the white house at the right time

Years ago I read a "top 100 places to visit" list. San Juan Islands was one of them. It is beautiful and unique. However, a bit cool today. Coats for spring break. Last year we stayed at Roche Harbor, loved it and stayed again . I was solo momma last year. Randy was teaching. We were so glad to have him with us this time. It also helped a ton to have daddy muscles around to carry Makenzy, she weighs a lot more than last year. The plaque below this tree identifies it as being over 300 years old. Old growth for sure. In fact, it has seen a lot it almost looks like it is growing eyes. Check out the knot, it forms an eye that faces out to sea over some chapped, puckered lips. I love this guy! We visited English Camp. Lime Kiln State Park is also known as "whale watching park" because the whales migrate through this incredibly deep pass of water. Also, the cold currents kick up nutrients in the strait that many sea mammals feed on. We didn't see any whales becaus...

Seattle. Sister. Silly. Tree Hugger. O.k. not really, but she has given up her diet coke, which is HUGE! Just for that she deserves a hug. A TREEmendous one! Angie and Ariel came up and watched the kids for us while we were away last week. They both slipped into "momma mode" so well. Thanks to the both of them the kids were extra, extra early to school and scouts, they went to Madalyn's school choir concert, recorded it for us to see later, dealt with dirty diapers, found the sushi place and shared ( Makenzy loved Ariel's sushi!), treated the kids to ice cream, small gifts, and park time, shuttled another to a birthday party, made meals, and kept the house picked up. I hardly leave the kids. Randy thinks I really should do it more. I am getting there. But in the meantime, it was a relief to have someone I totally trusted to be with them. That and the relief that it was only my sister rummaging through the pantry, opening up closets and dwarers , having access to ...

Randy and I returned home from the Northwest area husband and wife conference held in Spokane. It brings together the seminary and institute directors, coordinators, and principals from Washington, Alaska, and part of Idaho. It was such an inspiring conference. Great counsel was given to us by Seminaries and Institute Director Chad Webb. He stated the mission statement, a one page document, had close to 59 or so revisions to make sure it included everything the Church Board of Education felt it needed to accurately delineate the importance of their work. We had great break out sessions, and presentations. Brother Adams, who teaches institute, recently returned from a 1 year deployment to Iraq. His wife spoke about her "widow in training" year, the struggles and the prayers. Brother Adams spoke about his experience working with top Iraqi military officials and more interesting, his call to serve in the presidency.

Randy and I headed out of town on the 17 th , so I wasn't there for the rainbow fruit platter that Ariel made for me. Or for the response to the corned beef. Really hoping their taste buds have grown to like it this year. Girls had shamrock necklaces and boys their pins and of course, green clothes. You can't over protect. Breakfast. Lucky Charms and green milk. Dinner. All green. Green mint ice cream, green grapes, green filled oreos , granny smith apples, green drink, celery sticks, green pepper slices, cucumbers, green salad, pickles, sour cream and chives chips (comes in a green bag), and more green. and more green. Probably ate the non-nutritious food until they were almost green. Brownie cups for lunches. Madalyn took her lunch to school in our "pot of gold". Fortunately, this year the leprechauns weren't too naughty. Last year they were on a rampage. Randy took the kids out running and riding bikes, while I ran an errand to the store. I passe...

Team name was Crush. And that is what they did. Every single game. 44 - 2 42 - 4 38 - 6 45 - 4 and so on...killer, crushing scores. Thirty to forty points more than the other team, every single game. Fantastic, if you were on Cayden's team. Otherwise, a little discouraging. Meeting up with the other undefeated team, was close, 42 to 24. This was a new team for Cayden this year, but he wanted to be on the same team as his friend Ethan. Luckily, he adjusted quickly. Ball hogging by the other boys is still a major frustration to Cayden, especially when he is open. Nonetheless, h e played awesome support throughout the season and was particularly on fire the last game, throwing up 8 buckets. Apparently, Randy made a deal with him that for every bucket he got, he also scored $2. Bribing or incentive? It was a great season!

The green wig was the original plan. But we couldn't find it the night before. I sent Madalyn to bed, telling her I was sure it would show up after everyone went to bed and I did a final pick up of the house. I did an amateur sweep of the usual hideaway spots; under the bed, in the closet behind the dresses, on top of the fridge, in my habitual "clean up, file, put away" pile in the corner of my room. Not there. A quick rummage in the dress up box and wah- lah , Maddie's polka dot doo . Bright pink hair paint would have looked great, but we used what we had, "Black" which doesn't really show up on walnut brown hair. She was voted best hair do in class, but we both agreed, her bird's nest hair do from last year was pretty crazy! Yeah, it is a little long, but it would of looked great in little pig tails all over his head, maybe add in a bow or two of Kenzie's . Cayden didn't think so. Black hair paint? O.k. Wasn't much of a chang...

We've been staying up way past bedtime to watch the Olympics. Our favorite event has been the short track speed racing. Plus, the locals, Apollo Ohno and JR Celenski are in it. It is fast and decisive. With the Olympic frenzy at the house, I decided to center my pre-school theme around it too! We had to get ready! We started off making flags from our made up countries. Then we needed to build the venues. All the Tonka's in the back yard sure helped out, we made roads, bumps, and hills in the gravel. Then we moved on to the BIG rocks for our Inukshuks. Inukshuks are stone figures built to resemble humans. Inukshuks can be found along Canada's northern shores. Originally built as landmarks to aid in navigation, the Inukshuk has been adopted toaday as a symbol to remind us of our dependence on each other and the value of strong relationships. What a great emblem the Canadians Olympic Committee chose! Our miniature version of Canadian Inukshuks (In-ook-Shook), so ...