HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Our little Nintendos. Peach, Toad, and Toadette.

Finally here. Halloween. Here's some pictures that don't need explaining, much.
We went to story time at the library in our costumes and then Elizabeth and I changed so she could go to school.
After school, we went to a business area where my brother works and did some trick-or-treating there.
We came home and went to a couple more houses on our block, waited for Andy to come home, and had some yummy soup (Olivia and Vincent both fell asleep) and then went to the church for our trunk-or-treat.
Our buddy, Nathan, came with us to pass out our candy so we could take our kids around. He came as an arcade. He had a Nintendo Game Cube and controllers strapped to his belt.

Me and the kids at the first afternoon trick-or-treating.
Our Nintendo Family: Luigi (Andy-he's making a funny face, but the rest are looking at the camera), Daisy (NaDell), Toadette (Elizabeth), Peach (Olivia), and Toad (Vincent).
I made the hats, added on the yellow yarn, my daisy, and my mom was great and did the rest.


Nathan and Andy passing out candy.


Lopsided Toadette and Peach in the afternoon trick-or-treating.

Toad, Toadette, some dog, and Peach getting ready to trick-or-treat. The dog is Scooby-Doo (cousin-Colby).

Vincent testing out the hat. It didn't stay on very good in the stroller, so I put it over one of the handles next to his head and called it good.

Vincent is starting to get up on his hands and knees now. He is so cute. He almost always looks right at the camera when I take a picture. His sisters should take lessons. He is 9 months old today.

Halloween at Ballet

Wednesday was Elizabeth's ballet with costumes. She is Toadette from Nintendo. Here's a picture of her in her costume.

I know that the red looks bad next to the hot pink, but that's what Toadette wears. Sorry for your eyes.And Elizabeth at ballet with the wands. The teacher played spooky music for them too.

We also relaxed Wednesday (a little). I forced myself to lay down in the hour between school drop off and babysitting for my friend to help in the classroom. After school, I took the girls to get their flu shots and they did great. Elizabeth went first to show Olivia how "tough and strong" she is. Andy got home after work and left immediately to help someone move. He got back at 8:30 or so and we played games with our buddies.

Tuesday went so well! We had a Provident Living Activity with major help from the RS Enrichment Board and served a dinner of potato soup and bean soup, rolls, and apple crisps for dessert to more than 100 people who came. The dinners were based on things sold at the cannery to get us to use our food so that we are used to it. We had two great lessons by a lady in our ward who is an EMT on Emergency Preparedness on the pandemic flu that is predicted to occur soon (yikes, but great information!) and another from a guy in our ward who is super smart with money and has set up a weekly class schedule for next year (January-September) with people from our area who are experts in the topics to help us out. We also had several 72-100 hour kits on display to encourage others to do theirs and to show that it's not too tough. We also had collected recipes and made a book that was delivered that night with some recipes that use wheat and things that we don't normally cook with, but need to learn how to. Everything came together and no one person felt totally overwhelmed (well, not much) and it was a great event! Relief! 29 people helped or brought things for us and the YM and YW babysat. It was awesome!

My mom came and helped all day so I could make all the rolls. I made one batch on Monday night and four on Tuesday after setting up. I only had one gallon Ziploc baggie with leftover rolls, so we guessed just right. My mom was great and took Olivia to ballet (which she wouldn't do, sorry mom!) and then took Elizabeth to and from school while I was super busy. She also finished my Halloween costume for me to add the daisy and buttons. My mom is FABULOUS!

Pumpkin Patch Again

We went to the pumpkin patch again and added in Andy and my brother with his wife and son.

We all had fun. The kids love to run around and play with Colby, Elizabeth and Colby go about the same pace, Olivia is constantly trying to keep up. They all got rid of a lot of energy.

My camera ran out of batteries as soon as I took 11 pictures, so I only have a few good ones from the hay stacks. Maybe my SIL, Kori, will have some up soon on her blog. Andy says: I felt a tiny bit bad that I made Joe keep an eye on the girls and help Olivia climb the hay pyramid while I pushed Vincent around in his stroller, but I get enough hay when I have to work in hay barns and I hate the stuff.

The kids loved picking their pumpkins, of course, and took their time. They ran through the maze and tried to get us to buy them ice cream (even Colby, who can't eat regular ice cream)and my girls tried inviting themselves over to Colby's house or to eat McD's with us for dinner. Didn't work this time. We hung out just us instead and had a relaxing evening. Which is a nice change.

Friday night we had a ward progressive dinner. Our family went over to someone elses' house for appetizers and then a different family came to our house for dinner and then everyone went to the church for ice cream (see they didn't need any on Saturday too! Especially since Elizabeth was going around finishing off the other kids' ice cream) and games.

After that, we had a family in our ward over to play games. That was fun, even though they won.

I got to go and help at the school again with Kindergarten weighing and measuring and the nurses did the vision screening. Elizabeth is right in the middle of the group sizewise. There are so many tiny kids though. All the biggest ones are girls too.

Thursday, I walked with Elizabeth both ways to school! We haven't done that too much lately because of colds, so it was nice to do that again. Andy worked a little late (someone has to keep this family in the lap of luxury), so I got to play with the kids extra and we went to Elizabeth's "math and art" night at her school. They had tables set up to do all kinds of projects in the gym and the computer lab and library open to do other things. They had the most fun with beads. Elizabeth colored a pattern on a paper and then made the beads that way on the page. They love to make things. They jumped around a lot though and also played with playdoh, made pumpkins, folded origami (the ancient art of paper folding) paper into a swan, and picked up some coloring pages to do at home.

I'm gearing up for our ward's provident living ward activity on Tuesday and Halloween with our party the next day. We are super excited and have SO much to do this week. I don't think I'll update for a couple days. Maybe though, if you're lucky.

More quirks of me.

One of my HS friends' sisters tagged me on her blog. I used to hang out with her a little too. It's fun to see what people I know are up to.

1. I like to dance at home, but not at dances with my friends. Kind of strange.

2. I love to read, but still haven't read Twilight.

3. I like to take treats to friends' houses and be thanked by their husbands. Most of my friends don't make treats very often and I make them way too much.

4. Iam trying not to make every blog about my kids.

5. I love saving money by shopping clearance. Kohl's is awesome for that. (just for the record, if NaDell stayed out of Kohl's, we'd really save some money)

6. I like to stay up at night to finish projects without interruptions.

7. I had too many boyfriends too young, but met the right guy at the right time. Yea!

I tag................. Amye, Kim, Lisa, Shanell, Monica, Kelsey, and Emily H.

Husky and stuff

I took Vincent to the doctor Wednesday and they called him "husky". His ear infections are gone and he is almost 9 months, so I asked if we could combine the well visit so I didn't have to do another co-pay. They added in his 1/2 flu shot too.
Vincent is 27 inches long and 19 pounds.
Elizabeth was 19 pounds 11 ounces at 9 months. She was also 2 inches longer.
Olivia was 17 pounds 4 ounces and 29 inches long, same as Elizabeth for length at 9 months.

(I've always enjoyed calling it length because their length changes to height as soon as they stand up at a year or so. That means their height before a year is somewhere between 2 and 8 inches.)
Also at the doctor, I was playing with Vincent and noticed that he has two teeth on the bottom. When did that happen? Not Sunday when I checked. They had just broken through. Why was I playing with Vincent instead of yelling at girls, you ask? Elizabeth was at school and Olivia fell asleep right before the appointment, so rather than take a whining, tired girl, I called my neighbor-friend a block over 10 minutes before my appointment and asked if she would bring her two girls over to play while Olivia slept. She did. Yea! I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about Olivia at the doctors. She really needed her rest.

I was served yesterday.
2 beds made
1 toilet cleaned
1 set of toenails painted (Olivia's by them, then I did Elizabeth's)
1 bathroom garbage taken out
1 piece of fabric taken
1 more garbage taken out
1 more piece of fabric taken
The MiaMaids (14-15 year old girls) in our ward had a fun service scavenger hunt. I signed up on Sunday to say I would be home and that they could come here, so four "teams" of two girls came by. I remembered when the first two sets knocked on the door at the same time. It was fun. After the first ones, I remembered a couple things on the list and put some things on the piano ready for the next group. I only let them do one easy thing though. One pick-up and one thing for me. The first two groups got to do two nice things for me. They did a good job and were very nice. Cute girls.

Saturday was another busy day. Andy went to Nutcracker practice from 9am-5pm. He went Friday night too from 7-9 or so. (He's dancing with his ballerina sister/teacher of small kids in the Nutcracker for the party scene.) Andy says: I guess I didn't suck when I did the Nutcracker last year, because they asked me to do it again. I plan on being in it as many times as possible, because if I'm not in it, I'll be roped into helping backstage, and that's a lot more work. Don't worry, I'll be wearing a tuxedo in the performances, no ballet-jock. The hardest part is making sure I don't step on Torrie's dress, much.
Elizabeth had Primary Program practice at the church at 9am.
Elizabeth needed to go to a friends' birthday party and we took one of her friends whose family moved that day.
There was an open house at the new church building in West Richland. Olivia and Vincent and I went through after dropping off Elizabeth.
I wanted to go and see the Nights in Rodanthe (Andy says: I have the best wife ever. A lot of women force their husbands go with them to these kind of movies, as if not wanting to sit through some, crappy, chick movie means you don't love your wife.) finally, so I called one of Andy's other sisters, Sara, and we went to see that at 5pm. Andy didn't think he'd be done early enough, so I took the kids to Sara's house and left the car. The plan was that I'd go with her and then Andy would come and pick them up and leave me his car. He showed up right after I got there and left with the kids. Lucky Uncle David didn't have to babysit my kids. Yea for him. He got to play with Sami by herself. Sara and I went to the movie. It was alright for me. I always enjoy the books more. I don't like Richard Gere much in this movie. He's too old for Diane Lane. It just didn't seem like they liked each other enough before they were all over each other. Then, they'd fight and be all over each other again. What!? Sara really enjoyed it though. I found myself stifling laughter at a couple of parts that she was crying. Apparently I wasn't that into it. After the movie we went to eat at The Pita Pit. It's so yummy. Then we went to a meeting for our EVENT at my MIL (mother-in-law's) house. I took Sara home and then went home to sleeping kids. Nice. We had been booed, so I made treats to pass on.

Sunday we went to church. I was reminded to enjoy my life and to appreciate what I have and also what others gave so I can have. There was a question about what the difference between murmuring and complaining is. I said that the difference is that which murmuring, you don't make any changes. You only whine about things. With complaining to someone, you can come up with solutions and change. Also, that people don't like to hear you whining without results. I napped (which is why I made treats on Saturday) and then we went to MIL for dinner. Yum.

Monday we went to a friend's house to play. I know her from when my brother hung out with her and her family for a summer. I didn't get to know her super-well then, because he was always at their house. We've reconnected and realized that we live 4 minutes away from each other and have about the same age kids. Both oldest kids are kindergartner girls. The kids all had a great time playing dress-up and making up plays for us. We never did see their plays though. Every time they asked us to watch, they left the room. Hmmm. We took our kids to their respective schools, and then my younger kids and I went home for a little while until Torrie (Andy's dancing queen sister) came over to watch them while I helped in Elizabeth's class. That was fun! They were drawing pictures of their favorite things and then were supposed to write a sentence saying what the picture was using their "whisper phones" to sound out the words. Their pictures were great and the kids are so cute. After they finished, they had time to play in stations. Each station was set up so only four kids could play at a time. Elizabeth was first to the math station with her clothespin name. The second to the math station was a little boy who likes to chase her on the playground. He was cute. He just kind of sat by the 3 girls and watched them and kind of made something with his links. He looked bored to me. Elizabeth told me later that he goes where she goes all the time. He's a nice kid. I got home and then wasted an hour until we went and picked Elizabeth up. Then, I gave the kids a snack and got busy making Halloween hats. Where did the time go? I spent two hours and then Andy came home. We went to McD's for dinner and ran into another boy from the other kindergarten class who Elizabeth chases. Both boys have the same name. Crazy. Elizabeth loves to run. She also made up her own game called "chase, chase". The rules are whoever made up the game, runs. Everyone else must chase them. We needed milk and bread, so we went across the street to the WalMart and ran into the little boy again. Funny. McDonald's and WalMart: two great cornerstones of Real America!! When we came home I finished the hats and they are awesome!

Tuesday was ballet. Before that though, one of Elizabeth's friend's mom called and asked if I could watch her for a little while before school. She came over after we got home from ballet. She ate lunch and then we had to go. During school, Olivia, Vincent, and I went to Kohl's and WalMart (to switch some jeans) and then we were home in time to walk to the school to pick Elizabeth up. She didn't like that. She said that she is too tired to walk home. She whined and cried all the way home and she's not a little pig. After school, I got busy making dinner to make up for the out-to-eat dinner Monday. I made spaghetti and meatballs and french bread. I ground more wheat and put one cup in the french bread. It was yummy. Olivia always requests meatballs when I ask her what I should make for dinner. (Well, right after she tells me she wants to go to Eatza Pizza.) Then, I went to a cooking class with ladies from church. We learned a little about doing crockpot meals and how to make a pumpkin roll. The lady gave us a website to try for crockpot meals. It's here. This lady is doing crockpot dishes each day this year. Fun!

Wednesday was ballet. Also groundhog's day. We go at the same time on Tuesday and Wednesday for ballet, so it feels a little like we were just there. Elizabeth had fun dancing, even though she doesn't like to do "girlish" things. She only likes "boyish" things, apparently. We got home early enough to walk to school after lunch. I guess I already told at the beginning of the post about some of the rest of Wednesday. I didn't tell you that I kicked butt at The Construction Game and then almost won at spades too.
Fun busy stuff. Sorry, no pictures this time. Too busy.

Jog-a-thon

Just for fun, I'm posting tonight so that I can do five days of blogging in a row. Actually, we've been super busy, so I want to keep up with my blog and I love to hear what others say. It's very encouraging.
Elizabeth's school had their annual (I guess) Jog-a-thon today. She did very well. They had the PM Kindergartners run with the special education class, so they had a smaller lap. The kids in the morning apparently had a bigger lap, so that means her class ran way more laps. She ran 14 and they even stopped before the half hour was up. We told most of the sponsors for her that it would be smarter to do a flat rate instead of a per lap rate. We do walk to school pretty often and half of the time she runs, so she has a lot of stamina. She was super excited and is still wanting to get more sponsors so that she can get more prizes. Here's some pictures, of course. I decided that I should take a lot so I can give them to the yearbook people at her school and email them to other moms from her class.
Elizabeth running hard. This little boy is super cute and seemed to watch my camera a lot and he's in a bunch of my pictures too. There are so many nice kids at her school. Yea!

The whole PM Kindergarten classes together. Elizabeth is on the left side, third row back, third kid in. The rows aren't great, but you get the idea.

Scholastic Book Orders

Someone in the last few weeks asked me to tell them when the next book order is and I don't remember who it was now. Mommy brain. If you'd like to order and you are local, let me know.
I'm pretty sure it was someone without kids in school. Hmm. I hate when I forget things.

Yuckies

So, I got canker sores in my throat again this week. I finally called the doctor today. My throat has been horrible since late Saturday and Sunday. This happened the end of September too and I went to the doctor and he said that all I could do for them was spray the sore throat spray stuff because they are way back there. A nurse saw me today to do a strep test and it was negative, but she said that because the sores are recurring that I should come back and see someone. They scheduled me a couple of hours later and told the check-out lady that I could just pay my co-pay then and also gave Olivia a few coupons for free kid's meals at Red Robin. Nice. I came back a couple of hours later and this time the nurse practitioner saw me. She said that there is a solution that I can gargle with that will numb the area for a while and calm some of the symptoms down. They send a sample away to see which virus it is that is causing them to see if there is anything else they can do.
They make it so hard to talk, eat, breathe. The reflex is to cough, but when I do that my throat hurts more because then I have to swallow. It's really not fun.
So, after I got done at the doctor's office, we went to the pharmacy and got my prescription. We went and picked up Elizabeth, who missed ballet today because I felt so crappy. She was at a friend's house. I called the mom of the friend this morning to ask her if she could take Elizabeth to school and she came and picked her up, fed her lunch, and took her to school, picked her up from school, took her home with her to play, and waited for me to come. SO NICE!
I used the medicine when I got home and it does numb it and make it feel a little better. Thank goodness!

I talked to my sister-in-law today too about the movie plan. We decided to go on Saturday night. If you want to go, let me know and we'll tell you what time.

Kindergarten Pumpkin Patch

Today Elizabeth's class went to the pumpkin patch on a field trip. The teachers and kids rode in the school bus and moms and siblings met up with them at the pumpkin patch. Of course, we went. I had to have pictures, you know. (Really, I'm my mom now.)
Here's some of the fun.
I took a bunch of other pictures of other peoples' kids and other kids in the class. My kids had their eyes closed a lot of the time because of the sun. Oops.
The kids were able to go through the petting farm, the hay bale obstacle course, have a cookie and juice snack, and then ride on the tractor trailers to the pumpkin patch. They had a lot of fun. We are going to go again in a few weeks with my brothers.
Elizabeth with her pumpkin. They were asked to get ones that they could carry on the bus and to use in their class tomorrow for counting and sorting.
Elizabeth and Olivia on the tractor on the way back to the parking lot. Olivia got to pick a pumpkin too. She was all excited about it. When we got home, I asked her where we should put it and she said, "Where Daddy can see it." So I asked where. And she went and put it on the table in the living room by a stuffed cloth pumpkin. When Andy got home, she told him that she got a pumpkin and then told him to go and find it.

Chick Flicks with Chicks.

Chick Flicks with Chicks.
7:45pm at Carmike on Wednesday- Nights at Rodanthe.

The only other times on that night at 10 at Carmike and 9:30 at Fairchild.
Feel free to bring a friend. Probably not a boy though; these movies are best with girls.
See you there, I hope.

I love going to chick flicks with chicks. They are so much better that way. I know it's not going to be my husband's favorite movie and I know I'll enjoy it more with friends. We made a deal a year or so ago that we'd do movies this way now. We save money on tickets and then if we want to buy it, we're already halfway there. He went to see Die Hard with buddies and his dad and brother-in-law and I went to Music and Lyrics, Lucky You, and Baby Mama with my friends.

We do go and see movies together still. Batman, Indiana Jones, etc. Ones we will both enjoy. It is so much fun.

Come if you can. Last time I went there were only like five people in the theater. It's way better that way as opposed to a full house with people talking and getting up the whole time and guys making rude comments as we are all sobbing.

Clifford and Vincent

Today we went to the library to see Clifford the Big Red Dog. The library does this every year. Last year, Olivia was terrified, so I had to try again this time. They all did great. I even got Elizabeth to hold Vincent for a photo op. The librarian, who we've seen almost every week since before Olivia was born, read a book and then Clifford came out. They had a fun day!
Elizabeth and Olivia in a rare "both paying attention moment". So fun.

Here's my three kids with Clifford. Vincent looks a little worried about this plan. I just didn't want another picture of them and then him off to the side in his stroller. This is way better. Vincent was playing in his exersaucer and was jumping and laughing and squealing so much. Look at what he's doing with his tongue too. He must be finally getting teeth. I know, I say that all the time, don't I?

Tag Duo

So, I've been tagged again a couple of times. One with 6 random quirks about me and one with 7. I think I can handle that.

1. I like to have a tidy house, but I don't scrub the house down all the time.
2. I stay up way too late most nights, and then complain that I'm tired. (My husband always calls me on it. I don't complain to him. I only stay up for alone time.)
3. I let my kids watch TV so I can sleep longer.
4. I like to help people meet others and fit in when they are new somewhere.
5. I love my kids, even though they bug me sometimes and don't know what it means to be quiet. (Obviously, I'm not talking about Vincent, yet.)
6. I love to get mail. Any kind, from people I know.
7. I always do thank you notes. My mom taught me right.
8. I HATE hot dogs. They make me throw up.
9. I really don't want to go back to school, EVER.
10. I love to cross stitch because I can see the progress I'm making and it makes something nice for others.
11. I hate when kids are sick and have to miss fun things. Like yesterday ballet and a friend's fun party at Chuck E. Cheese and probably ballet and school today too. Yuck.
12. I'm not starting a college savings account. They should be smart enough and work hard enough to earn scholarships or grants. If we have the money, of course we'll help them out, but they could always get jobs and work a lot in the summer too. I don't think we should have to pay for it.
13. Finally the last one, hmmmm. I listen to Dr. Laura almost every day, but can never think of anything I would ask her. I think I've heard all the answers, so if you ask me something like the questions she gets, my answer is probably her answer, and I'll tell you that.
Fun stuff.


I'm tagging, but recently I saw one of these with 100 things. I challenge you all to do one of those. I bet you can't. =)

How Should I Speak?

How should I speak so I can be like Jesus Christ?

Speak positively, including about yourself.

Speak kindly.

Our words, like our actions, should be filled with faith and hope and charity.

Try not to complain.

Never tell [others], even as a joke, that they are fat or dumb or lazy or ugly.

When we say kind, encouraging things to the smallest child or the least popular person we know, we are saying these things to our Father in Heaven.

Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles-

Ensign May 2007-adapted for October 2008 Friend

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I've always been pretty easy-going and not too much of a complainer (well, at least not in the last 8 or so years-right, mom?) so sometimes I don't understand all the complaining that others do. I mean we live in such a great part of the world, have all that we need and tons more, we have the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have Temples of God close to us, and so many other things. Most of our kids are healthy and learning and happy and most of our husbands have good jobs and we have friends. I'm kind of like Pollyanna. She played the "glad game" all the time. Anytime something I don't like happens, I try to see why it happened and what can change or what the person's intent was in doing it. It's hard to do, but I think it helps me to calmly look at the situation. I'm sooooo far from perfect, but this is just something I've been thinking of. I'm not dissing anyone's blogs. I really like to read them and learn more about everyone's kids and families and catch up.

SAVE MARRIAGE!

I just watched this video that portrays a family in Massachusetts who are battling the public school because the school sent home a "diversity backpack" with their kindergarten with books that had gay couples in it to teach kids that everything is equal to marriage. They didn't give the parents any warning or anything and wouldn't even discuss alternatives for the parents to teach their kids by themselves. They even arrested the father. Yikes! Massachusetts Family for marriage
This happened there because the state voted to allow gay marriage.
Make sure this doesn't happen in any more states by voting FOR MARRIAGE!

I don't think Washington State is voting on this issue this year, but other states are. Let them know about this. It's scary!

Zoo Day!

Tuesday Elizabeth skipped school so that we could go to the Portland Zoo with my sister, Janessa. She moved to Vancouver, WA this summer and we hadn't gone over there yet. Her husband, Jes had to work, but the rest of us went to lunch and then the zoo.

Andy, Olivia, and Elizabeth on the train. (Oh, the beard is new. We're getting ready for Halloween=) Elizabeth had fun looking at everything. She had her face on her hands and nose almost to the window the whole time. Olivia was trying to switch seats at every stop. Silly. We drove over to one of Portland's train stations and then rode it to the zoo entrance, mostly because Andy's been talking to the girls about going on a train and they were super excited about that. It was an adventure to get two strollers, two walking kids, and three adults onto the train before the doors closed (actually we probably had plenty of time, but we were a little worried that we'd leave a kid behind or that they would throw a fit at the last second and refuse to move or something.) We got there about 2:30 pm and raced into the zoo to go to the elephant exhibit. A new baby elephant was born weeks ago and the viewing was only open until 3pm. The baby's name is Samudra, or Sam for short. Samudra is, apparently, Hindi for "lord of the ocean."
Here's the baby elephant, Sam. So cute.
Here's our even cuter babies, Jackson and Vincent. They were so cute on the way home they were kicking at each others shoes until they fell asleep.

Here's Elizabeth with one of the primates. One with the colored face and blue butt. They are always fun to watch. This chimp was sticking his tongue out at us (pretty low on the chimpanzee scale of lewd behaviors). I had to have a picture. I tried to get Olivia to stand up next to this sign, but she was a little worried about it. Wonder why?

Before the girls got to go in to see the real penguins, there was a perfect posing place at the entrance. They were so good there.
This giraffe was eating his lunch out of a box up high. I love giraffes. Also, I don't know why Elizabeth arches her back that way. She looks like she's pregnant. Wouldn't that be great, a 5 year old pregnant?
Olivia knows how to get us with her big eyes. She can pull the saddest faces and we're suckers. And the zebras are back there too.
Here's all our kids in a little cave. Elizabeth, Jackson, Vincent, and Olivia. What troopers!
Here's our family at the end when I realized that I didn't have pictures of me. Olivia was a little tired. Vincent, not at all.

I bought this cute elephant for Vincent at the gift shop and picked out two books for the girls to share. Olivia commandeered one the whole ride back, even when she was going to sleep she had a super tight grip on it.
Elizabeth could totally handle doing this everyday. She loved it.
Janessa and Jackson right before he and Vincent fell asleep. And right before some guy came on with his little boy (like 5 or 6) and started talking to us. He told Janessa that Jackson looked like his dad (assumption-Andy). We were like sure he does, but that's not him. We had the babies across from each other, so I guess it looked that why to crazy people..... He also was telling his son to shut up and sit down the whole time when he was talking to us. Andy and Janessa said that he told them he had 13 kids, 6 girls, 7 boys or something. WOW! How'd he leave the house with just one?
Andy and Olivia with her beloved book. I'm in there too. Check out the reflection.

Elizabeth said that her favorite part was the baby elephant. Olivia liked the penguins the best. They actually both said cotton candy first because that was what we told them they could have if they were good the whole time. It worked too, except that they were asking if it was time for that after most of the animals. We made them wait until the very end.

After we looked at everything, the girls finally got their cotton candy. We had a little bit of bad timing. A bunch of the exhibits were redoing their setup and were under construction and we didn't get to feed the parakeets because the lady had already cleaned all the nectar up. Andy says: Feeding the nectar (it's really just apple juice) to the birds is really fun. Last time we were there, they would come and walk around on your arm or shoulder. One took a dump on me, but the zookeeper wiped it off with a towel before it could soak into my shirt and there were no lingering effects. I was really bummed that we couldn't feed the nectar to the little birds this time.

We had a good time visiting and hanging out with Janessa and Jackson. After we were done, we rode the train back to our car and drove back to Janessa's house to see Jes and go to dinner. It was nice to visit with him too. Oops. I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of him. Sorry, Jes.

We left there about 7:30 or so and got a little ways before remembering that Janessa's stroller was in our car, so we took it back and went over a couple of double-decker bridges in Portland before heading home. Andy was born there and loved watching them under construction from the apartment window. Wonder why he's an engineer and loves trains?

We finally got home about 12:30am and Vincent was so ready to play. He was up until 3am. Arg. Not fun. I took him into the family room so everybody else could sleep. I slept - sort of - on the couch until he was really asleep about 6am when I got to go to my own bed. What an uncomfortable night! He slept too much on our trip in the car, I guess. He'd better sleep good tonight or I will be a crazy woman!

Elizabeth asked Andy on the way down why James Bond has so many girlfriends. She's been watching a few of those old shows with him. That was unexpected. He just kind of told her that James Bond does a lot of things that aren't good, like drinking, smoking, gambling, and the way he treats girls, but there's nothing wrong with him killing a bunch of people because he only does that for the Queen . It was only a week or so ago that Andy told me that Elizabeth was going to start asking awkward questions. Serves him right.