Spring Break 2014- Day 1

After weeks of planning and preparations, we packed our (wonderfully clean!!) Pilot to the brim and headed out of town.  Our final destination is near Palm Springs, California (1300 miles away!). At 8 o'clock it was already past the kid's bedtimes and we both wondered if they would ever be able to calm down their excitement/nervousness and fall asleep.  Our plan was to take turns driving the twelve (+) hours to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Oliver fell asleep first, as usual, and Brooke worried about not being able to fall asleep.  As soon as we told her that she could stay up all night if she'd like, she was sleeping.  I drove six hours and swapped driving with Kent.  A few hours later Brooke woke up car sick.  After a few more sick moments, we decided to find the nearest place to buy some Dramamine which was Walmart in Mountain Home, Idaho. We felt very odd and totally out of place to walk into a Walmart at 5am with two kids!

After walking around and breathing in cold air, we gave Brooke 1/2 a pill and took off down the road just to have her get sick again!  A few minutes later, Oliver joined in on the "fun".  Kent and I looked at each other in disbelief as both of our kids were throwing up at the same time, and pulled into the nearest truck stop.  In the freezing 30* weather, pitch black gravel parking lot I found yet another set of clothes for Brooke and a new set for Oliver.  Plus a Dramamine mixture for both of them.  The kids got to watch an episode of Doc McStuffins while Kent and I rested for twenty minutes and waited for the medicine to do it's magic. We took our chances, turned of the show and headed down the highway with success!  Kids took a two hour nap and we got to enjoy the beautiful sunrise and interesting high elevation scenery of Southern Idaho and Nevada.

We arrived at Salt Lake City and found an IHOP for breakfast.  Oliver told me he needed another pair of pants.  What?!  I just changed them!  To add more bodily fluids to the list, we discovered that he had an accident in his car seat!  Somehow, I kept my cool and actually giggled a little about the whole thing.  What an adventure!

It's pretty amazing we were still smiling!

We saw this as soon as we entered Utah.  At the same time a car passed us going about 100 miles/hour!

Kids got to watch Frozen in the car (once they were feeling better).  What a treat!  How can you not sing along?!

Ok, slightly embarrassing.  I was in love with all the cows and their little baby calves.  I just had to get a picture.  I spotted what I thought was a Mama and her baby and quickly took a picture.  THIS is what I found on my camera!  I thought other's might enjoy the laugh with me!

Entering Salt Lake City.

got triplets?

Kent and I wish we could attend the Utah Symphony concert when they play Dvorak's New World Symphony.

What a unique city.  I really enjoyed our drive through the streets of Salt Lake City.

Drive by photo of the temple.

We headed to a park to get a little exercise.

The kids are hanging out and Kent is napping in our hotel in Salt Lake.  We are looking forward to only driving six hours tomorrow down to Las Vegas.  The weather should be warm enough to enjoy our hotel's pool!  Wish us luck!

Violin Recital

One of our favorite recitals for our violin studio is the family concert.  Parents/siblings/friends come up with their own music for the concert.  We heard everything from the most beautiful Ave Maria on violin to a Beatles medley to Irish folk tunes.  What fun to see such talented families come together and play music as a family!  We practiced two songs "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Bile Them Cabbage Down".  Kent brought the school's bass home to practice with and Brooke was really excited to see the HUGE violin!  She said, "Mom!  It has a ginormous scroll!".

I love this picture SO much.  I can't describe how proud I am of this beautiful little girl!

Friends

Brooke (and Oliver's) best friend is Riley.  Riley and her little sister Cora (8 months) got to visit us today!  Guess who was the center of attention?!

Such good friends!

Oliver update

Oh Oliver!  You are three years and six months old in early January of 2014.  The winter of 2013/14 had very little snow.  We finally got small amount of snow, so we made sure to get outside and try to catch a few snowflakes.  You had so much fun chasing me and trying to get some on your tongue.  With temperatures up to 55* we have been spending more time riding bikes than sledding.

You light up the camera just like you light up our lives!  You are always making "knock knock" jokes (that don't make much sense) and then you ask us why we aren't laughing!  You get shy and hide on my leg when new people talk to you, but you can also be really friendly and talk up a storm to them if you feel comfortable.  

Every night you go to sleep with Teddy.  The light blue bear with a pink heart on it's chest.  When you were in California with us, Grandma Carol washed it because it was dirty and you screamed and cried because it didn't look right!  You can be opinionated at times, but you are learning as you get older how to compromise and be understanding.  Lately, you have been waking up during the night.  You grab Teddy and want to sleep in our bed.  One morning, you woke up, turned on all the downstairs lights, grabbed my ipad and the cashews and watched My Little Ponies on the couch while snacking on nuts!  You sure surprise us!

You really like a competition (that you can win).  I'm sure we'll have to learn about not always winning sometime.  When you are in a "race" that you can't win you yell, "It's not a race!"  You and Brooke are best friends.  You both would be happy playing with your toys at home everyday.  Right now your favorite toys are Rescue Bots and My Little Ponies.  You play pretty well with what Brooke enjoys, but you add more sound effects and destruction!

I have been so happy to see how caring you are.  Sharing is coming more and more part of who you are.  Even though you can be super vocal about frustrations, you can be the sweetest snugly boy ever.  We got a special snack of M&M's at the store and you made sure that I didn't eat too many so there would be extras for Brooke and Riley when we picked them up from school.  What a thoughtful boy!

You love a good movie night.  You like to be brave and say that you will fight the bad guys for me and your sister.  You are learning to sing, your favorite song is "Let it Go" from Frozen, your first movie at the theater.  You cried at the end of the movie because you didn't want it to end!  You love going on trips.  You want to go to California again and refer to it as "the place I got the Cat in the Hat" (last year when they got a stuffed animal there).  You learned how to swim during summer swim lessons and our trip in December to California.  You keep your eyes wide open and have the biggest open mouth grin under the water.  Next time I have to bring an underwater camera to catch your happy face!

So, there you go!  A little update on our wonderful little guy, Oliver!

Christmas

Tonight we had a conversation about how comfortable our daughter's bed is and how it would be easy to fall asleep in.  Well, after 45 minutes of not seeing Kent, I had to check out the situation!

Christmas 2013

Grandma Carol flew up from California with us!  She helped the kids with a special sugar cookie project recreated from her first grade teaching days!

It can be so hard to pick one to eat!

Christmas day finally came!  The kids have been counting down for a week or more.  It was all about My Little Pony's and Rescue Bots this year.  Brooke was very excited for her new toys!

Oliver got a cute fireman outfit from his Kettle Falls Grandparents!

We got a chance to Facetime with family in Anchorage and Petersburg!

My Mom made a beautiful quilt for me!  It's so cozy, a wonderfully snugly lap quilt for the winter time.

It was time to make our Christmas sausage!  Caitlin and Britta prepared the potatoes and onions.

Oliver loves to be a part of a job.  The guys stuffed the sausage down in the basement.

The sausage ready to be boiled.  We'll have LOTS of leftovers this year!

Here's our Christmas dinner!  Korv, lutesfisk, potatoes, peas and lingonberries.  One of my favorite meals of the year!

California

We decided to visit our family in California for most of the month of December.

Our daily trip to the pool was a highlight!

Thanksgiving

We headed up to Kettle Falls for Thanksgiving!  Brooke and Oliver were so excited to go to their grandparents' house.

The lighting was perfect, so I took a few photos of the kids watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

We got to see Grandma Britta's chickens!

It was a snowy beautiful drive over Sherman Pass on the way home.

Bikes and Friends

The kids got new balance bikes!  Lots of their friends enjoy these bikes that don't have any pedals.  I always thought about getting them for the kids but thought they were a "fad".  After watching Brooke struggle riding with fear on her bike with training wheels I knew we needed to try something else.  Within two days on her balance bikes she had the balance part down and was really enjoying cruising around.  It took Oliver three days, but now he really can move!  One of the really fun parts of these bikes is the fact that we can take them "off road".  We had a great time going up and down the little hills at the Leavenworth Ski Hill.

We have been watching a friend's daughter for two days after school.  It's been so much fun for Brooke and Oliver to have an older friend to play with.