Wednesday, July 30, 2014

June and July Funnies

The night Michaela returned from her month long stay in Germany we were saying our night prayers.  Nickles prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank you for helping us find Michaela."  

Catching frogs I told Nickles to be sure to kiss each frog....you never know which one will be a princess. He replied, "No! This is a Dad frog."  

Annika and Dom fishing together singing Laudate Dominum.  It was so refreshing after typically hearing the Frozen theme over and over and over and over...........

Dom named the goldfish that we "freed" in our pond last summer Gunther.  The back story....we let the little guy go in the pond thinking it was easier than flushing it.  Certainly, we thought, it would make a nice snack for a trout vs. sludge in our septic.  Curiously, he made it through the winter and is now a decent sized fish zipping around.  The question my boys are pondering, "Which fishing lure attracts goldfish?"

I asked Nickles to make his bed. His response, "Mans don't do dat."

I had the three little boys while Shannon took the oldest five salmon fishing.  When I asked them what they wanted for breakfast, Dom responded, "Eggs and toast and jam,"  Nickles simply wanted ice cream.  Later, while eating breakfast and chatting about walking to the park Dom confided, "Mom, when you and Dad spank me, I just pretend to cry.  It really doesn't hurt."  
And that's probably something he shouldn't have told me!

Upon entering the beach house Nickles was ecstatic, "Katwin! There's a toiwet!"  Later, he was told to put on a clean shirt.  Instead he began licking it off.  When he was told that's not what young boys do, he said, "Katwin doos it."  

At Marissa and Kevin's dairy farm Nickles totally got splatted with you-know-what.  Kath walked in to see him holding his hand on his clean side with the hose pointed straight into the dirty side of his face, ready to clean himself off.  

There was a baby seal on the beach one afternoon.  Shannon went to bring all the kids to see it.  They all tore down the beach til they reached me where we stood looking at the seal.  While Daddy took pictures of the boys in front of the little guy, Annika piped up, "There's a seal?"  
She hadn't even seen it laying there, nor understood what they were racing down the beach to see. 

While picking huckleberries I told Nickles to get his huckleberry bucket so I could put some berries in it.    
"Hmmm, it's somewhere," he said, looking around the hillside.  
When I asked him a few minutes later where his bucket was he responded, "I hid it so no one could find it."  
That was code for being totally clueless as to its location.  

Earlier that same day he and Max were shopping with me.  I had to take a nursing break and parked in a parking lot to feed Max.  Totally seriously Nickles says, "Mom, if you want, while you're feeding Maximo, I can drive home."  
Yes, sure.  What possibly could go wrong?

Eric was trying to convince us that he does have a lot of hair on his upper lip. "Watch, I'll pluck one out!"  
Dude, if you can only get one, you don't need to shave quite yet. 

Everyone knows I'm not too into mani/pedi-type stuff, but when a friend asked who did my toenails the other day I thought, "They must not look too bad!  Who needs to get them done professionally?" 
Then she burst my bubble, "I thought maybe your kids did them." 



Tea party with cousins ~




Making goop, Lewis had to constantly wipe his hands off ~






Pickin' gallons, really, GALLONS of huckleberries ~


Sunday, July 20, 2014

The Beach ~



A walk at sunset on our way to Oregon





We stopped at a fish hatchery and ladder on our way ~



Headin' to the beach ~



Yippee!







Max's first glimpse of the ocean
I know he was smitten...at least with the sand!



Chasing seagulls could occupy 100's of hours ~



Oh, the treasures waiting to be found ~





Annika loved clamming ~



Returning with their morning clam catch ~



Clam chowder!



Then, we were off to Marissa's dairy farm ~
oh the places we go!



A little boy's dream ~
barns and haystacks







Following the herd in for milking ~



All the kiddos got to help with milking.
While certainly it becomes tedious when it must be done
every day twice a day, it sure was fun to be able to help for a day!





My beautiful cousin, Marissa.
She keeps tabs on her four-year-old, takes care of the farm, milks the cows and goats, feeds the calves, all while toting her little cherub on her back AND remaining totally 
calm, cool and collected. 
A.MA.ZING!







Michaela, trying her newfound medical experience out on a cow.
She discovered their skin isn't quite as thin as a human's. 



A new beach we scoped out ~
The waves were awesome.....









....And the rocks and sealife were better!





It all began totally innocently, burying one another in the sand.  









Then, Daddy arrived.
Oh dear.



Eric's 1000 piece puzzle.
We actually persevered in putting it together!



Our favorite day...a full 15 hours of sunshine at last!









A new flying toy ~



Our littlest angel dancing away, 
Because sunshine and sand just makes you feel like twirling!







Working up the courage to dive in ~



Racing with Daddy





Soaking up the sun ~



So this was mean.
While Michaela napped, Annika and I lured gulls in with crackers.
Michaela was less than thrilled when she awoke from her beauty rest.



Annika hoping to catch a gull ~



Brothers ~



Max was excited til the water hit his toes.





The seal pup that joined the party for the afternoon ~



My silly Dom ~



Til we meet again!