May 2

It's May!  April seemed like a long month around here.  May is going to fly by.  We have the Father's and Sons campout this weekend, Kirk's family coming to visit next week and my family (17 people including us) at my house for a week at the end of the month.  We are excited.  It will be fun, but pretty crazy.

Last week was a quick one.  Monday Cade went to preschool under protest.  We went to the park in the afternoon and I was able to get a bunch of food ready for our trip.

Tuesday we went hiking with some friends at McNary wildlife preserve.  We walked around a lake and saw a bunch of ducks and other birds.  The coolest one was an osprey.  We also saw a turtle sitting on a log.  Cade said it was like going on a trip with our friends.  We all enjoyed it.  Ellie ended up being awake for a little over 3 hours with 2-15 minute naps in the middle.  She fell asleep on the way home.  I left her in her car seat but put it up in her room and she slept another 3 hours!  She was so tired.  We were able to go to the park with friends that afternoon.  It was a fun day, but not very productive.  Kirk and I went to Cade's "pre-kindergarten" meeting at his preschool.  His teachers said that he is very gifted academically and can process information and problem solve better than most of the kids.  They said he gets along really well with everyone and is probably in the middle of the class for leadership.  He gets nervous when they have transitions or things are non-routine.  None of that surprised me, but it was interesting to talk with them.

Wednesday Cade had a field trip with preschool to Yoke's (grocery store.)  I traded with Lauren and watched her boys here while she took Cade.  He was a little uncertain at first, but ended up having a great time.  We ran out of coloring books--oh no!-- and that afternoon made a trip to the dollar store and Winco to get a few things.  I let Cade and Cami each pick out 3 things at the dollar store, one of which had to be a coloring book.  Cade got a lizard who is now named green dot and some colored pens.  Cami picked out a magic wand and princess stickers.  It is interesting to see how they pick their favorites.  Cami was pretty sure she wanted 4 things, but was able to narrow it down.  We went out and got ice cream that afternoon because I had a gift card I needed to use.  They thought that was the best treat ever!  I finished packing up for our trip.  Kirk worked a lot these three days.  He was at the office from 8-11:30 Monday evening, 7-10 Tuesday and came home about 8:00 on Wednesday. He got everything done and played some catch-up as well.  We got the truck all loaded and ready by about 9:30 Wednesday night.

Thursday we headed out to visit Dry Falls Lake area and do some fishing.  We started at Quail.  I think its a little crazy, but we hiked in a quarter mile with 3 kids and a pontoon boat.  I fished for the first hour and a half and then we switched.  It was a warm day and we were able to see lots of fish swimming in the water, but we only caught one.  We saw a muskrat too.  I told Kirk it would have been much easier to stay by the truck.  Ellie took one short nap in our bjorn and fell asleep on the walk back.  She was so tired she stayed asleep when I put her in the carseat (until the kids woke her up!).  It was fun to see a new lake though.  We drove from there to our cabin on Blue lake.  We had dinner and unpacked.  Cade and Cami went crazy.  They unpacked their suitcases and put clothes in the dresser and their blankets on the beds.  They were so excited.  Ellie was so happy to be out of the car she laid on our bed and just laughed and kicked her legs for about 30 minutes.  Kirk took Cade and Cami out and they saw a bunch of deer and turkeys.

Friday we dropped Kirk off at Dry Falls lake in the morning and he fished for several hours.  I took the kids to the visitors center and they loved it.  We got to look out windows from a high cliff and see Kirk fishing.  We watched part of a movie, looked at maps and bought post cards.  The ranger was really nice to us and gave the kids coloring books and colored pencils.  We played at the park for a bit and then drove back to the lake for lunch.  Ellie was a great baby.  She took a couple of naps and at one point slept about 2 hours in the car.  We went hiking that afternoon and saw a bunch of caves.  The coolest part with seeing a great horned owl flying away from us at the last cave.  Cade loved running between each one.  It was a mile and a half hike and both kids did great.

Saturday we packed up and headed toward home.  We stopped at a river to let Kirk fish a bit more.  I went for a walk with the kids, found reeds and sticks, ate lunch, went for a drive to put Ellie to sleep and hung out.  We made it home about 3:00 that afternoon.  It was a fun trip.  Cade's favorite part with playing star wars outside by our cabin.  Cami's favorite was sleeping at the cabin.

Ellie started rolling over from back to front this weekend.  She loves to try to sit up and constantly does crunches to try to get her head up.  She is still sleeping all night really great but started waking up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 this week.  I don't know why.  I am still waiting until at least 6:00 to feed her and I just leave her in bed until then, but she keeps waking up early.  She has also decided she hates it when I sing her songs before bed.  She cries and squirms away.  If I put her in bed she goes right to sleep.  Silly girl.  Makes my job easier though.

Cami funnies--
"Mommy, when you grow up will you be a nurse or a grandma?"

me: "What are you crazy monkey's doing?"  Cami--stops playing and looks at me "I'm a hyena."  She was very serious.

One day Cami and Cade were both eating some skittles.  Cami got really made at Cade and started yelling at him for eating her skittles, then she looked down and stopped.  She had their bowls confused and thought he was eating hers, but really he was just eating his own.