Chicken Eggs?

We were visiting some friends of ours who live on a farm, and while we were there they collected some eggs from their chickens and gave them to us. Ryan was so excited and said he wanted scrambled eggs for lunch. Then he looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, "Mom, have we ever eaten chicken eggs before?!" My friend got a good laugh out of that. Anyway, we went home, washed the eggs and had scrambled eggs for lunch, just as requested. In fact, I made egg burritos since I figured this was a good chance to get Ryan to try them while he was all fired up about eating actual chicken eggs! He loved the burritos!

Crafts

While we were in Seattle, Ryan kept asking to do a craft. Obviously, I didn't have anything with us to do something like that, so I assured him we would do something when we got home. I've been trying to have the kids outdoors as much as possible while we still have dry weather because I know the wet days are fast approaching! But as promised, we broke out the paints and paper and scissors and things when we got home so they could do some crafts. They each painted a picture for Daddy, and Ryan painted one for our neighbor who lives behind us so we could put it in the fence mail.

I have been saving a couple of small Perler bead kits for a rainy day, but I broke down and let them do some projects with them now. They have never done them before, and Ryan had a blast! Abby needed significant help, so she wasn't as enthusiastic about it. Ryan made about a dozen things from the one small turtle kit I had given him and the leftovers from Abby's butterfly kit. He'll be excited to find out I have a whole tub of beads too, but I'm saving those for a truly wet day!

The End of the Fun

By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was ready to get back home, but the kids were still having a great time. Our last day in Washington consisted of packing up our things, playing at a couple of different parks, and visiting the Bellevue Botanical Garden. We also walked a bit around downtown and looked at some art along the way.






Ryan had the most fun at Wilburton Hill Park, right next to the botanical garden. There were lots of little houses to play in, a big play structure, a spider web to climb on, and a really neat seated zip-line swing.

More Water and Walking

Today after breakfast and some playtime in the hotel room, we drove to a nearby park, Meydenbauer Beach Park. It had a gorgeous parking area and then beautifully landscaped paths down to the beach and play structure. Ryan dug a trench and helped Abby build a sand castle, and just had fun swimming in Lake Washington.


Then we went to lunch and headed home for naps for all of us. Abby fell asleep quickly, but Ryan wasn't able to until I laid down with him, then he went right out. I rested for a while but couldn't actually get to sleep, so I got up and browsed the internet.


After naptime we went back down to the hotel pool, and they played for quite a while down there. Then Daddy arrived and we headed out for dinner and walking downtown Bellevue. We tried to hunt a few geocaches, but had trouble with the signal bouncing off the buildings and didn't make any finds.


Ryan was again grumpy this morning, but he was a bit better after his nap. If we didn't have to check out today, he'd be napping again today. But since we have to leave in the early afternoon, I think we may just head to another park and they can run and jump and play, and hopefully they will be worn out for the trip home tonight.

Grumpy Boy

Yesterday wasn't quite the blissful day we had on Sunday, so I kept it low-key. We ate at the hotel's continental breakfast, and Ryan whined and fussed about the food he had chosen (next time he doesn't get to choose; I will choose for him). We hung around the hotel room most of the morning, cleaning up and playing a bit. Then we went out for a walk. Ryan lost the privilege of having any input into where we would eat, so Abby chose Wendy's for lunch.


It was evident both kids needed some rest, so after a little bit of window shopping we went back to our room. Ryan had his quiet time while doing some reading from his school book while Abby took a nap. When Abby woke up we went down to the pool. I wasn't sure how Ryan would react since I wasn't going in with them. I forgot my swimsuit as well as their swimming goggles, and he is sometimes timid in the water. Thankfully, he seems to have mostly overcome his fear, and he and Abby had a great time together.


After getting into some dry clothes, I tried to find something for the kids to watch on TV while snacking on some popcorn. The hotel has 42-inch plasma screen TVs in every room, so I was hoping for a good movie. But there was nothing decent on any of the cable channels (reminding me why we don't have cable), so we settled for Curious George and such on PBS.


Daddy finished his day of training, and we decided to go see a Seattle Mariner's game. We have been playing with Ryan in the backyard lately practicing hitting and throwing the ball, and we thought he might enjoy the game. He's been to several Beaver's games, Portland's minor league team, but this was his first big league game. He loved the stadium, the hot dog and soda, and watching them chalk the field...then he was pretty much done! Grrr...he can be such a stick in the mud at times. I tried to engage him in the game, getting him to root for the Mariners (who ended up winning with a spectacular homerun in the bottom of the 9th!), join in doing "the wave," and explaining the game to him. It helped, but mostly he was just a grumpy little boy. I think he'll take a nap today as well as Abby!

The Space Needle

We are enjoying a few days in the Seattle area this week because Daddy had some training in the area and invited us along for the free hotel stay. Even though we won't get to see much of him the next three days, we left early Sunday morning and spent the whole day together as a family seeing some of the sites.


The first thing we did was visit the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where the Komodo Dragon exhibit was the kids' favorite. We let the kids ride the carousel at the zoo, but only if they picked a horse that actually moved up and down. Believe it or not, this is the first time he's done that. You can see the fear in his eyes in this picture...poor kid. He lived to tell about it, and he said next time he will choose the horse that moves.


Ryan practiced his photography skills and took this picture of Mommy and Daddy. It's a little blurry, but he centered it nicely.


After the zoo we went to the waterfront for some dinner and to see what Ryan has been most excited about...the Space Needle. We were too late to let the kids see the famous fish throwers at the market and all the neat things there, unfortunately, but they did get to walk the wharf and see the ferries and ships and craziness there.


We drove to Seattle Center, and while Daddy found a parking spot, the kids played hide and seek and other games in and around this piece of "art." Each ribbon must be about 25 or 30 feet tall and kind of looks like a field of grass or something.




Two years ago when Daddy and I went to Seattle for a weekend getaway, we brought Ryan back a miniature of the Space Needle. Ever since then he's been dying to see it. So all day while he was enduring the zoo, he kept asking when we would go see the Needle. At last when Daddy met us after parking the car, we walked to see it. Ryan was amazed at how huge it is. He kept saying, "I didn't know it was that big!" He was disappointed that we didn't actually go up into the tower, but since it would have cost us $48 (is that ridiculous or what?), we decided to wait until they are a little older and more able to appreciate it...oh, and once we're confident he won't flip out once he gets up there!

Schwarz Park Camping

Though it was a short trip, we managed to squeeze in a camping trip before the summer slipped away. Ryan was very excited this year since he remembered our camping trip from last year and knew a bit more what to expect. He helped set up the tents and get the campsite ready, and he couldn't wait to make S'mores.


We camped on the banks of the Row River and within walking distance of Dorena Lake and the dam. We got to the campground on Thursday evening, so we didn't have much time to do more than set up camp and take a quick walk to the dam. To our surprise, Ryan wanted to sleep in the little tent by himself, and so I reluctantly let him. Since our air mattress went flat right after we went to bed, I didn't sleep more than five minutes and listened intently for noises in or near Ryan's tent two feet from me. (We bought a new mattress for the next night!)


After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and hot chocolate, we headed out for a day of exploring the area while geocaching. Cottage Grove is the town near the campground, and it is known of it's covered bridges, so we saw quite a few of those. We also ran across a small airshow with vintage biplanes, so we stopped and looked at those for a while. That night we made S'mores, much to Ryan's delight. He doesn't even like marshmallows, so I didn't expect him to like them much. He did enjoy it, but asked for his next one to be without the marshmallows. He spent the night in the little tent again the second night!


We woke up and had cereal for breakfast, and then I took the kids to the camp playground for a bit while Daddy did some fishing. While we were there, Ryan and Abby made a friend in a little boy named Hunter. It turned out he was staying in the campsite right next to ours with his Grandma and Granpa, so we headed back to our campsites so they could play there for a while.


After lunch we headed out for more exploring, and we ended up at Cottage Grove Lake where we let the kids play in the water for a while. They had a blast splashing and floating and trying to swim in their life vests. We then went back to Dorena Lake and went for a beautiful walk on the path that goes all the way around the lake. Ryan was in a pout because he was getting tired of walking, so we headed back to the van. Both kids were a bit cranky so after dinner they pretty much went right to bed and fell asleep fairly quickly.




Ryan had a nightmare at a little after 4:00 am and we brought him into our tent for a few more hours. We got up, had some French Toast and bacon for breakfast, and then Daddy took them to the playground for a while and I began packing up the campsite.


Everyone was a little cranky, and it was time to go home. We had a good time, and it went better than last year. Maybe next time will be even better! We're already planning where we want to go next summer. We hope to take at least one longer trip to Crater Lake or some place that's a bit farther away and requires more time.

Growing Up

At the last minute I threw the small two-person tent into the van. If nothing else, the kids can play in it, I thought. Once we got to our campsite we began putting up the tents, and Ryan asked if the little tent was "his." He was so excited when we told him he could sleep in it if he wanted to. He helped Daddy hammer the stakes in, and he put his blanket and buddy "Blue" in the tent with his sleeping bag, pad, and flashlight and then pretty much begged us to go to sleep for the next couple of hours! It took a long time for him to settle down that first night, but he did eventually go to sleep.


To my utter amazement (and motherly discomfort), he slept the whole night in the tent by himself! I would have bet money that he would get scared and want to come into our tent at some point during the night, but he never did. In the morning I told him how proud I was of him for being so brave. He informed me that he had gotten scared once because the shadows looked like six tornadoes, but he reminded himself that there are no tornadoes in Oregon and was able to go to sleep!


He slept by himself the other two nights as well, though the last night he ended up having a bad dream early in the morning (something about "floating hurricanes"...hmmm, I see a theme here), and we brought him into the tent with us. I was frankly a bit uncomfortable not having him within the confines of our tent, and I felt a twinge of sadness too as the reality of how fast he is growing up hit me. I'm proud he is overcoming some of his fears, but at the same time it forces me to see that he's just not my baby anymore.

Merging Blogs

I am merging my homeschool blog with Ryan's blog, so if your feed-readers are kind of looking strange, that's why! I had less than 20 posts on my other blog, and I just am not able to keep it up separately, so everyone will have to endure my homeschooling posts on Ryan's, Abby's, and my blog now. I didn't want to delete the blog because it had information on it that was valuable to me, so I moved them over here. Just didn't want to confuse anyone!