Lily's New Look

Lily has decided that she likes a frisbee and a tennis ball together. She has to walk with her head down though or she can't see where she is going. Silly girl. She will not chase after a frisbee as I would like her to, but she has decided it is a fun toy to just carry around.

Food Dreams

Seth's latest art. I love how much detail is included in Seth's drawings even though they appear quite simplistic. You will have to click on the picture to see the detail close up, but Seth informed me there are two rowboats, one with Mom and Dad, the other with he and Lacey. Each person is thinking about food. From left to right, it is Lacey having eggs, Seth having pizza and rootbeer, Mom having pizza, and Dad having a hot dog. Leave it to a 12 year old boy to draw a picture including food dreams!

On Saturday, Seth participated in the 2009 Track Regionals. It was a very long day, VERY cold, but exciting at the same time. Seth participated in four events and received a gold medal, two silvers and a sixth place.

The gold medal was for softball throw which he threw 13 meters!

The silvers were for the 200 meter walk and the 1x400 meter relay. The sixth place was for the 50 meter dash. Seth was not quite sure what the dash was all about so he was too busy looking at me taking a picture of him. = )

He was excited about the medals at the time, but doesn't want anything to do with any attention from them now, the little stinker. It was a great experience and we are now looking forward to State!

One-Oh-Oh!

Way to go!! Seth has walked 100 miles since September! We are very proud of him.

These are the little charms that Seth receives for every 10 miles, he keeps them on a keychain.

Up, Up and Away

It was a beautiful day for a plane ride and Lacey was lucky enough to be invited. My boss, Grover, offered plane rides to Lacey and Seth. Seth was a little cranky today and wanted to go straight home after track practice so he missed out....maybe next time. Lacey, on the other hand, was all over it! She did get a little pre-flight jitters and considered backing out, but I'm very proud of her for working through it and going anyway. Her biggest fear was that Grover would do loop-de-loops. Grover guaranteed her that he had no desire to fly upside down so she figured all was well. She really enjoyed it and was even able to spot our house from the air. She forgot to get a picture of that, but here are a couple of pictures and videos from the experience. Here's Grover giving her some pre-flight instruction with Lacey listening intently:

Video that I took of the takeoff. The plane is just a speck in the beginning, but it is there. = )

Nice picture of the Lewis and Clark bridge.

Thank you Grover for such a nice flight!

Rip City!

The kids had never been to a professional sports game of any kind, and of course, I love to watch pro basketball so what better thing to do than go to a Blazer game. I checked for some tickets and found there was a game on Lacey's birthday. It was awesome, both kids loved it and the Blazers won by a huge margin! Lacey loved the music, the game and the whole experience.

Seth wrapped the binoculars around his neck and spent a lot of time checking out the cheerleaders and Blazer dancers. I bet, if asked, he would tell you that a Blazer "uniform" consists of red sequin half tops and hot pants. Gotta love a pre-teen boy!
Now that the Blazers are in the playoffs, we are hoping they can get past the Houston Rockets and all the way to the Championship would be really sweet! Could happen!

Eight + Eight = A Lot of Eggs!

There were eight egg-colorers, eight helpers and at least eight dozen eggs! Amazingly, the dye only left lasting impressions on the eggs it was intended for and a few fingers. Well....unless we count the drink or two that Tehya took out of her green dye! We thought the experience of drinking it last year would have been memorable for her but apparently she loves the taste of green vinegar water -- yuk!

Now, something just for fun. I found this quite a while ago and thought it would be fun for Easter. I really hate peeps, but peep research made me smile.

http://www.peepresearch.org/

Happy Easter!

Seth's Savings Plan

A conversation with Seth:

Seth: "Mom, I know a way you can save lots of money".

Mom: "Really, how"?

Seth: "Geico dot com"

I don't think he watches too much TV, do you?? = )

Inn at Port Hadlock

Oh my! This place is fabulous! We thought there would be a little kitchenette - imagine our surprise when we opened the door and found this.
Here's the view looking the other way. These curtains are at least 12' high.


And the fireplace:

The bedroom. There is also a full dressing room and large bathroom.
The view from our room:

Needless to say, we are having a great time!

San Francisco

We are back! Four days in San Francisco with absolutely beautiful weather -- incredible! We timed it perfectly to miss the last (hopefully) snow of the winter.

We had a great time touring the city, watching the sea lions at Pier 39, shopping, riding cable cars and experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the big city. Favorite sights were....

the sea lions,

the architecture,

the history, and

of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.

The sounds -- of the street musicians, the cable cars, sirens, car alarms and the ever-present honking of horns. After only the first hour, you realize how incredibly polite our drivers are in this neck of the woods. Unbelievably, we never witnessed an accident although I cannot for the life of me figure out how one does not occur at every intersection, every minute of the day.

The smells. No, not smog, the sky was clear and the air fresh. Let's just say we are not used to public transportation and the unfortunate "togetherness" that is experienced on crowded buses, trolleys and cable cars. The choice is sitting down and having butts in your face and armpits overhead or standing up with your butt in someone else's face, having way too close of an encounter with perfect strangers. OK, strangers yes, perfect no. Sometimes the public transportation was interesting, but for the most part we were grossed out and used quite a bit of antibacterial wash.

On a good note, I did notice a lot of respect for elderly on public transportation. It is a law, which is clearly stated on every train, that seats must be vacated for the elderly or disabled. But even so, I saw an overabundance of respect in this regard. Because of the old buildings and general layout of the city, I think it would be an extremely difficult place to navigate if you have physical disabilities, but the attitudes were always positive.

I do know that I will never, ever, attempt to drive in San Francisco. I swear that the traffic lanes are 3 feet narrower than ours and a hair's width is more than enough space to park. Trust me when I say the cab and shuttle drivers do not have the art of easing the gas pedal -- driving consists of lurching forward, slamming on the brake, diving lane to lane and honking the horn. Traffic lights are respected for the most part because the fines start around $300, but speed is apparently not as important because 75 in a 45mph zone is perfectly acceptable.

It was an interesting city, but it is always good to be home.