Back from Philadelphia--finally!

I took this picture from my seat in our plane. First off, everyone is fine. None of the drama included our family, unless you count having two young children stuck in Denver for an unexpected 6 1/2 hour layover.

Jeremy and I spent a week in Philadelphia with Jeremy's mom. We had a great time spending time with Grandma and some of Jeremy's siblings. It was nice to have the children be so flexible and adjusted to the time switch. It came at a small cost. On the trip to Philadelphia, Blake stayed awake the ENTIRE time. We had 15 hours of an awake Blake where he didn't sleep a single wink. He actually did quite well until the last 20 minutes of the final leg.

I was apprehensive leaving Philadelphia because this time we had a 3 hour layover in Kansas City. We made it to Kansas City and Blake actually took a 30-40 minute nap on Jeremy. It was wonderful. We boarded up for the last leg of our trip--direct to Portland. After about 15 minutes in the air, they requested help from medical personnel. After awhile, they determined to divert our flight to Denver to get a crew member to the hospital as soon as possible. We came in fast and hard to save time. We were back on board about two hours later after we got a replacement crew member and the plane went through a safety check. We taxied for takeoff and got going quite fast when we heard a giant pop and had some bumps. The pilot braked and announced that we blew our tires. At this point, I had to laugh to keep from crying. It was 8pm East Coast time, and the kids had been up since 5:30 am, minus Blake's blessed nap at Kansas City. The first picture was taken while we were on the tarmac and the emergency response teams came out to help.


This is a really low quality picture because it's from my cell phone through a bus window. What looks like white stuff by the plane is flame retardant. They sprayed it everywhere to make sure there was no chance of fire from sparks or anything. We eventually deplaned, went back to the terminal to wait for another plane to come in and take us home. We left Denver 6.5 hours after our original emergency landing.

Jeremy and I were grateful that our two children were asleep before we were in the air. If you know our children, you know what a miracle that was. They both slept the whole way to Portland and Blake slept off and on until we got to our house. We walked through the door at 12:15 West Coast time. That's about 21 hours of travel door-to-door. We were grateful to be home. The kids went straight to bed and both slept really well.

I have pictures from the rest of the trip and those will go up soon.

Washington Weekend

We took a whirlwind trip up to Washington this weekend. Saturday morning we drove up to Olympia to visit my grandparents. They are avid birdwatchers which made Blake happy to look out at their bird feeders.




Grandpa livened things up a little bit by letting the great-grandkids take a ride on his scooter. Blake got a turn first...

then Carolyn was allowed to take a stab at steering. She did a pretty good job. I think she only ran over three people.

Blake took this opportunity to woo Great-Grandma with flower petals and leaves he picked off the bushes.

We took our leave in the early afternoon hoping to get Blake's nap in while we drove the rest of the way to Seattle. He did sleep for a little while in the car, which we appreciated. The drive took longer than expected because we made a detour to borrow a pack n play. Yup, we forgot to bring ours. Whoops.

Jeremy took the kids to the hotel pool while I attended a bridal shower for one of my good friends from back home. Of course, I left my camera in the car for that. Whoops.

And then, Carolyn's favorite part of the trip--staying at a hotel. Man, I sure am glad that I have a separate room from my children for all the other nights in my life.

But I also am glad that we get to take little trips like this and get pictures of big smiles like this. Sunday was beautiful and we visited with some good friends from college. No pictures from that either, which might be a good thing since Blake left their house in his sister's monkey pajamas because he managed to soil every other piece of clothing we brought for him. Whoops. It was a weekend of "whoops", every other minute it seemed, but it was so wonderful. Jeremy might disagree, but that's because he sat in the back and tried to please Blake for the last half of the ride home.

Pajama Popcorn Party

We had some friends over last night while their parents went out on a date to celebrate eight years together. The kids were crazy. They were good, just all over the place. I found the perfect way to keep them quiet at the end of the night.

Best friends

I used to lose my mind over Carolyn's inability to leave Blake alone. Sometimes, I still do. But now, it is so nice because they play together. Carolyn has always needed a lot of attention and now she has someone who idolizes her. I caught them playing this game today. It made me happy.

Bike time

Nothing says Saturday fun like bike riding with the cousins.


We tried a bike switcharoo, but that didn't work out so well. Carolyn needs pedals to feel comfortable.

After biking, all four children concentrated on making a giant pile of chalk dust.

Grandpa Wilde visits

My dad came to town about a month ago. I caught this moment on the couch...



...and it reminded me of this moment when Carolyn was only eight days old.

Games

Blake and Carolyn made up this game where someone gets dragged around on a blanket. It doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but it really is for one very good reason. Blake. He just flops himself on the blanket and enjoys the ride. If any blanket is left out on the ground, he lies on it, waits, and then looks around hoping someone will start dragging it.

I demonstrated for Jeremy how to do the game.

But to do it right, it needs to be Carolyn dragging Blake.

Memories

Jeremy's dad passed away last month unexpectedly. We miss him dearly and these pictures are how we will always remember him--a doting grandfather.

Harry holding Carolyn when she was 12 days old. She is his first grandchild.

Carolyn and Harry at East Goshen Park in Pennsylvania. He went on every child's toy with her.

We made time for Disneyland when we were all in California for Kent and Erica's wedding. Harry gleefully carried her around and pointed out all the sights.

Oregon Zoo, 2008

This is a classic photo because Grandpa was happy to have the children on his lap, but he also wanted to be able to see ESPN.

This is one of my all-time favorites. Harry and Carolyn (Mom) took us to a concert for children by Ralph's World. We had never heard of it, but Carolyn Ann loved all the music. She was doing a jig on Harry's lap in this picture.

We are grateful to know that families are forever. Harry loved his family more than anything else in his life and we loved him.

Easter is here.

I have lots of reasons why I haven't blogged in the last six weeks, but I finally have a reason to start again. We switched internet providers. We are no longer on DSL. Hallelujah!

To start things off right, let's get to what we did today. Carolyn had an Easter party again this year, and we expanded the guest list.

We had ten children in all today. I'd tell you to count them in the picture, but one is missing. He must have been playing with the toy cars.

The main event was the egg hunt. I sent Blake to a neighbor's to nap (he didn't) and the hunters tromped through my entire upstairs looking for 150 eggs. In bathroom drawers, clothes hampers, dryers. It was a blast.

The eggs started flying into the baskets as soon as the first kid got up the steps.

Carolyn: I got an egg!
Arys: I got...toothpaste?

Let me out of here. I need more eggs!

Before the last hunter got back downstairs, the kids were tearing into their candy. Mmmm.


We tried to decorate some dyed eggs, but the stickers wouldn't stick. Not even the ones that come in the box. So instead, they decorated their plates.

We snacked on some treats, and I asked some of the children to smile for me. Responses were varied.


I love doing this party. It is always so much fun to have little kids around getting excited about the nickels in their eggs. Special thanks to Ashley for taking Blake even though he didn't cooperate as well as I would have liked. And thanks to Holly too. It was nice for someone to be wiping up spilled juice while I snapped pictures.

More portraits

This is picture heavy because I have the cutest little boy ever. These are his "one year" pictures although he is technically 14 months old. So stinking cute.

The family that eats Cheetos together, stays together

That was Jeremy's wisdom when I questioned him giving some to Blake. In that case, we will be a forever family!

Sunday entertainment

Carolyn has moved up to a sunday school class that incorporates singing time at church. She loves learning new songs. This is the first one she perfected. Watch it here, Grandmas!

Daddy-Daughter time

Jeremy's been working a lot. I remember thinking it was hard the first busy season I went through with him. Carolyn was seven months old when it went in full swing, and by the end he and I were exhausted from putting in 70-80 hour weeks at our respective jobs. I had no idea it would get harder as we went along. Jeremy doesn't work quite the same hours, but the time he misses with Carolyn is a lot harder for both of them.

Many a morning the first sound I hear out of Carolyn's room is a wail and then "Daddy!" She cries at the top of the stairs while I hurriedly get decent to chase Jeremy down outside so he can give her a hug and a kiss. And then she doesn't go back to sleep and is exhausted from waking at 5:30.


Anyway, all this background helps explain why Carolyn and Jeremy had the best weekend last week. I took off for my first night away from Blake. I foolishly thought that meant I would get a good night sleep, but time with friends is not for sleeping.

Carolyn got pop beads for Christmas and has been making jewelry ever since. She and Jeremy spent Blake's nap just making bracelets and necklaces for each other. Of course, this was after the doughnut breakfast. It sure is nice when Daddy is home.

Blakers

I've been having a hard time keeping up with all the different times in a day that my children want to eat. Mostly, it's Carolyn. She is in the fridge at least 5 times a day (that doesn't include meals). It doesn't help that our living area where we play is right next to the fridge. Today was Blake's first foray into stealing leftovers. Carolyn ate a protein bar for breakfast because I just give up (at least for today) on fighting her at meal times. She puts the food in her mouth by herself and doesn't have to sit on my lap? Well, I just might let her have ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if that's the case. Anyway, she had some leftovers she didn't keep a close eye on. Blake did though.


He sure enjoyed his bounty.

Of course, we can't take a picture of one child without the other one jumping in to join the fun!

Blake's best friend

We've been through this before with Carolyn. We thought Blake might attach to something as well, but we never expected it to be the same doll. Luckily, Carolyn has moved on to Bitty Baby, and, for all his bluster, Jeremy doesn't mind Blake carrying around a purple doll.