The Fun Just Never Stops!

Friday, Zach had another field trip.  His school seems to like putting all of their field trips at the end of the year for some reason.  And seriously, if you are going to break your leg, at the end of the school year, third grade is not the grade to do that.  Riley doesn't have any field trips.  Well, okay, he's had one or two.  But since Zach broke his leg, I have had to go to all of them.  Any way, this one was pretty fun.  This one is a reward for the students who finished their reading goals for the year.  All the third graders walked to the park that is nearby our school.  I drove Zach.  When we got there, there was a dunk tank set up, and water kickball was being set up.  They divided the kids up into their classes, and each class went to a different station.  Our first station was the water kickball.  Zach sat in his camp chair, and watched his friends play.  I asked him if he wanted to kick the ball with his crutch, but he said, no.  The next station was the water balloon activity.  Three women had a giant slingshot that they were using to fling water balloons into the crowd of kids and let them pop all over them.  It was a lot of fun.  Zach got to help put the water balloons in the slingshot.  He wasn't really strong enough to fling them into the crowd while sitting down.  Then they had a squirt gun fight.  I wrapped his cast in a plastic bag, so he could join in (while sitting in his camp chair).  He really liked that part.  Especially when he started squirting me.  I got a gun and squirted him right back!  Then he got to throw a ball and try to dunk his friends at the dunk tank.  Zach asked me to get him a water balloon when he was done throwing the ball.  I did, and he then popped it all over himself!  I didn't bring him a change of clothes because I didn't think he would be getting very wet (what with him being in a cast and all!), but he soaked himself!  After all the games, the sky got dark and cloudy and the teachers decided they had better walk the kids back to school instead of eating lunch in the park.  While they were walking back, I drove Zach home and had him change into dry clothes.  We got back just as his class was arriving.  They all ate lunch in their class rooms instead of the park.  Zach had a lot of fun even though he couldn't get dunked, and I was just happy that it was okay for me to bring Kaleb along.  Kaleb disappointed that we didn't get to eat at the park, so I promised him we would eat there soon.
After that adventure, I decided it was okay to treat myself to a movie with my bestest friend Nicole!  We went and saw Iron Man 2.  Loved it!  I don't read comic books, but I do enjoy the movies they make based on the comic book series, and this one is very, very good.  I recommend it, and I'm sure you've heard by now, but when you see it, you have to stay until the end of the credits and watch the little teaser.

 Water kickball.  The bases were bucket and kiddie pools, and they slip 'in slided into home.

Sling Shot!  Zach and Kaleb helped put the balloons in.

Zach waiting to put a water balloon in the sling shot.

He's squirting me.  See the plastic bag on his leg?

Here he is getting ready to dunk his friend! (Evil laughter)  Notice the sky is no longer blue like in the sling shot picture.  The weather changes quickly around here.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday (Wednesday), all of the third grade classes put on a program for the parents and other third graders.  I started taping it, but Kaleb wouldn’t get off my lap.  It was annoying.  I had to pause the camera because he wouldn’t stop shaking and getting his mop top (hair) in the shot.  Also the sound is terrible.  People need to learn to shut their babies up when they cry at things like this.  I’m totally kidding, but at the same time, I’m not.  That’s pretty much what you hear in some parts.  It’s sad really.  I need a studio with sound proof walls, and better camera equipment.  And a boom mic.  And a film crew.  And I’m back to reality.  Momentary lapse.  I’ll try not to let it happen again.  Unless it’s funny.

Zach was on the sound crew.
 

It was quite enjoyable.  I downloaded it to youtube, but I don’t think I will torture you with it.  It’s so unprofessional.  While I was there, Zachary’s teacher told me a funny story about their fire drill the day before.  Apparently, nobody warned her there was going to be a drill, and so when the alarm went off, she was a little startled.  Then she had another teacher help with her class, and she picked up Zach, put him on her chair, and wheeled him out with the rest of the class.  She said, “I did that because that’s what I would do if there really was a fire!”  Zach never tells me anything.

Today (Thursday), Riley was a finalist in the first grade spelling bee.  I went to see him compete with the other first graders in his school.  I was expecting a full on spelling bee.  You know, eliminations, and tears.  That never happened.  If the child misspelled the word, he had to go sit down with the other students, but if he got the word right, he stayed up with the other students who also got their word right.  Then they went through some cards, oh, maybe five times, and whoever was left won.  RILEY WON THE SPELLING BEE!  He’s so awesome!  I am such a proud mom.  Although, when about twenty other students win as well, it kind of makes it a little less special.  At least it was short.

Riley after spelling his word right.  He looks relieved.

All of the spelling bee winners.

And finally, Zach was presented his Wolf badge at scouts tonight.  He finished before his ninth birthday by the skin of his teeth. 


We celebrated with the coupons for free ice cream we got at the dentist today.  I have a (small) cavity- despite all the excellent flossing I have been doing, Riley has to get some surgery on his mouth that should correct the gap in his teeth, Kurtis is going to get the cap on his implant fixed (it’s loose, and at least the dentist will do that one for free because it was his mistake), and Zach is going to get spacers on his bottom teeth.  I. Want. To. Cry.  And maybe swear a little.  The hygienist really liked my new year’s resolution, though.  She gave me some pretty high praise.
Oh, and I almost forgot.  When we were getting ice cream, Kurtis said, "Isn't going to the dentist awesome?" Because they get free ice cream cone and hamburger coupons (we'll use the hamburger ones another day).  Kaleb replied, "Yeah.  Because you get new toothpastes!"  

GRRRR!

All weekend, I have been in a bad mood.  It's time to just let it out, but I will try to be nice.  Kurtis and I are a one car family.  I think I've mentioned this before.  He has a motorcycle, but where we live, the weather only allows him to ride it for maybe 4 months out of the year.  So Thursday night, I checked the weather forecast.  It said it was supposed to rain, but not until the evening.  Hooray!  Kurtis can ride his motorcycle, and I can have the car to take Zach to school and pick him up!  If Kurtis has to ride the bus, he has to get up at 6:00 a.m.  If he doesn’t, he has to get up at 8:00 a.m.  He got up at 8:00 a.m., and we got the kids all ready for school, went outside, and the ground was wet!  Which meant, Kurtis probably should not ride his motorcycle, and had to take the car that day because he didn’t get up at 6:00 a.m.!  So, I called my friend, and asked if she could pick up Zach and Riley from school for me because I couldn’t.  She’s so wonderful.  She agreed.  That’s your back story.  There is more, and the reason I was not a happy person all weekend.
Friday is early out, so around 1:45 in the afternoon, I get a phone call from Zach’s teacher to vent about his first day back at school after breaking his leg.  His teacher is a nice person.  She is.  I promise, but we threw her a curve ball, and she doesn’t like curve balls.  She tells me all the things that went wrong that day:  Zach is really slow on his crutches, one fell on his leg, and he cried, he just had a really hard time that day.  Apparently, she also told all of this to my friend, and added the phrase, “I don’t know what she was thinking…”  Yes, a broken leg is a very inconvenient thing, but the thing that upsets me the most about all of this is that she didn’t just call me, and speak with me.  She said everything she said to me to my friend first, with Zachary sitting right there, hearing it all.  I just wish she had thought about what she was doing before she did it.  Zach is a very sensitive child, and I know this hurt his feelings.
Zach went on a field trip today.  When his teacher called me, Friday, she also had concerns (legitimate ones) about Zach being able to go, and suggested I rent a wheelchair for him.  I looked into it.  It was unrealistic simply because there was no way I was going to rent a wheelchair for an entire weekend just so he could have one by the time school started Monday morning.  I was extremely stressed out and emotional trying to figure out what we were going to do, when I just happened to go on the website of the place they were going.  They went to the Clarke Planetarium, and Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum.   But the Gateway’s website said they had a concierge desk and you can rent strollers there, and they have complimentary wheelchairs!  I called them to find out more.  It was perfect.  You just have to leave a credit card or a driver’s license with them so they have a reason for you to bring it back.  I told his teacher what I had found, and she thought it would work.  I went ahead of the buses to get the wheelchair, and waited for them in the pouring rain to get there.  Zach had such a good time, and it was fun to watch him have a good time.  Honestly, I didn’t want to go.  Monday is laundry day, getting someone to watch Kaleb is a pain in the butt, I don’t like getting up early, blah, blah, blah.  Kurtis rode the bus to work, and then I picked him up at the end of his day.  Kurtis’ sister was able to watch Kaleb.  It all worked out in the end.  I just really wish his teacher had a better attitude, and that she hadn’t said those mean things about Zach in front of Zach.  I’m just glad school is almost over.  And yet, I’m not because those three kids seem to nothing but bicker all day long!

Let's Keep Him Independent, Please.

Zachary got his cast on today.  He is still in a lot of pain, but he is getting better on his crutches.  Getting dressed is a challenge.  The doctor said he could go back to school tomorrow, but we'll decide that based on his pain level in the morning.  Kurtis worked from home today so he could come with me to the doctor's office.  I'm glad he did.  There were good and negative things about it.  I asked Kurtis to have Zach do his homework last night so Riley could take it to his teacher for us in the morning, but after I left (I had somewhere I needed to be), Zach made his sad face and Kurtis's guilt overwhelmed him and he couldn't make him do it.  So I today, I made him do it, and took his work to his teacher.  She was making them a memory book for the end of the year and needed their page about themselves and their self-portrait by today, so she could put it all together.  Yesterday, Zach and I had a system pretty much down for helping him go to the bathroom.  I even helped him realize that he can wash his hands with out falling over.  Kurtis kept trying to do everything for him today.  I had to tell him he didn't need to let his guilt keep Zach from doing things he could actually do for himself.  I told him that if he broke his leg, he would still have to go to work.  Well, Zach still has to as well.  If he can do it himself, he should do it himself.  Here are some pictures of his splint, and then his cast:

A drugged up and tired Zachary on May 17, 2010.

The splint.  We had to keep it elevated and ice on it.

He still likes to elevate it, and it still hurts, but the doctor said because the cast keeps it so still, the pain should go away very soon.

He chose the camouflage color of cast.  If they had orange, he probably would have gone for that, though.

A Really Bad, Terrible, No Good Day!

Just as I was finishing making dinner this evening, around seven o'clock, I hear Zach scream, "Ow! Ow!  I don't ever want to do that again!"  And then a lot of screaming/crying.  The next thing I know, Kurtis is running inside with Zachary crying in pain, and telling me he thinks he hurt Zach really bad.  I poked his leg, and prodded it.  Zachary still crying and screaming, "Yes, that hurts!"  I called my friend Becky, and asked if Riley and Kaleb could stay with her for a bit while we took Zach to the emergency room.  Her husband, Patrick, came over and helped Kurtis give him a blessing, and then he suggested I pack them some clothes, so if we were there awhile, they could just sleep over.  I did that, and kept telling Kurtis to calm down and quit freaking out.  Kurtis tried to get Zach as comfortable as possible in the car.  Putting pillows under his feet, a blanket, and an ice pack.  I while I was waiting for Patrick to get here, I was checking to see which hospital our insurance took.  I just wanted to be sure.   And Kurtis was jumping up and down yelling at me that we needed to get him to the hospital.  He was starting to annoy me a bit at that point.  I mean, seriously, if you are going to freak out, you are not going to be of any use to me.  When I told him Patrick was coming over to help him administer to Zach, he calmed down a bit.  But only enough to give Zach the blessing.
After going through and locking the house up, and turning lights off, we were off.  All of these tasks seemed a little unimportant as I was performing them, but I did them none the less.  Perhaps to help me stay calm.  If Kurtis was freaking out, one of us had to be the calm collected one, right?  Kurtis rode in the back of the car and tried to keep Zach calm.  We took him to the ER and waited to be seen.  They took x-rays (while he tried not to scream in agony), they put an IV in and gave him morphine.  Iced his leg to keep the swelling down.  The x-rays revealed that he has a spiral fracture on his lower right leg, just above his ankle.  Nothing is out of alignment, so he doesn't need surgery.  We are so grateful for that.  They wrapped his leg up in a splint.  He won't be going to school for a few days.  He is going to miss some of his end of year testing (for now).  He has crutches, and can't put any weight on his leg.  In three days, he will get checked to see if the swelling has gone down enough that he can get a cast put on it.  Poor Zach.  While we were at the hospital, Zach said, "This is a really sad day."  With tears streaming down his face. 
I guess what happened is that Kurtis and Zach were in the front yard playing soccer, and Kurtis slipped, and fell on Zach.  Until today, I had never really seen Kurtis cry.  I've seen tears well up in his eyes before, but he was so upset that he had hurt his baby.  When I looked at him, and realized that he was crying, I got teary-eyed, too.  But I couldn't let Zach see me cry.  I wanted to be strong for him, so I had to hold back my tears.  I was really hoping that he would never have to experience this kind of pain.  Broken bones are no fun.  No fun at all!  :(

I Want To Live on Cannon Beach!

Well, we are back from our vacation in Portland!  We loved every second of it, and loved coming home to lots of hugs from our boys!  They are the best.  My mom and Emily said they were super awesome for them.  Emily rocked, and helped Kaleb clean his room (a monumental task) Thursday, and my mom helped him finish the job the rest of the weekend.  And she did laundry and vacuumed, and cleaned.  Even though I spent all of last week washing walls, and vacuuming and cleaning to make the dog hair go away.  She probably just helped me out by finishing up the boys rooms.  I figured she probably wouldn't need to go in them, so they weren't that big of a deal, but apparently, Zach's room was just too much for her, and she couldn't help herself.  I am laughing right now.  I am so not being serious.  I love my mom!  She's the best.  She just likes to clean, and organize, and she is good at it.  I, on the other hand, am not, so it is nice that she helped us out.  Thanks, Mom! :)
So Saturday, Kurtis and I got in our blue Kia Spectra rental car, and drove an hour and a half to Cannon Beach, OR.  It was 57 degrees and windy there, but oh my gosh!  I loved it there!  I just love the ocean.  I don't know what it is about the waves crashing on the shore, or the rocks, but I just find it breath taking.  We went to see Haystack Rock.  It is this ginormous rock right near the shore on Cannon Beach.  Apparently in the spring, puffins come and nest there.  We must have been too late in the spring because we didn't see anything but seagulls.  It was so nice.  Kurtis and I took a romantic stroll down the beach, and I picked up crab claws that the sea gulls had ripped off the bodies of the crabs and tossed aside as they devoured their meal.  I thought the boys would enjoy seeing them, but Kurtis said they were gross and wouldn't let me bring them home.  :(  Then, we laid out the towel for two that we brought and read our books.  After I read a chapter, I started to get cold, so I decided to take off my shoes, and see how cold the water was.  It was freaking freezing!  Then, I wandered down the beach some more, and picked up more crab claws and bodies and a lobster head.  At least I think it was a lobster.  I could be wrong.  I don't really know my sea creatures that well.  After awhile, Kurtis called me because he didn't know where I'd gone.  Even though I had said I was going for a walk when I got up.  He was too engrossed in his book and didn't even notice that I had left.  So I went back to him, and showed him all my treasures.  He said they were way too gross, and so I took a picture of them, and left them behind.  But we went walking some more, down the other direction, away from Haystack Rock.  Then, after I got some amazing pictures of the light house off in the distance and the shoreline, we turned around and drove back to Portland.  We went to the temple grounds and took some pictures of the temple there.  We didn't bring our church clothes, so we didn't go inside, but it was a very peaceful place, and quiet.  It was a great way to end our trip.  Although, we went to dinner at the Dragonfish Restaurant to end it all.  Excellent Asian cuisine.  I highly recommend the place.

I love the ocean waves.

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, OR

That light house I was telling you about.  It might be Tillamook Lighthouse.  Not really sure because I thought Tillamook was south of Cannon Beach.  Okay, I googled it.  It is Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, but Tillamook is south of Cannon Beach.  I hear they make great cheese and have yummy ice cream.

Cold, cold, cold!  On my feet!

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

My treasures for my boys.  Alas.  Kurtis said no. :(

I love me some Salty Sea Dog!

A statue of the puffins.

The Portland Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Our rental car.  It is soooo much nicer than our car!  I miss it. :P

You Don't Have to Believe Me

But right now, I am in Portland, Oregon!  Thursday, Kurtis and I got on a plane and flew here.  It's our first trip ever.  We didn't even go on a honeymoon, so after eleven years of marriage, I said, "Honey, can we please go somewhere!?"  And he agreed.  Which surprised me, but I am very glad.  So, I love flying.  Kurtis let me have the window seat.  I love to look out the window and see the ground below.  It's very exciting to me.  Here are a couple of pictures of Oregon from the airplane:

This is the airplane we flew on.

I do believe this is Mt. Hood.  The pilot said it was Mt. St. Helen's though.  Really not sure I believe him.

And this is Oregon from the plane.  So many trees.  If you love trees, and let's face it, who doesn't love trees?  You will love Oregon.  It's so pretty here!

After we landed, and got our rental car, we met up with my friend, Kristen, for lunch.  She suggested we come here for our romantic getaway.  Which is story in and of itself.  She moved here after we graduated from high school.  It was so good to see her and reconnect (and not just on facebook!)  We ate lunch at a place in Troutdale just outside of Portland.  Here are the pictures:

This is the name of the place we had lunch. This place is full of names that I'm not sure how to pronounce or spell. :)

This place is gorgeous!  I just kept thinking that my sister would love it here.

This is me and Kristen.

Some of the fun art that was all over the walls.  I do believe the Black Rabbit is the name of the restaurant we had lunch at, too.

The artsy statue at the entrance.

While we were eating, birds were everywhere.  It was really neat.

After lunch, Kurtis and I went and checked in to our hotel.  We are staying at the Paramount Hotel.  This is the view from our window.  I really think this is a nice place to stay.

Here are couple of the exterior.

I picked this hotel because it has a jacuzzi tub.  Now, I want one. :)

Friday (yesterday) was our anniversary.  Kurtis and I have been married for ELEVEN years now!  That's crazy.  I'm not old enough to have been married for eleven years.  We went hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.  We were going to go on the Multnomah Falls to Devil's Rest to Wahkeena Falls hike.  It's 5 miles and takes you on a loop around to see the Multnomah Falls, Fairy Falls, and Wahkeena Falls.  It seemed ambitious for us, but I thought, "Oh, 5 miles?  I can totally do that!"  Well, I don't really know if I could have or not because when we got to the top of the Multnomah Falls, we decided to go back down.  We thought we would drive to the Wahkeena Falls trail head, and take the half mile hike up to see it, but after getting some ice cream, and resting for a bit, we decided we should just go to the Rose Gardens.  That was going to be our next destination any way, and we didn't want to be over tired for it.  The Multnomah Falls hike is 2.2 miles to the top and back, so we did pretty dang awesome for a couple of old people.

Multnomah Falls

On the way up the trail, there are a bunch of little waterfalls that are so beautiful.

This is my favorite spot on the hike.  That waterfall creates a mist that is very cooling.  Especially on the way down.

The mist created a rainbow on the other side of the bridge.

Gorgeous!

Getting closer to the top.

Almost to the view point area.

The view from the top.

The two of us at the top.

The lighting was different on our way back, so I had to take another picture.

Here are some of the roses at the Rose Gardens.  It wasn't as spectacular as we were hoping it would be because most of the roses weren't blooming yet.

This would be a wonderful place for bridal or wedding pictures.

Me at the Rose Gardens.

The view of the city from the gardens.

Then we went back to our hotel, cleaned up, and went to this wonderful restaurant across the street.  It is called Pastini Pastaria.  It has incredible Italian food.  If you ever get the chance to come to Portland, you must eat here.  It's delicious.  We even had dessert.  Because it was our anniversary.  Special occasions require desserts! :)

After dinner, we walked around and took some pictures.

How would you like to go to church in a castle?  This is the first Baptist Church

I also thought this Presbyterian church was gorgeous too.

Well, I apologize for the length of this post.  But pictures help make it even more awesome.   Today, we are heading to the beach.  I'll tell you about it later!