We're Home!

Well we are back from our Oregon vacation. It was such a wonderful trip. The day after our beach adventure we tried to relax a little and let the boys catch up on some rest, so we left them with Papa and Great Grandma while Ian and I went over to Eli and Emilee's apartment to play Wii. It was a lot of fun. I had never done Wii Fit and it was really cool. Let's just say I totally reset their high score on the hula hooping game. Woot woot! :) Great Grandma and Papa Squire came into town from Seattle that afternoon too and we had a fun dinner and played games with them.

On Friday G&G Squire treated us all to a day at the Oregon Zoo. It was perfect zoo weather and doing the zoo with a 2 year old is just about my speed. Weston's attention span is short (like mine), so we got to see pretty much everything. We did miss the penguins. Sad. Anyway, here are a few pics from our zoo day.

Weston got up close and personal with an orangutan that looked like Harry and the Henderson's to me.
Weston and Uncle Eli took a rest in the shade while we waited in line to see the brand new baby elephant. The baby elephant layed down to take a nap just as we came in to see it, but it was still pretty cute, as is this photo.
After we saw the elephants we ate our picnic in the shade.
Me and Dav after lunch hanging out in the shade.This was Weston by the end of zoo day. He did so well, but that last half hour he was starting to lose it and his little legs were tired, so we let him hitch a ride. I do think he had a blast and enjoyed seeing all the animals. The highlights were the elephants, the giraffe, the "stretch" zebra(s), and the monkeys.
Davin was a happy little camper on zoo day too. He didn't even sleep as much as I expected, but at the end of the day we let him out of the stroller since there were so many willing people to hold him. Here he is with his Great Grandma Margaret.
Saturday found us watching the awesome BYU Cougars shutting out UCLA. It was a fun game to watch and it did Papa's heart good to see his cougs play so well and win by so much (59-0). We mostly spent all our down time just visiting and keeping the kidlets entertained. Here is Papa with Dav. That mustache is quite the distraction.
I think this picture is my new favorite Davin face. He must have been either surprised or really excited about something. Too funny.
Great Papa Larry or "Old Papa" made these cat ears out of his hanky for Weston. He thought they were so cool and liked wearing them around the house and showing them to everyone who hadn't seen him wearing them yet. Also, he's wearing his sweet Oregon Zoo shirt that Ian/Weston picked out.
I think this picture was actually taken on Thursday while Ian and I were gone and Weston was so tired, but kept telling Grandma that it wasn't his nap time yet. Apparently it really was. :)
While playing outside in the backyard on Sunday we found a fuzzy caterpillar. Weston was so excited and liked holding it, but kept dropping it because it really did tickle a lot.
Grandma and Papa got this little fold out bed/couch for Weston to sleep on while we were there and both boys really liked it. This was while we were all watching the BYU game against Washington the day we got there.
Whenever we had down time and Weston needed to expend some energy we headed to this cool little park. This was the tunnel that Weston finally got brave enough to go in by the 3rd or 4th time we were there.
Aunt Aly was home on Saturday when we got to OR and then she left on Sunday to fly back to Idaho for school. We let Weston wake her up Sunday morning. She was thrilled. ;) Good luck in school this semester Aly! We missed you the rest of our trip.
I have no idea what day this was, but Papa and Uncle Eli are working on restoring an old VW bug and Weston decided to be one of the guys and help out. Not sure how much they actually got accomplished while he was "helping."
We got home Sunday night after a full, but uneventful flight, and have spent the last couple days settling back in, unpacking, doing laundry and catching up on sleep. Weston took a 3 and a half hour nap yesterday! Also of note, Weston was the most awesome 2 year old ever and used the potty almost our entire trip. Now that we are home, he has not done nearly as well. Weird, right?

Ian has jumped right back into work and came home with an additional rush project yesterday, so he will be gone LOTS this week. Probably we won't see him again until maybe Saturday. :( Me sad. At least I will have time in the evenings to catch up on some blogs and reading. Wow, just going over our trip makes me tired all over. I think I'll go grab a power nap.

Oregon Trip-Part 3

Wednesday we took a day trip to the town of Seaside to visit the coast. In all the times I have been to Portland I had never been to the Oregon coast, so this was my request for our vacation. It was amazing. We had such a great time. I have already mentioned how wonderful the weather has been, but really this was a PERFECT Oregon beach day. We got on the road ahead of schedule and made a stop at the local Dollar Tree before heading out of town because (drum roll please) Weston pooped in the potty earlier that morning! His reward was that he got to pick out a prize from the dollar store. He ended up picking a mini monster truck. We also found the best one dollar investment ever: a handheld electronic version of the game 1 v. 100. We picked up a dollar pack of batteries and Ian and I played trivia a good part of the drive. Yes, we are nerds. :)

Both the boys fell asleep about half an hour into the drive and napped most of the way. When we got there I had my doubts about our day. Weston was whining, it was kind of chilly, he didn't like walking on the sand and he had to go potty (with no public restroom in sight). So, we walked down to the water carting both boys and a little bit of our stuff.

We ended up deciding to do the non-shore Seaside stuff first, so we loaded back up in the car and drove in a big circle to end up one block from where we started and found a bathroom and the main drag of shops. This included the Seaside Carousel Mall. Weston did a ride on the carousel, which he LOVED. He was also very brave and took one hand off and waved every time we passed Daddy and Davin.
We continued wandering the shops and stopped in The Buzz, a big candy store, and picked out treats. Ian had a chocolate dipped twinkie. Wow. It was pretty yummy. I picked some homemade fudge, naturally. Anyway, after walking the rest of the interesting looking shops we got back in the car once again and drove over to the McDonald's to grab some lunch, feed Dav and use the potty again. When we got back we loaded up all our stuff and headed back to the shore. It was a much better timing. We were all fed and pottied and it had warmed up quite a bit. There was just a light wind and it was almost cloudless.

Weston started digging and seriously just sat there digging all by himself for a good long while. He filled up all his buckets and then would dump them out and start over. He said he was building a castle where people could get married. There was a little swing set on the beach too, so both the boys took a turn there too.
Davin hung out in his little cabana we made him out of a towel draped over the footstool of the camp chair. It was perfect!
After some major digging, Weston and I walked down to the water. We took our time getting through the sand. I showed Weston how to make his own footprints. It was cute.
At first Weston wasn't completely sure about the water and I had to hold his hand the whole time. After about 15 minutes and me showing him how to chase the waves and jump in the shallow water he was having a ball. He would run WAY out past where the waves would get him and then finally hear me calling him and stop. Then he would run all the way back and jump in another wave. We just had so much fun playing in the waves. The water didn't even feel all that cold.
Davin spent a lot of time in the Snugli at the beach and after this picture was taken we switched and put him on me. After about 5 minutes he conked out and I had to hold his head up. It was hilarious. Poor kid was worn out. Here are the handsome men in my life playing at the beach.
Back to diggin! At this point he was calling himself, and requesting that we refer to him as, the Digger Man. What a cute nutter.
At the end of the afternoon Ian busted out the kite and Weston did so well helping to fly it. I was kind of chair bound with a snoozing Davin in my lap during this part, but I could still see the whole kite-flying experience.
We ended up staying at the beach longer than we planned and decided to just stay in Seaside to eat dinner and then head out post-traffic. It was a good decision because I was totally craving a bowl of hot clam chowder and I got it and it was fabulous. Weston played hard and was starving. He scarfed his mac and cheese at the restaurant and ate all of my oyster crackers. Here is our family at the end of our day in Seaside. Big contented sigh. It was wonderful day. Good times.
The boys slept all the way home and Ian and I got some good conversation in. I knew it was a successful family trip when the first thing Weston said at 5:30am this morning (yes, AM) was, "Playing at the beach is fun. Thanks for the fun outing Mom." You're welcome.

Oregon Trip-Part 2

On Monday afternoon/evening Ian and I snuck off for a marathon date. We had such a fun adventure. I don't think we have been on this long and carefree of a date in . . . well . . . since we had kids! :) First off it was awesome because we managed to leave while Weston was still napping, so we didn't have to deal with the separation drama. We went to this cheapie theater in Milwaukee, a somewhat ghetto little town about 20 minutes from the house. We decided to see 2 movies there. Our first feature was "Kung Fu Panda," which I actually quite enjoyed. It was pretty funny and well-voiced. Totally worth $2.50.

After the movie we went to get dinner at Mike's Drive-In. It was amazing. Such great burgers and fries. Yum. We stole away to the picnic tables behind the restaurant shack so we could people watch in private. Ok, so dinner was great, but we still had an hour and a half to kill before our 2nd movie was going to start, so we decided to see if we could find the house that Ian lived in when he was 6. We consulted the map and were all prepped to wander aimlessly, but instead we made some snap navigating decisions and found the house in about 5 minutes. We drive by to check it out. It's kinda fun to look at places you used to live.
This is Ian's old house in the background. With another hour to go we kept driving back to Milwaukee Main Street to see if any of the random shops were still open, especially this store called Things From Outer Space. It was closed. The cool thing about Portland is that there are rivers and lakes and water everywhere, so we happened to be right by a river (not sure which one), so we pulled in there and Ian taught me how to skip a rock. I actually did it twice in a row! We also called home to say goodnight to the little one. He pretty much didn't miss us at all. He spent most of the time on the phone giggling about his silly secret he had with Grandma. :)
Anyway, we STILL had a little time before the movie, so we went back to Mike's and got shakes. It took about 15 or 20 minutes to get out shakes (oddly slow), but luckily a guy got pulled over in the parking lot, so that provided some entertainment. BTW when the cop finally left, the guy totally got in line and ordered food.

Finally we went back to the theater for our second movie of the day, "Get Smart." Also fun and enjoyable. The theater was really cool. Small, but cool. They played random foreign music in the lobby (we couldn't tell what language it was, but were leaning towards Portuguese), had a completely pink women's bathroom and we were the only ones in the first movie and shared the theater with one other couple during the second. We will definitely be going back someday.

Anyway, it was just such a fun night and it's always nice to get to hang out with the one you married and remember how much you really liked/like them in the first place. Big THANKS to Grandma and Papa and Great Grandma for doing kid duty that night.

Oregon Trip-Part 1

WARNING: All of the Oregon Trip posts contain LOTS of pictures. I just couldn't narrow it down any further.
We are here in beautiful Oregon! So far we are having an awesome trip. The weather has been absolutely perfect. Sunny and warm and gorgeous. Our flight out was half empty, so we could take Davin's carseat on the plane. He slept almost the entire flight. Weston was not as perfect, but did pretty well (for a 2 year old).

We spent the day Saturday just visiting and watching the BYU v. Washington game. We also discovered an awesome little park right near the house, so we checked that out too.

Monday we went to visit Multnomah Falls. I hadn't been there since Ian and I got married, so it was fun to go back and reminisce. Weston thought the falls were cool. He kept saying "there was a big waterfall and a little (said in his funny voice) waterfall." He picked out a truck (of course) from the gift shop. Great Grandma Bowles came with us and we picnicked at the base of the falls.

Davin's first plane ride (5 1/2 months).
Both boys swinging at the little Damascus park. Davin could hardly tear his eyes off his big brother.Weston and I at Multnomah Falls. He was being slightly clingy.
The not-so-newlyweds in front of the falls. We hadn't been there since our honeymoon almost 5 years ago.
When the weather is nice it's hard to imagine why everyone doesn't live in OR: it's so green and temperate and beautiful, but then you remind yourself that it does rain 250 days a year. Here are the boys crossing the bridge on the way down to the base of the falls.

Wheeler Farm and a Big Goodbye

Yesterday we went to Wheeler Farm for our outing. Much like the petting zoo at Gardner Village, but free. Weston's favorite part is that there are tractors and bulldozers that he can sit in. Screw seeing the animals. He could care less. He also wanted to go play in the shed barn thing, but it was full of pigs, so he was kind of sad. He also totally freaked when a cow mooed really loudly right close by. Direct quote, "Hey that tractor is really huge." He spent the entire time running around and chasing pigeons (when he wasn't driving the tractors). We tried feeding the ducks, but there were too many geese making threatening noises at us, so I pulled a speedy evacuation maneuver. It was pretty fun and gorgeous weather.

Driving the huge green tractor.
Driving the small bulldozer (there was a bigger one right next to it, but he felt more comfortable with this one)
Little farmer
Standing in the "chicken's house"
Chasing pigeons
Angel baby being so sweet in his stroller. He did get to come out and play for a little while.
On the potty training front, I am pretty disappointed that I am admitting defeat in Round 1 of the battle. Rather than having fewer accidents during week 2, Weston had about 50% more. Once I stopped hounding him about it, he didn't seem to want to make it happen, so as of this morning we are back in pull-ups/diapers (I still haven't officially decided which I want to keep him in). We will probably try again in November and see how he does. Anyway, it's kind of frustrating to know that all that effort and craziness was in vain. Big sigh.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for our trip to Portland, OR for a whole week+, so I will not be back to post pics and whatnot until the 14th. I will miss checking up on y'all, but I'll catch up when I get back. It should be a fun time with sun forecast for the whole week so far. I'm hoping I will actually get to relax a bit and maybe even sleep in one or two days. Wahoo for family vacations. :)

Keepin it Real

My blogging (and occasional real life) buddy, Sheena, did a whole week of keepin it real. It was hilariously refreshing and honest. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with being that honest. I think I'm just too embarrassed about my imperfections. In an effort to be less Type A in my parenting (since I fear I am completely screwing up my toddler), I am going to attempt to let the facade slip a bit.
As you know, if you read this blog, I have been trying to potty train Weston in the last 10 days. Of those 10 days he has pooped in the toilet ONE time. The other FIVE times he has pooped in his pants. It is disgusting and I have to confess I have tried putting him in time out for pooping in his pants. Finally I decided I was being too controlling about the whole thing, so today I am just letting him do his thing. I'm not reminding him to go potty (except before his nap) and Ian gave me permission to offer him ANYTHING as a reward for pooping in the toilet. So far, no dice, but I'm still crossing my fingers that I will eventually hit on the right inspiration (aka reward) for him.

I think of myself as somewhat of a neat freak. This coincides with the whole Type A thing I have going. Anyway, the truth is, my house is really not all that clean, it's just tidy most of the time. I can't remember the last time I mopped the bathrooms.

I am absolutely NOT a germaphobe. I don't care if people drink out of my cup and I don't obsessively use hand sanitizer. I actually think hand sanitizer is gross because it smells weird and makes my hands taste gross (if for some reason I have to lick my fingers).

I LOVE to chew ice. I don't own ice trays though because I am an ice snob. I only really like the little crushed pellet ice. I buy a 1o pound bag of it at Sonic for $1.59 every few days in the summer.

I HATE the dentist. I know most people hate the dentist, but here's the kicker. We pay for dental insurance through Ian's work, but I haven't been to the dentist in almost 2 years. Simply because I don't want to know how many cavities I have or get them filled or be told for the umpteenth time I need my wisdom teeth out. I have had "make a dentist appointment" on my list of things to do every day for the last week and still I haven't actually made the call.

I can polish off an entire thing of Chewy Chips Ahoy by myself in the course of 24 hours or less.

I am pretty positive I look HOT in a swim cap and goggles. I have never actually seen myself in said accessories, but I can't imagine they look that bad on me. Speaking of swim caps and goggles. Weston insisted on trying them on today when he found them on the couch after my swimming workout this morning. It was hilarious. Apparently he thought the cap was a football helmet.

I often will leave Davin in his crib for up to an hour in the mornings as long as he isn't crying. Poor kid has to learn early on to entertain himself. Davin is all of a sudden such a big boy. He is almost sitting up on his own and has started rolling over from his back to his tummy. Once he gets to his tummy he's not real happy about it, but he seems to like the rolling part. I am trying to not neglect him as much now that he's not a little infant lump anymore. It's a constant change accommodating 2 little ones. Hopefully I can make it work and I won't mess them up too badly.
Look out for future "keepin it real" posts from yours truly.

Field Trip

Well, my week of potty training is over, but my potty training experience is far from over. Weston overall did really great with learning to use the potty this past week. He has had at least one accident every single day, but I figure eventually he will have fewer and fewer. I was so excited because on Friday he finally pooped in the toilet! Hurrah! Before that he had only pooped once and it was in his pants. I was unbelievably proud. We went out for ice-cream to celebrate on Friday night. The joy was short lived though when he pooped in his pants again on Saturday AND Sunday mornings. Heavy sigh. We still have a long way to go. We have resumed our outing schedule and he has not had an accident while we have been out. He even made it through church today with no accidents.

Saturday morning we decided to drive out to the Kennecott copper mine to see the monster machines from Daddy's show. It was a pretty gorgeous day, so the drive was nice. The mine is seriously amazing. I can't believe it used to be a mountain. We had a fun time checking out the ginormous dump trucks and running around the visitors center pushing buttons to show how copper is used in electricity and a bunch of other stuff. We came home and had a picnic on the rug in the living room. Saturday afternoon Weston and I grocery shopped. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I feel like I'm out of shape from not doing outings all this week. Lame. Anyway, so far it's been a nice weekend and I am so looking forward to having Ian home again tomorrow. Woohoo! It is supposed to be cold and stormy tomorrow, so the plan is to do a little shopping/playing at the mall and watch movies at the house. My week is going to fly by since Monday will be an extension of the weekend and then Saturday we leave for Portland! Wow. This summer is officially over. It went by way too fast.

This is Weston right after he pooped in the potty. He was very proud of himself and saved it to show Dad when he got home from work a few minutes later. We spared you a more graphic picture of the real deal. Don't you love his Bob the Builder toilet seat and his cup of juice on the counter? :)
Ian and Weston at the mine looking out the big windows from the visitors center.
Weston turning on the lights in the buildings.
"Driving" the really old mining car.
Showing you all how big the tire of the ginormous dump truck really is.Me and Dav looking cool in our sweet shades. He looks cool anyway.
Check out the mine behind us. It is really deep and so huge. I thought it was really awesome.