Camping

We did our first camping trip with Luke :) It was just overnight at a local place we were trying out. We went to Kayak Point in Stanwood, about a 1/2 hour away. It was beautiful. The campsites are situated amoung the trees and there are several trails that lead down to the beach area. We had a grat time until the rain started as we went to bed. We stayed dry, but it was cold and muddy. Luke wanted to go home. We stayed until early morning and then packed up and left. I think we'll try again when it's much warmer out.

Just beyond the trees is cliff (it's fenced), then the beach.

Luke running

Luke following Alan down the trail to the beach

Alan chasing Luke down the trail to the beach.

The beach. I use that term loosely. There isn't much sand, just lots of rocks and drift wood. Another bonus about WA beaches versus CA beaches... they are much more relaxed about fire laws. You can have a bonfire at most of the beaches and most of the time they have built in fire pits. Also... people build little forts from the drift wood, kinda like large Lincoln Logs.

Climbing on the logs

Throwing rocks... hours of fun.

He's running again... he's just defiant enough to not respond when we shout for him the come back.

More running, he doesn't tire.

Playground at the water front.

I think I was making monster noises and chasing him. "Chasing" is one of his favorite games.

"WEEEE"

Family shot... I was tickling him :)


Making smores... Luke mostly stuffed marshmallows in his mouth

Yum! He made me a little nervous around the fire but he did alright.

Alan took this picture and "fancied it up". I think he should start selling post cards.

Fresh Produce

Sugar Snap Peas, Luke eats them like candy :)

I love going to farmers markets. Fresh, cheap, often organic produce directly from the grower. Plus, lots of people bring their dogs (not us, our dog is a spaz) which Luke gets a big kick out of. I particularly love the one near us.... it has farmers with produce and flowers (of coarse), fresh bread, handmade cheeses, kettle corn, music playing, and a tons of crafts.

Today we picked up some peas. fingerling potatoes, broccoli, spinach, baguettes, strawberries, and rhubarb.

I made a strawberry rhubarb pie, yum!

Chopping the strawberries.

Mixing strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and flour together

Fresh from the oven. I almost always go with a "crumble" top.

New look

Do you like? I've been wanting to spruce this page up for a while and "Blogger" has some new options that made it really easy. Let me know if the page loads weird or if it crashes your search engine (sometimes busy pages do that when you have a slow connection).

I finished up finals last night (YAY!!!). Now I have to wait until my teachers grade my tests before I know my grades. The waiting is agonizing! There is sooo much pressure to get 4.0 for this program. Anyway, I get 10 days off then I start summer quarter. It shouldn't be too bad, I'm only taking one online class which makes traveling much easier.

Underwear!

So, I think we are getting close to potty training!!! And by close I mean, probably a year out. We'll see. I hoping to give it a try this summer. Luke has been giving us some "ready" signals. He doesn't like to wear a diaper, likes privacy when pooping (he normally goes and hides under the kitchen table), and sometimes he pretends to use the potty and makes "pssss" sounds. We still need to buy him a child sized potty and I was thinking I would gets a few books for Luke. Here's what I had in mind:

This is what I have in mind for a potty... fun but no movable parts that make it a "toy"

Turning Two

It's that time of year again! Where does the time go? I feel much better about his birthday this year than last year. He's pretty independent and is talking like crazy. He repeats about every third word you say. Last night Alan and Jordan were trying to get him to say a bunch of really big words. He had a hard time with "beverage" he kept saying "bederage", that "v" was too much for him but it was very entertaining for the rest of us. My favorite phrase is "Iloveyou" (said all together) followed by a big kiss :) I've been waiting for that one.

Alan made the invitation again this year (with my input ;) The butt-crack picture cracks me up. We are having a BBQ at our home and are going to put up a kiddy pool and some sprinklers for the kids to play in. Should be lots of fun.!

At sea and Grand Cayman

Happy Boy

Yay! My last post. This took me way too long. Here are some pictures from around the boat and our last stop, Grand Cayman.

Luke's cruise-wear

We never could figure out what this is. Grandma said it was a sloth, I think that's a little obscure, maybe a bear?

This is the kids pool on the ship. It have a big water slide.

Luke is in this picture you just can't see him because he's under water!

A little terrified, but he still has his shades on.

At the beach, it was too rough to go in the water but Luke tried anyways

Grand Cayman was beautiful. I was hoping to spend my day snorkeling and soaking in the sun but, when we docked we discovered that the water was really rough. It was so rough that the ship docked on the other side of the island from our intended port. Since we were further away, we had to pay extra to get anywhere. I'm pretty sure the "tour guides" were riping us off. Oh well... we went to the Tortuga Bay Rum factory (aka store front): free samples ;) Then we went to a little town called "Hell" named for a rock formation that looks like fire. After that we spent some time on the beach.

Post office in Hell (the town we were in). I sent a postcard from there.

Hell rock formation

This sign cracked me up. The guy was selling fresh coconuts (or I guess he was more selling the coconut water). Apparently coconut is a cure-all for most health issues.

Chickens and baby chicks eating the leftover coconuts.

This is outside the rum factory. You can see how big the surf is.

Sunset from our deck... ahhhh

Last formal night

Monkey towel

We arrived back in Miami without incident and went straight to the airport. I'm not gonna lie... our flight home was pretty horrible. Luke was not as patient as he was the first time around and the flight was packed. And my biggest bonehead move the whole trip: I didn't pack enough diapers for the flight home! And we did have a poop incident (of coarse). My poor baby was stuck in a poop diaper for several hours. And the poor passenger probably thought I was the worst mom ever! Ugh.

Other than the flight home, it was a pretty special trip. I got to spend lots of time with my mom and grandma. I crossed another continent of my list (I have a goal of going to every continent expect Antarctica). And Luke was exposed to all sorts of cultures and fun things. I'll never forget it.

School Update...

Excuse the cheesy metaphoric "finish line" picture, all of my brain cells are dedicated to school.

This quarter I'm taking 10 credits (2 classes). I haven't taken more than one class since before Luke was born. Normally at this point in the quarter I'm freaking out and feeling really behind. But, I'm hanging in there. Maybe it's because I getting better at managing my time and the classes aren't as foreign to me as many of the concepts are repeated in science classes (cell structure and function, metabolic pathways, that sort of thing). One thing that is helping me this quarter is that I've started to study in the morning, before Luke wakes up. It's peaceful. I'm well rested and focused.

I'm already 1/2 way through. 10 week quarters go by really fast.Then I only have 2 more classes before I can apply to nursing schools! I can see the finish line! Unfortunately, the finish line is more like a half way point since nursing school will be an even bigger challenge but I have to set little goals (or I'll go insane).