Belated Weekend Post

I wrote this post on Sunday night but my week has been absolutely crazy busy (two job interviews!) that I never got around to uploading the pictures until tonight. Here is my belated weekend post:

We had an incredibly busy weekend filled with...well, a little bit of everything. Friday, we had a "movie night." Which involved Jacob selecting a movie from our shelf, me making a bag of popcorn, Ryan dumping the entire bag onto the carpet and grounding it into little tiny pieces, and both kids running around the house asking for things and sword fighting and doing anything BUT watch the movie.

Saturday was full and exhausting but also quite amazing. I got to spend all but 47 minutes of it with my two busy, happy boys. It's amazing how great of a mother I can be when I'm not exhausted from a long day of work/commuting. It's seriously like night and day.

We lounged around the house Saturday morning without any morning agenda. And when I say "lounged" I mean, I got up at 8am, cooked breakfast, feed the kids. cleaned the kitchen and the sink, dressed the kids, supervised the cleaning of the kids' room, and gave Ryan a bath. Yeah, that's about right for "lounging" on a Saturday morning.

All morning Ryan would randomly stop whatever he was doing and start spinning backwards in circles. He would spin and spin and spin and giggle the entire time until he lost balance and fell flat on his butt. The giggling would increase, he would stand himself up, and start spinning again.

At mid-day I took the kids to a fun little event in our county. They were so good and easy-going and well-behaved. It is so, so, so hard not to spoil them rotten when they act like that! In retrospect, I wonder if they just seemed so good because I was a million times more patient (after getting more than 5 hours of sleep for the first time in a week).

We passed a booth where you could buy fun beanbag animals of all sizes and colors. We first noticed the booth when Ryan started growling and pointing at the dinosaur beanbags on the edge of the table.
Ryan reached out with his chubby hand, so desperately grasping for one of the dinosaurs, and continued to growl louder and louder. I couldn't resist. I allowed the kids to each pick out one animal beanbag. Ryan's choice was easy, but Jacob studied all the options carefully and made a meticulously well-thought out decision, finally landing on an all-black kitten with long whiskers. "I'm going to name my kitty Whiskers!" He announced excitedly. Ryan clutched his dinosaur in a death grip and nestled it under his chin. God, they are so cute they make me want to squeeze them until their eyeballs pop out of their faces!

We passed many blow-up objects (a duck, a Pepsi can, the Geico lizard) and Jacob insisted on touching them all. The three of us all went down a gigantic slide. Ryan wasn't too sure about the wole thing but Jacob went down two more times by himself. Jacob also enjoyed the kiddie rollercoaster that looked like a dragon. By his second trip on the rollercoaster, he had mastered the skill of throwing his hands in the air in true rollercoaster-ride fashion. He also made friends with a couple other little boys (happens everywhere we go) and they all took turns sitting with each other. Although he did not get to ride the rollercoaster, Ryan was excited each time it passed by. He kept pointing and Roar-ing enthusiastically. Yes, I guess dragons do "roar."

(Jacob is the red shirt to the left)

 

 

Then we all enjoyed gigantic Icees.

After we used up all of our ride tickets, I ushered the kids into the car and we rushed to catch the ferry to Seattle for the Seafair Torchlight 8K. I decided to avoid traffic and walk onto the ferry. This seemed like an awesome idea at the time but it required pushing 65+ of adorable children in the double stroller.

I jogged from our house to the ferry, from the ferry to the race, ran in the race, and jogged from the race back to the ferry. In addition to the 5 mile race, I jogged that stroller around an additional 4 miles!

I live here! Yes, I pinch myself everyday. Beauty is just a party of everyday life around here :) Did I mention that I saw four orca whales breach in unison on my commute to work the other day? Yeah... pretty cool.

 

 

The race course was also gorgeous. We ran on the raised highway along the waterfront. Amazing views. (The race did not allow strollers to participate so my friend's husband watched the kids while we ran, he did awesomely and the kids didn't fuss or fight or whine at all for him, who was all but a total stranger to them!).

And the kids enjoyed the ferry as much as anything else. My kids and I spent both hour-long ferry trips playing and talking. We chatted (Jacob is quite the talker!), we played games, we giggled. It was so refreshing to be present and engaged with them. I wish I had the energy and patience for it more often.

I usually try really hard not to brag about compliments I receive about my kids but they were absolutely fantastic Saturday and deserve a little bit of bragging. On the ride home, four families/couples we were sitting near kept repeatedly telling me how well-behaved and adorable Jacob and Ryan were. I heard them talking positively about my kids behind us also. There is no better compliment for a parent than to hear strangers praise your children. It's so affirming. But I try so hard not to let it go to my head because I know that for every good day, there are probably three not so good days.

Sunday we woke up at 6am to rush out of the house at 7am. We drove three miles to visit my husband's grandma in Oregon. She lives in an old farmhouse on 50-something acres, I believe. She has plum trees, apple trees, and pear trees. The kids love to explore her property and get into trouble.

Then we drove back across the Washington/Oregon border and enjoyed a family reunion with my husband's side of the family. They are so fun and friendly and hospitable. We love hanging out with them. Jacob recently learned how to snap his fingers. He will randomly start snapping his fingers in dramatic hand waves like some lounge singer from the 20's. He approaches complete strangers (or extended family members) to inform them that he can snap with his fingers and then shows his skill off with so much flare that you would think he had just learned how to juggle monkeys or something.

After a wonderful day in the sun playing and eating with cousins, second cousins, and aunts/uncles, we "enjoyed" some quality family bonding time in the car during the LONG ride home. Ryan screeched, "NO!!" every two minutes for no good reason at all. Jacob started to instigate it by asking Ryan questions just so that Ryan would say, "NO!!"

"Ryan, are you smart?"
"NOOOOOO!!!!"
"Ryan, do you smell good?"
"NOOOOO!!!"
Etc.

The two hour drive turned into a four hour drive thanks to an incredible amount of traffic (we witnessed a barn fire in the middle of nowhere- it was crazy!). Ryan was so ready to be out of his car seat and made this very clear. Once in a while I would hear him wail and "bzzzzz," something would whizz by my head, nearly missing my face, and smacking into the front windshield. I was almost clobbered by Ryan's binky, a piece of graham cracker, and a magic wand. That kid and his arm are very dangerous things.

We finally made it home at 9:30 p.m., after a quick grocery store stop and a stop at McD's where Ryan ate three bowls full of ketchup but no chicken nuggets (he figured out he could double and triple and quadruple dip by licking the ketchup off without taking a single bite of actual food). We had no accidents, but just barely. Jacob informed us, while we were at a dead stop on the freeway, that he had to poop NOW and that it was coming out NOW. He managed to hold it in as we panicked and made a mad dash off the road. By the time we found a potty fifteen minutes later, he no longer had to go. Awesome.

Now the kids are sleeping, after stories and a game of Fling Yogurt Across The Dining Room. And the grown-ups are more than just a little exhausted. Phew. I'm so not ready to start a brand new week!

It was a very long trip. It was a short, but packed weekend. It was awesome.