Good times at Riverfront Fountain!

YAY for the sun! After Kent got home from work on Friday we took his mom to the airport and headed downtown. We had a nice (food court) dinner, where there was no screaming from our kids! :) Then we headed to the family bathroom. I have to say this is one of the best ideas ever! I never would have given it a second thought, but when you have three kids and two parents these places are lifesavers! Plus they were bouncing off the walls with excitement, so that added an extra challenge. Kent and I were able to get the kids in their suits and lathered with sun screen in record time! This is my new favorite pic:

The family bathroom. I am trying to convince Kent that we need double toilets like this for potty training the girls. Maybe I will just camp out downtown at the mall during the potty training ordeal!

All lathered up and ready to go!

Brayden is so excited he is jumping around like a monkey, that wasn't at all embarrassing!

The cutest little bums ever! (Dani's hair never got wet).

Ellie hit the ground running, right into the HUGE fountain! I was shocked the pressure from the water didn't knock her over. She was whipping around the big kids, screaming and laughing and splashing. It's so fun to see your kids so excited about simple things!

Brayden trying to warm up for a minute. Dani was thrilled to just watch everyone and splash once in a while.

When we got home the girls saw the "new" bikes I got for them the night before. On my way to book club I passed a garage sale. I saw bikes and I jumped out. (We only have one big wheel, and the girls are constantly fighting over it). I got two trikes for a $1 each and the big wheel for $5. Money well spent! They are all thrilled!

What a fun evening!

A lil' more than THEY bargained for!

YAY! We made it to Silver Mt. after nap time on Saturday. We were all rarin' to go! I thought the kids were going to explode. The second we got onto the freeway the girls took turns saying, "Wa wa park, Wa Wa side!" (Water park, water slide). Good thing it took us just under an hour to get there, I don't know how much longer I could have contained them.

We all got our suits on and we were ready to roll! We were just laughing about how B peed on Shelbi (our much loved baby-sitter) while we were in FL. Not even two seconds later she had scooped Dani up and she got a huge wet spot on her shirt! Too funny, it's good to know those swim diapers work so well! I guess they really are just "turd catchers." (according to Kent). We convinced Shelbi to just leave her shirt on, she would be wet in a few minutes, and no one would know. I tell ya, when this girl is a mom she is going to be AMAZING! We have broken her in SO well, there will be NO surprises for her!

Sunday morning we had a yummy breakfast, AND Shelbi snuggled with the girls until 8:30! Kent, Brayden and I were trying to be so quiet in our room. I finally went out to make sure they were still alive. They have been waking up at 6am. There they were, sipping their milks so nicely and snuggling with Shelbi! I couldn't believe they had been quiet for so long. Shelbi said she put them in her bed at 7. YAY!

So excited and ready to go!

Ellie

Brayden

Dani ready to swim!

Ok, so I was so excited to try the surf wave. I was totally bummed when we got there because it was closed. After a few hours they opened it up and a HUGE line formed. We managed to get in line later and we watched as people took their turns. It was quite entertaining! One poor girl lost her bottoms and showed everyone her bare bum! She later came back with a LONG t-shirt to cover her. As we were waiting Shelbi and I were saying how that would be so embarrassing, that was our greatest fear. Who cares if you fall off and slam against the wall, as long as you keep your swimsuit on!

The first time up went fairly well. I dove on the board (on my tummy) and made my way to the middle of the wave. I was on for a fair amount of time and tried to go from side to side. I was thrown off the board and flew up to the top of the wave. Brayden went next. He was amazing! The guy there said he didn't know if he was big enough to go. We measured him and he just made the height requirement. I told the guy, if he didn't think it was safe, I didn't want him to go. He asked how well he comprehended, and I told him he does a great job of following directions. The man took his hand and led him down to the bottom of the wave and let Brayden "enter" on the board from the middle, while he held it. B got right on and rode the wave FOREVER. Everyone in line was cheering him on! But after a few minutes they got bored and tired of watching the little boy hang out and do better than them. Finally the lifeguards were able to get him to lean side to side, eventually he lost his balance and FLEW off the board and was slammed up and over the wave clear to the back wall, where he bounced and landed with his swim suit around his knees. I ran over and scooped him up, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Surprisingly he wanted to do it again! I told him maybe later. Shelbi went next and stayed on and didn't slam into the wall, she did great. It was Kent's turn and he did amazing! He just hung out going back and forth on his tummy.

The all powerful surfing wave!

After a while on the other slides, we ventured back to the wave. Shelbi took the girls to the baby slides and I went to the wave with the boys. I was first up. I was feeling confident, and got some tips from some people with experience. I jumped on the board and cruised down to the middle of the wave on my stomach. I was hanging out in the middle doing just fine and the lifeguard told me to lean to the side. I did as I was told and went clear to the side and out of the water. I leaned back the other direction to get back in the wave and a STRONG jet of water shot me backward. As I was flying backward the jet of water was shoving my swim suit bottoms DOWN! By the time I realized what was happening they were down to my knees. As I was trying not to swallow gallons of water I yanked my bottoms back up, thinking I was pretty smooth and no one saw anything that quick. As I stood up to move to the side of the ride, Kent came scurrying across the top with a peculiar look on his face, one I have never seen before! He said, "Babe, fix the front, fix the front!" The lifeguard looked down and tried to non-chalantly place the boogie board in front of me. My suit wasn't just a little skewed, it was TOTALLY MESSED UP! I looked up and the whole crowd/line was pointing and laughing. SERIOUSLY! It was like your worst junior high dream coming to life. I tried to adjust my suit, but I was so flustered and mortally embarrassed I could barely move. To top it all off, I had to walk by ALL the people to help B onto the board at the bottom of the wave. I couldn't even look up. My head was to the ground that entire LONG walk. I really wanted to just leave the park then and call it a day!

Of course, now it is a huge joke and KENT and Shelbi can't stop talking about it. I guess I really should have held out my hand for money as I walked past those people.... they got WAY more than they paid for!

Taking a rest and getting a snack.

Part of the Silver Mt. park.

Dan Dan, all dressed and ready to head home.


MONDAY

We had a BBQ, and Grandma Phillips brought over her bounce house AND her bouncy water slide thingy. It was like a huge party. How spoiled can these kids get? I got to go on the slide too, it was super fun!

While we were playing outside B had to go potty. The girls were still napping and he was soaking wet, so I told him he could pee outside. He said, "Excuse me Mom?" I told him it was ok and he thought it was the coolest thing ever! I really wish I could do that sometimes, if only life were that easy.

WEEE!

Brayden and the COLD water.

Ellie: No Fear!

Dani and Ellie

Ellie, Keegan, Brayden and Dani

Ow-E O's!

Ally

Part of the fam.: Dani, Christy, Ally, Brayden, Owen, Sandy, Sarah, Kelly and Keegan

Lesson learned?!??

It all started yesterday when Brayden came home from school in tears. He said, "Mom, I broke my shoes." I thought, how in the world can you break your shoes? Sure enough, he had yanked and pulled on the strap (there were no ties, there were elastic straps over the top of the tennis shoe) and it broke apart. I was ticked! I could just see him sitting in circle, pulling and messing around with his shoe. These were shoes that we just pulled out of his closet. Grandma Wagener bought these great shoes for him last summer at the Nordstrom sale. I just looked at him and said, "That is so sad! What shoes are you going to wear all summer? I guess you will have to wear your sandals everyday now, even in the rain." He was in tears already and this didn't help a whole lot. I told him if we had time this week we could drive all the way downtown and see if Nordstrom could sew them back together. In the meantime you will have to wear the shoes that are too small. I also told him we would have to take some money out of his piggy bank to pay for the shoes to get fixed. He agreed right away and was so glad that this problem could possibly be solved!

I thought, this is a great lesson for him! He had just earned $2 at the yard sale for helping me, and for choosing some toys to sell. Now he would have to give it right back so he could have shoes to wear. Furthermore...... Kent and I just made last minute plans to go to Silver Mt. for a night this weekend. Check it out. http://www.silvermt.com/ We are all very excited and B keeps talking about our "vacation" and what he needs to pack and what we should eat and when we should leave. It's very cute to see how thrilled he is! He has a plan in his head for the water park and what to do with his sisters while we're there! Anyway...... last night we were talking about our vacation and he said, "I think we should stay there THREE nights!" I told him how that would be so fun, but I didn't have enough money saved and I had to work really hard just so we could go for one night.. yada yada yada.... he seemed to understand somewhat. Does anyone else have trouble teaching kids about the value of money??? We have really been trying to explain and show him about this concept but sometimes it seems so far out there, he'll NEVER get it!

Back to the original story....I thought this will be a good money/take care of your stuff lesson. I talked it up the whole way downtown. I kept saying, "I really hope they can fix your shoe so you will have tennis shoes to play at the park and ride your bike all Summer, I hope we have enough money to get it fixed!" (Knowing perfectly well that Nordstrom would fix it for free).

We got inside and I told the people there that the strap broke on his shoes. They were wonderful and said, we will send those in to get fixed and they should be back in a few days. Great! B heard this and as we were walking towards a sale rack he said, "MOM I WON'T HAVE SHOES TO WEAR ON VACATION!" I said, "Yeah, that's sad, I guess you'll have to wear your crocs. the whole time."

IDK if the sales guy heard all of this but two minutes later he walked over to where we were checking out the shoes sales rack (it's the half-yearly sale, who knew?) and he said to me, "Maam, (I hate being a maam) if you can find some shoes that are on the sale rack, why don't you just take those in replacement of the other ones?" WHAT???? I have to say Nordstrom has THE BEST customer service, but I couldn't believe it. I was torn (for 1/2 a second), do I carry through and prove my point/lesson for my son, or do I take the free $50 pair of shoes? Needless to say we walked out with these:

The brand new shoes: (After a trip to the park and a bike ride, they already look well-worn).

I couldn't believe we got a new pair, and B was somewhat confused. I didn't really explain what was going on and in the car he said, "Mom, wasn't that so nice of them to let me borrow these shoes while they sew my other ones?"

Lesson learned: Break your stuff and get brand new stuff! Seriously. Another day, another lesson failed....maybe tomorrow!

Princesses and Helmet Heads

I was preparing for our yard sale, and I had to go through the girls' closet. It was jam packed with stuff! In there I found treasure boxes with their princess dress up clothes. Dani was Snow White for about 30 seconds, but she didn't really want anything to do with the dress. She was way more interested in.....

the shoes!! I swear Dani can walk better in heels than I have ever been able to!

BTW, the girls dress themselves nowadays. The cute outfits are long gone. Do you love the stretch pants with the baggy T-shirt + heels!

Saturday was a perfect day for a sale. It was beautiful and not too hot! The kids played in the driveway and I set up the croquet set. There's nothing like playing croquet with bike helmets! I was laughing at first, but it turned out to be a good thing the way they were swinging the mallets around. We only had one injury!

Brayden was able to really whack the ball by the end. He was swinging that mallet like an all-star, beware, helmet advised!

SHOOT! I forgot to add my pic. of my tables of junk! I made $100! The best part is I got rid of tons of baby stuff! All those big baby toys are gone! We still have lots of little toys left, if anyone wants/needs baby stuff let me know!

Catching up

We had a fabulous Mother's day weekend. On Saturday we went to Silverwood Theme Park. It's about 45 minutes from our house, and Mom's got in FREE that weekend! You can't beat that, and it was a beautiful day, just about 70 degrees! (Perfect for me). Kent, Ellie and Brayden on the roller coaster train (Dani is sitting next to me). Everyone LOVED this ride. Brayden called it the "fake train."

Danielle, Brayden and Elizabeth in the helicopters.

Dani and Ellie flying away!

This was a cute pic., but RIGHT after this they had to get into different helicopters. They started BEATING each other. It was quite embarrassing , I was already outside the gate and I had to go back in and separate them.

Waiting and waiting for the bumper boats.

The bumper boats were great, but we got drenched! I had both of the girls in my boat and Kent had Brayden. Three tweens cornered the girls and me and wouldn't let us out of the corner. We were stuck forever and they just kept blasting water at us (two baby girls)! I laughed for a while then I started getting ticked, but they wouldn't budge! Finally I had to yell, that's ENOUGH, we're FINISHED. What an old grumpy lady! (This was before the sun was out and it wasn't all that warm yet). The girls didn't even make a peep, they just sat there and enjoyed all of it!

Dani (worried about her cool glasses), Christy and Ellie

Ally, Sarah and Owen

Keegan, Kelly and Brayden
Christy and Ellie

Ellie and Kent

Brayden and Keegan

Before our Mother's day brunch with the family. Squeezes from Brayden, Ellie and Dani.

Family bike ride! Brayden rode his tandem bike behind Kent, and I pulled the girls in the trailer behind my bike. We rode to Liberty Lake, (maybe 4 miles) and by the time we got there my tire was completely flat! It wasn't a far bike ride, but it was a LONG one. I tell ya, hauling a trailer with a flat tire is hard work! After we turned around to go home, the tandem bike got all jacked.

The axle popped and Brayden had to ride like this for THREE miles. He just held on for dear life and Kent hauled him the rest of the way home. I couldn't believe Brayden didn't freak out! He was practically riding sideways, I was giggling at the sight, but scared that he was going to fly off.