Monday Night Thoughts

- Even short overnighters to a summer basketball event can be perfect getaways when you don't have any kids with you (of your own. There will actually be a LOT of kids around at a summer basketball event, but if you don't have to feed or house them it totally doesn't count!)

- It's great to show self-control when out grocery shopping by not buying the gourmet chocolate chips you love to snack on so much, but oh so sad when 9pm rolls around and you just need a little something sweet and have NO CHOCOLATE CHIPS.

SO SAD.

- Daughters who get their braces removed after having them on since the beginning of junior high (two summers ago) look dangerously older...and prettier... immediately!

(Thus concludes Monday night thoughts.)

The Father's Day Report, among other things

I don't know what happened to my slow and relaxing summer. I had it for a week, and then it up and disappeared, yet to return. This directly relates to my lack of blogging lately, along with my lack of house cleaning and cooking... other areas of my life in sad disarray. Thankfully I have no picture proof of that... let's get to what I do have proof of!

First off: Father's Day. Ours was just great; my unofficial gift to Russell being no picture-taking, except for this one which happened right after we took him to shop for hunting gear so he was very pliable ;) The kids gave him two boxes of Twix ice-cream bars because they are Russ's new ALL-TIME favorite treat. (The new is actually the shocking part here, Russ's food preferences are mostly deeply-rooted and unchangeable.)

(Which is why I can't get him to stop eating Top Ramen or Mother's Taffy cookies.)

Also over the weekend... Blake finally lost his first tooth. (Only took 7 years, 3 months, and 325 complaints about why he had NO LOOSE TEETH when EVERYONE IN HIS CLASS was losing teeth left and right, and had been for 2 whole grades now.) 

Obviously the excitement level was on par with Christmas morning. He yanked it out himself after Russ failed with the dental floss, bounced around the house in excitement while we all cheered and hurrahed, and then went to bed in anticipation of a little cash reward discovery in the morning.

Too bad the tooth fairy forgot to visit. There was much mom-shaming from the older siblings until I finally just forked over what I had in my wallet because it turns out Blake doesn't even believe in the tooth fairy anymore, it took his baby teeth so long to decide to bail ship and begin the exiting process. 

Last Friday night was Cooper's final baseball game of the season. At the little awards party afterwards Coop was described as the most analytical player (and child) Coach Ewing had ever met. WECOME TO OUR WORLD, COACH EWING. Gosh, I love that kid. 

And from last Thursday, and also two or three times this week: swimming at Aunty Kelly's. Aka: how many children can we fit in one 3 ft. deep pool.

As long as the kids can make a whirlpool, they don't seem to mind the smaller pool size.

And the last two days have been spent with these three lovely ladies; my sister, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Christine, and Christine's mom, Jean. 

We've been wedding dress shopping while Christine's parents are in town, and yesterday afternoon we found the winner! I did myself proud and didn't even tear up until we were back in the car heading home.

What a fun season of life! I was honored to be a part of it.

So that's the report! Back to crazy-land now... "what I wore" will be up later!

Lincoln

This cutie-patootie is my 10-month-old nephew, Lincoln. He came to stay with me last weekend while his parents were away on an anniversary trip, which meant after a six-year break from babydom I was thrown back into the world of feedings and high chairs and playpens and naps and rocking, and everything else that comes along with precious and adorable wee ones. 

It was all fun and games until there was sticky poop up the back and I'd completely run out of energy and had to wonder how I'd ever manage if I had to do it over again. I think I'll stick to auntying please!

Auntying is LOTS of fun. I got to squish those cheeks and arms and legs and smell that head and giggle and make goofy noises and video him every other hour and get my baby fill to my heart's content, and then send him home and take a gloriously long Sunday afternoon nap! 

The nap was great of course, but I think I might need to "borrow" Lincoln again in the near future ;)

Monday Confessional: Blake edition

(found today while looking through the school books Blake brought home at the end of the school year. LOVE THIS KID.)

Preach it, Blake. We don't mess around with lying in our house ;)

Sweet Sixteen

If anyone can find a way to name every anniversary to try and give it extra-special significance, it would be me. And this year was our Sweet 16th!

I don't know why I'm saying "was", it's today, actually. But as I'm watching my nephews for the weekend and Russell is hosting an 18-team summer league basketball tournament, we pretended it was last weekend and celebrated with a night out in Portland.

Russell made all the plans this year, booking dinner reservations at McCormick & Shmicks Harborside Restaurant on the waterfront, with dessert reservations afterwards at The Melting Pot. Well done, honey! 

This restaurant holds a special place in our hearts as it's the restaurant Russell brought me to the night we got engaged. 

The Melting Pot also holds a special place, because #1: Melted chocolate. and #2: underground awesomeness. 

That's the entrance. It's a spiral staircase down to an underground fondue restaurant that is beyond cool. 

Russ bought the romance package so we were led to an extra-secluded corner where there was a card and rose waiting for us, then they took our picture and gave it to us in a frame. Kinda fun, huh? Needless to say, we had a lovely evening, ending with a late night flick at the theatres.

I'm not going to get all gooey on the blog this year because I already did last year, and I try to mostly save all sappiness for in person. (Trust me, I can be the sappiest sap you ever did roll your eyes at.) But I did tear up a teeny bit when Kendall revealed this to us... 

SHE DREW US.

How sweet is that?

Starting Summer Right

I mentioned last week I was leaving Thursday morning on a surprise overnight trip for Kendall's 8th grade class to celebrate their promotion to high school. A trip the kids had fundraised for all year but the parents completely planned and kept secret until the moment we left (for one reason, and one reason alone: to avoid hearing, "that sounds lame!" or "I want to do something different!")

And let me tell you something, we did GOOD.

So where did we take them? After Starbucks, I mean?

Seattle, baby! 

We drove 3.5 hours north into Washington State and ate lunch and shopped at Pike's Place, before taking a ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island, the cutest little tourist town and the location of the amazing Mora ice cream shop where I died and went to heaven. Mmmm.

Then we took the ferry back across the sound and rode the giant ferris wheel at sunset.

Possibly my favorite part of day 1. Look at that gorgeous view!

 

After the ferris wheel we came across a street artist who was spray painting this picture... all the boys in our group were immediately captivated and one of them bought the finished product. It was so impressive to watch as he did the whole thing with spray cans and a paint scraper! 

We finished the evening at the spacious house of a local friend of mine who generously let us all stay with them and cook the kids dinner and breakfast in the morning there before heading off on day 2's adventure. 

(pic: watching Napoleon Dynamite into the wee hours.)

 And for day 2?...

Wild Waves! 

A very fun water and amusement park just south of Seattle. It was perfect weather, sunny and near 80 degrees, and we let the kids loose after packing in picnic lunches and stayed until closing. It was SO MUCH FUN. Us moms who went (5 of us) had a blast riding all the rides and going down all the water slides and I can't remember when I've laughed so much while simultaneously consuming large amounts of water ;)

We ended the trip with dinner at Red Robin on the way home, pulling back into our school in Oregon at 10:30 pm. 

I would say the trip was a swimming success. Especially as the kids didn't have to pay for a single thing the whole trip - and us mom's had the best group of kids we could ever have asked for. They were so good and easy, and we had no worries the entire time.

What a perfect way to kick off summer! 

(Goofing off with my friend Kristie - we loved you, Seattle!)

On to high school {and off to college}

Our darling firstborn had her 8th grade promotion Friday night, and is officially on to high school!

{deep breaths, deep breaths} 

It was such a proud night for Russ and I. I don't think I stopped beaming all evening long.

From the beautiful song this group of young ladies sang...

To receiving several awards, and looking absolutely lovely to boot, it was a great night for our girl.

Topped off by a fun mini-room makeover reveal when we got home (new rug, bedding, and curtains).

And speaking of graduates, these two graduated high school yesterday! 

Ben and Miranda (cousins) are our oldest niece and nephew and have made us so, so proud to be their Aunt and Uncle. They are both State players of the year (volleyball and basketball), honor students, and scholarship recipients to Multnomah University where they will head in the fall. I see a lot of college sports games in our future and I can't wait! 

All in all, a fantastic weekend :)