Bringing up boys...

You gotta love the NAVY! In September, we bought tickets for the boys and I to tag along with Michael on a Navy trip to WA so that we could see our friends on Whidbey Island. Three days before we were scheduled to leave the Navy had to postpone the trip and we had to change our tickets ($300 change fee). A month later the trip is back on, so we repurchased our tickets to tag along again. It turns out that the round trip price from D.C. to WA was actually going to cost us an extra $100 per person but if we flew from WA to IA it was still in our allotted credit from cancelling the first time. Since we were going to have to pay the extra money anyway we found a one way ticket from IA to D.C. for $100 and called it even. The plan was for us to fly with Michael to Whidbey and then the boys and I would fly to Iowa while Michael flew home to VA. That WAS the plan until 3 days before we were suppose to leave! That's when the Navy cancelled Michael's trip AGAIN! There was no way I was going to be out another $300 change fee + $300 for the one way tickets from Iowa so I said, "WE'RE GOING ANYWAY!" Of course I am very thankful to have a wonderful friend who was willing to let us stay with her for 5 days so we didn't have to spend money on a hotel. I knew I would need to rent a car so as not to inconvenience her any further and was dreading the scenario of getting two kids, a stroller, a suitcase, a carry on, and two car seats through the airport and onto a shuttle to get to the rental car agency. As it turns out, I shouldn't have been worrying about that (I managed just fine and got a free upgrade to a mini-van), but should have been dreading the non-stop flight that left at 8:00 in the morning (which means leaving our house at 5:00 am). The boys were extremely, overly tired but way too excited to sleep in the car or on the first 5 hours of the flight. After 5 hours of DVD's, books, snacks, lollipops, restroom trips, and many tantrums with very loud shrieking by Zachary, both boys fell asleep on the last 30 minutes of the 6 hour flight! It wasn't the worst plane experience with children (Holley wins the honor of that one!) but it was by far MY worst experience flying with my kids. Mikie was very good and I need to give him credit for that, but of course he still gets the privilege of having his "Bashi" blanket with him on the plane so he spends a lot of time with his thumb in his mouth. Oh how I wish Zachary was a thumb sucker! If he was I'm sure I wouldn't have had this comment said to me by the lady across the aisle as we were debarking the plane: "Well, you had a rough flight, didn't you?" My answer: "Yes, my husband was suppose to be with us, but the NAVY cancelled his flight!"

The boys finally crashed the last 30 minutes of the 6 hour flight!

Upon landing in WA, dragging my kids and gear to Advantage Rental Company, receiving the free Volkswagen mini-van upgrade, and loading car seats in said mini-van it was lunch time. Now, I had forgotten that it was a holiday (Veterans' Day) when I promised we would be dinning at our favorite restaurant, The Rain Forest Cafe, which just happens to be in a shopping mall. By the looks of the crowded parking lot I knew this adventure wasn't going to go well. I was right. It was a 30 minute wait to be seated but we managed to find several things in the gift shop to occupy our time. Once we went in, it was time for Mikie to have his melt down. Probably the worst one he's had in public in a long time. We spent the majority of our time in the restroom so that we only destroyed the hearing of a select few patrons instead of the entire dinning room. I truly felt like the world's worst mom as everyone was staring at me and the child with his nose stuck in the corner screaming and hollering about the yucky (minuscule drop of) soap I put on his tongue. The bright side? Zachary was so appalled by his brother's behavior and afraid of what I may do that he was as quiet as a church mouse. As soon as the food came everything got much better, that is until we had to get back in the mini-van. Then it was Zach's turn to scream "Owie Back" because he hates sitting in his car seat. I thought this was a great excuse to take the ferry instead of driving all the way around to get to Whidbey. Apparently, I had used up all my good luck at the rental car agency because we ended up missing the ferry cut off by one car. And by one car I mean that I WAS the one car! Well, that just means we'll be the first ones on the next ferry in 30 minutes! Time to get out of the car, go smell the sea air, run on the dock, watch the planes fly overhead, and count the birds. All the while enjoying the remoteness of the area! *Sigh*

The boys enjoyed their short ferry ride and I enjoyed the break from all the screaming. We had reached Whidbey Island, but we still had a 45 minute drive to Amber's house. Along the way we listened to more screaming, stopped on the side of the road for Zach to go potty, and I wished I had grabbed a children's CD to drown out the noise. We needed to stop at the store for some rice milk and a handful of other things before reaching Amber's house. Again, I underestimated the cooperativeness of my overly tired children. Mikie hurt his back on shelf which sent him reeling and Zachary insisted on pushing the cart himself until I had to sprint and grab it before it crashed into the glass refrigerator doors. He then lost his privilege to walk and I had another screaming child drawing attention to the "out of towners" in the local grocery store. When we finally made it to Amber's, I think the only other person that was even more grateful to be there than me was poor little Tate who had been standing motionless at the window watching for us for nearly an hour.

Day 2 of our trip was the most anticipated event in over a year. The last time we were in WA for Tate's birthday we promised to take the boys to Jungle Playland but ended up with 4 sick kids instead. Mikie's been asking to go ever since. It really is a wonderful place. It's a giant play structure operated out of a church. The kids love it and this year we didn't have to climb and slide with them too much. Zachary still screamed a lot, but that was because he wanted to keep up with the big boys and they were just too fast for him. He did have fun with Ayden in the toddler area, though.

All 4 of them!

Video:

We had forgotten the boy's stuffed animals that they picked out at home to accompany us on this trip, so I allowed them each to stuff their own elephant as their Jungle Playland Souvenir.

My boys still carry theirs around now that we're home but I can guess that Amber probably confiscated her children's as soon as I left since she has an aversion to anything stuffed. :)

The next day a cold front moved through and it became very windy. The wind chill was close to freezing, if not below, and that made our next adventure a little less than appealing for Mikie.

We can now say that we have flown across the country for one of his field trips. Mikie finished reading The Magic Tree House book Ghost Town At Sundown which was all about the wild west and cowboys. My friend, Holley, has horses and was kind enough to let us come over for our field trip to learn about horses and their gear.

You can see just how happy Mikie was to be out in the cold (but we were actually inside her very nice barn). It also didn't help that he had just woken up from his nap. And we'll throw jet lag into the list of causes as well.

Zachary enjoyed himself!

Holley shows the kids how to bridle a horse.

Getting a little happier!

Zachary takes a ride on C.C. the pony. Here's a video:

I had to bribe Mikie to get him on the horse. What does he ask for as his reward? Mini-golf. Well, that didn't happen but we did take him bowling.
Here's Mikie's video:

Finally a happy face! I was so happy to get this picture. In the book, it shows a horse with a star on his head (a 5 pointed star) and I wanted to show Mikie how horses have stars but they aren't like the drawings in his book. Thank you so much for teaching us about horses, Holley! And thanks for posing for us Ander (I hope that's right!?).

A video of brotherly cooperation:

Friends Forever No Matter How Far!

Of course a trip to Amber's house wouldn't be complete without a baking lesson and dessert sampling. She had made the most delicious cashew bars that Mikie and I ate the rest of the time we were there. When I made them at home, Mikie saw them cooling and asked, "Can I have one of those, one of those Miss Amber Bars!" So now they will forever be known as Miss Amber Bars at my house.

Every time Zachary had to go potty he would race into the bathroom and hide in the corner before I got in there and then laugh when I found him. He was the perfect height for that little area.

Mr. Andy made them a fort.

Thank you, Amber for letting us stay with you, feeding us, and just for being our friend! We love you guys!

Silly Strikers

Both boys started bowling this summer during the "kidsbowlfree.com" national event. If you haven't heard about it, you can find a participating bowling alley by searching the website and then your child receives 2 free games of bowling per day all summer long! All you need to do is rent the shoes! My boys had a blast using their monster truck balls that Boagie and Grandpa bought them. In fact, Mikie loved bowling so much that I signed him up for a league starting in the fall. Of course this sport is right up his alley (pun intended :) because it involves so many numbers! They bowl 3 games with 10 frames per game and 2 balls per frame which equals A LOT of numbers on the screen for Mikie to get excited about! He is on a team with one of his best friends, Kaitlyn. With a little help from their parents, Mikie and Kaitlyn chose the name Silly Strikers and made shirts for themselves. Every Saturday morning we meet at Liberty Lanes for about an hour and a half. Mikie is doing really well and learning to control his disappointment, frustration, and anger when he doesn't get the score he wants. They use the bumpers and his highest score so far is 105!

Soapy Suds

This was Zachary's first bubble bath. He has a lot of sensory issues and doesn't like toys floating too closely to him in the bath so I wasn't sure how he would react to this new sensation. You can tell from the two videos that he didn't mind it too much, but I wouldn't say that he loved it as much as Mikie did when he was two.