Easter Redux

Here are pictures from our awesome Easter picnic brought to you by request! (Kind of like a radio station playing your favorite songs, ain't it?) Hint, hint; the boys would love to go into nature again!




6 adults, 7 kids, 3 dogs and a ham. The story of a great Easter picnic.



Aunt Wendy and Ia.



B hanging on it in the woods.



Beth and Ia.



Cutie pie (no this blondie is actually not my child!) Emma and Uncle Jim. Jim, don't tax yourself, you've got software to write in the morning,...

Murphy, You've Been Blogged

Congratulations to Rob's cousin Deanne and her partner Christa, Monday they adopted a beautiful little boy. He was born at 3:14pm, 6 lbs., 2 oz. and 18" long. Welcome to the world, Murphy Niko Richardson!

Keep the new family in your hearts; Murph needs to stay in the hospital a little while for a little while because of methadone in his system. Good luck De and Christa; it is so wonderful to know that this little guy has will have a loving family to care and protect him. He will be joined soon by Shawna and Kermit's little guy on Thursday (ack! that's tomorrow!!!) and Sarah and Paul's little guy this July. Good thing my little Sophie has three brothers, so she'll know how to roll with the dudes.





De and Murphy




Christa and Murphy



Little Murphy

Tales from the T-Ball Field

Gee, can you tell which kid is ours? That's Kyle a whole head above everyone else. And he's so ready to play farm, but t-ball is where he has to go because of his age. Tough for the third boy who has spent his entire life trying to keep up with his big brothers. But great on the other hand, because he really shines! He hits great, last night he had a homerun. He pay lots of attention on the field, but at the same time, shares the ball. You won't find him in a pig pile of little bodies fighting over the hit. He plays every position, but loves pitcher and first base from what I can tell. Yesterday, the hitter smacked the ball right at him in the chest - he reacted quickly and caught the ball! It was awesome. He's really doing well!



Mr. Intensity. He's going on the world Tball hall of fame, taking no prisoners.



He got a run, too bad for the catcher,..



Waiting his turn on bat. Don't you wish carpet squares would work in other areas of our lives? I think I need them in every room of the house,..



Getting ready to run,...

I'll try and get pictures of the other boys this week. Obviously Sophie was with her father during this game so I had a couple of free hands,...

The Last Hurrah

Well, it's finally the end of the two longest weeks of my life. Yes, I'm talking about spring break. What to do to commemorate not shipping any of my children to someone else for raising? Go to San Diego, of course.





The Crew Classic was taking place down in Mission Bay this weekend, so we decided to go down and catch the varsity races for the University of Washington on Sunday. (Go Dawgs!) Those crew boys and girls like to get up really early and race, so in order to catch these , we had to leave our house around 6amish.





Brings memories of dating hubby; as a rip roaring sorority bimbo, I would stay out and play with my friends waaaay past my bedtime. Dating hubby meant being deposited back at the ol' sorority house at a reasonable hour, leaving most of my housemates to see me and ask , "why are you home so early? Are you sick?"





But, that was about 18ish years ago,.. yes, I'm old. Nothing makes you feel old like going down and see a bunch of svelte college kids running around like they haven't a care in the world.





It was a fantastic day. We met up with Chief and Olga, two highly respected people who, although they know our family intimately, still choose to hang out with us : ) and a couple of Rob's crew mates and a wife, who we hadn't seen in about a decade. It is always so nice to meet up with people you have such great memories with and sink back into a great conversation. So, thanks Flip and Shep and Kim. What a great day.





The kids weren't too excited about the whole deal. When hubby was explaining we were going to see some fast boats, 8 year old asked, "You mean drag racing???!?!?!"





To which hubby responded, "Well, yes, fast like drag racing. Except with people rowing with oars."





I've never seen little faces sink so quickly.





But they met up with kids their age and took off to frolick in the sand and sea and had a blast. Washington won. The sun broke through the clouds. Perfect.







Real men wear pink babies.


Just hangin' out at the beach. I'm sorry, what did you say the weather was like in Washington????

The kiddos. And one kidnapped puppy. Not only did we kidnap a puppy, but we made the puppy's owner take our picture. The audacity of some folks.

More Shameless Bragging

Just a couple other articles for you to peruse:





Again, another on the same company (I'm all for taking the easy way out and exploiting my interviewees as much as possible; that's one of the major tenets of marketing anyway, repeat, repeat, repeat!): Sanborn and the Times Atlas.





And, the picture(s) of the day:







Aren't we cute?



I'm sorry, what's the temperature up in the Puget Sound area again? : )

Joshua Tree Is Not Just the Name of A U2 CD

Wow, eh? Who thought something so prickly could be so beautiful? But enough about me,..

We took Grandma on one trip while she was here. Yes, I had high hopes, but Sophie is a stinker when carted around. That's tough for me to admit, a person who has dragged small children through Africa, Europe, Australia and SouthEast Asia. Now I don't even want to drive an hour to Big Bear. Sheesh.

We did venture into the car with hubby on Sunday morning, packed lunches and headed out to Joshua Tree. The last time we visited it was only a National Monument. It has no risen in stature to National Park.

That first visit was fun; we were newly married and had no kids. We lived out in Newport Beach. Our journey was for the weekend and we camped. We bought firewood at the local store and headed out. I've learned two things from that episode; 1. people in Newport Beach don't camp; the firewood we bought would not catch fire no matter what we did to it. We found ourselves fighting over a can of baked beans warmed up over a tiny camp stove; and 2. It gets DARNED cold in the desert at night. Brrrr, chilly.

This time was no different. We've had crazy weather, which we attribute to the Washington State Grandma visiting (!) Joshua Tree was a balmy 47 degrees and windy as ever. We found a large boulder to hide behind as we ate lunch and I toughed it out on a mile long nature hike, but after that, I decided a 12 week old didn't need to be out in rip roaring winds. I stayed in the car for the next hike.

The boys have been Disney-ified, and weren't at all excited about going to the desert. But when we got there and they saw huge rocks and the promise of little creatures (and creature poop) and a wide expanse of open earth with no mothers yelling at them to use their inside voices or walk, not run; they were off! Who needs video games? They found a snake, some sort of creature poop, lizards, and all sorts of wacky ways around the naturel trail that didn't involve the actual trail.

Yay for Grandmas!

Well, my mom came and went. A week is really not a lot of time to visit, especially when you throw in five kids and baseball in to the mix. We threatened to just not drive her back to the airport, but she called our bluff. She said is was relaxing and she had a great time, even if she had to clean her own bathroom and mop my floor. Sigh. We all had a great time going to opening day, baseball practices and the 8 year old's game, plus a trip out to Joshua Tree for good measure. Hubby and I even got to go on a date! Yowza! The first time in almost four months I haven't had to hang on to a baby at dinner time. I even escaped to the gym a few mornings without surly kids not happy about sitting in the daycare for an hour. Pure heaven!



Grandma and her girls.....



And boys. (no Sabrina doesn't have her sister - that's a doll! Swear.)