A Day on the Houseboat

Today was AWESOME! Dan's cousin, Corey, invited us to spend the day out at his dad's houseboat. We had so much fun! Dan's other cousin, Carlene, and her family (including 18-month twin girls) were there as well. The boys had an absolute blast, and so did we!

As soon as we got there, Thomas ran to the big rock bed and worked on getting the rocks back into the river. Joshua, on the other hand, wasted no time running straight into the water. That kid loves water. After he ate his lunch he spent his time trying to convince Corey to go swimming with him. He told Corey he got, "3 more bites." CUTE! :)

The big boys, Dan and Corey, decided to do their infamous jump off the top of the houseboat. The picture is below. I have almost the exact picture from my first trip to the houseboat around 7 years ago! This time was a little different as both boys decided it was a great idea. We practiced off the side first (pics below) and then Josh did actually jump (get tossed) off the top of the boat. That is first picture on top!

Overall a great day. The boys made it until 5:45 with no nap. They napped the hour ride home and have since had a bath and are now getting ready for bed. Poor kiddos! The happy parents are also exhausted and heading to bed soon!

**As soon as the video of Josh jumping off the boat is sent to me, I'll post it. It's pretty awesome! I also added a picture of the four willing adults jumping off the houseboat. Corey, Dan, Maureen (Carlene's au pair), and Dave (Carlene's husband). **You can see a video of all these jumps at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjcKfDfKcRE

A Test of Patience

I have not written for a while for two reasons. My camera is broken and blogging just isn't as much fun without pictures. AND, my children are testing my patience.

Thomas' new moved as described by Jenn: He'll put both arms at his sides and start spinning in circles. Then he'll find a random group of people and spin around slapping them with his arms.

This is not only embarrassing, but he finds it humorous. ARG!

Joshua just started asking "WHY?" Not sometimes...all the time. We got stuck in stupid Spokane traffic and went through 6 cycles at one light. I swear the whole time he just said one word, "Why?"

The boys are currently employing the "poop and smear" technique at our house. This includes them both pooping in their diapers (in their room at nap time), removing the said diapers and then running around thus spreading poop EVERYWHERE. Not to mention the pee that "happens" to occur.

On the upside, we went to Pig Out in the Park. A huge event. I pack the boys a lunch (I'm just unable to pay $7 for their lunch) and then find something suitable for myself.

We have a jam-packed Labor Day weekend. Hopefully, I can keep the camera working long enough to get some great shots. Keep your fingers crossed!

Wow...Almost a Week!!!

Ok, I admit it, I fell of the wagon of blogging, I'm hopping back on now! The biggest reason is that I was dumb and left my camera outside overnight. It happened to be the night that it rained a ton, so of course, my camera was soaked and now does not work. So, you might ask, what did we do this week? Well, it was a busy week as always! The week just seemed to fly by! I think the highlight for the boys was recycling cans on Thursday. Across the street is a metal scrap yard. I found a road above it and we parked and watched the big machinery move cars around like they were nothing. It was even pretty cool for me! Friday night we had a BBQ with our friends the Shefflers. We always have a great time on pinochle night, even if the girls happened to lose this round! Saturday consisted of a wedding that Dan went to and then Domrese Family Game Night. Today was Kierra (our nieces) first birthday party. It seems like that as summer winds to an end our days are filled in an attempt to enjoy these last great days of sunshine.

We'll be getting a new camera VERY shortly (as I'm going crazy), so I'll be better about blogging then. Any suggestions on a good camera??? :)

Rain Rain Go Away...

I liked it at 100 degrees. Call me crazy, but it was awesome! My kids are the only kids I know that still shiver when it's that hot. So you can imagine, today we were freezing!!!

We started the morning with a fun playdate. The boys played with their friends Kyle and Claire, and I got to visit with my friend Beth. We all had a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to next time as we've decided that the kids can pretty much self-entertain leaving us to play a game of cards or Scrabble....hooray!!!!

The boys were so exhausted they took an early and long nap. This allowed me to clean the kitchen thoroughly for the first time in what feels like forever! I love the feeling of finishing a room and seeing the drastic difference, but I sure wish I was able to keep up better!

The highlight of my day was seeing that a couple of my sunflowers have bloomed! I'll post a picture once I get them off the camera. They are soooo pretty. Our garden has pretty much died. We got a couple peas, a radish or two, some beans (which might still give a few more), and a few mini-carrots. There are some squash that have started, but will probably fail. It's depressing. Our soil is awful. But apparently it's great for sunflowers. I can't wait until they all bloom!

A Fun-Filled Weekend

On Saturday we woke up early and went to Green Bluff to pick some peaches and meet up with some other families from the Mommy & Me Group. The peaches had all been picked, so we got tons of nectarines instead. It was a lot of fun, although extremely hot. After picking nectarines, we went out to the river. Our friends, the Butterfields, came out too so we all got to play in the water and cool off. It was a lot of fun! This weekend was HHHHHOOOOOTTT! Sunday was spent at the river, and then after a nap at home, we went down to the fountain at Riverfront Park to cool off. Our house is quiet (for once) and we are all about to get a great nights sleep before another busy week begins!

Ok,ok. We watch the Olympics a little at our house! Thomas has really liked watching Michael Phelps. He watched one race and was particularly impressed with how we explained that him raising his arms in the air for victory meant, "I'm Michael Phelps, and I win!" Now when he's swimming he says he's Michael Phelps too. Pretty cute! See if you can hear it!

Josh Falling On His Head

This is a video from a few weeks that the blog wouldn't let me add. Maybe it somehow knew the content? Memo...Joshua is OK! I promise!!!!
However, we have since nixed doing this because it totally freaks me out!

Manito Park and A Sliding Adventure

This morning we met some friends at one of our favorite parks. The upside of our morning? The boys didn't stop snuggling in bed until 9:30 AM!!! The downside? The playdate was at 10:00 AM. Therefore, we were FORCED to stop by Albertson's and get some doughnut holes. Sleeping in until 9:30 and eating doughnut holes for breakfast. It's the good life. :) The boys had a great time playing with buddies Anna and Harry. We walked down to the the flower garden and it was absolutely beautiful. Barring the fact that Thomas was attacking not only his friends and random strangers, and the fact that we yelled out "COOKIES!!!" to get the kids attention for a picture right as a wedding started, it was a lot of fun. The boys loved walking and holding hands with Anna and Harry...and it was really cute!!!

We went home and played outside in the pool for a bit to cool off. We got a new climbing/slide toy that is a lot bigger than our little cube. I pulled it over in front of the pool so the boys could have a water slide. It was really REALLY funny. I probably shouldn't have taken video because it actually appears quite dangerous, but trust me, they enjoyed it a lot. Alright, Josh enjoyed it, Thomas was scared of it for a while after his first fly down!

Summer Fun

Today was great fun. We went out to my in-laws place on the Spokane River, met some friends, and played in the water. The kids did so great and had so much fun. We even got to just sit on the beach and watch the kids play. It was so relaxing. I think it was just what I needed after a really stressful week. Thank God for friends, sun, and the water! :)

Favorite Thing To Hear

Thomas and Joshua are watching the Olympics in mommy and daddy's bed before going to bed themselves. I hear this from the other room,

Thomas says, "I love you. Me really do," to Josh.

Just makes my heart melt to hear things like that! Usually I lay in the middle of them with their heads resting on my arms. This time, since I wasn't in the room, Thomas had put his arm out for Joshua and Joshua was resting his head on Thomas' arm. CUTE!!!!

Skyfest 2008

This morning we enjoyed Skyfest 2008 out at Fairchild Airforce Base. It was a great hit with the boys! We arrived really early before it was too crowded or hot. The boys LOVED touring the airplanes, in fact Joshua refused to leave the C5 until it took him for a flight. Boy was that a great conversation. They got to do some really great bouncy houses, see daddy's plane (the KC-135) and watch a few airplanes take off and land. We had to leave rather early because it was Kid's Day at Riverfront Park and we wanted to catch Gordon, Elmo, and Cookie Monster doing their show! Thomas was so upset, we promised him we'd go back tomorrow and watch the airplanes fly. I think at the same time, Dan was celebrating that we get to go back too. :)

On another note, Thomas asked me for money while sitting in the cockpit of the KC-135. I couldn't figure out why until he asked where to put it to make the plane go. :) Apparently we do the coin operated toys a little too often. I thought it was pretty cute and the pilot laughed...a little.

Go, Go, Go

Today was a day of go, go, go. The boys blessed me this morning by sleeping in until 9 AM! WOW! It felt so good! We then moved quickly and after our ritual of doughnuts and the Sunday newspaper we loaded up the van and went to a car show. This was the first time they'd seen their friend Harry in 6 weeks! You could tell they missed him! The boys had a great time exploring the cars and enjoyed the car show. We then separated from our friends and had lunch and played at Grant Park. This park also has a splash pad. The boys were really warm and thoroughly enjoyed the water and the time to run around. We then sped home for a nice long nap! I woke the boys up at 5:30 PM from their nap to get to a birthday party with some dear friends, the Shefflers! I can't believe little Spencer is turning one already! WOW! We might have been almost 2 hours late, but the party was still going and we just joined right in. The boys loved playing baseball, swimming in their pool, and jumping on the trampoline. We even got almost a full game of pinochle in before it was time to call it a night! The boys didn't get to bed until nearly 10:00 PM, but boy will they sleep well tonight! Not even a sound after we shut the door! Poor kiddos. Hopefully we spend tomorrow afternoon at home and cut the poor kids a break!

Molten Lava Cake. Enough Said.

My night ended on the perfect note. A great friend, Jenn (AKA Harry's mommy), who disappeared on vacation for 6 weeks returned tonight. We ventured out for a kid-less dessert at our favorite spot...Chili's. YUM! The 6 weeks of not seeing each other meant that we talked nonstop for a couple hours trying to catch up. WHEW! I feel better now! I'm so glad you're back Jenn!!!!!

The morning started off with a bang. First of all, we ran out of diapers. Luckily, we have pull-ups, so we spent more time than usual going potty and getting out of the house took longer than usual. It was delayed even further by the fact that once the boys put on their shoes of choice, they realized their shirts didn't match their shoes. DISASTER!!! We then did an outfit change for each boy and everyone was settled. I can't believe I almost let them leave the house without being fully coordinated! :) They are beginning to dress themselves, it's actually quite fun! I DO enjoy dressing them alike, but it's so much fun to watch their independence grow too. I still get a good mix in, so I feel pretty good about it.

After our getting dressed fiasco we were able to leave the house and go to Mobius. Today's Wee Explorer Theme was airplanes. The boys thoroughly love airplanes so this was fun. It was even more fun because we got to see Shane. Shane is a little older than the boys, so they LOVE hanging out with him. They think he's pretty cool. AND it means I get to chat with Shane's mom, Kari. Always a good time! Mobius also brought back their kid-excavator. Thomas was in heaven. He got to sit on the excavator and use all the controls. Pretty neat for a 2 1/2 year old obsessed with machinery!

All in all, a great day! I'm off to bed! **Note the change in clothing from the home picture above, to the Mobius picture below! Can you tell the boys dressed themselves? :)