how could I forget kayaking!!

My brother and I hiked, well, to the clouds.  When we got there, we had a stunning view of .... Mt Rainier!

Another stunning view of Mt rainier... WA style

Whitney getting ready with Aunt B.  A total natural at it.  Definitely not something she learned from me.  Minnie drying in the background from the flush incident.

Girl's day!  Whitney thoroughly enjoying the food

Tucker right before naptime in grandma's arms.

naptime in grandma's auto

Naptime in grandma's auto, but seriously.  How does she do that????

waiting for the ferry  Pretty cool to see this ship come in

Whitney made beds for them to read books in

Whitney wanting her picture taken "with her teeth"

One day I was getting them packed up to go somewhere in the car.  They both went in and sat on the stool together, swinging their legs.  They were having so much fun waiting for me to get ready!  It was cute.

a better pic of when they were in a moment of playing nicely together

I was trying to catch the shot of Tucker with his arm around his watermelon and patting it like a good ol' buddy.  But then he saw the sticker and got really distracted.

Whitney set this up  on her own, then came to tell me, very seriously, that "baby was hungry and needs to eat"

Big Fish finally went belly up

First kayaking trip.  Tucker is with Mommy

Whitney and Mommy

whitney and Grandma

I forgot to blog last week about Tucker and Whitney's first kayak trip.  I tried it with my mom.  I wasn't sure if they would like it, sit still enough or how long they would like it.  My worries were unfounded.  They took to it naturally.  They sat where they were supposed to, tried to row and directed me where they wanted to go next.  They kayaked probably for about 15 minutes.  I was the one that got bored, not them.  It was a hit!

Today Tucker asked to talk to Grandpa for the first time.  He usually asks to talk to Grandma.  I guess it's because my dad talked to him a bit on web cam today.

They say the funniest things, so this will be a random blog of random things they say, usually when playing.

They still really like taking all of Baby's clothes off, but can't figure out how to put them on yet.  Kind of like how they are with their own clothes, I guess.  Finally Whitney just gave up on getting clothes back on one of her babies (the one pictured above) and said "Baby has orange pajamas".  Fine by me.  I don't get asked to put her clothes back on.

This is yet another tired blog.  Last time I was tired from having too much fun.  Today I'm tired because..... Tucker is growing.  He woke up at 1 am, 3 am, 5 am and 8 am, all asking for food by saying in this really sad, but whiny voice.  "I need to EAT".  Then he went to church and ate the lunch I usually give him in the car on the way home within the first hour of church.  When I went to pick him up from nursery, I asked how things went.  The nursery leader said, "well, they were hungry today.  Tucker was really upset when we left snack room, so I brought him back in for seconds"  I couldn't believe it.  He had hit up his nursery leader for more food.  At the five am feeding, I asked Jim to take over.  Whitney had woken up between Tucker's two feedings, so I felt I'd been up 3 times.  Just like they were newborns.  But then Tucker proceeded to eat for an hour.  Poor Jim.  He was up a long time today.  Tonight we are installing a bag of fish crackers by his bed.  Not waking up.

Yesterday was a fun day.  We had a service project thing we did that involved replacing rotting parts of the deck.  Lots of really cool power tools.  Tucker did not let Daddy out of his site.  Probably a good thing.  Yesterday was also the first day that we forgot Tucker's shoes.  My part included weeding.  It hurts to weed if you don't have shoes.  Lots of pokey weeds.  We both thought the other had put shoes on tucker and he had walked out to the car barefoot, so we just didn't think of it.  Usually he waits on the step to put his shoes on.  But he was really afraid that Daddy was going to leave him, so he beelined it to his car seat.  Oops.  The weather was gorgeous and this particular deck had an awesome view.  Very lovely.  They had a play area that we could play in, too.  Lucky us!  Made for a much more enjoyable day.  Tucker found a truck with really big wheels and pushed it down the slide to see how far it could "run" for about 30 minutes.  Whitney had a blast in the new kitchen playing with all the new food.  She was especially interested in a toaster with a slice of bread that fit and when down with the lever.  She must have been worried Tucker would get it because she brought it in the bathroom for a potty break so no one else could take it.

When we got home, Jim gave him the attachment clip of an old badge to play with.  You know.  Those things that you clip on, but you stretch the badge out to reach the door swipes while the badge is still attached to you.  Well, Tucker was in heaven.  Daddy was is a good place to snuggle with, but he also had this cool toy. So, he would snuggle daddy for a few seconds, then pop up to pull out the string, then go back to snuggling.  He repeated this several times.  Cracked us up.  Life is just too good.

Friday we were reading the new library books we checked out.  For the last three weeks we've had these books from the library, three of which had similar titles.  I love bugs.  I love trains.  I love boats.  Anyway, this week, we got a book that has the title, Can you guess what I feel.  It has a picture of a cartoon kid holding a stuffed animal sheep up against his face.  So Tucker asked to ready the "I love sheep" book. Cracked me up.  I also traded out some toys on friday, so they have their wood blocks to play with again.  I heard Whitney chanting a phrase that was in those books, but replacing the word with blocks.  "Blocks, blocks, blocks.  I love blocks." It still surprises me how much they retain what they are exposed to right now.  I keep saying how surprised I am, but I'm always surprised.

One of the other toys that they got back out was this alligator xylophone that has a hammer on a string.  They pull it around the house by the hammer more than anything.  I was sitting playing the piano holding Tucker and Whitney was playing right by me, so I wasn't paying too much attention to what she was doing.  But then I kept getting wiffs of what I thought was someone cooking a really good dinner.  She had gotten some rosemary out of the fridge and was feeding it to alligator (he also has a mouth that opens).  Yep.  Aligators probably like plants.

We've been taking advantage of the still beautiful weather.  I still can't believe that it could be sunny yet another day, so I've still been acting like the sun will never come back.  Monday we played at the park with the animals for 3 and a half hours.  We played, ate lunch, looked at the animals, played some more.  It was awesome.  I had a friend there, so we got some talking in between, which also made me not want to leave.  It was just so pleasant!

We also went to the splash park.  We started at the dry playground, went to the splash pad, then came back to dry playground.  We were there most of the day. Another lovely, non-housework day.  A couple of funny things about that.  Tucker left the splash pad dry.  He's not into the spray on his face.  He stayed near me and played Tucker doggy instead.  We ate watermelon for lunch (surprise, surprise) and, as we were walking to the playground, I heard Whitney laughing.  I turned around and she was squeezing her fingers together with her other hand, then trying to separate them, laughing, and saying "sticky fingers!"  They were so sticky the skin was deforming the shape of her fingers as she pulled them apart.

At night Jim and I have been trading off to do stuff.  I went to dinner with my visiting teachers, way fun.  And kayaking with another friend after.  Jim went night diving for shrimp and evening diving (sun still out) for crab the next night. Summer is so much fun!

Today they were playing "drums" so nicely together on the i-pad.  Another instrument on that game is a saxaphone.  In Whitney's Clifford book, there is a picture of a saxaphone and Whitney pointed to it and said "Tucker likes that one!"  So I said, oh, the saxaphone?  And they say saxaphone now.  It sounds so funny, like it is a word too big for them.

Whitney has really been having a blast with these blocks.  She is making computers, seats for her dolls and Whitney and Mommy houses all over the house.

Here's something Aunt B would like.  Whitney one day grabbed the mushroom from the kitchen.  It is soft and is in the shape of a blush brush.  Whitney started dabbing her eyes and cheeks, and mine too, saying "I'm putting on my blush!"  Another thing she DID NOT learn from me.  But picked up on very quickly.  A natural.

There are a few things they are doing that really pull at my heartstrings in a good way.  Tucker has started saying to me at random times of the day: "Hi Mom!  How are you doing?"   He also says thank you for things I help him with or that Whitney helps him with.  So cute!  They both continue to sing whatever primary songs we've been singing on their own at random times in the day as well as asking to read "noah", the old testament scripture picture thing they like to look at in the morning.  Melts my heart!