Stranger in the night

I've been hearing some strange noises lately out my back window. I hadn't really figured out what they were, but I had my suspicions. Well, last night I caught him black handed.


He was getting into the dog food that we were leaving on the deck. Last night he ripped a big hole in the bag (we hadn't transferred it into the bucket yet). So today we transferred it and brought the small dog bowl into the house. I was doing dishes around 10 pm and I looked up out of my kitchen window, and there was a raccoon face staring at me! It really startled me. In fact, I dare say it freaked me out. He found no reason to hang around since the food was all gone, so he left the way he came, walking along the edge of the deck. Regan and Landon were still awake in their beds and came running out to see it. I think they were really surprised at how big a real raccoon is. I hope I don't have to see him again. I'm still a little shook up about it!

Landon's New Doo

I let Landon grow his hair out all summer, which is kind of major for us. I'm a firm believer in short hair for boys and I don't like it to grow over their ears. Anyway, he wanted his hair longer so I told him he wouldn't have to get it cut all summer, but he would have to cut it before school starts. He wouldn't let me cut it last week when I did the other boys' hair, but a couple of days ago it just started bugging him and he asked for a haircut. He said, and I quote, "I NEVER want to have long hair again." I finally had time last night to do it, so here is the old, shaggy Landon, and the new and improved Landon.

The fun never ends!

Last night Turner stuck something up his nose. A raisin, probably. I couldn't get it out and took him to urgent care today. They couldn't get it out so he's scheduled for a "procedure" at 8 am tomorrow. Yikes.

So I don't know when we'll do Cooper's birthday. I should probably just bake a cake and still do it tonight so I'll be happy and not so upset. We'll see.

So until tomorrow...

Point Defiance Zoo

We had free passes to the zoo from the Summer Reading Program and Dix had the day off, so we decided to go! (Hayden was supposed to still be at his backpacking campout but they got rained out so he arrived home last night.) We had a lot of fun! We knew we were off to a good start when we saw three deer nibbling grass in the field outside of the zoo!
We are so used to the zoos in Arizona which have totally different animals than this zoo. We missed the camels and zebras only a little bit. Until we saw the sharks and walruses! So cool! The first thing we did was explore the aquarium. We loved the giant tank with the sharks. Cooper was a little nervous at first, but he enjoyed it after a while. While we were holding him, watching the sharks, we realized that he had a fever!
I think everyone's favorite exhibit was the walrus tank. They have three walruses which you can see really well. We went to the underwater observation area and spent a long time watching them swimming their laps. Regan was doing a blow fish on the glass (eww gross, I know) when a walrus swam up and did a flip turn right on the glass in front of her. It startled her so much she nearly fell over. A man was standing right next to her and just couldn't stop laughing at her!
Here he comes...
Coming closer...
About to do his flip turn...
Right up on the glass!
And swimming away.

And then he's back to do it again in just a moment!

There was a sheltered pavilion at the Oomingmak (Arctic Musk Ox) exhibit, so we stood there for a while and watched the animals...and stayed out of the rain. Luckily it was just a quickie rainfall, so we didn't have to hang out there too long.
They have a children's play area which is new. We would've enjoyed exploring it if we weren't so tired. We just played around for a few minutes before heading home. And in case you were wondering, it took us about five minutes and about 20 pictures to get one of all six kids looking somewhat normal. Landon and Regan are acting like birds--they ARE in a nest, you know!

Milt Bernard Memorial Bike Ride

We enjoyed attending the memorial bike ride on Saturday. Dix had to work so I was a little worried about the logistics of it all. Six kids, one adult, six bikes, one bike trailer, one Suburban...sounded a little tricky. I dropped Hayden off early, along with his bike and my bike. Hayden and the rest of the scouts were going on a nice long ride, so they wanted an early start. I just left my bike there because several people were already there setting up tables. Then I came home and got the rest of the kids up and ready, found out that two of the bikes we wanted to use had flats, figured out alternates and loaded up as much as I could in the Suburban, put the rest in the Bishop's truck and headed off. Mark and Dale met Hayden there and took him and Porter for a ride, while I got to go on a nice, relaxing ride with four little kids. Yes, loads of fun. Okay, things I will do different next time: 1) Make sure that everyone has a bike that is the right size. We were fine on this point until I realized that Landon's bike tire was still flat even after Dix checked it out, and we didn't have time to repair it. He rode Porter's old bike. Porter is like a foot taller than him and Landon looked something like this.Landon was very unhappy, but he was a good sport.
2) Don't let Turner ride his own bike. The kid is crazy. He won't stick to the right side of the path for anything. It's like he's challenging everyone coming the opposite way to a game of chicken. I kept riding to the left of him and trying to crowd him over and then he would just get really mad and stop totally. I wished he was in the bike trailer. Eventually I put him in the bike trailer and towed his bike behind. It was much better that way. Wished I had done it a lot earlier.

3) Bring a high chair or stroller for Cooper for the lunch. He didn't do so well sitting on the grass and eating out of a little basket.
4) Spend less time riding, and more time picking blackberries. It's the best part about August! All the free wild berries you want!




There was a really good turn out for the event, I thought. It was hard to tell how many people showed up because people were constantly coming and going.
My younger kids spent a lot of time playing in the trees while all the adults were visiting.

Porter caught a garter snake and was trying to scare people with it. Lucky for us, we didn't have a very skitish crowd!
Landon enjoyed holding it for a long time. They finally let it go in a bush.

At next year's bike ride, we should have three more adults--hopefully Dix won't be working, and Grandma and Grandpa should be back from their mission--and hopefully we'll plan better so that we will all have bikes that work!

Pretty girl, funny boy

Regan got a new dress this weekend. Well, it's actually her cousin's dress that she gets to borrow until she grows out of it (and her cousin grows into it). Anyway, Regan thinks she is so beautiful in this dress. And it's funny because when I was looking for a bow to put in her hair, I found a really old one that was given to us by Dixon's sister that her kids used to wear (her youngest is 16), and it matches the dress perfectly. So she's wearing a borrowed dress and an "antique" bow. Isn't she cute? And she wouldn't smile, she was taking herself way too seriously!

Cooper was a little sad after church so I stuck him in the highchair with a few chocolate chips to keep him quiet for a few minutes while I changed and fixed his lunch. I didn't realize you could make such a mess with a few chocolate chips! Thank goodness for high chairs!


We recently started calling Cooper Iguanadon boy. For those of you who aren't familiar with every species of dinosaur, the Iguanadon is a dinosaur that had a spiked thumb. Cooper is always using his thumbs to poke at things and he even tries to pick food up by stabbing it with his "spiked thumb." So we laugh and think of the iguanadon.

I know way too much about dinosaurs.

And he's off...

Hayden just left for his week-long backpacking trip. The good news is, it isn’t raining. The weather forecast for the week doesn’t look fabulous, but it’s not too bad. It’s only supposed to rain on Wednesday. They went to Indian Heaven. I have to say that packing for this hike was a lot different than packing for the Grand Canyon. We didn’t even have to consider rain for the other hike, and packed very few clothes. This hike we were mostly concerned with keeping warm and dry. So his pack is about six pounds heavier than it was for the Grand Canyon. Luckily the hike won’t be nearly as strenous, so it shouldn’t be too bad. Plus he’s much stronger than he was a year ago. Of course he eats a lot more now, too! There are four boys and five adults. Hayden is really excited. Hope they stay dry!

Just a few tidbits

I was looking for a missing library movie and decided to look under the couch. Wow. I found a lot more than a movie. I found the missing movie and a missing book (that I didn't even know was missing!) a Gameboy game, a Nintendo DS game, my car keys (which had been missing for over a week!) and my camera. And, as you can see, a lot of other stuff! What a mess!

My camera was actually inside the couch. Weird, huh? When I flipped the couch over, I set my hand on the bottom of it and felt the camera. I had been looking for it for a couple of days, so was relieved to find it. The catch--I had to cut open the upholstery to get it out! Perhaps there was another way, but I wasn't smart enough to figure it out! Yay, I got my camera back!

Cooper likes eating frozen peas and frozen blueberries. He likes them thawed too, but I usually give them to him cold because he's hungry and wants food NOW! So guess which food he eats first? (Hint: I gave him equal numbers of peas and blueberries!) The other mess on his tray was the remaining bits of a nectarine. He eats AT LEAST a whole piece of fruit every day! (Sometimes more!) As in a whole nectarine, or banana, or several apricots...needless to say, his diapers are full on a very regular basis!


When I was bathing him the other night, Shelby kept running in and acting all crazy. I picked up the bowl that I use to rinse Cooper off with and Shelby leaned over and started drinking. Then I remembered that Cooper had dumped her water out that morning so she probably hadn't had anything to drink that whole day! (With the possible exception of toilet water. But my kids rarely flush the toilet, so if she drank that, then YIKES!)
Cooper likes to crawl around out on the deck. I frequently leave the french doors open so he can go in and out at his leisure. One day I couldn't find him in the house in any of his usual spots, so I went out and didn't see him on the deck. I started getting that panicky mom feeling and was running around looking for him. I heard a noise under the barbecue and took a look. There he was, sitting under it, grinning from ear to ear. What a cutie!

Fun Sunday

I'm too lazy to re-do something that was done well. My sister Carolyn blogged our fun activities we did this weekend at her place. So if you want to see some fun times--and hilarious pictures, go to Carolyn's blog.

So what's your choice?

I always like giving my kids choices instead of just telling them what to do. Of course I know what I WANT them to do, so their choices may be skewed so that they'll make the "right" choice. So here's a conversation between me and Turner this afternoon.

Me: Do you want to go play quietly in your room with all your toys? Or do you want a haircut?
T: I hate haircuts.
Me: Do you want to get a haircut? Or would you rather go play with your toys?
T: I don't wanna take a haircut.
Me: So would you like to play with your toys? Or do you want a haircut?
T: I don't like haircuts.
Me: Do you want to play in your room? Then you don't have to get a haircut.
T: I HATE haircuts.
Me: So do you want to go play with all your toys? Or should we go do a haircut?
T: I'll play wif my duplos. No, my cars.

Glad he didn't choose a haircut because I'm planning on doing a massive haircut day tomorrow for everyone in our house! Including Cooper's first big boy haircut! So stay tuned for pictures!

Here's another one we had earlier:
Me: Do you want jam or honey with your peanut butter?
T: Peanut butter.
Me: Do you want jam or honey with your peanut butter?
T: Jam
Me: You want peanut butter and jam?
T: No, I hate peanut butter.
Me: So peanut butter and jam?
T: Honey. Only honey. No peanut butter.
Me: So, peanut butter and honey?
T: Only honey. I hate peanut butter.
Me: (As I'm making peanut butter and honey sandwich) Here's a peanut butter and honey.
T: (Eating it voraciously) I hate peanut butter.

Aren't three year olds fun?

Priest Point Park

After picking blueberries, we realized that we were very close to a neat park. And since gas is so expensive, we thought we should take the opportunity to go play! So we did. Luckily I found a couple of water bottles in the car, and luckily we had just eaten our body weight in blueberries, so we were okay calorie-wise. (Always a problem for me. I'm just so worried about being underweight!) Okay, stop laughing, get back up onto your chair and look at these great pictures of my good-looking children.

One of the best parts about this park is the hike from the playground area down to the beach. One of these days I need to go there without kids (yeah, right!) and just enjoy it. It's so tranquil. This is why I love Washington. It's so beautiful.

The path is actually quite steep. The boys look like they're having fun, but they were actually terrified at how fast their legs were going. They were afraid their bodies wouldn't be able to keep up! Luckily we didn't have any major injuries.

I love it that Hayden likes to carry Cooper around.

Cooper loved the water. Unfortunately, he can't walk just yet and all he wanted to do was sit down. I didn't want to have a sandy, muddy uncomfortable baby for the rest of the afternoon, so we made him stay standing. So mean, I know.

Turner went in deeper than any of the other kids. Porter was nearby to go save him in case a rip tide pulled him out to sea.
Porter found a bunch of tiny crabs and mussels.
We saw water shoot out of this hole, so Hayden started to digging to see if he could find a clam. No luck.
We did find several dead fish, though. I can't remember what they were looking at here. Very intriguing, don't you think?

We found these wild huckleberry bushes right by our car, so the kids had a little snack before we left.

All in all, a great day.

Blueberries for Us

I love Robert McCloskey's book, Blueberries for Sal. We read it every year around blueberry picking time. In fact, I have been in such fear of over-reading it and thus taking it for granted, that I have never purchased it. I check it out from the library every summer. It's one of my weird little rituals. So this year I checked it out and we've read it umpteen times, replacing Sal's name with various Oliver childrens' names. And then on Tuesday we finally went blueberry picking. That is definitely my favorite berry to pick for several reasons.
1. You don't have to bend down.
2. There are no thorns (except in the places where the wild blackberries are trying to take over.
3. There is a lot of shade because of the nature of the bushes.
4. They're so darn good.
5. Antioxidants!
6. I enjoy saying "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!" when the kids drop them into their little tin pails.

Okay, so maybe I'm a little weird (a little?). But here are the pictures from this year's harvest.

Here we all are walking down to the field. My sister Carolyn and her two little girls were with us. Notice Hayden looking at the old fashioned truck. He is obsessed with anything with wheels.

I found a good bush to keep Cooper occupied for a while. It didn't take him long to learn the drill. If anyone is wondering how long it takes for a baby to digest blueberries, it is about three hours. Just in case you wanted to know.
After the little kids got tired of picking (about five minutes into it) they played pretend under the bushes. Sometimes I wish I was three.
Turner was just like Sal from the book. Little Turner picked three berries and dropped them in his little tin pail...kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! He picked three more berries and ate them. Then he picked more berries and dropped one in the pail--kuplunk! And the rest he ate. Then Little Turner ate all four blueberries out of his pail!
They were having so much fun under the berry bushes that they didn't want to leave! (The big kids, on the other hand, were quite ready to go! Party poopers!)
We ended up with ten pounds of berries that we ate fresh, dehydrated or froze. And if they had weighed my kids before and after, I probably would have had to pay for ten more pounds! Can't wait for next year's blueberry harvest!

Next up: Blackberries!