Clueless

We don't have t.v. at our house.  We have a t.v., but no t.v. service.  Right now we are at a hotel in Anchorage.  When commercials come on the t.v., everyone starts yelling at me for changing the channel.  Right now the satellite isn't working great and keeps stopping in the middle of the show.  Originally, the kids assumed that I was pausing their "movie" and just now Nolan suggested that maybe the movie is scratched.  I keep trying to explain it to them, but they are just clueless when it comes to t.v.  And I'm ok with that.

Sun

Nolan's theory on where the sun went:  

It went to go visit it's grandma in Texas.

Baby Belly

My friend Tiffany and her kids went on vacation for 6 weeks - and a baby belly can do a lot of growing in 6 weeks.  When Gavin, Nolan's best friend, got home, he asked me, "Why is your belly so big?"  I told him there was a baby in there.  He has had a lot of questions since then, like, "How does the baby eat?," but the best one yet he asked me yesterday.

Erin, did you eat a baby?  

No.  

Well, have you ever eaten a baby?

Camping

It's funny - we've been here two years and yet we still always get excited about moose in the yard.

Momma

and the twins

7/15/10  Thursday morning, Doug and Ethan mowed the lawn. 

Then we spent the rest of the day getting ready to go camping with our friends the Leys, and our tag-along Boden, who was staying with us while his parents were in Anchorage.  We thought for sure we could be ready to go in time for soccer and then leave from there, but we have realized that our camping stuff needs some attention in the organizing department.  I took the kids to soccer and Doug continued to pack.

It's really hard to play soccer like this...

you can't even turn your head to look at the ball.

Brenden played hard.

(I have to throw in here, as an explanation, that Brenden wears the headband to keep his implants on.  Not to look cool.  'Cause he doesn't, really.)

On the way to where we were camping, we saw a bear cub.

He ran off into the woods when we tried to drive closer.

7/16/10

Silly Nolan

Ethan, Gavin, Izzy and Nolan on a boat ride.

Brenden chopping wood

Savannah chopping wood

I think Ethan would have even slept on the boat if we would let him.  He never wanted to get off.  He made a good fishing buddy for Doug.

Doug took 7 kids on the boat.  Incredible or insane?

We came to camp and found a squirrel in the trash.

The kids started swimming partially clothed

but the clothes came off pretty quick.

You have NO idea how cold this lake is.  Like, my toes froze.  It's over 1000 feet deep - that makes for a cold lake.

I came back from the lake and found Nolan doing this:

Thanks to peer pressure, Nolan's training wheels finally came off.

His friend Gavin has the same bike and his training wheels broke, so he had no choice but to learn to ride his bike.  Nolan thought he'd try it too.

Doug took the kids on a hike, which turned out to be more like rock climbing.

(Izzy, Nolan, Savannah, Brenden)

Brenden, Nolan, Izzy, Boden, Savannah

There are two specs on the road - they are Ethan and me.

I laughed out loud at this picture.

A slightly better one...

And what hike can end without a little dance party?

Brenden insisted he had to read before bed.  He didn't make it long.

7/17/10

Doug, Ethan, and I went for a boat ride.

I told you he really liked it.

We came back to find Brenden and Savannah reading Calvin and Hobbes out loud, Brenden read all of Calvin's words and Savannah was everyone else.

Swimming in cold water... again.

Naked bike riding boys

Brenden popping a wheelie

We packed up and headed home, but stopped to see the wood carving competition on the way.

This is a lot like how camping felt... giant mosquitos out to suck every ounce of our blood.

Doug has a intriguing question for everyone (and he really does want an answer.)  Why are football, baseball, and basketball one word and soccer ball is two?  (He was typing our packing list when he came up with this one.)

Ethan is 3!

Ethan's birthday was the 14th.  We knew it would be a busy day and Doug would miss most (if not all) of it, so we opened most of Ethan's presents the evening of the 13th.

Ethan was with me when I was shopping for gifts for him.  He had picked this out a few months ago and we had managed to "lose" it from the cart somewhere in the store.  He was heart broken.  (And let me tell you, heart break is not a quiet thing...)  This time, as we passed the Lightning McQueen toys, he swept it off the shelf and said, "Appy Birkay Gekan!"  I couldn't refuse him.

On the way home from the store, Ethan kept saying, "Open.  'Appy Birkay Gekan!"  When we got home, he fished the toy out of the bag before I even unpacked everything from the car.  He was carrying it around trying to convince me that is was his birthday RIGHT NOW.  I kept telling him that it would be his birthday soon and he just didn't like that answer.  I finally stole the present when he put it down to go to the bathroom and he knew just where to find it - up high in my closet.  The next morning, I woke to a little boy pushing a very heavy chair across the kitchen and into my room in order to scale the clothing and reach his toy.  It didn't work out for him.

Every day, several times a day he would tell me it was his birthday, sing himself a little birthday song and tell me it was time to open his present.  He was beyond thrilled when I told him he could open his present - and he knew just which one it was, wrapping and all.

Could he be any happier?  We tried to put him to bed then, but it didn't work out.  He played with the truck until after 11:00 when he finally passed out on the floor.

Wednesdays are our long days.  We leave the house at 9:30 to go to speech, which is 45 minutes away.  Ethan was up bright and early and playing with his truck when it was time to leave.  He had a very difficult time leaving his truck behind.

After speech, Nolan had gymnastics.  After gymnastics, Ethan had a doctor's appointment.  Since I made him get a shot on his birthday (what kind of mother am I?!), I took him to Carl's Jr. for dinner - that, and the fact that it is in the Safeway parking lot, so Doug could walk to our "party" and go back to work.  We were pleasantly surprised when Doug arrived to hear that he had been give the rest of the day off to play with us!  That just meant he had off until 7:00 when he had to be at the church for mutual, but still..., he got to spend more than 30 minutes with Ethan on his birthday!

Putting the candles in the cake

A remote controlled Lightning McQueen!

Since we had about an hour before Doug had to go, we went to the park to play and took a walk.

We checked out the dip netters on the beach

and found a fun tree to climb on.

I think Ethan had a good day.  I thought he would be very worn out, but for the second night in a row, he played with his truck until he passed out on the floor.  I didn't have the heart to take it away from him.  

We love having Ethan in our family.  He may be moody and slightly mean, but he is funny and charming and we all love him to pieces.  I yuv you, Gekan.