Last Days of Summer

Summer is very rapidly drawing to a close.  Merrick starts school on Tuesday and Carrigan and I start a week from Tuesday.  I knew going in that it was going to be a short summer, but it truly felt like a blink of an eye. The last few days we have tried to make the most of these final moments with lots of family fun.

Two weeks ago my parents moved. For the next year and a half they will be house sitting for a family we know who is serving a medical mission in Japan.  Their house sits on a very large piece of land with swings, slides, forts, and a pumpkin patch.  To say that the kids are enjoying Nana and Papa's new house is the understatement of the century.  We have spent quite a bit of time over there recently.

Speaking of Nana and Papa's new house, we all enjoyed it this past Monday as the perfect viewing spot for this week's solar eclipse.  We live just outside the totality plane, but got to enjoy pretty spectacular views with 97-98% of totality.  We also got to see "shadow bands" or "shadow snakes" for about 30 seconds.  They say this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it felt like it.  It was awe-inspiring.

The other big highlight of the week was a trip to our local amusement park, Oak's Park.  We went with Becca's family and played hard the whole day until they shut the park down.  This has become somewhat of a family tradition in the last week of summer and one that the kids really enjoy.

And now it is time to get back at it.  This coming year is going to bring exciting changes for our family and hopefully some learning and growth too.   Here is to all that is to come.

Tie Breaker

We have some exciting news to share this week!  We are expecting baby number three!  We have been dying to let the cat out of the bag on this one and finally decided it was time.  Right now I am a little over 12 weeks along (that puts my due date at Feb 23rd) and I am really looking forward to wrapping up my first trimester and hopefully starting to feel a little better.

We don't yet know what we are having, though with new genetic testing options we could find out at any time, but we are definitely a house divided on what we are hoping for.  Merrick really wants a brother.  Carrigan really wants a sister.  Jeremy and I are just relieved that it isn't the twins that the kids were really hoping for.  I have been trying to decide if I have been less sick (like with Merrick) or more sick (like with Carrigan) and it seems to be somewhere in between.  Only time will tell...

Boy or Girl, we are so happy to have this little one join our family!  We feel so blessed!

12 Years, But Who's Counting?

This week's highlight was Jeremy and I celebrating our 12th anniversary.  On Friday, my parents were babysitting Ben and Becca's kids, because they are out town, so they volunteered to take our kids for a slumber party as well.

Since we were suddenly kid free, Jeremy and I decided to go out for a nice long, relaxing dinner and then come home to a very quiet house for a peaceful night in.  The icing on the cake was a full night's sleep with no kids waking us up in the middle night.

The next day we rounded out the celebration with some errands and going to see the Broadway rendition of Newsies (they filmed it live and where playing it at our local theater).

It was the perfect 24 or so hours to rest, recharge, and to enjoy some time together.  I can't believe we have been married 12 years, I tell you it happened in the blink of an eye.  Of course I neglected to get any pictures taken of us on our end so here a a could of picture of Carrigan and Isabel hanging out in the hammock at the sleep over.  It looks like they had as much fun as we did.

Slow News Week

This week has been what you would call a "slow news week" with not much to really report.  We spent the week taking walks, going to parks, swimming and picking berries.  Here are just a few random pictures that I captured this week: Carrigan at one the the parks, Carrigan crashed out in our bed as she is refusing to go to sleep in her own bed lately, and a bunny we saw while picking berries.  That is about it for this week.

Boy's Day/Girl's Day

So this week's blog title is not 100% accurate, but we will cover that in a second.  On Friday Carrigan and I got to spend the day together having a Girl's Day (or "Sister Time" as she likes to call it).  This is because most of the boys in the family (plus Nana) went to Seattle for the day for a Mariners game.

The morning started out with Becca and her littles (Lincoln and Isabel) for some errands and a trip to Ikea, which turned into a whole production because when doesn't it?  By the time we made it outr of Ikea and through the traffic it was 2:30 so we decided to stop at Chick-fil-A for lunch and to let the kids play.  The rest of the day was about fulfilling all the little one's hopes and plans they had made for the day.  We started with the "Little's Party" at Becca's house that Lincoln had planned.  Then at about 7pm, Carrigan and I set out to do her planned events that included Menchies frozen yogurt and watching Pocahontas.  We didn't get wrapped up with the movie until almost 10pm so it was a late night for Carrigan.  Not as late as for the boys though...

The boy's (and Nana's) day started with the drive to Seattle.  From all accounts this was uneventful.  Once they arrived, they headed for a late lunch at our favorite Root Beer place, XXX Root Beer.  After that it was off to the game so they could be there in plenty of time to get their free t-shirts and watch bating practice.  Merrick almost caught a ball that was thrown to the crowd by Aaron Judge, but a teenager stepped in front of him.  The game itself was a blast and while the Mariners lost, they were all excited about getting to see a home run that Aaron Judge nearly hit out of Safeco field.  After all the excitement they still had to drive home and didn't end up making it back until about 1:45am.

Everyone was excited to tell each other about their day the next morning.  It was great day had by all.

Parade With A Crunch

Every year West Linn has an Old Time Fair and as part of the fair they have a parade.  My kids always love going to the parade because they always make out like bandits on the candy front.  This year, however, my kids didn't get much candy.  That is because instead of standing on the sidelines, they were part of the action.

I am not sure why I have never thought of it before, but this year it occurred to me that the preschool should march in the parade.  I gathered a few families, got our preschool banner and some candy.  Together we marched, rolled, and rode along the course.  It is too early to tell what kind of advertising effect it will have, but I definitely did hear people on the sidelines talking about us.

The only downside of the parade (and where the "crunch" part of the title comes in) is that when I arrived at the parade, I pulled into a parking space and was just gathering my things when I got sideswiped by a school bus.  He had been parked behind me and was attempting to pull out and do a u-turn but didn't quite make it.  Thankfully he stopped and appears to be taking full responsibility, but now we have to go through all the hassle of making the claim and getting the repairs.  Definitely a downer.

4th of July

This week was the 4th of July.  Our family decided to celebrate our nation's freedom with a Portland Pickles baseball game.  The Portland Pickles are a new, wood bat, collegiate level team.  They play basically on a municipal field in the middle of a park in Portland.  I feel like I am not really doing a good job selling the Pickles to you so let me tell you why this was super awesome.

The whole reason we decided to go the day we did was because of the promotion they were having.  For $39 you got four tickets, 4 Portland Pickles hats, and 4 $5 gift cards (sounding better already right).  Once we got there though things just got better and better.  We were a large group, 17 in all, and so we couldn't help but make our presence known.  The promo girl came over to us right away and asked if some of our kids wanted to do a water balloon toss after the first inning.  Of course our kids were happy to agree.  Ben asked what he could do and got them to agree to letting him throw out the first pitch (unfortunately that didn't happen, but he did end up standing on the field for the National Anthem and made it up to him in another way...)

So after the first inning the kids went out on the field.  Maude and Colvin were one team and Merrick and Quincy were another.  I guess all Merrick's baseball practice paid off because he and Quincy won.  They got Portland Pickles beach balls and got to hang out with the Portland Pickles mascot.  They all thought it was pretty cool.

A short while later the promo girl came back to our group.  She, feeling bad that Ben hadn't gotten to throw the first pitch, asked if he wanted to participate in the dizzy bat contest.  He agreed and Jeremy gladly jumped in on the opportunity.  So, once again, our family headed onto the field.  Ben fought valiantly, but in the end Jeremy emerged victorious.  Ben at least got the two minutes of fame that he had been looking for.

It was a great day at the ball park and we left feeling like they had created a special day just for us.  Plus the Pickles won so it doesn't get any better.

After the game we had a feast of a BBQ at Ben and Becca's house and then went to my parent's house for fireworks.  The fireworks weren't anything too grand (they were all Oregon legal), but they were enough for our little people and that is all that matters.

It was a great day in "The Land of the Free".  Baseball, BBQ, and Fireworks, what could be more American than that?