The Weatherman

On Saturday we went to Remlinger Farms in Carnation to play at the Harvest Festival and get some pumpkins.  The Harvest Festival is a little kids amusement park with kid rides (like a roller coaster).  Here are some photos…

Cool flying pumpkin ride.

Zach driving the car.  Zach took this very seriously and did a good job (although the steering wheel doesn’t do anything).

Nate loves driving the car.

Nate on the firetruck.

On the train.

Now for some other recent photos

Happy Zach

The PEPS crew eating dinner.

Zach is playing in his first soccer league.  The team name is the Badgers and they have cool, orange uniforms.  Zach is a little aloof on the field – he likes to do his own thing intermixed with chasing the ball.  However, we have seen improvements from week to week as he gets the concept.

Nate is signed up with Coach Thomas again which is basically a soccer and basketball skills practice.  Nate is pretty clingy with either Steph or I during the 1 hour practice so he’s not getting much from it.

Zach kicking off after a goal was scored.

Zach throwing the ball in.

Zach running down the field…one of his shining moments (usually he’s not following the ball).

The girl with the ball rocks!  Except she scored more of our goals than our team did.

Eager to get in and show his moves.

Note the untucked shirt…it was tucked in until about a minute before the team photos.

A future sweatshirt model?

We also had our 11th anniversary this weekend.  We spent the afternoon at the Sounders game (they won) and then went to Jak’s for dinner – I love that place.

Yeah, it’s been awhile again since my last post.  I’ll try and keep up better.  Since the Xterra post, Steph and I took a weekend trip to Vancouver, BC (no kids), had a family camping trip at Lake Easton, spent Labor Day in California, Zach started Kindergarten and soccer, and I took another trip to Dublin.  Sounds busy, but really not too bad.

Zach loves Kindergarten and Nate wishes he was in Kindergarten.  Nate is back in Coach Thomas’ soccer/basketball camp, while Zach has started U-6 soccer.  Very funny…3 on 3, no goalie, you don’t keep track of the score.  Lots of fun too watch.

Zach having fun at Grady’s b-day party.

Nate enjoying himself as well.

The picture says it all.

Enjoying some traditional Irish music in Dublin.

From the Wicklow Mountains overlooking Dublin…my first time up there.

We had dinner at Johnny Foxes Pub in the mountains. Touristy, but a cool stop.

Weather has changed in Seattle…a lot more rain this month than past years.  Not cold, just wet.  The bulk of the summer was dry but now things are getting drenched.

Details from my Garmin GPS watch (not all data is entirely accurate – elevation gain is probably closer to 1000′)

Here are my results with split times.

For me it was amazing I was going to even finish this year.  Last Sunday, I aggravated my achilles tendonitis in my left leg on my usual 5 mile run.  All week I’ve been caring for it but these things take time.  I did a short, flat run on Wednesday and things seemed fine except for a pain in my heel – presumably related to the tendonitis.

So my strategy this morning was to go slow from the start, don’t push up hills or accelerate going down.  This worked well as I mostly avoided all pain my left achilles tendon.  Ironically, I actually had more soreness in my right – possibly to overcompensate for the late.

As for the details…here it goes.

I got up just before 3am…very apprehensive – I had basically resigned myself to not finishing and having to walk off the course at some juncture.  So I wasn’t overly hyped up.  I did the usual ritual – eat and drink something, shower, wipe body glide all over, and get dressed.  Off I went to the Safeco Garage to catch the 4am shuttle (a school bus).  I got on the first shuttle just like last year and we were definitely the first people there.  I grabbed a banana and a bagel and found a spot to sit.

Beyond eating and drinking, I played word mole on my blackberry.  I spent most of the time going to the toilet or people-watching.  Even though I had 2.5 hours until the start of the marathon, it went by very fast.  As like last year I was in the bathroom line when the race started.  In fact, the very slow line almost caused me to miss the start with my corral – fortunately I caught up with the group at the starting line and off I went.

I decided that my pace would be no quicker than 11 min/mile and I’d slow down on up and down hills so as not to aggravate my leg.  As you can tell above, I did a good job with the pace and slowly tapered my speed as the distance went on.  The weather was cloudy and mild – perfect run conditions.  I figured if I made it to mile 5 or 6 with no pain, I would make it…I forced my way to finish last year with a strained calf starting at mile 6 (the source of my tendonitis).  At these points things felt good.  Any pain I felt was gone quickly so I was pretty happy.

The music along the run was good – lots of bands and DJs.  This definitely helps push you through the race.  At the halfway point I definitely felt stronger and better than I did at that point last year.  I remember really hurting at that distance last year.  Next we wound our way through downtown Seattle and onto the Viaduct.  This is where the race gets tough physically and mentally.

Your body is getting sore, there are a lot less people keeping you going and it’s full of long straight stretches, and most importantly – it’s hilly.  During mile 16, I refilled my hydration pack and around mile 17 I took a wiz – in a honey bucket of course.  But those two things along caused a decent delay.  BTW, one strategy I used was to rely on the sport drink – so during each water stop I took a cup of sports drink, slowed to a walk, and drank.

The long trek up Aurora Avenue and back over the viaduct seems like eternity, but I definitely felt less sore and stronger this year.  I wasn’t worried about cramps and tendons seemed fine.

Now for the finish…Steph was on the off-ramp jumping up and down, making a ton of noise, and taking pictures – this is the best part of the whole race.  She was able to high 5 me from two spots before I crossed the finished line.

After I crossed I picked up some ice for my tendon – I knew I’d need it (and I did).  I then picked up some food – oranges, bananas, granola bar, water.  Steph and I picked up my gear bag and headed to Fuel to meet up with Jim/Jayme and watch the end of the USA soccer game.  We left at the end of regulation so I could get home and soak my feet in ice water.

Anyway, now my legs are elevated and I’m trying to get some rest.

I’m sitting in the Hainan Airlines lounge (no, I’m not flying bus class, I paid $30 to get in here) drinking Captain Morgan and coke    I do have an exit row seat however so that is exciting…well, not really, but at least it makes it easy to use the toilet.

My thoughts on Beijing…

Lots of Traffic.  Lots of History.  Big disparity in prices.  Lots of Traffic.

First, the traffic.  Let me start by saying they limit the cars on the road depending on the last two numbers on your license.  Roughly 20% of the cars each day are not on the road in Beijing.  Yet, there were times when it took us 45 minutes to go 2 miles.  The only time traffic seemed to flow well was in the weee hours of the morning (like around 4 or 5 am).

As for driving ability…the people of Beijing are the most talented drivers I’ve ever seen.  Seriously, there is no way I could drive in this city.  Lane markers are only there as a suggestion.  Cars seem to always straddle the line as they jockey to move forward.  Bikes, mopeds, and scooters are constantly shooting against traffic without regard for their life.  I saw single left turn lanes become 4 cars wide in the intersection…everywhere cars would head against on coming traffic to move ahead of the car in front them.  The shoulders were passing lanes.  The beauty of this chaos was how things seem to flow – people just make it work.  Lots of honking but no road rage (absolutely none).

As for crossing the street, that can be adventurous.  My only close call came with a bus that wasn’t going to stop (even though I had the green walk sign).  So you always need to pay attention.

I took the safe road on food.  Nothing too outrageous.  Lots of Peking Duck – which is very good.  A fish that is carved up to look like an Outback Steakhouse Bloomin Onion (see photo of fish here).  I also had hot pot (like shabu shabu in Japan).  Hot pot has a spice in it that tastes like soap and numbs/tingles your tongue/lips.  I believe it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_Pepper.  I even drank corn juice (think – pureed cream of corn).  I ate lots of dumplings (ie Dim Sum) and I even tried McDonalds.

SightSeeing.  Not as much as I wanted to do but I did take a tour to the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall, and the Summer Olympic Park.  I also drove by Tianamen Square.  There is plenty more in Beijing that I missed and would like to someday check out.

I stayed at the Hilton Beijing – I highly recommend it for the business traveler.  And if offered, take the upgrade to the executive tower which provides free breakfast, free water/soda/coffee all day, and free happy hour.  The rooms in this executive portion are large, comfortable, and very modern.

Photos to come later.

First off, I made it without shedding a tear.  That’s a big step for me – normally I lose it when saying goodbye to Nate and Zach.  For those who don’t know, I took the only non-stop from Seattle to Beijing on Hainan Airlines (China’s largest private airline).  The flight left about 1 hour late, the flight was around 11hrs and 15min.  Overall, it was a good experience.  Seats were comfortable, in flight entertainment was good (but no where near as good as Delta international flights), and the food was OK.

I watched ‘Crazy Heart’ with Jeff Bridges…not my kind of movie but when you have 11 hrs to kill, you need to pick something.  I read some and I played lots of yahtzee (like 2 hours worth) on my ipod touch.  The flight went up the Canadian coastline and flew directly over Anchorage…since it was clear I got to see a ton of mountains and glaciers.  I also pretty confident (based on my current research) that I saw Mt McKinley off in the distance – even though it’s over 100 miles from Anchorage – it is 20k ft tall – hard to miss on a clear day.

The flight crossed from Alaska over the southern Bering Sea and into Siberia – it really did look cold down there.  Lots of sea ice!  Along the way there were really cool views of mountains, glaciers, icebergs, and sea ice – at least until it got cloudy.  From about 90 minutes, it started getting pretty bumpy.  There are some thunderstorms moving through so the plane was bouncing around a bit.  About 20 minutes before landing they announced that they were going to spray disinfectant in the cabin since it was international flight.  Basically they shot something through the air system (you could smell)…I have no idea what I got exposed to…oh well.

Once on the ground, customs was easy…not much different from the US really but less of a line.  I carried my luggage so I didn’t have to wait for it.  Everything at the airport is in English (and Chinese obviously) so it was easy to get around.  I stopped at the currency exchange to pick up my RMB (Chinese money) – you can’t pick this up outside of China as it is a closed currency.  Next was the taxi.  They have a taxi line so I hopped in one and handed the driver the address…in English.  Crap!  He doesn’t understand “Hilton Beijing” in english…nor do the 3 other Taxi helpers standing around the car.  I pulled out a Google map (which was partially in Chinese) – I think that got him going but he still wasn’t sure.  Fortunately there was a phone number on the map – so he called it and got directions.

The Hilton is nice…I flashed my hilton honors number, paid a fee to add breakfast and got an upgraded room which also includes complimentary happy hour.  That’s where I’m at now.  The room is nice.  They say you don’t want to drink the water…I saw why in my room…it had a pale brown color to it in the sink.  At least there is bottled water everywhere.

Well, that brings you up to speed.

Ok, so we just returned from one of the best ski vacations I’ve been on.  We spent 5 nights at Big White Resort in Kelowna, BC – an extremely family friendly place.  We had Zach and Nate in daycare and Zach received private ski lessons.  I got to ski all day for 4 straight days and Steph…well, she did her thing.  Skiing from 3 to 4 hours followed by bar hopping.  Except for the last day where she watched our sick kids.

So, from the beginning, we left Seattle at 7am on Thursday for the 7 hour drive.  All was good except our navi took us the long way…we ended up putting on an extra hour in the end.  Anyway, the kids were awesome and the drive was beautiful, except for some extremely dense fog (the likes of which I’ve never seen) on Pennask Pass.  We arrived at our condo just before 4pm.  We stayed at Stonebridge which was literally a 3 to 4 minute walk (on snow) to the village center.  Very cool.  The condo was a 2 bedroom (one master suite and the other with 2 queens) with a kitchen and 2 baths – excellent place.  Oh, and a hot tub on the deck.  For the first night, we had dinner at one of the restaurants and went tubing afterwards.  We also met another family with 3 kids who we ended up skiing and tubing with for the next 4 days.

On the first day, we got the kids checked into daycare and off we went.  The weather was cloudy and foggy…traditional Big White (Out).  We cruised around some of the mountain for a few hours before taking a break.  I was thrilled that my running was paying off in the skiing department as well.  For the remainder of the day we skiid with Gary and Denise (friends we met the night before).  They are veterans to Big White – so they showed us around.  Steph stopped just before noon but I made it from 9 to 2:30 before finally finishing up (this would be my shortest day).  That night we had pizza and enjoyed the Olympics…LIVE!  Yes, it was cool…we didn’t have to depend on that shitty NBC network like in the states.

The second day started off similar to the first day…a few hours of skiing then we met up with our friends.  Steph made it past noon on this day.  I ended up skiing until past 4pm.  Probably the longest day I’ve done since college.  But the sun came out and I couldn’t just stop at that point.  As for our kids, Zach’s lesson’s were not going well so we decided Steph would go with him the next day.

The weather was perfect on the third day.  I started off on some double black diamond runs and cruised around a good portion of the mountain before meeting up with Steph.  With the sun out, it was a perfect day for picking up bumps and things.  Definitely a great day to be on the mountain.  I stopped at 1pm and then attended a 2 hour lesson with Zach and an instructor.  Zach does well at skiing straight but he doesn’t know how to slow down or stop.  Anyway, we had fun and I was very tired.  That night we went tubing again and the runs were ICY!  We were flying down the runs…much quicker than Friday night.  The runs were actually too fast…they ultimately closed our favorite run on Monday night since it was too fast and because a young woman broke a few bones on Sunday night on the run.

Now for the vomit part.  Sometime during the night I awoke to a door shutting.  I found Zach in the bathroom looking a little dazed.  After some investigation in his room, I quickly realized he had blown chucks all over his pillow, the floor and Nate’s comforter.  Yuck.  Steph and I spent the next half hour cleaning and getting him settled on the couch – where he vomitted again into Steph’s hands.  Fortunately that was the end of Zach’s sickness…mostly.  He did have some issues out the other end at daycare the next day.

As for skiing on Monday – fabulous.  Sunny to partly cloudy, warm, and excellent conditions.  I spent the day skiing with Gary and Denise.  We cruised over the whole mountain and I even took the t-bar (yes, I have minor phobia over t-bars).  We finished the night with another 90 minutes of tubing.  Zach ended the evening by going down by himself (rather than connecting his tube to mine)…that was a big step for him.

This morning we got an early start out…we pulled away from Big White at 7:30.  At around 8am as we were pulling into Kelowna, Nate was getting real fussy.  After a few minutes of begging him to be quiet, he threw up in his lap.  This is now becoming the vomit trip.  We pulled into a Starbucks and got him cleaned up.  Steph gave me a bag of dirty rags and I hucked into a garbage can outside of Starbucks.  I went in and picked up some coffeed and donuts.  Nate was begging for a donut believe it or not.  About a half mile down the road, I asked Steph what was in the bag – his clothes and blanket!  Screeeech!  His blanket I asked?  U-turn.  We drive back to Starbucks and I proceed to fish this bag of vomit covered clothes out of the garbage in front of about 10 people enjoying their morning coffee outside.  At this point, Steph and I proceed to get into an argument since she couldn’t figure out how to unlock the car door.  To make a long story short, I threatened to leave her in Kelowna.

After that the drive was relatively quick (now that I followed the better route) and uneventful.  The kids were definitely pushing buttons but we made it home.  Now Nate is definitely sick as he’s tossed his cookies about 5 times but is now sleeping.

As for Big White, I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.  It missed on the dinner accommodations for families.  It lacks variety in family restaurants – it is definitely better for non-kid crowds.  Otherwise, an excellent place and I’m sure we will be heading back.

The weather in Seattle has been amazing this week…very clear skies and warm temps (for February) – highs around 60.  So I went up flying with a friend from work.  He’s been flying most of his life – military, commerical, and recreationally.  He’s also a flight instructor.  We left Everett’s Paine Field and flew over to Jefferson County Airport (Port Townshend) and had breakfast at the cafe.  We turned around and came back and I was at work by 10am.

Anyway, I had a blast of course.  For those who don’t know – I took flying lessons for about 6 months in 2002 but stopped after we moved back to the Bay Area and took on a bigger mortgage.  The experience this morning brought back several fun memories as well as some joy in knowing that I haven’t lost all of that training I got many years.

As for the plane, it was a Piper Archer II.  Sweet little plane for training…much easier (for me at least) than the Cessna 172 I trainer in before.  I recall always fighting to keep the 172 trim during flight whereas the Archer was much easier to stabilize.

Here is a photo of Mt Baker taken from over Whidbey Island:

Nate has now had his first ER visit.

The Backstory

Starting Tuesday evening Zach was had a mild fever and congestion.  We kept Zach home on Wednesday and Thursday, and only Nate went to school.  Nate seemed to be holding up strong although he did have some congestion.

Tonight at around 8pm I heard Nate coughing and crying in our bed.  I walked in there and he was curled up crying.  I, of course, thought Zach kicked him.  That was not the case.  He was throwing up in our bed and he was pretty red.  I got a towel and thermometer.  Our crappy thermometer gave readings from 102 to 104…when I stick it in my ear it says 96…so I was pretty sure Nate’s temp was at least 104.  Yikes!

Steph and I quickly got our stuff together and drove over to Swedish.  We only had to wait about 5 minutes (good thing as a young woman was violently – and I do mean violently – vomitting in the bathroom around the corner.  Yes we could here it loud and clear).  Once in the room the nurses went to work on him – checking pulse, oxygen level, and temperature.  He came in at 104.0.  They gave him a ton of motrin and tylenol (way more than we would ever do).  1 hour later he was happy Nate with a temp of 100.7.

So what is it?  Just a virus.  There is some congestion but everything looks good.  The doctor did say that he’s in the early stages so we need to watch out for the other common things like ear infection or high fever lasting until Saturday.  The doctor told us they haven’t seen any flu cases in a few weeks and he didn’t appear to have croup (although still too early to tell).

Anyway, he’s back to his chatty self and watching a movie before he falls asleep.

Last weekend had some nice days so we took the boys to Seward Park (one of our favorites).  Aside from a bit of crankiness when we got there, things went well.

View of Mt Rainier from Seward Park.

Nate and Zach being good.

Nate posing on the trail.  There were lots of puddles for him to jump in.

One giant Zach smile.

The gratuitous heavy machinery at sunrise photo!

Ok…and the sunrise.

These last two photos were not take at Seward Park obviously – rather they were a day or two earlier at Seacrest Park (I stopped on my way to work to get these shots).

Lots of rain this week – well above normal for the month.  Big White Ski Area is getting a decent amount of snow (that is our destination for the end of February).  Forecast is for more rain this week than changing to a more showery/cooler regime as the warmer storms head into California.

Steph is getting her oil change today so I’ll be watching the boys for a few hours.  Then I’ll probably head out for a run.  Tonight I’m making a beef tenerloin roast – and yes, it will be cooked on the Big Green Egg (haven’t used it in a while).  Other than that, I’m busy with work.

Boys were good last night but really wound up…I’m guessing the chocolate milk did that.  They slept in late and have been good this morning (little arguing and whining, but still some).

First off, we need the gambling pro (aka Grandma) to remind us how to read the betting lines for the purpose of the playoffs.  Paul, Jan, Mike, and I all made fools of ourselves last night trying to figure it out.

Paul got the kids from daycare and took Zach to speech.  We are probably going to add a second session on Thursday afternoons.  It won’t start til after Dublin next week.  Paul said that Zach was very motivated at speech and good at doing the exercises. We got more homework that we need to be better about doing with him. Maybe we need to assign Auntie Jan 20 minutes a night of speech therapy with Zach or something?

Once I got home from work, Paul had started making the kids dinner and then left to go running.  Jan had finished making the dinner and was very impressed with her culinary skills.  (Pasta, carrots and celery, and pineapple).  Nate wanted plate after plate after plate of pasta.  Jan finally told him he had to eat a carrot before she would give him more.  Nate popped a carrot in his mouth.  Jan gave him more pasta.  Nate then spit out the half-chewed carrot and ate the pasta. (Lesson learned, make him swallow first).

Both boys were in good moods.  I guess adjusting back to the regular schedule is working out.  I called the spa Jan got me a gift cert for my B-day.  Jan and I planned to each do 90 minute massages on Saturday.  There is an hour between us, so we can get home and switch off watching the kids with Paul away.  As I am leaving the voice mail for the spa, Zach is on me saying “mommy, mommy, mommy!”  It was funny because I am sure the spa people laughed at the message I left and desperate need for massage.  Jan and I also plan to get Pat to babysit Saturday night so we can go to the movies.  I am checking with him when I pick up the kids.

Zach and Nate were begging for the new movie, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.  I have no idea how they knew it came out on DVD today (someone at school?) but they were BEGGING for it.  Paul eventually was able to order it on-line and download it to the TV upstairs.  I am sure this made them happy.

Paul made yummy steak for dinner.  (No veggies for Jan, though).  Jan and I were able to get in two episodes of Six Feet Under last night.  PEPS is at Matthew’s tonight.  Jan may come.

Nate bit me HARD on the upper thigh.  Skin was broken but no blood flowed.  It hurt like hell.

I am sure I am forgetting lots of stuff so Jan and Paul can supplement.

Kids were actually pretty good at daycare (after the rough drop-off by Paul yesterday).  Given they were adjusting back, Colette thought they did well.  It was pouring, so they didn’t get outside time. They did lots of puzzles and pre-school activities.  They were fine at pick up.  Until. . .

We were driving home and Nate wanted me to go straight instead of turning right.  This started a major Nate melt-down that lastest the whole way home and for about 20 additional minutes once home. That kid sure can throw a tantrum.  Not sure who he gets that skill from.  Eventually got him calmed down and fed them dinner.  They had quesadilla, pineapple, peas and carrots.  They both ate well.  Zach had some veggies, so he got yogurt and ice cream.  Nate did not.

Paul got home so I gave the boys a bath while he made dinner.  Jan helped me with that.  As I was getting them undressed, Zach was naked first.  Out of the blue, Zach turns to Nate and says, “Nate, say ‘dirty pants.’”  Nate obliged and said it in his partially demon voice.  Jan and I were cracking up and had no idea where that came from.

Paul made Jan happy by buying her light Cranberry juice.  This brought on the discussion that cranberry juice is good for your urine.  Thus, I came up with the Ad Campaign – “Ocean Spray Cranberry juice.  It is a catheter for your mouth.”  Ha.  I crack myself up.

Paul put the boys to bed.  Jan went to bed early. I watched Mike’s favorite show (Make it or Break it).

This morning, the boys were slow in waking up.  Nate kept saying that he wanted to sleep more.  Eventually, both got up and got dressed and got out the door without a huge screaming fit.  Paul is taking Zach to speech this afternoon.  Paul – we need to order the kids “Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs” now that it is out on DVD.

Happy New Year.

Last night was spent with our PEPS friends enjoying beer, wine, champagne, espresso, chili, meatballs, lasagne, fruit, and the kids (of course).  Fortunately for us, our NY gatherings happen around the corner from our house – nice, easy walk home.  Except for Nate who cried the whole way.

Yesterday I took the boys to breakfast at the Alki Cafe – Nate had eggs and bacon and Zach had bacon and french toast.  We followed that up with a trip to QFC for some fruit and champagne.  But the big event was another trip to the Museum of Flight (one of my favorite places to visit in Seattle).  The boys were good.  We got there right when it opened and Zach and Nate were the first kids to run through the gallery floor.  They also got to play in the kids zone by themselves.

PEPS boys hanging out on NY Eve.

Nate playing Buzz Lightyear on NY Eve.  To infinity and beyond!

Sunset at Lincoln Park.

Zach contemplating his next move at the park.

Nate flying a helicopter.  BTW, this is not a model – it’s actually an experimental helicopter that really did fly in the past.

The main gallery at the Museum of Flight.

Last week I purchased the photos from the marathon I did in June.  I was very happy to find out I could still purchase them as I didn’t have any good photos.  Here is one where I’m about to cross the finish line.

Well, a lot has gone on over the last few weeks.  For myself, work basically ended on Thursday the 17th at 3pm with a team dinner followed by a huge potluck on Friday.  I actually did work a fair bit on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from home.  Anyway, On Saturday morning (the 19th), I flew down to Eugene early in the morning and drove back to Seattle with Mike.

Why?  I needed 196 miles to bump up my status on Delta to Silver Medallion.  :-)

Lin arrived on Tuesday morning so at that point we had a full house with Jan, Mike, and Lin.  Wednesday evening was our first meal – NY Strip Roast done on the Big Green Egg, potatoes, and vegetables.  I had two friends from work over and he had an excellent dinner with lots of martinis and champagne.  Yep, I had a headache the next morning.

Thursday was meal number 2 which consisted of meatballs, honeybaked ham, pea salad, lasagne, and carrots.  Another great feast and we had plenty of left-overs.  Steph spent 40 minutes in line at the honey baked ham store waiting for our main course. So far so good.

Finally, Christmas Day.  The boys were very excited when they woke up to a bunch of gifts from Santa and family.  They loved opening the gifts more than what they got – at least that’s how it seemed.  We spent the better part of the day playing with toys and eating left overs.  Oh, and a few drinks were had here and there.

I’ve had the boys at home this week while Steph and Jan work.  Lin was here through Tuesday.  We took them to the aquarium on Monday – that really tired them out.  Today I took them to mom’s work where we got a tour of the offices, the police department, and the judge’s chambers.  They even got to see a real live criminal in holding cell.  Fortunately they didn’t do anything obnoxious like stick their tongue out.  For the remainder of the day it’s been up and down…some crying, some laughing, some playing.  Tomorrow I’m taking them to the museum of flight – oh boy.

Posing with Santa.  They were both good for Santa.

Local West Seattle home with tons of lights.

A happy Zach.

A happy Nate.

Got Mom dropped off at the airport to cries of “GWANDMA!”  Nate was fine on the way home and we stopped to get gas.  Paul had taken Zach to speech therapy.  I got the report from Paul as the kids were being loud so not 100% sure of the accuracy.  Paul said that Zach did well.  He was focused much more than the last time (two weeks ago when I took him.)  They went through several activities – book working on S sounds, asking questions via a pizza game, doing “firsts”, having him describe pictures on the view master, and one more thing I can’t remember.  Katie is concerned that he will not be caught up before Kindergarten.  Thus, there is some discussion about him going twice a week.  Finding time that works in our schedules (mine, Paul, and Katie’s) could be an issue.  At the same time, I feel the need to make the time for the well-being of Zach.  Maybe she has a time in the morning on Thursdays or Fridays.  Not sure how early she can do it – but that could possibly work.

Once home, Paul went running.  Jan walked to Rite Aid.  I played with the boys for only a bit before they wanted dinner.  Dinner was interesting.  We had quesadilla, carrots (for Zach) celery (for Nate) and string cheese.  Zach ate well except for his carrots.  He was still chewing when he held up his plate to say all done.  I said he had to eat another carrot to get yogurt.  So he just shoved it in his already full mouth.  This caused him to gag and he eventually threw up his dinner onto his plate.  Yuck.  Of course, once I got him settled down from crying and cleaned up, he wanted yogurt.  Nate got one too at that point since he was in the way as I was trying to soothe Zach.

Paul got home and he made us steak and potatoes for dinner.  YUM.  While he cooked, I took the ornaments off our completely dead tree.  Zach and Nate tried to help, but failed miserably.  As I put an ornament in the box, they would take it out and look at it.  They got in the way a lot. I yelled a lot.  Eventually, Jan came up to help by distracting them so I could finish up.  So the tree is down but we haven’t done the rest of the decorations in the house.

After dinner, I read and the boys settled fairly easily.  Nate went to bed around 8:15.  Zach went to bed a little after 9.  Both were still sound asleep in their beds when I left this morning.

Paul is thinking of bringing the kids to work for lunch today.  That would be fun.  Paul is hopeful that we can tour the police department and get the kids a ride in a squad car (with Paul, of course).  That may be arranged depending on who is around in the police dept.

Note from Paul: Christmas photos and post will be up soon.

Daycare reports that the boys were getting into it yesterday.  Lots of pushing of each other as well as other kids.  (Do they not know that Santa is watching?)  I am sure everyone is looking forward to a break there.

Nate was then a TOTAL TERROR once I picked him up.  He screamed and cried getting into his car seat.  He screamed and cried the whole ride home.  He screamed and cried getting out of the car seat. He screamed and cried going into the house.  He continued this behavior as he got a time out, would not take his jacket off, etc. etc. etc.  This lasted about 45 minutes.  I was ready to tear my hair out.  Of course, he calmed down once it was time to go to Dominic’s house for PEPs.  Zach was just quietly playing with his trains and ignoring Nate through all this. (So glad they were not ganging up on me.)

Paul got home and we were off to Christmas PEPs.  It started off normal with playing and pizza.  The kids were being good. Finally, once everyone was done eating, it was PRESENTS TIME.  We wanted to institute the taking turns rule, so I offered the youngest-to-oldest used in our household.  (Which then caused us have to figure out what time Zach and Matthew were born to figure out who was older.  Zach is by about 7 hours.)  I ordered the kids to sit down and they actually listened. One of the other parents called me the baby whisperer.  I said since I was controlling who was getting the presents, they had motivation to listen to me.

Baby Adam went first.  (Nate got him the present).  Heidi had to help him open.  As soon as she started to help him open, all the other kids surrounded him like a pack of wolves. Paper was flying everywhere.  They were ravenous to open a present. It was chaos.  I tried to settle them down for Ella’s turn next.  She is perfectly capable of opening her gift by herself, but the pack of wolves wanted to help.  At one point, she picked up her present and tried to run away but the wolves chased her down.  She did get to open most of it by herself.  We got things a little more controlled for the rest of the kids.  (Nate, then Andrew, then Matthew, then Zach, then Dom, and finally Jacob.)  Nate got a Handy Manny flashlight, which Zach used to go to sleep last night.  Zach got a couple Cars games.  One is like a fishing game where you fish the tired out as they open and close.  The other I have not looked at closely, but it is some sort of sand art thing involving Cars.  I will check it out when I get a moment.

We left PEPs a little after 8 and I put Paul in charge of the kids so I can wrap.  (Paul is going out after work tonight for his holiday party.  This will involve a cab ride home.  Thus, I needed some time last night to wrap.)  I wrapped from about 8:30 to 10:30.  I am still not done with everything.  It is going to take us years to open everything.  Zach was still up around 10 and I put him to bed then. Nate had already fallen asleep in our bed with Paul.  (I have no idea what time, but it should be early given how exhausted he must have been from tantruming forever.)  When I put Nate into his bed around 10:45, Zach woke up.  Thus, I doubt Zach got a super good night’s sleep.  Nate woke up this morning around 6:30, turned on his room light, and came looking for me downstairs.  Zach was not happy the light was on in his room so early.  I got Nate settled watching TV with Paul before I left for work.  (Only two more days of work!!!!!)