This Week on Instagram

Jimi's:

"Our 757 in Bellingham..."

"Our 777 neighbor in LA...you could drive that truck through the engine."

"That INOP sticker means delayed. Prolly 30 minutes or so."

Kelli's:

"Jupiter"

"Sunday"

"Maybe my favorite dessert."

"Watering her rock garden."

She takes really good care of it.

"As I go to take a cute little picture of him in the fridge, he turns around and hands me an egg."

He just recently learned how to open the fridge and it makes me bonkers!

 "Freckle."

"Talking to her imaginary friend Wendy. It's Wendy's birthday today and she can't find her shiny shoes. 'oh no!' "

I could not figure out where she got the name Wendy. Then Jimi told me about one day we went to Wendy's, and he was talking to her about the picture of Wendy on the sign. Ha ha!

"Rain and Jammies all day."

The day after our company left, it rained all entire day. So this was us all entire day. It felt good.

"Good night."

I lay by her while she falls asleep. It is my designated read time.

"It's what's for breakfast."

"She is a princess locked in a cage."

"Avery gets along better with her boy friends than her girl friends. Way less drama."

"I could sit right down and cry. Evan no longer likes to go to the play place."

You should see him scan the place for these carts when we pull up to the grocery store.

So, no more hour vacation for me when I go shopping.

Jimi says it's "paradise lost." And it is. But at least Evan is happy.

One time I tried to force him to go to the play place and he threw the biggest fit, and everyone in the entire store was watching me to see what I was going to do about it, and I got all sweaty.

"Playing in the boneyard."

"Seconds away from a fight."

It was a short fight.

"My tulips bloomed!"

I'm gonna plant way more bulbs this fall. I didn't realize how much I would love watching them sprout and bloom this spring.

"At Chuck E Cheese. Best pizza Ever."

We drove 45 mins to Burlington specifically to go to Outback Steakhouse. It didn't open until 4pm, so we dinked around the mall while we waited.

There was a Chuck E Cheese at the mall, so we made a goal line decision to go there instead. We had a huge blast!

Instead of trying to get the kids to behave themselves, they were encouraged to run around with their hair on fire. Evan loved the cars that you get in and sit in, you know like the ones at the grocery stores? Here, I'll post a pic of it:

And Avery found some little girl friends she ran around playing tag with.

Such a good memory.

"@Emily Here's hoping."

She and I both had Easter eggs that didn't peel properly. The shell stuck to the white. So annoying.

"@Emily success. Egg salad sandwich."

"Coming in for a landing."

It looked way cooler in real life.

Then why did you instagram it?

Because I'm obsessed with Allegiant. I love that darn company. Back off.

Well, you should have been watching the road while you were driving.

I wasn't driving, Jimi was.

Oh, so he's not even the one flying that airplane? You just took a random picture of the airplane?

Yep. I told you to back off.*

*this conversation didn't actually take place. 

"Dog roll-up."

"Typed her name all by herself. I helped her with the Jean and Larsen."

Complaints to HR

I would like to submit a complaint in hopes that this problem will get resolved civily before it turns into an interoffice fracas.

When I put Evan in the bathtub, I expect a 10-20 minute bath. The problem is, he immediately starts kicking his legs so as to create big splashes. This is a problem because it gets the floor wet. This can become a very big problem because of issues of slipping and even worse - mold. Mold will not be tolerated.

The actions I have already taken are: I warn Evan every time that if he does not cease creating the problem splashing, he will be removed from the bathroom area. Still he continues to splash, wherein I remove him abruptly. In this process he gets me (fully clothed) extremely wet. At this point he screams and fights to get back in the tub.

I would expect after several of these incidents he would get the connection: splashing = removal from bathroom area. He does not. It has been almost two months. This result of shortened bath times does not give adequate time for him to get cleaned and/or raiseny.

I like my kids raiseny.

Beach Combing

I know, you've seen a million pictures like these already. Like, every other blog post.

But the Jim and Kelli Larsen family has a tendency toward ritual outings.

When we lived in Henderson, we would go to "DQ and BCP" when we felt like getting out of the house. Meaning, we would get ice cream from Dairy Queen and eat it at Boulder City Park - the west desert, the duck pond - all the time.

Our current ritual outing is the bay. Of course Evan couldn't pick a happier place to be. Look at all those dog-gone rocks! Right here! And I don't have to hover over him, or watch for restaurant managers to come politely ask us to quit taking the decorative rocks from the landscape. (That's never happened, but I'm waiting for it).

Piper's only problem is that she can't stop drinking the salt water, which makes her more thirsty, which makes her want to drink more salt water, which makes her more thirsty....

Avery loves to look for seashells. She isn't picky about what shells she collects. Any random, bleached out shard will do. It cracks me up how breathless and excited she is to show me the most mundane piece of riff raff on the beach.

My recent treasures.

Jim found some kind of weirdo plant/animal/carcass.

He's been on the look out for Japanese tsunami debris, but so far, none has washed up.

Bouncy log.

It's our collective happy-ritual outing-let's get out of the house-place.

Capilano

We took the Grandparents to the Forest Moon of Endor,

I mean Capilano Suspension Bridge.

(I know, I already cracked that joke last time we came...)

You can look down super far and up super high to see the same tree. It's amazing how tall they are.

Avery kept yelling to the water,

"Is anyone there?"

I still get really nervous crossing the bridge.

I just basically put my head down and keep walking. Evan in front of me is practically running. When it starts swaying at a darn near 45 degree angle, he falls over giggling.

I just look around me confused as to why I am the only one afraid?

He's yelling his favorite word, "hi!".

If I had a nickle for every time he said that word....

I'd have a lot of nickles.

La Conner

After the tulip show, we went to this really cool little town right on the Swinomish channel.

It might be my favorite of the unique little Washington towns.

Evan's rock radar located some decorative rocks next to a restaurant. He always finds a way to throw rocks in water. It's kind of an obsession.

The boys went to the waterfront while us gals went to a quilt museum.

They saw seals peak out of the water, and loggers floating cargo down the river.

The museum was in this really old restored mansion.

The antiques were my favorite.

This quilt reminded me of the book I just finished, "Pope Joan". Did you know there was probably a female pope (disguised as a man)? Scandalous!.

I liked these.

All the floors were the original wood. Creaky.

This room in the "tower" was so fairy-tail-y. Spindles and rocking chairs and a painted ceiling.

Very enchanting.

Until next spring, Skagit Valley.

Tulip Festival

I hope you like pictures of tulips...

Every year Skagit county has a tulip festival in April. They are one of the largest suppliers of tulip bulbs. Some guy told Jimi that tulips grow best at this latitude, above and below the equator. We looked to see what latitude Holland is at, and it's very similar. Neato!

I couldn't help but take a million pictures. It was so amazing, and the colors were so bright against the blue/grey sky. Especially this area that was just fields of red and yellow. It was a more agricultural view of the flowers. Later we went to Tulip Town to see a groomed showcase of all the colors.

This one's all, "look at me, I'm different."

The red and yellow made such a vivid contrast.

Rows and rows and rows.

Next year we will wear mudding boots.

These next pictures are from Tulip Town. From the car, we all gasped when we drove up and saw the rainbow in the field.

This picture looks like it was enhanced or workshopped, but it wasn't. None of these pictures were.

It was like they were on fire.