Jameson would go out every morning and look for snails. Grandma showed him their hiding places, so he began a collection. Grandma even found him a jar to keep them them in. I believe these two were named Claw and Ed. Fabulous names, I know. The funny part is that when you ask Jameson what their names are, he gives you names right off the bat. No question about it. He doesn’t hesitate at all.

I was able to talk him into letting them go, and catching new ones. We did have to take one to Reno with us, and I’m surprised to say that it was still alive when we got back to my mom’s after a weekend in Reno. That was one tough snail.

Last month, I found Ella some pink boots at the consignment sale for like $6. She loves them, and will ask for her boots when you tell her to get her shoes. She wanted them on, even though she had her pajamas on. Don’t know where she was going, but she was ready.

Ella!

If Ella was missing, she could usually be found in the pantry. Hey, the girl knows where the good stuff is.

The first night there, my brother took me for a ride in his car. (He gets to drive this one until he leaves on his mission next spring.) Yes, he put lights under it. He also notified me he came in second in a bass competition. I believe it. He turned up the music and I couldn’t even swallow, my throat was vibrating. I had to tell him to turn it down, so I didn’t choke. I knew he had the lights under the car, but I didn’t know…

My feet would glow, too. I told him he needs to find a different color, because when he has it on green, he looks like a Christmas ornament. I guess red, blue, and white (I think) are illegal while on the road. Makes sense. We did get lots of stares, though.

When we got back, I went to use the restroom, and got quite a surprise. I tried to turn on the lights, but all that came on were black lights. Not cool, Weston!

The kids thought it was so neat that their clothes glowed in the dark. Jameson came in to use the bathroom, and looked at his pants with a white  stripe and exclaimed, “Wow! Cool, Mom.” Then he pulled his pants down to reveal his Buzz Lightyear underwear with many Buzz’s glowing in the dark. I could see his excitement level heighten, and he yelled, “Mom, look!” Then he pulled his underwear down, and the disappointment set in. He looked down in disbelief as nothing was glowing. He looked at me and asked, “Hey Mom, what?” I just looked at him and said, “Sorry bud. You and every other guy, but it doesn’t glow in the dark.”

October 5th, we got on an airplane and headed to my mom’s. Tickets went on sale, so we decided to head for the sun. The airports are getting easier, now that Jameson knows the routine. He puts all his stuff on the scanners himself and walks through the metal detectors like a champ. Ella is getting easier, too. What helps is that starting 2 weeks before we flew, they changed the rules so that under 12 no longer have to take their shoes off. Hallelujah!

I thought Ella would sleep for me since it was a 1:00 pm flight. NOPE. And, the flight was a full flight, so I actually had to lap her. Never had to actually lap her before, and that was no fun. Luckily, there was a family with 2 kids next to me, so that grandpa sat by me. He wasn’t bothered by the kids. We made it, though, and the kids were excited to see Grandma and Papa Don.

Christina got to deal with these chillin’s

(May 28th)

And keep the twins happy

(Taken by Christina with an ipod)

We got home Saturday afternoon. Kevin called in a drunk driver on the way home. We followed her for a long time, and even passed a cop who had his radar gun out. But no one ever stopped her, so we decided to get away from her. (We followed her for about an hour.)

Later that evening, Kevin picked my brother, Weston, up from the airport. he came up to help drive Christina back. Sunday morning, they got up and out of here by 6 am. Jameson was a little confused where everyone was when he woke up. After spending over a month with friends and cousins, he didn’t really know what to do with himself. It was time to finally get back into our routines, and get our lives back to normal.

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.

Thursday, May 26th, the sun actually came back out. We hadn’t seen it in a few days. While the other kids were napping , the two older boys got to play outside. Our grass grew like crazy while we were gone, and the boys loved to play in the jungle out back. They added their dinosaurs to the jungle, and then had to feed them.

Kayden and Jameson were being real men as hunters and gatherers. By the way, I got in trouble for taking this pictures and getting too close to the animals. It was not ok that I wanted to take pictures, and Jameson made that clear.