We're feeling hot, hot, hot...

What do you do in the summertime in Seattle when temperatures are reaching record highs? Everything inside. We have been chasing the air conditioning this week and spending some quality time with our Grandpa and Grandma Eden.

On Monday, we went to the Pacific Science Center. We were able to see Animal Grossology and some of the other experiments that are usually there. The kids couldn't get enough of the exhibits. They would run from place to place faster than the adults could keep up.
The highlight of the day was going to Dick's Drive-In on Queen Anne. Grandpa introduced the kids to "real" hamburgers. They are all addicted and hope to go back soon. They walk around the house talking about the Dick's Deluxe burger.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo. It sounds hot to be at the zoo in hot temperatures but we met some friends and played at an air conditioned indoor play area called Zoonasium. Olivia's friend, Sophie, kept Tyler and Olivia entertained as they chased each other around. Carter made new friends and they even had a toddler area for little Audrey. We were at the zoo for just over 2 hours and we played at the play area for just over one hour. The rest of the time was spent seeing the penguins, the tigers, the elephants and the insects. Tyler has been asking to go back to the zoo. I am pretty sure it is not because of the great animal exhibits.
On Wednesday, the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle at 104 degrees, we went with Grandpa and Grandma to the Everett Children's Museum. We spent almost three hours there and everyone involved came away exhausted.
Later that evening, we found respite in our neighbor's air conditioned bonus room. We had a sleep over there which was a treat for our kids. It was nice to feel cool throughout the whole night.
Thursday, we ate lunch at the mall and then walked across the street to the theatre to a nap time movie. This proved advantageous as Audrey slept during most of the movie. The kids enjoyed the movie and the adults enjoyed sitting in a cool room.

Just when we thought that we would break the bank seeing all of Seattle indoors, the weather started to "cool down". Friday was a much more pleasant day with highs only in the upper eighties. We were able to get our house clean and get back to our regular summer schedule.We enjoyed our time indoors, but since our time in the sunny outdoors is so limited in Seattle, we are glad we are back to normal.

We are thankful to our Grandpa and Grandma Eden who helped make our indoor summer vacation possible. We love building memories with them and we are so glad they live so close to us.

Planner

We have a trip planned to go to Lake Chelan as a family during the first week of September. We are looking forward to it. We went there last year with our grandparents Clark and are excited to go back this year with our grandparents Eden.

I am a big believer that a majority of the best part of the trip is planning it and getting there. The anticipation is always a lot of fun. In that spirit, we have been discussing the things that we are going to do in Chelan including swimming, miniature golf, swimming, playing at the lake, and swimming.

This morning, Olivia was taking a few extra minutes getting dressed in her room. I assumed she was having a hard time picking out her clothes or perhaps she had become sidetracked playing with her doll. Soon she came downstairs with her backpack stuffed full.

She came into the kitchen and announced, "Mom, I am ready to go on our trip."

"What trip?" I asked, being that we had a day trip planned with Grandma and Grandpa Eden today.

She huffed at me and tilted her head to her shoulder, "Chelan, Mom."

I smiled at her and told her to go unpack her bag so that she would have something to wear for the next few weeks.

Later, I found the unpacked bag in her room. It contained Barbie, a few of Barbie's dresses, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt for Olivia, a Polly Pocket doll, and some things to do her hair. She was ready for a great time. I hope the vacation outshines the planning.

Zion's Camp

Carter was able to attend a science camp as his summer camp choice this year. It was a fun experience for him. He was able to experiment with things that he isn't able to do at home.

Today, as we were driving home from church, I asked the kids what their Primary lessons were about. Carter started by telling me that he had learned about Zion's Camp. I asked him to elaborate and he said that he had learned that there were many leaders from the early church in Zion's Camp and they were called to go to war but, in the end, they never fought.

I added my thoughts to his and we had a brief discussion about the blessings of Zion's Camp. I looked in the mirror and saw Tyler sitting with a furrowed brow looking confused. Soon he couldn't contain his disbelief any longer and said,with some incredulity, "Carter learned about Science Camp at church?"

Baby Heaven

Carter is showing some great responsibility and likes to entertain Audrey for short bursts of time so this morning I asked him to watch her while I took a quick shower. When I came down twenty minutes later, I found a blanket on the floor with all sorts of baby toys laid out on it. When Carter saw me looking at it, he said, "Mom, you just have to make it baby heaven and she stays happy."

Basketball Camp

Tyler participated in a basketball camp this week. He has a great natural talent that will be tough to beat when paired with time tested skills. We are excited to watch him continue to progress as he practices the new skills he learned.

Lessons from the road

I have been practicing amateur yoga for quite a few years. I love the benefits of yoga but one thing that I have never understood is how yoga teaches you to "be in the moment".

This week, my family and I went on a road trip. I am not sure if it was the yoga or if it was the small, confined space with six people that helped me to "be in the moment". There were many situations that required all of us to "be in the moment" or it could have adversely affected the rest of our trip. I think what I may have learned from our road trip is that "being in the moment" requires preparation as much as it requires flexibility!!!

Here are some other things I learned that made our road trip successful:

1) Whisk the children out of bed early in the morning and put them in the car in their pajamas. They imagine that we are doing something sneaky, like the VonTrap family escaping Germany. Even with sleep in their eyes, they have grins on their faces. It may be that they still have one foot in Dreamland, but that is part of our plan.

At the end of the first leg, we stopped at a rest stop - or "dress stop," as Olivia refers to it, and get the children in their traveling clothes. I did not make my children's traveling clothes out of curtains, but the option is there for next time.

2) Pack your own food. We packed breakfast and lunch and then we were able to stop at a park or a "dress stop" to play. We ate donuts and fruit for breakfast and sandwiches and chips with juice boxes for lunch. The kids enjoyed this much better than having mom and dad frustrated while sitting in a restaurant after traveling in the car for hours on end. It was a good stress release for all of us. I researched parks online in the cities where we would be at the designated times. I found one close to the freeway so that we didn't have to spend our travel time searching for a park.

3) Plan games, games and more games. I have always been apprehensive to take a trip without the DVD player. I have wondered many times how my parents ever did a road trip with all of their children ("Do I need to pull this car over?") but I also hate how my children look like zombies when we arrive at the destination because they have not blinked the entire road trip. This time I decided that I would try the trip with limited DVD time.

I tried to remember the things my family did when we would road trip when I was young. I also printed some games for the kids to play such as scavenger hunts, car BINGO, Battleship, Tic-Tac-Toe, etc. My favorite was Battleship because it required A LOT of time and we all enjoyed it.

The DVD player came out after lunch but that was nearly eight hours into our trip so we were due for a change of pace. It was a great break, the kids quieted down again and the last bit of the trip was relatively relaxing.

All in all, it was a great road trip. We enjoyed the time we had together and I am hoping that my children will be inspired to torture their own children by taking them on road trips!!!

Y? Because we like you...

We spent time in Provo with the Taylors over the 4th of July weekend. We had a fast and eventful trip. Ryan had never been to Provo and he was like a kid in a candy shop, not to mention the rest of us were excited to spend time with some much beloved cousins. We packed many events into a short amount of time.We walked the BYU campus and visited the Bean Life Science Museum. It was interesting to see all sorts of animals that we had never seen before. We were glad they were stuffed and that we were not the hunter finding them for the first time.
We went to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a beautiful day and the cool water was refreshing to play in. Olivia would only go in a short distance but Tyler and Carter tried to follow Mason and Stuart to the top. They only made it about halfway before their moms told them to climb back down.
On the 4th of July we woke up those who were willing and able to go hike the "Y". The adults, Tyler, Stuart and Mason were brave enough to battle the mountain. It was a great morning for a hike. When we got to the top, we looked out over the valley and were able to see about two dozen hot air balloons starting to rise. We enjoyed the view for a bit and then made a vain attempt to run back down the mountain. It was a great start to a great holiday.
It was warm on the 4th of July and Carter and Mason used their ingenuity to cool their feet. They used their ingenuity for a lot of things during our stay, some of which had negative consequences for them. One example was when they decided to make a fire pit in the backyard of the abandoned house next door. Luckily, it was found before it did any damage. They are great boys and we are hoping that with the right focus, their curiosity will make their parents rich!!!

The evening of the 4th we were able to sit in the Taylors backyard and see the fireworks at Stadium of Fire hosted by BYU. The Jonas Brothers were the special guest and although we could not hear the words, we could hear them singing and hear the stadium full of girls screaming. Not to be beat, Noelle went and got her little CD player out of her room and brought it out to the back deck. She popped in a Jonas Brothers CD and she and Olivia were dancing and screaming in hopes that Nick, Joe or the other Jonas brother would hear them and come over and visit. Unfortunately, they never did come. But we had a great pseudo-concert given by two beautiful and determined little girls.

All in all, we had a great weekend. It was hard to leave such a great family and fun place. We are excited that the Taylors are now only thirteen hours from us so that we are able to see them with only a day long road trip.