April's Adventure

This post is a few months late, but I found the pictures on the camera. We tried to drive up to Mount St. Helens the beginning of April, but the roads were closed because of the snow, so we just drove around and found a few other things to do. Click on the picture to make it bigger

Top-left to Bottom-right:  Hyrum with a snowball, Josi throwing snowball at Hyrum, 3 Elk in the trees (we saw a lot that day),
The Dude walking down the dock, Ben trying to throw Lysha in the lake, Josi wading in the lake shoes and all (good thing she rolled up her pant-leg), the view on the drive, another view, Hyrum throwing a snowball at Ben, Josi throwing a snowball at Jayme, Ben chasing Lysha with snow, a great Lysha face and kids playing in the snow.

Food Storage

BEFORE

AFTER

Heard this morning

"Josi, I broteck you".
They were playing Lego Batman on the Wii, but I hope it goes beyond that.

The Winners Are...

Well, the puppies are 7 weeks old now and will be headed to their new homes before too long.

My mom posted them on Puppyfind.com for sale. Here are the names that were chosen:

Apollo (Male)

His personality is just like his daddy's. He is super mellow.

Artemis (Female)

She is a little bully and really playful.

Fletcher (Male)

The lightest colored of them all. He was totally white when he was born.

Flower (Female)

 Josi named this one and there was no changing it! We decided that it fit because in Sleeping Beauty the fairies changed the arrows that Malificent shot at Prince Philip into flowers. She is going to be heartbroken when this puppy gets bought.

Nock (Male)

He looks just like the dog in Inspector Gadget with Matthew Broderick.

Slingshot (Female)

My dad named this one. She is the runt of the litter.

They are all so stinking cute! Anybody want one? I wish we could keep one.

This Week's Adventure

Yesterday we tagged along with Ben on his sales calls in Olympia. It was a long day and the kids were tired of being in the car and I was pretty carsick most of the time playing navigator and personal assistant.
On the way home there was a park Ben had seen during a previous day of sales calls that he asked if we wanted to stop at. We agreed and this is where we stopped.

Tumwater Falls

There is a walking path all the way around it that comes from a grassy park area to the top of the falls on the right (top pic), around across the front (middle pic), and across the bridge to the top of the falls on the left(see bridge in bottom pic). This walking path has grates in it that have excess water running under them from the falls. Josi and Hyrum were like a couple of dogs that had just got out of their kennel or off of the lease. They were running everywhere. Hyrum ran out onto one of these grates and when he realized there was water gushing beneath his feet he freaked out, like he was going to fall through. He quickly but cautiously worked his way to solid cement and ran off. Every so often he would forget himself and run onto one of the grates and freak out again. It was pretty funny.

Next we ventured over to the grassy park area. Right in the middle was this sand ocean with two cement and pipe boats.

Walking the Plank

Captain Hyrum

Sand Angels

Swimming

-complete with breath holding and "coming to the surface" for air

Of course Ben takes out the laptop and gets back to work, ha ha.

If was only for a few minutes though; he was out playing on the boats with the kids.

*Josi is NOT mooning the camera, if you enlarge the picture you can see the stripes of her pants)

Gross Factor

The other night we were sitting down to dinner for some yummy spaghetti. Hyrum was wiggling in his seat a lot, so he was sent to the bathroom to remedy that. After doing his business he came back to his seat and was chomping on something whitish colored. I watched him for a second and figured out it was a piece of gum. I asked him where he got it from and he casually said "fwom da bafwoom" (that's how cute he says it :). Oo! Gross! I can't help but laugh, which peaks Ben's interest and he wants in on the joke. I tell him Hyrum got gum out of the bathroom and he is grossed out to.
Want in on the joke?
Well, the only place for Hyrum to get gum from the bathroom is the garbage can, which happens to sit right next to the toilet.
On the brightside, it was fresh because Ben had just spit it out when he used the facilities a few minutes before dinner.
More gross... there were splashes of liquid (use your imagination -remember, right next to the toilet) on the other stuff in the garbage can.

Change of Address

I was just sitting here reading some blogs of friends from Arizona and it dawned on me; we are no longer the "Arizona Harlows". Guess I am gonna have to do something about that. Any suggestions for our blog name now?

Sardines

    Well, we have all of our stuff now. We have put as much as we can in our little 2-bedroom apartment and crammed the rest into the garage. I am gradually unpacking boxes and repacking anything that isn't something that will be needed everyday. I plan on needing to hunt things down from time to time as the need for something packed away arises. I am still missing some things so I will have to go through the boxes in the garage I thought could just be stored. We were able to fit both our black couches and white furniture in here. The white couch and the black couch and loveseat are tightly fit into the front room. The white chairs are in our room. They all took a beating in the move. Luckily we wrapped the white ones or they would have been much worse. The black ones definately wouldn't sell for what they could have before we moved. Fortunately most of the damage is in the back so you can't see it went it's set against a wall. 
   I have found that with only one car that is with Ben all day and only the bank within walking distance, for a 5 and 3 year old, that I am spending much less money. We do our shopping on Saturday only so there are much fewer impulse buys.
   I have been running still a few days a week and find it a nice way to de-stress in the evenings when Ben gets home and can watch the little hooligans that are our children. (You can keep up with my running on my running blog, but you will need to be invited, so just leave your email in a comment here if you would like to read it.)   My mom used to always say that she just didn't understand women that couldn't wait to be away from their children; she always wanted us around and there were seven of us. I think now that she has had my kids under the same roof with her for nearly a month, she understands the need to have at least an hour without them.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little boogers and do miss them immensly when I am apart from them. But they have so much energy and just can't seem to release it all no matter what they do. Thankfully, they still require naps everyday to keep them from getting grumpy during the second half of the day and they sleep for ten hours every night. They are almost always very happy and loud and very inquisitive. They have to know everything that is going on with everybody. And now they are stuck in our tiny apartment with few chances to go outside because of all of the rain we get here in the Seattle area. When they do get to go out, we have only a small common area for a yard and you can never be sure how long you will have because even when it is sunny out, it could rain at anytime. This only intensifies the effect of their energy.
I told Josi this morning that it was the first day of summer today. She was very excited and asked, "does that mean it's not going to rain all the day?"  I didn't want to crush her spirit, so I told her that it probably wouldn't rain as much. Well, I best get back to unpacking somemore.

Out and About

We didn't bring much with us to our new place and the kids and I were getting a little bit of cabin fever the first day. We decided to go out and explore the neighborhood. Our place is right at the front of the neighborhood, so we headed deeper in. The street we live on has "no outlet" and at the end we discovered this park. It has a couple of baseball fields and a lot of open area with a gravel path running through it.

The kids chased a squirrel up a tree.

It sloped up a few feet to a big black plastic covered barrier running along one edge of the parkwith a narrower paved trail right next to it. Standing on the gravel trail it looked like it was just a big wooded gully that is so common in the northwest. So, we mainly stuck to the gravel path. After a few minutes of walking, chasing squirrels and picking up rocks and sticks we noticed a space in the barrier above us, so we decided to check it out. We found a staircase and pathway leading down to the river which had been running along the barrier the whole time!

 At the end of the path was this little beach.

It is not sandy, it's just mud, but the kids still had a great time drawing in the mud with sticks.

(Note to Nana: whenever we get a chance to go to the beach, Josi wants to take watermelon. She tells me everytime she thinks about watermelon or the beach)

Here is a shot of the staircase when we headed back up. It was so fun, like a secret little path. You feel like you are in the middle of the wilderness until you get back to the top of the stairs. I decided the path along the river would be perfect for running and a few days later I went running and discovered that there are several of these little beaches along the river. Looks like it would be a good place for tubing.

On the walk home the kids dragged sticks and hands along the fences.

Wear Your Seatbelt

Thought this was an awesome video.

Awww Factor

I love living in the country. Growing up my siblings and I were lucky enough to experience lots of baby animals over the years. Being here with my parents my kids have been able to experience a little of that. At Easter, my dad bought 4 little chicks to increase his egg laying brood and allow Josi and Hyrum the opportunity for a little responsibility in taking care of them.

The kids have been enamoured by the cute little fluff balls, which have since turned into smaller versions of a full grown hen.

Early Wednesday morning some new babies joined the crew here at the Baird household. Their beagle, Aero, gave birth to 6 little butterballs. Two little girls have the black, white and brown coloring; one little girl has what they call "lemon" coloring. The other three are little boys and two of them are nearly white. They may get a little darker as they grow, but for now they look almost albino.

Here it comes.....

 "Awwwww"

Josi and Hyrum were so excited when they woke up and found them in Alysha's room (for some privacy, since Lou isn't currently using it). Josi ran upstairs to wake me, bubbling over with excitement that the puppies had finally come. She has been asking everyday for the last 2 weeks when the puppies would be coming. She has already stated that she is stealing the black ones to keep as her own.

Now, because the parents names are Beau and Aero (say it out loud) we are looking for good archery related names. We will be taking votes.  So far we have Archer, Fletcher (puts the feathers at the end of an arrow), Quiver (the case for arrows), and Artemis (goddess of hunting), Aphetoros (god of archery) or Apollo for a nickname, Bolt, Quarrel (another name for a bolt) Bodkin, Bowyer (one who makes bows), Daikyu (Japanese long-bow), Hankyu (Japanese short-bow), Gungdo (Korean archery), Nock (which to me just sounds too much like what happened to Aero to result in the puppies), Riser (handle of bow), Stave (wood a bow can be make from), Bracer (protective strap for archers forearm). Keep in mind, these names may not stick once a puppy is purchased, but at least they will have good names for 8 weeks or so. Artemis and Apollo are pretty much definites. So cast your vote in a comment!

Heard today

Josi: Mommy, I know everything about dogs. They don't wear shoes and they don't wear clothes.
Me: That's right.
Hyrum: I'm wearing clothes!

Seen and Heard today

My 3 year old walking to his room with his underwear around his ankles to change them. Then Grandpa asking, did you pee or poop in your underwear. The 3 year old searching through his underwear then saying, "I think I drop it ".

Running Blog

So Kris gave me the idea to keep a separate blog for my running. I love it. I will make it private though, so anyone that wants to be kept informed on my running just comment on this post with the email address you want it send to and I will send you an invite. I will also get rid of past posts about running on this blog, but they are all on the other one now.
(I accidentally deleted the first post, so I had to re-post this one :)

Worth 1000

She is going to kill me when she grows up, but this is one of the privileges of being a parent!

She was in the middle of changing into her jammies when nature called. I snuck up on her and was able to get this picture. This is definitely one of those that is worth 1000 words. She can't read them, but she loves to look at them because Papi does it. He actually had left these next to the loo.

Ireland in a Minute

Jayme is way better at blogging and sharing everything. I'm horrible with details and just assume sum it all up. So here is Ireland from my perspective . . .

Ireland- Day 3

Sunday, Jan. 24th


We attended the Limerick branch sacrament meeting at 11am. Then we took our sack lunches and headed up north to Cong and Galway. We intended to use most of the day as a "Sunday drive".

Our first stop was Ashford Castle in Cong, County Mayo. This was the largest castle we stopped at. It was built in 1228, but was turned into a hotel in 1939. Only those staying at the hotel can go inside, but the grounds were vast and so beautiful. This was pretty high on my favorites list.


This is a shot from behind the castle. It doesn't do it justice.




This is a view of the castle through the trees. There was a path through the heavily wooded grounds that you could walk around. It was perfect for a nice Sunday walk. I think the temperature was perfect as long as you were wearing a coat and gloves. Ben was freezing though and got bored pretty quick. Mnisa and I were perfectly content to casually stroll and just look at all of the fauna around us.


This was looking back through a cute arbor that we walked through. I can just imagine how awesome it would look in the summer when it is all green and probably flowering. I just loved this shot though.



This is Eric standing in front of Squire Danaghers Home from "The Quiet Man", a John Wayne movie filmed in Ireland. This home was actually only half of the full building and we walked past it on our walk.

This was a guard tower you walked through to get onto the grounds. You could go up through on side of it and look out over the river that goes under the bridge, just past the gate.


Here are: a stranger( that kindly smiled for our photo), Mnisa, Jayme and Ben from the top of the guard tower.




Next we went to Cong Abbey. It was really neat.


It was just ruins, but had many graves around and inside of it. There was even a headstone as recent as the 1970s. I wondered who you had to be to be able to be buried in such a place. There was some beautiful stone carving that could still be seen in places. (I will add the pictures later).

















This also had a little path to walk around and there was "The Monk's Fishing Hut" that we saw too. Mnisa got much better pictures than I did, which I will put on here when she shares them :) I am a horrible photographer, in that I never remember to take pictures of my favorite things, because I am to captivated by them.

This hut was right on the river and diverted the water directly under it, so that fishing could be done through the floor. There is a fireplace there to the left of Ben (peeking through a window from a narrow ledge outside the hut).







Here Ben and Mnisa are coming back from walking the ledge outside the hut. Ben is standing on the part the diverted the water under the hut.

Dinner that night was at a Lohan's in Salthill on the coast, near Galway. Galway was rather disappointing. It was too "urban". I had crab claws, Ben had prawns, Eric had bangers and mash and Mnisa had chicken strips. We all liked it except Mnisa. I guess that's what she gets for ordering chicken strips in Ireland! (Just teasing Mnisa) Ben also had a non-alcoholic beer. I don't think he will ever do that again.

Ireland- Day 2

Dingle Penisula

Ireland- Day 1

Ireland was totally amazing. There were a lot of things that I expected like driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. This was an adventure all by itself. Other things were the almost constantly overcast skies and beautiful green country sides; fields with grazing sheep separated by low stone walls and the wonderful accents. But, there were also several things that I didn't quite expect, like the toilet handles on the wrong side of the toilet, most signs in Gaelic as well as English, all of the American music on the radio, very few red heads and such a diverse mix of people. We saw a lot of Asians, Blacks (wouldn't call them African Americans so I don't know what else to call them) and even some Pacific Islanders. I think one family we saw was Greek. One street in Dublin that was like China-town.
We left on Wednesday afternoon and got to Dublin the next evening. We drove straight to Adare which is near Limerick and Shannon. We stayed in a villa, which is like a little townhouse, on the grounds of Adare Manor. Sunset is at about 4:30PM this time of year in Ireland so it was dark for most of our drive. When we got to our villa we unpacked then found the closest grocery store to buy stuff for breakfasts, lunch for one day and snacks.
So Friday was really our first day. We let ourselves sleep in which was only until about 8. Our bodies were still on AZ and TX time (8 and 9 hours difference), so it felt like we had slept in late.
We headed south to Cork and Kinsale. Our first stop was Blarney Castle. It was a short walk from the entrance to the castle.

The castle is not at all restored, so it is just bare stone everywhere.

Our first expedition was into the dungeon. It was barely a dungeon and the sign said it was used for water storage. That was believable cause it was all drippy and wet. The boys weren't adventurous enough, so Mnisa and I just went in as far as we could with out crawling on our bellies. The boys wouldn't have made it far either, the ceilings were very low.
We didn't get any pictures here, can't remember if Eric snapped one of the girls in the entrance.

I love all the mist in the pictures. It makes the places look so magical. This here is the "Great Hall". Just above Mnisa's head on the right there are two stones that stick out farther than the wall. The signs say there was another floor and the dining room was up there. This is their guess because the kitchen was right next to it.
Ben checking out one of the bedrooms. They were all surprisingly small. The signs said it would have had a four-poster bed in it; which, as I imagined it, would have taken up the entire floor.






The staircases where all spiral, stone, very narrow and dimly lit. It definitely added to the atmosphere though.

>

This is a view from one of the top windows. It was a beautiful sunny day, one of the few we actually had much sun.



I had seen pictures and videos of people kissing the Blarney Stone before we left and I had decided I was not going to do it. It is built into Blarney Castle at the very top which is almost 90 feet above the ground. Ben talked me into it though. He was probably right, I would have regretted it if I had gone all the way to Ireland and couldn't say that I kissed the Blarney Stone. You have to lay on your back and grab onto two metal bars that have been added and lean out over the open ground (there are a couple of metal bars across the hole) and stretch to kiss the stone. There is a guy there that will hold onto your waist and help guide you down, but none of that is comforting when you catch a glimpse of the ground below and you don't much like heights.

This is Ben. This picture shows very well what I was saying above.

And below is fuzzy me, terrified.


On the grounds of Blarney Castle is a little river and waterfall and several other fun places to explore.
This was called the Witch's Kitchen. It was a little stone cave with a small fireplace inside.
There was also a circle of large stones they called the Druid's Circle. One of the stone was supposedly used for sacrifices.
There was another little cave and "The Wishing Steps". The steps said if you could walk up the steps with your eyes closed thinking of your wish the whole way up, your wish would be granted. None of us could do it. Ben made it up with his eyes closed, but he didn't think of a wish.