Off to Montana

Back to a recap of our vacation.

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Just over the border from Washington, Coeur d’Alene is a very nice vacation spot. We got to see the hotel and eat at a nearby shopping center. We got to see the lake from the car but didn’t have time to see any sites. It looked like they had a nice play area by the lake, definitely worth checking out if we go through there again (hopefully with better planning).

Mullan, Idaho

This is a little town of about 800 with a tiny downtown. They did have a small park and museum in the town center. When Andrew started saying: I WANT OUT NOW, this is where we stopped rather than going on another 10 miles to the next rest stop. We checked out the tiny museum and the kids had fun climbing on the stuff in the park. A brief but necessary stop along the way.

Darby, MT

When we first arrived at my dad's it was late in the evening so we headed out to a nearby resort for dinner. Here is Dylan taking a look at the bear in the dining room.

On our first morning at my dad's house, the kids were up and busy. My dad kept them entertained by taking them out to feed Buck the horse and explore the creek and pond. They came back in their pajamas, wet, muddy and happy.

In the evening, we grilled sausages and hot dogs on an open fire and then made s'mores for dessert. Gina and Andrew had fun turning marshmallows into charcoal though it was a little stressful keeping Dylan away from the campfire.

Here is Gina swinging on a rope that my dad put up in a tree.

While on the trip I discovered that I needed to put some money in my checking account. So where do you go when you are far from a city? It turns out there was an ATM where I could deposit a check in a little town called Stevensville, about 35 miles from my dad's house. Far, but not as far as driving back to Missoula. So we left the big kids with Boppa and took Dylan with us to Stevensville (the same town where SF mayor Gavin Newsom just got married). After driving 45 minutes to deposit a check that took all of 2 minutes, we had time to explore the town. We ended up at a very nice cafe and had a delicious lunch and then bought pastries and freshly made bread for the next day.

On our third day in Montana, we visited Big Hole Battlefield Museum, a memorial to the people who were killed during the Nez Perce Indian War in 1877. Our visit to the museum coincided with a visit by a member of the Nez Perce tribe and so the kids got to hear some of the stories that are told by the tribe, handed down to each generation. Andrew and Gina were fascinated by the stories, while Dylan was not about to sit around so I only caught pieces of the stories, mostly involving Coyote and other animals of the area and how the Nez Perce came to be. They both said that they really enjoyed listening to the stories.

Then we went to a swimming pool filled from a mineral spring at a nearby resort. Dylan walked around the shallow area while Gina and Andrew tried to swim a bit. I really should have gotten them into swim lessons before vacation so they would be more comfortable in the water. I’ll have to remember that for next year.

Andrew is now 4

Last weekend Andrew turned 4. Unfortunately he started out in a bad mood. Nothing was right and he was grouchy all day. My sister Alice came and that brightened him up for awhile since he got more presents but by the time dinner rolled around he was in no mood to go out. So instead, I went out to dinner with Alice and my mom, as well as Gina and Dylan, while Andrew stayed home with Vic and they worked on his legos together. He probably did have more fun playing with Vic than he would have sitting in a restaurant so it was a good call.

Last Saturday was his birthday party. Four of his friends from preschool came as well as another friend from Las Madres. With a couple of additional siblings, it was still a pretty small group compared to Gina's last two birthday parties. From this party I have learned that small is good. Andrew had a great time interacting with his friends, the jump house never got too crowded, and it was fairly easy to keep track of all the kids.

Here is Andrew surveying all his presents:

I made a rocket shaped cake for the party. The details of the cake are here. It turned out pretty well and tasted good too.
So far, 4 hasn't been much of an improvement on 31/2. He is easily frustrated when things don't go his way and then he becomes nonverbal, expressing his feelings in screeches and screams and refusing to talk. I'm hoping things will improve when he moves to the PreschoolIII room in a week. I am also working on how I deal with him before he gets to the frustrated part, emphasizing the positive when he does something correct. It is not easy being 4.

Off to Woodinville

Our first destination for our vacation was Woodinville, just north of Seattle, home to our friends Tom and Jone and their two kids Tom and Alex. I had the idea that we could get up early and get the van packed and leave at a very early hour. However, Vic ended up with a lot of last minute stuff from work, stayed up until 3am and so we didn't get on the road until 11am. This meant that we didn't make it as far as I had hoped and we had to search for a hotel at 9pm around Ashland Oregon. Ashland was of course filled, but we found a small motel outside of Ashland.

The next morning the kids were up early, Gina and Andrew got dressed right away and we were able to get on the road by 8am or so. One of our stops on the way was a small museum in Roseburg, Oregon. It was a nice little museum with lots of animal diorama exhibits as well as old tractors and cars. The kids had fun running around and it was a nice break. Of course, I discovered that my camera was out of batteries at this point so no cute pictures. We drove through Portland, then through a bit of rain, and headed for Seattle. We arrived at our friends house after dinner, definitely a long day of driving.

We spent our first day hanging out at the house with the Vrhels. Tom's parents also joined us as well as Tom and Vic's friend Matt with his family. It was full house with lots of kids. They had fun playing soccer outside, putting trains together inside and video games. Andrew and Gina had a great time playing with Alex who is 12 and is very good with little kids. I hope they didn't wear him out.
Our second day was spent visiting my friend Ruthann who lives about 40 minutes away. I hadn't seen her since our wedding and now she has two kids: Ingrid age 7 and Dan age 2 1/2. The kids had fun playing in the yard, making bubbles, and watching a little TV (so we could get lunch together). It was fun catching up with Ruthann and comparing kid notes. I hope it won't be another 7 years before we see each other again.

The picture below is supposed to include all the kids, however, Gina and Andrew decided that hiding behind me would be more fun.

Next, off to Montana.

Home from Vacation

We were gone a long ten days with a whole lot of driving. Way too much driving. For only a half an hour on the entire trip were all three kids asleep in the car. Dylan was often asleep as we were driving past some interesting place, so we often just kept driving only to have Andrew start complaining fifteen minutes later and wake Dylan up from his nap.

I loved seeing the countryside along the way. We drove through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Nevada and it was interesting to see how the terrain changed along the way.

I will post more about the trip is a day or two with pictures, once I've recovered. The last two hundred miles home were particularly hard. Andrew fell asleep while we were driving in the mountains and woke up in Sacramento soaking wet (this after 3 bathroom stops within 20 minutes). He was completely unhappy at this point and it never really got better.

Last Day of Kindergarten

Thursday was the last day of school for Gina. I had her quickly make thank you notes for her teacher and teacher's aide last night. I had also bought some gift cards from Peets to put in the cards but when I went to get them, they were gone. I asked Vic at least three times if he had seen them and I checked all the usual places, but no gift cards. So in the morning before the kids were up, it was back to Peets to buy two more. Here is Gina showing the cards that she made to her friend Aidan.
After dropping Gina off at school, I went back home to take the boys to Dylan's daycare. Vic handed me an envelope that Andrew had decorated and had given to Vic as a present, complete with two Peets gift cards!

After recess, the parents were invited to join the class for the last hour of school. I got one last picture of Gina playing in the dirt,Gina's teacher had made a video of the kids saying the alphabet letters next to a page that they had made from their alphabet photo books. It was very cute. And then it was time to sing songs, including This Land is Your Land, Puff the Magic Dragon (luckily Gina was sitting on my lap, that song always makes me cry) and Hush Little Baby.Vicki gave each child a little bucket with crayons, a lucky penny, a chocolate kiss and a packet of forget me not seeds, and of course a big hug. And then the school year was over. Gina is excited about summer vacation but sad because she misses her teacher.


She has grown a lot in the past year. Besides growing about three inches, she started out the year reading simple words and now she wants to read books. She picked up Harry Potter today and tried to read the first few pages on her own. In the fall she didn't want anything to do with team sports and now she is really excited about playing soccer. I've enjoyed spending a few hours each week in Gina's class, seeing how she interacts with the other kids. Kindergarten has been quite an adventure and 1st grade promises to be just as interesting. We find out next week which class she will be in.

A Whole Lot of Driving

I've been doing a lot of driving the past four weekends. It started with my mom breaking her hip. Since she was going to be recuperating for an extended period of time, I didn't want to leave her car sitting in Sacramento. So we loaded up the kids and drove up to Sacramento. I then visited my mom with her car while Vic drove the kids back in my car.

Then the following weekend, we visited my mom up in a Rehab place in Petaluma. I took the kids by myself. Luckily my mom didn't have a roommate at the time so it was fine to hang out in her room for a while and then wander up and down the hall way. After about an hour I took the kids to a nearby park to run around for awhile before heading back so they slept the whole way home.

Last weekend, my mom got to go to her sister's house in Santa Rosa so we took the kids up for another visit, and this time Vic came along. Gina was getting antsy while we were driving through the City so I suggested she look for signs with the letter A. Her response was : Why should I do that? Obviously we haven't played too many games in the car.

And now this weekend, we drove up to Sacramento to celebrate Vic's father's 80th birthday. We actually got on the road before 9am which was a record and we made it up there just before noon, in time for lunch at the Red Lobster restaurant. We made our usual stop in Fairfield, more coffee for Vic and me and a trip through Petco for the kids to look at the animals The kids were very well behaved at the restaurant though Dylan was getting tired at the end. Once he had finished eating, he did not want to sit at the table so we visited the lobster tank and the fish tank a lot.

Hopefully all these car trips are good preparation for our big driving trip in July: up to Seattle for a few days and then to Montana.

Fathers Day Coffee

On Friday, Gina's class held a Father's Day Coffee for all the dads. I got to help out since it was my aiding day so it was fun to see all the dads with the kids. I spent the first part of the morning in the staff kitchen heating up the scones the kids made in cooking class.
The first part was in the courtyard with the kids singing songs and then everyone got to take part in a reading of Good Night Good Knight. The kids were the three different dragons and the dads got to read the part of the Good Knight. The kids enjoyed it, especially when they got to roar really loud, and the dads seemed to enjoy it as well.
Then it was time for coffee and juice. One of the dads also brought a crock full of sausage to make sure the spread wasn't too girlie, ie scones and fruit. Vic hasn't had much chance to visit Gina's class so he had fun seeing all the art on the walls and meeting some of the other dads. After eating, it was off to the playground. Gina got to show off on the monkey bars. Some of the dads got a chance to play four square with the kids and others climbed up on the play structure.

Mother's Day Tea

Last Thursday Gina's kindergarten class hosted a Mother's Day tea for all the moms. They have been preparing for this for weeks. Every time I've been in there aiding, I've had to remember not to pay too close attention to some of their projects. The teacher has even sent the moms outside to wash tables while the class discussed the upcoming day.

Each mom received a yarn flower corsage out in the courtyard and then the kids led us inside to the tables that they had set and decorated. They had worked hard all morning. I had brought teacups from my great-grandmothers china collection. I had to dig them out of a box in the garage, they don't get used very often (or never). Gina had decorated the placemat and made a napkin with her handprint on it. There was also a card with a drawing of me and why she loves me (SO CUTE!). The kids had also spent some time in cooking class making some of the cookies.


Next, it was time for the entertainment. The kids sang a Mothers Day song and then Hush Little Baby (definitely time for some tissue). Then they sang a third song and recited a poem about mothers.

There was plenty of tea to go with the cookies as well as lots of strawberries and lemon curd (YUM). Even though I spend a lot time in Gina's class working as an aide, my focus is not on her and she is usually off doing something else so this morning, it was fun spending time with Gina in her class.

After we finished eating, it was choice time and I figured hanging out at the playground would be a popular choice. The girls in the picture are trying to jump up and grab a flower off the tree. This kept them busy for quite a while.

Queen for a Day

Or at least 30 minutes. Today was Gina's birthday celebration in her kindergarten class. They make a big deal about each birthday and there is a special ceremony. I had to bring flowers and a snack for the class. Gina had requested that I make the snack so I was up very late last night baking. The request was for a healthy snack, ie not cupcakes, and so I made blueberry breakfast bars which did contain oats and a lot of blueberries, but were also loaded with butter and sugar. They definitely tasted good but I don't know that I would call them healthy.

When I arrived at school Gina was out on the playground playing circus with two friends. Then it was time to go inside for the birthday celebration. Gina put on her crown and cape and picked out a sceptre and then was led to the center of the class by the helper.


The kids sing songs about having a birthday and turning six. Then Vicki reads about each year in the childs life. After each year, Vicki led Gina around the table and then put one of the flowers in the center vase as the helper rang the triangle.


Here is what I wrote about Gina's 6 years:

Birth: Gina was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford on Friday May 3, 2002 to Betsy and Vic White.

1^st Year: During Gina’s first year, she enjoyed going to the park and to music class.

2^nd Year: During Gina’s second year, she went with her family on a long drive for vacation in Colorado; she learned to walk on this trip.

3^rd Year: During Gina’s third year, she welcomed her brother Andrew into the family.

4^th Year: During Gina’s fourth year, she flew on an airplane to San Diego; Gina loved visiting the San Diego Zoo.

5^th Year: During Gina’s fifth year, Gina welcomed her brother Dylan into the family and enjoyed going to Lake Tahoe for vacation.

6^th Year: During Gina’s sixth year, she started Kindergarten and learned how to ice skate.

Next, each child came up and handed Gina a paper star with a birthday wish in exchange for a blueberry bar. Every time someone said Thank You, Vicki rang the bell. The kids couldn't eat the snack until everyone had one. I had made a few extra so each of the parents got one as well. Then Vicki told the kids to take a bite and make a wish for the birthday girl, take a second bite and make a wish for the birthday girl's family, and then take a third bite and make a wish for themselves.

It was very cute and special. This was definitely a fun part of Kindergarten.

Running

I finally decided to start running again. It is definitely a love-hate relationship. I love running for the first five minutes or so and then it starts to get hard. My knees start to ache and I can feel every pounding step and then I start looking at my watch every 20 seconds to see when I can stop. So far I am only running about 2 miles at work, running for five minutes and then walking for 2.5 for a total of about 30 minutes. I am hoping it will get easier in a few days.

Gina is now 6

It is hard to believe that Gina is now 6 years old, she is getting so big. Yesterday was her birthday and she had a fun day playing soccer (she scored a goal) and playing in the yard. She requested dinner at Harvest Restaurant and got her usual hamburger.

Andrew got to go out with Vic to pick out a present for Gina. He was so excited, he could hardly keep from telling her what it was (a water sprinker toy for playing in the yard).

After presents, it was time for cupcakes. We had gone to Whole Foods in the morning and Gina loved the turtle cupcakes, so I got one for each. Andrew couldn't wait and tried to open the box before we were ready so it didn't look much like a turtle anymore, just a blob of green and brown frosting. And yes, there are only five candles on the cupcake, it was all I had.


Today was Gina's birthday party with all her friends from school. We had it at a park nearby with a jumphouse. As usual, I had certain plans, then procrastinated and felt very stressed getting everything for the party. On top of everything, Dylan fell down on the concrete in the back and got a HUGE goose egg on his forehead. After some ice, it looked better but definitely bruised.

For the cake, I ordered one from a friend who makes wonderful looking cakes and they taste great too. I asked for flowers and butterflies and got this beautiful creation.

Most of her class came to the party so there were a lot of kids. A few of the boys had to be evicted from the jump house from time to time but overall they were well behaved. Once all the kids arrived, Andrew wasn't sure what to do with himself. Gina was busy with her friends, he didn't want to play with his friend Julian, so instead he followed me around, taking a break every so often to grab a juice box.


Gina had a fun afternoon. Once everything was set up, I was able to relax a little and talk to the other moms. I think next year though we will try for a smaller party.

Weekend Away

This weekend, Vic and I got to go away from home to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. Okay it wasn't quite a full weekend. Gina had a soccer game on Saturday and so we didn't get home from that until 2pm. Then it took another 2 hours to finally get out of the house. It wasn't even a full 24 hours away from home, more like 20 hours, but who's counting. We didn't even go far away, just down the road to Los Gatos. But we had a nice hotel room for the evening, we had a very nice dinner at Forbes Mill Steakhouse, a restaurant we had never been to before, and most important of all, no kids. We got to admire other peoples kids (there is no shortage of kids and dogs in Los Gatos). I thought about calling my mom to see how things were going, but didn't until the next day. Turns out, they were angels, angels who got to go to the toy store. So they had a good weekend too. We need to do this more often.

Soccer Class

Andrew has been really looking forward to taking a soccer class. It must have something to do with watching big sister sign up for a soccer team and wear a uniform. In the morning he was ready to go with his shin guards and soccer socks. He insisted on wearing a shirt with a number on it, because you have to have a number on your shirt to play soccer.

He had a lot of fun running around with the soccer ball. It was a warm morning and bad mommy forgot the water bottle so after half an hour, he was ready to go home and get something to drink. He can't wait until the next class.

Gina and Dylan did a good job playing together during Andrew's class and posing together on a rock for pictures.

Chocolate Milk

With the first kid, you try really hard to feed them only good food and very little junk. I think Gina was three before she started to realize that you could get sweetened milk whenever we would go to Starbucks. At first I only got her regular milk. Then we (thanks to Auntie Alice) would get her milk colored pink with a few drops of raspberry syrup. By the age of 3 she was ordering her own drink: pink milk with two pumps.

By the time Andrew was two he knew all about the boxes of chocolaty goodness that were in Starbucks and he would make a beeline to the case to pick out his box. I would have to make sure he didn't start drinking it right away because otherwise he would be done before my drink was ready. Once the box was empty, it was time to go.

Now Dylan has discovered chocolate milk. At Easter the kids had boxes of chocolate milk and several were left partly full on the table. So he helped himself. Now when he sees one of those boxes of milk, he knows that it is something he must have.

Persistence

Andrew is persistent. A couple of weeks ago when he had a major tantrum. He had spilled cereal all over the floor and then refused to pick it up. He was mad that I insisted that he clean up the cereal so he started screaming. For 45 minutes. At some point he did clean up the mess but he was still ticked off so he kept on screaming. If he had the words, I think he would have been swearing. Instead, he settled for shrieking at the top of his voice. I finally booted him outside so he wouldn't wake up Dylan taking a nap. Once outside he eventually was distracted and started to play with Gina.

With ice skating, persistence is definitely an asset. I am amazed at how much Andrew likes ice skating. I try to get them to the rink early so that Andrew has time to practice before class. He gets out on the ice and slowly makes his way across. He tries to keep up with Gina but she is faster and steadier. He falls down quite a bit still, more than Gina ever did when she was first learning, but he easily gets up each time and tries again.


Here is a video of the kids skating, first Gina with Noemi and Julian having fun forming a train and then Andrew doing his thing.

First Haircut

I finally got around to taking the kids in for haircuts. Gina's hair was getting pretty long, Andrew's hair was to his shoulder when wet, and Dylan had some pretty long ringlets. Both Gina and Andrew sat in the chair patiently while watching a video and their haircuts didn't take too long.

Then it was Dylan's turn. I sat him in the chair and the woman put the drape over him. He started to tug at it with a look that said he didn't like it, but that was it. He sat patiently while his hair was sprayed, all the knots and snags were brushed out (I hadn't brushed it out completely in quite awhile) and then snip, snip, little black tufts fell to the floor.

He looks so different with short hair. I miss all the little ringlets on top of his head but I guess they will grow back.

Spring Soccer

Today was the start of spring soccer for Gina and my first try at coaching. Her team is called the Ladybugs. For under6 teams, they play five each side with small goals and no goalie. The players tend to swarm the ball; it doesn't look very organized.

Gina was up this morning at 9am, dressed in her uniform #7 and ready to go. Only, her game didn't start until 12:30pm. Every half hour she was asking when it was time to go.

There are 6 girls on the team, but two couldn't make it today so initially we played with our four and a girl from the other team to make it five. The game was a blur of red and white uniforms going after the ball.

For my first day as coach I felt like a fish out of water. I had a plan for the first part of the hour before the game and for the most part it went well, but we also had some time when the girls were milling about while I figured out what to do next. Every so often I would check over at the other teams to get ideas on what they were doing. I think next week I will have a better plan and hopefully we will have all six girls.

When Gina and I arrived home, Vic was in the middle of making play dough with Andrew. They made it a very bright orange. It was a sticky mass that slowly came together and the kids had fun with the dough for quite awhile.

Easter Fun

This past weekend was a big blur of easter eggs, candy, cleaning house, candy, cooking and more candy.

I took Dylan and Andrew over to a friend's house for an Easter party with my mom's group and the kids had fun playing in the yard. Andrew decorated an Easter basket and then he was ready to hunt for eggs. We let the little guys go first so they wouldn't be bowled over by older siblings rushing to grab eggs. Dylan was quite happy to pick up two eggs and shake them, and shake them, and shake them some more. He is going to love music class in a few weeks.

After the easter party it was time to color eggs. I set up the cups of dye and was about to carry them to the table. Andrew decided to help and ended up spilling the yellow all over the floor. So we settled for five colors instead of six.

The next morning the kids were very excited to see that the Easter bunny had left some chocolate and books in their basket. Then it was a rush to get ready for church. We got there in time and sat up in front. Andrew and Dylan lasted until the homily. Dylan was getting antsy and Andrew started to bug Dylan so Nana took them out and I stayed with Gina. About ten minutes later, I looked over and there was Andrew walking up the center aisle, looking for me. I was able to convince him to go back with Nana without any trouble.

Here are the big kids patiently waiting while Vic hides all the eggs in the front yard. We got a photo op with all seven kids, including baby Declan.

Then it was a mad rush to find the eggs. Dylan and Katrina weren't too interested in the hunt, but they all had fun. Katrina had fun trying out all the wheeled vehicles while Declan enjoyed sitting in the shade with his shaker toy.

After every one left, Dylan took his nap and the rest of us had a quiet afternoon.