Glacier Cruise with Justin

Matt hasn't been back to Texas since we left, so he hasn't seen some of his friends in almost 3 years! I figured that's way too long to not see some of your close friends and decided to invite one of our good friends up for a visit. I don't think I've ever invited Justin for a visit that he hasn't accepted and moving to Alaska hasn't changed that! He booked a flight up the same day I suggested it and even managed to get a direct flight both ways - lucky guy...!

He was here for several days and almost all of them were so rainy. (Boo!) He kept assuring me he was more than happy to just hang out with us at the house, but I was still bummed. I want everyone who visits this state to love it like I do. So I was still hoping for some sunshine and optimistically booked a glacier cruise out of Whittier the one day it *might* not rain quite as much.... 

I always worry about missing the tunnel into Whittier because it runs on a strict schedule. So we usually err on the side of arriving way too early and find some way to entertain ourselves in Whittier. After we hit the Frito Pie and Donut hut (the best!), we headed out to do some exploring. I had discovered this rushing stream on our first trip to Whittier (and first Glacier cruise) and thought the boys would like it!

Except the little guys thought it was a little too loud. I had envisioned them throwing rocks in it, but it was a bit too scary for them at the first location we stopped. (Ok, scary for me too if I am being honest. Rushing water and toddlers make me nervous!)

We walked downstream a little ways where it felt a little bit safer to throw rocks. Except they still weren't interested. In their defense, the water was moving pretty darn fast. The waterfalls further up hill were throwing all kinds of water spray up in the air - at least the waterfalls were benefitting from all the rain!

Then a weather switch somewhere got flipped and the clouds started to break up. Soon the sun was shining and it was a whole different day! It went from blah to gorgeous in no time! With all the green and bright blue, you could almost imagine you were in a tropical paradise (with glaciers!). 

We drove to the end of the road (it doesn't take long!) to soak in the scenery and the sunshine. It's a little hard to make out the town in this photo, but you can clearly see the giant cruise ship back at the docks. It is so massive compared to almost everything else in Whittier. I can't even imagine the bottleneck it causes when all those people disembark!

Finally off and cruising! This time I opted for the shorter cruise that went from Whittier to Shotgun Cove then on to all the glaciers in Blackstone Bay. Even though it was much shorter than the 26 glacier cruise I took with my mom and sister, I'm not convinced we didn't see more glaciers today since the last cruise was during awful weather. 

You honestly couldn't have asked for a better weather day. The captain on the ship kept commenting on how lucky we all were for how nice it was. Matt and Justin pretty much spent the whole cruise out on the deck - it was a little windy, but otherwise perfect. And the two of them got to see chunks falling off of the glacier more than once. Matt was a little skeptical he would enjoy the cruise, but even he was a little amazed at the glaciers once we were up close and personal (in his defense, he didn't realize the glaciers would be right up to the water!). 

The boys were more interested in hanging out inside than venturing out on the decks - a little bit of wind really does them in. But they still seemed to be having a great time! Thomas was dutifully marking any wildlife he saw in the cruise guide and tracking our ship's position on the monitors. 

Henry happily played with his magnets and Alaskan animals before realizing it was way past his naptime. Once he started throwing his animals under the table, I decided it was time to try and lull him to sleep. A few minutes snuggled up in my lap and he was out - success!

Overall, it turned out to be a great day and from what I can tell, the best part of Justin's visit to Alaska. We also managed to fit in a moose and bear sighting, so we accomplished everything on his list except seeing the Northern Lights. You'll just have to come back in the winter for that one! (As a bonus, it's still fun to play outside when it's snowing - rain, not so much!)

Bear Paw Festival

As I have mentioned several times, summer in an Alaska means *so* many festivals. I think you could probably find some sort of festival every week. Since mom was still in town for my Friday off this week, we decided to take the boys up to the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River.

Henry saw the horse rides and was pretty insistent on riding a horsey. Thomas wanted nothing to do with the horses, which worked out well once I realized a few turns in a circle on the horse was $10. I went from trying to convince Thomas to join his brother to quickly deciding it was 100% cool if he didn't want to ride. 

Lucky for Henry, I had already promised him a ride before I found out how pricey it was. Though he looks a bit concerned in this photo, he actually seemed to enjoy the ride overall. It certainly didn't hurt that Nonni was walking along with him telling him what a great horse rider he was!

And I forgot his sunglasses again. I am the worst at remembered his shades... :( 

They had these giant Tundra comic panels for the kiddos to color. The coloring discs didn't really work all that well though, so the boys lost interest pretty quickly. When we went by at the end of the day we discovered that the discs were actually watercolor and they hadn't set up the brushes and buckets of water earlier in the day. No wonder it didn't work too well!

The boys had zero interest in the festivities apart from the carnival rides. What a surprise... And Henry is now big enough to ride some of the big boy rides. We were a little worried about how he would do once it started moving, so Nonni went along. Then Henry decided to sit in the front where no adult could possibly squeeze in. Thankfully, the ride was uneventful...!

Nonni was not that interested in the giant slide, so she offered to take photos of the boys and I on the ride down. I love the giant slide - I would imagine the boys will get tired of it before I will! 

The "flying" ride was super popular today, so Thomas ended up having to share a helicopter. The little girl who had already claimed the helicopter wasn't at all bothered about sharing the front seat. He piloted his helicopter with his usual seriousness. Nonni thought it was hilarious that he was so focused and refused to make eye contact the whole time the ride was going (like usual!). It's not like I could have gotten a great photo of him even if he had looked at us - those windshields are so hazy & scratched up!

It was quite obvious he had fun on the ride though! This boy loves helicopter rides - we obviously named him well. :)

Henry was too little for the helicopters, so he decided to go on the carousel ride instead. Henry was obviously in a horsey mood today!

Once we blew through all of the ride tickets I bought, we headed over to the playground next to the rides to burn off a little more energy before heading home. I'm not sure who found these glass marbles to be more exciting me or Thomas. I thought they looked super cool with the sun flaring off of them! 

They climbed and slid and ran around like crazy boys! I think I could have saved my money and just gone straight to the playground. I feel like this is a lesson I re-learn over and over... ;)

I finally pried the away from the playground with the promise of a funnel cake before we left. But it was so hot that I had to make them wait quite a while for it to cool down. You can see how happy they are about waiting to eat it. Ha - poor guys!

We even managed to find a guy making balloon animals on the way back to the parking lot. Henry was very excited about getting a bear in an airplane, but Thomas only wanted the airplane. The guy making the balloons tried to convince him to add an animal, but Thomas was insistent on only the airplane. Thankfully, Henry had more than an airplane, because he let his balloon touch the ground and it popped the back of his plane. But with the added bear, the rest of it managed to stay together. Whew!

Once we made it back to the car, these two were passed out before we even got back to the highway - the sign of a truly successful outing! :)

Fourth of July in Homer

I'm just going to be upfront with you all - this post has way too many photos. I usually do much better with culling through my photos, but there were just so many good ones! I managed to get it down to 62(!), but that is many, many more than a usual post. I debated splitting it into three posts (one for each day!) to hide the fact I was having trouble, but confession is good for the soul. So fear free to skim or take a break if needed!

On to the massive cute kids overload... :)

Matt planned a motorcycle ride with his buddies over the 4th of July weekend, so he missed out on the epic trip down to Homer with my family and all of the friends we were meeting down there. Although, I am not sure we could have crammed any more people into the Pilot - Thomas was delegated to the far back. Between that and a recently potty trained toddler, we planned on making several stops. 

Just like our last trip to Homer, we packed a picnic lunch and stopped for a kid break at the playground in Soldotna. The weather wasn't nearly as nice this time, but the boys didn't seem to mind at all! 

Surprisingly, Thomas bee-lined straight for the big slide. All of the slide time at our neighborhood park has obviously paid off, he's not afraid of the slides at all anymore! 

Henry was a little skeptical about the big slide, so his Aunt Heather went down with him. I may have given her a safety lecture about making sure to hold on to his arms and legs while going down. Ever since a friend's daughter got a broken leg while tandem sliding, I might be a little paranoid about sliding with kids...

Not to worry - the slide went just fine!

And Henry decided he could do it all on his own! My boys are getting so brave.

Which kinda scares me a little...

Not sure who is having more fun singing "Ro, Row, Row Your Boat" here. But my money is on Heather. Ha!

This year I got Thomas to stand on the correct side of the cut-out, but he wasn't that much more cooperative on that side. Such a difficult model! 

Finally made it to our house in Homer and Thomas was ready to put together some Legos! I let them each pick out a set at Target last week with the promise that they would get to put them together and play with them once we got to Homer. They immediately started yelling about their Lego's once we were in the house. Thomas very nicely put together Henry's space lab set for him first.

What a good big brother!

After a short rest, we headed over to hand out with Rachael & Brittney (plus kids!) at the condo they rented. We picked up take-out for all of us, but the super cool salmon and halibut cookies were from the bakery in Soldotna. James was really working hard at getting the boys to share their cookies, but Thomas was not convinced. In case you can't tell, Thomas is telling me James should have some of the white cookie (ie: Henry's!).  

After a few tears were shed, everyone got part of a cookie. James was definitely a happy camper!

Living the wild vacation life with kid's cartoons and books about Alaska. ;)

Once I pulled my camera out, Rachael was quizzing me about camera settings and using the flash properly. I ended up taking some photos to show her the effects different settings have on the images. The boys were playing with James' Lite-Brite in a dim part of the house, so it gave me a chance to show her the ISO adjustments when using the flash isn't an option. You wouldn't get that cool Lite-Brite glow with a flash firing off! 

The next morning, Dad and I went off to the Two Sisters Bakery to procure breakfast and we all got to try delicious goodies. Henry was a little overwhelmed by the amazing chocolate roll. He just had to take a moment to let the yumminess sink in!

Or he was telling his that his ear hurt. I can't exactly remember which...

Trying to get everyone ready to go play at the beach with our friends...

Have I mentioned recently that Henry is two? Oh the two's - how I have not missed you.

We managed to get to the condo just in time to interrupt the girl's brunch. We had missed Lauren last night because she was already in bed. She's gotten so big since we saw her in Texas last year!

Lottie and Lauren looked so cute eating their food together. And unlike my boys, there was no yelling or throwing food at each other. So peaceful!

We finally headed down to the beach! It wasn't quiet as calm and sunny as it was on our last visit. The waves were actually pretty exciting!

Exciting to me that is... Thomas wanted nothing to do with the waves and wind this morning. He came down to see it, then bee-lined back up the beach to play in the sand. No matter how much cajoling Heather and I attempted, he could not be convinced to go back to the water's edge. 

Henry, of course, was more than happy to chuck rocks into the water - waves or not. This little guy is developing quite the throwing arm!

I couldn't find either of our kites when I was packing up the car and was a little devastated about not having them. Before I went out and bought another one, I texted Matt to whine a little. Amazingly, he had enough signal to respond that they were in the Pilot. 

What?!?

Sure enough - the Minion kite (from our Homer trip 2 years ago!) was hiding in the back storage compartment. I was so excited, that I was ready to fly it! It was a teensy bit windy for kite flying, but I finally managed to get it in the air. And then almost dive-bombed Brittney & Lottie... 

Thomas was so upset with me flying the kite when he had decided it was too windy for kites. After I crashed it a third (or fourth?) time, he ran over and grabbed it before I could. No more kites for me apparently. Sigh... Such a little dictator!

These two aren't holding any grudges over the kite! And quite frankly, they are adorable. Lottie wasn't too sure about the wind, but she was happy enough when she was facing away from it.

And can I just say that cloudy days are my favorite for photographs of people? So much better than dealing with the harsh shadows of Alaskan sunny days! :)

Rachael had to buy Lauren a bunch of long sleeved clothes before their visit since all of her usual clothes are for Texas summers. But she looked super adorable in all of them! So much purple and pink cuteness!

Thanks to the house being right on the beach, the girls kept telling us about all the otters they had seen. Then a few more swam up to say hello! I had my wide angle lens on, so I had to run back inside to get my zoom lens. In my absence, they took up watching positions on the beach and left a perfect little hole to frame the otter. I love this photo! :)

Mr. Otter even hung out long enough for me to get a decent shot of him. He didn't seem to mind the clouds and wind! 

We came prepared for some serious beach toys with a variety of toys and trucks. Of course, the boys were most interested in simply shoveling sand into the giant bucket. Whatever makes them happy!

These two got put safely up on the log away from the sand, but then Rachael convinced Brittney that the two girls needed to have some sand play time! The two of them weren't quite sure what to think about this stuff they were sitting on...

Brittney was concerned that Lottie was going to try to eat all of the sand on the beach and we managed to convince her that Lottie wouldn't do such a thing. Which, of course, meant that Lottie immediately tried to eat it. We were trying to help you out, Lottie! Way to prove us wrong...!

Lauren loved sitting in the sand! She was kicking her legs all around until she had a half sand angel created. It was adorable how excited she was sitting there!  

My favorite photo from the beach! Mom and Heather took off on a walk around the corner of the beach and Henry lost it - he wanted to go for a walk too. I couldn't exactly abandon Thomas, so I asked dad if he would watch Thomas or walk with Henry. He took the little guy for a walk and Henry was so happy to hang out with his Grandpa. And they made an adorable sight. :)

The boys always love checking out all of the float planes on Beluga Lake every time we drive past on our way to the spit. Our rental house must have been on the flight path to Beluga Lake, because they were flying over head all of the time. This was the only one I got a photo of one - some of them were much closer. But I liked this photo anyhow because it seemed fitting to have the stars & stripes represented for the 4th of July!

After the nap stop back at the house, we headed to our favorite spot in all of Homer - the playground! I tried to get Thomas to do an excited pose for the photo and this was the best he could manage. I promise, he was super excited, even if he could only half lift his arms for me. ;)

Last year, Matt kinda tricked Thomas into going down the super tall slide and he wasn't super thrilled about it. This year, he had no problem going down all by himself - though he did keep demanding a proper countdown...

Henry also decided to go down on his own, but his expression was a little less certain than his brothers. Although, it is very similar to the one Thomas had last year!

And then Nonni went down the slide! Well look who is being adventurous with her grand-kids...!

Unfortunately, our very favorite part of the playground wasn't working! The pump was not pumping out any water. We both tried pumping it, but no luck. Thomas was super bummed. :(

Luckily, this playground has plenty of other exciting things to play with - like this wooden xylophone! The two of the were dueling with the mallets!

Henry was a little obsessed with the train and was very insistent that Nonni was the conductor. The steering wheel is much too tall for the little kids, but he was just fine with that, because it was Nonni's job.

Who do you think looks more excited here? I can't quite tell. ;)

Nonni what has gotten in to you today? Get down from there, young lady!

Henry was all about the slides today! It was actually super easy for me, because he didn't even need any help climbing the steps to the slide. I got to just stand at the bottom, take some photos and then keep cheering his on!

The next morning, we headed off to breakfast with big plans to go to the playground again. Hey, whatever makes the boys happy when it's gloomy outside!

Also, Henry has apparently moved into his super cheesy smiling phase. I kinda love it! 

Heather tried to convince Thomas to climb up the ropes by demonstrating how easy it was. He was not convinced... I happened to fall off of one of those things as a kid, so I am not a fan. Amazingly, I didn't do any serious damage, but I did lose the skin off the back of one ear.

And I like my ears. So no more! 

He was much more easily convinced to sit on her lap to use the excavator. Both boys loved the excavator, but it really is too big for them. Honestly, it's really hard to do with a toddler sitting in your lap. It's not the best design for the what is supposed to be the younger kid side of the playground. (I am 100% sure I complained about this last year...)

 I managed to convince Henry to try out the tire swing! We had a tire swing in our backyard growing up and it is has happy memories associated with it (unlike the rope thingie!). He seemed pretty excited about it, but was ready to move on to something new 15 seconds later. That was pretty much Henry's MO this morning...

Dad wasn't with us for yesterday's playground visit, so Thomas wanted to show him the water sluice and how it wasn't working. Dad said his Aunt's water pump would occasionally stop working and that you could get it going again with some water. So I went off to fetch some water and we tried to get the pump going again. Unfortunately, the problem appears to be that someone has dumped a ton of tiny rocks down in the pump and the water didn't do the trick. Super bummer!

Luckily, our friends just happened to show up and all the sadness about the non-functioning pump was forgotten! Thomas was super excited to show James all around the exciting playground!

The swings quickly became the place to be! Except for Henry - I think he was off playing in the train again.

James apparently has a playset at home with a swing, so he was super happy to get some swinging time in. I think he sat there until Rachael's got tired of pushing him. 

Brittney and Duncan tried to convince Lottie that sliding was super fun! I am not quite sure she believed them...

Henry and James needed no convincing though! The two of them went down this slide over and over again. And for the most part, they even did a great job of waiting for the other one to get off the slide before headed down. Safety first! 

Rachael got talked into taking James for a spin on the excavator. He was even more excited once his momma realized it actually spun in a circle and didn't have to dig in just one spot. ;)

The whole crew finally getting to enjoy some sunshine! It went from cloudy as all get out to actually be a teensy bit too warm! Well, at least to the Alaskans in the group. The Texans probably thought we were ridiculous with out "I'm going to melt!" proclamations. 

Everyone else was headed back north after the playground, but we were staying for another night. And this time, I remembered to make reservations at Captain Pattie's so I could finally get my awesome seafood! They are so kid friendly there - in addition to the awesome kid cups, they put down a mickey mouse plastic mat underneath the high chair to catch any spills or drops. Henry was convinced it was a party for him - ha!

At lunch the other day, I ordered a halibut sandwich that came with a huge slice of red onion. I pulled off the outer two rings to keep and put the rest of it on my plate. Thomas ate all of his food and then slowly put his hand on the onion while asking "Are you going to eat this?" When I told him I wasn't, he took it and proceeded to eat the whole thing.

Raw onion.
All by itself...

He had the worst onion breath! And of course, he was stealing red onions again tonight at dinner. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come. He had the worst onion toots that night. Ugh. No more raw onion, little man!

After dinner we stopped to get gelato and these two sat at the counter and shared a bowl of "ice cream". They did pretty good passing it back and forth. I think "share!!!!" was only yelled at a sibling once or twice...

We stopped by the toy store in town after the playground visit and much to our dismay, it is closing! But much to our delight, everything was on sale. I amy have gone a little overboard buying them fun new toys. I really only intended to buy Legos, but they didn't have any and once I started looking for a substitute, I may have gone a little overboard. 

And that's how we ended up playing T-Ball in the garage after dinner. They were both super excited to play and Thomas was actually pretty good! Especially since he kept closing his eyes when he was swinging... ;)

We'll have to work on that!

We had Henry on the wrong side at first because I keep forgetting he's totally a lefty, but we got him on the correct side and helped him swing it. We kept telling them they could take three turns before switching, but Henry was a "one and done" every time. 

This guy was having a blast though! The next morning, they kept asking to play, so they entertained themselves while I packed up the car to head home. Who knew my kids were so in to T-Ball??

Overall, it was a great weekend even with the uncooperative weather. As long as you've got friends and family, these boys are ready to party! 

And congratulations if you actually made it all the way to the bottom and read all of the words! I promise to go back to a normal length post with the next one. I just had so much fun hanging out with everyone and wanted to be sure it was recorded for posterity! :)

- Jen

p.s. You'll have to excuse any typos. I'm not going back and re-reading all that. Ha!

Glatfelder Cabin

Since we stayed so late at the picnic yesterday, we decided to forgo trying to get on the road last night and instead packed up and headed out early this morning for our cabin far, far away... In total honesty, when I was booking the cabin, I thought it was at Quartz Creek - which is about a 2 hour drive south on the Kenai. Instead, I booked a cabin at Quartz Lake which is over 6 hours north by Delta Junction. 

I was so surprised the cabin was available, that I quickly booked it before someone else got it. In retrospect, that should have been a clue that something was amiss. I was completely bummed out when I realized my mistake, but Matt was so excited about our rustic cabin - even with the looooooong drive! Hopefully it's a good mistake!

All ready to go! You might notice an extra traveller in the back - since we are going to a public use cabin, the dogs are totally welcome. We figured it's been a while since they have gotten to vacation with us, so we packed them in the car along with everything else! Eliza is hunkered down in the floorboard of the middle seat, which she seemed pretty happy about. 

According to maps, Quartz Lake is a 6 hour drive from Anchorage. But there isn't a setting to toggle on for traveling with kids... Thankfully we weren't in a hurry, so every time someone yelled they needed to potty, we could pull off for a rest stop. And with a recently potty trained toddler, there were a lot of stops!

Not all of the stops were this scenic, but Matt has been along this route before and knew of this super pretty location when someone was proclaiming their need for a bathroom. Also, both boys are now pros at peeing while standing on the side of the road. Life skills, right there!

9 hours later, we finally got to the lake and packed up our backpacks for the trek to the cabin. It was only a 1/2 mile from the road, but we were trying to minimize the number of trips and these two require more gear than they can carry themselves. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure they only have toys in those backpacks...

But they look so adorable that I can't even be mad at their slacking off in the gear carrying realm. 

The girls at least carried their own food! They haven't used these packs in a long time, but they didn't seem to mind carrying them as long as they got to tag along. Plus the two of them were so excited they basically pulled me up any of the inclines on the hike. Win-win!

I was convinced at some point that we had missed the cabin because it felt like we had been walking *forever*, but that was apparently just because the boys were forcing us to walk much slower than usual. After the last little hill in the trail, our cabin in the woods appeared. It was just as rustic and fantastic as it looked in the photos online!

We had been telling Tommy the cabin had a grass roof and he was super excited to see it in person. There was a cluster of fireweed on the one side and a tiny pine tree growing in the front! It's named after a guy who came up to Alaska from California and decided to live off the land here in the 1940's. He built a trapper style cabin after his first winter in a raised platform tent(!). This isn't the original anymore, it was rebuilt sometime in the 90's. You couldn't guess that from the looks, though!

Thomas is super, duper excited about the cabin! He kept exclaiming about how it was made out of trees! We tried to explain that most houses are mostly made of trees, but he wasn't having any of that. This cabin was trees and houses are not made of trees!

The one platform bed was right against the window at a perfect level for them to see the woods and anyone who happened to wander by on the trails. You could even see the lake from this window. 

The other window had a nice view of the bathroom... ahem... Outhouse. I wasn't sure how keen these two would be on going to the outhouse, but they loved it! I am pretty sure I racked up 10,000 steps just walking them back and forth to the outhouse. Thomas asked me why there was a moon on the side and I was trying to explain what mooning is and then realized I wasn't even sure if that was why there was a moon and that I was telling my 4 year old about mooning people.

Not my finest parenting moment...

The girls were just as happy with the accommodations! 

Matt even hiked up a big sleeping bag for Natalie to lie on. She has started moving slower and taking longer to get up and down. Poor girl is getting old and he just wanted to make sure she was comfy on the wood floor. What a good dad!

It ended up taking forever to get the boys to go to bed because of all the excitement and the daylight in the cabin. I ended up having to sternly (and repeatedly!) tell them to close their eyes to try and get them to just rest long enough to pass out. Henry snuggled down into his sleeping bag at one point and that was the end of his fight - he was out in no time. Maybe I need to buy these boys eye covers!

The next morning, we had a lazy breakfast at the cabin and then headed out to check out the nearby trails. What a gorgeous morning and nice view, huh?

We headed away from the cabin and the trails wound along a bluff with not much clearance on either side. It was a little bit more stressful than we had planned trying to make sure the boys didn't miss a step and slide off the trail. "/

We finally ended up on the beach and that was much more pleasant! Of course, it's an Alaskan beach, so it's super rocky. The boys immediately remembered their favorite water activity and started chucking rocks in. You can see the girls also remembered their favorite activity and were off running into the water. 

Natalie looks so sporty and athletic out there waiting for Matt to throw her a still. And then there is Eliza... Of Eliza, you are the most awkward & spastic dog. I still love you, you crazy thing!

More rock chucking! I may have found Henry's plumber's butt a little too cute to resist taking a photo. What's the point of having kids if I can't embarrass them with photos 15 years from now?!?

We ended up going to the nearby town for lunch and so the boys would take a nap in the car. Both goals were accomplished and then we headed back up our trail to the cabin. It was a little more peaceful without the dogs this time and I managed to get a super sweet shot of Henry & Matt walking together. :)

The boys were back to their window watching. When I let them pick out the toys they wanted to bring, Henry mostly packed his animals and was waving the moose at anyone who happened to walk by. At least he had a fitting animal - we saw them several times while we were here. Thankfully each time was from the car! They all had calves and momma moose are not to be messed with!

As you may be able to tell from the picture, the boys were starting to get a little stir crazy after we had been back at the cabin for a while. Henry was alternating between pretending the beds were horses and harassing his brother...

Cabin fever so soon?!?

So we went back to the beach and threw more rocks in the water! Henry is developing quite the throw. Thomas usually gets a little more distance, but Henry is catching up!

Then Matt managed to convince the boys to strip down to their undies and go play in the lake with him. Honestly it didn't take any convincing! Thomas said he didn't have a swimsuit when Matt first asked and Matt told him that he could just go in with just his undies. He said "Ok!" and started stripping clothes off - ha! The three of them had a grand old time splashing around, but couldn't quite convince momma to drop her camera and join them... ;)

When they finally got out, I loaned Henry my outer shirt and Matt dried Thomas off with his before putting his clothes back on. We probably made quite the sight coming back!

All packed up the next morning. I didn't think to take any photos of the whole cabin, so I didn't get any photos of the woodstove (that we absolutely didn't need!) and the random furniture someone drug up for a table and cabinet. But I did manage to get a photo of the bed. I was so proud that my hiking pack was getting some use after about a 8 year hiatus, that I got a photo of it propped against the bed. It was obviously not the softest bed and my (also 8 year old) sleeping mat is not holding air anymore. Guess who was constantly waking up to try and blow more air into their mat.

Now guess who has already ordered a new mat??

Matt is obviously a little more loaded down that I am. As a matter of fact, I think he mostly crammed the bulky, but light stuff in my pack. Thanks sweetie! :)

Most of the trail to the cabin is in the woods, but the stretch near the parking lot has great views of the lake. It was a fun trip and I was a little sad to be leaving so soon. But the kids did well enough that we will definitely be trying to check out more of the public cabins. Just maybe ones that are a little bit closer...! 

Company Picnic

It's been a rough year in our industry and things are getting cut left and right. So imagine our delight that the company family picnic made it through the budget cuts! It happened to fall on the day that we had planned to drive out of town for a trip up north, so we had the best plan of taking the kids over there to wear them out and then packing up to hit the road. 

I went and got the boys from school and we just happened to have the wagon in the car for the impending trip, so it didn't even matter that we had to park pretty far away. They got to ride in leisure to the event! As soon as we got close, they spotted the bouncy house and wanted nothing more than to run straight to it. I conned them into taking this photo together before I would let them go play. You can see Thomas isn't quite looking at the camera - guess what was right behind me??

I ran through the obstacle course with them a few times, but they are pretty strict on extra items going through and both my camera and Thomas' glasses had to be left in the wagon. So no photos. :(

After a handful of times through, I finally managed to pry them away by pointing at the brightly colored maze across the field. They insisted on a wagon ride over, but once we got there, they were off and running again. It may look like they are giving each other a fist bump in this photo, but Thomas was really trying to ward Henry off from beating him to the first turn. Ha!

They kept running back to the dead end with the thousands of eyeballs. They would yell "The eyes, the eyes!", run around the maze and then crash back into the eyes. I couldn't tell if it was cute or a little creepy... 

Matt finally broke away from work to join us, so we finally sat down to eat some food. That and there was a brief downpour of rain, so the play time had to be paused either way. Luckily, I came prepared with raincoats! They must have had a new caterer this year - there was a station with fruit and cheese plates. It may sound fancy, but it's also perfect toddler food!

Of course, this guy went off with his dad to the ice cream station, so his smile is just a little bit bigger. Don't worry - he shared with his brother! :)

Then we headed over to the bounce house. We avoided this one earlier because it had big kids bouncing on it, but we realized the guy running it was doing a great job of ensuring the bounce sessions had similar sized kids. The boys had a blast bouncing around and managed to bite it in several spectacular collisions without a single tear! 

But then they were ready to tackle the inflatable obstacle course! And Matt even offered to go with them so I could get photos of them in action. WIn-win!

Except for their socks. They ran to the entrance from the bounce house and the tarp was covered in rain puddles. They seemed utterly confused as to why their socks were wet. Silly little guys!

The three of them got to run through it together since Henry is so little. Thomas was off and running before his brother had a hope of catching up.

If you think this thing looks familiar - you are right! It's the same course they had at the Solstice Festival the other day. It's a small town and pretty much every festival has the same things to play on. Though the Bucking Salmon was missing this year, Aunt Heather would have been so disappointed!

I had to run to the end to make sure I got a photo of Thomas sliding down. He was through the whole thing in no time. His best friend and him had been doing races and he had only been a teensy bit slower. So I think he was making sure he beat his little brother.

Henry didn't need much help, but he was certainly a bit slower. He struggled to push through the pylons and needed a little bit more time on the ladders, but he made it! And I think Matt was worried about him sliding down. He's obviously the more caring parent - I let him just careen down all on his own. 

Either way, I think this little guy had a blast! And I didn't catch it on camera, but I am pretty sure I saw Matt smiling too!

We managed to pry them away by pointing out the balloon animal tent. Which was totally our mistake because the line was moving way slower than we thought. Thomas was about 100% done with waiting for his balloon. 

Henry was a little more patient, but not super excited about having to sit in this chair while other kids were getting their balloons first. The guys were completely going in order, but that's a bit hard for a two year old to grasp... ;)

Thomas finally got his and was absolutely thrilled! They had so many cool designs they were making and he could not be budged from wanting a light saber. The guy even offered to make him a two sided blue & green one, but he insisted on the standard one bladed green light saber. Hey, at least he went for the good side of the force this time! 

Henry was equally bananas (ha!) over his monkey. He went through about 5 choices before he settled on this one. He saw a version of it sitting on the guy's shoulder and once he heard him the guy describe it as "Monkey *with* a Banana" he was sold! And he made sure to repeat over and over again the monkey needed his banana!

Overall, it was a great time. We stayed much later than we intended to, but the boys were having so much fun that it was worth it. We'll just have to get up early tomorrow to have enough time to get to our cabin at a reasonable hour. Who needs sleep?!?! ;)

Solstice Weekend

If this morning was any indication, I have to worry about the long stretches of daylight getting to my boys than the long, dark days in the winter. They were both in a crazy mood this morning! It started when Thomas realized that one of the streamers in the play room had fallen off the wall (I think because of the heat this room gets in the summer?). I decided they had been up long enough (since Henry's birthday!) and pulled them all off the wall.

The boys flipped out:

Who knew crepe paper streamers could be so exciting?!? Henry kept wrapping himself up like a Christmas tree. I think he was intending for them to be necklaces, but since he had so many, they ended up everywhere!

I am not 100% sure what Thomas was trying to do. It looks like he punching them in slow motion. An hour or so later, these things were scattered all over the house and in hundreds of pieces. I finally told them to throw all of the scraps aways and they did! I said it knowing I was going to have to do it later and then magically all of it was in the trash. Awesome!

Since the summer solstice is almost here, it is time again for the Solstice Festival downtown! This time, Matt joined us and it is no surprise that we ended up stopping right away to watch the skateboarders. I am quite sure Matt is thinking he could have done all of these tricks back in the day. (I have no doubt he could, these boarders weren't all that impressive. At least not during warm-up.)

But Henry was impressed enough for the two of them. I snapped this photo and it felt like a total deja-vu...

Because I have an identical one of it from last year with Thomas! No doubt these two are brothers, huh??

Back to the present! They didn't eat any of the food I bought them last year, so I got smart this year and packed them a lunch. They were happy as could be with their sandwiches and chips. Much easier and *much* cheaper. Mom win!

Also, you might be able to tell from Henry's hair that it was super windy downtown! After Matt and I tracked down a hotdog cart, we found a place to picnic on the (mostly) calm side of a large sculpture. Thomas ended up finishing his food first, so we kept him busy by having him run across the lawn to tag different trees. Such cheap entertainment! ;)

Matt had eyed a snow cone stand and bought one for him and one for the boys to share. Thomas wasn't too sure about the snow cone, as you can probably tell from his expression. He ate a few bites then decided it was too cold and tried to foist it off on me. I fed most of it to Henry since bubblegum and tiger's blood isn't my favorite combination. 

We finally headed off to the kid's play area and found the obstacle course from last year that Thomas has been talking about all morning. I figured Henry might be able to do it on his own, but after the slight fail on the last inflatable I decided it was worth the $1 to go with him. Of couse the guy taking tickets neglected to tell me I couldn't take my camera in until after Matt and Heather had gone down the sidewalk to watch Thomas do the course.

"It's ok, you can just put it here on the ground."

It was in that moment that Henry was almost left to fend for himself...

I ended up leaving it against my gut reaction. I told Matt the guy had it as soon as I saw him through the mesh and the guy gave it to him. Which was both good and bad. There is no way he had seen us together! But my camera was safe...

Whatever. It gave Matt a chance to get me in a photo for a change. And Henry did need a slight boost on this ladder, so I guess it worked out in the end. Pfffft. 

I bought Thomas two tickets, so he was ready to go again as soon as he went through it. He looks a little grumpy here because he is ready to go and the guy has not taken his ticket yet. And they told him he couldn't wear his glasses, so he was having to squint in the sunlight. This guy is like his momma - never without his shades!

Also, I have no idea why he suddenly wanted to wear his outfit we bought him in Hawaii. I tried to talk him into a different pair of pants, but he insisted he wanted to match. I have learned long ago that clothing battles are pointless, so he got to look tropical today. :)

Henry didn't seem to mind sitting with his dad while waiting for big brother to go through the course again. Henry also chose his own clothing this morning and picked out the exact same shirt that Thomas wore last year. Ha!

Thomas climbing up the last big ladder. He had to pause to read the sign before he would climb up it (even though it was round 2). I was watching him climb up like a champ and was a little impressed with how defined his calf muscles have gotten. My oldest is definitely a little boy and not a baby anymore. *Sniffle, sniffle*

And it looks like he has even figured out how to drag his hand behind him to keep from going too fast. Which means no terrified looks like last year. Sigh... Too smart for me to get any hilarious photos!

We headed back to the rest of the kids area and found the obstacle course they both loved last year. It's hard to tell from the photo, but Henry was killing it on the hopping! He looks like a little kangaroo bouncing around. :)

Thomas was speeding through the tunnel like an old pro. 

Some of the bigger kids were jumping over these wickets, but Thomas decided that walking over them was quite sufficient. Heather and Henry decided even that was a stretch and ran patterns through them instead. Hey, it's not like there were any instructions!

Henry has grown quite a bit in the last year, but he still needed help walking on the rounds. Aunt Heather to the rescue!

Last, but not least we headed to the giant sandbox! So much sand and so many kids! When I was putting the boys to bed tonight, I asked them what their favorite part of the day was. Independently, they both said "Dump Truck!" - they had both been playing with some version of a dump truck in the sand box. Makes me glad we built them one this year!

Last, but not least - cupcakes! Promising cupcakes is pretty much the only foolproof way to get them to give up a fun activity and move on. And these cupcakes were delicious! Henry didn't seem to notice that I gave him less than half of my cupcake (probably because I scarfed it down!). 

Of course, he managed to still smear cupcake all over his face. I'm sure some day he will be a super neat eater, but that day has not come. In a total oversight, I left the package of wipes at the house, but I managed to clean up both of them with a bottle of water and one napkin. A true Super-Mom moment!

All done and headed back to the car! Henry kept lagging further and further behind. I can't blame him - it was way past nap time and they had been having tons of fun! Of course, in true toddler fashion, he fell asleep in the car 5 minutes before we got home and refused to nap once we put him in his bed. Thomas looked like he would take a nap, but he heard Henry talking and was out of bed too. 

So we gave up on naptime and pulled out the bubble machine! No one can be grumpy when they are playing with bubbles!

Of course this guy started trying to eat them. I told you, the sunlight was getting to them - ha! Overall, it was a great day and the predicted rain held off for us to have a fun time at the festival. A few more weeks of this insane daylight and we'll start losing it again. We fully plan to enjoy it while it lasts! :)

Tour De Cure

I had one of those moments a few weeks ago that falls into the "Well it seemed like a good idea at the time". I decided to join a few friends to do the Tour De Cure - a charity bike ride for the American Diabetes Association. While I still thought it is a great cause, it was rapidly approaching and I haven't touched my bike in at *least* 5 years.

"Better get back in shape by Sunday!"

I tried to ride it around the neighborhood last weekend. Let me try and excuse my poor performance by the fact that my neighborhood is pretty hilly. I was either rocketing down the hills without any pedaling or dying trying to crawl up them. I took the above photo and sent it to Sam & Eric with the caption: "There is a 99% chance I am going to die on Sunday." 

Friday was my day off and Matt had to go to work, so I decided to load the bike into the car and try the Coastal Trail to see how badly I was going to die on the 25k course. I parked somewhere that looked reasonable on the map and headed out with low expectations. Even the signs were ominous!

Wait? Is that almost a smile? I hadn't gone all that far by this photo, but I wasn't dying... Maybe the hills in my neighborhood really are ferocious and I could handle the near downtown topography. Whew! 

Also, I have lived here almost 3 years and this was the first time I had been on the coastal trail. I am the worst Alaskan!

I went up the trail, back the other way down the trail and then realized I needed to head back to my car to make my next engagement. (I was treating myself to a movie. Woo-woo!) The morning had ended up being a great one for getting some time outdoors. Just cloudy enough that it wasn't super hot while cycling, but overall gorgeous!

And I found a whole flock of ducks. Quack, quack! I actually took the photo to show the boys, but I have proof that I did actually enjoy this bike ride and was no longer convinced my odds of dying were 99%. Once I got home and could look up where I rode on a map, I figured I had ridden about 8 miles. If I could double that, then I was golden!

Also, this was right before I was putting my bike back in the car and realized I had never reconnected the front brake when I put the tire back on. Apparently I favor my back brake because I never noticed...

Race day! The best thing about riding the shortest possible route offered was that we started last. No early morning rush to get there in time. In fact, they had the time wrong, so we ended up starting late and I got to enjoy my free coffee. Woo!

Our team ready to go! I was the only one not properly representing team Bearded Monsters! Terry put me to shame with her awesome faux-beard and of course the guys were already covered. You might also be able to tell that the weather went completely south right when we were lining up. The rain started as soon as they started their safety spiel. Thankfully, they talked quickly so we weren't just standing in the rain. Also thankfully, the rain let up about 20 minutes later, so it was only miserable for a little while.

Me and my trusty Rockhopper made it! I didn't get any photos because we really only stopped once - we needed a granola bar break right before the biggest hill. Eric & Terry were super patient with Sam & I going slower than their usual pace, but we all made it with no problem. And the only wildlife we saw was a moose that wasn't at all interested in us. 

The best part was getting to travel the wooded trails all through the city. You can feel amazingly in the middle of nowhere just a short way away from the main roads. It didn't hurt that everything is super green and lush right now. It was truly a breath of fresh air! :)

The girls seem much more excited about the team photo at the end than the guys! And they could not be goaded into wearing any of the cool props. You'll just have to trust me that they had a good time too! ;)

But my favorite part was when we got to the finish line and this little girl came up, thanked me and handed me this. I had no idea what was in the tiny bag she was giving me, but it seemed rude to not take it. Then I flipped it over and saw it was a medal.

I got my first medal you guys!!!

What an awesome day! And I'm going to try not to neglect my bike for the next 5 years. Now that I know I can make it up and down some of these trails, I really have no excuse! :)

A Beary Corny Dinner

I mentioned several months ago how Matt and I had hiked up to their hunting spot to register it with the state, but haven't really mentioned it since. In a stroke of luck, they actually ended up being successful two weeks ago and suddenly we had a bunch of bear meat to deal with. (That's about as mundane as I can get for the process of hunting. I am sure Matt is super disappointed by my description!)

When the guys did their deer hunt last year, they took all of the meat to the nearby Indian Valley for processing and they did an amazing job. But they also charge quite a bit of money... So this time, Matt and Sam decided to process the meat on their own. Of course, Sam was out of town for two weeks the day after they got the bear, so it had to go in the freezer until we had the time and help to deal with it.

So Memorial weekend, we finally got after it. The first night, Matt and I tried to grind the meat in our super old hand crank grinder and it was a disaster. It was slow, temperamental (or maybe that was me) and we didn't get through hardly any of it. So we called Sam for help the next day.

The little guys have absolutely no clue why we were all in the garage working, but they wanted to hang out anyhow while they ate lunch. And check out their new camp chairs I bought! A very large sporting goods retailer is going out of business, so I got them these and sleeping bags for this summer's planned camping trips. I can't wait to use them!

Matt went off to Cabela's this morning to buy a better grinder after the ordeal last night with the hand cranked one. But his slightly better grinder he was going to buy turned out to be the Rolls Royce of grinders by the time he made a decision. I think he is claiming it still worked out being cheaper than processing in the end, but I'm not 100% convinced. The plan was to have all of this done before a bunch of people showed up for a BBQ at our house, but that didn't quite work out, so people just hung out to watch the show until they were done. Ha - at least we were entertaining!

Also, they were in the garage to do this because we were doing our best to avoid any contamination from the raw meat in the kitchen. Read up on trichinosis and bear meat if you want to know why we were so worried... And why the bear kabobs we made that night were very well seared!

Since Matt bought the super fancy machine, I thought we should get our money's worth and made deer bratwurst with the grinder & sausage attachments. They ended up looking & tasting totally awesome in the end, but man were they a headache! Turns out that sausage stuffing is really a two person job, but Matt was trying to get everything ready for his bike trip the next day. And I really wanted to get these done so he could take some for the first dinner on the trip.

Next time, we'll try it with the bear meat and there will be two of us working on it! 

The thing we were most excited to try though was Corned Bear! We had heard that it was the best thing to make and we love Corned Beef, so I was totally on board with trying it and doing the corning from scratch. I definitely hovered over them while they were cutting the meat to claim what I thought were the best shaped pieces. Not that I am an expert, but I have made my fair share of (pre)corned beef!

It needs a 6 day soak in the corning brine, so I mixed it all up and got it soaking while they were off on their bike trip. I figured since it was such a novel thing to have the bear meat, I got some beef to corn as well so we could do a taste comparison. You can see it hiding behind the pink salt (a critical corning component!). 

Six looooooooong days later, we finally got to try the Corned meats! The two meats definitely looked different - the beef (on the right) had a much lighter color and a noticeably higher fat content. 

The corned bear was super tasty! But I think the vote went slightly in favor of the beef. Bear is just a little bit leaner and that fat gave the beef a little bit better mouth feel. If I hadn't had the beef though, no one would have been any wiser. We had company (including Sam's parents!) join us for dinner and I was worried about having enough!

Of course, the kids could care less what was served for dinner - they were just excited to have super fun play time with each other. And Abby was smart enough to grab the step stool out of the bathroom and got the trumpets off the top of the bookshelf. As loud as those things can be, I wasn't mad at that feat of ingenuity! Plus look how happy Henry was that she got one for him as well! :)

Thomas didn't care that he didn't get a trumpet. He was too busy playing with his cars on the peel & stick race track. And being a pilot. I think at one point he told Henry (dressed as the Fire Chief) that his plane was on fire and Henry rushed off to save it. Those two love their costumes! 

And we got visited by our first rabbit! I have heard they are everywhere, but we haven't ever seen them near the house. He even hung around long enough for me to get a photo of him! Of course, the fact that the dogs didn't noticed him might have had something to do with that. ;)

Soccer!

This session of soccer is almost over and I just got around to taking the camera and staying. The timing on the games isn't ideal and is different every single time, so I have mostly been dropping Thomas off and then going home to cook dinner or putting Henry to bed while Matt takes Thomas to soccer (8 pm games!). But this week had a sunny day with a 5:30 game, so I packed the camera and planned to stay the whole time. :)

We ended up buying Thomas sports glasses after he had a run-in with the playground equipment at school. We figured the more "intense" his sports get, the more likely he is going to do that at a game and I'd rather him not get hurt. Then we found out this league requires sports glasses - well what perfect timing we have! And I debated quite a bit on the transition lenses, but as miserable as I am without sunglasses outside, I figured he should have them. Doesn't he look too rad in them??

Henry was not so excited that he couldn't run around with his big brother. He was probably also a little mad that mommy left his sunglasses at home. Whoops! At least I remembered his hat...

This league does things a little differently than the one he played with before. There are teams set up from the start (he's obviously on the red team) and two teams play at one of the three time slots twice a week. It's nice if you have several kids because they always schedule the same color team at the same time no matter the age group. It's less convenient when your four year old has an 8 pm slot, but so far it's worked out. 

The first 45 minutes are devoted to practice and the last 30 the two teams actually play a real game. This was a big change from the running around chaos we were used to and Thomas really seems to like the structure. He does great at all of the practice drills and you can see how excited he is! Oh and they had to get real soccer cleats this year - I think I found the only pair in Anchorage that was small enough for his feet. 

And we ended up buying him two new balls after we thought we lost his first one. His absolute favorite is this classic black and white one. Probably because all of his toys with soccer balls have this pattern. 

This practice drill was trying to run the ball into the goal while your team mate tries to get it away from you. And Thomas got it in! Go Thomas!

He looks like quite the little soccer player, doesn't he??

Henry finally got sympathy from his momma about not getting to play and I let him play the Lego train game on my phone. It seemed fair since that is what Thomas does when he is on the sidelines at Henry's tumbling class. And I feel really bad about how much he is squinting. Sorry again about the sunglasses, little man!

Line-up before the game starts. I had no idea what they were doing, but Matt told me they were checking their equipment. They have to have their shirts tucked in, shin guards on and no jewelry on. Apparently most weeks one of the little girls will have forgotten her earrings or necklace. This time it looks like everyone was up to par. 

The games generally look like a moving mass of kids chasing the soccer ball. Some of the 5 years old actually can play really well, but for the most part it's a mess. But Thomas chases along with the rest of the players. And the coaches and referees are all super supportive. In case it's not obvious, we really like this league!

Proud daddy watching from the sidelines! Thomas still gets a little distracted in the game part. He has great focus during practice, but with so much going on during the games, he sometimes forgets to watch the ball. 

But he managed to get a solid kick or two or three (etc!) in while I was happily snapping photos! I think the girl on the right ended up scoring the goal on this run. It was pretty exciting to watch all of the kids and how happy they would get when they scored or got the ball. Plus all of the parents were cheering for everyone's kids - which is way more exciting for the kids instead of just their own parents. :)

Finally out for a break! They switch out every 5 minutes, but Thomas was in for 10 this first bit because we were short a few kiddos (summers in Alaska are hard!). He was out of breath, but super excited about playing. This little boy is definitely a soccer player! 

You make us super proud, Thomas! 

Weekend Fun With The Boys

Matt completely tore his motorcycle apart this winter (as seen in the background here) and has a big trip planned for the fourth of July. Given all the work and new parts, he decided it would be smart to do a shorter test ride before the big one. So he took a three day weekend trip with Sam & Eric while the boys got to hang out with their momma all weekend!

There is an engineering society up here that several coworkers are in and they put on a big food festival every year to raise money. Plus it sounded like there were some fun things especially for kids. I figured I could handle taking one of the boys without any help and decided Thomas would have a blast with mommy, while Henry hung out at daycare for an extra hour or two! 

Of course, when it came right down to it, I couldn't leave Henry at daycare while Thomas and I went to go have fun. So I took both boys alone and just braced for the inevitable chaos. Thank goodness the basketball goal they were suddenly both obsessed with was run by my friends and they were more than happy to help out when there was inevitably a need for it.

They actually had a great time - they tackled the blow up obstacle course first. Then when I decided there were getting to be too many of the bigger kids on it, we moved on to the sports area. Thomas actually ran over to grab the soccer ball and while running toward the basketball goal, he tossed it in the air. I still have no idea how, but that ball flew threw the air and landed in the basket like he was some sort of basketball ace. It was awesome and everyone was cheering for him. He ate it up!

Henry missed almost all the goals he tried, but he had this cake pop to eat up and that was fine by him. 

I managed to drag them away to get food for a few minutes, but they made it very clear they wanted to go play and not sit to eat boring food mom picked out. Thomas bee-lined for the bouncy course while Henry and I finished eating the tacos I managed to grab. He was a champ going through it - no more getting stuck at the top of the slide for this guy!

Henry on the other hand - ended up needing a boost. He did almost the whole thing by himself the first time, but needed help with the first step on the ladder. The second time he didn't need any help, so I let him try it himself after we ate food. It was not the best choice - he could have probably done it, but all the big kids were being impatient and jostling him around. This other mom went in to help her kid and asked if she could help Henry up too. He didn't mind the help and all and probably thought it was me helping him out. 

Also note the outfit change - that was the "chaos" part. I had to change his pants and shoes in a porta potty while trying not to let him touch anything. Thank goodness my coworkers kept an eye on Thomas so he could play basketball and not be a part of those acrobatics!

A meltdown or two later over cake pops, I was about ready to call it a day. But they managed to get themselves together in time for one happy selfie with momma and then I let them play a little while longer. Good behavior is definitely rewarded! ;)

The next morning, we headed out bright and early for the neighborhood garage sale! The boys were both super excited about the possibility of finding some fun toys and were even good sports about being kicked out of their wagon for the big hills. Henry was definitely slow going, but he made it. I'm pretty sure he ended up walking more of the neighborhood than his brother did in the end. He's a trooper - that one. 

I was hoping to find some Legos, but apparently no one sells those. But the boys were ecstatic with their excavator and motorcycle. I said yes to the motorcycle without realizing I would be listening to motorcycle sounds the rest of the walk. When we got it home, we found out that it actually pops a wheelie and drives around. So much excitement for $2!

There were several kids selling lemonade or cookies. We could only resist for so long and it was pretty much impossible to walk past the two girls selling lemonade out of their club house. I did make the boys share a cup though since as soon as someone needed to potty, the fun was over. Amazingly, we covered almost the whole neighborhood and made it home before it was an issue. Yay!

My favorite find was this junior circuit set. The museum here has them in a "tinker" area and Thomas seemed to like playing with them, but I had decided he was a little young since their target age was 8+. But when I came across a brand new set for super cheap at the garage sale, I couldn't resist. And just like the Legos, he continues to surprise me with his feats of engineering / following a diagram.

Look at how excited he is about his music circuit!

Then it was off to a birthday celebration at Brittney's house! There were several kids from their daycare, so they were excited to have friends. There were toys and a giant backyard to explore, but these three only had eyes for splashing in the hot tub.

Whatever keeps them happy so I could (sorta) enjoy the festivities as well! The cutie on the right's dad was also out of town, so her mommy and I got to spend a lot of time chatting while trying to keep these three from running over the three babies. It's always nice to have someone else to commiserate with! ;)

Finally, it was Sunday and we had one more fun activity before Matt got home - a playdate at David's house (a good friend of Thomas' from the pre-school class)! We invited them to the party last weekend, but they were out camping, so we decided to try meeting up this weekend. His dad was super excited to have more little Jedis to train in light saber combat. My two were super stoked that they were being given permission to swing light sabers around. Of course, Henry went straight for a red lightsaber...

I thought Thomas went for the Light Side of the Force, but it turns out that it was just too bright outside to tell that it was also a red light saber. Sigh... These two are drawn to the dark side of the force. Maybe once they actually see the movies they will gravitate toward the blue or green ones. Until then, I'm going to have to keep an eye on them!