We are thankful for many things, but there was a slight pall over our Thanksgiving as we wait for Aunt Janet to recover from her stroke so she can join us for holidays again. 

Grandma let the kids decorate her tree (and again later when P&C came over, and once again when Little Amber toddled around!).

Wesley choose the huge bathtub to himself over helping his sisters with the tree.

And Daddy can always be relied on for a good nap!

Thanks, Mom, for hosting a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(If you have followed the hole-in-the-wall saga, that white spot behind him is what’s left of the plaster patch I did a few months ago.)

Missoula Children’s Theater came to our school last week, and Kyla was one of the icicle townspeople in their version of The Princess in the Pea!  I think she had about 7 words to say solo, but it was a great experience for her. 

Thankfully, not new pets. I’m just recycling the old ones! 

What they can do with a piece of string and a laundry basket.

10 to 1, the clean laundry is now in a pile on Piper’s floor.

Romantic weekends away are not that rare for us, but taking the kids along was a first.  Dwayne got us an awesome room on the Bellingham Bay, and we were going to make the most of our (November) weekend in a beautiful town.

We were there too early to check in to our hotel, so I took us to Whatcom Falls, a trip down memory lane as that’s where dumb college students jump the falls.  I was a dumb college student.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

And this was our view over the bay…from our (squeal!) window seat.

We took the kids to their first Theater Sports, owned by former Who’s Line is it Anyway star, Ryan Stiles.  It was a family-friendly event, but our kids were the youngest by a decade or more.  Uh hm, there’s a reasonable chance that Dwayne and I were about a decade older than the rest of the audience.  Stupid college towns.

On Saturday night, Dwayne got us a sunset reservation at Chuckanut Manor.  It wasn’t the restaurant we both thought it was, but it was lovely.  Sunset, at least in PNW November, meant about 4:30, so it was an early dinner.

I tried raw oysters for the first time.  The one with the horseradish was excellent…and nearly deadly. 

The night was beautiful, so when we got back, I played the Mom Card and suggested we all go for a walk.

The hotel is at the beginning of a long boardwalk, eventually connecting with another park and the Interurban Trail.  I love walking with Kyla!  When the others had given up and gone back, Kyla begged to go on and on. We walked for miles together that night, and I will treasure that memory forever.

As we left Bellingham on Sunday, I had us stop at Lake Padden for another little family walk.  I decided to not tell any in the car that it was a 2.6 mile hike around the lake until we were back in the car munching on chocolate bars.  Wesley kept up with Kyla and me, complaining the entire time, while Piper and Dwayne walk their own pace. The kids were all proud of how far they walked…even though the grumblings lasted for days later. 

We never got around to taking my Mother’s Day portraits, so I brought my new camera over to my parents before we headed out of town for the weekend.  We got cute ones of the kids, but a malfunction gave us just one family one, with me not smiling. 

This turned out to be the last time we saw Maddux, as well.  We dropped him off for the weekend and he was in a new adoptive home by the time we returned.  Piper missed him a little, but we’ve adjusted just fine being a non-K9 household.

 

That’s a glass ceiling, and it’s suffocating me.

My family.  I kinda like them.  Especially the big hairy one.  I’m a bit partial to the beardless one.  The cute blondies in the middle ain’t bad either.

Me likey Monday Halloween!

The kids when to party at the Rock Climbing gym on Friday and I was able to go to a (grown up) party on Saturday night, get my vomiting pumpkin (see nauseous blue one below) ready for Monday’s parties, and have a fairly relaxing Halloween day.  I was at all 3 kids parties that day, so nothing else was on the schedule.

The kids were ready to trick-or-treat through the neighborhood before I was ready to take them, so they went on their own.  I missed out on seeing neighbors, but I got us ready for the neighborhood bonfire.  (That’s a fancy term for me setting up our little fire pit in front of our island, and packing over chairs, hotdogs, s’mores, and our jack-o-lanterns in a wheelbarrow.) The kids brought their candy, some neighbors, and their appetites.  The rain held off until bedtime and I chalked one up for a perfect Halloween!

His mother must be a saint.

There comes a time in every parent’s life when you have to choose to love your kids or your stuff more.

I choose stuff.

Perhaps you remember how Wesley almost didn’t survive my kitchen table refurbishment last summer.  It was bad, and it turned out I hadn’t fully gotten over it. 

Because when I came home 20 minutes after Kyla and Wesley one afternoon, and saw Wesley gouging my table with a pair of scissors, AUGH!  I still can’t even relive it.

I do know that hours later, over dinner, Dwayne was trying to reconcile me and Wesley…and failing.  Wesley offered to vacuum the stairs, pay me $9, or refinish the table next summer.  None of those were either enough or reasonable. 

Wesley and I had to get a place where we could live not being able to make mistakes right again. 

But don’t think I rose above being pissy for a long, long, long time.

And he may want to hope that I’m not put in the position of having to choose between him and furniture.  Because I usually root for the underdog.