Career Choices and New Words

It's been a funny week.

Tanner discovered "bird poop" and now points at every splotch he sees
and asks, "Ber poo, mama? Ber poo?". Our son... he knows a limited number of words
and for some reason one of them is "bird poop". Go figure. In the category of "maybe he'll be riding the short bus to school one day" he looks out the window of my car constantly and excitedly points to the bushes and trees and screams, "Moooooo!".

Jake, having exhausted his parents by resisting bedtime (and by resisting I mean screaming, hitting, yelling, complaining, crying, and acting- in short- like his hair was on fire) was up late with us one night- our strategy being that we were done fighting and he could go to bed when he wanted but we would be ignoring him completely. We were watching (this is embarssing but I'm going to admit it...) LA Ink, a reality show about tattooing. He was on the couch and wasn't much interested or paying attention, so I thought. Apparantly he was more intrigued than I thought as he announced a few minutes into the show, "Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a tattoo artist!". His dad is very proud but I'm quite certain we are out of the running for the Parents of the Year Award.

Our Kids in 17 Syllables

Faith
Laughing, loves to play
There's more to life than milk now
Big drool machine


Tanner
Mischievous smile
Hey guys...catch me if you can
Blowing raspberries


Jake
Smart, funny, kind heart
Did I mention "challenging"?
Please send instructions

A Full House

Mary, Lisa, and the four kids came for a weekend visit to Boise on their drive from CA to Minnesota. We had a great time! Even Tanner enjoyed the visit- once he realized that none of them were here to babysit and that mom and dad weren't going anywhere without him! Our visits with Lisa and her family have gotten so few and far between- especially considering we used to get together monthly back in CA- so we are so grateful for this one. We hung out at the pool, got icees at the icee shack, went out to breakfast (the waitress probably wanted to go into hiding when she saw us approach her section!) and basically just watched the kids play. We turned the boys room into the bunk house with 5 of the 7 kids sleeping in there on various mattresses and beds. We got to know Connor a little bit and Lisa got to know Faith. Jake loved being with his cousins and cried and cried when they had to leave. Several phone calls ensued over the next few days as he worked through his withdrawl :)

Tahoe Vacation

Like all family trips, this one had its ups and downs- the cranky days and the spectacular ones, the stellar parenting moments and the ones you hope no one was around to witness. (Or, as Buffet says and real life proves, "The good days, the bad days, and the going half mad days"...


There was the evening drive there where the boys only slept for the last hour and were hyper at midnight when we arrived; the afternoon fishing trip where Jake proved to be an absolute genius at casting; the dinner out in Squaw Valley where all the kids ran around and climbed on rocks and tried their hand at pool with Brian in the arcade; the last minute decision to drive to Tahoe City for the free concert at the playground that turned out to be one of the best nights of our trip; kayaking (or as Jake called it, "sailing" on Donner Lake); rafting down the Truckee River (Jake's third trip and Tanner's first) with Auntie Shannon ("Nikko's Shannon" not "Wyatt's Shannon"); getting all 7 kids (mine, "Wyatt's Shannon's", and Kim's) together for a BBQ and popcicles on the deck; Jake playing tennis with Papa; Jake drinking too much root beer (against my advisement) and throwing up all over the Bass Outlet; Faith rolling halfway across the living room in record time and sitting up alone; Tanner learning to say "Nana" for grandma; sitting at River Ranch after our raft trip and enjoying drinks and hotdogs on the patio; the kids getting to spend lots of time with grandma and papa, both "auntie" Shannons, and Kim and her family. I am truly thankful.

Here's hoping you all are having more good days than bad days and are keeping the "going half mad days" to a minimum :)

Daddy/Tanner Roadie..

This was a very complicated vacation from a scheduling standpoint. I was back and forth to Tahoe a total of four times; two times driving and two times flying in the space of two weeks. The plan was for Marisa, Jake and Faith to head down to the Bay Area for three days while Tanner and I drove back to Boise from Tahoe. Circumstances made it so that Tanner and I ended up driving back to Boise from the Bay Area instead. We drove down and dropped Jake off at his Auntie Sues and then Tanner and I headed off to Boise and home from there - a total of 14 hours in the car for my little man.

Tanner was an absolute champ the entire way, yes, that's right, all 14 hours of it. My man was the perfect road trip companion (way better than my wife). As I explained to Marisa; Tanner was fine with whatever I wanted to eat, he was perfectly happy with long stretches of silence, didn't need to stop to go to the bathroom (god bless diapers), and never, not once, not the entire trip, complained that the stereo was too loud. We didn't stop so we could get out and stretch our legs as Marisa often makes me do. It was the perfect roadie for me; start the truck, crank up the iPod and don't stop until you get where you're going (isn't that why God made drive -thru's?).

Tanners limited vocabulary became fairly clear during our time in the car. He would say; kar, twuck, at (which means hat), dojies (which means dog) and eventually (around the Oregon boarder), finally figured out moo is what the cows say. On a complete aside; remember the river scene in City Slickers? Billy Crystal is trying to herd the cows across the river and exclaims, " I'm 40 years old, and I'm saying moo cow in a river." Substitute me being 38 years old instead of 40 and a Suburban with all the windows rolled down for the river, and I was there man ( I love that scene!). He also asked, every 10 minutes or so where mama was, baby was and dada was. When I explained that dada was driving the car, he would giggle hysterically and then start over again with mama. We got home about 11:00 PM and Tanner and I fell into bed and slept like two guys who had just completed a monster road trip.

We spent the next three days together, just Tanner and me, and it was Daddy/Tanner time long overdue. I had a great time with him, and if I need to take another long road trip - I'm gonna be lookin' at you big guy (at least until you're out of diapers, after that I am taking your sister!)

Catch Anything?

Jake has been talking about going fishing for awhile now. Don't ask me how he knows what fishing is, but he does. It has been years, I don't even know how many, since I have been out fishing, but I promised I would take him. Cori had bought some kids fishing rods at a garage sale and Jake really wanted to go, so I said we would go while we were on vacation.

We went to the sporting goods store and bought me a rod as well and then went down to the Truckee River, right where it connects to Donner Lake. I have never been in there before and it was really cool. For you Fish & Game people out there, we did not use hooks as we didn't have a license, so there Mr. Smartypants!

I figured that it was going to be a frustrating experience learning how to cast, getting the line tangled up, losing bobbers, etc. Man I couldn't have been more wrong. After about five practice casts, Jake was flipping his line out into the middle of the river with no problem at all. He was doing way better than me trying to learn how to fly cast!

I enjoyed fishing a lot back when I used to go on a regular basis so I am hoping that I will be able to take the kids out quite a bit (I've got a 1 in 3 chance for a real fish crazy kid!). I have picked up a fly rod and am looking forward to trying to learn how to do that while the kids spin cast. It's also an Idaho thing (A River Runs Through It and all that) and you can't live in the state unless you are willing to kill something for sport. If I get the kids into fishing, and we don't tell anybody that we catch and release, maybe we can fit in a little bit - since I won't, under any circumstance, take any of them hunting.

Crowded bed....Happy Birthday!

I am officially on the "far side" of my 30's. But I look at this picture and can't help thinking how amazing my 30's have been so far- and how lucky I am. Breakfast in bed -complete with fresh berries, homemade lemon cream, and fresh squeezed OJ- was followed by a day of my choosing. We got a babysitter for Faith and took the boys to school. Starbucks and the paper, a relaxing lunch out, and a matinee of Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard filled the afternoon. The movie was so ridiculous and I LOVED every second of it. I am still a huge Bruce Willis fan- 25 years after my first crush on him began (although I no longer hang pictures of him all over my bedroom walls!).

My Trip to Auntie Sue's

Auntie Sue and I played baseball. I played baseball with my cousins and Grandma Mary. I went to Chuck E. Cheese for Cayden's birthday and I played air hockey. I ate pizza. My mom and dad were at Boise. I watched Air Bud Volleyball and played checkers with Christian and Cayden. We ate root beer floats and chocolate donuts- and the plain kind. I slept with Auntie Sue. I want to be back there and it was FUN.

by jake

Jake had a great time hanging out with his four cousins, Mary, Lisa, and Auntie Sue. It was a packed house and a busy three days. Mary and Sue are still recuperating :) Jake didn't seem to miss us much and actually cried when I showed up to pick him up on Wednesday! (I tried not to take it personally!) I told him that Southwest will let him fly alone when he turns five and he is already angling to get a weekend trip there next year. I know this is a trip he will remember forever and Brian and I are so grateful to have such wonderful family in our lives.

by mom