This Little Family Went to Washington

We are in Washington for my sister's wedding which is this coming Saturday. Rather than trying to fly up just in time for the rehearsal (Carley is the flower girl) and wedding, we decided to make it a trip out of it. Right now everything is quiet and mellow but soon a whole crew of family will be in town too. We look forward to seeing my sister Ashley, my Grandma Tandy, my Uncle Chuck, Aunt Debbie, and Uncle Geoff, all will be here by Wednesday and staying either at my mom's or at a motel near by. It's going to be a busy week.

Yesterday we got out as a family and went to a quaint little town near my mom's house called Port Gamble. I've driven through part of it many times and I love the houses that line the highway. They remind me of something you'd see in Stepford from The Stepford Wives. All the houses are perfectly painted in pale colors with no fenced yards except for the white picket fence that lines the whole street, actually most of the town. Turns out there is a cute little town that isn't on the highway. It's your typical old tourist town with a General Store and antique shops but it's right on the bay. There is a cemetary up the hill and it's also surrounded by a white picket fence. We wandered around town and checked out the seashell museum on the second floor of the General Store. We walked to a little playground and got some fruit from a fruit stand. The weather was beautiful and the leaves were colorful.

After visiting Port Gamble, we drove not too far up the road to go to another playground near the Hood Canal Bridge. We took a little walk on the beach and through some beautiful autumn trees. It is so nice to be away from Sacramento where are the beautiful autumn leaves are backed by stores and concrete instead of evergreens and water. Maybe it'll actually rain a lot before I leave so it will be a little easier to head back to California. If I had to go home today, I'd probably resort to my inner child and go home kicking and screaming after throwing myself on the floor in a tantrum.



Okay, for you Kids in the Hall fans.... "I'm crushing your head," which in this case would probably be "I'm crushing your ear."

Kid Torture

This is for you, Rani. Where's my cupcakes?

Walt brought home some sour candy from work the other day and I stashed two for the kids before he could eat them all.

Now I love sour candy. This whole family loves sour candy. But this War Head candy is probably the sourest candy I've ever had. I actually had to take it out of my mouth to regroup before I could finish the sour top coating. So I figured I'd torture the kids.

I gave them each a piece (one at a time, of course, so I could take pictures) and told them the couldn't take it out of their mouths.

Josh immediately started making faces and tried desperately to keep his eyes open.


Moaning and growing.

Trying to maintain.

Spazzing and moving.

Back to the eye thing. But he didn't take it out.

He made it through the sour coating and he was good.

Now Carley on the other hand, I was sure she would cave and remove the candy from her mouth. She didn't.

She proved to be one tough cookie. She proved to be a very boring, sour candy eating, photo subject.

That's the best I got out of her. She took it like a champ. She took it better than her big brother. She took it better than me!

Then she put on her spakly smile again.

I should torture my kids more often.

Photo Host Wars

Here are a few different ways to post pictures from a few different host sites. Which one do you like better? Which one is clearer? Which is more colorful? Do you even care?

Please vote at the poll in the upper right corner of the blog. It's anonymous, I won't know who voted what but I would like an opinion. Please help me improve the photos on the blog because it means a lot to me. Thanks!

Testing. Testing. One. Two.

I'm playing around with the blog settings and different ways to upload photos for better quality pictures with brighter colors. The pictures from the Veggie Chase are so dull looking compared to what the pictures really look like on my computer. It spurred me to find a better way BUT it will take a while for me to figure out what I want. The blog may periodically change but hang in there (keep checking often) and I'll settle into something.

This is what I created for my "collage" project in my Photoshop class. It was fun to put together but took ALL day since I waited until the last minute. The hardes part for me was coming up with a collage idea. Thanks to Walt's ideas, it came together pretty well.

Last Halloween (my test from Photobucket)

Veggie Chase Race

The kids and I ran races on Sunday at the first annual Veggie Chase. Since Josh has competed in past races, Carley has been dying to run a race too. First of all, I have to say that I'm completely out of shape (going on 2 years now) and didn't train much for the race, therefore the kids didn't either. It didn't matter because we were out to have a good time and have a little fun.

Carley ran 200 yards in the Preschool Dash for 4-year-olds and younger. Josh ran a mile and did pretty well coming in around 9 minutes. I ran a 32 minute 5k (3.1 miles) which isn't necessarily good but isn't to bad either. All racers where encouraged to "beat the veggies" and it was kind of fun pacing a carrot. I think we all did great and had a good time.

Between and after races, the kids played in jump houses and did fun sport-like activities. The point of the Veggie Chase is to get families active and it looked like they did a pretty good job because it was a huge turn out. Then again maybe that was because kids ran for free.

I think this is half of Josh's head behind the boy in black pants. I can't really tell because I couldn't see where he started from but it definitely looks like his head and he agreed.


Here comes Carley after that carrot. She did great and was with the head of the pack until they had to turn around and run back. There were just so many parents running with their children that she had to dodge them like a regular running back.


There were lots of free things like orange popsicles which the kids managed to get all over the lower half of their face.

The activities where things like soccer, horseshoes, batting, pushups, hoops, etc.

We all look forward to participating in the Veggie Chase again next year. Josh is even considering running the 5k with me.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom aka Marine World

Saturday after Carley was done dancing, Carley, Josh and I were treated to a fun day at Marine World with Josh's friend, Tanner, and his mom, Susan. They have season passes and had coupons for free admission for friends. Susan not only brought us along but drove, bought lunch and flash passes to get us to the front of long lines. We all had a great day.

Carley isn't tall enough to go on all the big kid rides so we split up from the boys during the first part of the day. She and I went on all the biggest rides we could and Carley just loved it. Josh and Tanner stuck with Susan and they went on a couple big coasters. Josh doesn't like the looping coasters it seems, actually Josh's stomach doesn't like the looping coasters. He's fine with upside down, just not twisting and upside down.

Late in the day, we all decided to go on Tony's Hawks Big Spin. It's a roller coaster that doesn't loop but has only one car at a time which free spins as it travels around the track. Poor Josh, who to my benefit was riding with Susan, got sick at the end of the ride. He was still strapped in when he threw up so he tried to catch it but was no use. Poor guy. After that he was more sensative to all the rides and he so desperately wanted to ride regular roller coasters but even those made him quesy, including the car ride home (we had to make a pit stop). Carley on the other hand wasn't affected by the spinning and went on Tony Hawk three times.

All in all, we had a terrific day and we are grateful to Susan for providing a much needed day of fun for me and the kids.




The park was decorated in Halloween for their annual Fright Fest. After the sun goes down the zombies and other creatures come out and Halloween music plays. It's quite fun.

There is a play stucture in one of the children's areas. It's a great place for the parents to take a break while the kids run off more energy. How do they still have more energy after walking miles in the park?

Carley Loves Dance

Nothing for a week and then we have the weekend. This weekend got jam-packed with many fun activities.

To start the weekend off, Carley had a dance "recital". She takes tap/ballet class every Saturday morning through the Sunrise Park and Recreation District and class is typically held in a small dance room where there isn't much space for parents to hang out to watch practices. To make up for that, the teacher holds the last class of each session at a local community center in a larger room and families can come watch class. The boys and girls don't mind that they aren't putting on a big dance performance but are just so happy to have family there to see them dance and cheer them on.

Walt left early Saturday morning on a hunting day trip with his buddy, Ken, so he wasn't able to see Carley's show this weekend but has been at all the others. We were excited to have Janeice, Josette and Shawn come watch though. Carley really enjoyed having extra family there to watch her.

Bye-bye Blond

Josh's hair was many colors this summer: orange, blue, bleached, red. It settled into a nice summery blond when he was headed back to school. Blond and long.
Over the last week he's been asking for me to cut it and he wanted it short. So here he is back to his dark, ash brown hair and it's short. Right after I cut it he tried to style it into a faux-hawk (unsuccessful and in the picture) and then added gel and spiked the whole top.

I think it took a couple years off of him. I think he looks considerably younger than he did with the long, blond hair. Shhh, don't tell him.
And here's a picture of Smokey just because. He was so excited to see me, although I'd been in and out of the house. Maybe he was really excited to see me using my camera.

It's October So Bake a Cake!

Ever since Josh was a little boy, and I mean like a toddler boy, if he eats something gooey or chocolaty he gets it around the edges of his mouth and it stays there forever. Sometimes if it's really good he'll get it all around his mouth, not just at the corners. Today I made some chocolate cake (mmm, so good Too Much Chocolate Cake not really from scratch but so scrumptious) and let the kids lick the beaters. Even after I told Josh to go wash his face he still walked around like this....
He wasn't too happy about me talking him into a picture.