Katie and the no good,horrible, very bad day

Don't let the photos fool you. I was insistent on taking photos so I could blog about Nathans wonderful trip to the orthodontist to finally get his braces. I had it all set up in my mind. A before and after shot...then an impromptu trip to the zoo....gush. I "pictured" taking memorable/but candid shots of the kids smelling flowers, touching butterflies and feeding animals. Well....it never really goes that way does it? Remember my post about camping and our sudden change of plans thank to Mae? Yeah...motherhood was one heck of a witch today.
But, let's start at the beginning.

7:59am- Wake up to the phone ringing instead of the alarm that was set for 7am.
Scream oh S%&t, grab the nearest clothes I can find, throw mismatched clothes on the kids and haul booty to get dad to work, drop Myron off at the store (he is working today with two of his good friends (bad idea) ), and rush to catch the ferry.

9:15- MISS ferry...wait for 9:40. That's alright, his apt. is at 10:30, so I should get to Seattle at 10:15 and still have 15 minutes to get to North Seattle...(wishful thinking)

Get off ferry and drive like mad woman to get Nathan to apt. by 10:30

10:45. Arrive at orthodontist....(traffic jams at 10:20???) Apparently people are getting a late start today as well

Hm...interestingly enough, my apt. was for 10am, not 10:30. Woops. Now they can only do the top part of Nathans mouth and I have to make yet another apt. to get the rest of his mouth done.
Myron calls from store. Phone is down (switching BACK from Vonage and they choose during my business hours to do it), credit card wont work, internet. etc. GREAT!

11- Head to mall to get kids something to eat. In the rush, they didn't get to eat a proper breakfast. Hit some cute shops, but a few things, head to the food ALL the way at the other end of the mall. A full mile I would guess! At least it seemed like it.

11:45- After finally sitting down to eat, Nathan calls and says he is ready for me to pick him up.
Tell Mae and Ry that we need to take our food with us and walk the 3 miles (that's what it felt like about this time) back to our van. Mae threw the best fit I have ever seen a 3 year old throw. Instead of praising her for this, I grabbed her by her hand and started walking for the door. Nope. She turned into a noodle and I ended up carrying her the whole 5 miles (yup) to the van. I was squeezing her and getting upset with her the whole time. I think I even nibbled her ear out of anger as I was telling her "NO, you are not getting a TREAT"!!

12:00 ( I hustled) Sweating, angry and frustrated we arrive back at the orthodontist. Mae is surprisingly sweet and calm at this point. WHAT?! Anyways....pick up Nathan. Wow, he looks and sounds like a different boy! At this point, I am trying to salvage this trip and suggest the zoo. WHY? Dunno. Head to zoo, find parking, pay for parking, pay to get in. Get in to zoo, head to ice cream place to get something to cool me off and make the kids happy. I know what you're thinking. Reward them?! Listen....you've been there. Give me a break.
Go to pay for said goodies and pull out my credit card...."declined maam". WHAT?!
Then I remember....woops, didn't transfer $$$ from my savings to my checking, so can't use card.
CALL bank to transfer. WOOPS, using Myrons phone and it just went out of minutes. Try to add minutes, but cannot without doing it online....SH%&!.
Leave Nathan with kids , get in van and drive to find my bank to transfer funds.
Done....heading back but what's that noise?
OH....that's right....the van is vibrating, making a funny noise and smell. Yup.
Forget that, get to zoo.
1pm.... rush back to zoo, pay for ANOTHER parking spot and get kids.
Start looking at the animals, get lost....
Deal with Mae needing to be seatbelted EVERYtime she gets back in the stroller. She gets out at each stop by the way. She also screams everytime Rylan sits in her spot which seems to be whatever spot Rylan tries to sit in.
Get lost in the zoo....it's HUGE!
4:30pm Go home...get stuck in rush hour traffic.
5:35 Make it to the ferry....miss the ferry.....next ferry 30 minutes late.
7:25Yay...home at last.
Pick up Shane and Myron, head home.
Hm....van is vibrating worse at about Day Rd. Now it's smoking, what's that loud snap?
Oh....that's right....it's our Serpentine belt that just snapped.
Luckily (for the first time today) it was near our home and we coasted home.
Now it needs to be towed and fixed in the am.
So you see......it was a no good, horrible, very bad day.
BUT.....we made it home and now I have some photos that can help me focus on the positives.
Enjoy!

Photos from Myrons Colorado trip with Grandpa W

These photos are incredible. I am really happy Myron was able to experience this with my dad.
Are my dad and I on speaking terms now? We'll see. I did write him a short but sweet letter in hopes of reconciling our differences. All I know...is that this was hopefully a first step.
Don't mind my 54 year old hickish looking dad in the below photo. Seriously....come on now dad.









So absolutely gorgeous!

Silly girls.....crazy about Myron!

Myrons good friends, Leigh and Hallie wanted to come with me to pick Myron up at the airport tonight. They are such sweet girls. We had such a fun time. I am so happy that Myron has such fun, innocent, genuinely good girls as friends. He was so surprised and happy to see them at the airport. Thanks girls!



Myrons best girl friends wanted to come with me

Forgiveness

Whats up?

Cute girl Mae up above....she's what's up. Cutie PA TOOTIE!

After being away from my shop for so long, I took a photo to remind me just how much I LOVE my store. AND.....Nathan is finally home from his bike trip. He ended up biking 235 miles and was the first to finish. Ahead by 5 minutes. Go Nathan! He was in the lead the entire time and they formed a dream team of four kids. They plan on going out together again, soon.
We got Zoe back. We did a one week trial a month or so ago, but the owner wasn't ready to let her go. She is very well trained, sweet and awesome with kids. The kids like to get in her kennel. Don't ask me why. Shane and I have fun locking them in....yes, we are bored.

Myron, this one is for you. Myron is online right now down at my dads. Mae misses him terribly. He comes home on Tuesday and we are so excited. I hope the boys dont mind that we are planning a camping trip for this weekend. School starts soon!
That's it for now. Happy Sunday....we are all in jammies today, still trying to get over the bug that has infiltrated our home and immune systems.

The many faces of sickness

Good thing we came home when we did because now Mae, Rylan, Brennan, me AND daddy are sick. Daddy ended up staying home from work and was very relieved (or was he?) that we were coming home.
Mae seems okay as long as she can watch Dora (oh yes) and eat countless otter pops.
Brennan thinks he is fine, but is burning up. Rylan...poor guy is just sleeping the day away.
Luckily Myron and Nathan are away during all of this. I am missing them so terribly that this is my only consolation. They are healthy and having fun. Myron calls from Colorado every day. I ask him every day..."are you ready to come home"? He replies "nope". He is having a great time.
I can't check in on Nathan, but I know he is in his element. He is an avid bike rider now and was just asked to join an adult team here on the Island. I can't wait to tell him when he gets back!
As for me...I slept well last night. Even with the little sickos getting up here and there, I was happy to be back in my own bed with my fan a goin and the breeze from the window gently blowing my hot head...

Lake Crescent~ Yearly moms camp trip

Last year was our first moms and kids campout HERE. It was so much fun that Jenny organized another campout. This time at the beautiful Lake Crescent. Our own family has been camping here for many years thanks to a tip from a friend. We fell in love. The water is so amazingly clear and blue. The scenery is breathtaking. I needed a break...enough said!

I HAD to pick up prawns at The Hull family shrimp place. By "place", I mean trailer that is parked on some property. There aren't any signs to show how to get there unless you are on this particular backroad that you wouldn't venture on to unless you knew that there was fantastic shrimp there. The guy is like Bubba Gump, only white and toothless. The shrimp is like nothing I have ever tasted. Sweet...crablike...and the texture...oh man. My mouth is watering again. Best move on. The girls would rather play with the heads than eat the tails, which worked great for me.
Dinner down at Tophams. We had to be sure to camp as close as we could so that the kids could go back and forth as much as we knew they would. Good thing too, because that is exactly what they did. Even still, Hiram and Rylan still managed to wander off and worry us for about 10 minutes.
I have still been trying to shake this flu/cold thing that I have and after setting up the tent and packing everything to our spot, I was burning up. The remedy was to promptly go swimming, much to the delight of the little kids. We swam for quite a bit. It felt incredible.
Later on, we met up with the VanAkens and the Kollodges who were set up a little ways down from us.
Ky and Aubrey told a great story from what I concluded. I had a finger in my "good ear" so I couldn't hear, lest it be to scary for even this girl. In any case, it was fun to watch the girls telling the story. :)
Jill and Chloe hung out in the tent and played some made up game of rising from the dead? Chloe has first hand experience as her father happens to be a mortician! Let's hope the rising part doesn't happen at his funeral home!

Everyone sitting around the fire right before this mama went to bed (or tried to).
My pesky cough got only worse in the cool air of the night. It kept me up, along with Mae singing any song she could think of, the cars/trucks/SEMI's barrelling up and down the road, and Mr. Hoot owl. That actually sounded pretty cool. A mix between an owl (which he was) and a coyote, (which let's hope he isn't) these are the "Twilight" playing grounds after all!
I finally fell asleep just as the sun came up. Tophams rise with the sun, so in no time, I heard Cade down below wanting to come wake me up. He had told me the night before that I had to jump off the dock with him in the morning. I let him know that I am not much (or even remotely close) of a morning person. Needless to say...he didn't come up and try to wake me up. Sweet boy. I DID jump off the dock with him earlier the previous day, so he was satisfied that I would hold up to my end of the bargain.
Today...everyone wanted to go swimming immediately. I had to wake up a bit. We headed for the beach. I swam a bit with everyone, had the smaller kids jump off the dock into my arms, and swam around with Hiram in the kayak.
Brennan and Rylan were so sweet together. Why can't it be this way always?
Look at this view!
Brennan and Rylan together. So sweet.
Oh yes...he finally let me take a picture of him.

I love these girls. Simply.....love them.

My favorite picture of the entire trip.

You may have noticed that there aren't too many photos of the other moms. There are two reasons for this. First, Jenny and Chantal took their kids to the coast an hour or so away. They had gotten to the lake earlier and had spent a full day there, so they were ready to move on today. Second, is because, sadly....right after this last photo was taken, Mae walked over to me and put her head on my lap and said her head hurt. I took her straight to the tent to lay her down. Within 5 minutes, she was sleeping and feverish, waking up from time to time to vomit. Within 20 minutes, I was packed up and headed back home. So....here we are....home. Bummer. Seriously.
The healthy kids were really bummed as they had just started rope swinging from a tree into the water. Rhonda and I looked at each other and laughed. Mommyhood....sometimes....it's a witch.
Don't ever make plans you can't break!