Peninsula road trip with grandparents!

Back in early January, Daniel's parents visited and came with us on a little road trip out to Port Angeles, WA.

Mountains!

(not that we can't see plenty from home)

Different mountains!

The trip started on a good note before we had hardly left home.  We planned to take a ferry across Puget Sound rather than drive all the way down and then back up the other side, and we were early for the crossing, so we decided to grab a quick lunch.  We quickly decided on a tiny Greek place.  When we went in, we let them know we needed to eat quickly because we were going to catch the next ferry.  We ordered our food, and they brought us the check so we could settle it right away.  Then the very nice lady (maybe the owner?) showed me a stack of kid's books that we were welcome to look at, and she gave Hollie a little Greek flag.  We barely made it through one book before our enormous portions of food were on the table, along with enough boxes for all of us, since we only had time for a few bites.  We packed up the food and were on our way, and really impressed by how accommodating they had been for us!

Finally we made it to the B&B.  We had searched online and found a "kid-friendly" bed-and-breakfast with a "family suite".  We didn't realize that meant that there would be toys everywhere!  So. Many. Toys!  The kids had an absolute blast.

The fireplace was even fenced in, with a latching gate, and so we enjoyed a fire at least once each day.  Even considered breaking up the furniture when we ran out of firewood at one point.

We had the entire lower level of the main building.

From Port Angeles, we took the ferry to Victoria, B.C., where we spent the day.  

Our first stop was Sunday Mass in the beautiful cathedral.  Warning: Catholic/Canuck joke...we thought about asking if the Canadian translation of the Mass had been changed.  Hehe!  

Then we had lunch at a restaurant whose chef was the first Canadian winner of Iron Chef.  It was certainly very tasty!

Finally, we had time for one last stop before the one-and-only ferry back to Port Angeles that day.  We decided to take the bus across town to Craigdarroch Castle.

A rich guy built it for his wife back in the 1890's, and after a while the family gave it up and it was used as a school, until a historical society took over and restored the original, very elaborate, Victorian-era style.  

Despite not being allowed to touch anything, Hollie loved it.  She told me that "after vacation, I'm coming back to live here."  She claimed this room as her own...

We wandered up and down the halls, splitting up, passing the kids around...until someone realized it was time to get going.  We had turned off our cell phones to avoid roaming charges, so it took quite a long time (and going up and down stair-cases) to find everyone.  We hustled back to the bus stop just in time to see it leave.  The schedule said that the next bus would be there in 15 minutes...and we needed to be on the ferry in 20.  After about two seconds of deliberation, we started jogging down the sidewalk!  I think we all knew we wouldn't make it, and thank goodness once we got into town, Abuelita jumped onto a bus of a different line and asked if he would be going near the ferry dock.  He was!  We piled in, caught our breath, and made it just in time.  We would certainly never have made it if we had kept running...or waited for the other bus.

Oh, and that ferry ride?  Rough seas, you better believe it.  I was dealing with some sinus congestion at the time, and I thought my head was going to explode.  

This one loves a ride on the boat any day, especially when she can make a bed out of everyone's jackets!

The next day we had planned to find somewhere to go sledding, but it turned out that we couldn't get to anywhere with snow without chains for the tires.  So instead we relaxed and celebrated Daniel's birthday...again!

Blake still had fun with all the snow gear.

Gonna getcha!

I forgot to mention that this was a B&B...&B!  They actually had a barn, so that visitors could bring along their horses, and where the owners kept their own five miniature horses.  With the owner's permission, we went out to see them.  

Hollie fed them a little hay...they were gentle, but she sure pulled her hand back in a hurry!

And what vacation is complete without someone running out of underwear. having to wash it in a sink, and dry it in front of a fire?

There were [at least] three notable puns on this trip.  

First, Daniel and his dad were talking about the possibility of Daniel playing bass in a Cajun band if we were ever to move to Louisiana, and someone thought it would be the "bass case scenario".

Later, at the bed and breakfast, I was looking for some gauze in our first-aid bag, and I told Daniel I hoped it wasn't a "lost gauze".

Last but not least...

Along the main road through Port Angeles there was a restaurant called Fita's Mexican Grill.  We never ate there, but we noticed it, and asked Abuelita about the name and what it might be short for.  It didn't take long for us to realize that, saying it aloud, it sounds like "fetus".  

As in -- So, what's for dinner tonight?  Thought we'd go out for fetus!

My funny girls...and bouncing boy

We have a set of toy food made of felt, which the girls "cook" in their little kitchen daily, at least.  A few days ago Hollie was making me quite a feast, and I told her, "Wow, Hollie, I'm not sure I can finish all this!"  She looked over her shoulder and told me matter-of-factly, "It's okay, Mommy, it's not real."

A few nights ago, Blake woke up very upset, and spent the rest of the night in bed with Daniel and me.  In the morning when Hollie woke up, I moved a pile of clean laundry onto the bed so I could find a new shirt, and then took her downstairs, leaving Blake in the bed, sound asleep.  After almost two hours I realized I hadn't heard a peep, so I went up to check on her, expecting to find her still asleep since she usually wakes up hungry and needing breakfast.  Instead, I found her sitting up on the bed, with one of my bras wrapped around her stomach, and a pair of my underwear over her back with an arm through each leg hole.  She was drinking from the glass of water that Daniel keeps on his nightstand, and had evidently been flipping through the books that I keep on mine.  On her face was the most mischievous little grin I've ever seen!

About a week ago we had the first warm-ish (high 40's) sunny day we have seen in a loooong time, so we went to the beach for a few hours.  Despite the relatively cool temperature, the car did warm up a bit from sitting in the sun, so when we got in the car to leave, Hollie took her jacket off and complained in earnest that it was "too hot in the car".  I was speechless!!  Guess it's a good sign that we have officially acclimated to the PNW (pacific northwest) (we can also use that acronym now, officially), and that my kids will never be able to live in warmer climates.

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Funny stories concluded, I want to say more about the weather!  We have been having some ridiculous fog.  Very very limited visibility for days...and days...and days, sometimes.  Makes me feel claustrophobic.

Anyway.  The weather forecast for Friday (last week) called for sun and high 40's...the first time in weeks, probably.  Big plans were made to go to the beach.  We watched the sky all Friday morning, and the fog seemed as foggy as ever, but I said Who cares??  We're going anyway!!

So, we arrived at about noon, and over the next two hours we got to watch as the sun finally did come out and burn away the fog!  It was...spectacular.

We had a great time, as usual.  The girls made a "meal" of sticks, rocks, and shells.  Blake, of course, took it too literally.

It may be hard to see...this is Whidbey Island across the water.  When we arrived, we couldn't see the island at all, but as the fog receded we started to see the very tops of the trees!  It was like a wall.  It was fun to see the ferry go in and out of it.

I had heard that going to the beach in the fog can be pretty cool, but we just hadn't made it.  I've been having a hard time getting out and doing things in this weather.  As someone who enjoys the rain at least a little bit, I never thought that SAD (seasonal affective disorder) would be something I'd ever experience, even in a place like this, but in hindsight (after seeing the sun again) maybe the weather has gotten me down a bit.  It's not that this weather makes it that much more difficult to get the kids in the car and go somewhere...I just couldn't get motivated to do it.  And it wasn't just going out of the house...I found myself in one of those mental ruts, with too many things to get done and zero ability to focus.  I listened to a guest speaker at my moms' group last week who told us that verbalizing things like that makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you have to stop using that kind of language (even to yourself) and instead say/think: I can, and I will.  It was a few weeks too late for me, but with that thought (and maybe a little help from the sun), things are picking up.

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On that note, here's an ultrasound picture of our little boy!  This was from about two weeks ago.  He was bouncing around in a breech position at that point, so we had another ultrasound yesterday, and he has settled head-down.  For now.  He's still small enough to turn any way he wants to, so we'll probably check again at least once.  My sciatica is "back" (haha) with a vengeance, but I unearthed my old prenatal yoga DVD and I'm giving that a try.  Other than that, I'm feeling just fine and baby is doing great! 

 

December

You've already seen the Christmas morning photos, but here are some others from earlier in December.

Look at these two bookworms...

Here's Hollie, just days after the mother-of-all-haircuts, helping me shred some cheese.

Good grief, Blake!!!

Early Christmas with Aunt Lauren and Brad!  

They joined us for a holiday meal before leaving to spend the real Christmas in AZ, and they even brought presents.

A really cool cardboard house with windows and doors, and some markers to color it!

Also, a sled for the girls to use on a future snow trip (with them, presumably)!

We got right down to business...

A few days later - Blake has a good meal.

Gotta love the hair!

November

First order of November business was a trip to Oregon for a football game.  We stayed in a hotel in Portland for a few days and squeezed in a few other fun things, like the grand opening of a new park, a walk through the "Saturday Market" (on Sunday, ironically*), and the mandatory stop at our favorite doughnut place: Voodoo Doughnuts.

*Funny story - my sister and her boyfriend had come along for the trip with us, and they had ventured off on Sunday morning while the rest of us got a late start.  When we called them to figure out where to meet, she told me they were at the Saturday Market.  At the risk of making us both sound stupid, I had to ask..."you know it's Sunday, right?".  Facts confirmed, we did indeed meet them at said market.  Maybe you had to be there.  I thought it was funny, anyway.

Didn't take very many pictures on that trip, just a few at the new park...

Blake loooooved the swings.

Also on the trip, BLAKE ATE AN ENTIRE APPLE.

This is what was left - the stem and some bits of the skin.  I kid you not.

Next, we had our friends (Cian's parents) take a nice picture for our Christmas cards.  You've already seen that picture, of course, but here is my most favorite out-take...

Blake's face?  I LOVE IT.

One day we took a trip to a local kid-friendly spot I had heard about called Country Village.  It was a very cute little cluster of shops and restaurants, with a creek running though, and at one end a playground and even a train ride.  

We went mostly for the train.  Hollie rode in the caboose all by herself!

 November 16th, 2012 - the day we found out (via Facebook) that Hostess was going out of business.  Like the good Americans we are, we joined the mad rush at two different grocery stores to grab what we could.

The haul...

Hmmm?  What paleo diet?

Last but not least, Thanksgiving.  We had a fantastic [mostly paleo] meal with my sister and her boyfriend.  Hollie loved helping me roll up the [non-paleo] crescent rolls.

That's all for now!

More later.

Back-tracking [October]

Blake turned 18 months a few weeks ago, and we just got around to taking her in for a check-up last week. She was...

25 lbs. 13 oz (75th percentile)
30.5 in. (25th percentile)

She is looking great.  Healthy as a horse!  A round of teething last month brought in two lateral incisors on the bottom and the first four molars, and she is putting them to good use.

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Let's get caught up on pictures!

Waaaaaay back in October 2012, Hollie's school held their annual fall festival.  Luckily, at the same time we had Daniel's mother and her parents visiting, so they came too!

Hollie had her face painted like a panda...

...and then danced the night away!

One night, we took care of our friends' son, Cian.  Blake had just started giving very nice kisses, and he was very patient with her.

And finally, Halloween night!  Hollie was a witch...

Blake was a little girl with no patience for a costume, who really just needed to be bundled up anyway, and I was the mom who bought the last few things left in the Halloween aisle earlier that day.

We opted not to leave a pumpkin out to rot in the rain, so here are our homemade window decorations!

Bats and pumpkins, cut out by Mommy and painted by Hollie

White papers with spooky drawings by Hollie

Stack of mini-pumpkins by Mommy

Next up, November.

Snip-its

Hi everyone!  We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years at home (with Daniel's birthday in between!).  We are so lucky that, being in the aircraft industry, Daniel gets over a week off from work at this time of year.  Also, yet another perk of living on the west coast...the kids got to watch the ball drop in Times Square at 9pm and then call it a night!  Granted, that it pretty late for them anyway, and a bit underwhelming in the end, but you get the point.

Some Christmas morning pictures!

While Daddy and Hollie get down to business...

...Blake says, "I will not be in the mood for this until I get some food in my belly."

I love this picture:

Very first little boy clothes (thanks Mom!)

Daniel on Skype with his parents

H&B still digging that cash register out of the package

Merry Belated Christmas!

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Some other random happenings

The other day Hollie came across the Pull-Ups that we used when she first started not wearing diapers at night.  We used to call them "night-time underwear", and it's been a long time since she's used them but we still had the remnants of the last box in a closet.
The first thing she said was, "This is my cowboy underwear!"
"Hmmm...okay!"
Then she pulled it onto her head and said, "Nope, it's my doctor hat."
" ..... "

I had an awful dream a few nights ago.  I was in the hospital, and delivering the baby.  After he was born, I immediately went home to shower and change clothes, which in itself is odd.  When I returned to the hospital, no one could tell me where my baby was, because we hadn't given him a name yet (Daniel was never present through all of this), and that I couldn't even go in past the front desk because, though the clock on the wall said 3:15, the guy at the counter said "visiting hours are over at 3:30".  It was vivid and had me awake in a panic, but there was one interesting detail...that was a little McBurney boy!  Unlike the mini-Daniel we've been anticipating, the baby in the dream was pale with light brown hair.  We will just have to wait and see!

One afternoon, Hollie had me sit on the couch (except it was actually a car), so that she could drive me to a "snow mountain" where we could go sledding.  After turning the toy keys in the invisible ignition, she stopped and pulled a stuffed bear out from under a pillow next to her, and said, "The motor wasn't working.  There was a polar bear in it."  We never made it to the snow mountain...got side-tracked to bear cuddling.

She is a wonderful story-teller.  Just today she had us all sit around her to hear about some baboons that live in a house, and some bunnies that grew up to be tigers.  Then she made up a song which had us all tapping toes, then drumming on the floor, then waving our arms, and I don't remember the rest.  Her imagination is truly limitless.

Blake is beginning her vocabulary!
For a while now she has been saying...
"Hiiiiii!"
"Byyyyye!"
"MaMAAAAAA!"
"Yessssss"
"Nooooooooo!" or "Nonononono!"
and has recently added...
"Dada"
"Hah-lah" or "Hah-ligh" for Hollie (it still blows my mind that "Hollie" wasn't her first word.  She is sooo attached to her big sister)
"Ba" for bath
and, most recently,
"Ni-ni" for night-night
"Eeeee" for cheese

When asked, she can also identify some parts of her body asked: eyes, hair, nose, teeth, ears (sometimes), and her favorite: belly!  She doesn't say any of them yet, except when she calls all of them "eyes".

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At the moment we are enjoying a visit from Daniel's parents.

Hope to post more soon!