some down time

This Friday Davey turned two. He is officially no longer a baby (though in reality he has not been one for awhile). We celebrated by being low key. On Friday the kids and I went to the children's museum in Porland. It is an awesome place for kids under 6 or so. Ashley and Davey both loved the play vet room and the dig pit (an area filled with rubber mulch, shovels, and dump trucks). It is all indoors so I think we will be purchasing a family pass and going often when it starts raining. After nap Ashley and Davey helped make a blue birthday cake with blue frosting. It was messy fun. We walked down the river to Pizza Schmiza for dinner to top off Davey's day. On Saturday we headed out early for Voodoo Donuts (yum) and then caught the train to the zoo. The Portland zoo is an excellent size for walking and Davey loved it. After each exhibit he would start saying "amules? amules?" His favorite by far were the monekys, and Ashley said she liked the elephants best.

It was a vey fun and laid back weekend. It was nice exploring Portland a bit. We still need to eat at the food carts one day. Nothing too much coming up this week - more long river walks, streetcar rides, and playground explorations.

Davey is two!
1.Lot's of running, jumping and climbing.
2. Lot's of new words and phrases. His favorite word is now. Like "eat now" or"get out now"
3. Testing his boundaries daily, rinse wash repeat
4. Obessed with diggers, streetcars, trucks, boats, and (h)airplanes
5. Oh, and helicopters, cranes, and bulldozers
6. Loves to snuggle and read before bed
7. Loves pools and baths
8. Eats a lot, and tells you when he is hungry
9. Is loud or louder (or loudest)
10. Sometimes is scared of loud noises and needs a good snuggle.

surviving hotel life

It has been a rough week. Coming back from camping I was tired. I wanted to be lazy. Generally lazy mom = crazy kids. They get bored, they get rowdy. Just like when I was teaching, you can tell the days when you have a bad lesson plan. I have had no "lesson plan" this week. It has been bad. Problem is, we have no space and lot's of neighbors. Screaming, banging, fighting children don't just annoy me. Plus 750 square feet eventually began to drive me crazy. So today I dragged my lazy butt off the couch and we got OUT. We started with our usual, the breakfast buffet, then we took an hour+ walk, followed by a swim in the pool, lunch and then nap. In the afternoon we walked to the gym and the kids got dropped off and I worked out in peace.
It was a much better day. The terrible twos didn't seem so bad and the kids are tired. Tomorrow Davey officially enters the twos. He is such a sweet loveable, stubborn, crazy, energetic, fearless boy. And he is 110% a momma's boy. And I love him. Happy birthday, Davey monster!

Randomness...

We can see Mt Hood and Mt St Helens everyday on our walks. It's not bad scenery. Ashley says Mountain Hood is her favorite mountain and wants a mountain like that near Charlotte. It is beautiful, but having no active volcanoes near Charlotte I consider to be a perk of the area.

I've been watching the Irene news and hope the Outer Banks will have a lighter hit than predicted. The storm surge makes me worried that the coastline won't look the same after this storm. Janie &Charlie, hope you all are safe and your house rides the storm well!

last camping post...promise

Quick snippits before the last camping installment-
1. Davey has fullblown terrible twos. Ashley skipped this stage. It's an experience.
2. Grandma and Papa recorded hallmark books for A and D. At the end when they say "I love you Davey" he screams "I love you" into the book. Really, really loud so they can hear him.
3. I asked Ashley if she liked living in Portland. She said, "yeah, but I like camping better."

So Davey slept hard core Saturday night, so he woke us all up at 6. Thanks, bud! We got camp taken down and were on the road by 8. We stopped for lunch at the Forks Coffee shop. Definitely no Jacob or Edward sightings, or anything close to a look-a-like. There were, however, a whole bunch oh Twighlight references and shops. As we headed to Rialto Beach we passed by La Push, and and RV camp cleverly advertising the treaty line (all non-twilight dorks are now lost).
Rialto beach was amazing. Black sand and smooth stone beach, large (really huge) sun-bleached driftwod trees on the high tide line, intense green forest, fog, grey ocean, and shadowy out croppings in the water. It was really incredible. We saw dolphins and seals in the water, large starfish clinging to the rocky out croppings, and a variety of sea birds. The fog broke up as we walked down to the arch and we could see the large rock islands just off the shore.
After a quick family photo in the arch we headed back. We had ambled along and explored a lot, but we walked a good mile down the shore. Davey was done. D.O.N.E. After much screaming for Mommy I finally took him from Jason and he passed out. Jason and I took turns carrying 30+ pounds of passed out Davey and dragging a very tired and whiney 3 yo down the beach. It was all worth it.
After some de-sanding, it was a relatively uneventful ride home. The tom-tom didn't try and send us on any dirt roads and there was no horrible traffic. (Just all the Washingtonians going under, or just at the speed limit. Is the unspoken 7 above rule not followed here??) It was a very memorable, and fun trip. Jason is even willing to go again. Hopefully we will all recover soon enough to try again this fall.

(Please forgive all typos, I have been writing this on Jason's galaxy tablet.)

camping part two

So after not sleepin, thanks to the davey monster who insisted on touching me all night, or burrowing in my sleeping bag, or pointing out noises we hit the road early headed for the olympic peninsula. (Twilight territory!) A couple things about Washinton state- people drive SLOW, it is surprisingly flat along I-5. Because we planned so awesomely we had no map and relied on the tom-tom. I got suspicious once it had me turn on a really rural road, annnoyed when 25 minutes in it said to turn around, and I flat-out ignored it when it said to turn onto a gravel road. After our scenic detour we finally arrived and stopped for lunch at Kalaloch Beach. There was a great view of the beach and our waitress told us you could often see whales. Davey spent lunch staring out shouting"whale!" but no luck.
After lunch our plan was to find a campsite. After driving through two full ones we finally set up camp. It was free, and nice enough, but the bugs there were crazy (and suspiciously like horseflies). We drove down to hike in the Hoh Rain Forest and found a great campsite near the Hoh River with running water, toilets(!!!), and no bugs. Win. Win. Win. Jason drove thirty minutes back and got the tent. The kids had a blast playing in dirt and with rocks and sticks.
After Jason got back we set out to explore. First we went down to the river and the kids played the in sand and loved throwing rocks in the river. Next we hiked the Hall of Mosses. The train was a. 75 loop and the kids did pretty well. Big impressions from the hike - how crazy green it all is, how huge the trees are, and the GIANT black slugs. Davey loved, loved, loved the slugs. We went on a giant slug hunt. He loved it. We made it back to camp in time for a campfire. Jason successfully built a great fire. He has been known to burn through a few days worth of newspaper and not burn a single log. It was a very impressive feat. To top off the night a deer walked through our camp. A young male with antlers. There was a lot of pointing and shouting deer! Followed by a lot of asking where it went when it left. Davey, Ashley, and I slept great, not so much Jason.
Part three -Rialto Beach- to come.

Camping adventures

Jason and I stayed up late Thursday trying to figure out a place we could camp on Friday. Every place you could reserve a campsite were booked solid. I really wanted to avoid having to drive five to six hours just to get to Olympic National Park. Friday morning I found three first come, first serve camp grounds in Washington and decided to go for it. Basically dooming myself to be ill-prepared (nothing big, just no meal planning, or fun campsite activities). The kids and I picked up the rented camp gear from rei, made a target run, packed and picked up Jason from work. All by 3:45.
Our first obstacle was Portland rush hour. We crawled, slowly on I-5 all the way to the state line. By 5:30 Davey was hungry and there was the constant mantra of "eat. Eat now." from the back seat. Lucky for him we were in the middle of nowhere. Since we were already being adventurous we stopped at the next place we found, Spiffys. Spiffys was surprisingly good and some amazing looking pies. Our campground, Lewis and Clark state park was just down the road. There were three campsites left when we arrived. We ended up in the ADA reserved site because after 7 it isopen to anyone. Jason got the tent up quickly with no issues. Not bad for a camping newbie! We spent the last bit of time before bed exploring, swinging on the swings at the "playgound" (a field with one swing set), and throwing rocks in the creek (the kids favorite).
Sleeping was interesting. First, the mats did nothing (we later realized they weren't inflated), Davey announced every noise "noise. Loud.", and Davey would not stay still. I woke up at one point to Davey literally burrowing head first into my sleeping bag. It was a long night. (oh, and there was a rooster somewhere nearby.)
Up next Olympic National Park.

Changing Jason's version of camping

When I met Jason, he told me his version of camping was a Days Inn (or maybe it was Red Roof). Either way this weekend we are going real, sleep outside in a tent camping. Granted the tent will be set up next to the boat-like Malibu, but it's camping! The plan is to head north tonight, camp somewhere in southern Washington and finish the drive to Olympic State Park tomorrow. Twilight territory here we come!

Quick note

1. I am asked if the kids are twins multiple times a day.
2. I am daily asked for directions. Apparently I look like I know where on earth I am.
3. There are homeless people everywhere in Portland. Today we saw a police officer following one, let him pass as he called for more help and eventually had to walk around the eventual confrontation. The homeless man had many not so pleasant things to say.
4. Voodoo donuts is yummy. Really yummy. There were so many choices and such a line I didn't try anything too crazy. Bacon donut next time.
5. Found a mall. Davey now has two pairs of shoes for fall/winter. He grew out of the baby/toddler section now :(. Size 9 shoes for the Davey monster.
6. Maid service finally came before nap. I said to come before 1 and they came at 12:50.
7. I will figure out how to get pictures on here. And I will get them off the camera soon.

transportation fun

This morning we took a streetcar to catch a train to ride a bus to the park. I am trying to really embrace city living, but it was a bit much. The streetcar to train was easy, unloading the stroller to fold it up and put on the bus while losing a Davey shoe in the process was not. The park was very shady and nice. It had a sandbox the kids loved and it was nice for them to be able to run and play. We then caught a bus to get to the train to take the streetcar home. Whew. Davey is napping still. Next up on the agenda is the gym and some childwatch for the kiddos.
In unrelated news, Jason has a stomach bug. He hasn't eaten anything different than us. Seems like we might be in for some REAL fun in 750 sq feet in the next day or so.

Fun munchkin quotes:
Ashley at Mt Hood when I pointed out the skiiers: Mommy, I thought you were going to show me Santa and his deers!
Davey: To every truck, train, bus - Get on now.

Oh, and I will post pictures...eventually.

Here we go

One week in and trying to develop a new sense of normalcy. Ashley wakes me up too early (normal), Jason is already gone (normal), we wait for Davey to get up and go downstairs to a breakfast buffet (not normal). The buffet keeps us in constant supply of yogurt and bananas, half of Davey's diet. Ashley gets to have a bagel with cream cheese every day. I snag jelly packets for pb&j's at lunch. Thank you Marriott.
The kids have discovered long hallways are good for running. They have also discovered the joy of elevator buttons. I have developed a system to prevent bloodshed - Davey pushes the outside button(s) and Ashley the inside. Ashley is very good at recognizing the number 4. We are working on quiet voices in the hall. Davey has two volumes, loud and deafening, we are loved on the 4th floor.
The kids are doing great at sharing a room. In the room their favorite activity is watching the digges and dozers work across the street. And the streetcars! And busses! It'sthe perfect view for a two year old boy.
We spend our mornings exploring. The kids and I are pretty good at riding the streetcar. We have found Powell's Books, Finnegans (toy store), Safeway, the Flying Elephant Bakery, a weekday farmer's market, VoodooDonuts, and the world's lonest train. The hotel is on the river and there is a great walk way frequented by bikes and joggers. There is also an ice cream shop.
My gym is a five minute walk from the hotel and we alternate me working out with going to the pool. Childcare is not free so I need another afternoon activity. Things to explore next include osmi, children's museum, the zoo, and to find some indoor play spaces! It's not raining yet...
Faves: The Pearl, seeing Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood from the river today, free wine with free dinner in the hotel, the weather
Up next: Crater Lake this weekend