San Diego at Last! (Road trip day 2 & 3)

We made it! The second day of driving went amazing well. The kids literally slept what seemed like the entire way. I was the lucky one to drive us through LA--can I just say that LA is HUGE? It took us about 2 hours to drive through the LA metro area and we were not stuck in traffic. That city is just GIANORMOUS. I have never been to LA and if we weren't trying to get to SD, I would have loved a chance to explore the sites. I kept looking to the sides to see if I could get a "star sighting" I tried especially hard to look at Range Rovers and Suburbans with dark tinted windows. No star sightings. Darn.

Anyway, we made it to San Diego just before 5PM and we were so happy to get there! Here are pictures just after our arrival.

Here is our new baby nephew, Alex, Josie and Colette getting to know each other.

Big cousin, Vanessa, bonding with the A-man

Here's Sassy and Fletcher saying hello.

We took it easy the rest of the evening off to settle into our guest condo and take a quick dip in the pool. The kids passed out dreaming of the next day at the pool...

Day 3:

Everyone was up bright and early! After a nice breakfast, we headed down to the pool at about 10 AM and spent the next FOUR hours there!

Here's Aunt Kris, Alex & Colette
Baby Alex and his swim "pants" SOOOO CUTE!!

Sorry, the pool pictures are overexposed, but its pretty darn sunny here and we LOVE it! We all need some vitamin D!!! Be ware of our pasty white, Pacific NW skin! You may need to wear your sunglasses.

Jo, Mike & Colette

Vanessa our resident swimmer.

Jack-man enjoying the "Strawberry Shortcake" innertube

Colette crusin' in the SS Baby

Uncle Mike and Colette taking in some sunshine

Josie avoiding the limelight. She wasn't too big on getting in the pool, but she enjoyed dipping her feet in and throwing the pool toys in the pool.

After the pool all the kids took a monster nap and gave us some quiet time which was nice. After our naps we headed over to Aunt Kris and Uncle Mike's for a very nice summer dinner.

Colette Baby

Josie showing off her new sundress

Fletcher feasting on the bone he got from Sassy

Me with Sweet Alex

Alex showing off his pouty lip and making me look like a bad Aunt

Josie and Aunt Kris giving each other lots of cuddles

Tommorow we head to the San Diego Zoo! There should be lots and lots of pictures from our day at the zoo. Off to bed for some well deserved rest...

Road Trip Day 1: Sacramento Bound

Day 1: Itinerary: Vancouver, WA to Sacramento

We rented a sweet Suburban to get us to SoCal, unfortunately there are slight differences in storage in the front portions of the vehicle that caused a slight delay in packing the 'burban this morning. So we didn't get off at 5AM as planned. We did end up leaving around 7AM which isn't too bad all things considered.

I didn't get a shot of the Suburban, but will for future posts. The kids did great considering we didn't get to the hotel until 8PM. We did take a few extended stops to give everyone a break and stretch.

I didn't take too many pictures today, but here's the first round.

Mt. Shasta

Rest Stop Lunch

That's how we roll: Mike crusin' in the 'burban

Jack man

Jack was watching Percy and insisted that I take a photo for posterity of Percy on DVD player. Note: he even pressed pause so we could get the full effect.

Vanessa in the WAY back :)

We expect to be in SD tomorrow evening. If I have the energy, I will post again! Stay tuned for the rest of our trip!

Road Trip to San Diego

Hold on now! Vanessa is turning NINE! Yes, 9. Not only that, she is now a 4th grader. Ok, let's all pick our jaws up off the floor and wipe the tears from our eyes. It's official. She's growing up--fast--and there is nothing, and I mean nothing, I can do about it.

As a promise to her for her birthday, we told her we'd take her to San Diego to visit her Aunt Kris, Uncle Mike and her new cousin baby Alex. So we celebrated Father's Day, Aunt Eileen's Birthday and her birthday this past Sunday. On her "real" birthday, we'll be at Seaworld!

So here I am the night before embarking on a marathon road trip to San Diego with 4 kids and a dog in tow and I'm blogging just to make sure that the blog is ready to go.

I am insane and now I need to finish packing so that's it for now. Tune in frequently as you know how I love to update the blog while we travel. We can even surf the internet while in the car thanks to my handy dandy Verizon Wireless god.

Say a prayer for a safe trip for us--it should be a blast.

Ughhh.

I have been suffering from an unbelievable 8mm kidney stone for the last 2 weeks. I had an appointment to undergo outpatient surgery today to remove it and have a stint placed in my kidney to assist with the stone passage. Miraculously, I PASSED THE STONE this morning! It is so unbelievable in size, I feel like it is the biggest kidney stone ever passed without surgery. I will be having the stone analyzed and hopefully will be able to prevent it from ever happening again.

Vanessa goes "Select"

After 3 years of recreational soccer, Vanessa has made us proud again. She tried out for a “select” team and made it! The team she has been playing with for the last 2 years all made a new “select” team and will be playing at the U11 level in the fall. This is a competitive team (as opposed to just recreational) and the competition will be tougher. Vanessa’s growth as a soccer player has been amazing to watch and we are so very proud of her. This whole soccer thing has come 100% from her and she continues to want to play, so we will continue to support her. (Why else would we withstand crazy weather hot and cold?)

The picture is from last weekend at a tournament she played. It was 90+ degrees and the girls played 4 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday (although Vanessa sat Sunday out due to a cold and fever). Her team took 1st in their age bracket and she got a really cool medal!

U.P. Lady Pilots: here we come!

Jack Michael, my Hero

Most of you know that I've been suffering through a bout of kidney stones for the last 2 weeks. On one of the worst days, I was laying in bed trying to forget about the pain. Colette, Josie, and Jack were napping and Mike had taken Vanessa to soccer.

Jack woke up from his nap and found me, as he always does. He climbed into bed and snuggled with me and said that he wanted "jelly with bread". I was pretty pathetic and whinned that "Mommy isn't feeling very good. You need to be a patient boy." He got out of bed and mumbled something that I couldn't understand. I thought he went downstairs to watch t.v.

About half an hour later, the door bell rings. I was still in pain and didn't want to answer it, but then I heard Jack moving the chair to the door so he could unlock the upper lock. He was saying: "You have to wake up Mommy" over and over. So I got up and went downstairs to see who it was. Peeking through the window were 2 police officers.

I opened the door and they said: "Are you O.K.?"

At this point, I thought something had happened to Vanessa and Mike and I said "Yes! Why?!?"

The female officer talked into her walkie talkie and said "We're in contact with Mom." (Kind of like in the movies.) They looked at each other and then said: "Jack called us and said that you needed rescuing. He's been on the phone with the 911 operator until we got here. He kept saying that his mommy needed to be rescued."

I explained the situation to them and said that I've been working through some kidney stones and that I was fine. I told them that Jack was autistic and he doesn't quite understand. They said they knew that (from Jack's previous fun attempts at calling 911--it's in our "file") and that next time they will call our cell phone numbers to confirm the call is legit. I thanked the officers (profusely) and apologized as they left.

At one level I wanted to get so angry with him for wasting important community resources that way, but on another level I wanted to celebrate: He got it. Something was wrong with Mommy and he called for help. He had the presence of mind to stay on the line (Jack doesn't particularly like talking on the phone) with the 911 operator until the police got there. He totally got it.

I cried as I hugged him to tell him that I was ok, but that I was just not feeling well.

Now I know that if anything goes wrong, Jack gets it. Jack will rescue me. He is my hero.

Playing catch-up: Out of the mouths of babes

(I've been meaning to post this for some time now, but am just getting around to it.)

So I’ve been trying to get Josie to tell me when she has a “No. 2” in her diaper so we can move along her potty training readiness.

Today, I could smell the “bomb” she just dropped in her diaper, so I asked her: “Josie, did you make a poopie?”

She replied: “No.”

I asked her: “Then what’s that I smell?”

Josie said: “It’s the dog.”

Incident number 2: I smelled that brown monster again just now (in fact, it’s still in her diaper as I type) and I asked her: “Did you make a poopie?”

Josie said: “No.”

So I asked her again, “What’s that I smell?”

Josie replied: “Colette.” (Actually she says it phonetically: “Co-wette” like Elmer Fudd)

Unbelievable. I have a 2 year-old-pathological-potty-liar who is hysterically funny.

Love, The Mom of the mysterious pooper.

Baby Phat: Colette at 7 months!

There's nothing better than the sweet rolls of baby fat. Colette is now 7 months old and showing the result of 7 months of nursing. Mother nature is an amazing thing...its hard for me to believe that her life has been sustained by my milk alone.

Colette's personality is slowing coming out. She is very much a Mamma's girl and is a morning baby when she is her happiest. She's not a big fan of evenings, but is ok as long as mom is holding her. She is enjoying her newfound food (baby food, yummy!) and is happy that mom is finally sharing food with her! She is quite "grabby" so look out for your hair, necklaces, plates, and pretty much anything within her reach when you are holding her. :) She is starting to roll more and she certainly tries very hard to move to what she wants--it will not be long before she'll be crawling!

The baby stage is fleeting for me and I am very sad to let that stage of my life go, but I am excited that Colette is much more interactive with us. I'll get my baby fix soon, when we visit our new nephew, Alex, in San Diego next month.

Jack's writing homework

We recently found out that Jack will be moving on to 1st grade! He will continue going to York Elementary and will be going to school full time in the fall! I can't believe how far he's come this year and actually, how far he's come in the last month or so. We took him to a naturopath and have started him on supplements and we think its working wonders! We plan to continue the treatment and hope that he is on his way to "losing his diagnosis".

Jack does not enjoy writing--he has some fine motor difficulties, so getting him to write is a big deal. Here is a recent writting assignment that he completed at school. So cute!

Jack's Baseball: PGE Park Day

Jack is back playing baseball with his special needs baseball league the Challenger League with Columbia Little League in Vancouver. Our favorite event is PGE Park day where we get to play on the minor league baseball field in Portland. Here are some shots from our fun day!

Dad and Jack get ready to bat

Jack at bat

Jack got a hit!

On his way to 1st base!

Pop, Dad & Jack waiting on 3rd base.

Jack running to score where he slid on home base!

Jack scored a run!

Pop with the girls

Sassy enjoying the game.

Team Huddle

Team Photo: The West Linn H.S. baseball team came and helped out. They gave each of our players a West Linn shirt. Thanks West Linn! (Jack is on the far right, back row. You can see Mike's face. Jack is looking down at his new shirt.)


Josie Jo.

Grandmom on Sassy duty.

Colette taking care of Pop.

Colette keeping an eye on Pop.

We had great day and we can't wait until next year! Jack has come a long way with his baseball. We don't have to bribe him to play and he'll even tolerate playing defense in the outfield. Go Jack!

My Ka-Chunk-a-Chunk

Colette Maria

I am very sensitive to the fact that my youngest baby could potentially fall victim to the "one who was not photographed" syndrome that befalls larger families.

If you looked up the definition of "certifiably insane ubermom" you would find a picture of my haggared self as the "e.g.". So every now and again, I try to remember to STOP, take in the moment in time of my baby and rejoice in how she is right now. I love extreme close ups so you can see the very shape of her eyes, her button nose, the curve of her plump lips and the perfection that is baby skin. Colette, though one of my more "high maintenance babies" is perfection in every way in my eyes, biased Momma and all. Though if you asked me that of any of my kids, I would proudly (and honestly) say the same thing about each and every one of them. :)

(Happily, my passion is photography and none of my children will likely ever complain of never being photgraphed.)