A pool update.

Ava went down the huge slide at the pool today. It is long and fast and dark and just scary enough to keep me (a grown-up) liking it, so definitely scary for her. It appears that this is the summer she is really growing up. When will it end??

So proud.

Ava is a safety girl. Which has always been nice--even when she was a toddler I rarely had to watch her at the park or the pool, she knows her limits and sticks to them. There has been a lot of discussion lately about her riding a bike but the problem with summers at this house is that they are generally the busiest seasons for both Ed and I so we rarely have hours to practice something no one really wants to do anyway. But we are having a baby which makes more kids than we care to push or pull when we go for walks so we buckled down last night and headed out.

New big bike.

Ed showing her how it's done.

Starting out.

Ed trying to keep up.

She did it!
Seriously made me teary (which I'm going to blame on the pregnancy...I don't what's Ed's excuse!). We were so so proud of her. This was a serious accomplishment for our safety girl! And I think she was surprised to find that is was actually fun and we don't do these things just to torture her.

Jack hollered lots of, "Look at me...I'm great too!"

And Jem kept yelling, "Cheese. Cheese."

It's nice to know my kids have no self-esteem issues.

Hoop Fest.

I'm not really a basketball fan (at all) but I am an Ed fan so we headed to hoop fest this year after a seven-year absence.

Basketball is not Ed's favorite sport--but he's strong and fast and he's generally the scrapper on the team and that's always fun to watch. Plus we got seats in the shade so I was happy to sit there all day and then we finished the night with dinner at Red Robin so I'd say it was a success!

The team after their first game--a win!

The pool!

The temperature hit the high 70s so we finally hit the pool.

My sun boy spent a long time arranging everything just right.

Jemma borrowed a pair of nifty goggles with no lenses.

VBS

By the end of the week, the kids had roasted hot dogs, made smores, had their first ever franks and beans, made tepees and soap canoes, beaded these scarfs, did a lot of dancing, and had an all-around good time!

And I had five quiet mornings, long walks with Jemma (I so love pushing just a single jogger instead of the double with big ol' Jack in it), and ran all my errands with just one kid.

A big fat win-win.

The one thing my dad wanted for father's day was for someone to stain the upper half of their house and since it required a 28-foot ladder (on the highest rung), I sure wasn't going to do it so Ed volunteered instead. It actually made me nauseous just to take this picture and he had to go higher than this!

Movin' on

My dad retired last week from the job he has done since before I was born. And while he's not actually retiring, just moving on, he still got a party! I have a lot of memories of my dad working on campus and even more of all the people who have said, "Your dad's John Sawyer? He is the nicest (kindest, most helpful, etc.) guy I know!"

And my kids are particularly excited because his new office is a lot easier to get to and is right next to a park...it's a good place for a grandpa!

Office work

So the nursery was all cleaned out and super quiet and peaceful, which is why it is no surprise that eveyone wants to play in there instead of in their own rooms! Ava has set up shop and if Jack's lucky, he gets in on the fun. This day they were hard at work at the office.

26 weeks.

I'm a little late on this one. And truthfully, I am way bigger than this. Ava's been taking these from the same spot each time and somehow she is making me look much smaller than I actually am! Yay for Ava's skills. The baby is now the length of an English cucumber (my favorite kind) and weighs almost two pounds. We have yet to actually sit down and talk about a name for this poor peanut but we did pick up a crib mattress and an outfit this weekend, so he's still getting some love. I'm starting to feel b.i.g. Thank goodness you forget this or you'd never do it again!

Happy Summer!

Finally.

What's for dinner?

As soon as I head to the kitchen to make dinner, Jemma pushes her high chair in as close as she can get and waits oh-so-patiently to be fed. Last night, she finally realized it was going to take a while so she just camped out on the floor under it!

Vacation Bible School

The kids are off at VBS this week and we are all loving it! I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if they'd know anybody and Jack's never been to any kind of organized "school" but when we showed up, we recognized a lot of the little people there and they loved it. There was music and dancing and a bonfire with smores. All of our favorite things! And I am finding myself with a lot of free time with just one little monkey all morning (who is now sleeping in till past 9:30). It's summer vacation for all!

Happy Father's Day!

We had big outdoor plans for father's day this year but we woke up to a serious downpour so, after Jack and Ava took Ed out to breakfast for his fave (stuffed biscuits and gravy), Ed mostly stayed in and did a lot of this:

and this:
in between a lot of golf-watching. Just the sort of day off he needs when working this much.
And, from the archives, one of my favorites:

Happy Father's Day!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

then count me flattered.

Yes, I do a lot of this.

But I have been known to fold the laundry on occasion also.

Piggies!

Getting to it.

I started the room overhaul Friday and I'm happy to report that after days of furniture lining the halls, numerous tubs of clothes, and 2 trips to the dump, Ava is officially in Jack's room (with all of her earthly belongings in tow), the baby's room has all of it's furniture in place, including a freshly painted dresser, the walk-in hall closet has been totally cleaned out, the garage is the cleanest it has ever been, and Ed's office is totally reorganized.

The rest of the house is completely filthy but I'll take what I can get, right?

I generally do this sort of nesting when I'm nine months pregnant but it appears I have gotten smarter--no more moving beds and dressers (by myself) when my belly is so big I can hardly use my arms. It's nice to know that I am not only older but a wee bit wiser.

My little sanguine Jack set up shop in the hallway so he could keep his eye on the action.

A little piece of quiet.

So much squishy goodness.

This kid cracks us up. She has an awesome sense of humor and loves to make us laugh.

She makes the best faces and her giggle gets the other kids going fast.

We love her!

24 weeks.

The baby is now 11 inches long and weighs over a pound. The blood vessels on his lungs are developing and he can hear all the racket we make out here. (I still don't picture him as a he--it's weird just typing that!) This has been a low-key couple of weeks baby-wise and I almost forget I'm pregnant. In fact someone asked me the other day how I was feeling and it took a good couple seconds for me to figure out what she was talking about! Yay for the fourth baby and being too busy to notice!

I have big, big plans to start work on the nursery this weekend--I meant to start last Monday but I am a monster procrastinater and frankly just too lazy. I have to start by cleaning out Ava's entire room (closets, drawers, everything!) and while this is usually right up my alley, I am finding myself sitting on her bed every day just thinking about it and not actually doing it. Mainly because once I start my house will be a mess for weeks because after her room I have to do Jack's, then Jemma's, then the hall closet, and then the garage. It's a whole big process and it's not pretty! And it's been pretty easy to come up with an excuse every day to postpone! But now here it is in writing so I'm going to get to it....tomorrow.

Seattle.

We headed out last week for a quickish trip to Seattle. We took Ava and Jack and planned for some serious touristing so sweet Jem got left behind.

Jack listened to a lot of books on tape and Ava read the Rebecca books and they are both blessedly old enough to travel with and actually enjoy! No "when will we get there" or us having to be quiet so they can sleep. Just lots of funny stuff overheard from the back seat. We stopped in North Bend for lunch and some shopping and then got to our hotel with plenty of time for the pool before dinner. Side note here: we stayed in the best hotel we've had (and we've had a lot in Seattle!). Not the fanciest but perfect for kids! All suites (I'll do pretty much anything not to sleep with my kids!) that open into a five-story atrium, HUGE free breakfasts (made to order omelets, french toast, pancakes, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, cereals, fruit, breads, drinks, you name it!), easy parking, great pool. All around awesome hotel.

After the swim, we headed to downtown Seattle.

First stop (after Red Robin of course): The Mariners.

Jack waved at Ichiro for a long time and when he got no response, he finally said, "that's okay--he's busy working."

So darn handsome.

************
Oh yeah. A funny thing happened that night. At 1:30 am the fire alarm went off. Ed jumped out of bed and started pounding at any and all devices that could make that sound--the clock, the phone, his phone--then an automated voice hollered through the room that is was a fire alarm and would we please head outside.
In the pouring, freezing, Seattle rain.
I, of course, took the time to get dressed, get my money, and brush my teeth (priorities, huh?) and then we gathered with 200 pajama-clad strangers in the parking lot till we were let back in. There was a large number of high school kids in our midst so we have a good guess as to what happened. Also, I got a serious case of the giggles in the parking lot and literally could not stop, Ava did not think it was so funny:

But we all got tucked back in, safe and sound, and were immensely grateful we did not have a baby with us! Nothing like having to get your baby to sleep in a hotel in the middle of the night.
And the next day, contrary to the weather forecast, was sunny and beautiful!

Twins.

Heading to the zoo. Ava all set with a hot chocolate and banana to go.

Jack said, "you better hurry and eat that banana or the monkey's gonna take it from you!"

I love these two.

They did lots of hand-holding and hollering, "look at this! Come over here. Can you see?" Always looking out for each other--sort of makes our job easier.

Freckles.

We saw lions, and tigers, and bears. And, in fact, we got to see a bear rip through a campsite to show us what happens if you don't properly bear-proof your food.

Guess who we ran into at the zoo? My aunt Julie! From Coeur d'Alene. So funny.

Mmm, I love 'em.

After the zoo, we headed to the wharf for a late lunch and a bit of wandering.

Oh hey, I was there too!

Jack chowed a hot dog while the rest of us had fish and chips and clam chowder (in a bread bowl). Yum. And eating on the water in the sunshine? Double yum.

We zipped back to the hotel for another swim (for Ed and the kids) and 45 minutes of magazine reading for me.

After free appetizers at the hotel, we headed back downtown for dinner at the Crab Pot--a place Ed has been wanting to go for a long time now.

The place was packed so the kids had a ride on the carousel while we waited for a table.

Ta Da!

Worth the wait.

Ed and Jack chowed, chowed the seafood. Ed sticks to crab, Jack loved the clams, Ava and I got stuck with the shrimp and corn on the cob. We picked up a sweet treat and went back to the hotel. The next morning, after another HUGE breakfast (and some chocolate-dipped old fashioned doughnuts to go), we joined the throngs at IKEA.

Oh yes, and it was our anniversary. And, if you can spend hours and hours at IKEA with your kids and millions of other people hemming and hawing and then finally loading up all your purchases (which generally takes a good 45 minutes) and still like each other in the end, then you must be doing something right.

The kids had some chocolate milk and a cup o' meatballs (something about this menu item pleases me immensely) while they waited for us to load.

And so we spent the rest of our anniversary with these two monkeys, listening to greatest hits from the 80's on Sirius, eating sour patch kids and chocolate almonds, and driving home to pick up our sweet Jem. And a little note here about Jem. We had a lot of fun without her and at one point, Jack, who had been jabbering nonstop, took a break to say, "aren't you glad Jemma's not here so we can have some peace and quiet?" But when we turned for home, everybody was missing her and there was lots of fighting about who would hug her first! And when we pulled into my mom's driveway, she was standing at the glass door yelling at us and about flew off the deck to hug us. And she was giggling nonstop, and saying everybody's name, and rubbing our back and arms and legs and literally shivering with joy.

Just the sort of welcome back you want!