Mother's Day Walk

After our big stuff-our-face Thai treat, we decided to take the kids for a walk at a park nearby.

Here's what it's like to have a seven-year-old:

And a built-in koala:

(And not shown is the girl. Who was likely moving too fast to be caught on camera.)

Anyway. Happy Mother's Day Times Three to me.

Mother's Day 2009

Okay, I'm gonna take a little recess here and catch y'all up.

Since Mother's Day is such a huge celebration in our house (*COUGH*), I figured I'd let you see what all went on.

First, Pa was in the mood for Thai food so we drove OVER THE RIVER to the HILLY SIDE OF TOWN just so he could have some hot and holy basil fried rice.

Happy! Mother's! Day! To! Me!

Okay. So the food was pretty good. (I'm having panang curry.)

And the company entertaining:

And this is what I looked like as a mother in circa 2009.

Just so you know.

Washington Coast: Part 8

Ooooh, Nelly. The last part of our free vacation package was a free wine, cheese and chocolate tasting at a nearby winery.

We've always wanted to do a wine tasting, but our life stage doesn't exactly lend itself to such delights. But free? FREE? And while we were already on vacation?

SCORE.

Pa and I each got to try six or forty-seven different wines. I lost track after a while. I also lost my ability to walk a straight line, but Pa seemed to be holding his own. I'm not sure if "bottoms up" is proper wine-drinking terminology, but hey. We're hicks.

Speaking of being hicks, I've not felt that dorky in a while. I mean, I just can't pull off "cool" or "refined" so my default mode went right into "acting like an idiot."

Didn't get any pictures of that. Sorry.

But it was fun to try several wines on someone else's dime. And there's no concern about either of us becoming drunkards anytime soon. About the only wine we liked enough to buy was $29 a bottle.

Mmm-hmmm. Water is lovely, thanks.

So here I am, post-wine:

And the Pa:

See? Just as dorky as always.

I'm sure the Suz was tearing up the place at this point, but we did manage to capture a shot of the boys hanging out near the vines (vines not pictured):

Wish you could have been there. It was an entertaining experience for us all.

Washington Coast: Part 7

Also included in our vacation package was a $100 gift certificate to a local restaurant:

Which overlooked this:

And no surprise, specialized in seafood.

The gift certificate was a one-time, use-it-or-lose-it kind of thing, so we made sure to Make It Count.

We ordered a big ol' tray of appetizers. A meal for each of the kids. Fresh salmon for the Ma and Pa. Beverages. (Beverages all around!) And once those courses were done, we ordered dessert.

One. for. each. of. us.

Living the American dream, people!

The over-bloated, all-you-can-eat dream!

Our food bill came to a whopping 90-some dollars. We've never spent that much money at a restaurant in. our. lives.

We eventually waddled out of the restaurant and posed ("happily") beside the pelican, or stork, or whatever that wooden bird was.

And we didn't need to eat for about three weeks post.

Gotta love "free."

Washington Coast: Part 6

Speaking of not wanting to pose for pictures anymore (*cough* *Cam!* *Zig!*), we still have one child who is in the height of smiling for the camera:

And it's the same face every time. We call it "picture face." Even request it when there's no camera around. Because we're hard up for entertainment, you see.

Included in our vacation package was a set of free tickets to climb the tallest lighthouse in Washington state.

Pa and I had to take turns climbing the 135 steps up to the top because kids Susie's age were not allowed in the lighthouse. Which was smart, because she never would have been able to climb that many steps, and the stairway was too narrow and I wasn't allowed to carry her (or anything) while making the trek.

Not to mention the random fear of heights or my own exhaustion and the slight claustrophobia while standing inside a rather narrow building.

I took the Zig up with me, and we truly enjoyed the 3.7 seconds we spent at the top.

(Get! me! down!)

Pa was not nearly so wrapped up in fears, so he had time to shoot a few pics like this:

Mmmm-hmmm, right? NAUSEA. PAIN.

Campers did about as well as I did with the whole phobias. That boy and I are two peas in a pod.

And all outside the lighthouse there were these randomly worded signs:

And then as we were leaving the lighthouse, we caught a glimpse of this:

Pure, unscripted sweetness.

Planted firmly on the ground.

Washington Coast: Part 5

I feel that hitting up a few sweet shops is part of the "Going To The Coast" list of laws.

So after we had frazzled everyone's nerves out on the fishing docks, we decided to make it all better with some donuts.

And some saltwater taffy.

The kids had never had taffy before, so we let them each pick out a few pieces to try.

As you can see from that picture, Zig was in a fine mood for posing.

UMMMMMM.

NOT SO MUCH.

But everyone was in a fine mood for eating.

Especially Pa and I and the gourmet chocolates, not pictured but greatly enjoyed.

Washington Coast: Part 4

Not sure why this kind of shot entertains me, but it does. The kids thought the binoculars looked like Wall-E:

Westport, WA is a small fishing town, so we took some time to walk the docks around the boats:

Campers spent the majority of that time worrying about falling in the water. Zig kept asking why he couldn't tour the inside of the boats, and the Suz consistently attempted to pull my arm out of socket in an attempt to run away.

But we eventually made our way back up to solid ground where are those troubles were quickly forgotten.

Helps that we were off to the candy and donut shops.

More pics and stories to come.

Washington Coast: Part 3

Our free five-day vacation sent us to Westport, Washington, a small coastal town that has a faincee condo, a lighthouse (more on that later) and one of these:

A Big Ladder Thing.

I'm not so sure what it's real purpose was, other than to allow those who climbed its steps an opportunity to feel the wind blow through their hair:

Well, minus the Pa of course. He felt the wind blow through his scalp. But he DID make a new friend while peering on high at the ocean:

Look everybody! Pacific Ocean!

Now I realize y'all know that the Suz is a racin' machine, but THIS is not her moving:

It's just the wind blowing back her hair.

Which greatly amused me, and so therefore I made the Pa take a whole stack of shots of just that.

Love the digital age!

Love the coast! And lots more pictures to come.

Washington Coast: Part 2

As promised, here is just a sampling of our pictures taken at the coast.

For a minute there, I thought about making sure I had the same number of pictures for each child. But I quickly gave up on that idea and you can just work from the assumption that I love some children more than the others.

Make sure you bookmark this post for future therapy session, m'kay?

So. The Washington coast. Notice: No one in the Pacific Northwest refers to "the coast" as "the beach." At a beach there are swimsuits and water above 33 degrees. Not so at the coast.

Regardless, the Pacific coast is just as awesome and amazing as you might imagine. The kids love it like they love nothing else...and this time around it was Zig who ran right up to me and shouted, "This! Is! It!" And that made me happy and I felt blessed blah blah blahbeddy blah blah to give them "the coastal experience."

There will be lots more vacation pictures to come (oh goody!), but for now, here is the coast:

Washington Coast: Part 1

Soooooooooo...blog friends! Haaaa-looooooooow!

We just got back from vacation a trip. Did you miss me?

In case you didn't hear, we won, and let me spell that out for you, DOUBLE-U-OH-ENN a no-strings-attached, five-day, four-night stay at a condo on the coast.

WOOT WOOT!

So, we made some quick scheduling adjustments, canceled our trip to the Redwood Forest (TO THE GULF STREAM WATERS), and headed to the Washington Coast.

It was awesome, and we have 18,375 pictures to prove it. I believe my next blog post is just going to be a slide show of a good handful of those, because really, just how many times can I say, "NEENER NEENER?"

Oh, quite a few times, really. But I'll hold back.

So, stay tuned for the whole lowdown on our week-long trip to the great state of Washington. No doubt the posts will eventually make you want to say, to quote the Pa, "Life's a beach."