Off the Wagon and Under the Wheels

So I stopped blogging completely.  There are all kinds of reasons for this, not enough time, blogger stunk for a while, my camera battery died and on and on.  The truth is it was too hard to keep recording the fun family events while my heart was really aching for the little boy we lost in April of 2011.  It just time to get back to a place where I could see the happiness again and thanks to my wonderful children and exceptional husband things are getting better.  So here goes, a year in review. Without further ado I give you 2012!

 The New Year brought a major ice and snow storm, which is pretty rare in Washington and kind of enjoyable the first few days.  Just as it was beginning to get tiresome we cashed in our favorite Christmas Present, a trip to Disneyland!

Somewhere, there is a whole book written just about this trip so I'll spare you the details here, but it was truly a magical time.  Shows, rides, meet and greets, Tigger tails, we loved it all!

 This was the year we had to say goodbye to Scottie's favorite and only Gymnastic coaches, Rae and Tammy and take a breather from the time and expense of competitive gymnastics for a while. 

 It was a fun last season but we'll miss those ladies.  This little quartet has been together since Maya and Scottie were three years old!

Fortunately we were able to keep these besties together for a rec. gym class once a week.

All the kids kept us busy with sports and other activities throughout the year. Gunner totally blew at his elementary school band concerts.  

 

He actually likes it and has a surprising knack for music so we bought a battered but functional trombone off Craig's List and the boy is committed to many months of middle school tromboneing in the future.

Gunner also unleashed his inner thespian performing for the rest of his school in the quad at lunch.  He played Caliban from the tempest and as Laertes, died at the hands of the ever pensive and morose Hamlet.

There were also various athletic seasons throughout the year and since baseball isn't played in middle school this may have been a farewell season. In addition to baseball and gymnastics spring brought our family numerous trips to the zoos and science center, Scottie and Tess having art featured in the city art walk, Scottie's 9th Birthday and a visit to Eugene for Easter and cousin pandemonium.

Some say the experiment is if the boys can stand the 70mph buffetings in the confines of the wind tunnel.  I say the experiment is whether we can stand the stench released from placing preteen boys in close quarters, whipping them up and then opening the doors to the public.

Indoor snowmobiling?!?! What will they think up next!? I hope it's nothing to do with sea cucumbers!?

Blast! Sea Cucumbers!

Ahhh, birthday's at the beloved Rain Forest Cafe.  Trust me folks, you're paying for the ambiance at this place.

The Kent City Art Walk featured children's artwork in windows of various businesses around town. A couple of abstract little beauties here, difficult to understand but rich and teeming with life when you get to the real meat of what they are trying to say, and the art work is good too.

Then it was off to Oregon.



This is the boys before they start the job Grandpa is going to pay them to do.

And this is the boys on the way back from said job. Perhaps they should have bargained for higher wages. 

Yipee! An Easter egg hunt is fun for all ages!

This is going to be so fun, there is no way anything could ruin this amazing and elaborate egg hunt the adults have carefully orchestrated for us. Not the inherent, competitive animosity between the genders . . .

Or the latent hostility that exists between all pre-teens and tweens . . .



Or an all out sprint for the last clue in the mud and horse manure of the lower pasture . . . Oh wait that did ruin it.

 

But with the no nonsense direction of aunt Carrie and the comedic stylings of Betsy the holiday was saved! Thanks folks, she'll be here all week.

 

Spring Also brought us Betsy's birthday with friends at Disease E. Cheese, a preschool graduation celebration that included crazy hair day and a trip to the zoo with beloved Mrs. Ashlee, and a ballet recital by the two cutest ballerinas in existence!

 

 

 



Next time, I'm doin' tap or Jazz!

The beginning of summer brought us, the good, the bad and the Ugly:

Rachel Olson is a good piano teacher, she puts up with kids who don't practice.  It was a good recital too.

 

 

 It's also good to move into Young Mens, the deacon's quorum and out of 11 year old scouts as a "Life Scout." Congratulations Gunner.

 It is also very good to celebrate your 12th birthday with a massive firework tank war.

 And a helmet?

 The bad: it is very bad to have to rip out and redo the entire HVAC system and all the insulation under your house when you are seven feet tall, the crawl space is 3 feet tall and it's 100 degrees outside. (Good thing he had a little minion helping.)

 

The Ugly: The Fremont troll is freakish and ugly but always worth a visit.

 We also explored Gas Works Park, Woodland Park Zoo and all the lakes we could find.

 

 

 

The Middle of summer took us to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's new home in Redmond, Oregon for the 4th of July where we enjoyed a parade. The town also boasts a terrific Fireworks display which we went to see. 



Some chump sucka stole her candy!

But no one would ever steal candy from a fire fighter!

 While waiting for the promised fireworks, we decided to entertain ourselves at the rodeo!  Since there were no Bulls or Rodeo Clowns to be found we had to improvise.

 When all was said and done the fireworks were beautiful but were nothing compared to the sunset and these gals.

As a small footnote to this 4th of July trip, it turns our Grandma is terrified of lizards. If one of her grand kids were to bring it into her house and then drop it accidentally in the kitchen, grandma would then be trapped standing on a bench until the nasty vermin were caught.

Our patriotic Zeal did not end on the 4th of July as Gunner went on to his first ever scout camp, doing good turns all over the place   . . .

And our entire family got to help a friend with his campaign for State Representative.  We marched and tossed candy in a Parade with his family. And no he didn't win.

 

The End of Summer brought us reunions; First with the Ellsworths and then with the Smiths.



The underwater camera turned out to be every body's favorite thing!



Dudes by the pool

 



Catch and release Gunns, catch and release!



Surprisingly, kindred spirits

I hope there isn't a giant, disgusting bull frog in that cooler!
 





Well, could YOU poke your head through this hole?



We're a talented bunch folks!



The kids of summer

We rounded out the summer with Gunner nearly drowning when his white water raft capsized on the Wenatchee river during what was supposed to be a leisurely scout, raft trip. 

 

 Not to be out done Joe and  four other members of the Scout troop took a death defying "High Adventure" hike in the Cascade Mountain range. When he left, He said, "Since there's no way to contact me up there, you can expect us back Thursday night, Friday if things get hairy." You can imagine that by Saturday Afternoon I was pretty anxious.  But they survived and what's an accidental ice axe to the skull for a lifetime worth of good stories!

 

To celebrate everyone being alive we hopped over to Ensign Ranch for slip n' sliding and the obstacle course. 

 We also dropped by Wild Waves for thrills, Invited Cousin Henry to come for a slap fight and Rocked the heck out of the prizes for finishing the summer reading program at the local library. Light 'em up readers.

 School started and our little family hit two big milestones.  Betsy went to kindergarten and Gunner went to middle school, yikes!

 Fall brought surprises.  Joe and I were surprised to find I was pregnant (good thing he didn't die on that Ptarmigan traverse.) And My friends surprised me with a fun trip to Disneyland for my birthday to help cope with the surprise of having a baby after deciding to be done with all that.

  Fresh off my Disneyland fun, I convinced the family to go to our ward party dressed as salty pirates.

We also made and ate delicious Halloween treats, visited the pumpkin patch and trick or treated with our long lost friends the Sharps!

Yes that is Optimus Prime, and no we don't know who he is or why he's in our picture; he's just sniffin' around for Decepticons I guess.

 Mummy dogs! Franken-Jello cups! and Witches Brew punch, oh my!

Babe alert!



"Witch way to the treats?"

Fall and the beginning of winter meant a lot of new cool sporty type activities.  Gunner and Scottie tried volleyball.  Gunner was snookered into playing on a "co-ed" league.  This meant him and seven other girls.  But he got a lot better playing and though he'd never admit it, enjoyed himself.

 

Betsy and Tess took swim lessons for a few months and became really excellent swimmers.  we are officially out of the life jacket phase!  Tess REALLY enjoyed her swim lessons with her instructor Stephan (Ralph Machio's doppelganger.)

 And Gunner played for his middle school, Go Meridian Monarchs!

Here is where the blogging gets thin.  This is a result of mom being as sick as a dog for about six months.  This was by far the worst morning sickness I'd ever experience and the family just basically survived for several months.  Joe and the kids were terrifically helpful.  Joe bore the brunt of everything and was supportive and didn't complain.  We did manage to have a terrific Christmas and even went to our old favorite Pfaff's to cut our Christmas Tree. 

 

One of these kids got lost for quite a while wandering around the tree farm, can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint, her nickname is Ahoo.

"Hi my wife is sick and crazy so I do double duty at home. She wants this massive, expensive Christmas tree and that's precisely what she's getting."

 Betsy had several run ins with Santa and was really trying to figure out how he could be so many different places around town.  She didn't think too hard about it since regardless of where Santa turned up he always had candy canes.

 

Betsy is horrified that her old buddy Santa would put a machine that makes toot sounds in Gunner's stocking!

Harry Potter wands turned up in the kid's stockings, Dobby is an elf after all.

 Crafts,

 Machete's (which he sleeps with by the way),

 and Fedora's! Dreams were coming true all over the place!

 No Holiday is with out it's hiccups.  Betsy had the misfortune of barfing on Christmas day, please note the green barf bucket. 

A true princess, however, is NEVER to sick to rock a new pair of heels.

We ended 2012 and began 2013 with our favorite Kennewick cousins, playing Harry Potter and Star Wars charades by night and sledding by day at Ensign Ranch. 

 

The Mirror or Erised!

This screams Calvin and Hobbes to me.

 

I believe this is Betsy acting out the demise of the tiny rat/lizard like creature Jabba the Hut keeps as a pet, but I'm not sure. Ah well, either way, Jabba no Botha.

As Betsy is demonstrating, We had to let 2012 die but 2013 looks promising!