Trip to Madison

We traveled to Madison to visit my sister and her family the last week of October. I usually just see her once a year because she lives so far away. This was the first time Kevin was able to come with me on the plane and it was a HUGE help. The car ride to the airport was eventful, as Lucy got carsick and vomited all over her carseat and clothes. We had to park our car there and didn't have time to clean anything so we changed her clothes and left her pukey carseat locked in the car.

Isak loved watching all the airplanes take off and the moving walkways and escalators. I am deathly afraid of both so I let Kevin take him on all those fun adventures. Our plane ride there went pretty well, we were well equipped with treats, iphone games, and dvds. At one point the flight attendant even gave us free tv and claimed it was because another customer who was eligible for the free upgrade declined it. I think it was because Lucy was screaming and she was trying to get her to be quiet. Either way, it worked in our favor. Frontier Airlines is awesome, we got warm cookies on each flight, we were big fans. Our plane had to circle about 3 times while trying to land in Madison because of high winds, making an extremely turbulent flight. I did not handle this well and judging by the number of puke bags I saw leaving the plane, no one else did either. We went to the zoo the first day which was great because it was so cold, no one else was there! The zoo they have there is a free zoo and has tons of great animals and exhibits. They had a great playground with huge climbing structures. Isak decided to don a matching lemur costume with Maddie and they wore them to the zoo. Don't their tails look awesome?

It was fun having all the kids together and letting them spend time with their cousins. Especially now Isak is old enough to remember things. It was great having Maddie and Martin there who are 7 and 9, they are old enough to entertain the younger ones and can help out quite a bit. Perhaps this is why people have more children.

The elementary school is just across the street from where they live and has a fun forest area to explore as well. Below is Caleb posing. Him and Isak raced a lot, Caleb is super fast and always won. It helps he is a year older as well.

Maddie got a new bike for her birthday and loves riding it around everywhere. She is quite the character.

Reed is just a few months younger than Lucy and would always give me a smile. He really loves my sister and would cry anytime she was out of sight. He started to warm up to use after a few days and would no longer cry if I talked at him or looked at him wrong. :).

Maddie just turned 7 and I made her some cute hair flowers and a headband. She sported this and some of her Barbie make up to church on Sunday. She looked pretty awesome.

I loved that Kevin came along because I could do things with Valerie and didn't feel bad about leaving my kids. We went shopping one day and hit up a thrift store where we had all sorts of great finds...ie, red leather pants for $0.10, wooden picture frame $1, fluffy pink pillow for lucy...$0.10, piano bench for $7...I wish Othello had one of those!

My cute sister and some of her kids. We did a race on Saturday, it wasn't a big one, not too much of a big deal, except, we RAN to the starting line. Which also wouldn't be a big deal, except that it was 13.5 miles away. In another town. Madison has more bike trails and running trails and skiing trails than anyplace I have ever seen. Anyway, my sister thought it would be a terrific idea to run to the starting line, sign up for the race, then run the race. It was the UFO days in a nearby town, they even had a doll head float. So, I ended up running almost 17 miles when all was said and done. I was pretty sore on Sunday, I hadn't run that far since September.

We went to the arboretium one day and explored and saw some wild turkeys. The kids had alot of fun running all over and climbing on the leaf piles.

We also went to the children's museum in Madison while we were there which was amazing. They had a water room, a huge climbing structure, arts and craft room, tons of neat hiding places and things to play with. Above is the shadow room where this camera will take a picture of your shadow on the wall everytime you push a button. It was pretty cool.

The roof had a chicken coop, a garden, and several herbs the kids could taste test. There were binoculars the kids could look out over the city.

I also introduced my sister to the beauty of spray painted furniture and we found and painted this piano bench.

We had so much fun! Now if only I could convince her to move to Othello.....

This past weekend was super busy. Kevin and I got a deal on some armoires they were moving out of the Red Lion in Richland (us and many other people) and we got them for $50. So Kevin and his cohorts who were also purchasing these spent most of Friday and Saturday morning hauling these incredible heavy things onto a trailer and then unloading them. I am going to probably refinish them, not because they need it, but more because I have 3 identical armoires and need to make them look diferent. Anyway, they are huge and very, very heavy. Above is Keivn and Reuben displaying their super awesome moving belts. They were both super sore on Sunday. I am thinking when we move again we might leave some of them with the house. Anyway, I will put some pictures up when I redo one of them.

Meanwhile, Lucy tried to pose for me before church on Sunday. It would've been great, except she was yelling "cheese!" at Kevin, not me. Today I was trying to pack, unsuccessfully, as Lucy was unpacking everything as soon as I turned around. And then Isak, bless his heart, thinks he is spiderman and can do "tricks". He climbed to the very top shelf in my closet and perched himself there. And then wanted me to close the door. He's very big into finding little hiding places these days and stowing himself away.

This, of course, made Lucy quite angry that Isak was up high and she couldn't reach him. She yelled and persisted until I sat her next to him. Meanwhile, nothing was getting packed.

This picture is quite distorted the more I look at it, Lucy is not that huge. I think that Isak was leaning back or something.

Pumpkin patch

Today Isak's class went to the pumpkin patch. Isak was more excited to jump off the hay bales, but he had fun picking out a pumpkin. Lucy got to come too, although she spent most of the time tripping over vines and eating dirt.


Isak picked out the biggest pumpkin he could find and has been asking to carve it ever since. My camera showed up in the mail right after we got home so I took some pictures of the kids outside with it. Aren't they cute? Well, Lucy looks a little crazed in her picture, but I'm just so happy to have a working camera again. We had a new couple in our ward over for dinner tonight and it turns out the husband went to WSU and knows my old roommates and alot of the same people I do. Small world. And, it sounds like they will want to go out and do stuff which is a double plus! We already have them booked for a double date tomorrow night! Yea for new friends!

Ramnblings

I should be sleeping right now. My kids are sleeping, and I am working tonight, but instead I laid in my bed for over an hour, wishing I could nap. Isak ran into our room last night at 3am, screaming, "I want my ironman costume!", completely hysterical. He must have been dreaming. See, we went to the temple last night and Kevin's cousin, Angie, was kind enough to take our kids during the session. She has very awesome toys at her house, like real doggies and ironman costumes, and we had to pull our kids out when it was time to go. Isak was insistent he also needed an ironman costume. But after discovering they cost $20 and knowing it would be half price after Halloween, I conveniently forgot and distracted him elsewhere. Apparently his subconscious knew better and made itself known in the middle of the night.
Our camera is officially unrepairable. We took it to a camera shop and the parts would cost close to a new camera. This makes the 2nd one in 2 years. The first died by falling off the top of the car, and this one died in the hands of a 3 year old. And Lucy about finished off our laptop this morning, slamming down the already cracked lid. Good thing money grows on trees, right?
We are going to Wisconsin in 12 days to visit my sister and her family. I am very excited, we only get to see them maybe once a year. Hopefully I will have a new camera by then. That I will have to keep in a steel case...protected by fire....

Isak broke my camera this week, shoved in the lens while it was out, so I am cameraless. I have had to resort to using Kevin's phone for pictures. Anyone know of a camera repair shop nearby?Meanwhile, I dressed Lucy really cute this morning for church. I love picking out outfits for her, and so far, she doesn't care what she wears. Its so fun! Boys just aren't the same to dress. Unfortunately, she did not want her picture taken. I hit a couple garage sales this weekend and picked up these awesome 3 wheel trikes for a total of $5 for both. With some new batteries, they are as good as new and the kids love riding them around. Completely worth $5.

Kevin and I went on a nice little date Saturday night and enjoyed a leisurely weekend at home. Oh and Boise State won. Again. And moved up to #3 in the rankings. I made Lucy a BSU tutu. I will have to post a picture soon. Kevin and I have decided if they go to the championship game, we will mortgage our children and go. I think its a great idea.

The house is mostly repainted, if you look close you can still see the red, it will need a few more coats. Yesterday we were driving in the car and Isak said, "mom, its so hot outside, you would cook just like a pancake!". I have no idea how hot that is but apparently, hot enough to cook some breakfast food.
Lucy has been saying some funny things lately. Her new phrase, "oh man!" and her favorite.."allllright!". She will also try to count..1,2,8,9,10! only its not super intelligible. Today she had an "accident" in the bathtub so I took her out, wrapped her in a towel and sat her on a chair. While I was cleaning it she walks in saying "pottee..pottee.." and promptly peed all over the floor as well. Isak then walked by and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this is not good. This is not good at all". So helpful. Lately when we have been putting him to bed he has been yelling at Kevin from his room.."I just so mad at you daddy I can't sleep! I'm just so angry right now! I can't even take a nap I so mad!". They are funny kids, so funny, they I cannot wait to go to work today at 3 and let Kevin have them all night!

Kevin and I were painting our front door today with the paint sprayer. We caged Lucy successfully but Isak was wondering around. Since he's old enough to not touch things and to listen (in theory), we thought it would be fine. And it was. Right up until he picked up the spray gun and gave it a squirt. ALL over the front of the house. Fun thing about sprayers, it sprays dots of red everywhere. Luckily we have some extra paint.
One very sad little boy in timeout. He is so very naughty sometimes,but, we love him. Isn't that the saddest face ever?

Kevin was working on putting up our fence today and dug a hole for the post. It was also big enough for Isak and Lucy to squeeze in. I thnk this is one of the few pictures I have of them together both smiling. Don't mind Lucy's mullett, I was sleeping and Kevin was in charge of her hair, bless his heart.