Seattle Overnighter

No fancy hotel for us, we spent the night on the boat that was tied up at fisherman's terminal.  Every little person's dream! 

Ryker divvying up the popcorn.  He is very interested whenever we cook it in the microwave because he is used to our air popper.

Kya pulling out all the paper towels.

Seth re-rolling all the paper towels.

Kya pulling them out again, with Ryker laughing hysterically and egging her on.  Notice I am taking pictures, rather than helping.  I usually enjoy these moments more than the kids as long as it is Seth they are messing with!

Ryker and Seth slept in the stateroom after they watched a movie and Kya and I slept in the tophouse.  We had to pick Kara up at the airport early the next morning. 

Ryker gave her a tour of the bunks.

Then the engine room.

All done and ready to move onto our fun days with Kara!

Edison's First Annual Birdfest.....

Or something like that.  I don't acutally remember the name, but it was about birds.  We rolled down to check it out. 

First on the docket....bird herding through main street.

The herding was over in about 30 seconds so we strolled through the crowd to see if any of our friends were around.  Surprisingly, we found a bunch and better yet, we found this big guy!

Next stop: playground

Kya and Colton.  We went inside and checked out the booths set up in the school but didn't stay for the show.  There was a bird demontration by Woodland Park Zoo that I heard was pretty cool, but it was lunch and nap time for us.  Maybe next year.  Next year maybe Ryker will herd his own chicken.  Liz offered to let us use one of hers but I didn't think I could herd 2 kids and a chicken.  Maybe if Seth is around next year, Ryker and I will borrow one.

Be Mine

Ryker decorated boxes and whipped up some world famous gourmet chocolates for some very special people in his life.

We also took some photos of them and made some valentines like the one shown above.  Ryker got very creative in our second photo shoot after he saw the first batch of valentines with the suckers in them.  He was riding the sucker like a stick horse in one, but his favorite was him swinging the giant sucker like a baseball bat at Kya. 

For his preschool class, I didn't figure they'd all want a picture of my kids, plus I didn't want to pile on the candy train so we rolled up sheets of valentine stickers with a store bought Tow Mater valentine and matching tatoo (no getting away from store bought if you turn down that isle and he spies anything from Cars) and tied them with a ribbon.  Ryker seemed to enjoy putting them all together and loved his first school Valentine party.  I loved it too, because it was the first thing I got to attend with him.   Seeing him at school interacting with all his friends was pretty fun.

Bust out the disco ball and dance shoes when a singing card comes in the mail at our house!  These two were singing and dancing for 20 minutes, the next 4 days in the car on our commute, and still occasionally, when this thing resurfaces.

The Moose is Loose

Ryker started talking about how Kya needed a DadBear because she misses Dad too when he is fishing.  It wasn't 2 weeks later that we walked into Costco and Ryker screams "It's a Dad Moose for Kya!"  I told him that I didn't think we could fit all our groceries and the moose in the cart so we passed on the first go round.  Ryker proceeded to lay a very persuasive guilt trip on me throughout Costco on behalf of poor little Kya who didn't have anyone to snuggle with when she missed her dad.  I don't give in on a lot of things, but there was no good reason I shouldn't fork over the $35 on this one.  So we loaded him on top with both kids holding him tight so he wouldn't fall off the toilet paper and Diet Pepsi and rolled out with our newest addition....PapaMoose.

Of course, he needed to be immediately introduced to DadBear who was waiting in the fort when we got home.

Kya snuggled right in

For about the first month, Kya gave PapaMoose a kiss every night before bed and sometimes when she woke up.

Rainy January Days (yep, I'm finally posting January!)

While Seth was crabbing this winter and it was too rainy or cold to play outside at 5:30 when we got home, I had to get creative.  If they had nothing to look forward to on the 40 minute car ride home, they would be grumpy and the ride would almost be unbearable sometimes.   We had a few picnics in the forts we had made the evenings before.

In the car ride home, we would plan what we were going to eat and who had what job when it came to getting the picnic area set up.  Ryker usually got the water while I got the food and Kya would carry extra napkins up the stairs and start laying out the blanket. 

She got really into it and started getting chairs and stuffed animals to sit around at the picnic too.

Ryker Cam

Hoop It Up

One more day and I will be headed to New Orleans to watch a little basketball.  This will be the first time I've been away from both kids for more than about 15 hours and those days are very few.  I'm excited but also a little nervous.  Who am I anymore without a kid hanging off each side?  On the rare occasion that I'm driving somewhere without them, I almost point stuff out to them the entire way or wish they were there because I just saw the coolest motorcycle, or the baby calves were close to the road, or there was a cloud shaped like a racecar, or the farmers are using a new peice of farm equipment.....the list goes on and on.  I'm very interested to see if my brain can actually turn off "Mom mode."  I know I will miss them, but I wonder if I'll wake up in the middle of the night because I heard one of them cry or have the sudden heart flutter panic attack for a second like when I turn back to my grocery cart and they aren't in it because it takes me a second to remember that they are actually not with me at the grocery store for once.  I just hope I don't instinctively try to wipe Kara's nose, tie Cam's shoes, or smooth Ty's rooster tail.  They are already going to be annoyed with my inability to keep up on the drinking front.  I don't think they'll be up for any of my motherly tendencies.   It's too bad UNC lost out because Cam and Ty were so looking forward to seeing them play, but these trips for us are about much more than basketball.  I think we're going to see a few GOOD games and have a GREAT time. 

The snow is gone, but the sled remains........

Maybe it can double as a boat?

What could we do with this last little bit of snow?

Make a snowball and move on....

Ryker checking out our Christmas tree from this year to see if it's grown any since we planted it.

Maybe we could use this sled for hauling branches to the burn pile?

Yes!  That's it and your Mom will much appreciate it!  Work kids work!