and then a not-so-good weekend

Not all weekends can be spontaneous family trips to holiday paradises like Eugene, Oregon. Some weekends you get the stomach flu. And sometimes it happens the very next weekend.

I started feeling off at the church Potato Derby on Friday night. What? Did I say something funny? Do I hear the sounds of you mocking the Potato Derby? You will never mock again after you have built a car out of a potato and raced it on the pinewood derby track! And then won a prize for how awesome your car is.

But awesome car and prize aside, I was not feeling too great. And the smell of canned chili and bacon that hit me once I walked through the doors of the church almost convinced me that we should go back home. But if you have met me and know how much I like to win things (did I mention our car won a major award?), we stuck around. And then barely made it home in time. Blech.

So I spent the weekend watching the Olympics, hallucinating about the Olympics, and throwing up.

The weather was gorgeous on Saturday so Jared removed the children from my toxic presence and went to the park. And here are some pics of their fun outing. (I didn't get any pics of my fun outings. Get it? Outings? Ha!)

I love this handsome guy. And his huge, huge head.

This slide is crazy steep. Only Eleanor could get this kind of smile out while going down it. Anything for a camera!

That's more like it.






I promise we don't avoid taking pictures of Eve. She just is always too busy to stop for a camera. This is the best picture of her from the park - her bum, building a sand castle.

See what I mean? This does capture the true essence of Eve, I must admit.

And then Eve's best friend B. showing us his homemade tomahawk. I missed a lot of fun this weekend!

fakation

Jared is not really into his birthday. But I love birthdays and try to turn his into a national holiday every year, which can really irk him. Conveniently, his birthday often falls on a national holiday - thanks, President's Day! - which really helps my cause. So this year, it was the usual "Let's-do-something-super-fun!" from me and the "Let's-just-pretend-it-isn't-happening" from him.

So I was very surprised when, the Friday before his birthday Jared woke up and announced the following: he wanted to take a family trip for his birthday. His itinerary was so specific, I wondered if he had had a vision during the night! We would leave right after church on Sunday, leaving it a surprise for the kids until then. We would drive to Eugene (just 2 hours away), stay at a hotel with a nice indoor pool and good breakfast. We would let the kids swim their hearts out, eat waffles in the morning, visit the local children's science museum, spend some time at our favorite used bookstore, get lunch, and come home. He wasn't done yet! After arriving home, we would eat the Costco chocolate cake that I would have thoughtfully purchased on Saturday and open presents. Ta da! And that's what he wanted for his birthday.

With the small hiccup of the science museum being closed on Monday (we just swam a bit more in the morning), our uncharacteristically spontaneous trip went exactly as planned.

The girls getting acquainted with the hotel room

An exhausting 2 1/2 hours of swimming before bed

Doesn't everyone look so snuggly and warm? They were so tired after swimming so long, I was sure they would fall asleep instantly. Which most of them did. I wish I had pictures of us trying to convince Eleanor to stop snuggling with Eve at 3:30 in the morning....

A rousing, after-breakfast swim

Sam, who had some reservations about the pool, decided the hot tub was much more to his liking.

No pictures of the delicious two hours we spent at Smith Family Bookstore, but it was great fun and we came out with armfuls of books.


The sumptuous cake. (Can you see Sam's mouth in the background? Gah!)

My brother-in-law has connections at Adobe and was able to help me get Jared a much-discounted Adobe Design Suite for his birthday. (And thanks to all my family for chipping in, too.) He was completely speechless and talked about it non-stop for the next several days. The perfect complement for the awesome camera Jared's dad gave him. So if you want Jared to photoshop you into a picture or switch your head to someone else's body, now is the time to ask!

The whole trip lasted about 27 hours but left me with the most vivid, happy memories. And a lot of chocolate cake. :)

blowing bubbles

Eleanor begged me earlier today to let her blow bubbles in the house. But, based on how much bubble stuff spilled on the floor yesterday, I said no. So she left the uncapped bubble bottle on the desk and wandered off.

Fast forward 3 minutes: Sam holding the half empty bubble bottle, bubbles dripping from his mouth. After four alarming and bubbly throw-ups later - during which me moaned "Buh-buh... buh-buh!" - I think he got it all out of his system.

I bet stuff like this never happens at Jared's office!

she takes after her mother

Last night, Eve told me this: "On Saturday, I'm going to sleep in really late. Then I'm going to get up and have a huge breakfast. And after that I'm going to go back to bed and read all day!"

So weird to hear my secret fantasies come out of my daughter's mouth! She must have come by it genetically.

She does not, however, get her affection for frosting from me. Blech. But I still love her!

I'll include the other cookie eaters, because they are cute, too.

odds and ends

The past few weeks have been a bit hectic and my blog has suffered a bit because of it. We have been trying to get a workable budget in order and finally succeeded, but that has taken quite of bit of our attention lately. Always a bit scary to see the numbers, but so much smarter to know what I'm working with and what we can plan for. Along those same lines, I have recently started babysitting my neighbor's little boy for a few hours a week. He is 4 and completely darling, so not really strenuous work. But it's nice to feel that I am somewhat contributing to the family's finances, that maybe we can put a little extra aside. (And maybe I can buy myself some new running shoes?) At any rate, I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds finances stressful, right? It's been a little draining (babysitting included) and, at the end of the day, I would really rather veg or read, not blog.

Also, Young Womens (church youth group) is always crazy at the beginning of the year. We have our big annual New Beginnings program next week, which has demanded a lot of time and attention. Plus, we had a big sleepover with all the girls this past weekend and I still feel like I'm recovering! :) And aside from YW stuff, February includes two birthdays in this house, so I feel like you, dear blog, have suffered because of it.

So I thought I'd post a few random pictures, just to prove that we are still alive and well. Jared has been playing around with the supernice camera his dad handed down to him, so here are a few experimental pics:

I love Sam's paparazzi-harassed pose.