Trip Down Memory Lane

I went to my friend's house last night to make some flower bows for Samantha. The things are all the rage these days, and I didn't want to shell out 3-7 bucks for a dinky little thing I could make for 20-50 cents. I had a lot of fun making the bows, but I've also been wanting to make some ribbon bows too. (Not like Samantha has much hair, but I'm sure she will soon, especially if she gets hair genes from anyone in the family other than me--if she gets 'em from me, she's doomed.) One little hitch, though: I don't know how to make bows! None of my attempts were satisfactory. Happily, one can find instructions for almost anything on the Internet.

I've found some pretty good instructions and bows; some totally took me back to the late '80s/early '90s when I wore bows (and dresses) like the ones in the pictures.

For example, I had one of those plastic bows with stuff inside; mine had Runts. I also had a few of these (none with crayons, though); enough to match most of my outfits. And I never wore a balloon barrette, but I had one made out of shoelaces. And, oh yes, I wore the side half-ponytail. And the big bangs. I never had a bow like this, but I love the caption ('cause I don't think it's true--I'm pretty sure those things were out of style for over a decade).

*sigh* It almost makes me want to not put any bows in Samantha's hair. Will she look back at her pictures and think I was crazy? But like David is fond of saying, almost only counts in Horseshoes and hand grenades. I'm totally going to go all out with bows. I mean, she's the only girl I've got; I gotta girl her up!

The Hazy Daze of Summer

We've had a few big fires around here the last couple weeks. We haven't had anything as bad as California has had; we've been blessed in that regard. We have gotten a lot of smoke from that direction, though, which surprised me--I didn't realize it could travel this far. Usually, the mountains to the southwest of us look something like this:

The other morning, as I went to let the dog out, they looked like this:

It was like we didn't even have mountains.

The smokey skies make pretty sunsets, though.

I can't believe how quickly summer is zooming by. I haven't even been wake boarding yet. Normally we go out on our friends' boat every week or every other week. But they sold their boat, and ordered a new one. They got a loaner from the dealership (they have hookups) while they're waiting for their new boat, but the dealer sold the loaner and my friends' boat isn't finished yet, so they're without boat for a little while. Somehow, our schedules have clashed; when they had a boat, we weren't able to go out with them, now that we're home and available, they have no boat. Hopefully we can get together with them so I can practice my wake boarding skills (not that I really have any skills, but I'd like to get some and practice them).

Since I'm home, and not out wake boarding, I've been trying to do some stuff with my front yard. It's all full of weeds and all the flowers from spring are long gone. I planted some wild flowers a month or so ago. They're just glorified weeds, really, but at least they have pretty flowers on them. It's been sort of a craps shoot trying to figure out what should stay and what should go as far as the front yard flora; I've left some plants in there only to find out a few days later that said plants become spikey flower-less giants, smothering the plants that actually produce flowers. I'm shocked at how fast they grow. After toiling and laboring for a few days (I even wore a hole in one of the fingers of my Martha Stewart gardening gloves. But I've actually had the gloves for a couple summers and they only cost three bucks, so maybe it was their time to go), I finally got all the weeds out of there. The problem with stretching it out over a couple days: there were so many weeds, huge ones, that they were starting to smother the other weeds. I'm just looking forward to next summer when my wild flowers really take hold and start growing like weeds, too. Then maybe I'll have a decent looking summertime garden. Now I just have to figure out what to do for Fall...

There Are Probably Worse Things

...but being sick in the summertime is horrible! We've all had nasty colds the last couple days. Drew and Owen seem to be doing pretty well today, but Samantha is still pretty congested, and I feel like a cement truck is trying to ram itself through the bridge of my nose from the inside out. It's wearing me out.

Here is some better news: my favorite Fighting Irishman (it doesn't feel right to use the phrase Fighting Irish for just one person) had a great game against the Florida Marlins today. Jeff Samardzija (go here to see his official site--much flashier than the Cubs' site) saved the game in his second appearance in the Majors. I gotta say I'm not a huge Cubs fan (nothing against them, though. I mean, they're okay); I root for the Phillies. And I have never actually seen Samarzija play baseball. But he was my favorite Notre Dame football player (well, he tied as favorite with Brady Quinn--I actually wanted to name Samantha Quinn instead, but David said it's not a girls' name.), and even though I hoped he'd play in the NFL (he definitely could've made it), I'm glad to see him doing well in Major League Baseball. Dude's got a 99 mph fast ball!

Well that's about all the excitement we have going on around here.

NFL preseason starts in one week!

Oatmilk and Strawbabies

I thought I'd better record a few of the choice phrases my boys have come up with in recent days, just so I don't forget them. Some of this could be blackmail fodder later on!

The following conversation, for example, might be really interesting to a future prom date:

Drew: [passes gas.] 'Scuse me!

Owen: 'Scooze me!

Drew: Don't say 'scuse me, Owen! Owen not fart, Mom! I fart!

It's important to give credit where credit is due, I suppose.

I love how Drew and Owen pronounce (or mispronounce) things, too. The title of the post is actually one of their favorite meals, oatmeal with strawberries. Yesterday for breakfast we had what Owen called scrabble eggs, and what Drew called scrammy eggs. And for dinner we didn't have tator tot casserole, we had taker tot cassiole.

Drew and Owen have been quoting their favorite cartoon, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, a lot lately, saying words that they probably only partly understand like, "pandemonium" (or panda-mo-mium as Owen says), "no problemo" (Drew says no plolelo, Owen says no pwabwemo). They also reenact scenes from the show telling me things like, "The train pooped out. I have to fix the tiggle-toggle" (the characters in the show actually say things like that).

The boys are starting to get into role playing with their cars and the little guys that go in them. If they can't find one of the guys, though, no pwabwemo. Drew is really good at acting with finger puppets. His skit may go something like this:

[walks his finger puppet over to the car] You wanna go for ride in the Corvette, Grandpa? Okay. Buckle up. Zip click! Let's go back. You wanna ride, Drew? Get out, Grandpa! Right now! [yanks imaginary grandpa out of car, flings him away, walks finger puppet Drew to the car] Have fun, Drew! Zip click! We goin' fast! Oh, no! Crash! The Corvette's broked! We gotta fix it!

Owen's most recent skit went like this:[crashes two red trucks together] No crashing! You don't crash trucks! Go to your room! One two three! [crashes trucks together again]

Makes me wonder what I must sound like to them when I tell them to stop doing something and threaten to send them to their room.

Layin' Low

Not a whole lot going on around here these days. Which is probably the way I prefer it. We've had a few great evenings in the last week; about the the time the incredibly hot afternoons fade into warm evenings and the sun drops behind Calvary Chapel to provide shade to our back yard, we find ourselves wandering out doors to kick back and relax. Or in the case of Drew and Owen, run amok and have as much fun as possible before Mom says that worst-of-all-cuss-words: bedtime. These sort of evenings find me wishing I had a better camera or a better photo editing software, or all of the above. But I do pretty well with what I have, I suppose.

A couple nights ago, I got these cute shots of the kiddies playing in the back yard. The lighting was amazing, but my camera could only capture it without a flash, and my hands aren't steady enough to hold the camera still for that, so some of the pictures came out blurry.

i wanted to get some natural shots of drew; this is the only one i got where

he wasn't completely cheesin' it up for the camera.

owen makes the cutest faces; i was so pleased to finally capture one (or two) on camera.

samantha is my little 'pumpkin lumpkin' as the boys are fond of saying these days.

even with all the shedding, vito's a pretty good-looking dog.

Last night we got the sprinkler out and let the boys play in the water. It took them about 15 minutes to get comfortable with the idea of actually running through it, so mostly they just ran around it yelling, "I ran through the 'sprinker'!" It was lots of fun. I have some video of it, that I'll post when I get around to uploading it; I don't really feel like going to get my camera right now...

Photos By Drew

Drew is getting to be quite the shutterbug. I used to get really uptight when he grabbed my camera (and I still do when Owen grabs it) but I've relaxed because he no longer just turns it on and off, on and off, and sticks his fingers all over the lens (like Owen still does), he actually takes pictures of things (though, he often holds it with his fingers in front of the lens so many of the pictures don't turn out). Below are a few of the more artsy ones he's taken in the last few months:

Parts of Vito

Drew's getting good at portrait shots, but people don't always say 'cheese' when he tells them to (Owen...).

Self portraits seem to be a common theme with him. Even if it's not necessarily his face in the picture, he likes to be the subject of the shot.

He takes a lot of still-life shots, and has an eye for composition; he always seems to get an interesting angle.

He keeps his shots focused on reality--when I take pictures I try to zoom in enough so the mess can't be seen. But that's not Drew's style at all. "Let it all hang out" must be his motto.

This is one of my favorites. This is our little neighbor, Allison. I just like how Drew captured the reflection and the actual girl in the same shot.

Memories...

I've seen this on a few of my friends' blogs, and decided I'd give it a go, too.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

More Seattle Stuff

Monday July 7 we went to the Woodland Park Zoo. The boys loved looking at all the animals close up. I loved that the zoo was more for the animals than the visitors. The exhibits were very well done; they looked like smaller versions of the animals' natural habitats. My favorite animal to watch (since they didn't have any rhinos) were the orangutans. There was one orangutan that would walk around with a burlap sack draped over its shoulders like a shawl. It looked like a little hobo. I guess the ape did it to keep the sun off its back or something. Pretty clever. I also loved the elephant exhibit. The elephants were from Northern Thailand, and a lot of the signs around the exhibit were written in Thai and English. It made my day.

After the zoo, we took a snooze at the hotel; well, I tried to but the boys weren't having it. They kept climbing in and out of their beds, making all kinds of noise and trying to open the door and run out into the hall. We finally gave up and headed down to the waterfront. We caught a ride on the ferry to Bainbridge. It took about a half hour to get there, then we hopped off, waited til they gave the all aboard call, then hopped back on and rode back to Seattle. It was a lot of fun, and didn't cost much. I can't believe how many people commute on the ferry with their cars, though. And it's not cheap; it costs about $20 for a car to take a ferry one way. But if one were to drive, it'd probably take a couple hours, and cost that much in fuel (I don't really know all this, it's just what I surmised from looking at the map).

Tuesday July 8 we walked through Pike Place Market. I loved it. I had just eaten Thai food right before we got there, and the market smelled like fish and other stuff, so it was like I was back in Thailand again. Drew and Owen were a little overwhelmed by the crowds. Every time we stopped, Owen would say, "Can we walk?" in a really nervous voice.

From the market we went to the Seattle Aquarium. We had heard it wasn't that great, but it was included in our city pass, so we went. It was okay. It was bigger than I thought it would be, and the seals were really cute. Almost everything in the aquarium was native to the waters around Seattle (I thought I heard someone say that... maybe it was just one exhibit). The boys really liked that they could run amok and handle everything. They even got to touch a live sea star and a sea urchin.

After the aquarium we took a harbor cruise. It was an hour-long narrated cruise. It was nice to just sit on the boat and do next to nothing. Really relaxing. While we were waiting on line to get on the boat, we met a girl named Jane from Shianghai, China. Samantha was playing peek-a-boo with her over my shoulder, then we started chatting with her and found out where she was from and what she was doing. She was on a trip for her work (by herself!), and it included a few days in Seattle then a few days in San Francisco. I of course had to show off my Chinese speaking skills so I asked her for ice cream in Mandarin (I also know how to say, "I haven't had any milk today," but I didn't want to brag too much). She was really polite and told me it sounded good, but I'm pretty sure it didn't. I have too much of a Thai accent now.

Tuesday evening we caught the monorail and rode to the Space Needle. There is a little carnival nearby with rides that little kids (30 inches) can go on. Drew and Owen loved them, and acted so big, going on those rides by themselves. Then we dragged them away and they reminded us with their screaming and carrying on that they are indeed still 2 years old. It was close to sunset so we decided to ride to the top of the Space Needle and check everything out. It was a gorgeous evening; the sky was really clear and we could see for a long way. Drew and Owen were crabby, though, so we headed down a little before sunset (I wish we'd just made them stick it out with us because we missed an amazing sunset. But I didn't want to ruin it for the other guests) and called it a night.

Wednesday July 9 was our last day in Seattle. We wanted to pack as much into our day as possible before we had to be out of our parking spot at the hotel, so we caught the monorail again and went to the Pacific Science Museum. It was really cool. We spent a lot of time in the first exhibit, probably too much because it left very little time for everything else. We broke a bunch of pennies by putting them in a machine that would fire them at a wall. It was a lot of fun. Some pennies wouldn't break, but would bend or just end up with a flat edge. The human body exhibit was cool, too. There were all kinds of things to test hearing, eyesight, strength, flexibility, balance... And we didn't even get to see half of the exhibit. We went to a place that was especially for toddlers to play and explore. Drew and Owen spent all their time pretending to fly a helicopter. When I told them it was time to let someone else have a turn, they freaked out. They were getting crabbier by the second, so we decided to skip the Museum of Flight, give the ticket to a random tourist, go back to the hotel, get our car and say goodbye to Seattle.

We went back to the monorail station to ride back to the hotel and discovered that it was out of service! We went to the bus stop, but we were outside the free ride zone and didn't have any change. So the kids and I went to McDonald's across the street and waited while David ran back to the hotel (took him almost 45 minutes to get there and back; would've taken hours with the kids) to get the car. So we left Seattle on kind of a sour note, mad at the monorail for not working, but more mad at the kids for not behaving*. We decided it will be about ten years before we take them on vacation again.

Things got better, though! We took a different route home and stayed the night at my friend Jen's house. It was so nice to be in a place where the kids could run around, and everything was kid-proof. (Thanks for letting us stay, Jen! We'll have to make sure we see you again before another six years go by!)

Aside from that horrible Wednesday, the trip was a lot of fun. So nice to be home, though. I'm still waiting for my pictures to be developed, so in a few days I'll post some and that'll be the last of the Seattle posts. Then it'll be time to move on...

*They actually did pretty well for most of the trip. But a week away from home with little sleep, irregular eating schedules and a new adventure every day sort of took it's toll.

What 27 Looks Like

Looks innocent enough...

Until you light it on fire then blow it out.

The kiddos love cake! (I realized I didn't get any pictures of Owen eating cake, but he can be seen in the top picture getting ready to stick his finger in the frosting.)

Lura picked out this little rhino for me; rhinos are my favorite animal, in case anyone was wondering. I decided it's a girl rhino and I named her Tess. According to the adoption agency, Tess' birthday is March 29. She loves lollipops and wants a toy cell phone. And she's an amazing singer. Can't wait to hear her.

Still crazy after all these years (Drew took this picture; not bad for a 2 year old).

This Time Last Week

We were at a Mariners game in Seattle. It was the first MLB game I've ever been to. I've been to quite a few Minor League games and a ton of Pioneer League games, but this was my first Major League game. It was a lot of fun.

Drew and Owen were pretty excited to be there. The whole way to Seattle, they would remind us, "We going to Seattle. We going to watch baseball." When we got to the game, Drew said, "This is so cool, guys" as though he were 12 and not 2. Then after a few minutes he asked, "Where's Attle?" Throughout the whole trip he never figured out that we went to Seattle, not that we went to see Attle.

The boys' excitement about baseball wore off after the second inning. Unfortunately for them it was a 15 inning game. The final score was Detroit 2; Seattle 1. Not incredibly exciting. David and I were happy though; we got six extra innings for our money. And I learned that in such cases, there is something called the 14th Inning Stretch. Who knew? The boys remained good sports (well, as good as 2 year old boys can be) for most of the game, though, and even took part in some of the cheering. They yelled things like, "Charge! State Bengals! Hidaho!" I guess all teams are Idaho State, no matter what sport it is or where it is...

We forgot to take our camera. Not just to the game, but to Seattle in general. Didn't have it the entire trip. Instead, we purchased a couple of single use cameras at outrageous prices. I should get the film back tomorrow or Tuesday, then I'll have the task of scanning all of the pictures and saving them on the computer. I'm a little nervous to see how the pictures turned out, too. It's a surprise that one just doesn't get with a digital camera--something I don't really miss about the old 35mm's. So old school.

Family Fun

The week before our Seattle vacation was lots of fun. My brother Jeremy and his family came to visit. They arrived on June 30 and stayed til July 3. I wish they would've stayed til July 30, but they probably would've felt weird hanging out at our house while we were in Seattle. And Jer has a job that he most likely wants to keep so it really wouldn't have worked.

Left: My adorable neices, Eleanor and Naomi. Right: Drew playing with his oh-so-cute cousin Rowan (my brother Mike's little girl).

On July 2 we had a family reunion. It went really well, despite a few minor hitches like, I got lost on the way to the park (I've only lived here for three years; cut me some slack), I forgot to bring the propane for the grill, when David went home to get it he was locked out of the house and had to shimmy up our deck and go through our room (we left the door slightly open for the cat), and when he got in he discovered we had also left the brownies at home (can't have a reunion without dessert!). But once we got the propane to the park, the grill fired up and the meat cooked, everything went swimmingly. My dad made an amazing marinade for shish kabobs, and Laura made delicious veggie kabobs to go with the meat. Lura made a fantastic fruit salad (just fruit, no sauce, which is how I like it most) placed artistically inside the watermelon shell. I'm always impressed with that dish because it looks easy and people always tell me it's easy, but I've never been able to pull it off.

The Craner Family, minus my grandma Connie, who's pretty camera shy. Little does she know I have other pictures of her...

We decided to head up to Washington a day early, leaving on July 3 so we could get to Badger Lake earlier on the 4th for all the festivities with David's family. We had a lot of fun hanging out, chatting with everyone, going on the boats (a pontoon and a paddle boat). And Aunt Carmen always makes a delicious meal; ribs, cheesy jalapeno Polish sausage, spinach dip, all kinds of salads, and plenty of desserts.

It was great to see all the relatives on David's side. Both his sisters were there, and we got to meet Amy's friend Joel (or Jode, as Drew called him), whom all the kids really liked. David's grandma and grandpa were there, too, which was great considering all they've been through in the last year.

Some day I'll get some pictures scanned and posted of our July 4 festivities. But right now it's late, and we have church at the unearthly hour of 8:30. Off to bed I go and I'll post more later!

Be It Ever So Humble

I don't think I've ever been somewhere that I liked visiting but didn't want to live. Until I went to Seattle. The city is absolutely gorgeous, and there was so much diversity; a different ethnic restaurant every couple of doors (I found Thai food! It was delicious*). But the roads were crazy, going in all different directions, and narrow, and parking was outrageously priced. We paid $30 a night to park at our hotel. As registered guests, we got a discount. Sheesh. On the plus side, most things were within walking distance, and there was free/cheap city transportation so we were able to leave our car at the hotel parking lot (no sense paying twice for parking) while we saw the sights.

It was a good trip, and though we were gone a week, it seemed much, much longer than that. Mostly because of the kids; they didn't travel as well as we hoped they would. I'll post more on it throughout the coming week. It'll probably take that long to write about everything. And the only other excitement I've got going on in the coming week is getting all the laundry and unpacking done from our trip (that'll probably take a week, too).

*Mae Phim's was one of the better Thai restaurants I've found outside of Thailand. It wasn't a big flashy restaurant, and the ส้มตำ I ate was really yummy; similar to what one would find in Bangkok (ส้มตำ in Northeastern Thailand is way better). Still, something is lacking at all the Thai joints I've been to in the States: Dirt. Here in the U.S., with all our health codes, chefs have to clean the pans and mortars too well in between meals. That's a lot of flavor being left out of the food. Also, I have yet to find a rock or a bug in any of the food I've gotten at a restaurant here. And of course, the ambiance is all wrong at these places. Sure they have pictures of the King on the wall, little shrines for Buddha and various elephants and other art, but there are no funky smells wafting in from outside...

Update

I haven't posted anything for a while. Here's what we've been up to this week.
My brother Jeremy and his family came to visit this week. They live in Colorado and I think I see them about every one to one and a half years. In other words, not often enough. It's been so fun staying up late chatting (but the getting up early with kids makes it a little less fun).

We're going to have a family reunion today. It's going to be really small; just my parents, siblings, and all the kids that go with everybody. So there won't be any obscure second-aunt-twice-removed-on-my-great-grandma's-side there to pinch cheeks or make people uncomfortable with her mole hair (in reality, I don't have one of those aunts. And I hope I don't become that aunt. But kids' cheeks are just so pinchable).