Go M's!

On September 9th, the Mariner's had an afternoon game. We joined David for the game. It was Alistair's 3rd game and Gillian's first. We had a fun time. Alistair seemed to enjoy the game and sat still and watched it for the most part. His favorite parts were the Moose and the Hydroplane races on the big screen - he still talks about it!
Gillian did really well. I was concerned she may not like the noise and it got pretty loud after a while because the Mariners actually won, so people were cheering! (: She did fine and by the end was falling sleep!After the game we decided to eat dinner outside the park at a sausage stand. A couple of the stands have 2 sausages for $5. So we got 4 sausages. We assumed they were just hotdogs or something benign. Seth and I ended up with bratwursts and figured that is just what they have. But after Alistair had a few bites of his hotdog, he handed it to Seth and said he didn't like it. Turns out Alistair was eating a hot link! After downing half of his lemonade, he finished that bad boy. We tried giving him one of our brats, but he wanted his. The other sausage was also a hot link. Seth and I shared it, it was pretty spicy! I am surprised Alistair liked it! We finished with some ice cream sandwiches and went home.

Dosewallips State Park

The weekend before Labor Day weekend we headed out to Dosewallips for our first (!) camping trip of the summer - and also first trip in our new pop-up trailer! We had a great weekend of weather, it only rained the last night we were there. Alistair has grown so much over the summer that he can now reach the pedals and rotate them all the way around on his own! He spent pretty much the whole weekend riding his trike. Natalie came camping with us too (as did Seth's parents, my parents and Ann & Bob) and she was a big help in entertaining Alistair! In fact if we could take her camping everytime, it would be so much easier! ;)
Gillian's first camping trip. It was appropriate that we went here as this was also the location of Alistair's first camping trip at around the same age. She did very well and I think she will fit in just fine with our camping trips in the future!

Judy bought pirate hats for the kids, Argh Matey!

Natalie is also a very big help with Gillian. She loves to hold her and she is very good at manuevering her - very impressive for her age!

We also had with us my brother's razor scooter. Alistair liked riding this and spent quite a bit of time riding it around and around the loop - at a snail's pace!

Sarah and Nick came out for the day on Saturday to have bbq'd pizzas with us. Sarah has a good resting place for Gillian! She is around 8 months pregnant in this photo.

Cousins!

Pizza madness! We had fun doing this again this year. We wised-up and had everything in the same place. Not as much running across the grass this year! They were delicious!!

Camping at Nehalem State Park

The weekend after Labor Day weekend we headed to Nehalem State Park on the Oregon Coast right near Manzanita. We had a great weekend of weather and warm temperatures. Even at night it was fairly warm. Seth's dad went on a 10-day motorcycle ride while we were on this trip, so we brought our new trailer to the beach with the truck and Judy bunked with us. My parents were in a nearby site. In the middle of the loop we were staying in was a little rickety swing set at which Alistair spent a lot of his time!
Gillian is a natural born camper. She just loves being outside.

The first day we were there we headed to Tillamook to go to the Tillamook Cheese factory - mostly for the ice cream. It is was delicious! My parents took some photos of Gillian eye balling and grabbing at my cone. She is very interested in what we are eating and was slightly offended she didn't get to try it! (:

Gillain snoozing with her new cow Tilly the next morning while we had breakfast. This is how she spent many of our meals - in the swing not always asleep!

Our site was right next to a path to the bathroom and the bathroom was behind our site. This afforded Alistair plenty of opportunities to be social with anyone and everyone who walked by. "Hi, how you doing? What's your name? What are you doing?", etc was the conversations being had by Alistair and his friends. In this particular photo Zak was barking at another dog going by. Alistair decided to emulate Zak and is down on his hands and knees barking too. Quite a pair!

The second full day we spent hanging out at the park and doing whatever. In the afternoon we decided to stretch our legs and went for a walk. We found this beach on Nehalem Bay which was a great place for the dogs to play. We brought the sand toys for Alistair. He set-up his area and then headed to the water to get a bucket full for his sand castle. It didn't occur to anyone until he was up to his ankles that not only was he not wearing shorts but he also wasn't wearing water shoes! (: He just waltzed right in; tennis shoes, jeans and all!

As mentioned above, Gillian is very curious about what we are eating. We were have apps before dinner and Gillian was VERY entranced watching Seth eat!

My parents have this pot holder that is the head of a tiger. It is ancient - literally. I can remember it being used when we went camping when I was little. In fact, somewhere in the giant box of photos my mom has is a photo of her wearing it to drink her wine cooler! (: This time it was swinging with Alistair and roaring at Seth!

Minneapolis here we come!

We headed for Minneapolis on the 20th of August for a 4-night stay with the Sandholms. It was a quick visit, but it was nice to see them as well as see the MSP family for a small gathering. The kids traveled quite well. Gillian and I had a first class seat on the way there as that was all the seats that were left using miles. It actually worked out quite well for feeding purposes. We were in the last row of first class and Seth and Alistair ended up being only 2 rows behind on the other side. So though I wasn't sitting with them, I could still hear Alistair talking. Both kids fell asleep not long after take-off. Gillian woke up for the last hour and Alistair was awake a bit before that. Because of sever weather on the MSP side we were late by almost 2 hours getting there. On Friday we just vegged and hit-up a couple of kiddie stores and had lunch out. Saturday we walked down the street to Lake Harriet for a casual walk around after first stopping at Bruegger's Bagels for breakfast. At the lake there was a race going on and the kids were clapping for joggers/runners as they passed. After a bit Alistair and Sully decided they wanted to run too. So we got them out of the stroller and they proceeded to run at least 1/2 a mile or so! Once we got half way around the lake, we stopped at the little swimming area so the kids could play. The little kids played in the water and sand while the big kids tried to get the kite flying on a non-windy day. Needless to say there was a lot of running up and down the beach! (:That evening we had Seth's family over - all of them! We thought we would only see his aunt, uncle and maybe cousin and her daughter. We saw all of them plus his other two cousins and their significant others. It was a fun time. We did a BBQ with skewers and had way too much delicious food - we ate it all the next day! (: Alexis is 2 days older than Sully. They had a fun time playing together in the backyard. Seth's family all got to meet Gillian for the first time.I packed all kinds of clothes for Gillian and forgot any kind of warm jacket or longsleeved anything for her! Luckily there was a sweatshirt of Sully's that wasn't giant on her!(:We also hit Mall of America and first hit the arcade. The boys played skee ball and some other games. Then we ventured over to Nickelodeon Universe to ride some rides which ended with Gabe and Seth riding the Spongebob Squarepants Roller Coaster to Rock Bottom. It looked like a lot of fun, I think they enjoyed it. We also went to Lego Land and marveled at all the Lego sculptures. Sully and Alistair each got to pick out a new lego set, and picked the same one - a cargo plane which Alistair loves and flies it all over the house! The last morning we were there we hit up The Good Day Cafe (I think is it's name) and had breakfast. It was delicious!

After this we headed to the airport and thus ended our trip. We had a fun, but short visit and can't wait to see the Sandholms again in January!!

Gillian - Getting Bigger Everyday

Gillian required her own post. She will be 5 months a week from today. It is hard to believe and time is going by way too fast for my taste! I find myself denying that clothes don't fit her anymore and not taking them out of the drawer. I can't bring myself to admit she isn't a newborn! (: She is the sweetest baby ever and her smile could light up a room. She is such a happy baby, despite the lack of sleep, and we just marvel at her quick developments. She is very strong, she has been playing in the jumparoo since the beginning of August. She sits in the bumbo and is already bucking to get out of it, even before she has used it to eat in! She also pretty much consistently rolls as soon as you put her down. As I type she is attempting to roll across the rec room heading for the pile of laundry in the corner! She rolls pretty much to her right, although she is going left right now! (: She recently had her 4 month check-up and she is quite proportionate: 12lbs, 4oz 18%, 23 inches and change tall 20% and 15 3/4 inch head 20%. Quite a change from our petite boy with the giant head! She is petite from head to toe! As for the sleeping thing, she doesn't sleep as much as a baby her age should, but she isn't cranky. I am still working on her to sleep through the night. Our doctor suggested trying some rice cereal at a later in the day feeding to see if that helps keep her more full overnight. Today I am trying that. She has had her first camping trip, airplane flight and baseball game this month (another post). There is this AC/DC onesie that Gillian came into which was Sully's. We got Alistair an AC/DC shirt at Target and waited until the onesie fit Gillian to take some photos. The day she wore it she looked like a little boy! No amount of pink anything would change it! (:

It got artsy-craftsy and did up some letters for Gillian's wall. I was going to buy some already done, but the amount I was looking at spending do get them made and to me was ridiculous. A little spray paint and a trip to Jo-Ann's with a coupon and I saved myself quite a few pennies!

Testing, Testing...is this thing on??

I have no good excuse for not updating this blog in almost 2 MONTHS other than I barely get a chance to check my email everyday! It has been a fun yet quick summer and it is hard to believe that Labor Day is this coming weekend! Here is a quick recap of some minor things that went on in the past 2 months:

July was pretty uneventful until the last week. Over the weekend, prior to the heat wave, Alistair decided he wanted to plant some flowers. So we took him to Home Depot and he picked out pink, purple and orange ones (zinnias, petunias and marigolds respectively). He also chose a couple of sunflowers and we got a few french lavenders to fill-in where we took out a tree in the front. He and Seth did most of the planting while I either weeded or was on baby duty.

Anything having to do with water is ok in his book.

The sunflowers have not done well, I think they got too much sun during their first week in the ground during the heatwave. They also planted a nice planter which still looks nice!

Alistair also had his friend Cole over for a swim party that weekend and while they were playing, the ice cream man came by. Seth ran out while they stayed in the yard and got them fudgesicles. Good thing they weren't done swimming yet!

After the first day of the hellish week of hot temperatures, we wussed out and headed to my parents for the week to live in AC. To be fair, our house was already 85 on Monday midday and it was just going to get worse. Gillian wasn't doing well in the heat - crabby, not eating or sleeping well. I also had my gallbladder taken out that week, on Wednesday the hottest day of the year, and recouping in a 90 degree house wasn't sounding ideal to me. My surgery went well and I only took 2 pain pills the first day and was fine after that. We had a nice time at my parents house. We provided meals all week in exchange for a cool place to sleep. Seth had a fairly easy commute to work, so it worked well for him as well. On the last day of our stay, as I was packing up stuff to head home, Alistair had an altercation on his tricycle and kissed a jagged rock with the corner of his forehead. He was wearing his helmet, but it wasn't situated on his head very well at the time. Thank goodness my Dad took the day off that day and was home because I don't know what I would have done on my own! We took Alistair up to the Urgent Care place and he ended up getting 3 stitches in his forehead. I had to hold him down - thankfully Dad was there to take Gillian! Alistair did really well considering the situation and his age. For being so good we were going to take him to get ice cream. But instead he wanted to go to the fruit stand and get an apple. So we stopped at Patterson's and he picked out a red and a green apple! Must be doing something right if my kid is passing up ice cream for fruit! (:
He got his stitches out the following week and his scar was looking pretty good until he got a mosquito bite on it and then fell and hit his head, almost in the same place, again. That region of his head has seen some tough times!

In between our weeks have been dotted by outings to the beach, different parks and blueberry picking. We helped Jen and Ethan move to their new house in Tacoma in mid-August and today is Katelin's 1 year birthday!!! Happy Birthday Katelin!