Spruce Goose

We had a four day weekend, so we hitched our wagons to the Black's vacation and drove down to Oregon.

The main objective was to see the Spruce Goose, with a side of adventuring with our buddies:

Eat giant donuts for dinner, pack all the children in the photobooth for 5$ printout, explore the hotel without parental guidance, eat free yogurt from the breakfast room, midnight McDonalds... 

So I don't totally care about airplanes, but I do love going to a museum: we all kind of scatter and wander around and look at things. I start out reading the information, but then my eyes kind of glaze over after a while. 

Some of us are stoked and others are content and others are hoping to buy stuff from the shop. 

We took turns touring the Goose. 

It is so giant! People in this world are so creative and inventive. They think of everything.

After a few hours, there is the stage of a museum when not one more thing can be read/looked at and everyone sits around, the children roll on the ground or sit on laps and start revolting. 

Which means it's time to go to the gift shop and beg for all the unnecessary merch. 

Between the airplane museum and the space museum is this playground for the kids to play on. 

Meanwhile we sat in comfy chairs and quietly looked at constellations on the wall.

By the way, Lauren and Kyle's family were also with us this whole time, but they do not appear in any of these pictures. 

We had so much fun with the addition of their family. 

Evan bonked his head on the playground and insisted he had a concussion. 

He didn't. 

OK OK we ended up getting Avery a bomber jacket. 

I'm just so excited for her to wear a warm coat. It's been years since she's done a thing like that. 

After the Spruce, we ate tacos and chimichangas and then the kids got ready to hit the airplane water park. 

That building behind us is the airplane water park, right next to the airplane museum. 

They were there for 4 hours and had so much fun. 

Jim Joe and Kyle changed into shorts, went down two slides, then changed back into street clothes. A quick big boy romp in the water park. haha

Then we all moseyed around the museum and ate the rest of Lauren's donuts (Grape Ape is maybe my favorite! or banana cream pie or mango madness) while waiting for the kids to finish. 

See that cool log cabin with a rock steeple back there? It was pretty. 

That night back at the hotel we ate pizza in the dining area, and then the kids played games in their rooms. It was the best most laid back hotel. They let us take over the place a bit. 

The next day, after big debates, we decided to go the long way home to see some more Oregon things. 

Like the Tillamook factory:

and  Cannon Beach:

Except Cannon was socked in by clouds! You can't even see Haystack Rock. 

It was also raining so we got DRENCHED - wet down to our underwear just in time for the last 5 hours of roadtrip.

But it was so fun and I don't know why hiking up slippery muddy slidey rouge trail seemed like a good idea, but you have the tiger by the tail so why not go to the top where it's roped off due to a land slide. 

We made sure not to fall down there. 

If Evan can do it in crocs, anyone can do it. 

We changed into dry clothes inside the car, wadded up the pile of wet clothes on top of my pillow (Andrew) and hit the road back home. 

**Honorable mention to Astoria! That little town is the coolest. Let's go back and hang out there some more!

We watched The Aviator the next day. 

Evan is 13

G and G Larsen came for Evan's birthday!

While the kids were at school, we worked on a puzzle and Jim worked on the cake. 

Ta Da! 

Evan is into Fortnite the worst game ever. 

The next day we went to Lake Terrell to try out his new fishing poles. 

We attached the gigantic worms to the hook...

and untangled fishing wire for the billionth time...

and practiced casting. It took some getting used to, some figuring out how not to tangle the line, 

and with about 20 hooks out in the water (with other people's poles as well as our 3), we didn't catch anything! 

I guess fish don't feed in the middle of the afternoon on a freezing February day.

haha

But the point was to try it out and get the hang of it. It was fun!

We explored around a bit and of course did weird Fortnite dances. 

Good thing we weren't relying on fish for lunch. 

Instead we ate Taco Time. 

We watched The Fugitive and Maverick while G and G were here. I love watching those kinds of movies with everyone.  

We watched Jim fly around in the simulator.

Saturday some of us went to Galbraith. 
Evan is getting so good at the down hill (still working on not hating the up hill).

I like me and Evan's relationship right now. 

He is funny and goofy. He lets me hug him, he tells me about stuff. 

He says "thank you mommy" after every single meal. 

He puts himself to bed when he's tired with a "good night everybody!"

Sometimes he asks if I will tuck him in, and I get his baby blankey and cuddle it around his face and say silly cuddly things and he smiles. 

One time Avery tucked him in and tried to do the baby blankey thing and he said "no only mom can do that." 

He is my fellow time minder. We both have the gene that makes us obsess about being on time. So when it's time to get out the door, I can count on him to be just as panicked as I am about the count down to launch. 

He is also VERY MIDDLE SCHOOL BOY right now - loud, obnoxious, banging on everything, giggling at the word "balls" no matter the context, gets super mad while playing video games etc. 

Two teenagers IN THE HOUSE!

LETS GO!

January

Koda joined me for a Sunday nap. This is her way of begging me to go to the forest. 

She lay her wet nose on my neck for 10 minutes. It worked because off we went in the cold - last weekend a winter wind blew in the most frigid air. 

We took all the family to the forest as the sun set.

Andrew talked the whole time. 

Did you know that a dog sniffing for 30 minutes will wear out faster than just walking alone for 30 minutes?

Well Andrew talking non-stop for 30 minutes wears me out faster than running alone for 30 minutes. 

snot

See in the background? We were watching Nate Bargatze's new comedy special on Amazon. 

He is funnny. 

Last week a bunch of kids came to Galbraith with us. 

Me and Lisa ran from the North side to the South side. 

Topics included:

*Lord of the Rings - why couldn't anyone else help with the burden of the ring? Why couldn't Sam take turns carrying it? He just couldn't. It was Frodo's burden to bare. Like motherhood. You can't just share it with someone. All the heavy mental lifting that comes with being a mom is non-transferable. 

* Bailey starting public school for the first time

Spoons

We are planning a five night stay at Rainier this summer. 

Here we are planning our route. 

Then we went to this cool park with a zillion fairy trees.

Evan's basketball season is over. 

He has improved so much! Since he was on the C team, he was one of the best...a team leader. 

At this game he dribbled down and scored twice in a row. 

When your team only scores about 12 points total, that's a big deal. He was so stoked. 

So far this year I have only subbed for PE in the middle school. I plan on getting into Andrew and Avery's classrooms some time, but it's just not my favorite thing to do anymore. 

Tell me you have a middle schooler without telling me you have a middle schooler...

Isn't that style the silliest? The kids are funny these days. 

Today we went to Galbraith with the little boys again. 

This time I rode with them while Jim and Joe went and did their own thing.

It was so fun! 

Me bringing up the rear, Evan in the front, Cooper and Hudson in between. 

We are all at very similar levels. At this big roller coaster, they were cheering me on. I don't know if I would have done it without their peer pressure. haha. 

I feel excited to ride with them again soon. They are such fun kids when we are out doing this stuff.

There was some groaning and complaining about the uphill climb though....

Onward we march into February. The hardest part of winter...and we are almost there. 

Actually this part of our lives is nice because no one is in sports, so we have lots of down time. 

In April I am coaching middle school soccer and every single child will be in a sport, so I'm going to bask in the hibernation while I can. 

Also, the other day I said I couldn't wait for winter to be over,

and Jim said "we are too old to wish for stuff to be over." 

It's true. There is no cure for aging, there is no cure for the thief of time.