Archive for May, 2006

Baseball playoffs!

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

It has been such an exciting two days for Christian and the rest of us!

Yesterday, Christian was whisked away from Chess class to go to his Kindermusik graduation at a special early time, 4 pm. Christian’s favorite part was when the pinata broke open and they all got to look for 10 items.

Christian also had a baseball playoff game against the D-Backs at 5 pm, so it was a crazy evening. He was able to get there about 5:30, in time to help his team pull off a nail-biting win!

And to top it all off, Christian lost his very first tooth during the last inning!

Their win against the D-Backs last night won them a game tonight against their biggest rival, the Royals. They’ve been formidable competitors all season… they are the only team the Reds lost to all season! Tonight, the Reds pulled off another WIN! What a great start to the playoff season!

Their next game will be Sunday 6/4 at 6 pm (so yay, no conflicts with his pirate birthday party on Saturday)!

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Welcome baby Holcer!

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006

*Happy Auntie Dance*

Welcome to little miss Abigail Jean Holcer! Congratulations Angie, she’s another beauty :-)

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San Juan Island!

Sunday, May 14th, 2006

Yesterday, Christian, Crystal, Joy and I embarked on an adventure! Christian had been saying he wanted to be a dolphin trainer when he grows up, so for a special day I planned a trip to San Juan Island to the whale museum.

Here’s the itinerary as we originally planned it:

5:15 am Leave Lynnwood

6:45 am Arrive Anacortes

7:45 am Ferry to Friday Harbor

9:30 am Arrive Friday Harbor

10 am Whale Museum and misc sightseeing

1 pm check in at Roche Harbor – San Juan Safaris

2 pm Sea Kayaking – San Juan Safaris – 3 hours

6 pm dinner

7 pm be in line for ferry

8 pm ferry to Anacortes

9:20 pm arrive Anacortes

10:50 pm arrive Lynnwood

Surprisingly, we actually stuck really close to our itinerary. We left about 10 minutes late, but arrived in Anacortes on time. We had an expensive breakfast at the ferry terminal and re-bought the map that I had bought and forgotten at home in the gift shop. When we got to Friday Harbor, we found that the town doesn’t open until 10, so we walked around a bit, found the public restrooms, and went back to the whale museum at 10. The weather was ok… a little cold and sprinkly off and on all day long, but we had times of beautiful sunshine too. Gotta love WA weather!

The whale museum was fun. The kids got to play with sound recordings, which was their favorite part. They got to hear what different types of sea life sounded like as well as recording their own voices. They had various skeletons on display and Christian thought the preserved baby harbor seal was cool. We also watched a bit of a movie about a whale researcher. Admittedly, most of the time we spent at the whale museum was spent in the gift shop :) I picked up a couple of books for Christian and he and Joy each got a package of squeaky sea life toys (whales, squid, etc).

So from there, we played with the navigation in Crystal’s new van and had it direct us to Lime Kiln State Park. The scenery was beautiful. We even saw a fox on the way! When we got there, we had a snack and followed a trail to a whale watching spot and on to the lighthouse. It was a nice short hike, and it was Christian’s favorite part of the trip. I learned that Madrona is a kind of tree (silly me, I thought it was a community).

Then we headed on to Roche Harbor. On the way, we saw a beautiful bald eagle. I tried desperately to get his picture, but he was too far away to get a really good picture. When we first saw him, he was really close, though, so it was disappointing to not get a better picture. We also saw horses, cows, sheep, and alpaca on the way, and we passed the Lavender farm.

Roche Harbor is a tiny little place. You park at the top of a hill and walk down into the town. Kinda strange. Anyway, we walked down and stood in line forever to have fish and chips and chowder. The fish was fabulous. The chowder wasn’t really anything special. Before we knew it, it was time to check in for our kayaking trip. The kids had been really nervous about kayaking. They both insisted they don’t know how to swim and who knows what other arguments they had to not go LOL. We were a little worried at first, because the guy who checked us in warned us we’d be expected to keep up with the other couple that was booked on our tour, but thankfully it all turned out to be fine.

We got the full rundown of what to do, got suited up with life jackets and ’skirts’, got settled into our kayaks and off we went! They did warn us that with the light kids up front, it could be more difficult to control the boats and I experienced that first hand. We had some time to get used to kayaking and then we crossed a channel and when we got to the other side, Crystal and I managed to run into each other and I got turned the other way and there was no possible way I could get turned back toward the group. I fought with it for several minutes, but then the guide Becky called out that they were going to come to me and we’d go the way I was facing instead. She said I’d been doing the right things but with light little Christian up front it just wasn’t going to happen.

So we continued on (looking now at a map we must have been going around Henry Island) and the next bit of adventure was the HAIL! It started outright hailing and we had to go back a bit and hold on under a dock for shelter until it passed! The hail hitting the water looked pretty cool, but those little chunks of ice hurt! It wasn’t long before it passed and we were on our way again. We stopped on Posey Island for a break and to look for sealife. We saw crabs, barnacles, limpets, lots of tiny snails, some fish, and oysters! For some reason, I had no idea we had oysters here.

The kayaking was fabulous. We all really enjoyed it! Christian and Joy paddled the whole way, which was amazing according to Becky. She said any 6-7 year olds she’s ever seen on the tours have given up paddling after the first 2 minutes. Those two sure were troopers and I could sure feel it when Christian was not paddling. It was a bit difficult to try to match his strokes and he did get me soaked :) but it was great. I loved every minute of it. Christian and Joy had quite the competitive thing going on (I’m going to beat you! No, I’m going to beat you!) LOL. We also saw Harlequin ducks, Cormorants, and a mink! So very cool.

Anyway, we returned to the harbor, and I was really proud of us for bringing the kayak perfectly back into the slip. Then it was time to leave Roche Harbor and go back to Friday Harbor in search of dinner. In Friday Harbor, we found Fridays Crab House and wow was it wonderful! Joy and Christian shared a whole crab, Crystal had a crab, and I had salmon (ok, I shared everyone’s crab too!). It was a perfect dinner! We ate outside on the top deck (which we had to ourselves). It sprinkled on us again a little bit, but not too bad. The kids were still as goofy as ever. Christian has decided that crab is his favorite food :)

We got the van into the ferry line at 7 (which was laughable because even when the ferry arrived there were only 5 or so cars in line) and then we walked over to the ‘Doctors Office’ which was a little shop that served coffee, ice cream, treats, and some food. Crystal and I were still stuffed from dinner but bought some treats for the road (peanut butter bar, a brownie, that sort of thing) and the kids both had ice cream. We thought they were crazy – we were cold!

On the ferry home, we saw the most beautiful sunset! Crystal got some wonderful pictures. We saw the mountains in the distance and the snow was reflecting pink… beautiful. We weren’t sure which mountain it was… seems like it must have been Baker? And on the drive home we saw the biggest moon! I’m sad my pictures of it didn’t turn out (but there’s only so much you can do from a moving vehicle).

Anyway, it was an amazing day all around and we’re definitely planning on going again!

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It’s a crazy life…

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006

I’ve been promising Angie I’d write about just how crazy life is around here… I keep wondering where April went and then I remember it went to taxes and baseball… and gymnastics and chess and kindermusik!

Here’s how last Tuesday afternoon went (or at least my recollection of it LOL)…

am – pack lunchables in lunch box, take to work, remember to grab from work fridge

2:30 – left work early (driving the van)

3:15 – pick Christian up from Chess class, drive Christian to Maplewood Elementary for chess tournament

3:40 – Bill swapped cars with us at Maplewood, Christian played two games of chess – first one he hung on until time ran out (his lonely king being chased all over the board) – second game he lost in 4 moves – needs to learn to defend against that strategy!

4:30 – leave Maplewood (now driving the Saturn), open lunchables for Christian to eat while we drive

5:15 – drop Christian off at Kindermusik for his class

6:15 – Bill arrives with van, Brandon, and Alyson for Brandon’s class

6:20 – Alyson joins parent time for Christian’s class

6:30 – Christian, Alyson and I take van home (Brandon’s class is 6:45 – 7:30)

7:15 – Alyson’s in bed!

8:00 – Christian’s in bed, Brandon’s home and to bed and mommy sleeps really soundly LOL

Thankfully, the chess tournament part was a one-time thing. Christian does have chess class every Tuesday until 3:30, so I have to leave work around 2:30, but then at least we have time to get home and go out to eat before heading out to Kindermusik.

Wednesdays, Christian goes to Kid’s Club at church and stays there while Bill has choir practice.

Thursdays, Brandon has Gymnastics class from 5:30 to 6:00, which has been FABULOUS for him. It’s SO much fun to watch his lesson.

Christian has also been busy with baseball and homework… it’s been absolutely crazy, but I know June is coming. Then we just have to figure out what to do to help Christian with his reading.

We’re really looking forward to May 12… Christian and Crystal and Joy and I are going to San Juan Island. Christian wants to be a dolphin trainer when he grows up, so we’re going up to the whale museum and we’re also going to go kayaking! I’m excited. The kids are a little nervous about the kayaking part, but I think it will be fun.

Alyson is talking a ton and getting into everything. She goes up and down the stairs no problem. She loves to say ‘no no no’! And ’shoes’. And she tries to say everything else. She’s thrilled when she says ‘milk’ at the dinner table and we know what she means. She’s really good when she’s tired… she just has to go go go until you put her to bed… then she goes right to sleep. She loves her brothers SO much. Her most-used word right now is ‘Brandon’ which she says very clearly (and VERY often). She seems to think everything is Brandon’s.

Christian’s a good kid – he’s trying really hard to keep up with his 2nd grader teammates at baseball. It’s been a bit hard for him to be one of the younger kids, but it’s been good for him. He’s still struggling with reading, but he LOVES joke books. He has days that he’s perfectly happy to get his homework done and out of the way and other days he throws absolute fits and I end up at wit’s end. But one day at a time. He’s really frustrated with Brandon – the typical sibling stuff. He needs his own space and a safe place to keep his treasures. I’m thinking about finding him a locker-type thing where he can lock up his favorite things. He’s looking forward to his pirate birthday party this year – should be fun. We’re going to hide the goody boxes for his friends and give them treasure maps to find them :-) Now I just have to pray that a baseball tournament game won’t be at the same time as his party.

Brandon is looking forward to preschool in the fall. He’s going to go to Trinity Lutheran preschool just up the street. He really jumped right in the day we visited. He keeps saying he wants to play tball, but I think he just feels left out at Christian’s games. He’s really really enjoying his gymnastics lessons with Ben and coach Erin. They’ve gotten to do tumbling and jumping and balance beams and rings and bars… he’s always got such a big smile on his face. I’m hoping to get some pictures this week. Thankfully, his asthma seems to be under control as long as we use his inhaler before class. He’s still pretty wild and out of control sometimes at home and at Kindermusik, but we think he’s outgrowing some of it. We will probaby give him a year off from Kindermusik next year… he’s just not enjoying it. I’d rather put him in another night a week of gymnastics at this rate (the cost would be about the same!).

Well, that was WAY more than I think you were expecting, Angie :-) But maybe now that it’s all typed, I can copy/paste into the kid’s scrapbooks (which I finally started working on again last weekend!). Hugs to all!

Posted in Alyson, Bill, Brandon, Christian, Jesica | No Comments »