The Hood

An update from the rest of Hood Canal weekend -

The monkeys spent as much time as they could collecting crabs on the beach.  Owen started out picking up only the smaller crabs, then bigger and bigger ones.  There was never enough in the bucket so the collecting task lasted quite some time…

The daddies went out in the canoes by themselves for awhile then took the monkeys out as well.

Ahhhhh!  No hands!

I painted my toenails in the sunshine while I overlooked the canal.  Very relaxing!

On the first night the men made a meal of seafood and steak.  On another night, Nana and I made a kind of Mediterranean meal with Tzatziki, pita, a spicy pork, and a quinoa salad that was so yummy!  Even though Jack said “that’s not my favorite” (Eric and my attempt at polite-ing up Jack‘s normal comment of “that’s disgusting!”) Jack ate quite a bit hen he actually tried it.

The mamas took a go at canoeing on the last morning.

Another more Tyler-friendly beach wasn’t too far away so we took a little excursion there and to a restaurant with huge burgers -which are apparently an enormous draw for biker gangs…

Three or four seals popped up to bid us farewell as we were leaving.  The lens I was using has no zoom at all so I couldn’t get a picture of the seals, but  how cute are Dock and Owen watching the seals!  

Pedouins

Owen, Jack and I were  walking down a street in Seattle today when we saw a very old bus with a bike rack on the side.  The bike rack was holding a very long tandem bike that fit five people!  We were all intrigued and stopped to talk about it.  The middle seat on the bike was obviously for a very young child.  As we talked a man got off the bus and told us that he and his family rode the bike from Kentucky to Fairbanks, Alaska.  At the time his children were 2, 4, and 6!  They went over 7000 miles in just over a year.  Owen asked a million questions and the man answered them so kindly and with such enthusiasm. “He was one of the nicest men I ever met!” Owen exclaimed after we walked away.

The family was giving a talk at the Seattle REI store a few hours later, so the boys and I stopped at a restaurant for dinner, played at a park and hung out at a coffee shop to kill time.

The presentation was incredibly interesting and inspiring.

Definitely check out their site!

http://www.pedouins.org/history.html

 

Hood Canal Weekend

After school, we drove down to Hood Canal to spend Labor Day weekend with Dock, Nana, and Tyler. 

The house we rented is right on a rocky beach and today the boys enjoyed exploring.(Tyler explored from the Bjorn…)

We found oysters which we collected to go with dinner, and Dock lifted a big rock and showed the boys how they could find little crabs.  Jack would not touch one, but after some initial hesitation, Owen was hooked.  After awhile he apparently found a crab that he really liked.  I say this because Owen carried him around in his shirt pocket.

Both boys brought a crab up to the house (I carried Jack’s) and put them into a tiny aquarium (aka a juice glass.)  Owen named his crab, “Lucky”  and I think that might have been a good name as the crab  survived into the evening under the care of a six-year-old and was released (still alive!) before bedtime. 

Jack named his crab, “Crabby Anderson – or you can say, Crab Abby Anderson.  Actually he is Henry Anderson which is like me only not the Jack!” 

One of the boys offered licorice to the crabs as a special dessert.  We cannot tell if the crabs liked the licorice or not…

Tyler spent quite a bit of time crawling around exploring the house.  He did not find a tiny crab, but that didn’t seem to bother him at all! 

(Tyler doesn’t usually use a binky, but Jack felt the need to give the binkies to Tyler at random times – and also take them away at random times. Luckily Tyler was content either way – and simply found Jack to be a very entertaining toy!)

They boys went wild when they realized that they got to sleep in bunk beds.  They climbed right on the beds and put their nai-nai guys away as soon as we arrived.  Bedtime was a breeze!

Eric and I lucked out on our room as well.  It was a beautiful room with a king bed and a huge window overlooking the lake.

The Cousins

Yesterday I picked up my nieces Lauren and Hannah.  They hung out with Jack while Owen was at school.  Owen joined the fun after school.

Jack thought playing in the dirt was the best thing to do.

Lauren and Hannah thought throwing the lawn-dart, cartwheeling and walking on their hands was more interesting.

Jack thought running around looked fun, and joined in in his own unique way.

I am not sure that Hannah knew the power of a 50 pound 4-year-old…

Luckily, she is a good sport

…most of the time.

Lauren is pretty good at all of the lawn sports, but  is not partial to the camera…

Owen was much more interested in watching Hannah play the guitar and listening to her sing.

He was especially pleased with the little lesson on playing chords that Hannah gave him.  I wouldn’t mind if a little of her songwriting skills rubbed off on him. ..

Hannah’s songs that she writes sound like they could be on the top 40.  Of course no one will take me seriously because they will think I am biased since I am her aunt.  But the lyrics are really that good.

First Day

Our school year theme for this year is “be an encourager.”

Owen read the sign right away and said he thought Eric and I picked that so Owen could remember to remind everyone to follow all the rules?  Not sure where that came from??  (Later my sister suggested that Owen was thinking of the word enforcer – that makes a lot more sense…)

For our special breakfast we made egg, bacon, and cheese sandwiches on English muffins.  The boys love them.

Eric and I gave Jack his own bracelet like the one we gave to Owen last year.

Jacks had a record for Daddy, a heart for Mama, and a surfboard to represent Owen.

Owen started school with no fanfare whatsoever.  The school asked that we drop him off at the front door (like we would any other day) and that we not go in the building.  I was really hard to do that as we have not met the teacher at all nor have we seen his classroom.  It wasn’t much of a send-off, but Owen had met this teacher last year and walked in without hesitation.   I guess I should be glad about that!

After dropping Owen at school, Jack and I drove into the QFC parking lot. As I pulled into a spot, Jack said -  in a very serious voice, “Mama, you should make a good decision.” (dramatic pause) “There is a Starbucks right over there.” Luckily for him, I could make a “good decision” since I was meeting Eric there anyway…

Jack’s class had a visitation period today for an hour or so.  We got to go in his classroom and play and meet his teachers.  Jack held tightly to my hand at first, but became involved in several games.  I was excited to see that his classroom is the same as the one that he had his French summer camp in.  That surely helped him feel more comfortable.

He was even slightly familiar with his teachers, which was also a fun surprise.  Last year I helped shelve books in the library once a week.  Each time I came in, there was a 4-year-old class finishing up their library time.  It just so happens that his current teacher is who was in the library.

The assistant would often be reading books to the class and Jack would love to listen.

The English teacher is new to the school this year, but she was very friendly and Jack seemed comfortable right away.

Tomorrow is Jack’s first official day, where the parents don’t stay, and he stays until noon. 

Jack and I ran a few errands then hung out with his cousins for the rest of the Owen’s school day.  By the time we returned to FISW, Jack was out.

Owen seemed happy about school, but didn’t want to talk too much.  He had a difficult time getting in the car since Jack had fallen asleep in Owen’s car-seat and Owen was terribly upset about riding in Jack’s seat.  Hopefully I can get more than one photo tomorrow, but I am not sure they will allow me inside the classroom… 

Fear

Jack:  Mama, is “fear” a word?

Mama: “fear” or “sphere”?

Jack: “fear”

Mama:  Yes, fear is a word.

Jack: What does it mean?

Mama:  Fear is being afraid.

Jack: Oh.  I am fear sometimes.

Mama: You are? 

Jack: I am fear of dark places.

Mama: Yeah?

Jack: Yeah, and I am fear of bears.

Mama: Dark places and bears.

Jack: I am fear of not getting my way.

Mama: I see.

 

(I think Mama is fear of that too...)

If There is a Hint of Sun, We are at the Pool

We gave up gymnastics for swimming this summer and have spent every remotely sunny day at the pool. (From the first photo below you can see that we are sometimes there when no one else thinks that it is a good pool day…Hey, we want our money’s worth!)

Katie, Sarah, and Lisa are our constant companions.  On sunny days we go at noon and close the place down at 9PM!  We bring stuff to barbecue, and the daddy’s join us when they get off work.

Both monkeys have become amazingly confident in the water.  They will easily go underwater and try new things.  I have been very pleased with how much they are learning.

Jack loves to go under water and will “swim” with his head down and kick as long as he is in an area where he can touch.  He did some jumping in off the side in the deep end, but it really hurt his nose as it was just after his surgery – so he has given up on that for now.  His favorite thing to do right now is touch the bottom of the pool with his hands.

Owen loves to swim to someone from the side and swim back.  As usual, he takes direction seriously, and has had swim instructions from Lisa, Katie, and Sarah.  You can see little steps of improvement each time he swims.

The other day he saw a neighborhood boy, Logan, jump off of the diving board and decided that he wanted to do it too. (This is the same boy that inspired Owen to ride with no training wheels – love this kid!)  The next day, Owen took Katie and Sarah, and walked right up to the board, told me to jump in and be by for safety, and then he trotted right down the board and jumped off without a moment’s hesitation at the end.  He could swim enough to get to the side and did it over and over again.

They monkeys very  favorite is when Daddy comes in to play –  he’s the third wild boy!

Sarah

Charlotte and Bridget and parents came with us on one cold day.  They kids had fun together, and we all went in, but I later found out that the pool heater had accidently been turned off.  Opps – sorry guys.

The kiddos had fun playing games outside the pool anyway…

And parents enjoyed a little vino…

Even Dock and Nana and our little Tyler joined us for one day (unfortunately I was home in bed with Strep Throat – but how cute are they!!??)  Daddy even packed the pool bag and all of the dinner for everyone!