Happy 7th

Dating: 10 years ago!

Look at my orange hair...how could he resist! Seven Years Ago
August 9, 2002
Today: August 9, 2009

This hotel was so beautiful The entrance

Us Wow! We made it through another year. HaHa!

Love you Pooptie!

Armand was in Reno at a huge swap meet this week, selling his trailers. I rummaged through the garage and found one of our wedding favors, a CD full of love songs. Then, I picked Armand up at the airport. We had wedding flashbacks as we listened to the CD and sang at the top of our lungs. Just call me 'Celine Dion' and Armand 'R. Kelly' ;)

My Mom and Dad were nice enough to take the kids for us overnight! So, I found a great deal at the Hotel Murano on Priceline. When we got up in the morning we decided to drive to Bremerton and take a ferry. While we waited for the boat to come we went to lunch at Anthony's, it was delicious. We took the ferry to Seattle, then headed home to pick up the kids. It was such a weird feeling not to have them around. After not seeing them for several days, Armand really wanted to get back to them. I, on the other hand, had been alone with them for several days and wasn't as excited:)

Bowl - O - Rama

Ayden about to bowl a...

STRIKE!! AJ was very tired, he had just woken up from a nap (at 9pm)
Armand played very well

So did Dad (and Ashten is on the left)

Papa. AJ, Ayden, and Grammy

Nice one, Ashten

This evening after a stamping show in the morning and a BBQ at Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon, I had a great plan...bowling! I was surprised that everyone was up for it. We packed up the kids and went up to Secoma Lanes. I haven't been bowling since I was a teenager, but I couldn't believe that for 6 people it cost $72.00! Anyway, it was worth it. The boys had so much fun knocking down pins. They had their own lane so they could play with the bumpers up. Ayden was a little pro though there were very few times out of the two games that he even touched the sides. He rolled several strikes, more than I did that's for sure, and he probably even scored higher than some of the adults;)

What's That Smell?

Anderson, Armand, Ayden, and Ashten My big boy

Armand

Sea Lions

Checking out the skeletons

The Hecta Lighthouse

The kids watching the sea lions

Our famliy at the cave. It was really windy... can you tell?

AJ finally got a little sleep at lunch time.

We wanted to go to The Sea Lion Caves, so we got up bright and early (partially because we had three kids wide awake). We had breakfast, packed up, and drove the 1.5 hours to the cave. The weather was crazy, we were definitely not in California anymore. It was sunny, then raining, and hailing, then sunny again. It was SO windy walking down to the elevator at the cave. I have been there before when I was young, but Armand and the kids hadn't. After talking about it all weekend, the kids were so happy to be there. The sea lions were so loud and stinky! Almost as soon as we got there the kids were asking, "What's that smell?" After we checked out everything, we hit the road. We decided that it would be fun to drive up 101. We stayed on 101 until it was time for me to "go to class." We stopped in the tiny town of Willamina, and stole free Internet from some unsuspecting family, so that I could attend my last seminar of the term. From there we decided to get to I-5 and get home. It was a long trip but, it was so nice to get away!

Best Rest Stop Ever and Dumbest Move Ever

My boys at Lumberjack's Me and the boys
AJ's lips. He made this face pretty much the whole trip. He started speaking sentences this week. No joke!! He can say: I want down, I want juice, I want doggy, Thank You. It's so amazing how fast he went from saying only Mommy and Daddy, to sentences.

Ashten, Anderson, and Ayden at the Rest Stop

This morning we got up and went swimming again. We were hoping to have the kids burn some energy, so they'd sleep for the drive to the next stop. Afterwards, we went to breakfast. Our hotel includes a free breakfast at Lumberjack's Restaurant. This is when we started realizing that Anderson had stopped eating. He hardly ate a bite and from this point on he continued to not eat for the rest of the trip. He didn't show any other symptoms of not feeling well though, so hopefully he will make up for it in the coming week. We stopped at a rest stop at Klamath River. It was so pretty from the road that Armand had to see what it was. Once we took the exit we realized it was a rest stop. I'm not sure what made it so cool, but we all loved it. They had lots of picnic tables and benches to watch the river, the grass was alive and healthy, and it had a visitor's center. We are easily amused I suppose. After that we headed to Eugene, because that's where I THOUGHT our reservation was. Unfortunately, I didn't realize my mistake until we arrived at our supposed destination. We were actually supposed to stay in Medford, which we had passed 300 miles before. This was a non-refundable reservation, so I was SO stressed, but we got it all worked out for $37.00 extra:( We went to dinner and then went to bed. I had a horrible headache, and all of us were lacking in sleep. There is a reason why people have their own bedrooms, and this trip confirmed that.

Heading to Redding

AJ and Ashten in the car on the ride down Ayden
Armand multi-tasking

Our first rest stop

The boys and "Daddy's trailer"

Mount Shasta

At the pool

Me and the kids

Ayden

AJ was scared for about 2.5 seconds then he was like a fish. He LOVED the pool!!

This weekend Armand had a trailer order to deliver to Redding, California. He wanted to drive straight there and back. It is a 9 hour drive, so this would have been horrible. I talked him into making a weekend out of it. We left at 4am and arrived at 2pm. We got quite a surprise coming from Washington, where it has snowed within the last two weeks. SUN!! It was about 80 degrees! So much for all the winter coats and sweaters that we packed. We stayed at the Travel Lodge in Redding, because it had wi-fi AND a pool, which Ayden informed us was a must because of the heat. We had a great day. When swimming Ashten asked, "Could we live here forever?"

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

It seems every year it's harder to find a babysitter on Valentine's Day, so we have stopped looking. On Monday, I put the kids to bed at 6:30pm. They had a busy day, so they were tired anyway (at least that's what I tell myself.) I set up the kitchen table with bamboo, candles, and chopsticks and went and got a big tray of sushi. it was delicious. For dessert, I made some chocolate fondue dip. We had pineapple, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and brownies bites to dip in it. A very healthy dessert;) haha It was actually very nice to stay home and the kids actually went right to sleep, so it was very relaxing.

Once There Was a Snowman...or Two

Mom took the boys out to build a snowman Ayden
Ashten choosing out buttons for the snowman

Anderson would just sit by the door sticking his fingers out Ayden, Mom, and Ashten with their snowman

Armand starting team two's snowman

Dad giving "Aunt Gemima" a face lift

Dad, Armand, and me with our finished snow woman

You can't get blessed with this much snow and not build a snowman. Mom got motivated and took the boys out. Which then inspired the rest of us to make one also. It was hard to make anything with this snow because there was a layer of ice in the middle of the snow. We had too much fun molding cheeks, a nose, arms, and yep even boobs. We had such a busy but great weekend, we're sad that it's over.

Spooner Farms

Ashten tried his best to push the wheelbarrow

Ashten, Anderson, and AydenThis house was pretty coolMy little pumpkin headsPumpkin Patch Rules: If you can lift it...you can have itOk, so Ashten could lift it but thought it was easier to kick it to the wheelbarrow AJ just kept running...And falling.We had fun going through the free corn maze. I would run ahead and the kids would scream for me to come back...ok so maybe it was just me that had fun in the maze.
While watching AJ, Daddy tried to catch a snooze while we did the corn maze
AJ slept of courseMooooo!
On the mark, get set, GO! Giddy Up!
Ayden peeking out the jail window
My big boys
This picture was taken in October 2004. This is the first time we went to Spooner Farms. Ayden was about to turn one and I was 5 months pregnant with Ashten. Boy have things changed.

Armand came home early at noon today so that we could go to the pumpkin patch for Family Home Evening. I'm going to keep this short as there are plenty of pics to tell the whole story! We had a great time!