now I must get back to being a mom, my house has really fallen into chaos while I have had my nose stuck in that book.

Grayland Beach

I suppose I really shouldn't complain. We have been going camping with Heather and her family for several years now and this is the first year we had bad weather. However, being stuck in a yurt with 5 kids can sure make you feel like complaining. Here are the good and the bad of our weekend.









THE GOOD-
- spending time with the Jones cousins
- Aunt Heather's raspberry/blueberry cobbler
- Uncle Forrest's jokes
- watching the boys build their own "man VS wild" shelter
- salt water taffy
- playing uno
- playing CRANIUM family fun, and laughing until our bellies hurt
- fish and chips
- snuggling under the covers with Rowan
- seeing the beautiful ocean (it really did look beautiful on Thursday night, before the rain started)
- Rowan and his favorite friend, Alyssa
- Visiting the STAR WARS store in Aberdeen
- hot showers
- going to the "twilight zone" with Heather, while looking for some tylenol for Fuller
- s'mores
- the boys playing with cars and digging holes in the big sand pile by the camp site
- Fuller determinedly searching the harbor for a ship from "Deadliest Catch"
- seeing the big light house lens
- finding perfect, intact sand dollars!
- everyone snuggling in the yurt and watching "Night at the Museum" on Uncle Forrest's laptop
- Being warm and dry as we fell asleep to the sounds of wild wind and rain























THE BAD-
- RAIN
- having a headache
- Fuller having a head ache
- Fuller throwing up
- slugs
- more rain
- Fuller throwing up again
- Grayson almost getting his head totally slammed in the van door
- Donuts that looked good but were sadly disappointing
- Feeling like a drowned rat
- Being stuck in the yurt with nine people while Rowan threw a tantrum
- Piles and piles of wet and sandy clothes
- Making all three of my children cry ( with the decision to come home a day early)
- Hearing the forecast that the storm we were experiencing was going to be the weaker of two storms during the weekend
- even more rain!
- being completely soaked
- Paul joining us half way through the camp out because of work

Cub Scout Day Camp, and a funny story about Rowan

Yesterday was the first day of cub camp. Fuller was super excited, and also a little sad I think, since this is his last year. He is the oldest member of his pack going, so he was paired with the youngest scout. He reported at the end of the day that this was an annoying way to spend his last year of camp. I had to remind him that someone had to show him around his first year, and also that a scout is supposed to be helpful. It's in the scout motto and everything. He was gone from 8-4 and says he had a great time. They got to do archery, shoot BB guns, and take apart owl pellets. He brought home the contents of his owl pellet, a few mouse skulls and several little mouse bones. This is just gross to me, but all the boys at my house thought it was super cool. Today the weather was cool and rainy but Fuller refused to wear pants, so I guess we'll see this afternoon how fun day 2 was.



Also, here's a funny story about Rowan that I forgot to include in my post about our last trip to the beach. While we were at the beach with Paul's brother we went to visit Fort Stevens. After walking around the fort for awhile we went to check out the museum/gift shop. It was a super hot day, and the museum wasn't air conditioned, so I went outside to wait in the shade. After a little while Paul and the boys came out, Rowan with a very interesting grin on his face. Apparently while they were looking at an exhibit, Rowan had snuck away from Paul. When they went to look for him they found him at the counter in the gift shop, WAITING FOR HIS CHANGE! Rowan had bought himself a pack a SKITTLES. I had known that Rowan had a dollar in his pocket, but it never would have occurred to me that he would try to go spend it on his own. This four year old is just too independent for me!

The weekend I didn't have

This weekend I didn't get to...
1. Visit much with my sister and her family, (since I started getting sick 6 hours after they arrived and they only stayed one night since I was sick)
2. See my Aunt and Uncle from Texas - so sad I missed them, it's already been about 8 years since our last visit
3. Have a nice brunch at my folks house with all the aforementioned people, plus Jim and Enid- heard reports that the food and company were great though
4. Go exploring Ape Caves, and see how excited the boys were- heard all had a good time- Fuller says it was the best day ever!
5. Eat solid food!


OK, I'll quit my pity party now. On the plus side, Paul had lots of good bonding time with the boys. I lost 6 pounds and managed to watch several episode's of Twilight Zone that I had recorded. Hopefully this week will be better for us.

Making Memories

These last few days we have been treated to a visit from four of our favorite people in the whole world, our Montana cousins! Paul's brother Jason, his wife Barbara (I'm so thankful he married such a fabulous woman!) and their fun and sweet kids Gabe and Elsie. We had so much fun. Fuller especially loves visiting with them. He and Gabe were born 10 days apart and became good friends when they used to live in Oregon, so he thinks having them here is the best thing in the world. He tried to talk Jason into moving here and living with us! We spent 2 days here at home playing in the pool, riding bikes, going to the river and eating lots of ice cream. The kids had fun staying up late talking and giggling, so much so that they got talked to several times and threatened with separation, for their own good. Then we went to the beach for the other 2 days of their visit. We climbed to the top of the Astoria Column, all 164 steps. Some of the kids even climbed twice. We ate fabulous food, played at the beach, and enjoyed a beautiful campground. Paul's Dad was able to join us for this part of the visit, and we all enjoyed having him. We stayed up late telling stories around the campfire and eating more marshmallows than we should have. The only bad part of the visit was Gabe getting sick the last day, we are all hoping he is feeling better. Our company left this morning and there is a grumpy tone in our house now that all of the fun and excitement are over. The kids miss their cousins already, and are begging for us to take them to Montana as soon as possible~!

Pool fun

Happy 4th of July

We started our day by watching the hot dog eating contest at Nathan's. Due to the time difference this airs at 9am here, so we got to see it right after breakfast. Our kids discovered this phenomenon last year, and were really looking forward to it. I must say this is about the most intriguing and disgusting spectacle I have witnessed in a long time. There's just something wrong with a guy trying to force 60+ hot dogs in his mouth in 12 minutes. The kids got so wrapped up in the battle between the guy from Japan, Kobayashi and the American Joey Chestnut. Man those guys on ESPN can make anything sound important. I think the parts that bothered me the most were the vegetarian contestant who "only eats meat for competitive eating events", and the use of the term "reversal of fortune" to describe barfing. I must warn anyone who might come to our house in the near future, Fuller had Paul record this, so it is available for viewing at any time! The rest of the day consisted of a trip to the river so Buster could get a swim, and the boys played in the water too. Then out to hunt for a new pool. The boys have really out grown ours. They found a bigger one than we really wanted to pay for, so they unanimously decided to take some money out of their Wii fund to help pay for it. Paul and I got a good laugh at the words on the box which state that it can be set up in 10 minutes. The actual directions tell you to let the thing sit in the sun for 2 hours before you even start putting it together, plus about an hour and a half of assembly time, and 5 hours to get the thing full of water. By the time the pool was ready for business it was dark and chilly, so I guess it will be a July 5th treat. We talked the boys into taking a nap in the afternoon since we were going to let them stay up so late, and I think it made a big difference. We BBQ'ed hot dogs for dinner, ate ice cream sandwiches with our neighborhood friends, and then let off our fireworks, and enjoyed the big illegal ones that our neighbors had. All in all a great day.

Elements of a good weekend

1. Having my husband make a fresh batch of granola and a batch of wheat bread!
2. Taking the kids to see Ratatoillie(probably spelled that wrong)and immensely enjoying it myself.
3. "Chocolate brownie thunder" ice cream
4. A two hour nap Sunday afternoon
5. Eight loads of laundry washed, folded and put away
6. A happy dog who got a long swim at the river
7. Kids who have discovered that they like to play chess! (when I woke up this morning Fuller and Grayson were playing chess instead of watching cartoons)