More Washington

When we were trying to think of other fun things to do in Washington my Dad made the comment that we should go to the Olympic Game Farm.

So....we did.

I am not a big fan of animals. There I said it.

I used to be.

Not any more.

I don't like them to touch or sniff or lick me.

Not my thing. 

But my Dad said it was a fun place to go...and I am inclined to take his recommendations.

The Olympic Game Farm is where they put animals that used to be used in the movies and it used to be run by Disney...or still is...I'm not sure.

You drive around in your car and look at animals. 

OK. I can live with that.

There were so many animals.

Yaks.

Peacocks.

Bunnies.

Bears.

Zebras.

Did I mention that you can feed them?

Some animals are more talented then others.

This bear could catch bread in his mouth.

There is also a bear that will wave at you...but he kept avoiding us.

This bear, however, would smile at you.

There were elk.

And buffalo.

and...buffalo snot.

There were also some very pushy elk.

Dare I say...an elk gang?

They would attack cars in threes. 

Push there noses in and try to bully you into giving them bread.

April was brave.

Kind of...

Me?

This was just about as brave as I could muster.

Then I saw these little deer and thought "I can feed some animals with out having a minor panic attack."

So, we went for round two.

Mission accomplished.

In my defense we did have one elk charge the car. No lie. Ran straight at the car. Which scared the living daylights out of me.

Jackie on the other hand, loved feeding the animals. I think she may have taken this elk home if there had been some room in the car.

Although I don't care for animals it was so much fun. 

I laughed so hard.

I felt like I was just a tween all over again, giggling in the back seat.

On the way home we stopped by some restaurant called Fat Smitty's.

The walls and ceiling are covered with money.

I was obviously with some shady company.

Who has a death wish via germs.

The burger was big. 

So big, April and I split it and I still could hardly get my mouth around it.

But it was good...and filling.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

First off...what the crap is up with the new blogger? Moving around pictures is about to give me a stroke. Super annoying. 

When I was pregnant with all of my kids I would have dreams about my teeth falling out or crumbling. I would dream that I was chewing gum and the gum would get stuck in my teeth and when I tried to pull the gum out of my mouth my teeth would get stuck in the gum and my teeth would come out with it. 

It was disturbing, no matter how many times I would have it. 

Ever since, loose teeth or teeth falling out gives me the willies.

Kids wiggling their teeth is guaranteed to make me feel like I am going to pass out or dry heave.

When it is your own kid that is doing the wiggling it is hard to be OK with it.
It's even harder to get on board with the whole losing teeth thing.

Imagine my delight that it has taken Gavin this long to loose one. 

Granted he was pleased as punch that the tooth fairy was finally going to come. 

We did it Grandma Dana style and wrapped a piece of floss around his tooth. I manned up and held the tooth while Blake yanked on the floss. 

He said it didn't hurt. 

I almost passed out from listening to the skin break.

Then when I thought we were in the clear another tooth got loose. 

It was barely hanging on...which is almost as bad as it can get. 

If there were sound affects for these pictures you would hear me going 

 "Gross. Eww. Hold still let me take a picture, fast. Gross. Stop moving it.." 

Now we are two teeth gone. Gavin is $5 dollars richer, and I think I am in the clear...at least for a couple months.

Laney. That poor girl can't catch a break.

Last week for snacks we were eating strawberries and all of the sudden she broke out in hives all over her face and body. 

The only thing I could figure was that she was allergic to the strawberries or maybe the pesticides. Then the next day we went to ballet and as a reward for being good I gave the kids some jelly beans. 

Well, she rashed out again. This time only on her face. 

So it seems that for the time being Laney is not allowed to have anything strawberry or with strawberry flavoring.

Like any good mother the only way to reward your kids for good behavior is to make them have an allergic reaction.
That'll teach ya.        

Crap Comes In Threes

I said the other day that I had an appointment for Noon. Let me expand on that a bit.
The nurse called the other day and said that they had scheduled my date and that the time was at 12:00.
My first reaction:
"Noon?"
To which she responded with a meager "yeah. Sorry."
"Man you are going to make a girl starve all day?" I said in a charming but somewhat pitty party way.

All I could say when I got off the phone was "Crap. Noon?" "Crap. Noon?"
You see, when I had Canon my appointment was set for 7 am. We had to arrive there at 5:45. It was early, sure. But I didn't really sleep the night before anyways and was anxious for the day.
I am sure I will be getting no sleep the night before with this one either and I get to not eat or drink anything ALL morning. Then on top of it I will be thinking about how they are going to slice open my stomach at Noon.
Needless to say. Crap. Noon.For the most part I had moved past the Noon angst.
Then the next day Canon had broken this pig with balloons on it's back that we had bought for Laney for her first Christmas.
I fixed it and then thought that I should probably put it away from tiny hands for a little bit.
So I put it on our mantel.
Then I saw glass.
Sadness.
This picture. I love it.
It was given to my Great Grandma Hannah as a wedding present.
It hung in my Grandparents house, in my Mom's house and now in mine.
The glass is the original so when you look at it from an angle you can see little bubbles and waves.
It is part of its charm.
And now the glass is broken.
I don't know how.
But I do know that I am sad. Very sad.

When I called Blake to tell him about the breaking glass he thought it would be fun to inform me that "Crap comes in Threes."
Gee thanks hun.
It took a few days but sure enough it came.
There is a tree in our back yard.
I have talked about it earlier.
(The branches fell off and almost hit Laney. Scaring her for life and making it so that she is now scared when it is windy. That may be another story all on its own.)

Well...another branch fell the other day.
It was fairly big.
The landlords decided to have the tree removed.
We are OK with that. We would rather have the tree out than have branches randomly drop on our children. (I just had visions of the wizard of Oz where the wicked witch has a house drop on her. Morbid much?)
Well the bad news is....
Drum roll.....
They will have to bring in a crane to get out the bigger pieces.
The bigger pieces will have to go through our side gate.
Right where my garden is.
Good bye dear friend.

At least I will still have my pepper plants and tomatoes and herbs.

If I have to look at the bright side it will go in this order.

• At 12 we will have a new sweet baby to call our own.
  
• We can replace the glass and the picture and the frame will still be the originals.
• There will no longer be any random branches falling from the trees and come Wednesday we will have lots of little carrots to eat.
  

After This He Went Running Into The House

The 4th of July is like torture for Gavin. It involves all things he doesn't like. Noise and fire. Who could blame the kid? You go your entire life being told not to play with fire because "it is dangerous" and "it will burn you." Now all of the sudden we give you a wand of death to play with and it is OK. No wonder he was brought to tears.

Laney took over Gavin's sparkler and didn't seem to mind. It seems to be par for the course. She is a little more daring and she doesn't really like to obey so giving her the opportunity to do what we have always told her not to do...well, she jumped at the chance.

Freakish Fears

Last week we went to our friends little girl's party. When we were there we realized that Canon has an unusual fear of balloons. Any time that one got even remotely close to him he would scream.

So yeah...I held a balloon in his face to see if we would get a reaction on video.

I am mean like that.