Springtime

I have a lot of catching up to do! Back in April we had the chance to head over to the west side. This trip happened to be the week before our five year anniversary and also the first time we had been back to Seattle since our wedding day. We were excited to stop and take some pictures there with our kids. Oddly enough, it was raining in Seattle. 

Our wedding photographer decided not to edit our photos so they are all horribly washed out. 

"Quinn, touch the flower."

"No. It's too wet."

After we took all of these pictures, we went for a walk around the temple. Both of our kids tripped and fell because they were running. We think Jameson chipped a tooth, we didn't notice until later that day. Quinn fell in the mud and got really dirty. That's life with kids, and we wouldn't change it!

The kids had fun on the ferry over to Bremerton. We toured the USS Turner Joy. It was really cool! But crazy how the ship was built like a maze. The men on that ship had to know where everything was which is amazing. Looking at it, it was hard to imagine how anyone lived on it because everything was so cramped. 

It rained so, so hard that day.

Jameson loves "pop pop" and kept asking where he was! Taking a small child on that ship was a little scary at times because there are lots of places he could have fallen down a few stories. He did not like anyone holding him except my dad. 

The only twenty minute window he actually slept in the car on the way home. That kid can be so wiped out and will almost never sleep in the car longer than 40 minutes. Then he just cries because he's tired. 

I made Kelly a heart pancake on our anniversary because I'm so thoughtful and also because I didn't get him anything else since we were leaving on a trip in a few weeks. 

In May, Kelly and I went to Maui!!!!! It was wonderful.

Our first night there we stopped at a shrimp truck for the best shrimp and crab macaroni salad ever. We tried to go back on our last day and they closed early because it was raining. 

A panorama from our condo. The grassy area with the lounge chairs was nice because lounging on the beach wasn't always possible due to the wind blowing sand in your face.

We took this right after we got to our condo. I can still feel the ocean breeze and hear the sound of the waves. 

The next day we all woke up around 4:00am because of the time difference. We decided to get up early and go to Hana. We took the back way to Hana. There is a main "road to Hana" that everyone uses to go in and then goes back out the same way. The back way was indescribable. The road was winding around the island, cliff on one side of us and ocean on the other. The most stunning views I've ever seen. We didn't take any pictures because we were in a bit of a time crunch. We had been driving for about 30 minutes on this back road (it usually takes 2-3 hours to get there) and we saw a sign that said the road was closed at starting at 7:30. It was about 6:00am at this time. We debated turning around and going back, but ultimately decided that since we'd already come that far we should just stick with it. So Kelly drove our rental car like a madman on that windy crazy road. We passed the construction site right around 7:30. There was lots of heavy equipment but I guess the workers are on island time because no one was there yet. We did talk to some people later that day who tried to go that way the day before around 9:00am and had to turn around. 

Our first stop was to hike the Seven Sacred Pools of Ohe'o. Kelly snapped this picture of me and then turned around to capture the view behind us. 

This was that view! A beautiful oasis. Each pool overflows and runs into the ocean.

A really cool tree we came across on our hike. 

It has vines that drop down from the branches and then take root into the ground. 

 

 It was really dark inside this little bamboo forest!

I don't know if you can see, but there is a dead goat inside this pool. It must have fallen in. Or maybe somebody sacrificed it to the sacred pools. 

 Black Sand Beach in Hana. So beautiful!

 All along the main road to Hana there are lots of waterfalls with little swimming holes. Of course, I had to get in and swim by the waterfall! 

Later in the week we found out that a man had died swimming in one of these swimming holes on the road to Hana. Rocks fell and killed him. His friends couldn't get him out, and the first responders had to wait until the next day to go and get him because rocks kept falling. Scary and sad!

 This is a cave that we swam in! The water was cold, and it was super dark at the back of the cave, I didn't last very long swimming in it. 

On the way back.

Is there any better feeling than laying in the sun!?

A view of our beach. You can see how it was really not crowded. We stayed in Kihei, and I think it was probably the best place to stay on the island. 

 A delicious little cafe on the way to Lahaina. They had the best pies! I had key lime and Kelly loved the chocolate macadamia nut pie. It had a salted caramel crust. So good! He also loved his seared Ahi sandwich. I had gotten food poisoning the second night we were there from some Mahi Mahi so I stayed away from fish the rest of the week. 

The coolest thing to see in Lahaina is this tree! It's super old, and every part of a tree that you can see in this picture is actually all one tree. It takes up an entire block. We thought the tree we saw on our hike the first day was crazy until we saw this one. 

Eating dinner at Monkey Pod. This was the best restaurant we ate at. It's on Wailea Beach and it's fantastic. 

A breakfast cafe where you can get banana pancakes. I don't like banana pancakes but Kelly does. 

We took a hike out to this spot and right after we took this picture a school of dolphins started swimming around right in front of us. One of the dolphins kept jumping out of the water and twirling around in the air. 

We don't have any pictures of it but we went to Black Rock Beach. This is where most of the big resorts are on the island and also where there is some really great snorkeling. We saw so many bright fish and we got to see a turtle swimming around! Kelly reached out and touched the turtle. It was so a younger turtle, it looked so surreal the way it glided around underneath the water. 

Shave Ice. Everyone says to get this but to be honest it was underwhelming and it was $15 for both of ours so maybe just wait until you get back to the US and buy a snow cone at the snow shack for $4. 

In the Kahului airport about to board our red eye flight. Our flight back to Seattle took 90 minutes less than our flight to Maui. 

It was an amazing trip, and I'm so thankful we were able to go! I was glad that we didn't bring the kids with us, but I really did start to miss them the last few days. I started to ache for the feeling of holding a small child in my arms, and I was afraid I'd never get to feel it again. There was something about having an entire ocean between me and my babies that made me a little nervous! I would do it again but I also know that I'm meant to be a mom and I'm thankful for my two healthy, happy babies. 

Kelly and I both had birthdays this spring. He loves angel food cake with chocolate frosting. My mom brought me a yellow cake with lemon, cream cheese frosting the day after my birthday. Quinn was really worried when we didn't have a cake on my actual birthday. Oh, Jameson had a birthday, too. He turned two the day after we got back from Hawaii. I made him a cake but we didn't get him any presents. We had just brought him back a gift from our trip, and he doesn't even know it was his birthday. 

Kidz dig Rigz was really fun for the kids! Jameson is obsessed with any motorized vehicle but especially tractors. He got to climb in lots of big tractors and trucks that day. 

 Quinn and I took a monster truck ride. She laughed so hard every time he turned a sharp corner. 

Father's Day! I always forget to have Kelly take a picture of me with the kids on Mother's Day. 

Hahaha we went to spend time with Kelly's dad on Father's Day. He has some cats around his place and Jameson had to chase them and hold them. He's not good at holding them, obviously. Poor cat. 

They both liked riding the pony, though. 

We went to George on the 4th. We had fun doing fireworks with friends, we've never done fireworks with our kids before this year. They loved it. 

This is just a picture I took of Quinn one day. Before it started getting to be eleventy hundred degrees every day she liked to go eat otter pops on our balcony with her blanket on her. I had to quit buying otter pops though because I ate ten of them a day. 

We did take a trip to Montana to go camping at Flat Head Lake last week, but I don't have any of those pictures on the computer yet, so I'll save that update for another time. Probably by Christmas you can expect to hear about that. 

We've been having a really fun summer! The kids are at such fun ages. Jameson has finally figured out how to swim in the pool with his puddle jumper on so we've loved using our apartment pool. It's mostly old people that live around us, so we usually have the pool to ourselves! I teach 4-5 classes every week at the gym, and Kelly really likes his current position at Lamb Weston. We are so blessed and grateful for this life we get to live! 

Quinn's Birthday

My two babies are getting so grown up. They play together quite a bit. In the picture above they both walked up to me and Quinn said, "we got babies and purses!" Sometimes they play really well together, and other times they fight. Jameson sometimes likes to irritate her on purpose. Yesterday he threw a book at her head three times. *facepalm*

 Jameson's hair was getting really long and he had hair like a man from the 70s. So I attempted to cut it myself, and the picture above is the horrible result. He only had to live with that haircut for about four days before we were able to have a professional fix it. She had to cut it pretty short to cover up my mistakes. Lesson learned. I think he looks so handsome with short hair, although this was about two months ago and now he needs a haircut again. 

Quincy turned four on February 11th. She was sooo excited for her bithday party! She talked about it for months beforehand. We had a party at my mom's house, and all of her grandparents were there, along with aunts and uncles and cousins. We got to my mom's house a few hours before the party would actually start, and all of the little kids were going nuts waiting for the birthday party. When it was finally time for the party to start they were all so excited. When we sang Happy Birthday to Quinn, her smile was so big I thought it might break her face. After everyone finished singing she said, "that was so much fun!"

My mom made the cake and the cupcakes. I was impressed. 100x better than what I could have done. I would have just baked a cake in a 9x13 pan and maybe added food coloring to the frosting to be festive.

One of Quinn's birthday gifts was some play makeup and nail polish. She paints her nails probably three times a week and she wears lipstick and lip gloss almost every day. She is really, really bad at putting on lipstick. It's not like she uses a mirror, but still I would expect less of it to end up on the corners of her mouth. If we have to leave the house after she's recently applied lipstick, I usually wipe it off and she gets mad. She says, "I want my lips to be shiny!" So I try to convince that it's ok to just wear some clear lip gloss but she believes that lipstick has to go underneath so that's a fun argument we get to have. 

Quinn loves to make crafts. She makes a craft anytime I let her use glue, stickers, or scissors. So sometimes she just drizzles glue all over some construction paper and maybe cuts out some of the sides and that's her craft. Jameson loves it to do it as long as Quinn is doing it, too. 

Jameson LOVES trucks. He calls almost every vehicle a "truck" except he says it like "kuck." He has a little hot wheels truck and some days he sleeps with it and carries it around with him all day. We also have a metal tonka truck and he loves to run and push that thing around the house. He also thinks it's funny to crash into your ankles with it, which is actually really painful. I always tell him not to do it, but he just thinks it's funny to keep doing whatever you tell him not to do. Then he gets in trouble and I put him in time out or take away whatever he's playing with and he is always shocked and devastated. So then I feel bad that he's so sad and I usually end up comforting him. He's like a sour patch kid: first he's sour, then he's sweet. He thinks it's funny to hit your face and then laugh and give you a hug. I just don't even know with him. He's such a stinker but then he's so cute and I just love him. 

Last week at church he decided he would sing the closing hymn. His singing is actually just yelling really loud while moving his voice up and down. As the song went on he just got louder. We were laughing but also trying to get him to quiet down. The people sitting behind us were a little older and they told us that in about 15 years, he won't want to sing at all so we should just let him sing. I figure that's probably good advice. I've been trying to live in the moments that only come when your kids are small. Jameson gets upet if we walk through a parking lot without walking over the rock-filled medians or stepping on the curbs of the parking spaces. The other day I was just wanting to get home and I was trying to rush him past all of those things, but then I realized that he's not going to want to do that forever, and it really only takes about 10 extra seconds so I should just let him do it even though it's slightly annoying. 

Quinn actually fell asleep on the couch one day. She never takes naps anymore. We were all sick a few weeks ago and she was up most of the night for two nights. The next day we sat on the couch and watched movies all day. Jameson fell asleep on me at one point and I thought for sure that Quinn would since she'd gotten hardly any sleep the night before. Several times I watched her eyes start to close but then she would shake her head and wake herself up. She still sleeps really well in the car, though. Jameson is the opposite. He usually takes crappy naps in the car.

Quincy's imagination is really getting big. The other day she and I were sitting at the table eating lunch and she kept saying, "mommy, mommy!" "What?" "I'm talking to the cups." She had a little cup and a big cup and the big one was the mom, I guess. She does that stuff all the time now. She's really silly and she loves to make us laugh. She makes up songs and loves to pretend. She loves to have "picnics" in the family room. Basically she just spreads a blanket and she will sit on it with Jameson across from her and they pretend they are eating food. 

We signed Quinn up for soccer and we bought her shin guards and a soccer ball and then a few days before the season was supposed to start, the organization decided to cancel it and refund everyone the registration fee. We were pretty disappointed and we thought Quinn would be, too. But when we told her that she wouldn't be playing soccer she just said, "ok." Like it was no big deal. The YMCA is putting on soccer for her age group this summer so maybe we will have her do that. 

We went to Granny Darline's 84th birthday party last weekend. Quinn loves birthday parties and cupcakes so she had a blast. The kids love being with lots of family. 

Here is a comparison, I took the first picture in May last year and the second picture was taken last week. They change so much in one year. Quinn is carrying a birthday party invitation in her hand in the second picture. She got an invite at the beginning of the week to a party that weekend and she carried that little invitation around everywhere she went. She just loves birthdays. Although it took a little while for her to grasp that the party wasn't for her, it was for her friend. She went with me into the store to buy a present for the party and she started crying when I told her it wasn't for her. I bought her some Easter stickers for 98 cents and told her she could make a craft and she was happy. She keeps asking if it's time for Easter Holiday yet, and if we can color Easter eggs. Her excitement makes the holidays fun. 

My kids love fruit, they are always so excited if I buy strawberries. They act like I'm giving them candy. They also act like raisins and protein bars are candy, so... yeah. But I'm glad they love to eat healthy snacks. Jameson will eat almost anything. He shoves food in his mouth until his cheeks are stuffed food and it is spilling out of his lips and then he just uses his fingers to try and cram it all in. He eats like someone is might take away the food any second. 

You can ask Jameson almost any question right now and he will say, "yeah." 

"Jameson, are you hungry?" 

"yeah."

"Jameson, are you cute?"

"yeah."

"Are you a stinker?"

"yeah."

The only time he says "no" is if you ask him if he wants to go to bed or get out of the bath. 

"Do you want to go lay down in your bed?"

"hmm-HMM!"

That's how he says "no."

Well, I just love my kiddos. The age they are at right now is precious and hilarious. ... most of the time. :)  If Quinn leaves the bathroom door open, Jameson will without a doubt fill the toilet bowl with toilet paper so that's not as fun. 

The Holidays

With the beginning of Winter we decided to finally use our fireplace. To our surprise, it didn't heat up the room at all. Probably most people already know this but you have to have something in your fireplace that pushes the hot air back out to actually have it heat your house. We still have fires every now and then and the kids think that it's awesome, and it just looks cool.

In November, Kelly and I went to Spokane to go see Garth Brooks again. We saw him two years earlier in Salt Lake City. It was the same tour so the show was very similar, only this time it was better! He was recording for his live album during our show so he went all out. The show lasted over three hours. It was amazing. 

We stayed in the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane so that we would be able to walk to the arena. We were just leaving the restaurant where we had dinner to walk to the concert when a pedicab pulled up, dropping off two passengers. He asked us if we wanted a ride, we said "yes," and he said "20 bucks." We looked at each other, shrugged, and we took a ride on the pedicab. The earlier show was just getting out as we were heading there so there were huge crowds of people on all of the sidewalks, the guy driving(?... riding?) the pedicab just yelled "HEY!!" really loudly and people had to dive out of the way to avoid being hit by a fast moving bicycle. It was hilarious. 

We left the kids with my mom for two nights that weekend. It was the first time I left Jameson overnight, and I decided to wean him from nursing that weekend. I had tried before but he would cry and I would always give in. The first night, I felt homesick for him. I missed him so much and I couldn't believe I'd left him so far away from me. We called the next morning and he was having a great time with my mom and then I was fine. 

Quinn met her cousin, Paisley and she was in heaven. She loves that baby. Just now she saw this picture and she shouted, "that's my cousin! I love her!"

With Jameson being weaned, he finally sleeps through the night consistently. For 18 months I survived on next to no sleep. He would wake up in the middle of the night and just be awake for like two hours. Ugh. Any mom knows that sleep deprivation is the worst. I'm so much happier, I get way more stuff done, and Kelly will probably tell you I'm not angry all the time anymore. 

 At the house where Kelly grew up, Jameson's hand inside of his. 

These pictures were taken at Kelly's dad's house. We went there over Thanksgiving weekend. Quinn got to ride their pony, Buttercup. Jameson held (tortured) their cats. Jameson LOVES animals. Loves them. One of his first words was "dog." Only he only knows how to yell that word, "DOG!" If he is looking at a book that has animals in it, he is yelling the entire time. He used to call all of them a dog, or Ella, because that is my brother's dog's name, but he has learned cow, kitty, horse, and pig. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Kelly's Aunt Lisa's house in Mattawa. The food was amazing, as were the decorations. Kelly and I were both grateful and amazed that neither of our children broke anything. 

Her house is on a cliff overlooking the Columbia River, this is the view from her backyard. It's beautiful. 

In December, I decided to attend another Les Mills instructor training. This one was in Seattle. I was pretty apprehensive about going for a few different reasons. I signed up at the last minute. I was nervous about leaving the kids and I was nervous about adding a third format so soon after adding a second. Quinn was bawling as I pulled away from the house that weekend, and I may have cried a little, too. I ended up having an amazing time. I stayed in an Airbnb in Renton. I figured out how to park in downtown Seattle. The gym where the training took place is called Soul Fitness and it was downtown in an old building. The picture above is the view we had from the window in the group exercise room. It was so cool. I always meet so many great people at these trainings and I learn so much. I'm actually taping for my assessment later this afternoon, hopefully things go well! I've taped once but I always tape twice for these things. Once I watch myself I usually facepalm a few times and also ask myself questions like "that's what my voice sounds like?" and "how do I have any friends?" 

I currently have four classes on the schedule between both gyms. Last year at this time, I had just gotten one class on. So it's been quite a journey over the past year and I'm so grateful for all of the people that I've met and all I've learned. I love teaching and I can't wait to just keep doing it!

 Hahahaha

 My attempt at keeping them out of the tree by putting it in the corner behind the couches didn't work as well as I'd hoped. 

 We had a little Christmas with just us before we headed up to spend it with family. 

 Christmas Eve in their matching jammies. Finding them matching holiday outfits is one of my passions. I'm already looking at Easter stuff. This picture was taken around 11:00 pm so they are really out of it. We had just gotten back from a family party in Mattawa and the roads were really snowy so things were slow going. They look terrified but really they are just zoned. 

Christmas Eve morning, Jameson wouldn't stand in front of the tree for a decent picture. 

They both loved Christmas! We kind of had four Christmas over four different days, it kept the party going. Quinn loved everything about it. She loved decorating the tree, wrapping the presents, opening them, frosting cookies, eating cookies, etc. She was really upset when I took the tree down after Christmas. 

We baked lots of holiday cookies. 

These two pictures describe both of their personalities so well. Quinn is wearing her "fairy outfit." Her wand is a actually a toothbrush with a cap on it. She said she had a magical fairy glasses and a magical headband. She got that tutu from my parents for Christmas. Not pictured is the pink furry purse she also got. She takes that purse everywhere, and it is always full of stuff. She thinks the point of a purse is to have it full. She has like plastic food in it and chapstick and also little things from the Peppa Pig house she got for Christmas, like a mini toilet and a mini fridge. 

Jameson is mischievous but so sweet. He gets away with a lot. That pictures was taken during a baptism. Kelly had to take Jameson out because he is so loud. He loves going to nursery, and cries if we walk past the room where it's held and it's not time to go in. He calls me "Monny" and he says it all. the. time. He says "what's that?"  He loves to play with balls. "Ball" was another of his first words. He can throw really well, and he can also catch the ball sometimes. (Quinn just learned to catch the ball as well). Jameson is always hungry and he eats food so fast. He can down a banana in less than a minute, he just shoves it in is his mouth until his cheeks are full and it's threatening to spill out of his lips. I attempted to cut his hair and it looked so hideous. I ended up taking him to a friend to fix it but because I did such a terrible job she had to cut if pretty dang short. I think he looks adorable and grown up. 

Both of the kids love when Kelly comes home, and they run to the door yelling "daddy!" I love hearing them do this because I remember doing it when my dad would come home. 

We are looking forward to the weather warming up so we can play outside more often. Quinn has been begging me to go to the park but it's been pretty rainy or windy. I think this will be a fun summer now they are both a little older and we can do more things. Quinn just broke a beaded bracelet so I need to go pick up all of the beads before Jameson eats them.