The Rest of the Story

It is so hard to blog about the past when life keeps happening. So here is the rest of our Oregon story. Probably a little disjointed but the highlights will be covered at least...well, in pictures anyway.


Pirate Baby Squirt
Most of us went to the Aquarium. Thanks Rhonda! Some cousins at the aquarium.

Diver ET

Squirt's Aquarium experience

Diver Thumbelina

Going for a ride

Diver Munchkin

Obligatory shark picture.Munchkin watching the fish

More cousins

Inside the fish tank

Uncle Andrew's head gear.

ET with his favorite two people--you know since he only has sisters.

Thumbelina's reluctant pose

Munchkin trying to eat the berries on the bushes.

Other highlights include: walks on the beach, Rockband, playing in the ocean, smores on the beach, hubby's dunebuggy ride, new Oregon T-shirts, ET covering himself with sand--multiple times, taking baths and showers with cousins, playing and fighting with cousins, kite flying, and all sorts of fun stuff with aunts and uncles. I missed much of this due to the nature of babies and nursing. Squirt saw the beach from the car and the balcony because she is still in the -I can't breathe if it's windy stage. It was such a fun trip. Maybe next time we do it closer?

More of the Story

We were gone for a week. Monday afternoon to 12:30 am early Monday morning. All in all we were in the car for around 34 hours. With 4 kids. But the non-driving part was fun!

Munchkin packing for the trip

We spent 2 nights with my parents. The first night, ET woke up crying. He needed to blow his nose so he went into the bathroom and turned the light on. Then it was so bright, he couldn't open his eyes. Munchkin woke up next. Sometime around 2 am, I think. She had a bad dream about something. (I am sure she tried to tell us but we went to sleep around midnight and I don't remember.) She wouldn't go back to her bed. I tried to get her to snuggle with hubby but she wanted me. So I tried to get hubby to go somewhere else but he wouldn't leave either. It was already a snug fit going from our king sized bed to a double. Add in a Munchkin and it was not fun at all! The next morning, my parents took the kids to the park. Hubby and I cleaned out the car and repacked. That night, we rearranged the sleeping situation. We put the girls in the double and hubby and I slept on a futon in the living room...until about 2 am. Thumbelina had a bad dream about ants and ran screaming (like I have never heard her scream before) down the hallway. My Dad caught her and I tried to take her and she was holding on for dear life. I handed her off to hubby to check on the othe

r girls, and as he took her past the door of the room she'd been sleeping in, she started screaming, "No! I don't wanna go in there! I don't wanna go in there!!" So another night of sleeping with a kid. This time I left and slept on the couch. I let my 15 year old sister cut my hair. She had cut her own hair and I liked it so I asked her to cut mine. It involved a lot of cutting, thinning scissors, and a razor. I have no hair left.

And I have to do it now or it looks like the second picture. The ocean air made doing my hair pointless.

Maybe it was a buy one get one free sale?

Then drive, drive, drive. Stop to pee, stop to feed the baby, pump while we drive. (Oh yeah, while at my parents' house, when Munchkin was trying to get into bed with us, she stepped on my pump and broke it so only one side worked. But, the medela people are awesome. We called to order the part and they sent it to us for free. "As a courtesy." Fantastic, especially because it's my sister's pump and I didn't want to have to buy her a new one.)

Squirt liked the movie

And then we got to Oregon.

That's Right, Ladies

This one's all mine!

(Check out K rocking those drums. At 8, he's way better than me!)

Road Trip

We joined hubby's family for a vacation in Lincoln City, Oregon last week. It was lots of fun, little bits of sleep and great food.

The weeks leading up to it were filled with, "Not now--we'll do that when we go to Oregon."

*One time I asked Thumbelina to go potty---about 3 days before we left. She asked me if we were leaving. Then she asked if there was a potty in Oregon.

*Every time ET saw a river or lake he would scream that it was the ocean and that we were there! Even when we passed the Great Salt Lake.

*Munchkin developed a fear of public potties. So she held it for over 10 hours. YAY for no accidents!

*Thumbelina developed a love for peeing on the side of the freeway. At first she didn't want to do it but we were just past Podunk in the middle of nowhere. Then every time we would announce a potty break, she would ask if we were going to pee on the side of the road.

And that only got us as far as my parents house in Glenns Ferry, where we were already so tired of being in the car, we stayed for two days.

Lookit!

This is what we did today:

Can you see it?

How about now?

The Piercing Pagoda is gone!!! The tattooed and pierced guy who did Thumbelina and Munchkin wasn't there to take care of Squirt. So we went to Claire's. A pregnant lady came in to watch because she's having a girl and wanted to know how babies handled it. Squirt gave her quite a show. She screamed when the girl cleaned her ears, screamed when she dotted them, screamed when she pierced them. Then she found her thumb and all was right with the world again. Now she's happy as a clam...and asleep.

Double First

Today, ET had his first day of first grade.And here is his slept-in-the-car-Saturday-night-smashed-my-foot-at-Grandma-and-grandpa's-house-got-home-last-night-around-midnight-need-a-haircut-but-settled-for-a-shower first day of school picture. Doesn't he look excited!! Poor guy is so tired. Hopefully he was good for his new teacher.

Tidbits and Problems Solved

Karate Munchkin

She wants to do everything her siblings are doing. Good thing we have three karate suits. She just looks like a midget or she's kneeling down. But she does have her punches down.

Octopus

We saw on another blog where they made hot dog octopus dinner. The girls wanted to try it while ET was at karate. They were just supposed to put 8 noodles in the bottom. That wasn't enough noodles. They started making humans with lots of hair and arms and legs. So at the end, some of the hot dogs had about 30 pieces of spaghetti in them. ET and Hubby wouldn't even try them, but the girls loved them and have requested they make them again.

Jelly Roll

Thumbelina wanted a Strawberry cake for her (real) birthday. I was out of cake mixes but I had ingredients and strawberries. Easy to find a recipe, right? Wrong! All of the recipes I could find got their strawberry flavor from a box of strawberry Jello. So we made this instead. My first jelly roll. It was more like a sugar cookie roll, and the filling did include a box of jello, but it was yummy!
My second jelly roll: Much easier than the first...and less messy.

Problem Solved!

Remember this kid and her inability to keep a blanket on no matter how tightly she's wrapped up?
A 30 year old solution. This came from hubby's mom when we had ET. She made it when hubby was a baby...or before. Try kicking out of that!