Here are a few pictures which weren’t lost from our whale watching trip…

(July 28th)

The calendar says it’s summer, but our weather here in the PNW suggests otherwise. There was an article that came out in July saying that we have had 78 minutes over 80 degrees in 2011. Except that we’ve only had 18 hours and some odd minutes over 75 degrees. Ridiculous, right? The rest of the country is in a drought and we’ve had the cloudiest summer in the last 50 years. Not cool. So when we have a day above 70 degrees, we hit the beach.

Ella loves to eat at the beach. She finally has decided she likes the water, too, but not until she eats. Jameson, on the other hand, wore his life vest down to the water from the car. He ran right in.

We love days that we can actually be outside in shorts little lone bathing suits. The kids love digging in the sand and playing in the water.

(July 16th)

We planned to go on a whale watching trip to Friday Harbor with some friends. We also were really smart and thought it would be better to make it a day trip and save some money. Really not sure if it was worth it.

Our day started at about 5:20 am. We got up and ready to go, packed lunches, diaper bags, and other things needed. The Larsens met us at 6 am. We made the 2 hour drive north, and got ferry tickets from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. The ferry left at 9 am, so we had some time to let the kids play. We took some pictures, but I no longer have those. My card got wiped clean before I could save the pictures from our trip. Sometimes, I hate digital.

We took the hour long ferry ride, and tried to give the kids some breakfast. Kevin passed out, because he took Dramamine the night before to help with sea sickness. Instead, it caused him to pass out every chance he got. We got off the ferry, and 10 minutes later, we were on our whale watching boat. Ella was not allowed outside of the covered area, which was not good for me. It was a really foggy day, in fact, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to see the whales. This meant there was nothing to focus on, because you couldn’t see any land.

So while I was stuck in the covered area with nothing to focus on, I got sick. I laid Ella on the bench, and asked one of the ladies if they had barf bags, or if right over the side is preferred. I made Kevin switch me spots (he was out in the open air), and the ladies gave me ginger chews. I’m proud to say, I made it through the entire boat ride without losing my breakfast.

We started to head out south, but then heard the whales were spotted in Canadian waters, so we turned north. We had a wildlife watcher on the boat, so any pictures I post will be taken from her website. Her name is Monica Wieland, and it was actually nice to sit by her. They spotted way more animals than I ever would have.

Because we were on the boat, once the whales were spotted, we trailed along side them. By law, the boats had to stay 200 meters away from the whales. We saw lots of whales. We followed one group of 5, but saw 3 or 4 different groups as we trailed beside them. If you go to her website, she knows the names of all the whales we saw.

The fog actually cleared for a bit for us. Jameson loved the whales! Ella woke up for them, too. She talked her baby babble and pointed at them also. When I told Jameson we were going to see whales, he said, “But Mom. What kind of whales? Orca whales, or shark whales, or a different whale?” I didn’t know. Dang kids shows. Telling him a we were seeing a whale wasn’t good enough, he had to know what kind of whale, and I don’t know kinds of whales.

As soon as he saw them he shouted, “Mom, it’s an orca whale!” He couldn’t get enough. We were even able to see a few tail slaps as a few played in the water, and a few breaches.

Again, check out her website for other whale and wildlife photos. She has more pictures of these same whales on a better day.

Soon the boat started to turn, and we realized the whales were chasing us. We had followed the whales right back to the islands, and returned to the dock around 1:30pm. As we were getting off the boat, and I was getting Ella strapped to my back, the sickness hit again. Luckily, I made it off the boat and lost it over the side of the dock while holding onto another boat. Poor Ella was strapped to my back during all this, and Kevin had no clue. My friend turned around in time to see me lose it, and yelled at Kevin to go help me. Luckily, I was the last one off the boat, so at least it wasn’t in front of everyone. I had a half opened ginger chew in my hand that I just couldn’t get in my mouth fast enough. My recommendation? Never ever stand in the covered area on the boat. Stay out in the open air.

I did feel better afterward, and we went and got the kids ice cream. We played around and watch the boats until it was time to board the ferry. Once again, Kevin fell asleep on the ferry. He tried hard to stay awake, but it just wasn’t happening. We got back to our cars around 5 and headed home. We called some other friends to meet us at Olive Garden for dinner. We had a group of 17 with 8 adults and 9 kids under 5. Our waitresses loved us. Actually, they said they couldn’t believe how good the kids were.

We got home around 9:30 that night, and we all went to bed. We were exhausted. I’m still not sure if it was worth it. It was fun to see the whales, and to see Jameson get so excited. His dad made the mistake of asking him if we should bring one home, jokingly of course. The next day Jameson was so concerned. He said, “Mom, we forgot to bring our orca whale home.” Great. Hopefully, we’ve filled the void for now by finding a small plastic one he can bring with him at the store. I just don’t think a whale would fit in our house.

(Tuesday, July 12th)

I took the kids to their first rock concert. It was out of control, let me tell you. Every Tuesday, the Redmond library has concerts on the grass behind it. This week, the “Not It’s” were playing. They are a children’s rock band. Ella did what she does best, eat. She sat with me and ate our lunch the entire time.

Free milk and fruit bars were given out. Jameson sat with me, while all his friends headed to the front and rocked it. He hates loud noises, so he stayed far away from the speakers.

He finally became brave enough to go up to the front. He did not enjoy it as much as the girls did.

They were right by the speakers, to his credit. He is a wuss when it comes to loud noises, though. The band was fun, and are actually one of the top kids bands in the area.

(June 25th)

Every year, they have a Strawberry Festival here in Bellevue. It’s on old tradition dating back to when strawberry farming was the region’s most famous activity. Since it was at the park near our house, we walked down there in order to avoid parking fees. Our first stop was the big slide. The first time down, Jameson was not quite sure about it at the top, but loved it by the bottom.

(Kevin + Jameson, Jesse + Abby, Justin + Maddi)

I’m pretty sure Jesse and Abby won even though she was not thrilled.

Then Jameson picked up Ella for being a public disturbance. 🙂

Jameson feet were a little too short to reach the peddles, so I had to help push.

So I know there’s stereotypes about some other nationalities not knowing how to drive. It’s totally true, and it starts in childhood. Some kids ran straight into another little car, and then could not figure out how to back up so that everyone could keep going. It took a good few minutes to de-tangle the mess. We were not in the accident, but they did a good job at blocking the way so no one could get around it.

Ella took a turn in the driver’s seat, but she’s not that good at it yet.

After a few of the rides, we headed over to check out the food. We got some delicious Philly cheese steak sandwiches, lemonade, and then waited in line for some chocolate dipped fruit. We had a few tickets left to use, so I took a trip down the slide with Jameson before heading home.

We had a good time with friends, and it was actually not too bad of a day weather wise.

(June 20th-July 1st)

A friend an I decided to put the kids in swimming lessons. Swimming lessons are a little foreign to me, since we all learned by swimming across the shallow end of Grandma and Grandpa’s swimming pool. Since I am a newbie at actual lessons, she found some for our kids at a reasonable price. It was even an indoor pool so we didn’t have to worry if it was raining or not.

The first day, I had to coax Jameson in the water while trying to keep Ella out of it. There were 5 kids in his class, 3 boys and 2 girls. One little boy quit coming or switched classes, because he didn’t show up again. The other little boy was a pain, though. He would come up with an idea, and Jameson and his friend Abby to follow. Then, they’d all get in trouble. I’m not saying Jameson didn’t do some on his own, but there was an instigator usually. After the first day, Jameson had no problem getting in the water.

By the end, he was jumping in the pool with his life vest on by himself, and then kicking his way to the side. The last day, the kids were standing in line, waiting to jump to their teacher, and the other little boy was taking to long apparently. Jameson gave him a little shove just as he jumped, speeding up the process to take his turn. I didn’t feel to bad. That kid got what he deserved.

(June 4th)

The Disney Store just opened in the downtown mall, and they were having a big grand opening. To celebrate the opening, Mickey and Minnie were going to make an appearance. They were rotating every half hour. When we got there, Minnie was up on stage. Jameson did not care about her. He only wanted to see Mickey. So we headed into the store to see what was there. We picked up a few items, and finally made it out of the store. By the time we made it out, Mickey had rotated in and out which meant, it was Minnie up on stage again. So we headed over to the Lego Store. Jameson was entertained by one of my young women (a 17 year old girl at church I’m a leader of) who works there, and picked out a few “make it yourself” lego men. We went back over to the stage, and finally got to see Mickey.

Jameson just wanted to show Mickey his new Lego men, and Ella was just glad to be on stage. She turned to the line in front of us and smiled and laughed. I finally had to grab her to get a picture of her next to Mickey.

By the time we got home, Ella was worn out. I went in to check on her and found these little feet.

What’s not to love about this girl. Her hair is out of control, her belly is hanging out, her binki is upside-down, and she is probably losing circulation to her feet. She definitely did love being on that stage, though.

Remember those tickets I got Kevin for his birthday? Well the weekend had finally come to put those Foo Fighter tickets to use. Christina was willing to watch the kids for us so we could go stay the night and not worry. So we left around 4 after Kevin got done with work, and headed east. It was supposed to be about a 2.5 hour drive there, which turned into a 3.5 hour drive, because of traffic. We took our time and enjoyed the ride. We got to Quincy and checked into our hotel, then headed to the Gorge Amphitheater.

Sasquatch is a music festival that starts Friday of Memorial Day weekend and goes all day, every day till Monday night. We were only attending Friday. A lot of people camp, but we will never be in that group. Those campers are crazy. So while our kids were at home with Christina…

(Photo courtesy of Jameson and the itouch)

We arrived here

We will definitely be coming back here for more concerts. It’s right along the Columbia River, and gorgeous.

Since we didn’t know the bands playing before, we just walked around and checked stuff out. We got Jameson a Sasquatch shirt, and Kevin a Foo Fighter shirt, and me a Sasquatch jacket. I had thought about the fact we would be outside, so we brought coats. But, I didn’t think to bring anything else. So I was freezing. The good news is, since we were both cold, we cuddled up for the first part of the concert. We watched the “glo stick” dancers off to the side of us. When we couldn’t take it anymore, we headed down to floor in front of the stage. First, we got warm, secondly, we had lots more fun in the crowd.

Kevin got to sing back up for Dave Grohl.

They made a joke throughout the night asking who was camping in “District 9” making reference to that alien movie. It really did look out of control. On the hillside, you can see all the cars parked. Basically, people put their tents at the trunk of their car, and everyone was packed in as close as possible. Then they had port-a-potties lined down the camps. This is why we wont be camping there, ever.

We had so much fun. Thanks to Christina for watching our munchkins so we could have some alone time. It was much needed.

Monday, the 23rd,  turned out to be a sunny day, so we took full advantage. While we got ready, the boys went on a rafting trip. Got to love the kinect.

We headed to Pike’s Market to check out the sights. I knew it wouldn’t be that busy, so we took the strollers along. We took a walk through the market first, to see what was out. Then, we went to the park for some lunch. Christina loved looking at all the “interesting” people in the downtown park. Jameson crashed as soon as he got in the stroller, and didn’t wake up will we got in the car to leave.

Since we had 5 kids and 2 double strollers, that left 1 kid stranded. You would think, the oldest child could walk, but he decided a ride would be better. So Ella found a new favorite seat.

As we were waiting for Kayden to take a potty break, I was standing there with both strollers. I had so many people walk by me and stop and talk about how adorable Ella was. Then they’d keep walking and see the front of the stroller and say, “You have a full load,” or “Don’t you have your hands full?” Ella was just happy to sit up top and eat and be able to give her little smirk at everyone.

Luckily, Drew fit right under Ella’s bum. We also ran into a group of missionaries walking out of the book store. I joked with them for a bit, and we talked about who was serving in our ward, and if they new them. Christina and Kayden finally came out of the bathroom, and we continued on. We picked up some fresh bread for dinner, along with a few other treats.

After the market, we headed over to the Ballard Locks. I have never been, but thought they would be fun to see. When we got there, there was a boat in the lock that was pushing gravel through. The kids loved watching the boat, but didn’t really get what was happening until the lock was empty and they saw the next boat come in.

Ella loved to act like the big kids. We walked across the bridges (which are actually the lock doors) and crossed to the other lock. There is a salmon run on the far side, so the fish can get through the dam. Unfortunately, they were upgrading or redoing the salmon run, so there were no fish to see.

As we were watching, the guy in the tower called out, “All right, kayaks. Come on in.” From around the corner came about 7 kayakers. They entered the smaller lock, and held onto a bar that ran the wall. The locks are about 15 feet deep, so the kids got to watch to small kayaks rise up to our level, and then paddle into Lake Union.

See how far they were at first and then were level with the lake. We checked out a few more things, and headed home. I do hate some Seattle roads, though, so we ended up taking the longer way home, which might have actually been the shorter route. And our first adventure in Seattle was complete.

Sunday morning (May 8th), we headed back over the mountain to Sacramento. We got there in time to make dinner for Mom for Mother’s Day. Since we missed church, and were away from Kevin, my Mother’s Day wasn’t much different than any other day. We did get to help make my Mom’s day a little easier, and she even had the kids give me a card.

The week was spent as referees. It was usually 3 vs. 7. That is 3 of us adults versus 7 kids under the age of 5. Keep in mind 5 of those are boys, and the 2 girls are 1 year old. So they don’t cause too much trouble, just get run down by the boys. Therefore, I did not pull my camera out during the week, since there was usually some trouble we were trying to divert.

Friday night, Paul and Jenny arrived from Provo. They were able to come join the craziness for Weston’s graduation. Saturday, we all got up, and ready for the day’s activities. Christina and I wanted to take the kids to ride the train downtown. Everyone else wanted to go to San Francisco for the day. Somehow, it ended up being Christina and I with 6 kids (hers, mine, plus one extra boy) headed to the train, and 7 grown people with 1 child headed to SF. How the heck did we get those odds? We had 10 minutes by the time we got parked to make it to the train. It was a hike with 6 little ones, one of which was strapped to me while I pushed 2 in a stroller. We made it, though, and sat in an open car on the way. It’s only about a 3 mile trip, then the engine turns around, and pulls the train back 3 miles. The boys liked it, but Ella hated it. She was so mad, plus she didn’t feel good. Allergies kicked my butt the whole time I was there, so I wasn’t feeling so hot either.

The boys had their tickets out and ready for the conductor when he came to punch them

(Ella and I took the picture so this is the rest of the gang.)

It was pretty windy and cold on the way, so on the way back we sat in a covered car. The boys loved watching out the window. The train tracks ran right along the river, so they could watch the boats.

(Kayden-4 almost 5, Drew- 2, Jameson- 3, Avery- 2)

We got off the train, and found a picnic table. As we were trying to keep the boys off the train tracks and eat their lunch, we were approached by a young guy trying to give me a brochure. I told him, “No thanks, I’m good.” He looked at me and said, “What do you mean, you’re good?” I replied, “I mean, I’m watching 6 kids, one of which is strapped to me right now. I’m good.” He then asked, “But, can I just ask? Do you believe in Jesus?” Oh heavens. I gave my sister the “Here we go” look and turned back to him. “Yes, I do.” We then proceeded into an hour long discussion with him, all the while, trying not to say he was wrong, only what we believed. Do you know how hard that is? Trying not to discourage someone who is just trying to do good in the world?

His main argument with me was, “Who caused the destruction after Jesus died?” I’ve never really thought about that, but my only answer I could give was, “Does it matter?” He was trying to say God caused the destruction. Trying to place blame. But really, does it matter? The point is, what do we do about it. There were a few other topics he tried to bring up with us. Little did he know, we had out electronic scriptures with us, and when Christina pulled up verses from the bible to explain what we were saying vs. what he was saying, he didn’t have answers. Turns out, he was Baptist, and from Ukraine. If I would have known that fact early on, I would have called my brother-in-law to speak with him in his native language, because there were a few things that just weren’t connecting. I had taken all the boys to the bathroom, and Christina somehow missed that fact, and didn’t know where I went. She thought I left her with him to argue (which we were trying really hard not to do). So when I got back I started packing up the kids, and told them we had to go. He pleaded with Christina to “Just read the bible,” and really didn’t accept it when she said, “I do.” She is actually reading the bible in her personal scripture study right now, but he didn’t seem to listen when we said we do read the bible. Honestly, if it comes to the end, and turns out that we are wrong in our faith, would I look at my life and think it was aweful? No. Everything I do within my religion, is to make my life better. So even if I was way off in my beliefs (which I don’t think I am), I still live a good life, and am a good person. Isn’t that the point? Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve been questioned and had to defend my religion, so it was good for me. It got me using my brain again, and gave me a reminder of why I believe what I believe.

We packed the kids up and headed home. They all fell asleep, so we were able to have a peaceful drive. We ended up having to pay for an extra hour of parking, though, which I’m still not sure if it was worth it. And, I don’t know if I would ride the train again, except at Christmas when they turn it into the Polar Express. Oh well, the boys had a good time.