I think we are in heaven...

On Friday night at dinner time I suggested that we go on a family bike ride that night. We got to the greenway at about 8pm and had a fun time with each other. Neil pulled all the kids in our bike trailer and I got to ride a bike for the first time since my accident 5 years ago! It was pretty fun. Neil made sure I knew where the brakes were before we started out... :0)We put all 3 kids in the trailor. Brendan and Eliza were strapped in and Lincoln was stuffed under blankets and a boppy pillow. I don't know how much longer we will be able to do this because once he can climb...hmmm. I don't even want to think what could happen.We rode for just a little bit and then came upon a cute park. It reminded Brendan and I of Baker Park in New Castle except it was a lot bigger! We had fun playing for a little bit. When it was dark we got back on our bikes and rode back to our car. The bike lights really helped out a lot. We especially enjoyed using them because Neil got such a screaming deal on them at Fred Meyer. They each cost $0.04! This picture was taken in the dark and the flash was really bright so I think it caught everyone off-gaurd. But we had a lot of fun! We haven't ever been on a family bike ride because one of the bikes needed to be fixed. Grandpa and Troy helped Neil fix it while they were here over Easter. Thank You! So when I went to take everyone out of the trailer and put them back into the car, I opened it up and Lincoln was just sitting there with his fingers in his mouth, surrounded by warm blankets (it was kind of cold). I said, "Well it looks like you are just in heaven, Lincoln!" Brendan then said, "I'm heaven, too. And Eliza is heaven. And you are heaven. And Daddy, you are heaven too." My heart was touched. Being together as a family is heaven!

Lincoln is getting to be such a big boy. I can't believe that he is almost 6 months old already!

Choices

About 4 nights ago I was trying to get the kids to bed. Neil had already gone back to school and Lincoln was pretty tired. He was screaming in the other room and I was hurrying as fast as I could to get jammies on and get everyone ready for prayers so that I could take care of the little one. I asked Brendan to go take Lincoln a toy (even though I knew that it was a ways past the be entertained by a toy cry) and to tell him that I would be right there as soon as I was done.
Brendan came back from completing his task...and reported:
"Mom, I gave Lincoln two choices. The choice that mommy would come in just a second and the choice that mommy would be there soon."
I thought those were some pretty good choices. I wonder why Lincoln didn't stop crying when he heard them. My little Brendan is growning up!

It's a good thing that I love her...

Eliza really is something else today. I wish I had taken a picture but I was just too upset at the time to really laugh about it.
Lincoln had been crying all morning and I had finally gotten him to settle down and take a nap. He was lying on the couch instead of in his bed (probably my first mistake) but he was sleeping. Eliza said that she would like to color with a pencil which really meant a pen and I gave into her (my second mistake) but I needed some down time with the computer. So I handed her a pen and paper and told her to go into the living room to color a picture.
She colored a picture...and then decided to color all over Lincoln's face...hmmm.
I was fuming and Lincoln was awake now and all I could think was "It's a good thing I love you, Eliza...or your name would be mud!"

This picture was taken on a different day...one where they liked each other.

6 hour trip to Maple Valley

On conference weekend we decided to go up to Michelle and Jason's house for a quick visit. Kate and Ethan were turning 6 years old and Aunt Pam was up to visit. We had a lot of celebrating to do! :)

So we set out on our trip at one in the afternoon and expected to get there by three to join in the festivities that were to start at four. We got about an hour down the road and had to stop because of avalanche control on I-90. Luckily we parked our car on I-90 right next to Ensign Ranch where there were horses for the kids to look at for the 2 hours that we were stopped. When we stopped the estimated time for I-90 was 2:30...so we thought That's not bad, just a half an hour...
Then they kept on pushing it back a half hour at a time. CRAZY. The kids really didn't seem to mind, but Brendan really didn't understand why we had decided to park on the sidewalk and not the road and why we weren't going to Aunt Pam's anymore. (Explanation: He thought we were parked on the sidewalk because as we were walking back to our car from the horses he saw pavement on the shoulder of the interstate, but the actual road was cement. He said, "Uh...mom the van is parked on the sidewalk." And the last time we were at Jason and Michelle, Aunt Pam was there...so now it is Aunt Pam's house.)It was crazy while we were waiting. Everyone was out of their cars. The people in front of us got their pillows out of their car and were lying in the middle of the road. Everyone was going into the woods to pee and everything. There were probably plenty of laws that were broken during those 2 hours including these: Eliza, don't you know that there is a law about how old you have to be before you can start driving...and they just passed a law in Washington that you can no longer drive while talking on your cell phone. Something tells me that she really didn't care! Hopefully one day she will. :)Lincoln was pretty cool about the whole experience...and was excited when we finally started moving again at 4 o'clock. He was probably the only one that was happy when we stopped AGAIN only 20 miles down the road. This time whenever we called about the road conditions or checked them on the internet on our phones, they said that there were "no delays to report at this time." Yeah...then why are we parked on the road again? Lincoln was happy because he had a bubble that needed to work its way out and we were able to take him out of his seat to do this.The other bad thing about the second stop was that Brendan had to pee, but there was snow everywhere now. He lost the urge to go. I asked him if he wanted to go potty in a cup...his reaction was priceless: What?!?!? I think I caught him off gaurd with that one! We played I Spy with my little eye while we waited to start moving again. We missed the party all together, pulling in at about 6:30pm. It was a warm welcome though...always is at the Hurley's!While we were there we tried to convince Brendan that it wasn't Aunt Pam's house. We told him that she lived in California by Grandma and Grandpa Bedke. On Sunday afternoon, he was looking out their back window and could see the other houses in the neighborhood. He came over and said: "Mom, I think Grandma Bedke lives over in that house. We should go see her." So I don't know if we ever got through to him. At least I know that he was thinking and trying to make sense of the whole thing. Scout was a big hit with our kids. I know that one day we will be getting a dog. I am starting to look forward...hmmm...but not yet.We had a lot of fun this weekend, even if it was a very quick trip and one that took a lot longer than we anticipated to arrive at our destination. We are grateful that we were able to travel safely though. Thanks to the Hurley's for having us!
We made it home in about 2 hours...

Good times at Conference

Love this for conference!
Thanks Jamie for the heads up!

Swimming Lessons for Free

So a friend of mine told us that there was free swimming lessons at the Y during the week of everyone's spring break. We signed up. You had to be at least 3 so Eliza didn't get to participate, but Brendan had a lot of fun. I hope that he will have a lot of fun come summer time when we open the pool here at the apartments. He was really nervous with strange teachers wanting him to put his head in the water...and scowled at them--a lot, but that has come to be expected by our Brendan. Then he would come home and talk it all up and make us believe that he really was loving the pool. Here is a picture of him in the water with his teacher and on the wall with his friends.

The sad thing was that he got sick on Wednesday and we ended up not being able to finish the week out. Good news: the Lightning McQueen swimsuit should last him all summer long!