Grace's 10th Birthday

Our little Thanksgiving baby turned TEN years old last week!  Here are two things I think about that:  1) It makes me feel very old, and 2) The day Grace was born and made parents of Garreth and I was the best day of my life.  How lucky we are that this sweet girl is part of our family.  And also how lucky we are that she didn't want a big birthday party that would fill our house with screaming girls.  Instead she chose a girls' night out with two friends and Mom.  We went to see "Planet 51," then went to dinner at Red Robin.

Then it was on to the mall for Build-A-Bear.   It was a fun night for us all.

The day before Thanksgiving was her actual birthday, and she had a great time at school because her class had earned a party, complete with pajama day, a movie, and birthday cupcakes.  For dinner that night, she picked the Olive Garden.  (We are so glad her tastes are getting a little more refined - not long ago, Sonic was the restaurant of choice!)  

One of the best parts of the night was that Garreth's dad and his wife got here in time to come eat with us.  It was so great to have extended family here for a birthday - usually it's just us.  

Belting out some Hannah Montana tunes on her new game.

On Thanksgiving we had birthday cake instead of pumpkin pie!  

Happy birthday, Grace!  We love you so much!

Vancouver Aquarium

On Saturday, Evan had a long visit with his family, so we decided to take advantage of only having four kids and went to the Vancouver Aquarium.  I know I say it all the time, but man, I sure love going up to Canada!  British Columbia is absolutely gorgeous, and as Garreth likes to quote me as saying, "It's like a whole other country up there!"  

Most of you know what a travel nut I am, and since I can't do much traveling now, I don't mind getting my itch scratched by reading travel books.  I read "500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up" not long ago, and this aquarium was one of the author's favorite aquariums in the world.  And for good reason - it's pretty amazing!

Two boys and a caiman.

You might notice that the theme of the day was not losing Declan.  In the first picture, you will notice him trying to escape the stroller.  You will also see him on both parents' shoulders, and finally and most effectively, his kid leash.

Sam's fish face.

Okay, a little griping here.  Whenever I take one of my many thousands of pictures of Garreth and the kids, I try to get them to look at me and smile.  But on the very rare occasion that I ask Garreth to take a picture of ME with the kids, I'm lucky if we're all even looking in the direction of the camera, and we usually get something like this:

Look at how sad they look!  They are sure to look back years from now and think, "Boy, I must have enjoyed my dad SO much more than my mom!"  Well, okay, they'll probably think that anyway.... but Garreth's camera apathy is not helping my case!

Jellyfish.

At the touch pool.

Declan and a beluga whale.  There were 2 moms and 2 babies.  (I dare you not to get a Raffi song stuck in your head now...)

Sam and a "Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea, you swim so wild and you swim so free..."

We got to see the dolphin show, which was so awesome.

Fun day!

A Visit From the Brandts

Last weekend my sister Quincy and her family came up from Eugene for a visit.  With four adults, seven kids, and three dogs, it was definitely a houseful, and although the near-constant rain made it hard to get out of the house much, we still had a lot of fun!  We took them to a few of our favorite places, the cousins loved playing together, and I especially loved hanging out after the kids went to bed, talking and laughing and watching old "30 Rock" episodes.   

At the Marine Life Center.

Of course, all visitors have to come with us for ice cream at Mallard's.  

(Tracy got Cayenne Chocolate!)

Swinging in the state park.

Thanks for coming, guys!  We love you!

(Come again in the summer and we promise to show you an even better time!)

12 Years

I'm a little late posting this (it's like I'm caring for five kids or something), but on November 1st, Garreth and I celebrated 12 years of marriage.  I'm not sure what the traditional gift is for the 12th anniversary (paper?  silver?), but I do know it's the official year for looking back at your wedding photos and thinking that you looked like kids... skinny kids.

On our honeymoon in the Bahamas, November 1997.

 12 years later in British Columbia, November 2009.

This year Garreth planned an awesome getaway to Harrison Hot Springs, about 1 1/2 hours away.  He arranged for child and dog care and didn't tell me where we were going until the day before.  We left at 3:00 on Sunday and were home by noon the next day, and it was a perfect, totally relaxing and rejuvenating vacation.

We had a beautiful lake-view room.  Here is my view while reading the morning paper.  Gorgeous.

We stayed at Harrison Hot Springs Resort and spent a lot of time relaxing in the natural hot spring pools.  (Gotta love a place where you can walk around in white hotel robes and not feel silly, because everyone else is doing the same!)  

The next morning, we walked down to the lake for a while before heading home.  It was so fun to run away together without the kids and just hang out and sleep in and relax.  We're so thankful to the friends who offered to take the kids for us!  (Two different families - don't worry, we wouldn't put that on one household!)

The timing couldn't have been better, because we came back relaxed and rested and ready to have Evan move in that afternoon.   Here are some random pictures of the first week with five kids.

This is my new favorite picture - doesn't it look like an album cover?

Wow - look at that bunch!  

It has been quite an adjustment for us and our house is very busy, but things are going fairly well.  Evan is a sweet little guy, a little clingy and whiny but generally pretty good-natured.  He has five brothers and sisters, so luckily he's used to a little chaos.  And oh boy, you should see that kid eat!  He LOVES his food!

A lot of people have asked whether or not we will be able to adopt him.  Well, it IS foster care, so technically there is always a chance, but it seems pretty unlikely with Evan.  We think it would be a good thing if his family can get to a safe place and be all together again.  (Sadly, all 6 kids live with different families right now.)   We will just enjoy him while we can!

It's National Adoption Month...

...and you really have to watch this.

Halloween

Sam and Garreth had a fun time at the preschool's Daddy Night, where they carved the pumpkin Sam got at the pumpkin patch and had cookies and juice.  Garreth was the last dad to finish, due to the extremely large-sized pumpkin Sam picked!

I think it's sad that the kids didn't get to dress up at school, but Grace's school at least had "Rock Star Day" the day before Halloween.  Here's our own little Miley Cyrus:

And here we are, before the ward Trunk or Treat, as a scary zombie, ghoulish thing...

...a vampire...

...another vampire...

...and James Bond. (Or as Sam called it, a secret Asian.)

And here are Garreth and I in our borderline-inappropriate-for-church costumes:

The morning of Halloween, Grace woke up in a very festive mood and decided to plan some craft projects for her adoring brothers.  They made spooky masks,

marshmallow ghosts...

...and Halloween pictures.

We went trick-or-treating a little early this year because we had a fun party to go to at our friends' house.

A very dashing Bond, who loved trick-or-treating more than anybody. He fell down about six times due to his fancy spy shoes, but just picked himself right up again to run to the next house.

Sam found the vampire makeup a little annoying and decided to be a Power Ranger.  These are the very tough poses that came to his mind when I told him to "look like a Power Ranger."

Liam got into character a little better, and he and Sam loved his black hair look.

Here's the spooky lady who doesn't really have a name, again choosing some great poses.

There turned out to be an unintentional holy theme at the party.

 A rare photo of the pope with a pimp.  Not something you see every day.