Update!

The boys lasted until 3:20 am.  That is when Kent crawled into bed.  I guess Brayden got too cold.  They probably got a total of 5 hours of sleep.  Apparently this adventure is never happening again.  :)  This mini camp out may have put our family back another few years before we attempt real camping!  Bummer, I really want to do a fun, lake, boat (who has one?) camp out....

Onto other exciting things in the Phillips fam: 

1.  Functioning on very little sleep, Kent, with Kelly's help, is putting up the railing for the deck!

2.  We bought 3 gallons of paint last night!  These bare, dry walls are going to be seeing some color!  Yes, I know it will take way more than 3 gallons to do our whole upstairs and two bathrooms, but we of course have to make sure we like the colors!  Any idea on what color we are going to do our accent wall???  I had friends over this last week while Kent was out of town and got different opinions and thoughts (because I am HORRIBLE at picking out paint).  We reached a consensus and Kent vetoed it first thing.  Not a shocker.  I compromised, we are doing "Haze", through most of the upstairs (brownish/tan) and "Lost Atlantis" on the accent wall that spreads from the kitchen to living room.  I think we may also do our bathroom with this.  It's a dark blue/grey.  Surprise!  Kent has a minor obsession with blue, which I have learned to love....I guess it could be worse.  I think this color will be fantastic!

3.  We are also actively talking about carpet and flooring for the kitchen and dining room!  YAY!  It needs to be replaced so bad.  It has taken its toll over the last 8 years and three growing children. The replacement will be a ways down the road, until we figure out our budget, but it may happen sooner rather than later!

This means I will be able to check off quite a few things on my 40 before 40 list!  I can't wait!

Another thing that will be checked off within a week is an Alaska cruise!  This has been kept somewhat under wraps because it is all kind of crazy!  When we returned from our last cruise in May there was a message on our answering machine offering us a free cruise.  I  paid no attention to  it, I had a million things going on.....when  I went to delete messages a few weeks later, I actually listened to it.  I called the lady to get more info. and low and behold it wasn't a sham (as far as we know).  They are paying for a cruise for two to Alaska, from Seattle, with a balcony room and gratuities included.  WHAT???  It was too hard to pass up, especially since we don't have to pay airfare, just drive across the state.  We went around and around in circles trying to figure out how we could ALL go.  The best they could do was an outside room for 4 people.  This means we are taking the girls, Brayden has been on two cruises with us, so the girls will be trekking to Alaska with us.  Brayden gets to spend a week with my parents all by himself!  He is super excited and realizes that it's the girls' turn.  It still breaks my heart, but it will be special time for everyone!

This is all happening in less than a week.  We drive to Seattle on the 8th and cruise from the 9th-16th.  This happens to be the week before my sprint tri.  Do you think I might be sabotaging myself??? Oh well, couldn't pass it up. I'm sure I will be training hard on the ship, maybe I can climb a few glaciers in Alaska!  :)

Camp Out!

It's 8:15 and the boys are in the backyard camping out.  Brayden is soo excited, he has been waiting forever to do this!  I snapped their pics. said, "Good luck!" and headed inside.  Kent yelled, "It's pretty bright out here."  Umm, yeah, only two more hours until it's dark.  I am heading to my bedroom and snuggling in to read a book!  I will report back and let you know how the night went.....this may be the only camping experience of the Summer.  But maybe I will try it with the girls when I feel rested and up to the challenge.  Speaking of rested, Kent flew in from NC this morning and was home by 10:30 am.  Does that mean he got up at midnight our time?  I was afraid to ask.  Hopefully he sleeps well tonight, it could be a LONG 3 day weekend.

Happy 4th of July!  Enjoy your weekend!

Catch up!

It has been a while since I posted.  I uploaded a bunch  of pics. from the last few weeks.  We have been busier than I remember!  Here is Brayden on his last day of school!  I couldn't get his first day of school to upload, but the differences are crazy!  He has really grown up, AND become a toothless wonder.

 Spokane Indians baseball game!  We had a fun night out on the last day of school.  We met some friends there and lasted through half the game!  We left at 8:45 and had to miss the fireworks, but it was a successful, fun night!

 We went to  the girls' friend's B-day party at Chuck E Cheese!   Wow, that was a LONG two hours for me.  The kids of course had a blast!

 YAY!  Cousin Noah is here from Lafayette, OR staying with Grandma.  We have been able to spend lots of time with him, it has been great!  He is such a good, sweet boy!  We have really enjoyed our sleep overs and time with him!  We went bowling for www.kidsbowlfree.com !  Check it out!  It was great!

 We had friends come play.  Brayden's BFF from school, who lives four houses down. Landen and little bro Austin, who is the girls age, and baby sister Hayden, who is just too dang cute! 

 Girls hanging in the backyard while the boys worked on the deck.

 YAY, for the deck being torn down and rebuilt!  I need to get a current pic. it's almost done already!

Danielle, Elizabeth, Alexis, Brayden, Keegan, Nathan (Sarah's nephew), Noah, & (Owen didn't ride this one.)
Trip to Silverwood with eight children!  It was a little much, but lots of fun!

It has been a fun Summer so far, it will be even better when the sun shows up consistently!  Also, I am going to be able to check things off my 40 before 40 list, stay tuned! 

Party on party people

Bounce house!

Today we celebrated my baby's 7th birthday!  Brayden's birthday isn't until September 4th, which is Labor day weekend.  We take a risk each year with whether or not his friends will be around.  As an added concern this year, some of his friends may not be around in the Fall.  Brayden has been attending the "kindergarten center" which is a building that houses kindergartners from two different elementary schools.  As a result, half of his friends will be attending a different school in the Fall.  :(  We thought it would be a good idea to party while all of his friends were around.  It turned out to be a GREAT day!  Thunder storms were expected and we woke up to rain, but it cleared off and was 70 out!  We had 18 kids, so thank goodness we could keep them in the backyard, our house may have exploded......

Ellie and Brayden demonstrating the wheelbarrow race.

                                        Auntie Sarah and Grandma Phillips holding Dani and Ally.

                                                                        Present time!

                                                               Pinata time!

Brayden has spent all evening opening and playing with all of his loot!  He is a very lucky boy with really good friends.  He put this Lego game together all by himself.  I stayed clear of this, it was WAAAYY to overwhelming to me.  He did quite well!  What do you do when your SEVEN year old can follow directions better than you???  My brain does NOT work that way.  I can't even transform his Transformers....

Happy Birthday to my sweet, thoughtful, smart, goofy boy!  I love you Brayden Goo!

The REAL VACATION!

Ahh, I have to say, cruise life is the best!  Sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing, dancing, music, gambling and it's all right there being catered to you!  No wonder I felt so lethargic all week!  I had to walk 200 feet and all of that was RIGHT there!  This pic. is of one of the guys' (Kent or Kelly) breakfast.  And yes, we ate like absolute pigs all week.   Everything just tasted so good and there was so much of it!

Kelly, Kent's brother, and Sarah, our sister-in-law, joined us on our cruise vacation.  We had a blast and have lots of memories from our week together. 

 One of the first nights was a formal night, I always like when they do this at the beginning of the cruise, because by the end, there's no way your dress is going to fit.  Next time I am going to bring three different sizes, increasing as the week goes on.  Yes, so, so sad.....

                                                Me and the hubs.  (This was post-dinner, feeling a little bit sick).

                                                                 Sarah and Kelly

                                Beach day in Cabo San Lucas.  It was gorgeous and perfect for me!  Not too hot, low 80s,  and a warm ocean!

Sarah and Kelly

 One of the days in Cabo we rented ATVs and rode them through the desert and along the beach.  It was a lot of fun and very dirty! 

 

 

By FAR, the best part of the trip was Zip lining in Puerto Valllarta!  I am hooked, anywhere we travel now, I want to do the canopy tour!  LOVE IT!  This one was the best one so far, compared to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.  I think mainly because of the guys who did the tour.  HILARIOUS!  I was laughing and screaming the whole time. I would go back in a heartbeat!  If you're interested and want more info. let me know, I will hook you up!  So sad it's over, but we missed our babies!!  We were ready for some hugs and kisses!  The hard part about a cruise is you can't talk to anyone on the phone, so it makes for a long week away!

I think the hardest part though, is coming back to reality after a week of total bliss.  Demands, deadlines, work, laundry, grocery shopping, screaming children, car pooling........but yes, it's always good to be home!  :) 

Whens the next vacation?  Counting down the days 'til my 'couve girls come to visit and Race the River in our sprint triathlon!  Happy training girls, after that week, I have a lot of work ahead of me!!  I think I will be starting from square one.....

Mini-vacay

Before Kent and I left for our cruise we drove the girls over to Vancouver to stay with my sister.  (Brayden stayed in Spokane with Grandma Phillips so he wouldn't miss a week of school).  It was so nice to have that extra time with Dani and Ellie, but oh so weird (and much easier) to only have two to take care of.  We decided that we were going to make the 6+ hour road trip as fun as possible, which is nearly an impossible feat.   We stopped a few times and tried to break up the trip.  One of the stops was Multnomah Falls.  It was a perfect day, 70 degrees and clear skies!  We got out, walked up to the bridge, took our touristy picture and Dani asked if we were going to go to the top.  I said, "Sure, (thrilled that she was interested), ask Dad."  Kent was all in.......

 we hiked and we hiked......Danielle did amazing!  She has legs like me, twice as long as everyone elses.....Kent and Ellie scurried along, but Ellie tuckered out about halfway up, which was surprising because she is usually more active and energetic.  Eventually we all made it to the top, without any tears, (from the girls at least)  I saw Kent wiping his face a few times...
 We were all thrilled to take a break at the top and rest for maybe 3 minutes before they wanted to head back down.  Very fun memories!

 We had a whole day at my parent's before we flew out.  We crammed a bunch of things in the day.  First off:  Ellie learned to ride a two wheeler!  No training wheels!  She couldn't be more proud.  It really could have happened a while ago, we just never took her training wheels off at our house.  Sorry girl, we're holding you back again!

 After a morning bike ride we headed to Portland's Saturday Market.  No matter how many times I go, I still love it!  So much to see, so much to do, we got to ride the Max, which is the best part for the kids.  I bought a new purse, which I LOVE!  Maybe I'll have a whole post on my new, fabulous purse....try to contain your excitement.

 Next we went to Washington Park in NW Portland.  LOVE that park, I think mostly because I used to take the kids I nannied there, and I have lots of fun memories.  The girls loved it too, they are getting so big, they can PUMP now!  What is a mom to do when her kids can pump and play and climb all by themselves???  I actually had a whole conversation with Kent...it went something like this:
After walking out of the bathroom, Kent says:  "Did you girls just go to the bathroom?"
Me:  "Yes, you just saw us walk out of it."
Kent: "Did you tinkle and then wipe?"
Me (flabbergasted and indignant):  "YES!  That is generally what we do!"
Kent:  "Did you notice that the toilet paper was wet?"
Me: "Yes, it made it difficult to get off the roll and to find a spot that was dry enough to use."
Kent:  "Did you notice how far away from the sink the rolls were?"
Me, thinking, what the hell??: "Noticed, didn't think much of it."
Kent:  "How do you think the TP got wet?"
Me: "IDK!! Maybe they carried it into the bathroom when it was raining!  We ARE in Portland!"
Kent: "NO, some guy peed all over them!  Did you notice how it was unevenly dispersed and it was on the
floor!"
Me, dumbfounded, tears forming in my eyes, : "Are you telling me I just wiped my little girls and myself with someone Else's pee??? We are all going to have infections and diseases!!!"

The question herein lies:  Girls, Would you have thought that that was possible, or would that possibility even have crossed your minds?  Every girl I have told the story to did NOT predict that, HOWEVER every BOY has!  Dirty, Dirty boys, this is why we have our own bathrooms!! 
And no, none of us got an infection, but I am still totally grossed out by it all!

After the park we headed to Papa Haydn's where I got a fabulous peanut butter/chocolate dessert!  I intended on sharing it, but with the possibility of infection and disease, I decided I  might as well live it up!  We then headed to Voodoo donuts.   I have to be honest, I had never heard of this  place until I saw it on The Amazing Race.  It's famous for its crazy donuts.  It was a fun Portlandy atmosphere and the girls tried a few donuts, but I don't know that we will have to go back.  All in all, it was a VERY memorable day spent with our girls.  We all missed Brayden very much though.

One week and counting!

It was a crazy, hectic weekend....we are starting our vacation on Friday!  Brayden is staying here with Grandma Phillips and we are taking the girls to Portland to stay with my fam.  Then Kent and I are flying out to LA so we can board our ship!  Sunshine awaits!

The kids are thrilled for their vacations and we can't wait for ours!  Kent's brother and his wife are joining us, and we have two canopy tours booked.  Other than that, I will be reading, swimming and sleeping.  :)

Here are some pics. from our last two busy weekends.  We went to Silverwood Theme Park on Mother's day.

Ellie

Brayden

Brayden & Keegan

Ally & Uncle Kelly

Dani

The Dads, Keegan and I went on the ride that shoots straight up, then drops.  I tell ya, I am old and I am feeling it.  Not as much fun as I remember it.  Plus, I had taken a boot camp class from Ali Vincent (special appearance at our YMCA) from the Biggest Loser, so I was so sore, I had to hobble around the park the entire day.

Dad reading to his girls.  Umm, did Ellie just turn 13?  Isn't that a "too cool for you" look?

A day of soccer!