Seattle Aquarium

Sitting right along the Puget Sound in Seattle is the Seattle Aquarium. It is in this unique looking building and at first glance I wasn't quite sure it looked much like an aquarium. We were welcomed as we entered the aquarium by a full size wall fish tank. It was quite a site to behold. Our kids love fish and they could have spent forever just looking at all the fish in this one gigantic fish tank. We, of course, moved them along to explore all the other neat sea life. Our kids loved the mock tidal pool and the touch and feel tanks. They loved being able to touch the orange and purple starfish and the sea urchins. The highlight of the day, however, was seeing the octopus. It was nestled right up to the glass of the tank and so we got a great look at this interesting creature. It's too bad it was way to dark to take a picture of it.

Abby was fascinated by everything around her but she was a little difficult to manage. She frequently screamed when we picked her up to take her somewhere else or to put her in the stroller. I have to attribute some of this to the fact that she only had a short nap in the car on the way up to the aquarium. I'm sure there were people who thought we were bad parents as we walked around with a sporadically screaming child. Atleast I felt a little better as I passed this woman holding her screaming boy almost upside down as she tried to just ignore his temper tantrum. The joys of parenthood...they are so much fun sometimes!!!

After seeing most of the fish we ventured over to see the birds and otters. There were two sea otters that were playing kind of rough with each other. It looked like they were biting each other. Then as we rounded the corner to see the river otters we noticed that one was nestled right up to the glass all cozy like. This cute little otter was trying to take a little nap while sucking on its tail. It was one of the cutest things I had ever seen.

On the way out of the aquarium we passed by the gift shop rather quickly to avoid the, "can we get this please," from our older children who kept asking all afternoon if we could get the cute octopus stuffed animal. Before leaving we stopped back at the big fish tank and noticed there was a scubba diver inside. She was hooked up to an external oxygen tank and had another cord to connect her microphone to where we were standing. She was answering questions from the kids. We stayed and both of the boys even mustered enough courage to ask a question. After leaving the aquarium we stopped over next door to ride on the carousel. Emma was so excited because she had looked forward to doing that at the zoo (which we canceled because of the rain). It was the best of both worlds coming to the Seattle Aquarium---Emma got to see animals and ride on the carousel for her birthday! After getting home from the trip there was a surprise on the kids bed. Mike had gone back into the gift shop and bought the octopus. He is notorious for doing that. The kids were so excited! Now we have a new addition to our house...his name is Octo or Sticky and he is loved by all!!!

Emma Turns 4

All Emma wanted for her birthday this year was a pink flower cake and a trip to the zoo. It was raining today so we opted to take Emma to the Seattle Aquarium after cake and presents instead. She was alright with that. I was really happy with the way the cake turned out but more importantly Emma was happy when she saw it. The yellow center was the fought over piece between the boys. All Emma wanted was one of the pink petals with the strawberry cake. I am not a fan of strawberry cake so I did both white and strawberry cake to accomodate everyone's tastes.

For over a month I have been hanging on to a dress I bought Emma for her birthday. She kept asking me if she could wear it and every time I reminded her that she needed to wait until her birthday. Needless to say she was excited to finally wear her new dress, pink shoes, and pink headband. We painted her toes and fingernails pink, did her hair straight (at her request) and topped it with the pink headband to match her dress. She was the cutest little four year old I had ever seen. We ate on pink plates, drank from pink cups, used pink forks, and cleaned our frosting faces with pink and white polka dotted napkins. I think Emma was in heaven. It is a good thing the boys didn't mind eating off of pink plates. I think they were just happy to see how happy it all made Emma. With only one blow all four candles were extinguished and each of the kids picked a candle to lick and put on their plates. Emma went back and forth between licking the frosting off her cake with her fingers, licking it with her tongue, and using her fork. Go figure...some things never change! Although Emma tells me that she is a big girl, I will always think of her as my little girl!

After we all indulged in cake we went into the living room so Emma could have her present. Mom, Dad, Grandma Ann & Grandpa Franz all pitched in to get her a pink pram stroller for her dolls. I remember when Grandma Candace would push Andrew in the real baby blue pram when he was just a baby. It was the cutest baby buggy ever. I knew that Emma would also love having a pram for her babies and part of me knew that Grandma Candace would be proud. We made Emma close her eyes as Mike and the boys brought it down the stairs covered with a big blanket. She was so surprised! Emma pushed that stroller around the house which such delight. Emma also got a cute little baby doll that crawls from Grandpa Al and that kept Abby occupied while Emma pushed her new stroller. After pushing the stroller for quite some time we all got ready and headed up to the Seattle Aquarium for some more family birthday fun. We ended the day with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a successful 4th birthday for Emma!!

Embracing the Rain

I must admit that after living in the Northwest for almost 5 years I am a bit weary of all the rain. I do love the rain on occasions such as running in the rain, falling asleep to the rain or sitting inside drinking hot chocolate while listening to the rain. I guess it is the everyday rain and grey clouds that can put me in a funk---so much that I don't care to go outside in it. My poor girls tend to play inside more than outside these days. The backyard is so wet and yucky that I just don't want to deal with the mess. Today was one of those days that I literally had to embrace the rain and be happy in it. Abby and Emma were so excited to go outside and play. I grabbed Emma's old rain coat and boots for Abby and Emma was as happy as a clam with her Hello Kitty boots and umbrella. We didn't play for very long but is was just long enough to get some fresh air, enjoy the light rain, and run around on the soggy grass. Emma enjoyed spinning her umbrella around and Abby just loved feeling the rain on her face while trying to catch some on her tongue. I am grateful for girls who love to be outside no matter what the conditions. I am glad they aren't afraid to get wet or dirty. Since the sun shines so rarely here I guess this is my wake up call to embrace the rain more often just to get outside and get some sort of Vitamin D into our systems. Sad to say we are all a little deficient. Oh sun I miss you so. Please come visit us again soon!

First Race of the New Year

It feels good to finally have some races to train for this winter. Today was the first of a series of races I will be doing over the next couple of months. To say that I am in the greatest shape would totally be lying. It isn't my endurance that struggles right now but my speed. The last races I did were the Seattle Half Marathon back in June and the Ft. Lewis Triathlon back in July. Since then my runs have been pretty pathetic...only the minimum to stay in decent shape. Now I am finally healthy and more focused than ever. Today I ran a 10K in a little town called Steilacoom just down by the water from where I live. I wasn't quite sure how fast I would be able to run but I picked a pace and tried to stay pretty close to it. There were many men who I tried to keep up with and in the end I kind of surprised myself with a first place overall women's finish. I clocked in at 43:07 for 6.27 miles with an average pace of 6:53. I don't know why my GPS always clocks over. The same thing happened in the Seattle Half Marathon. This wasn't my best 10K but I am satisfied that it is a good starting point. Eventually I would like to break 40 minutes in the 10K but I know it will take me quite a bit of time before I reach that goal. Today's race was one to be proud of and not necessarily because of the first place finish. It was just what I needed to finally get moving in the right direction. Now I know what I need to do to be more prepared for my 15K in February. With all the speed I plan on running I just might be able to finally break 1:30 in the Wenatchee Half Marathon this April. It's just me and the road baby!!

For a more detailed story version of my race, click HERE!!

Potty Curiosity

Now that Abby is a talking machine you never quite know what is going to come out of that little mouth of hers. Lately she has been curious about the potty. Actually her interest in the potty stems back over the last couple of months of sneaking into the bathroom any chance she got just to play in the toilet bowl. Why she found that appealing was beyond me...especially when the older kids forgot to flush the toilet. Most of the time she is just plain cute but those moments were just plain disgusting and ones I don't like to revisit. Luckily we don't have too much of that going on anymore. A couple of days ago Abby was in the bathroom with me and she kept going on about the potty and the flush. I asked her if she wanted the little potty which I pulled out a couple of months ago just for fun. We opened the closet and I asked her what she wanted. She pointed to the little potty so I got it out and set it up for her. The first day she just got on and off a bunch of times but didn't sit long enough to do anything. The next day I tried to distract her with nursery rhymes and lo and behold something happened. In fact TWO somethings happened. I couldn't believe it. When she was done she preteneded to flush her little potty while saying, "Fush Fush" and then after disposing of everything in the big toilet I let her flush for real. She already knew the next step of washing her hands after witnessing it several times from Emma and hearing me constantly remind the older kids to wash their hands. Washing her hands with the foam soap I think was just as much fun for her as flushing the toilet. I can't believe my little baby is already interested in the potty. Maybe it's a fluke but since then she has already gone two more times for me and is still excited when I ask her if she needs to use the potty. No matter how far her excitement takes her I am going to roll with it. When she loses interest I will have to pull out the big guns--CHOCOLATE that is. It worked with Emma and I know she will be just as much of a sucker for that sweet reward. What exciting times to think about not paying for diapers anymore!!! Abby is the last of our kids to potty train and I am not sad about it--not one little bit!!

Simplify

If there is anything I learned in 2009 it was the absolute necessity to simplify my life. I love being a mom and I love expressing myself through my hobbies. BUT, one thing is for sure...being a mom is way more important. That's not to say that I am giving up all of my hobbies. NO WAY...I would go crazy. It does mean that I am at a point in my life where I have reached two roads. One road continues down this crazy path, trying to fit it all in while running around meeting deadlines and squeezing in reading and playing time with the kids and dates with Mike. The other road is more open, less stressful and allows for uninterupted and more enjoyable moments for everything that is important in life--FAMILY. I think too often as mothers we want to do it all, we want to be Superwoman, we want to conquer the world...AND WE SHOULD...but within reason. I love the new year because it gives me a chance to reflect on where I am heading. Although I don't feel like I have ever neglected my children I know that there is more of me I could give. Time is slowly clicking away and the moments now are so precious. My oldest is approaching nine this year and he still loves to give me hugs and kisses and have late night chats. I wonder how long that will last. I hope it lasts forever. I have a good feeling it just might. My relationship with each of my children is so special to me and I don't take any of it lightly. There are so many teaching moments during the day--and not just the kind where we teach them their ABC's. There are so many moments to be cherished and remembered and so many things our children share with us that we need to pay 100% attention to. The lessons I learn from my children are invaluable. They are my greatest examples living in the present. At the end of every day I think to myself how lucky I am to have four wonderful children. Yes they each have their naughty moments. But those naughty moments only last for a short time before their sweet spirits are revealed by the innocent and profound things they say and do. I am thankful for my children for quietly reminding me every day why I am here and what my purpose is in life. There is no greater call than to be a mother. It is truly the greatest and most noblest of professions. I am proud to say that my profession is that of a MOTHER. All the extra is just extra and nothing more!!

Stink Pickle

Both of the girls have adopted this new name but for very different reasons. We call Abby this when she is literally stinky and we call Emma this when she is just plain naughty. A couple of weeks ago I was opening one of my sewing drawers and found this:

I don't know when or how she managed to cut a really good chunck of her hair without me noticing. I do find it a little humorous that she tried to conceal it by leaving her hair in the drawer. I am pretty good about always knowing where my kids are and what they are doing. I guess I am somewhat of a paranoid mom. Don't get me wrong though, there are moments when I just let them do their thing hoping they are not getting into trouble while I am finishing up a project. This was not one of those moments though. At first I was a little angry. Then my anger turned to sadness and I was nervous to look closely at her hair. After I surveyed the damage on her cute little head I was quickly relieved to see that the cut was made in a place that was not that noticeable. In fact it even blended in quite nicely with the rest of her hair...just lucky I guess. When I asked Emma why she cut her hair she just shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know. It didn't take long for me to realize that all she wanted was to get her hair cut at the salon. I can understand her frustration of always seeing the boys sitting in those fun seats and getting their haircut month after month. So what did I do as punishment for cutting her own hair?? I took her to the salon and got her a new haircut. Ok so maybe it was more of a reward than a punishment but in the end we both won because her hair had gotten to the point of being out of control. It was looking pretty awful. She agreed to have it cut shorter (3 inches to be exact) and it finally looks so much better. She loves it and I love it. All the little scissors have now been put away somewhere else so as to not repeat the same mistake. I am going to have to have hawk eyes on this little Stink Pickle!!

Grandpa Al Visits

We were so lucky to get a visit from far away Grandpa Al. Since he lives in Virginia and we are all the way in Washington state we don't get to see each other that often. It was the perfect timing--right after the rush of Christmas was over. We didn't go anywhere spectacular but just enjoyed being together at home while it continued to be yucky and rainy outside. Grandpa Al is really good at playing games with the kids and I could tell that the kids really enjoyed having him here. The trip was short but we were grateful to get him for a few days anyways. The kids favorite game to play with Grandpa was the tickle game. For some reason the kids just love to be tickled and especially by Grandpa Al. Some of my favorite moments while Grandpa was here was seeing the kids at random times just snuggling and hugging him. It really warmed my heart to see how much they love him. I really appreciate the time he took with each of the kids to talk with them and listen to their stories. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can go and visit Grandpa at his house.