Vacation: Week 1 Recap

We are a week into vacation officially but it honestly only feels like it's been a few days. The weather here has been hot for us thick blooded Alaskans, warm for others, but enjoyable none the less.

 Thursday was a relaxing day at home, something we desperately needed after traveling all night on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. We awaited the impending arrival of PeePaw, MeeMaw and Great Great Aunt Jacque from their respective drives from Washington and Texas (I think I'd rather take their trip next time andfr they can fly with the kids).  Jonathan and John worked on taking the swimming pool down to return after some aquatic drama from the company while the kids and I hung out and watched. The boys also played with their toys that we got them for here and just chilled in general. It was a good vacation day!

Coop is in charge when it comes to his mustang. Thatch thinks he should teach Coop how to drive, although I'm curious when Thatch got his license.

Sidewalks are quite a luxury to us Alaskans so we are rocking the opportunity to practice riding. The only problem I'm finding is that it gets really hot!

He shakes what his Mama gave him while riding.

This is what the sun does to an Alaskan after a few hours.

 Friday morning Auntie Courtney flew in from Chile and our party was almost complete, we are waiting for Auntie Brookie to join us tomorrow morning and we'll be set for some good old fashioned Yarsley fun! We went to Scheels, one of the coolest sporting good stores around. It has something like 96 departments, giant fish tanks, a ferris wheel, a nascar simulator and so much more to buy! Jonathan had the most fun there buying all sorts of things! Thatch and Coop enjoyed themselves too as is evident by the photographic evidence.

They have two giant arching fish tanks, one with fresh water fish and one with salt water fish. This was a catfish, whom Thatcher felt the need to comfort and tell that everything was going to be okay.

Auntie Ash and Thatch making a Coopcake Sandwich. This was Coops first amusement ride I think? Not sure if he was amused though, he seemed pretty serious about it.

Saturday is when the serious tourist business started. The plan was to go to Virginia City and check out some ghosts with the entire gang followed by Carson City minus the Great Grandparents. This day did not go as planned, as they ususally go when you have toddlers with you. We moseyed on up to VA City and were met with crowds of freaks vintage car lovers. There were a lot of tattoos, trashy cholla pin up wanna bees, and possible ex cons around. Yes, that's right, I judged. There were some lovely antique stores and MeeMaw got some china for her birthday present. Overall, the boys, including Jonathan were overwhelmed by VA city so we called it early while the Greats and Grands ate lunch. Plus Cooper had a complete nap time meltdown, that is always a deciding factor in our departures too.

It safe to assume this sucker ended up on Jonathan's face. And shirt. And hair.

Thank the Lord and the Mother Theresa.

On to Carson City we drove where Jonathan and I found it quite nice. We drove around some extremely old neighborhoods, cased the Governor's mansion and just really enjoyed the quiet time with the boys in the back. When we arrived at the train museum the boys were still asleep, we woke them up and they were instantly perky and raring to go. We got ourselves situated and went in. While we were checking out we heard an unusual noise arise from Cooper's diaper. I promptly said "Not It" so Jonathan took over the diaper duty while I went with Thatch and Harps into the museum. After quite a bit we went outside to check on the diaper progress. Turns out we had an epicly catastrophic diaper failure. Had we been at home I would have had an extra pair of clothes and all would have been fine, but we were on vacation so it wasn't. Cooper was definitely in a state of gastrointestinal distress but he was acting fine and as sparky as ever so we decided to continue with the museum, much to Thatcher's relief.

We rode this train twice, at one point they unhook from the front of the train and rebuckled in the rear. The boys were in heaven!

Me and Harps. I forgot to turn the picture, my bad.

The whole Carson City Gang. Notice Coop has no pants.

Between the first and second trip on the train Thatch was able to sit in the engine for a bit.

Thatch and his Auntie Ash on the train ride.

Auntie Courtney and Cooper racing into the museum again. Yeah, we were the people with the kid in the diaper and no shoes. We rock Nevada with classy style.

The hot Nevada sun dried off Coops shorts in a flash and we were back to somewhat decent tourists. Guess what Coop is pointing at...a train!

Sunday the plans were for Jonathan, Grandpa and the boys to go to a Reno Aces game at the ball park and have some man bonding time. Jonathan and John ran into take care of returning the old pool and I was to bring the boys in to them and head off to the mall for some alone shopping. As we were getting out the catastrophic diaper failure occurred again and Poopie Coopie still had an upset tummy. Coop was officially back in my charge. There was no way that Jonathan would be able to handle another blow out. Sigh. Anyhoo, Thatch went with Grandpa and Dad and Coop, Harps and I went to the mall to do some shopping sans Thatcher, whom we were shopping for. We made it to one store and called it quits. I asked Coop if he wanted to go to one more store or home and Coop said "Home", officially ending my attempts to boost consumer confidence numbers.

Here's Coop eating lunch at my favorite, Hot Dog on a Stick! We had a dandy time eating, he danced a little to some Justin Bieber background music and then we went shopping.

When everyone returned home they all got into the new walmart pool. Thatch had SOOOO much fun as you can see in the following photographic evidence.

Water Baby.

Not a Water Baby.

Harper loves her Aunt Jacque. When ever she is in her arms Harper sings herself to sleep.

 Monday was a calm and chill day. Jonathan and I took the opportunity to have some alone time with our eldest monkey and take him to a movie. After an exhausting morning of swimming and a 3 hour nap we went in for an evening movie in Reno to see Brave.

We were the only ones in the theater up until the beginning of the movie so I snapped a few pictures for prosperity.

Thatch rocking the 3D glasses.

On the drive home we saw a train on the side of the highway and we raced it all the way to Fernley. We beat it over the overpass and pulled off to watch it pass by. Thatch stuck his head out of the sunroof and was the happiest little boy in the world at that point :)

This wrapped up our first week of vacation and although it didn't really seem like much, it was. Tuesday we began the 4th of July festivities so that deserves it's own post for sure!

Hope you enjoy!
Love,
S

Captions

It's been a while, things were crazy getting ready for the trip, plus the camera was broken so I've been taking it easy. I did get the old camera working in time for our trip. It is definitely still not fully functioning but I was able to get the old pictures off, so yay!! Here's what happened since the last photos and a few recent ones.

June 15th- Our last day of swim class! We went to the park afterwards, overall a fab day.

June 17th- We went to the Lake!!! Loaded up for an afternoon of tiring fun after naps.

Harper and Miss Penny, cuddling. Harps liked her dress too, it was all she could look at!

Coops playing in Harding lake. A bit after this he slipped in the lake but was okay because of the life jacket. That kid is so mischievous.

Mr. Cautious.

June 21st- Grandma was able to squeeze the boys in for a pre-vacation haircut, so the fellas could break some of the Reno ladies' hearts :)

June 23rd- Jonathan needed some help moving dirt around and Sam came to the rescue! The skidsteer is way better than a shovel and a wheelbarrow according to both Jonathan and Thatch.

Trouble being wrangled in while the big machines did their work.

June 25th- Last soccer game of the summer! The coach said that every player on the sidelines was bonding over their hatred of soccer. Yeah, they didn't win, not that they ever have.

Action shot!

June 27th- I forgot to take pictures on the airplane, probably because of my extreme exhaustion and fatigue. Our first flight was delayed 2 hours. Our next flight was on time but left at 1:40am so that was just super fun keeping the kids up all night (sarcasm font, seriously someone start working on this). When we got to Seattle the kids had gotten 3 hours of sleep, Jonathan and I, probably less. We rode the train in the airport and this was the happiest shot I could get of them.

Coop drinking his hot chocolate, the best in the world! They make it with molten chocolate and it it amazing! He felt a little better but still not up to par. On a side note, Cooper dressed himself for the trip.

We finally made it to Reno and when Grammy got off work the first thing she did was demand to hold her girl :) Cooper decided to document this and snapped these photos himself!

Grandma from Cooper's point of view.

So we are in Reno, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the gang. Good thing too, the boys slept 12+ hours last night and Harper is still asleep, going on 15 hours asleep with only a brief feeding at 8am. Love that girl! I picked up my new camera and it's charging so that's exciting, can't wait to post more photos for all of your viewing pleasure!

Love,
S

GOAL!!!!

It's finally happened, something clicked! Thatcher scored a goal :D  Honestly, he looked even more space cadetish and zoned out than he usually is making this event quite unexpected. At one point during the game he had a break away and was racing towards the goal, dribbling the ball like a pro, but tripped at mid-field because he is his Mother's son and those gangly legs just got in the way. I had stepped away onto another field with the Coopster, who needed a little private time to drop a #2, when Thatch scored (I just asked Jonathan if there's a catch phrase or some sort of funny euphemism if someone scores and he said "In soccer we just refer to it as scoring." What a turd, so much for his ESPN announcing career.) Anyhoo, Thatch started yelling "I scored!! I got a goal!!" I could see that he scored but I couldn't see how or what occurred. Apparently Jonathan was watching and said this is what happened: He kicked the ball in and was a bit sheepish about it at first and then started talking about it, going play by play, with all his teammates. Around this time I made it back to the sidelines, he then ran by, winked at us and gave a thumbs up. I imagine that will be our thing when he's running by after he scores the winning goal in the 2026 World Cup. Hmmm, I may be getting ahead of myself, it was a goal in a 5 year old soccer game after all. So the whistle blew shortly after and it was snack time, the reason the kids show up for soccer anyways. It was my week so I brought capri suns and the expensive fruit rolls from the produce department, because I'm crazy like that. Thatch recapped the goal and gave us a play by play. He's pretty much told everybody about this goal, including the coffee stand girl. It's epic.

Sadly, there is no photographic evidence, but alas there is hope! I found a camera online that I had owned previously which was good enough for government work and the good news is that it was $100 off!! So Jonathan said "buy it" and I clicked that button faster than you could say "cheese!" I'll pick it up in Reno next Tuesday because I doubt they'd have it here in time for our departure in 5 days (woohoo!!!!!!!!). Awesome photos will soon follow :)

Hope you enjoyed.
Love,
S

The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY.

It was a quick week and I can not believe we are heading into another. Monday was a busy day but as prescribed by Jonathan I took it easy the rest of the week. Here we go:

Monday:
Yeah, I honestly can not remember why it was so busy. Hmmm, there was swimming at 11am the whole week. This day had OT at 1pm, oh yes, there was soccer.

Here was Harps helping me garden. She is completely covered by a mosquito net because we do not associate with bugs, us being ladies and all.

Thatch did good at soccer this week! There were a couple of hiccups but otherwise he did fantastic :)

My love in her sunhat. I think it makes her look like Paddington Bear, do you remember him?

Sometimes when you need help, it comes in truckloads! This week I had Jonathan with me AND Miss Penny! For those of you who do not know, Penny was Thatcher's daycare lady when he was one and I went back to work but now she is a close friend who we consider family. She just loves our kiddos and they love her!

Trouble, taking a break during half time. Jonathan kept him busy running around while the game was going on but he did take a break occasionally.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:
I have no idea what we did. Probably laundry and swimming. I think it was rainy? Meh.

Friday:
We rode bikes from swimming to the park where we had pizza and capri suns with our good friends Barrett, Merrick, and our new friend Rev! This session of swimming is over and we aren't signing up again until we get back from vacation.  It was fun and  then it was rainy so we rushed back into the car and came home to do...laundry. GRRR.

Here's where it gets ugly, yesterday we ran some errands and went to a BBQ. Today, we went to the lake and it happened: my camera died. Not just faded into oblivion, like straight up jumped off a bridge and killed itself. I hope I can get the bike ride pictures off the camera from Friday but the real problem is that we're leaving on vacation in 8 days! One can not fly on a plane or, GOD FORBID, go to Disneyland with out a camera!! I'm pretty sure Jonathan will be flexible with this problem but until then I'm going to have to take pictures with my cell phone, gross!

Anyhoo, I don't see much on the schedule for the week but the good news is that Saturday is the Midnight Sun Run Party and that will be fun :)  I'll write more and try to be better with posting this week...wish me luck on the camera negotiations 2012!

Busy Busy but nothing accomplished...status quo.

Jonathan is on nights this week which means I need to try to keep the boys out of the house in order to maintain some semblance of serenity in our family unit. Quiet sleep time=amiable Dad. Here's a brief look into what we done lately.

Monday:
Thatch has swim lessons every weekday at 11AM. After that we came home and hung out, Jonathan wasn't quite switched over so he stayed home with Coop while I took Thatch to his OT in town. I just so happened to lose my ID, which I do often, so I took Thatch with me and he got his first state ID. He did NOT enjoy the wait time at the DMV, to put it mildly.

It is an adorable id, he even signed it! :)

 After we got home and Coop napped Jonathan rode off into the sunset (he's been riding his bike to work) and I drove off into a dark, stormy night. Soccer was YUCKY this week. There was thunder, lightening and rain (Oh My) and they would not call the game. I mean, seriously, it's 5 year olds playing soccer, not the World Cup. I would have gladly paid the ref the $15 she was making that game to call it but, alas we muddled through it. At half time I had to go to the car with H and C because it was so rainy and she was crying and he was being 2. I think in the future I will start recruiting some help for myself. I felt awful sitting afar watching my little guy and I could see him looking for us so I said "eff it" and we went back out. Luckily the rain finally let up a bit. They played, Thatch ran around and it ended. We came home and called the day a wrap.

The kids names' were put on their jerseys but they messed Thatcher's up. It says "THATCHES". The coach asked if I wanted to get a new one but I didn't, I think it's funny and cute. Possibly a new nickname too!

Mary Poppins would have a field day with this kid.

On our way back to the fields from the car. Coop is a runner, that should be really fun at Disneyland.

Action shot- at least he was near the ball!

Lady Harper watching a riveting game of Football and ready for a starring roll in My Fair Lady.

Tuesday:
We had nothing on agenda for this day besides swimming. It was pretty fab.

Harper is currently attempting to put both of her hands in her mouth at the same time. I keep telling her that it isn't going to make the Guinness World Records book but she's still attempting it none the less.

Wednesday:
I don't know why but this was a long day. Oh wait, yes I do know, because I kept throwing crap in to do that day. Me and my stupid spontaneity. It started with swimming at 11 after that we had some time to kill. OT was pushed back until 2pm. Oh, back story: Cooper slept HORRIBLY the night before, he went to bed at 8 as usual but I finally heard him calm down around 9:15. He woke up crying terribly at 10 and I took him out of the room so he wouldn't wake Thatch. He finally fell asleep in my bed with me at 11:30 and woke up at 7:30. To say this kid was a pill on Wednesday is an understatement. He would have made Hitler, Stalin, and Napoleon quiver in their boots. Back to the day now- after swimming went to pay a little visit to the big man in red. That's right, a mid year check in with Santa! We live in North Pole for heaven's sake, I might as well use it to my advantage!

Santa actually remembered us and asked which class Thatcher was going to be in next year. He apparently knows all the kindergarten teachers at his school and Thatch was in awe. When Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas Thatch said "An Airplane". I was shocked. Cooper said "Candy" and I was not shocked.

Afterwards we had some hot chocolate and took a little look around but having Coop with me was literally a bull in a china shop.

My love had hot chocolate envy. None for her yet!

Thatch informed Cooper and I that this was Rudolph. His nose is only red in the winter, duh.

 From one extreme to another, off to the green house we went to pick some lovely flowers.

When Coop gets tired he starts to stare off into space. This was my cue to go home. He sure is cute though.

A quick lunch before naptime. He thoroughly enjoyed dipping his carrots into ketchup. Yuck.

 Thatch and I went to OT while Jonathan and Cooper slumbered. We came, we saw, we conquered.

Thursday:
Our busiest day but not so much. Coop had another terrible night and I just let him cry it out this time. Thatcher didn't wake up at all while he was in there so that was a plus knowing that he's able to make it through that chaos. Swimming at 11am as usual and then home. Coop tormented and fed the mosquitos while we planted our flowers outside. Then he went in for his nap after lunch at 1:45. Thatch and I left to go to the chiropractor. I'll type up more about the chiro on a different post but pretty much she is awesome and has helped him immensely!

Us driving. I had the back loaded up with recycling stuff and Harper so he had to sit in the front. Clearly a sacrifice he was wiling to make.

Getting adjusted :)

Here's a quick video of him getting adjusted. She calls the pops in his back popcorn, so when he gets home he tells Jonathan that he had a lot of popcorn and Jonathan just looks confused.

Thatch's Adjustment

When we got home Cooper was still asleep! He finally woke up at 5pm. I'm hoping he's going through a growth spurt and that would explain the heinous behavior but I doubt it. Anyhoo, when we got home I forgot that he had practice at 6pm so we missed it. Whoops.

Friday:

Another day we had nothing but did too much, again. We rode bikes with our good friends to swimming. Thatch needs to work on his pedaling, he kept going backwards which is the break. It drove me nuts but he was much better on the ride back. After that we ran a couple of errands in town and headed home for naps. Coop fell asleep in the car for about10 minutes and that was all he would take for sleeping. UGH.

Westcott Pool Biker Gang. Watch out Hell's Angels.

When we got home Jonathan woke up and had an attack of the grumpies. Cooper has lost one of his new shoes and we had to search high and low for it. He mandated that I not sign Thatch or Coop up for anymore activities until next summer and give myself a break. I'm thinking that is not going to happen but I'll let him get off night shifts before we broach that subject again! What would I put in the blog?

Anyhoo, Thatcher is beyond excited for our trip to see Grammy and Grandpa in Reno! He keeps asking that we fly to Mexico to see them. I'm not sure where he got this, as they live in Nevada. As of today he has packed his bag 3 times and then I have unpacked it. I made this countdown on the closet door so he can see how many days are left rather than assuming that today is the day everyday!

Frequent Flyer Mugshots.

17 days until vacation!!

 Anyhoo, that was our week. Thank God today is windy and rainy so I can clean up and do some laundry. I need a maid, or maybe not to do so many activities. Shoot, I hope Jonathan isn't right because I hate when that happens!

Love,

S

Marathon Wednesday

Wednesday was a lllllloooooooonnnnnnnngggggggg day, to say the least. It started for me at 5:15AM when Jonathan finally stopped hitting the snooze button and got ready for work. I heard him leave, heard the garage door close and then heard Harps wake up hungry. I fed her, and laid back down to try to go back to sleep. At 6:15 I gave up and decided to wake up and work out (ha, if I had a nickle for every time I said that), the dogs being excited woke up too and shook, their little dog tags banging together like an alarm signalling Cooper that it was time to wake up also. UGH. He was grumpy, miserable and a downright pill. But he did perk up a bit after some cuddling time. Thatch joined us at 7am and we were off on another whirlwind day.

I had a Dr. appointment with the podiatrist at 10 so we went there after running by Jonathan's work to drop some stuff off. I have Plantar Fasciitis, basically my right arch feels like it is going to rip in half, which it kind of is. It's extremely painful and I need to get it better before our vacation! They were great there, everyone felt the need to take their shoes off and to be examined. I hope we don't get charged 3 times!

After that I gave Thatch the option to decide whether we went to Barnes and Noble or to get Coopie's hair cut and he picked the hair cut! I guess he doesn't like his brother to look like he's in the Beatles either.

Coopie with Chom, the boys barber (is that the right word? I don't know boy lingo.) She's great with them, and quick which is most important when unfurring a squirmy fella.

After that was a quick lunch at McDonald's which they loved. McD's has Madagascar 3 toys right now and they got a train with the penguins on it. I guess we are going to be seeing that soon too! Then off to OT and a straight shot home for a nap. It was 2:30 by this time and Coop had been up for 8 hours. He was surprisingly not so bad like but still in dire need of a nap. We all were! And then the most miraculous event occurred. Everyone slept at the same time! Thatch said he wasn't tired but there is evidence to the contrary.

H was just relaxing on the couch, paging through his train magazine when he finally hit the hay. He did not wake up this well though.

Now for the busy part: Thatch's first soccer game outside! I was ill prepared for this. I got the stroller out for Harps, the rain gear because it looked kind of shady out, Thatch's soccer gear and what have you. It was a lot of crap in my car!

Harps is a Soccer Hooligan.

I asked Thatch to stand there so I could take a picture for his Grandma's and this was his pose. Then he told me that they were really going to like this.

After a lot of running around after him and just general kid shenanigans I put him in the stroller and held Harper. Having a caged Cooper worked out much better.

Thatcher said he scored a goal but I'm not so sure about that. It's hard to tell because it is herd ball but I didn't actually see that happen. We'll let it roll though.

Intense action shot.

You can't see it in any of the pictures but the sponsor of the team is Sani-Can. Hehe :) After the intense game of running around in circles we packed up and went to pick up some dinner. Bamboo Panda!! YUMMY, we love it! The boys especially love sweet and sour chicken, which we call chineese chicken nuggets and white rice, which Thatch calls "white food". Okay, we'll let that slide for now.

If you know how picky of an eater Thatch is you'd be amazed and how much he ate! If you knew how unpicky of an eater Cooper is you'd laugh at how much he ate too.

Afterwards I made Thatch take a shower and Cooper joined him. This was Coopie's first shower :)

After he was oiled up he ran to his dresser and pulled out undies like his big brother. He's never worn a pair before and was quite enthralled with the characters on them! He finally settled on Cars and couldn't stop looking at his man parts long enough for a picture. He slept in his diaper though :) When we get home we will start the potty training hard core!

Well poop, it won't let me finish in the normal blog so I'll finish it here. So that ended our marathon of a day and all the kiddos were asleep by 9pm. Today we rest and tomorrow, we grocery shop. That should be fun. Or not. Until later,
S