Tuesday, December 26, 2006

After the big dumping of snow, Misha wasn't about to stay away from the sledding just because it had claimed Amy as its victim.

The yearly visit of Santa in the neighborhood.

You may recognize the colorful jumpy castle in our Christmas pictures.  We bought a similar one for Misha a couple years ago.  It didn't last very long, but we decided to take a chance again for Kristen.  Here's hoping it lasts longer.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Holy monster snow storm Batman!  Seriously, I started shoveling shortly after breakfast and made it partly up the front walk when I told the girls to have Chris come and help me.  The snow was wet, heavy, and over a foot deep.  It took us most of the morning to get two lanes of our driveway cleared.

Misha couldn't get dressed fast enough to come outside and play.

Our street was one of the first ones plowed because a policeman got stuck in the snow.

That is a lot of snow!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

We had a low-key, family celebration for Amy's birthday. 

Kristen decided to bake her a cake!  Just kidding.

Saturday, 2 December, 2006

Last week was Thanksgiving, but I can’t say it was that great of a holiday.  The girls had the entire week off and we had hoped to do some fun things as a family.  Amy and I started it off with sore throats.  We were feeling quite a bit better by Thanksgiving, but Kristen became sick on Wednesday and by Thursday was pretty sick and miserable.  We had been invited to Siders for dinner at 3:00 pm on Thursday.  So, I stayed home with Kristen and Chris took the girls.  Kind of a bummer, but Chris did bring me a plate of food around 5:30.  He went back to Siders and returned home about 8:30.  By then he was feeling awful and went right to bed.  He was sick all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday.  So, like I said, it wasn’t a very great holiday.

What a trying few days we have had recently.  It snowed on Wednesday for most of the day.  Both girls were so excited to be outside playing in the snow.  By Thursday, they had whined enough that Chris climbed up to the rafters of the garage and pulled down their sled and snow board.  They bundled up and headed over to the catch basin behind our house to sled down the hills.  I had noticed that some boys had walked up the street from the mobile homes below us with their snow boards to make use of the hill as well.

After awhile, I noticed Misha walking with two of the boys toward our house.  I wondered, “What on earth... Misha?”  I figured she had volunteered our bathroom or something.  When they got to the door they told me that Amy had crashed on her sled, was hurt, and needed help.  Fortunately, Chris was home and dressed up to go get her.  By the time he got outside, the boys had loaded Amy onto her sled and pulled her most of the way home.  She laid on the couch for the rest of the night and cried because her leg hurt so much.  We iced it and wrapped it.  Her ankle was a little bit swollen.  We figured we would give her the night to sleep and see how it was in the morning.  She was up before six and crying more.

I called the doctors office just after 7:00 am and scheduled an appointment for Amy at 9:25.  Both Chris and I were thinking that it was, at the most, a sprain and that there wasn’t a whole lot they could do for us.  Fortunately, Chris was able to leave work and come with us.  He carried Amy; I carried Kristen.  What a blessing to have him around so much.  They x-rayed her ankle and found that she had broken both her tibia AND her fibula about an inch above the ankle.  Because of her age and the nature of the break, they called the Orthopedist at the Rock Creek Center in Lafayette and scheduled an appointment for us at 2:00 pm.  We doped her up with Tylenol with Codeine after they splinted the leg and brought her home to rest for a little while.  I, in the meantime, had to cancel our dental appointments and find a place for Kristen and Misha to stay.  Fortunately, my friend Maria Burnham agreed to watch the girls.  Kristen was tired enough that she slept for about an hour and a half.

We checked-in at Rock Creek and got right in without waiting more than a minute.  We had been blessed most of the day to get right in to the doctor without a lot of extra waiting.  Fortunately she wasn’t going to need any surgery or even to have the leg set.  They put a cast on her - bright pink- and then x-rayed her hip and femur because she had complained of pain there as well.  With the cast on her lower leg, she began to feel so much better.  However, she cannot walk on her leg at all for the next three weeks at least, maybe more.  We go back for another appointment on the 11th of December - Amy’s 7th birthday - where they will remove this cast, x-ray the ankle again, and make sure everything is healing as it should.

They ordered a child’s wheelchair for us and gave us paperwork for a handicap parking tag.  The wheelchair was delivered this morning - Saturday - and we picked up the parking tag on the way home.

I slept with Amy in the guest room last night.  We were both exhausted and fell asleep around 8:30 pm.  Amy woke up around 11 but was able to go back to sleep.  At 3:30 though she woke me up and said that her leg was really hurting and could she have more medicine.  You know she is in pain when she asks for more medicine that tastes awful.  She follows it up with a big swig of water.

The next few weeks with school should be pretty interesting.  We’ll have to drop Amy off and pick her up with her wheelchair.  Not sure what we’ll do about her birthday party.  Maybe just something short and sweet for a few friends.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Chris is visiting Grandma Andrews in Mt. Shasta, California this weekend.  We miss him but know that it is important for him to be there.  She has had a lot of loss in her life, most recently with her dog, Sasha, passing away at 14 years.  He flew to Medford yesterday where she came to pick him up.

Chris was able to attend church this morning at the local ward and make contact with some of the members with the hopes that they will keep an eye on her and give her a little extra help.  This afternoon Chris is getting a chance to meet Grandma’s next door neighbors, Joe and Alice, who do a lot to help Grandma.  He will stay until Tuesday afternoon.  Since Grandma has meetings and a luncheon tomorrow, Chris will stay at her house and work for part of the day.  Knowing him, he’ll probably try to get a full day in. 

Chris is working on an Invention Disclosure for his latest project.  This is the first step in the patent submission process, and he is hoping that a sixth patent will begin to be processed.  Can’t remember if I made note of one of his patents being granted in September, so he is an official patent-holder now.  He is also up for an award, not sure of the name but basically it is for outstanding achievements at IBM.  The minimum financial portion of the award is $15,000.  It would also include a trip for him and I to San Diego where they would present the award.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

One night I asked Misha to call Amy from the basement for dinner.  She yelled, of course, while standing at the top of the stairs.  As she walked in to the kitchen, she remarked, “Whew, I had to dig deep for that one.”  I laughed and then asked, “Well, do you think you could dig a little deeper and call Daddy now?”

I have been taking Kristen to “Twinkle Babies” story time at the library.  She is getting so that she understands more of what is happening.  She has learned to do the actions to “If You’re Happy and You Know It”.  She loves to clap her hands and shout “hooray” but especially to stomp her feet.  I think her favorite part of the story time is at the end when Miss Jan brings out the bubble machine and blows bubbles all over the kids.  Kristen stands in the center of the room and just lets the bubbles fall around her.

Last Sunday as Chris was closing our fast, he prayed for Kristen and her teeth and that they would come in quickly without a lot of pain and sleepless nights.  Suddenly during the prayer, Kristen starts biting her teeth together and making the noise “na na na”.  That’s how I have shown her what her teeth are.

Brad came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  He was celebrating his 40th birthday and we were glad that he chose to come celebrate with us.  His birthday is on Halloween so he has always had to take second place next to the trick or treating.  Our friends, the Millers, invited us to a trunk or treat activity at their home.  I tried to convince Brad that it would be fun, but he opted to stay home and handed out candy for us here.

While Brad was here, we went to Loveland to shop for an afternoon.  I treated him to lunch at P.F. Changs.  Misha and Kristen were with us as well, but I can’t say that they ate too much.  My kids are not really big into Chinese food.  In fact, it is a holiday tradition from my family to have Chinese food on Christmas Eve, and we have had to change it because the girls wouldn’t eat anything ever.  Our new tradition is going to Olive Garden on Christmas Eve.  This year that will have to change a bit since Christmas Eve is on Sunday.

Anyway, back to Brad, he was here from Saturday evening until Wednesday morning.  I enjoyed having him around to talk with during the day.  We went on a walk two separate days for exercise and that was really nice.

At the dinner table, Amy was trying to make her face turn red by holding her breath and straining her face.  Misha just looked at her and said, “You look like you’re pooping.”  Kids say the darndest things.

On Thursday of last week, Misha came home with some scissors that her teacher, Mrs. Stephen, had given to her.  I’m not sure what kind of sob story she gave her teacher so that she could have a pair of scissors at home, but nevertheless, she brought some home.  I didn’t really think much of it until I walked over to talk to her as she sat watching tv and noticed pieces of hair on her sweatshirt.  “What did you do?”  I asked increduously.  She immediately burst into tears because she knew she had done something wrong.  I took her to the bathroom and looked over the damage that she had done.  She could have done a lot worse, but still her hair was going to have to be cut.  And it was just starting to get longer.  I went back to the pillow she had been laying on and lifted up the smaller pillow next to her.  There sat a rather large pile of blond hair.  I almost started crying.  She was crying.  “Ahhh Misha.”  I took the handful of hair upstairs to show Chris and his mouth dropped when he realized what it was.

He came downstairs with me and held Misha who was still crying.  There wasn’t much to do to salvage her hair without cutting the rest to be as short as the sides, but I didn’t want to try and even it up.  So, while Kristen slept, Misha and I headed in to town for a haircut.  It looks quite cute on her.  When I got in the car after the haircut, I told her that her hair looked really cute, BUT “if you ever cut it again, I will have them shave you bald.”  Two down, one more to go with Kristen.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

What a yucky day today.  They say it is supposed to be back up in the sixties by the weekend, but it sure is a nasty one today.  We’ve got snow, wind, and cold temperatures.

I volunteered in Misha’s class yesterday.  She was pretty excited to have me come.  She had been sick and even stayed home on Tuesday (Monday was a day off so she was home anyway), but she didn’t want to miss school when her mom was going to be there.  She seems to be in a good group this year.  Not too many extremes as Amy had in her class last year.  Guess what Misha wants to be for Halloween?

On Monday, Chris and I attended parent teacher conferences for both girls.  They are both doing well.  It was good to see Misha in her class setting yesterday to get an idea of how she fits in and gets along with other students.  The one thing she needs to work on is better coloring.  It has never really been her thing.  Amy is the artist and can spend hours coloring and drawing, but not Misha.  She just needs to be doing something more.

Amy is also doing well in class.  She needs to work on her Spanish comprehension more as well as waiting for Miss Place to call on her instead of always blurting answers out.  No big surprise there.  She is still doing well on her spelling tests-hasn’t got one wrong yet.  She is pretty proud of herself.

Kristen continues to grow.  Two of her eye teeth have poked through and the other two aren’t too far behind.  No wonder she has been crabby lately.  Mostly she has been waking up in the middle of the night.  She was a year and a half old last week and went to nursery for the first time.  Chris was pretty excited for this day to come.  Since I am teaching in Primary, Chris watches Kristen through Sunday School and Priesthood.  She did well.  He stayed with her for a couple of minutes and then slipped out when she wasn’t looking.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Amy was thrilled to go on a field trip to Miller Farms.  I think she was just as thrilled to not have to wear her uniform.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Christopher celebrated another birthday surrounded by the lovely women in his life.

Wednesday, 27 September, 2006

The girls are beginning to get excited about Halloween coming but have rather horrible memories of one Saturday morning last October when we all went into town and ended up at the Kaiser clinic for flu shots.   They’ve already started to protest and to try and get out of the experience.  We won’t have the element of surprise to rely on this year, so instead of starting to cry at the clinic when they realize what is happening, they’ll be whining for the entire month of October and November.

Kristen loves her shoes.  I think partly because she knows that sometimes putting on shoes means she gets to go somewhere and partly because the non-slip soles on the bottom of her jammies aren’t so non-slip after all.  She has learned after a few falls to walk with more care once she gets on to the hardwood floor.  I guess a few knocks on the head will do that to you.  So with the cooler weather, she needs to wear socks during the day, but that, too, causes her to fall, so she wears her little pink and white tennies all day long.  She can say “shoes”, “there it is”, “see ya”, and “come on”–some of the new phrases she has picked up lately.  If you don’t get up quickly enough when she says “come on”, she will try to pull you up out of the chair.  She still says “na” for milk.  I think it is a cross between milk and night night.  She is smart enough to ask for it though.

Tuesday, 12 September, 2006

I made the girls play dough today.  I could hear them throwing it against something so I go to the living room where they are standing suspiciously next to the carpet.  "Stop throwing the play dough on the floor!'  "We're not." Amy answers.  I know they are throwing it somewhere, and it takes only two seconds to figure it out.  "Are you throwing it on the ceiling?"  Amy nods sheepishly.  "Stop!"

Monday, 11 September, 2006

I just wanted to share a funny story about Misha.  She was sitting in the living room watching tv while I was eating lunch and suddenly discovered that she has hair on her toes.  She brought those toes over for me to look at and wanted to know what we could do about it.  Can we take them off?  I reassured her that everyone has hair on their toes, but she's not convinced nor is she pleased with it.  "I don't like growing up" she lamented.

Then, later in the afternoon we were in the office.  She sat on a stool at her computer and noticed that something wasn’t smelling so good.  So she hopped off the stool, bent over, and sniffed it.  Misha suddenly noticed that the chair stinks after you sit on it.  In perfect Misha-style she says, "Why?  Why does it have to be me with the stinky bottom?"

Kristen’s fourth molar has finally poked through the gums in her mouth.  I guess that’s twelve down, eight more to go.   I hope the next bunch are a little easier on her (and us), but I doubt it.  She seems to be constantly chewing on things with drool dripping down her chin and soaking the front of her shirt.  These spongy things are her favorite thing to chew and they are holding up for now.

The girls are both enjoying school.  Amy had her first spelling test and did really well on it.  I think that it will be a weekly event now with the words becoming more and more challenging each week.  Amy’s reading is improving.  We sat and read or rather she read to me a “Hello Kitty” book that she borrowed from school.

Misha needs to focus and has already found herself on the “refocus” chair at school.  We try to talk to her about not worrying about what other students are doing and to listen to her teacher better.  She has improved since her first stint on the chair and hasn’t had to “refocus” since (or at least she isn’t telling us about it).  Her teacher says that she is a good student and her first new friend is Claire.

Thursday, 24 August, 2006

We made it back from our trip to Portland in one piece.  We all had a great time-Amy and Misha had a blast.  They were so excited to leave on Tuesday the 15th.  As was expected, they woke up early that morning even though we didn’t have to leave until after 9 am.  Because of recent terrorist activity, we planned to be at the airport fairly early.  I think our flight left at 12:30 pm.  We parked in the Pikes Peak parking lot and quickly boarded a shuttle bus for the airport.  It took us a couple of minutes to get out of the parking lot with all of the stops the shuttle bus made, but that was all part of the excitement for the girls.  We finally reached the airport and began standing in our first long line.  With Kristen as a lap child, we couldn’t check-in online and ended up waiting about 20 minutes for our turn.  Once everything was checked, our load was significantly lighter and easier to manage.  We headed for security and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were processed through.  The agents debated on whether or not we could keep our ice pack for Kristen’s milk, but received approval from some higher-up guy.  We were on our way.  Really, the longest line we waited in was for lunch at Pizza Hut.  I think we waited there for 25 minutes or more.  That ate up our extra time and we hurried to our gate for pre-boarding.  (About the only benefit to traveling with small children).

And we were off.  Since Chris used frequent flyer miles to get my ticket for free, my seat was not near his and the girls.  The flight attendants were able to rearrange seating so that I could sit right across the aisle and help him manage Kristen.  She didn’t much appreciate being so confined, but didn’t cry non-stop like the little girl behind us.  And miracle of miracles, Kristen fell asleep on Chris’ lap, that is until her foot got in the way of Amy changing her tv channel.  Yes, the girls got to watch tv on the flight.  It was actually a bonus for all of us.  It kept them quiet and occupied–pretty much glued to the monitor for the entire flight.

We headed first to Baggage Claim once we landed in Portland and then to Hertz to pick up our rental car.  It was a Pontiac G6.  Nicer than we expected but still a tight squeeze that was about to get tighter once we picked up a play pen for Kristen for the coast.  We didn’t have car seats for the girls yet, fortunately Chris’ parents live only ten minutes from the airport.  We were glad to finally arrive.  We were able to unload the garment bag and our bigger stroller but exchanged those for a smaller stroller, Kristen’s bed and sand toys for the beach. 

Grandma Ball had the dresses for Jenni’s wedding ready for the girls to try on when we arrived.  They fit wonderfully, Amy did not want to take hers off.  She would have worn all day, every day if we had let her.  They were made from a blue satin; they were long and poofy and just like something a princess would wear.  We only stayed at the house for about an hour and then we were off to the beach.  I had especially been looking forward to some time away as a family, and what better place to be than the beach?

We knew the weather wasn’t going to be too warm so I packed warmer clothes.  I think the temperature got up to 70 degrees on Friday, but that was they day we left.  After dinner at Dooger’s where Amy tried and liked fresh halibut, we checked in to our Trendwest room 2203 on Tuesday evening.  We had originally planned to stay in Lincoln City at an older condo, but were lucky enough to get three nights in a three-bedroom condo right on the beach at Seaside.  The condos were about three-years old and come with the usual kitchen, laundry, linens, kitchen ware and just about everything to make our stay comfortable. 

Even though it was getting late, we ventured back out to Safeway to get groceries for breakfast and lunch.  We figured it would be cheaper just to eat in for those meals.  By the time we returned and got the girls in to bed it was getting pretty late our time.  The girls quickly acclimated to Pacific Time for sleeping and meals.  Amazing how they do that so fast.  I ventured down to the first floor to check out the exercise facility and to get some bottled water.  Sadly, the exercise room did not open until 6 am (7 am my time) and I felt like I was wasting the day away just waiting until then to get up and exercise since I normally get up at 5:15 am.

We walked around the boardwalk on Wednesday morning checking things out.  The girls were raring to go and do anything fun, but Kristen was pretty pooped from all the travel.  I was suffering from allergies and took a pill in the morning.  I was so exhausted when we were walking around that I fell asleep not too long after returning to the condo.  Kristen slept for three hours and Chris took the girls down to some shops to check things out.

We decided to drive to Astoria about a half an hour away on Wednesday afternoon.  It was fairly cool and overcast.  Chris took us first to the Astoria Column.  I’m not really sure what it is for except to get a real great view of the surrounding beauty.  People were able to by small balsa-wood airplanes and fly from the top of the column.  Amy and Misha quickly picked up on the idea and found airplanes that had landed on the ground and were about to head back up to the top of the column.  We caught them and made them come back down before they got too far up.  It was quite a climb up many flights of circular stairs.  Not something I wanted them to climb on their own without supervision.  The girls loved driving down the steep streets of Astoria.  It seemed at times that they were almost straight up and down.

We stopped next at a museum on the ocean front and hoped to ride a trolley.  Sadly, we missed it by just minutes and had to wait about 40 minutes for it to return.  The girls occupied their time by looking at the boats docked in the harbor and by watching the larger ships sailing by.  Once we finally got on the trolley, we traveled along the waterfront first to the north and then back to the south.  Every time we changed directions, they had us change our seats around as well.  Our trolley ride lasted about one hour which was about one half hour too long for Kristen.  Couldn’t really hop off though since we would have to walk back to the car.  So she squirmed a lot.

Chris wanted to also drive out to Cape Disappointment to see the lighthouse there.  We drove across the Astoria bridge and about a half an hour further.  Unfortunately, the girls were too young to climb up to the top of the lighthouse, so we just walked around the outside, took pictures, and enjoyed the scenery.  Speaking of pictures, we took so many on our trip that the girls will surely be able to remember much of the activities.

It was getting late by the time we got back to Astoria but decided to go back toward Seaside for dinner.  We took a wrong turn and somehow ended back in Astoria after a lot of driving around.  By now the kids were starving so we stopped at a place called the Pig n’ Pancake.  An all-day breakfast, IHOP-type restaurant.

Thursday was another brisk weather day.  We spent much of the morning shopping at the outlet mall in Seaside.  I am sure the girls weren’t too thrilled with out choice of activity, but I got a lot of new clothes and had fun.  We chose to eat at Taco Time for lunch and then purchased a pizza for dinner that night.  The girls had been begging to go swimming at the pool at Trendwest.  We tried to put them off as long as possible since it wasn’t very warm, but finally gave in Thursday afternoon.  The wading pool was quite chilly otherwise Kristen would have enjoyed playing in it.  The main pool was fairly warm and enjoyable and Amy and Misha had fun playing.  They kept finding goggles left by the side of the pool and quoting to me “Finders, Keepers, Losers, Weepers” figured they could keep them.  I told them “no” but every time I turned around, they were wearing them.

Chris, I and Kristen headed to the hot tub.  The moment Kristen felt the water she relaxed and floated on her back while Christopher held her.  I made her sit out of the water every so often so she wouldn’t get overheated, but she just loved it.

In order to cover all of the activities that the girls were hoping to accomplish, we then headed down to the beach.  Kristen wasn’t thrilled at all by the sand and sat on my lap or Christopher’s lap the whole time.  Misha and Amy ventured into the water to check it out.  Misha even took a turn tasting it and pronounced it salty.  Chris had to walk all the way back to the bathroom with Misha and shortly after that I had to go back with Amy.  By the time we arrived back, Chris was ready to head back and get supper.  I readily agreed, Amy and Misha didn’t.  Chris and I won.

Misha was covered in sand and I ended up giving her a bath while Chris and Amy headed back to Safeway to pick up pizza and a movie-Barbie something or other.  Woohoo.  Misha wanted to go back to ride the bumper cars, but Chris said he didn’t want to spend his money on them.  Misha queried, “Can you use Mom’s money?” 

Our last night at the beach favored us with a beautiful sunset.  I took a number of pictures as it set and we just lazed around watching tv and a movie.  We woke to a somewhat sunnier day on Friday, but it was still pretty chilly with the breeze.  I started laundry and packing to return to Portland and the girls finally got to do the bumper cars with Chris.  Everything opens after 10 or 11 am in Seaside and then rarely on time so there wasn’t much to do Friday morning but walk around.  After the bumper cars at 11, we hurried back to the condo for lunch and to pack everything up.  We had to check out at noon.  Our trip inland to Becky’s house was to take about an hour and a half and within minutes of getting in the car, all three girls were soundly asleep.  Nice peaceful drive for Chris and I. 

We were earlier than expecting getting to Becky’s in Aloha so we stopped at Tiffany’s nails and let Misha and Amy get their nails-fingers and toes-painted.  They thought it was wonderful though probably a little too much sitting still for Misha.  We cautioned them that they were not allowed to pick the polish off.  From there we headed over to Becky’s.  She wasn’t home yet from being at her mom’s so we waited outside for a couple of minutes.  What a shock to walk in to her home though, it was hot as could be with no air conditioning and quite dirty.  I felt badly for leaving my children.  Becky had arranged for two babysitters to come and watch her kids and our kids while we attended the temple with Jenni as she received her endowments.  Food, dishes, clothes all over the place–what a mess.  When we arrived back at her house the kids complained mostly of being sweaty and didn’t waste any time rushing out to the car.

We headed back to Vancouver to Chris’ parents’ house for a family dinner.  BBQed chicken, corn on the cob, hamburger, hotdogs.  Lots to eat.  Sadly Jenni’s fiancé’s family didn’t show.  They were not in favor of the wedding and expressed their displeasure in many ways.  It wasn’t until the last minute that the dad even said that he would come.  Stinky parents I say.

I put the girls to bed and Chris headed off with the rest of the family to finish decorating the church.  There was plenty of cleanup to take care of at the house, and since I was the one left to watch my kids, I made sure the kitchen was tidy.

The big day finally arrived.  The ceremony was scheduled for noon, so we had plenty of time to get ready in the morning.  Amy had her hair styled and thought that was the coolest thing.  I went for a manicure and pedicure.  It took longer than expected so once that was finished we hurried back to grandma’s house to get dressed.  Amy, of course, was already in her dress, even though we asked her to wear different clothes.  We arrived at the temple with plenty of time to spare but ended up waiting on Becky and Kyle.  They had arranged for a friend to come to the temple and stay with all of our kids again.  She brought her minivan with a dvd player.  What a blessing.  They sat and watched a movie and ate snacks and had a great time, and Chris and I were able to enjoy being in the temple.

Linda made dresses for all of the granddaughters and skirts for herself, the sisters, and myself.  She has been a pretty busy lady.  Not my favorite style or color of skirt, but it was doable.  Pictures took awhile, we got a lot of cute ones of our girls, and then we were finally able to leave.  We stopped at McDonald’s to get some food since we were starving and then headed back to Grandma’s for more food.  She had friends from the ward prepare food for us-pretty casual but nice.

Chris and I had a couple of hours in the afternoon where Grandma was willing to watch the girls.  We took off for a little while to the mall.  Just nice to have some time to ourselves.  We returned thinking we had plenty of time, but Linda had changed plans and wanted all of us dressed and at the church for pictures by 6:30.  Another scramble but we made it.  Lori and Sam didn’t get the message or something and they didn’t arrive until 7 pm.  Linda, being a bundle of nerves and tears and hormones already, was doing her best to hold back the tears.  After pictures, the girls were ready to attack the refreshments-dipping chocolate with pretzels, cake, nuts, fruit, etc for dipping.  We had a few juice spills and chocolate down the front of the dress moments but all in all they did great.  We finally opened up the nursery to let them play and to keep them from running all over the gym.

After Jenni and Kenny left the reception, the fun really began with cleanup.  The girls were so tired, but I don’t think we even left the church until 11:30 our time.  What an exhausting, long day.  It was nice to have Sunday to look forward to for a little relaxation and quiet.  Church was from 9 am to 12 noon.  Misha was ready in time to go with Grandma in her Miata which didn’t make Amy too happy, but she was consoled with knowing she could ride home with Grandma after church.  Amy was excited to attend Primary as a visitor because they would sing a special Welcome song to her.  I also heard after church that she also volunteered to say the opening prayer.  Misha wasn’t so thrilled about an unfamiliar Primary and was happy when I let her stay in Amy’s class with her.

After long Sunday afternoon naps, we visited with Renee and Alan Rhyasen at their home.  Renee and my dad are cousins, and Chris and I usually try to fit in a visit to their home when we are visiting in Vancouver.

Monday was our day to spend with Kevin and his family.  We decided to visit the Children’s Museum in Portland.  Our girls had a great time playing in a miniature store and diner, in a gravel (rubber) pit, and with water.  After a couple of hours, we were all hungry.  We found a pizza place a short distance away and left for lunch.  We had our hands stamped at the museum before we left allowing us to return after lunch for a couple more hours.  The kids played with clay, made arts and crafts, painted their faces (as did Kevin) and were pooped by the time we decided to leave.  Grandma Ball had wanted to spend the day playing with us as well but had to be in a training session at school most of the day.

She would be able to spend the evening with our children though since Chris and I and Kevin and Candace were going on a dinner cruise on “Portland Spirit”.  It was a lot spendy but something we wouldn’t normally do and was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary.  We were able to board the ship at 6:30 and it left dock at 7 pm.  We then enjoyed the beautiful Wallamette River for the next 2 ½ hours.  It was a nice way to end our trip to the coast.

Grandma was pretty sad to see us leave on Tuesday morning.  I was just thinking how much I wanted another flight with Kristen.   I would have to say that she was much more of a pill on this flight.  I think after a week of so much that was different and of missing naps and late bedtimes, she was tired and in no mood to sit still in a tiny little space.  Ah well, what can you do?  She did fall asleep in my arms for a short time but woke when she tried to change positions and couldn’t.  We were glad to get back to our own spacious van and be on our way home.  We stopped in Brighton for a very late lunch at 3:30 and to pick up groceries at Walmart.

The house was pretty warm when we arrived home and it took the air conditioner all evening to cool it down to our normal temperature.  But it sure was good to be home.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and early for two little girls who had to be up at 7 am for the first day of school.  Everything was ready to go.  We had been trying to prepare Misha for need for speed, but she is still slow when it comes to eating breakfast on her first day of school.  Chris came with me to help get both girls to their classes along with all the supplies that are required–paper towels, hand sanitizer, boxes of kleenex-that’s on top of all the school supplies that they need.