Bubble Toes

This week has passed in a bit of a blur - long hours sitting in traffic as I drove back and forth to Bellevue to attend AP Language training. I learned I shouldn't use the word "stuff" in my writing and I learned a bunch of other good stuff too. My mom was here to watch the kids and I am very thankful for her willingness to do so. She's on her way back home now and probably looking forward to a good night's sleep in her own bed.

Tuesday was my 33rd birthday. Camden gave me a giant balloon which he managed to take ownership of by the end of the week.

We were surprised this weekend by a visit from a good friend from my high school days and her parents and little boy. Her boy is approximately 6 weeks older than Camden and it was fun for them to play and for our visitors to meet Shelby.

Levi smashed the bubbles with his hands, Camden - the baseball bat.

Levi quickly decided he'd rather operate the bubble gun as Matt was not doing a very competent job.
Laurie's mom almost packed Shelby away in her lunch box to smuggle her home with her.

Laurie enjoyed meeting Shelby too. What a treat to see my old friend and her family over at my house...usually it is me visiting them over in Eastern Washington once or twice a year.

What a busy day!

Today was a busy day that started off with a trip to visit a FireStation. Station 26 in Des Moines Washington is where an old friend of ours works. He gave Camden, Grandpa and I a tour of the facility and the various trucks. Camden got to sit in the firetruck but quickly became unsure of it when they tried to put the headset on him. He suddenly wanted down and only sat briefly for a picture.

They have one of the oldest restored and fully functional fire trucks in the US. This truck was built in 1941 and restored by Des Moines Firefighters in 1987.

After the FireStation we came home and did a little bit of yardwork and had some lunch. Later on in the afternoon we attended a birthday party for one of Camden's friends from Daycare. Tyler turned 4 and had a Scooby Doo themed party. Tyler's parents hosted a very fun party with lots of games for the kids and a slip-n-slide!!

Once the water toys came out and Camden saw how much fun everyone was having, he loosened up and had a great time!

After coming home and having dinner, we saw that Grandpa had spent his afternoon doing even more yardwork while we were gone!! Thanks Grandpa! It was a long busy day but we had a great time.

Paint Your House

A rather bitter song by the Zephyrs. I think there are song titles to cover just about any blog...

Here's the progress with the house. First, the primer went on and then today the beginning of the main coat. Nice color, don't you think? We sure like how it is looking so far.

Father's Day!

Fathers Day started off with a little bit of sleeping in and Breakfast in bed. Camden came upstairs and offered to share his plate of Oatmeal Pancakes and Peanut Butter with me, but Tara came up shortly after with a whole tray of food! After Breakfast we all got ready and headed to church. There was great protesting from Camden as we attempted to leave him in Sunday School. After a little walk with the Children's ministries director, Camden was fine.



Camden and I headed out to the Snoqualmie Railway Museum after lunch. He fell asleep in the car on the way and slept for about 40 minutes. How cute is he!?!



We parked in a lot right next to a slow moving river. Camden enjoyed watching things slowly float down the river. I reminded him we were there to see trains, so he was then motivated to leave the park and look for trains.

Here is a picture of Camden standing in front of a long line of old trains. We weren't allowed to climb on or in any of these so we spent a short bit of time reading about them. At one point he asked his typical "Touch it?" question. I said "Sure you can touch it." He then proceeded to gently touch the sign I was reading...not the train itself.

Here is one of the trains kids were allowed to play on. It was a very small old engine with mechanical pulleys and levers to operate. This nice boy Camden met in the train shared all the controls and the chair...they both had a great time.

Here comes the train that we're gong to ride! On Father's Day Weekend they have a special where dad rides free with a paying child. It was a cool old train. The car we were in was built in 1915.

Here we are enjoying our 1 hour $7 train trip. We went from Snoqualmie to North Bend. Picked up a few more passengers then headed back to Snoqualmie Falls. We saw lots of 'crossing guards', trees and old train cars.

Here Camden is looking out the open window at Snoqualmie Falls. According to the gentleman checking tickets, we were in the best car for viewing the falls.

Here is a little video.

It was a good Fathers Day with only a few bumps on the road (screaming at Sunday School, not wanting to leave the train to go home, and a potty accident in the car) I've got a great great family and was happy to spend the day with them. Hopefully next year Shelby will be old enough to be able to enjoy an outing with Dad.

Proud Mary

Rollin', Rollin'.......

Here is Shelby's new trick. After a few frustrating attempts, she's now quite speedy at it. On Friday she was having a frustrating and hard time...this was today (Sunday).

Big House

Here's a brief recap of the week so far. Shelby has contemplated the geometry of this ball and decided it is, indeed, round.
Here she is, exhausted from her math lesson. She's slowly breaking out of swaddling. It will be nice when she completely transitions.
Here is the "knock yourself silly" on the pillow tower. Thanks to cousin Maggie, this is Camden's new favorite and completely safe game.

Matt made it home in time for bedtime stories last night. It is just so sweet to see them all together enjoying story time.
Today our handy man friend Robbie and his brother began the process of painting our house. They pressure washed and cleaned the outside while Camden and I enjoyed watching from the dry safety of the yard. Shelby slept through the whole thing. In this picture you may be able to see the weathered areas on the top floor.

Camden took one look at this ladder and said, "go on up?" I said, "um, no". If the weather stays nice the new paint will go on next week...if we can pick colors, that is.

Dr. Troll

On Saturday, Camden and I attended "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" (or "three baby goats gruff", as Camden called it), a puppet play presented by Thistle Theater. It was a lot of fun and we both enjoyed it. I didn't take very many good pictures, but I did get a shot of the friendly River Troll as well as Camden enjoying the fountain and hanging baskets outside of the theatre.

We also got a surprise call from Uncle Mark, Aunt Arin, and Cousin Maggie. They were in town on a spur of the moment shopping trip and we met up with them at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The kids had a good time and we all came back home and spent the evening and next morning together. Camden and Maggie played "knock yourself silly" on the pillow tower. They left the next day, off to do more shopping. Here they had some fun at the mall.

Here is a picture on our couch. We realized that we have a similar picture of the two of them from almost exactly one year ago....
Here they are June 9, 2007. What big kids they are becoming!

Sunday afternoon I attended my school's graduation. It is always nice to see kids complete their high school education and the faculty line the red carpet as kids parade through. I'm not sure they like having us all stare at them as they walk by. Here I am with two of my teaching friends - Elena and Kim. Afterwards we always go to the Melting Pot and enjoy some cheesy dipping goodness. Only one more week of the school year!

Finally, this blog is lacking in something cute and almost 5 months old. Here is Shelby taking after Camden by pulling up her pant leg and enjoying her exersaucer. What a cute little muffin.



Did you know that there is a band named Xiu Xiu with a song called "Dr. Troll"? I listened to it at Jango.com - It's not my favorite kind of music, but it sort of goes with this blog, so there you go. I think I'll try to use song titles for my blog titles from now on...just because.