Santa's Watch

We were doing some finger painting in the backyard this morning when this guy caught my eye.

The kids are convinced that he's one of Santa's, sent to make sure they are behaving. I figured they'd be on their best behavior for at least the rest of today, but Sarah has a short attention span. And a short fuse. She was sent upstairs for a nap, and spent quite a while protesting the injustice of it all. Once it got quiet upstairs I tiptoed up to find this in the hallway:


A real princess never leaves her plastic shoes unattended!

Two Little Superheroes Jumping On The Couch...

....one falls off and OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!

Whatever Floats Your Bloat

We went on a little motor boat expedition this past weekend. Totally not my idea. And as Liam has become fond of telling people "Mom FREAKED!" Yes, well.....


I have not much more to say about the boat. But checking out a seal colony was pretty neat.


And this guy is sometimes kind of FREAKY too. So, there you go...

Old News

We headed north to Birkenhead for a little camping getaway over a month ago. Yes, this one got lost in a blogger vortex for a while! A storm cloud was following us the whole drive up, threatening to pour at any moment. A few minutes after pulling into our site, it did. Great timing for setting up the tent, but shortly afterwards the clouds parted and we had a great weekend.
Here's the not too official count from the drive up:
Bears: 4
Are We There Yet's: 27

Maybe if I was able to take a quick break from my positions as Entertainment Leader and Snack Distributor, the count may have been more even!


Here is Liam at the lake. He has the "I'm telling you some important facts about sand so would you please put down the camera" expression about him.


If there's one good thing about all the rain we've endured this summer, it's a longer campfire season. Rain deluge = no campfire ban! Maybe the kids will perfect their marshmallow roasting this summer. Looks like Liam's got the hang of it!


As for Sarah....





...maybe not....


Also on this trip, Liam completed his first ever "real" hike on his own two feet! We hiked about 1km up to Goat Lookout. It was fairly steep but he just kept trucking and we were at the lookout in no time!


On the way back Liam found a stick in the shape of an "L" and put the challenge to all of us to find our own name letter. "M" was particularly challenging, but here's what we got!:


And what is a camping trip without some time in the hammock...and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"?

Buntzen Babes

This summer has been a little different than most:
1) It hasn't been all that warm.
2) We've barely been in town long enough to catch our breath and do some laundry before heading out again.
All this means we is we have not been spending nearly as much time at the lake as we usually do. So on Friday night we packed up some hot dogs and swim trunks and headed to the lake for a bbq and a swim - welcoming temperatures or not! As you can see, it was clearly a case of "or not"!:


Liam warmed up with some awkward dance moves:


But ultimately he stayed on the beach with me while Matt and Sarah froze themselves silly. He's a smart boy.

Play Time

Hot off the heels of our Oregon vacation, we were up in Whistler a few days later for some fun and a little competition - more on that later!
We spent a day exploring the village and surrounding area by bike. We revisited some of the trails we trudged around on snowshoes last winter, such as Lost Lake. It goes much faster on wheels! Same bench, different season....



Of course, it's very strange for your pocket to ring when you're out on the trails, but there's no escaping technology. Or work, in this case.


These two generally got along in the Chariot, as long as they had plenty of snacks and were reminded of their "rocket ship harnesses" at regular intervals. But it wasn't foolproof. They each inflicted one facial laceration on the other, a direct result of their close confinement.


Speaking of lacerations...we nearly crashed into a black bear at one point on a bike trail! Matt turned his head to talk to me as we pedalled around a corner and right in front of him was a BEAR! Seriously! I started yelling, of course, and continued to do so long after the bear had crashed his way deep into the woods.*

* This is not the same bear. This was taken from the car with a telephoto lens and some of my wits about me.
And then, we ran into MONKEYS!


Okay, enough of that. Onto a whole different kind of animal! The reason we were in Whistler was for Matt to participate in the Warrior Dash. As we made our way to the starting line, there were signs to the effect of "Are you ready for the craziest frickin' day of your life?" Does this guy look ready for a frickin' crazy day? Or does he look like he's taking his daughter for ice cream....?


I think Liam looks like he might be ready...


Ready or not, we gave Matt a kiss, wished him luck, and sent him off to join the herds getting ready for battle.

Now, this is an unbelievably steep hill. You really can't tell by this picture, you'll just have to believe me. And I have to believe the racers when they say that beyond that hill is another one that is even more ferocious. You'll also have to believe that little white arrow is pointing at Matt. When the race started he was lined up in the middle of the pack but I was able to pick him out of the crowd because his head was bobbing up and down, weaving around the slow pokes. He went from Pleasant-Stroll-With-Daughter mode to Competitive Warrior. Just like that. I should have known.

For the next 30 minutes we really had no idea what Matt was up to. We later found out about pits of fire, hurdles, dark tunnels and more hills. But the kids and I were content just hanging out in the sunshine with our pom poms and a zip lock baggie full of grapes.
Lo and behold....he emerges from the barbed wire-laden mud pit!


They gave him a medal and a banana...and the kids gave him some weird looks....


...and then we realized we forgot his clean shoes at the hotel!


Now it was Liam's turn for an adventure!
Since before he could walk, a shopping trip at MEC for Liam has meant climbing the rock wall with Dad. I know you're not supposed to.....
Anyways. He loves it and when we found out there was an all-ages climbing wall we had to give him the opportunity to try. He was so excited waiting for this...but his face when he watched the other kids going up said otherwise!

Sure enough, after a few giggles and goofs he got the hang of it. I was holding my breath at the bottom until he said "How come I don't hear Mom cheering?" so I put on my Loud Soccer Mom hat and before we knew it he was ringing the midway bell. We thought that would be as far as he would go...

...but look at that! He's at the top of the wall! He rang the big cowbell until we had to tell him to stop, and then he jumped down the wall as if he had done it a hundred times before. And then I started breathing again.


I'm glad they still enjoy bouncy castles, too!

After that we had a (shortened) round of Mini Golf. These pictures may give you an idea why it was a shortened round (which I won, for the record). I love how they give each other so much space.

If you look closely you can see Liam's tongue sticking out in concentration....

And then we headed home to get ready for our next Summer Adventure!

Like A Fish

When you're 4 years old, nothing says "I'm so grown up" like going out on adventure with anyone who is not Mom or Dad. So Liam was really looking forward to the start of his swimming lessons, mostly because he would be going with Nan.
On the morning of the very first lesson he was ready to go and sat on the steps almost 30 minutes before she was due to pick him up. He was there long enough for me to remember I have a cheesy photo of myself, swim bag in hand, by the front door on my first day of swimming lessons. So I grabbed the camera:


And then he took the waiting outside....


Sarah was also was carrying her swim bag and waiting for Nan. This is her face before she realized she wasn't going to the pool! All in good time, little miss....


When I saw Liam later that day I asked him if he had fun at swimming lessons. His reply: "Yes. But I didn't like it." Not a fan of the water dunks, but he can do a mean starfish float on the carpet!

Squeamish in Squamish

Heading up to Whistler yesterday, Sarah started whining "baby fast, Daddy.....baby fast....." We didn't know quite what she was getting at, but when she started dry heaving in her car seat the message was loud and clear: these roads are awfully windy....slow down or I'm gonna barf!

Matt pealed into the parking lot at Murrin Lake and we slowly progressed from kneeling in the grass to a slow walk, to throwing pebbles in the lake, to climbing rock walls. When she made this face we knew we were safe to get back in the car!

Family Vacation: Part II

So, where were we? Ah yes, wreckless horseback riding. Hard to beat that, so I'm going to skip the story about how we somehow drove through a rotting pile of fish guts and had to cruise around in our stinkmobile on a very hot day until we found a self car wash. And then had to go back twice because the smell was still so intense. Nope, I won't go there. Instead, we'll jump to the same afternoon at the beach.....
The sun was beating down, but it was so windy that it felt quite cold. We brought the sun shade all the way to Oregon with us, so figured we'd put it up. We ended up flying it like a kite for some time before we got it staked beside the car for some wind protection. Kind of looks like a Ford Escape ad, doesn't it? But trust me.....you wouldn't sell many cars that smelled like ours did that day!


The kids and I had a few races on the beach - I always lost. :)


And we waded in to do a little wave jumping too....

But as it turns out, Liam is more of a Nervous Nelly than I am, and freaked out that we were being too dangerous. He retreated to his safety zone, while Sarah tried to jump waves but was too overcome with fits of giggles to get much height.


Meanwhile, Matt and Liam made their own fun....




It's all fun and games 'til someone gets hurt....which is exactly what happened here. Whoops!

A few tears and a hug and they were back at the chase....


Pelicans. Why not?


And since it was a beach vacation, a few more beach pictures....





On to Seaside! It proved difficult to juggle a camera while lifting kids and trays of chopped up sardines over the seal enclosure at the Aquarium.....so we hauled all that camera equipment around without ever opening the bag. Some days that thing feels more like exercise equipment! So you'll just have to trust that those seals were cute, and the kids didn't mind getting their hands all mucky with fish heads {shudder}.
You'll also have to trust me that the kids are really awful at Skee Ball. We found a place that served gluten free pizza for lunch, which was conveniently attached to an arcade. When Matt had to sneak away to somewhere quieter for a phone meeting, that's where the kids and I hung out. There are no pictures of that because I was trying to keep the bowling balls from being hurled in the direction of people and property. Not on purpose, of course....they just have remarkably bad aim!
One of the activities we were most excited about on this trip, was a visit to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Now that Liam is a full fledged dairy eater, he was excited to try some samples. And he loves machines nearly as much as he loves cheese, so seeing a working factory was right up his alley. Only trouble was, the two days that we were in town happened to be the two days of the year that they shut down the factory for maintenance. Fortunately they still had squeaky cheese samples and ice cream. And this contraption....


Also disappointing was the closure of the Cape Meares lighthouse due to vandalism. We were allowed in a few years ago, but this time we were out of luck but didn't find out until we walked all the way there. Liam was happy to stretch his legs, but Sarah was very unhappy to stretch hers. It must have looked cruel but I made her walk all the way back up this hill (which was bigger than it looks here) while she cried and screamed "UP!" the whole way. If you're going to throw tantrums, pick on your brother and be a little pink turd all day then stay up half the night chatting, then you're not getting a free ride up the hill from me. Tough cheese curds, sister.


The most difficult thing we've found about camping with wee ones is keeping them occupied while stuff has to get "done" - setting up the tent, meal prep, dishes, etc. Sure, they could help, but these things take long enough already! Without fail, opening up the car and giving them free reign to roam around it is the answer. It never gets old, even when they have logged hours and hours of travel time! Gets Matt out of my hair, too. ;)

This view was just steps from our campsite at Cape Lookout. But if you thought that was the sunset (as we did) then you're wrong. It's actually a boat. After a rather technical explanation of sunrise/sunset for Liam's benefit, we were pretty surprised to see the sun hit reverse and bob back up over the horizon. But it's a boat. :)


Moving on to Portland where we spent a couple nights in a hotel - yippeeee! - before heading back home. A real shower, and a real bed. Ahhhhhh......


Now before you go thinking we're a family of Manufacturing Process Junkies, a word about Bob. As in Bob's Red Mill, Bob. Bob is near and dear to me as the maker of the finest gluten free all purpous flour blend. And when Liam was first diagnosed with his allergies and I was completely overwhelmed wondering what I would feed my kid, Bob saved the day. I think I heard angels singing when I first stumbled upon an entire section of gluten free Bob's Red Mill products. So a visit to Oregon would be remiss without paying homage to Bob at the big red mill. Bonus: gluten free chocolate chip cupcakes piled high with chocolate icing and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. I mean, really. This is not something we get to see every day:


Sarah was a bit slower to work her way through her cupcake and I left the kids with Matt to do some shopping. A couple minutes later I was browsing the other side of the store, and heard loud and clear: "YA-YUM!!! NO! EAT! MY! CUH-CUH!" Translation: Back off, Liam! Get your own cupcake! When she's been wronged she unleashed her inner velociraptor.
Also at the factory, I learned something I didn't know about my husband:

Porridge, huh? And I thought he was in China all that time.... ;)
On to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Do we know how to live it up?!
We watched an Imax movie called "Born To Be Wild" - Sarah's very first movie! It was about baby orangutans and elephants. She liked it, but spent a good deal of the hour climbing all over Matt and repeating "monkey! Baby monkey!" I think we'll keep her out of theaters a little longer, still!

Matt and Liam got to take a tour of a real submarine from WWII. Sarah was not happy to be left out, but she wasn't quite old enough for the tour. After a royal tantrum in the gift shop (whoa boy, that was a doozie!) we found a ball room that got her laughing and running around with balls under her chin for about 40 minutes. She's a lesson in contrasts, that one.
Liam, on the other hand, is our little information seeker:



And to celebrate our last evening of the vacation, we took things up a notch and went to dinner at a wine tasting bar on the waterfront called Thirst. The original plan was to go to Burgerville USA, near OMSI. But the place had a weird smell and I exercised my power of veto. Matt made a comment in joking spirit, but Liam had the great sense to repeat it loudly as we headed for the door: "This place is too low class for Mom!" Thanks, Liam.
So here we are, wrapping up our vacation with good food and a couple of drinks on the patio. Sarah is finally asleep. And Matt is thinking "this is very nice....but I can't reach my beer."