Photos from our trip, part 1

So, I figured out blogger's problem with our photos.  It turned out that I had used up our account's storage quota.  I'd say that up until I got my new camera, we'd been lingering around 50% of our quota for months, but the massive new photos I've been taking apparently did away with our remaining space rather quickly.

Long story short, I bought some new space.  Here are some photos from our trip!

Sitting on the steps of...

...our cabin!

Cutie!

The two two-year-olds communing

Rope swing!

Playing with rocks on the beach

Totally awesome starfish on the beach, under a rock, waiting for the tide to come back in

Chilling on the dock

The view from the beach.  WOW!

The kids had fun doing various things, including making crafts

Yarn's cuddles

Yarn normally doesn't have that much to do with the kids, but she does always seem to know when anyone needs a little extra attention. This after noon, as Natalia's fever was hitting 103, she got some special Yarn cuddles. Then she got some Ibuprofen.

Here are the three of us on the couch.

The healing cuddles of Yarn

Sickie

Last night Natalia seemed a bit hot, but I thought it was just the weather. I did my trick of using a sponge to wet her hair, and she seemed to be a bit happier. I'm not sure if happier is the right word, more like a tiny bit less disgruntled.

This morning when I went in to get Natalia, she seemed really hot. . . and it turns out that she has a fever. I always think that somehow you just shouldn't get sick during the summer because of all the sunshine. I don't know why, but it seems like the sun should somehow protect you from getting sick.

Actually, there might be something to that idea. It sounds like vitamin D is the new miracle vitamin these days, and does decrease your chance of getting sick. Both Alayna and I have started taking 1000 to 2000 of Vitamin D each day, and if nothing else, it is making our bones stronger. I am really hoping that it will boost my immune system, because after this year, where I managed to go through three years of accumulated sick days in a year, I could use a healthy year!

Back to Natalia . . . I think the worst thing in the world is to be sick in the summer, or to see someone in the family sick in the summer. Not fair. Well, I think she needs some cuddles, so I'm off.

Orcas

Many kudos to our friend, Briar, for editing this photo for us.  She's a miracle worker!

We just, and I mean just, got back from nearly a week up in the San Juan Islands.  We went to a family camp that Sacha's been going to with her family since she was a baby.  It's a very important place to her, and so she wanted us all to go as soon as the kids were old enough.  We had been there several times when we were dating, and, in fact, it was the place where we first got engaged.  So, we both always look forward to going back.

Unfortunately, Sacha's parents had a prior commitment and couldn't come with us this year, so we went with just the four of us.  We had our own little cabin, which was named "Willow," and we all slept there.  Together.  In one room.  And we all actually slept.  Vacations are seriously getting more and more vacation-like all the time. 

Although it was advertised as a family camp, it turned out that they didn't have anything going on for kids under 5.  And by that, I mean, nothing.  There were groups and initiations and games and such for everyone else from 5 on up to adults, but nothing for the littler ones.  It's quite possible that we wouldn't have gone if we had known about this going in, as the description for the camp made it sound otherwise, but we made the most of things and still had a great time.

We ate delicious vegetarian food at every meal, and got lots of exercise walking up and down the hill to our cabin and back.  We hiked down to the beach.  We did crafts.  We fed the chickens in the garden.  We met lots of new people, including the one other toddler at the camp.  We explored the mountain on the island, and the little town nearby.  I went for a run nearly every day and realized that I'd forgotten what running on hills is like.  And then, before we knew it, it was time to come home.  We had a long trip home yesterday, taking a ferry for an hour and then getting in our car and driving until almost 1 am to get home.  Whew!  We are exhausted, but still glad we went.  It was our first real family vacation, with just the four of us, and I have to say that it went rather well.  The kids both brought home stuffed Orca whales so they could remember their trip to Orcas Island, and Mateo is already begging to go back next year...

I was going to upload more photos, but blogger is being balky, so I'll leave that for another day.  Good night!

The 4th, only a few days late

This past Sunday was the 4th of July. Yes, this is obvious and special, because of the birth of our nation. However, it was even more special to us because we ran in our second annual 5K run as a family. We borrowed a jogging stroller from some friends and it was like a dream to push this thing. Seriously, when we were going downhill, I felt like it was pushing me!

We had Galen and Megan with us, so we all ended up spread out, but our little family stuck together. We had to pull over several times to settle disputes between the kids, but we still finished about two minutes faster than we did last year! And, I felt good enough at the end that I got all motivated to sign up for a 10K on some local trails this fall. I'll have to up my workouts to get ready for it, but I think I can do it. I'm very excited!

As well, after the adults ran, there was a half-mile kids' run that Mateo completed. He ran with Mommy the whole way and was very proud of himself (and we were proud of him, too!). After the kid run, there were many bubbles to play with (and many thanks to Galen and Megan for so much bubble blowing with the kids) and most of us actually won some raffle items, including gift certificates for ice cream and coffee. Yum.

Then, later in the day we set off some little fireworks in the alley beside our house, and later than that, our neighborhood boomed with explosions for hours. I tried uploading a few photos of the kids playing (heavily supervised and safely) with sparklers, but for some reason blogger wouldn't let me upload them. Oh well, we still had fun. And, we didn't need to go to the waterfront for a big show, we just needed to look out our window!

Riding in style in the borrowed double stroller

Reconvening after the race, with our popsicles

Best post-race present ever!

Starting the kids' run with Mommy!

Mommy with our very proud finisher

Uncle G blowing one of many bubbles for the kids.

Here's Megan doing the same for Tali

Sitting proud with his Finisher ribbon

The whole family in the alley, post fireworks (thanks to Apa for the shot!)

Signs and adventures

The reading bug has really hit Mateo lately, and he's very excited about street signs right now. The whole thing caught me a little bit off guard, because I was just getting used to him sounding out words, and then suddenly he was reading books, and then soon after that, these little questions started coming from the back seat.

"Mama, why does that say 'One Way'?"
"Mama, why does that say 'Caution'?"
"Mama, why does that sign say 'Camel'?"

That last one led to a hasty lecture on how terrible smoking is and how no one in our family had better ever try it. The whole thing has made me realize how many words he knows, and/or is able to figure out through context.

It has also made for some interesting car talks, and I think he knows a lot more about how our road system functions than he used to. I am certainly learning as well. The bazillionth thing I didn't expect about becoming a parent is explaining the ENTIRE WORLD to your child bit by bit, and usually at times when you least expect it or are caught off guard. Like the cigarette ad situation.

This all came to mind over the weekend, when we visited the aerial tram and I heard a familiar little voice say "Mama, why does that say "no smoking"?"

Speaking of the aerial tram, we did indeed ride on it this weekend and most of us had fun. Tali was extremely skeptical on the way up and silent on the way down, so maybe she just needed more time to warm up? We went with Megan and Galen, and also ran into some friends who just happened to go at the same time we did. We had a great time. I think we actually had the most fun afterwards, when the kids ran around on the grass and tackled every familiar person in sight. Here's a great sequence of Mateo disrupting the happy couple:

Luckily, they made up later and did some swinging. In fact, Mateo got so revved up that he kicked off his croc and it hit me in the face just as I was taking this next picture.

Here are a few more from the tram. This first one is a view from mid-ride:

The kids' favorite part? The lawn flamingos barely visible in the grass right underneath the tram lift-off spot. Well, and the cool ride to the top and back down again. Definitely an activity to do again!

Cousins

Our kids have awesome cousins. Ok, technically, they're first cousins once removed. Sacha had to explain this to me for the ten millionth time right before I typed this, and I'm sure she'll have to do it again and again, because I just cannot for the life of me remember the difference between once removed and second cousins. I mean, I do NOW, but I won't in ten minutes.

Anyway, due to my mom's youngest brother being much younger than she, he and his wife are only about 15 years older than Sacha and I, and their kids are now 9 and 12. Somehow, this turns out to be the perfect age gap for cousins, at least so far. The older kids are old enough to want to play with the little guys but not so old yet as to be too cool for that. And, of course, our kids just idolize the older ones.

They came over yesterday and I took some photos of the carousing, shrieking and giggling that ensued. The part which I photographed involved some elaborate game of the bigs wrapping up the little like burritos in blankets. And then unwrapping them. And then hysterical giggling, and then repeat ad infinitem.

Things got really uproarious when Talia started putting a fire hat on Simon's head and then throwing it off again. That girl has the funniest belly laugh and she only pulls it out when the situation really calls for it, at least according to her.

The whole thing was just about the sweetest thing ever. Clara is taking a babysitter class this summer and we're ready to snatch her up as our mother's helper/future babysitter as soon as she's done with it.

And, I have to say, that seeing these guys together makes me excited for when our kids are the older cousins to whoever the next young ones are to come along. Because that's the way it is in our family. Due to several large age gaps within generations, the line of siblings and cousins just continues in a relatively unbroken way over decades. Just like me and my siblings, our kids will technically be the oldest of their generation, but they're really just 6 and 9 years removed from the youngest members of the most recent generation. Crazy. Anyway, my point was, it was fun to watch them play! I can totally see them all hanging out as young adults, although there I go living in the future again. I'm trying to concentrate on the now, darn it! And here it is: