Third Time Is A Charm

We finally have a working Santa in our yard. For my birthday, my parents-in-law bought me the cute light-up Santa from Costco that I had been eyeing. When we decorated outside last weekend, we got Santa out of the box, set-up him up and plugged him in. Only 1/2 of him worked. On the directions it said he was made from 2 strings of lights and if one goes out, the whole string goes out - at least they are honest! Anyone that know me knows my biggest pet peeve is having to find burned out Christmas lights and replace them, I HATE IT! It makes me angry and frustrated. Seth usually does it while I continue with something else, fuming about the stupid lights! But I digress...we could not find the faulty light in Santa, nor could we even get to most of the lights as they were so intertwined in the frame. So we decided to box him back up and return him to Costco. We also decided to get something different with the thought that any other Santas from Costco would eventually have the same issue and would be unfixable. My parents have a couple of inflatables and suggested we get one. Upon further thought we decided this might be a good idea from a storage perspective and headed to Lowes for we knew they usually have a great selection of Christmas decorations, especially inflatables. We decided on the 7ft. Santa and brought him home last night. We got him set-up and had the drumroll to plug him in...Alistair was very excited about it! We plugged him in, the lights went on and nothing else. We tinkered with the motor and fan, but no inflating was going to happen. We announced, with great annoyance, that we were going to have to take Santa back and get another. Alistair crossed his arms and made a face. I asked him what the problem was and my very considerate and thoughtful son says, "Mom, why do you keep buying broken Santas?"

Gillian and I ran to Lowes this morning, bought a new Santa and low and behold, he works! Alistair will be thrilled when he gets home from school...hopefully!

Christmas Trees - that time of year already?!?!

The annual cutting of the Christmas Trees occured this past weekend. We all headed out to Cox's Tree Farm and had our trees within 30 minutues of arriving.
Cooper got to ride in my sweet carrier I bought to carry Gillian. I think he liked it, despite the look on his face! (:

Our little snow angel navigating her way through the tree farm.

All the cousins posing together

Snow Day!

We had snow before Thanksgiving. This was Gillian's first time in the snow. I think it snowed last year, but she wasn't walking or big enough to play in it. She seemed to enjoy it this year and despite how bundled she looks, she can move and walk! (:
Alistair had a blast as usual. We were out for maybe 30 minutes or so and that was good for everyone!

Gillian sledding down the driveway in the Babyboggan. She thought that was pretty cool!

Alistair sledding on cardboard. We may need to invest in an additional sled or something now that he is bigger...and that there are 2 kids!

Another fun day together as a family!

Thanksgiving

The first weekend in November we had the annual Martinson gathering at Eric and Gigi's. It was a fun day with lots of good food and LOTS of kids! We are certainly growing in numbers!

Thanksgiving Day we spent at Jeff & Michelle's house with my parents, Michelle's sister, her fiance and Michelle's Dad. We had a very nice, relaxing day with delicious food!
Alistair and Cooper sporting the plaids.

We took a break, went outside and built a snowman! It was fun, Gillian mostly ate snow - we all contribute in our own ways, right?

Gillian and Cooper being way too cute on his train! (:

Welcome Heather Taylor Hennessey!

Heather Taylor Hennessey was born on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 11:20pm. She was 8lbs 4oz and 20 inches long! Everyone did great and are now home getting to know each other as a family.

Camping at Cape Disappointment

The weekend of Veteran's Day we headed down to Cape Disappointment State Park for a 3 night camping stay with my parents and Seth's. It rained and poured all the way down there. Once we arrived and set-up, the weather cleared and stayed clear through Friday Night! Katelin came with us to give her mom and dad a little break while waiting for the baby to arrive. I think Katelin had quite a bit of fun not to mention Alistair and Gillian really enjoyed having her around!
We had a new and unusual event happen to us the first night. I opened the door to our pop-up to put some items away and somehow let a bat in! It flew in circles and then would land. Seth came in and attempted to catch it, only to have it fly back into the trailer. It finally got out, somehow, but not before I snapped a photo! (:

Friday morning we heard the Coast Guard helicopter flying around down at the beach and eventually could head it hovering. We decided to head down to see what was going on. At first we thought there was a real rescue or recovery mission going on, but it turned out to be a training session. They had dummies strung to the cliff sides and were rescuing them, taking them to the top of the cliff, handing them off to a team on the ridge who would repel down and reattach the dummy for the next team. They had 2 helicopters swapping out with different teams and did this for about 4 hours. It was fun to watch and was the highlight for Alistair who talked about it ALLLLL weekend!

Beautiful morning on the beach!

Saturday we got up to rain, wet and wind - typical Washington Coast weather for November. We decided to pack it up and head to Astoria for the day. We went to Pig N Pancake in Astoria for breakfast.

After breakfast we headed into Seaside. We took in the aquarium, which the kids just loved. We were there for quite a while - highlights being the touch tanks and feeding the seals!

Once we got back to the campground, Seth, Alistair and my dad headed over to Waikiki Beach to check out the Confluence project and then to drive into town to buy my birthday present - oh yeah, Saturday was my birthday!

We had a birthday dinner that night for both of us. We had Papa Dave's Seafood Fettuccine, which is awesome and for dessert we had Turtle Cake - decadent and delicious!

While we were camping, the little cold I had decided to get worse and I was stuffed up, coughing and not sleeping well, especially the last night. So that morning, when the kids woke up at 5:30 or something too early like that, Seth got them dressed and left and took them up to the Northhead Lighthouse so I could sleep - he is awesome! (: From the looks of the photo, it was still slightly dark and foggy, oh and rainy!

While we were getting packed up, the kids kept themselves entertained. Alistair had the girls pushing him around in the police car.

Halloween Season

It really has become a season, not just a day. We decorate at the beginning of the month of October, we visit various pumpkin patches with different groups throughout the month, carve the pumpkins at some point and in the days leading up to Halloween, we attend various trick-or-treating opportunities. Then of the course the day of is filled with excitement and anticipation, sugar rushes and crashes and finally exhaustion as we undress our costumed children and get them into their jammies, wash their sticky hands and faces and attempt to get a toothbrush into their mouths. But Halloween is definitely a holiday for young and old and we all had a fun holiday!
Spaceman Spiff and Quackers - homemade costumes by the ever-talented Nana...never disappoints!

Alistair's classroom Halloween party was last Thursday. Gillian and Macey's little sister Maddie also got to be in the photo. It was a fun party. They had 3 different games and then had some treats.

The week prior to the party, we went with Alistair's class to The Farm in Snohomish. It was a fun, and beautiful, day!

Alistair and Natalie showing off their costumes.

18 Months going on 18...

Gillian officially turned 18 months last Friday. I say officially because she has been 18 months for a few weeks now when people ask. I was rounding up, it was easier than trying to figure out how many days until she was! The title of the posting is appropriate too. She is bound and determined to be a big girl and do what Alistair does. Her size does not stop her one bit!

She had her 18 month appointment last week. She is 22 pounds 4 ounces (20%), 31 1/2 inches tall (42%) and 18 1/2 inch head (62%). She is solidly into 12 month clothes now! (: She has been working on 8 new teeth - 4 molars and 4 "I" teeth. All but 3 of the "I" teeth have broken through as of this posting. She is talking more and more although her words aren't clear. She does communicate her needs as well as understands what we say to her very well. She has the typical Mama, Dada, Nana, Papa, Bye Bye, Baby as well as Alistair, Please, ball, shoes, socks, cheese and grilled cheese. The other day we were at a coffee shop and I was order coffee and breakfast. She looked up at the counter, pointed and said, "Nana!" So we added a banana to the order! She knows what she wants!

Gillian is a very good eater, however she is not nearly the adventurous eater Alistair was. We make her try stuff, but she isn't as open to eating it. We let her eat a lot of the same stuff knowing that she is getting the nutrition she needs, even if it is the same thing she had for lunch!
She is a climber, she loves being outside and playing on just about anything. She is all over the big toy at the park and goes down slides with gusto. She likes to swing, but only for a couple minutes at a time. She has a bike helmet now and likes to ride on the trike. Her legs are a little short to peddle it. She is getting into riding the fire truck and doing the self propel thing. She also likes to color, especially with markers.

Most of all she loves her brother. She gets excited to see him when she gets up in the morning and wants to do what he is doing. He doesn't always have the patience for her that she requires, but overall he is a good big brother and does try to help her. She continues to be our little sunshine girl and makes our lives brighter!

First Day of School

Yesterday Alistair had his first day of his second year Preschool. He started off the morning with a hearty breakfast of Chicken Apple Sausage and Milk - nothing more!
He had on his new shoes and sweatshirt, backpack full of his supplies for the year and a fresh haircut. We took him to the bus stop and met his new bus driver Brenda. This year because he is 40 pounds, he gets to sit on the seat with a seatbelt instead of a carseat like last year.

We drove and met his bus at school and walked him down to his locker and classroom. He found his locker with the help of his teacher, Monica, and got his coat and backpack hung-up.

Alistair posing next to his locker. He seemed excited to be back. Obviously he knew people this year and he had also spent most of the summer playing with at least 3 of his classmates, so he was super excited to see them!

Gillian wanted in on the action too. She kept leaning against the lockers saying, "Cheese! Cheese!"

Alistair made it home on the bus with his driver Linda. One of his classmates, Ethun, rides his bus and they are seat buddies! He made sure today that I said Hi to him when I got him off the bus! (:

Moran State Park

This Labor Day weekend we did our traditional trip up to Moran State Park on Orcas Island. We went up with Carolyn and Njord. We decided to go Saturday to Tuesday to hopefully miss some of the traffic on the usual travel days. Our plan worked! (: We had decent weather Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't hot, but it was warm, as long as you stayed in the sun, and the nighttime didn't get AS cold as they predicted, but was still chilly. We went old school and took the tent. The park is pretty tight for trailers, although people do bring them. We also didn't want to have to pay the additional surcharge our pop-up would have incurred over the utility trailer we did take.
We packed lunch stuff and had ourselves a nice spread on the trip over to Orcas. Carolyn and Njord quickly found out the downside of holding a toddler eating peanut butter and jelly!

We went on a hike on Sunday. We thought we would find something shortish and hopefully something Alistair could walk most of. Wishful thinking there. After 20 minutes he was tired and wanted a ride. So we put him in the backpack Seth carried - it is rated up to 65 pounds. Poor Seth! I had Gillian in the soft-sided carrier on my back, but would have much rather carried her in the other pack! Oh well!

As we made our way up the trail, we kept thinking we were almost there. Once we got to the "top" we were sorely disappointed to find an elevation and not one view, just more trees! Oh well. The trail was pretty with lots of thistle and foxgloves. We also saw 3 or 4 deer. In the end, we ended up hiking about 7 miles! We would not recommend this hike unless you were doing it as part of the larger loop it can be part of!

Monday morning we got up to drizzle. It started raining sometime in the night and it was still doing so when we got up.

We built a fire, made coffee and hot chocolate and huddled around the fire while we planned our day. Alistair really wanted to go to the top of Mt. Constitution. So we got breakfast made, tucked everything away to keep dry and headed out.

We were the only car in the parking lot at Mt. Constitution, if you can image that! We made our way to the tower and were greeted by pelting cold rain and wind. The view was not what we were used to up there!

We got up to the top of the tower and ducked into the lookout area where it was dryish and not windy. We look like we are dressed for camping in November, not August/September!

Despite the yucky conditions, the kids still had fun!

We spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon taking a driving tour of Orcas. We took a wrong turn and ended up on Westsound instead of Deer Harbor. Nobody could take it anymore and needed to get out to stretch legs, get a snack and some fresh air. We decided to head back to Eastsound for some actual food - although the wheat bread dipped in peanut butter wasn't too shabby!

Gillian had had it! While at lunch, we kicked around the idea of leaving and found a ferry schedule to see what our options were. We walked around Eastsound after lunch and then headed back to our sites to see what was going on there. We arrived to find both our dining canopy and tarp over the trailer heavily drooping with water. Seth made the statement, "nobody is going to give us a medal for sticking it out!" We decided to pack up and make the 8:35pm ferry.

After pulling everything out of our tent, we found a nice puddle of water in the corner of the tent under the pack and play. I can only imagine how much larger it would have been the next morning after it rained all night!

The trailer also was wet and had wicked water about a foot up the boards! We packed stuff in neatly and threw a bunch of wet stuff in on top. We got the tarp all bungeed on and were off. Halfway to the ferry Alistair got sick and we had to stop to clean up the mess. Leaving the island that day ended up being a blessing in disguise!

After a good night's sleep in a dry bed, Carolyn and Njord came over for breakfast and to help get everything pulled out and dried out. It took us a few hours to get everything pulled out and hung up. We had fans running all day in the garage to aid in the drying process.

Our garage looked like an outdoor store for used equipment!

Carolyn and Njord came back over in the afternoon to get everything taken down, folded up and put away. We had dinner and toasted to the end of a fun trip despite the early departure!