Butter

You remember those commercials "I can't believe it's not butter"?   It is butter and it is terrible.

So here is the story.  It was a normal morning.  We had gotten the older girls off to school and I decided to make some breakfast for Adam and I.  Something like buttered toast or bagels, whatever.  Anyway, I needed to use the bathroom right after breakfast was over.  And I admit that I had not cleaned up yet.  I was only gone for a couple of minutes, everything was silent downstairs.  Which is when I should have worried but didn't.  When I came down there was butter everywhere.  Adam had got the tub from off the counter and put it on the floor and apparently he and Hannah dug in it.  Then they wandered around getting butter all over the floor and cupboards and dishwasher and themselves.  And butter does not come off easily.  So the moral of the story is - don't go to the bathroom if you are a mom.  At least, that is what I learned.

Catching Up

So I noticed a little while ago that I was a bit behind in updating the blog.  Blame it on the mom brain.  Here are a few pictures of what we have been doing these last several weeks.

Hannah has gotten big enough to demand more 'people' food and less of the gross baby stuff we have been giving her.  This was her first cookie (although by now the picture is like seven weeks old and she has had many cookies since then).

What cookie?  It was gone very quickly.

Adam is really onto Paw Patrol lately.  He calls himself Ryder and I get different names of the dogs on different days.  Lately I have been Everest.  He also has a couple little Paw Patrol dogs which get to come with us everywhere.

This is our first year allowing a kid to do sports.  Whitney loves to run and she has been asking to play soccer.  AYSO is a nice organization for kids soccer. 

Whitney's team is called The Lightening Strikes and they are super good.  Out of about 15 games they have won 13, tied 1, and lost 1.  The organization does not actually keep score.  But the kids always know, of course.

Whitney usually plays defense.  She has done goalie a couple of times and I have to prevent myself from yelling "Be careful".  It has been fun watching her play with a team.  Whitney already said she wants to do it next year.  We'll see. 

Megan turned five.  She just made the cut off for school.

And ready for her first school day.  You can't see but she earned the cool unicorn backpack by passing swimming lessons.  I guess she is just getting bigger all around.

Rocky Heights Elementary had an awards ceremony.  I guess they try to make sure each student gets some kind of award at least once during the year.  Megan was awarded for academics.

Rachel was awarded for being like an all around good person.  So it was a proud mom moment.  I am sure soon there will be an award for Whitney and I will be going to another ceremony.

And to finish off with how big Hannah is getting.  This is a 9 month sleeper so it should technically fit but no.  As soon as she took off crawling all the snaps kept coming undone.  Like the Hulk breaking out of his clothes.  Time for a bigger size baby.

So now we are more caught up.  I will have to put up some Harvest Festival pictures soon.

Klondike Gold Rush

We were not sure what to do for our last day of our trip.  I learned about the Klondike Museum and thought it sounded interesting.

While walking from our parking spot (you have to pay to park anywhere in Seattle), we found Pioneer Square.  It is this cool park just out in the city.  It was a fun hang out place.

Hannah liked going through the tunnels.

Adam, with Nutella on his face, tried to jump rope.  It ended up being him and I each holding one end and taking turns being the leader.

After getting a little lost and asking a couple different people for directions we finally found the Klondike Gold Rush Museum.  I guess the main reason Seattle became such a huge well known city was because of this gold rush.  So it was interesting to learn more about it.

We got to step on the scale and find out how much we would be worth if we were made of gold.

The girls each got a pamphlet with a scavenger hunt of things to find in the museum.  I think this was the room that represented a store for all the supplies one would need for the harrowing journey. 

Along the way you could learn about some of the different people who got gold fever and rushed off to join the search.  Some of the stories were a little sad.

Whitney checks out the sluice.  I think that is what it is called.  We missed the demonstration but we still enjoyed seeing the equipment.

At the end of the museum there is a wheel you can spin to see if you would have been one of the lucky few to find gold or even to make it rich.  We all took turns and I am the only one who would have found anything - yay me!

My camera died immediately after taking this picture right before we headed out the door to drive back to Hermiston.  So that was fortuitous.  Thanks Frank and Janelle for letting us stay with you guys for a couple of days.  We enjoyed the waffles and the jokes.

It was such an awesome vacation.  Lots of fun family memories.

Seattle Children's Museum

I wanted my kids to have a place to just go have fun, use their imagination, so we went to the Seattle Children's Museum.  It was fun.

I guess my kids are the catch of the day.  I have learned that if there is a cut out spot anywhere, my kids will put their heads inside and demand a picture.

Hannah checks out herself in the mirror while Adam works on some gears.

This was fun to watch as you twist the balls drop and roll through the course.

My kids liked pretending to be sailors for awhile.  I got in the boat too and got taken to far off places.

Hannah checks out the instruments in the African room.  She likes anything that makes noise.

This was a house set up to be like a home in Japan.  We even got to sit on the floor around the table to "eat".

Painting in the craft room.  Adam had a hard time when it was time to leave here.

This room was one of the favorites - a grocery store with little carts and cash registers and everything.  We did a lot more in the museum but I didn't get a lot of pictures because we were playing together.  But it was a cool place.

Then we walked around to look at the Space Needle.  We did not go inside but it was still cool.

Some street vendors gave my kids balloons. 

As we walked back to the car we saw like the biggest coolest play structure ever.  This was a blast.  I had to bite my tongue to not constantly call out "be careful" because the kids did get up pretty high.  And there were huge slides on top. No injuries, hooray!

Megan sits on this cool swing at the park.  So it was a fun day. 

On to Seattle

The second half of our adventure was in Seattle.

We decided to first stop at the famous Pikes Market - what a bustling place.

Here we walked down what must have been the flower hall. 

So I forgot my paper that Dana gave me about Pikes Market and good places to eat.  I couldn't remember the name of the bakery he said so we found one with a long line that looked good.  (Unfortunately, not the right one).

We just bought an assortment of baked items filled with different things.  Will and I liked them, the kids not so much.

Whitney shows off her feelings for the items in this store.

We saw one place with a sign that said toys were 25 cents each so we let each kid pick a toy.  But then the owner said the kids could have their picks for free.  So that was really nice.

While walking along we saw a couple of street performers.  My kids were really surprised by this.  Here we stopped and listened to a man play the piano for awhile.

The famous fish throw.  We were right up close and personal, so close that we could feel the fish juice  (which I think was really just ice) hit us. 

And a picture of us next to the big pig.
Pikes Market was fun.  It is a little crazy to try to bring five kids there, but we had no casualties.