Who Turned Out The Lights?

Me, Ashten, AJ, and Ayden My boys
See that tiny white dot behind the boys? That's the tunnel we came through
Ayden was so excited when it was his turn to use the head lamp.

That bright white light is the end of the tunnel.
Armand tried to take Ayden to the top of the tunnel but it got too steep.

I'm the king of the world!
Ashten getting ready to walk back this is an interesting look. I guess he was super excite about the head lamp also.This is the AFTER picture..everyone was beat! This morning we didn't go to church because the kids are getting sick. We wanted to go do something fun though (being that it is a holiday weekend) and not too "not keeping the Sabbath Day Holy" SO I got online and asked Valerie V. if she had any ideas and she suggested The Iron Horse State Park: Snoqualmie Tunnel. (Thanks for the awesome idea!!) We borrowed a jogging stroller and a GPS in hopes of doing a geocache at the end and were on our way. (we didn't even hit the freeway til 3pm). The Snoqualmie Tunnel (See link )http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=biking&rt=41234 was awesome. Ashten was a little creeped out at first, but after awhile he started to have fun and forget that it was pitch black in there. At first, when you walk in you can see a little pinpoint of light which is the other end of the tunnel, 2.3 miles away! It took us 45 minutes, which I thought was great considering we had 3 kids in tow. During the walk our favorite things to do were to turn off all the lights, the kids would say "Who turned out all the lights", make scary and funny noises and listen to the echo, and the boys loved swinging their glow sticks to make cool designs in the dark. A few times bike riders would pass us up but for the most part we were all alone! When we got to the end of the tunnel it was 5:45pm. We had tons of snacks and water and then we explored the area a little. There was a waterfall and if you climbed up it you could stand at the top of the tunnel. After an hour we went to the bathroom and then headed back. We decided not to do the geocaching because it was going to be an extra mile to add to the already long walk. The boys got very tired very fast on the way back. We took turns doing piggy back rides stroller rides. Anderson took a nap while Ashten rode on top of the stroller thank goodness it was a sturdy one. The whole walk ended up being 6.4 miles from car to the end of the tunnel and back! It was a great experience and everyone had a blast. The kids aren't sure about doing it again right now but they assured me that when they were bigger they could come again and ride their bikes!

Before we had decided to go to Snoqualmie Tunnel, we thought about driving to Rexburg to go to Sonic. Armand is in LOVE with the slushes there (of course I was really trying to push this so that we could go see the Guddat's) but it was an 11 hour drive. On our way to the tunnel, we decided that we would at least find out where the closest Sonic was. We found out there was one in Wenatchee. We were thinking Wenatchee was only like 30 minutes away from the tunnel...turns out it's more like an hour and a half. So at 8pm we headed out. The kids were soo excited Ayden kept saying " 'What does Sonic has it other's don't' have at it?" (This is the slogan on the Sonic commercials) By the time we got there only Anderson was awake. We were able to wake up Ayden after much torment by Mommy and Daddy. Ashten was dead to the world! Thirty dollars and 3 orders later Armand had 4 drinks and we all had our food.

One more thing: On the way to Sonic we got pulled over. Armand was going 70 in a 60...darn. But in addition My dad had just told me on Saturday morning that my tabs had expired AND when I went to get the insurance card it was also expired (Aug 19). Luckily the police was VERY nice and let us go with a warning on ALL counts! PHEWW that would have been a VERY expensive trip to Sonic!!

O Canada...Or Not!

Luckily we brought lots of food to keep us busy at the Duty Free.

Have you ever been inside a Duty Free? Let me break it down for you: 75% Alcohol, 10% Tobacco Products, 10% Perfume, and 5% misc Ayden and Ashten pretended that Ashten was the naughty baby while Ayden pushed him around in the stroller. (not too much of a stretch there)
Ashten, Anderson, and Ayden at Edaleen's Dairy
Who knew that 75 cent water would make these boys SO happy

I taught Ayden how to roll down the hill, he loved this. This is the irrigation canal (not sure if that's really what it's called) that the kids played in for a LONG time filling the "tunnel" with huge rocks.

Armand had to deliver a trailer into Canada today. The boys and I do not have passports so we planned on waiting at the border for him to drop it off and come back to get us. So we were dropped off at the Duty Free in Lynden. When we decided to come along for the ride, we thought that they lived 5 minutes inside of the entrance. Unfortunately, the buyers didn't know the difference between Lynden truck entrance and the Blaine Peace Arch truck entrance. They ended up telling us it was Lynden we needed to go to. The boys and I sat at the Duty Free for a little over an hour. The cashier there was very concerned that Armand had left us for good... I was feeling uncomfortable that she kept coming out and talking to me about it so we decided to walk down to the dairy that was on the same street (.83) miles away. It was actually scary, the cars were flying past us at 50mph and we had only a narrow strip of cement to walk on, but we got there safely. The boys and I had ice cream and AJ had yogurt at Edaleen's Dairy, which was so yummy. We played outside at the picnic tables. The kids made friends with the other kid visitors and they chased each other around. Eventually, the Dairy closed and it was getting dark and cold. Finally, Armand was on the way to get us (we were left in Lynden for 3 hours!) Then we had to go back to the border at Blaine, where we found out that we could have gotten in with just our birth certificates. The boys had lots of fun and I didn't mind the waiting except that I was so mad that I had forgotten my book to read.

Here is a story that happened at Edaleen's I thought it was kind of funny (and embarrassing). Ayden earlier at the Duty Free began to notice ALOT of men wearing turbans. I'm not sure where he learned it but he told me that they were Indians. I was trying to explain that we don't need to point and yell it out and that there are people from different countries that wear turbans so we shouldn't just call them all Indians. (I hope I am right about this--I just tried to Google it and it looks like I am) Anyways, so at the dairy he saw another man with a turban and he got really excited and I said to him "remember what we talked about." This is what happened next.

Ayden to man: "Hi"

Man: "Hi"

Ayden: "Hi, Indian"

Me in my head: "Oh my Gosh!! Where can I run and hide?"

Man with a big smile: "Hi!! Muy Bien! Ah, very good!! Are you Americans?"

Me in my head: O, thank goodness he thought Ayden said Muy Bien!...."Yes we're Americans"

Man with confused look on his face: "Oh.... You're Americans?"

HAHA I know I will be embarrassed by the boys so many more times in my life but so far this one is the winner. I AM glad that Ayden was so excited about it and I hope that he will continue to love all people and be excited to learn about them.

For All Eternity

My Three Sons

Waiting for the couples to come out of the temple
Kristin and Wes

Even on her sealing day she can't resist making a face.

Wes and Kristin and the Varney's

Ayden scaling the temple-this is probably frowned on.

Me and my brown babies

The Temple was under a little construction

A sign of things to come? Three boys and a girl?

AJ was SO tired after the long day. We went through McDonald's drive thru and got chicken nuggets, in the middle of his first nugget he passed out nugget in hand.

Today we went to the temple for the sealing of Wes and Kristin and Kristin's parents also were sealed together. It was an awesome experience, I was very touched by her parent's sealing. There is something very cool about being together so many years and that they still want to be together for eternity!! I thought it was very sweet. Toni watched the boys in the waiting room and said that they were good boys. The boys really enjoyed walking around the temple grounds together.

Old Friends and New Friends

Of course Anderson polished off his "Hot Dog On A Stick" no problem, even though it was huge. Ayden really wanted "green lemonade" which is I think the only reason he chose to eat at this place
Ashten loved that the ketchup goes in a little cupSome pretend roller coaster riding

Tiffany and Jaxon

It's sad that a lot of my friends from High School and before have moved away. But it's fun when they come home. Tiffany (Bishop) George called this morning saying that she and her son Jaxon were in town visiting her family. So we picked her up and went down to the SuperMall to play and have lunch. The boys made fast friends and had a great time playing. I think everyones favorite parts were the rides that you have to put coins in and the candy machines. There was a lot of bubble gum being bought, which left no money for the rides...just pretend riding.

Children's Museum

Ayden's favorite part was the farmer's market

5 of the 6 boys: Josh, Ben, Ashten, Gavin, and Anderson
Luckily they had "slobber buckets" for all the things kids put in their mouths.
Ashten's favorite part was the kitchen.
Anderson's favorite part was the mop! He carried it around everywhere.
Ashten and Josh racingAyden has always wanted to climb a rock wall...He did an awesome job!Josh got in trouble for going too high.AJ again with the mop
Playgroup was out at the Children's Museum in Tacoma. We got free passes from the library (it would have cost us $24 otherwise). We have been out to this museum before but the Ayden and Ashten were much younger. They had a blast this year. AJ was super tired but he had a pretty good time anyways, especially when he had the mop in hand.

Boys Boys Boys

Ashten, Josh, Ben, and Ayden Dog Pile!
The VanderHoeven's invited us to go play at the Choo Choo Train. The boys have so much fun together, inventing new ways to do regular things like go down a slide. I love watching them all play together their ages are 2,3,4,and 9 and watching Josh gives me an idea of what I have to look forward to in years ahead...scary!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Look how cool that you can see the rain drops frozen in mid air.
Ayden sneaked outside this afternoon and found a spot under a part of the gutter that must be clogged with leaves so it's spilling over the top. He played out there for a long time and came in soaked of course, at least he had fun!

Four Boys at the Zoo

Ashten pretended to be a hermit crab in the "Kid's Zone"

While Ayden pretended to be monkey

Anderson--what a stud

Gavin was checking out the sand box where you could dig up huge stone turtles

Random Thistle Shot I saw...I thought it was so pretty and it was HUGE! (probably about the size of my fist)
One of Anderson's favorite parts was in the Kid's Zone. There was a tiny little Water Park, that shot water from the ground. Later, when we left the area he kept getting away from me and I would find him heading straight back to the water part or Kid's ZoneAJ, Ashten, and Ayden liked the big elephants...They were one of the few that were out and easy to see. Cassi let the boys donate dollars to the animals at the zoo.
Shark attack! Gavin, Ayden, Ashten, and AJ checking out the beach at the Shark BuildingAJ's other favorite part was the shark tank. He would scream WOOOW every time a shark would come near him.
This morning my plan was to take the boys over to the Point Defiance Zoo. They had completed the Summer Reading Club and earned free tickets to the Zoo Celebration. We called Cassi to see if she was taking Gavin over, so we all went together. We didn't stay all day but it ended up being just the right amount of time -- No one got tired or hungry or cranky (other than AJ who is always hungry and tired.)