Lava Canyon

This weekend we went hiking with some friends up near Mt St Helens. We hiked the Lava Canyon, the Ape Caves (Allie and Mike did the upper Ape Caves), and the Trail of Two Forests.

The view from our picnic site.

So many great views!

We crossed this bridge. It was fun watching other people cross. Right before us, some people crossed with a golden retriever. The dog wouldn't budge and they had to carry it across.

The bridge was very bouncy. Mike and his friend thought it was funny to bounce on it right when I was in the middle. Even though heights bother me, I was okay. Just worried about losing my camera!

Luke is really into the Magic Treehouse Books right now. He is on #20 and reads them every chance he gets. He literally is spending hours every day reading. After our picnic, he pulled his book out of the car and plopped down on a rock to read. I had to snap a picture of it.

Picking huckleberries

Exploring some lava tubes. I'm not really sure that's what they were called, but they were underground tunnels formed by the lava. Luke was like a little mole and kept popping out of holes in the ground.

I just love the way Kate holds Baby Elmo in the car.

We love Elmo

We have two Elmos. Elmo and baby Elmo. This is baby Elmo.

Baby Elmo is good at sitting still for pictures.

Elmo gets like a million kisses a day.

We love Elmo at our house. Allie loved Elmo, Luke loved Elmo, and now Kate loves Elmo--maybe even more than the other two. Elmo goes everywhere with Kate and does everything Kate does. I'm not exaggerating about that--Elmo is always with her. When I tell her to put her shoes on to leave, she grabs Elmo first. When we Skype with Grandma and Grandpa, Elmo is there. We we drive the kids to school, Elmo comes along. We grocery shop with Elmo.

On friday, Kate asked for marshmallows and I told her no. (It was 2 minutes after breakfast) So she went and got Elmo and asked for marshmallows for Elmo.

We are working with Kate on saying two word phrases. Here's the bulk of what we get: "Elmo eat", "Elmo drink, "Elmo hair" (as in blow dry) , "Elmo teeth" (as in brushing), "Elmo see", "Elmo read", "Elmo slide", "Elmo night night", "Elmo bye bye", "Elmo poopy", and something like "Where's Elmo?" and so on.

Today, before I cooked some corn on the cob, I had Kate feel it and told her it was bumpy. I had her practice saying "bumpy". She ran and got Elmo and put his hand on the corn and said, "Elmo bumpy"

Does she watch Elmo? Not really--but she loves to read books about him and play with him.

I just snapped these while Kate was playing with Elmo. (1) Taking Elmo on the slide. (2) Helping Elmo climb on the measly pile of boxes I have packed that Kate knows SHE is not allowed to climb. (3) Helping Elmo climb the rock wall on her slide (4) Kate so happy to be playing with her friend

1st time on Rollerblades

Allie's birthday was today. She is 9! Yesterday the kids had friends over to celebrate and I will post pics later. Today we went to church and took the obligatory family nap after church. Allie got to stay up because it was her birthday.

We got Allie rollerblades for her 9th birthday. We went over to the church building and the parking lot near the temple so Allie could try them out. We are so blessed to go to church in the shadow of the temple.

Allie is SO funny! She had me laughing out loud.

I think this is my favorite picture from the day.

Sticking to the fence at first.

Heading for the wall.

Catching on.

I heard a crash and came around the corner and saw this.

Allie made crashing look so fun that Luke had to try it too.

Who looks good in a helmet and pads? Allie does!!!

Kate

Luke

Our happy little family

By the time we left, she got it!

Some other shots from the day

We went home and had bbq chicken sandwiches (as requested by Allie for her birthday), corn on the cob and watermelon. It feels like summer has arrived! Hooray!

Wet

Lots and lots and lots of rain today. By the time we walked from the kids school to the car, we were all soaked and dripping wet. We laughed all the way to the car. On the drive home the streets were flooded and it was raining so hard we couldn't hear ourselves in the car unless we yelled. The kids literally had water dripping off them like they had been in the shower with their clothes on. I think that was the most rain I have ever seen in my life.

Here's the scene when we got in the house--everyone stripped down and we were all laughing. Naked kids running everywhere. Luke started to turn his shoe upside down and asked me if I wanted him to empty the water in his shoes. It was that wet.

Summer Studies

With summer fast approaching I asked Allie and Luke what they might like to learn about this summer before school starts.

Allie would like to learn to cook.

Easy.

Luke would like to learn how to drive and how to make gold.

A little harder.

Ketchup Kate

This morning a nutritionist came to our house to meet with Kate. To give some background, Kate is in an early childhood intervention program because she just isn't talking as much as we think she could. She understands speech fantastically, but isn't able to articulate her own thoughts very well. Our pediatrician listened to my concerns and referred us to this program and it is wonderful. Kate has her own little team that comes by to help her. (Allie and Luke think that's pretty cool.) She has had a hearing test, sessions with a speech language pathologist and today was the nutritionist. (Kate is very small for her age, at 2 she is a whopping 21.5 lbs) Anyway, today the nutritionist came by this morning. Kate only likes soft, mushy foods and likes food with flavor and spice. The nutritionist thinks Kate has a "sensory issue" and referred for a OT (occupational therapist?) to basically check out her chewing. It sounds kind of funny to have this team of experts for Kate when there isn't anything wrong with her, but I guess any kind of help is good. The nutritionist gave me some great ideas ( I wish I had know her when Luke was little--he was just like Kate) Here's one I tried today. She suggested feeing Kate scrambled eggs (Kate will only eat the white) and putting ketchup or salsa on them to give them more flavor. I remember my cousin Ryan eating ketchup on his eggs and thinking that was kind of gross so I've never offered it to my children. She asked me if Kate liked ketchup.

I flashed back to some pictures I just took just yesterday:

Clearly, she likes ketchup. She grosses us all out by eating it plain.

After the nutritionist left, Kate was hungry so I made her and egg with ketchup. Yuck. However, Kate devoured it and asked for another. I feel dumb not thinking of it, but I think that woman was on to something. I'm excited to try out some more of her suggestions. Perhaps Kate will be a milk drinker by my next post!

Mission Accomplished

We found a house! Michael's program is only 2 years so we're only renting, but we are so excited to finally be in a house. When Allie was checking in to see how the search was coming along, she asked me to make sure the paint wasn't sloppy on the outside. Luke is thrilled to finally have a backyard. Allie is thrilled to have her own room. It's close to Michael's work and we can walk to the kid's school (my dream!) And I'm sure Kate will love it too. We are so blessed and glad to be out of an apartment. Thanks to Julie for driving me all over Portland looking at houses and to Pete for letting us take his cool car. It was a great week and after two weeks away from the kids, I'm ready to get back.