Are we having fun yet?: waaaaaaay better than Disneyland

This post is dedicated to Sue, Marshall, and Autumn. You are wrong. So wrong. There are other places way better than Disneyland. Read on if you want to know where.

We went whale watching off of San Juan Island. It was an amazingly clear and sunny day. The Sound was like a lake. It was warm for here. And it was fabulous. I've been wanting to do this since we moved here and I saw the tourist info pamphlets when we lived in downtown Seattle. I finally just booked the trip and hoped for good weather. I also picked a boat that had room inside for our kidlets in case it got cold. That was still a good pick because that ended up being a life saver for us. It was warm, but it still gets windy with the boat moving along. Here's what we saw.

Sea lions, seals, bald eagle, one jelly fish, harbor porpoises, Dall porpoises, transient Orca whales, and humpback whales. The absolute best part of the trip was the Dall porpoises. They are about 5 feet in length and have coloring similar to Orca whales. The best part was that they were playing in the pressure wave off the bow of the boat for about 15 minutes while we ooooddd and aahhed. It was so fun to look straight down into the water about 6 feet below us and see these animals jump and jump and jump. The next best part was the humpback whales. There is a rule about whale watching that boats don't get too close, but in a boat you can kind of chase/follow them around. And that is what we did. The amazing part about the humpbacks was the size and slow motion of them. We saw their blow holes and then the immensity of their tail fins as they both dove down almost at the same time. Since they are so big, it almost seemed like they were diving in slow motion. The third best part was watching the Orcas. They were swimming near the surface of the water at a fairly fast pace for about 1/4 of the length of the San Juan Island. It was so fun and amazing to see those fins pop up. One of the decided to breach slightly out of the water and we all squealed in delight.

At first I wasn't sure if Tucker and Whitney were into it or could see them. I had the advantage of binoculars, but they never did figure those things out. But then Whitney commented that the whales were like cows because they were black and white. Tucker wanted to look at more "whooo whoo trains" because when they blew out their blow holes it looked more like steam coming out of Thomas than anything else he had seen.

Being on the ferry was also really fun. We saw an amazing sunset, a burial at sea (I didn't know you could do that on a ferry) and Whitney was fascinated that an entire school bus got on the ferry.

And of course, any time we go somewhere, Jeremy wants good food. The place we went to had a squid salad which was papaya salad with squid on top. Tucker and Whitney loved it. Whitney loved the squid and Tucker downed the papaya. I ordered a beet salad, which actually was very, very delicious. It was apples, beets, blue cheese (the real stuff) and dark greens. Can't tell you the greens because I'm not familiar with them, but all of it together was fabulous. Whitney and Tucker begged the beets off my salad. It's really fun to feed them real food because they love it so much, until it bites you back and you have to share stuff that is yummy that you didn't want to share. I made them eat the salad, too, but they liked it. The place we went was also decorated like the inside of a ship and they liked seeing all the parts big in the restaurant and small on the models.

Jeremy went to Utah a few weekends ago. He got invited by a friend to go canyoning. He called me and told me of his adventures. The only way I was able to listen to his stories is because he was alive when he told me. He went through a hole so small that he was only able to free himself by letting out his breath so his ribs could wiggle through. He got through it and had to take off his helmet because it was too round. Then he dropped 10 feet down after unlatching his helmet. Then there was the story about swimming through the water.... twice.... in the dark after being so tired and beat up. The water in a canyon is very, very cold. He says he captured air in his waterproof bag that his parents gave him awhile back to give him a floatation device of sorts to get across the cold water. And last but not least he jumped into mud and twisted his knee at the very beginning of the hike. He heard a loud pop. He hiked on it for another 10 hours. He finally went to the doctor this week and the doctor thinks he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus. He would make the worst patient ever, so if any of this is confirmed in an MRI and surgery, he can go see someone else. His co worker asked why I didn't tell him to wear a brace. Why????!! Because he doesn't listen to physical therapists, let alone a wife. By the way, Sue, Marshall and Autumn. This last paragraph is not part of the way better than Disneyland section. This is why I stayed home and let him go do his thing. As he was telling me these stories on the phone, his voice was the monotone of someone really tired, trying to recall events. Yipes. I can't believe he wanted to do this and that he lived through it.

All of Ethan's hard work of being upright during all waking hours is paying off. He can sit unsupported for about a minute now. He started sitting unsupported on the 30th of September, and he loves practicing. He started off with a 5 second spurt. To me, it is amazing that he is sitting up already, but I guess he is 4 months old. It's passing so much more quickly this time. Maybe because he's been pretty good at sleeping since 2 months, another lovely miracle in my life.

Ethan loves to be with his siblings. When he gets bored and cries, I just bring him to watch them and he loves it. They love to play with his toys I got out for him and show them to him. Tucker decided that his "baby woof woof needs a baby rainbow". Translation: They call the arch thing that toys hang down from and is attached to a blanket a rainbow. Woof woof is the stuffed animal dog that Tucker finally acknowledges is his from his package of birthday balloons from Grandma in the Attic last year. Baby woof woof is when the dog is pretending to be a baby. And of course he needed a smaller one for his own baby.

That same day I heard Whitney playing quietly by herself. Here is what I heard her role playing. Whitney doll: "Papa, Mom's asleep. Can we watch a movie?" Papa doll: "Yes Whitney".

We had a crazy amount of rain for the first of the season. Lots of wind and LOTS of rain. It was a heavy down pour for four days. So on the fifth day the temperature was not as bad and it was a light drizzle. In years past, light drizzle is good for winter and I thought winter had settled in. So we went for a wind and rain soaked walk. Tucker and Whitney were good with it. Ethan didn't love it as much. I found out he's not really a fan of the wind in his face. Oh yeah. Whitney was very excited to use her Hello Kitty umbrella for real. Tucker was jealous. He informed me that Papa forgot to get him a froggy umbrella. Really.

When I was pregnant with the twins, I lived on salsa. Anything good with salsa really helped. It was Tucker. That's what he wanted. This week he ate four of his handfuls of sugar snap peas because I let him dip it in salsa. It tastes pretty good. The same day Whitney downed an entire package of yellow cherry tomatoes. She loves those things. A different day they ate an entire small cantaloupe between the two of them. I guess their bodies needed some serious yellow vegetable.

Jim went shopping and brought home these pumpkins on a stem. They are alive and still growing like flowers. It was pretty cool. He brought those for me. Then he brought the kids these brilliant flowers that had been dyed. They loved it. He picked out a bunch that had pink and blue in it. That turned out to be silly. They both wanted a pink one. I picked one out for each and put it in an individual vase to put in their room. They have been fascinated with how their water is turning pink. And how my water mixed together to make green water.

My new favorite thing that melts my heart and I know won't last long is Whitney likes to pick out her clothes based on what color I'm wearing. If I wear purple, she wants to wear purple also. Oh! I found some mini frames and put a picture of Whitney in one of them. I let her pick which miniature frame to put her picture in. She loves the frame, and I think she loves the fact that she has her picture in it. She looks at it often.

I finally got out that exersaucer thing for Ethan. He loves that thing. Jumps a bunch in it. He also likes to watch others jump. Whitney and Aisley had a play date of just girls. They decided to make the couch cushions lily pads and would jump from one to another. Ethan thought that was absolutely hysterical. The girls loved entertaining him.

I had a blast having just the girls. They still didn't really play together too much, but it was so relaxing to not have to tell Tucker to leave Whitney alone and for Whitney to not have abnormally loud fits. We also made glitter princess hats and made cookies that ended up tasting gross.

Earlier that day they invented "going to the store and getting curtains" and then hung them up in their tree house. The curtains were the covers to the chairs. It was because I finally got window coverings for our windows and it was quite a lot of work to install them. Took Papa all night and me the next day.

Here are some exclamations of Tucker that made me laugh: "Mom! I have a big mole hole in my pants!" Anything that is a hole is a mole hole. Not sure why. And yes. Four of his pants have holes in the knees. Another one: " I love my Ethan!" He said this one day when we were loading in the car. Tucker talking to Whitney: "Tomorrow I get to be the kid and you get to be the panda, OK Whitney." He said this as they were coming in from playing outside in the rhody bush. They have been playing kid/princess and panda. Whitney is usually the kid or the princess as the kid/princess is the boss and tells the panda what to do.

They found a new place to climb. Up a cedar tree. The first time they did this, I was a little freaked out. Ok. A lot freaked out. In no time flat they were up to the height of a fence. Then I realized they have skills. Climbing a cedar tree is like climbing a spiral staircase. You have a lot of little steps. But then I realized they stop at a certain point in the tree because the branches are too narrow. Tucker told me this over and over one day about how I shouldn't go up higher because I'm too heavy, but not Bad Dedo or Panda. Only Bad Dedo and Panda can climb on the skinny branches. They also stay next to the trunk the whole time. And I also realized that if they did fall, they land on a thick layer of wood chips. Ok. They can climb. I have so many fond memories in trees from when I was a kid.

Panda. I don't let them bring inside toys outside and vice versa. I really don't like cleaning, so I have a lot of rules around keeping things clean. One day, though, I put their pandas in their jacket pockets so they could go climb in the tree with them. They thought that was so funny, Tucker especially. He was laughing his Santa laugh about it.

And Bad Dedo. Tucker first came up with bad dedo when "bad dedo took off the wheels of tow truck". Any time Whitney starts screaming about what Tucker did, Tucker says Bad Dedo did it. Riiiiiiight. Bad Dedo always accompanies Tucker in time out.

They really know their way around town. They tell me when I pass the street that leads to various parks. Tucker also has other places memorized. We went to another house that is in the same neighborhood as one of his friend's house that has a trampoline. He was very, very upset that we left that neighborhood without stopping to jump on the trampoline. It took a good half an hour once we got home to calm him down. Jeremy was convinced he needed a trampoline, but I told him he wouldn't like it once he had one. Plus it is only 2 months or so that it would really be used. The rest of the time would be keeping pine needles, branches, leaves, maple seeds, pine cones, etc. It's like a pool. Lots of upkeep for not as much use. He'll just have to keep those friendships alive.
And then, at Christmas one year you will see that Papa got convinced and did it anyway.... Stay tuned.

canyon petroglyphs

The ACL jump

desert morning glories

canyon pictographs

Watching Jesus movies

This got Tucker and Whitney giggling hysterically. Sideways toothbrushes

Our brilliant flowers. Only one pink one left

Ode to fall

Making Woof Woof look at himself in the mirror while playing under the counter in the bathroom

Observing the scenery

The boys on the ferry

Tucker and Whitney scoping out Grandma's new dream house

Waiting to go whale watching

On the whale watching boat

sea lions and birds

Ethan had to wear a life jacket when he was out of his baby backpack. Yeah. He couldn't reach his hands to chew on them, so he was in the backpack the whole time.