the good life with grandma and grandpa

Wow.  We had SO MUCH FUN.  I can't believe it has only been a week with Grandpa and Grandma (and Aunt B and Uncle Ryan).

My parents arrived Friday night after driving since 4 in the morning.  Good thing they didn't take two days this time.  I think Tucker and Whitney picked up on my excitement.  Every time I talked on the phone, they asked to talk to Grandma and I kept telling them they were coming.  We tried to distract ourselves by going to the park and the blueberry patch with some friends.  Worked pretty well until dinner.  Then none of us could stand the suspense.

Saturday we actually went to Jim's company picnic while my parents and siblings toured around town.  There was some miscommunication and I had thought my parents were driving saturday to saturday, meaning they would be there after the company picnic, so I had told Jim to count on it.  He signed up for a beach volleyball team and was ready to compete when I found out my parents were driving friday to Friday.  Oops. 

But the company picnic was totally awesome.  Tucker and Whitney had so much fun, they left the picnic totally dazed.  Or maybe that's because the sun was out.  The bounce house was the biggest hit, with Tucker most especially.  He laughed and jumped with Whitney for 2 hours.  We never made it past the bounce house.  But Daddy waved a clown over  so they got ballons and the rest of the stuff was on  the way back to the car from the bounce house.  They got shaved ice after all that bouncing. 

Whitney loved the picnic part.  She got to eat lots of different yummy food.  Tucker loved the 4 pieces of garlic bread he ate.  There was a petting zoo.  They were most fascinated with the bunnies and chickens.  They got their arms painted (easier than their face painted).  They both really loved that.  Tucker got a lizard and Whitney got a butterfly.  There was also a tortoise loose on the grass from the reptile man that they watched a bunch.  I didn't let them pet the yellow boa.  I was too freaked out.  Tucker passed out as soon as he sat in his car seat, and whitney fell asleep shortly after him.

After the company picnic, we went blueberry picking as a whole family, though.  The first grandma/grandpa activity.  It was really fun.  We had blueberries and crab for dinner.  Whitney kept saying " Mom, I need more crab" during the whole meal.  Tucker ate more bread and blueberries.  After dinner was more Olympics.  Very addicting, those Olympics.  We stayed up too late most nights.

Sunday was a relaxing day of church, chalk drawings and playing with Bozo, the clown, a punch balloon thing Grandma brought.  We also had a fire and roasted marshmellows.  We got a little family reminicising started.  The funniest memory was Brittany saying that Scott and her would try to sneak up on Grandma.  But they'd start in the car.  "Hey, let's be really quiet and sneak up on Grandma".  I got a kick out of that.  At least my mom got to drive in silence for 2 blocks.  Priceless.

Monday Whitney had her first girl's day and loved it.  She is a natural about putting on make-up.  I have no idea where she learned to tilt her head just right, but I can tell you it's not from me.  Brittany ate that up.  Whitney had the works.  But what's funny is that Tucker started the whole thing.  He asked for Brittany's lipstick, thinking it was chapstick.  Which lead to Whitney getting make up on. 

We went to a pot sticker restaurant that was delicious.  Then we went shopping a bit for me, but got Tucker and Whitney stuff instead.  It was just so much cuter!  While we were eating and shopping, Tucker was getting a scenic tour of town.  Grandpa went to the park up the road that has a bathroom close to the potty.  He didn't like the playground.  No kids on it and no Whitney.  What to do?  Grandpa took him for his "potty break" and let him flush.  Then they pushed some other buttons and walked around the visitors center.  Tucker was apparently bored because HE ASKED TO LEAVE THE PLAYGROUND AND GO TO THE CAR.  Crazy.  Never had anything like that happen to me.  So my dad started looking for another playground and ended up going all over the place.  It ended in a power nap for Tucker early in the day and a meal bar for lunch.  My dad laughed at how fast he polished off the meal bar.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had fun, fun, fun.

Tuesday we went  up the space needle and on the duck tour.  Tucker was very concerned about the bus going into the water, until we went in and were safe.  Then he talked about it the rest of the day.  "silly bus!  Went into the water!".  The space needle was very relaxing.  It was sunny, and even with lots of people, it was a subdued tone of talking for everyone.  Everyone was enjoying the view.  We also got to see some ships come in.

Wednesday we went on the ferry.  We just missed one, so we were front and center for loading.  Pretty cool.  We went to the park, beach and ate ice cream, all in the middle of the day. We threw lots of rocks in the water.  Whitney was especially happy.  When we pulled off the ferry, she asked to go to a playground.  I told her we weren't finding a playground, so she said, "ok, a beach?".  We laughed about that. 

Thursday  we went to the airshow practice.  It was boring.  Dad started playing songs for Tucker on the xilophone on the I-pad.  so we left.  We went home, grabbed some lunch and went to a museum about planes.  Which ended up pretty cool because it overlooked a run way where we were able to watch planes take off from the kid zone.  Good thing.  That way I had something fun to do. Because we were in the kid area for about 3 hours.  Tucker found a button that let an air balloon go up and down, so he did that for 20 minutes straight.  I preferred watching the planes.  Whitney loved the cockpits to climb in.

This family vacation led to some serious adventures with froggy.  We won't discuss those in too much detail, but I'm no longer mad at jim for buying froggy.  And mom and dad are only gettting grandkids out of me and Scott.  Me, because I already have them.  Scott because he wasn't here for the 4-6 pm fussytimes.  I think Ryan and Brit had enough of the screaming.

Friday was a day of discussion between Whitney and Tucker about how we can't go in Grandma's auto because it's gone.  Yep.  It was hard to get back to real life again.  Good thing this week has been nice weather.  We've enjoyed the park for multiple hours this week.  Oh yeah.  My mom was commenting on how she doesn't remember going to the park for long periods of time when we were little.  That's because we grew up in California.  Here we squish all park hours into 2 months instead of all year round.  But I still go to the park a lot.

We went to the park all afternoon for two days after Grandma and Grandpa left.  I had had so much fun not listening to screaming every day from 4-6 pm, that I decided we should go to the park or beach during that time when people were gone, too.  So far it's been pretty nice.  The only screaming I get is about 15 to 20 minutes from leaving the playground to pulling in the driveway.  Much, much better.  On Saturday we went to the beach for 3 hours.  It was heavenly.  The air was warm! We also went to the park with some friends for 3 1/2 hours this week because of all the warm air.  It's been so relaxing!
One day the babies were trying to snuggle Mommy while she was trying to type an email to Uncle Erik.  Amazingly they played nicely.  Tucker offer Whitney "one leg Whitney" on his own leg.  It was pretty cute to see Tucker letting Whitney sit on his knee without getting too mad.  We usually read stories "one leg Whitney, one leg Tucker" on my lap.  Tucker or Whitney say this phrase if they are ok sharing reading time.  But when they are not, it's "both legs Tucker", meaning, I'm not sharing.

I'm learning that imaginative play takes off with the verbal skills.  It's interesting, and humbling, to watch them play.  I see a lot of my behaviors and house scenarios occuring during this play.  Whitney plays a lot of discipling and following the rules scenarios along with lots of cooking scenarios.   She makes me soup a lot for me to eat.  She also goes to get Tucker the play watermelon when he's upset, knowing he likes it so much. They can eat 1/2 watermelon each in 2 sittings.  Whitney has also been making "computers" all over the house with her blocks.
Yesterday, when Jim came home, the usual requests started spouting out of Tucker's mouth.  He wants to eat fish crackers and watch Tick Tock (hickory dickory dock on simple songs website) every time he sees Daddy.  I asked Jim not to feed him fish crackers, as he already had his fill, but Jim did it anyway.  Whitney said to Jim "Daddy, Mommy said not to give Tucker fish crackers!"  Jim laughed really hard at that, so Whitney started laughing and smiling, too.  Then Jim said, Whitney, are you going to be my little tattletale?  And she smiled a lot like it was a good thing.  Yep Whitney.  It's a good thing for me.  I'm sure I'll learn all sorts of interesting things until she learns that, if she tells mom, life isn't as fun or tasty.

Tucker plays take care of baby pretty well, in addition to playing with all things mechanical.  Like the closet doors.  We just leave them off the track now.  If we don't there's a lot of slamming and even more play "watching movie" in the changing table.  He fell asleep in the top level of the changing table.  What was funny about it is that it looked like he did it on purpose.  Everything was situated in  that "top bunk" like it would be in his bed.

Most of the pictures were taken on phones, so I don't have too much.  Everyone.  Send me your favorites off your devices!