The Griswolds Go : Argentina! (Seattle, day 4)

On this, the last full day of our vacation, we didn't really have a solid plan for the day.  We had a few options, like the Japanese Botanical Gardens or the Ballard Lochs.  But, we decided to start with the Woodland Park Zoo and see where the day took us.

This day, Tuesday, was the "worst" weather of the trip.  Pretty chilly and off/on rain for big chunks of the morning and afternoon.  Luckily, I managed to remember to pack enough warm clothes for us so we were pretty okay.

We started the day with the zoo and it was pretty impressive.  Not so much for the animals, but the scenery.  It was so green and wooded and the zoo felt like you were more on a nature preserve than a zoo.  All the animals had really big habitats, and in 4 hours we walked almost 3 miles.  Yes, the zoo was big and yes, we were there longer than my boys have ever spent anywhere.

The zoo had a few interesting animals on exhibit too.  They had a small farm area with cows, pigs, sheep and a few goats.  Strange, but I guess city kids don't regularly see such animals.  And, even though we didn't see them, they had a small herd of elk, too.  There were four white wolves, a stellar sea eagle and 2 komodo dragons which were super impressive.  The zoo was also proud of a brand new baby gorilla but even though she was out on exhibit with her mother, they were not visible in the enclosure.










After our time at the zoo, it started raining (again) and we were hungry.  We found a little taco joint and got our food to go.  It was time to carb load and rest ourselves before the ultimate event of our vacation, the Copa America soccer game between Argentina and Bolivia.

Now, Ross should really write the next part, because soccer isn't my thing (I mean, I just don't get it.  The whole thing just feels like a giant time suck and all that anticipation for nothing?  Maybe that's why everyone does freak out when a goal is scored, because they get so little out of their 90 plus minutes of watching).  Anyway, the jersey's were broken out, the jumping and skipping (Elliott and Wyatt) had started and that dad of ours just couldn't stop smiling.

Expectations were high because, well, it's Lionel Messi and because Messi had scored a 19 minute hat-trick the previous Saturday.  Aren't you impressed with my soccer lingo?  Hat-trick?  Yeah!  We got to the Seahawks stadium a mere 2 hours before the start of the match to see some of the festivities.  Lots of crazy and drunk Argentine's chanting in the streets, and a few Bolivian fans spread out in the crowd.  I'm pretty sure that it was at least 80% Argentina fans to 20% Bolivian fans, and of all those Argentina fans, at least 80% of them were wearing some kind of Argentina or Messi jersey.  I wore a blue scarf.











The short version: Argentina won.  Messi played the second half.  He didn't score but he had some penalty/corner/whatever kicks and nutmeged the goalie (More soccer terminology for you).  Everyone in the whole stadium, including my husband, got their phones out to record anything that guy might do that had the potential to be amazing.  That was pretty funny to watch.  My boys left happy.  Wyatt drank almost 2 full 32 oz. diet cokes (The NFL does contracts with Coke, not Pepsi, hooray!) and used the bathroom about every 12 minutes.  We got some great souvenirs.  The boys were excellent, even Quinn who struggles to be excellent.  But, watching soccer laying on my lap was about the same as watching TV at home laying on my lap, and he had a box of skittles so he was at peace with the world.

That night, after finding an open late gelato shop near our apartment, we all went to bed around midnight.  Exhausted.  But, ready to go home the next morning.

The Griswold's go to Jellystone Park :: Part 4, heading home

On the last morning of our vacation we woke to a beautiful Sunday.  And another half dead mouse that Wyatt found exploring a new part of the house.  This one though, we left for the people coming to clean the cabin after our departure.  A parting gift, I suppose.  It was funny, too, because this place was supposed to be somewhere we could relax and have fun and instead, it's beauty was marred by all the animal issues we had.  Not until we were leaving did I even walk around to look at the front of the place.  It did sort of look like the cabin from the movie "The Great Outdoors".  We should have known...





During our Saturday driving around Yellowstone, my dad and Ross decided that we wouldn't head home through the Park to Jackson Hole as originally planned, but instead we would take "Wilson's pass" and head on some new roads through Idaho farm country and cut through the Grand Tetons.  This was a great idea.  We drove for a while and then stopped at both overlooks for the upper and lower Mesa Falls.  The waterfalls were gorgeous and in all my life traveling to Yellowstone, I'd never seen them before and was so happy we stopped.  And, guess what, the visitor center/information house at the falls had bats!  Totally out of control.











The big boys drove with my parents to Jackson while Quinn opted to ride with us.  He was having a hard time because you see (TMI coming) he, like his mother, suffers from chronic traveling constipation and being a kid who only poops every couple of days anyway, adding another 3 or 4 to that already long record makes for a pretty uncomfortable ride in the car.  When he first started having trouble, he eventually fell asleep for about an hour - buying us some swift driving time.  But, when he woke up, climbing through the Tetons, we were in for some trouble.  He started to wail and scream that he couldn't sit down anymore!  I knew the probably so I threw caution to the wind on a windy mountain pass and unbuckled him.  He cried and screamed and nearly fell over, but did manage to take care of his business.  And then, moaned and wailed because he needed me to change his diaper immediately!  When we hit the summit, we found a good pull out and finished taking care of his business.  He was surprisingly calm after that.  It was a pretty pathetic and hilarious thing to witness.  Let it also be known that on the Friday of our trip, he did not pee for one whole day.  Seriously.  He peed before he went to bed on Friday night and then didn't pee again until Saturday morning.  I don't know how he did that, but he should have received a major award.




We made it to Jackson Hole and ate a late lunch at a Mexican place that had been featured on Diner's, Drive-in's and Dives called "Picas".  It was delicioso!  After that, it was time for the obligatory walk around the center of town.  Holy crowded Batman!  Jackson Hole is a complete tourist trap and it was in a t-shirt store when all members of our party started to officially lose it.  Boys were fighting, souvenirs were being bought, and my mom and I were on a hunt for some fudge.  We found it, loaded into our separate cars and headed on our way home.

No one wanted to drive towards Evanston, so Ross and my dad found a new route through Wyoming back to Idaho via Soda Springs and Pocatello.  It was such a beautiful drive through some small towns and so much cool farmland.  And, Ross would like me to note that he got the worst soda of his life in Soda Springs.  Go figure.

We had nearly made it home when we had to stop just outside of Brigham City to use the bathroom.  Wyatt was exhausted.  Elliott was tired of being in the back of the car, and Quinn, Ross and I were ready to head home.  We made it in record time, unpacked our bags and stretched out.  It was so good to be home, but we had had a really fun, eventful, and memorable trip.

Thanks to my mom and dad for going with us and experiencing all the crazy with us, too.

Amen!

The end of Summer Number One

Elliott went back to school today.



Wyatt met his teachers today and starts officially as a first grader tomorrow.

Summer is over and we are back to school.

The last week of summer wasn't quite as busy as the previous two, but I tired.   And Ross was away at scout camp.  I also completely ran out of mental and physical and emotional energy.  For all my lamenting about year round school, this morning came just at the right time.

But I digress.

The last week of Summer #1.

We went to the Natural History Museum at the "U" and caught the last week of the "extreme mammals" exhibit where Quinn came face to face with a giant "Rhino".  Quinn also had a gargantuan meltdown screaming fit at said museum because, you know, there were other kids there, touching things.  Ug, this kid!





On Monday night, we went swimming in Aunt Cindy's pool.  The Wood's had eaten Pizza for dinner and Cindy graciously let my kids devour the leftovers.

Tuesday was a pretty chill day.  We went to swimming lessons, ran some errands and went to the Expo Center to see the 24th of July floats.  On Tuesday night, we went to my mom's for dinner with a special guest.  "Elder" Nathan Hall, who was Willie's most current companion, who returned home the last week of June, came to dinner.  He was cute and fun and nice and I could totally see why Elder Petersen has a nice (and platonic) "bromance" going on with him.  He fit right in, didn't think we were dorks, and even let Mama Judy teach him how to use Instagram.  She also made him watch goofy videos of Willie from high school on Youtube, but that's a different story.







Wednesday, Elliott went to Cub Country at Camp Tracy up Millcreek canyon with his Wolf Den.  He had a great time and came home filthy dirty.  Wyatt and Quinn and I just hung out at home and watched movies.  LAZY.



Thursday, Ross was home from scout camp and he took boys #2 and #3 to my mom's on his way to work and I got to go to Cub Country with Elliott.  It was a fun day and I was happy to be able to go.  We got home, picked up the boys and met our dad for dinner at Hires.





Friday - the 24th of July.  As is my nature to boycott holiday's in general, my mom took the boys swimming while I stayed home, working on projects and their dad picked them up on his way home from work.  They came home exhausted and sunburned, which is just how I like it.  But we did sit on our front lawn on Friday night and watch the sky light up with fireworks.  Because, I'm sure that when the Pioneers arrived in the valley in 1847, the really wanted to light off some mortars and arials.

On Saturday we hosted the 4th annual Petersen Family post 24th of July BBQ.  A lot of family members were out of town or unable to come, but thanks so much to those that made it.  We had a build your own gourmet burger bar and every one brought tasty side dishes.  We had Rita's Italian Ice for dessert.  It was a really great night.

And now - we are back to the rat race of school, but just for three weeks, where we will return to summer.  Summer #2.

Grandma Camp: Lagoon

For several years now, my mom has been trying, with no success, to convince us all to go to Lagoon with her.  We haven't done, using young kids, the hot summer, and general disdain for the place as our reasons for not going.  This year though, the kids are finally really big enough to go on nearly all the rides, walk instead of be carried or strollered around, and so we all relented.

July 13 was the day for Lagoon.  Grandpa Karl opted out, he's allowed to do that sort of thing, but Ross and James came with us and it was a lot of fun.  It was also extra great that Ross came because, you see, he enjoys riding rides.  I do not enjoy riding rides, instead opting for food and people observation, and perfecting my pack mule skills.  I am an excellent pack mule.

As soon as we arrived we headed to kiddie land.  Now, I haven't been to lagoon since I was 15 years old.  As Elliott did that math last night, he realized that I haven't been 15 for a very long time.  Lagoon was nothing like I remembered it to be.  It was clean and fun.  They have a really fantastic kids ride section, all new, and the kids had a great time.

We arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon and after about an hour of kids rides, Ross, James, Elliott and Wyatt headed out to ride the roller coasters while the rest of us stayed in kiddie land to drive cars and fly helicopters and ride in boats.  After a little while Ross called to say that they were bringing Wyatt back to us.  Ross coaxed him onto two wild rides and he'd had enough.  When his dad left, and Wyatt was with the women folk, he told us that the old white roller coaster was, "TERRIFYING!"  The kid rode Space Mountain at Disneyland when he was 4, but he's gotten much smarter now.

We rode the train.  We rode Tidal Wave as a whole family.  Quinn wasn't a fan.  In fact, it took Quinn about an hour before he was brave enough to ride anything, but once he figured out he was safe, he even let some of the kids who ran the rides help him in and out of rides.  That was a big move for mister stranger danger.

We ate dinner in Pioneer Village at the end of the night and then it was time for the wet rides.  No one really got wet on the old log flume, but they got drenched on Rattle Snake Rapids.  Completely soaking wet.  The big boys wanted to go again (Haley, Molly, Quinn, my Mom and I opted out of the super wet stuff) but their dad was too wet and said no.  I did bring dry shorts for them to put on for the ride home, good thing too, because when we finally left, they were still pretty wet.



I was really impressed with Lagoon.  It's small enough that you don't die running from one end of the park to the other, and we lucked out and happened to be there on a day that it just wasn't crowded.  I imagine that there are days when the lines are Disney lines, but yesterday, we just walked on to everything.

The kids were all super good.  Jack is a daredevil and wants to ride everything and he took good care of his twinner, Quinner, who is afraid of air.  They held hands and jabbered and giggled and crashed bumper cars into each other.  I hope that they are always best good friends.

I'm glad we went.  I'm glad that I have such a fantastic mom, who is the best grandma out there, doing wonderful and fun things with her grand kids to give them experiences!

And, they had dole whip.  We ate dinner at an Arby's inside the park, but they had dole whip.  And, it was delicious.

Utah State Capitol

I read an article a few weeks ago.  It talked about how our kids are being raised in a world where, as their parents, all we ask them after they do stuff is, "Did you have fun?"  even though we know perfectly well that all the things they do aren't fun, and aren't even supposed to be fun.

The article continued by saying that instead of asking our kids if we've had fun, we should ask them what they learned, what they thought about the experience, that sort of thing.  It really got me thinking and in the last little while, I've started to change the way I ask my kids about the things that we do.

I mean, I pretty much know that they've had fun, because we do fun things.  But, I also want to know more about their thinking.  It's fun to hear what they think about stuff.

On Thursday this week, we continued our Utah history adventure at the Utah State Capitol.  We started with the visitor center across the street and then, quickly realized, that pushing a 40 pound child in a stroller isn't the best way to tour the capitol.  You see, there are a lot of stairs.  A.  Lot.  Of.  Stairs.

But, we survived the stairs, and the tourists, and had some great conversations about government, how laws are made, what the Supreme Court is and does, and about what movies were made in Utah.  (there were a couple cool exhibits about movies).  I was really surprised at how much we had to talk about .  I felt like a history teacher again, and my boys seemed to be willing students.

Afterwards, we headed to City Creek for lunch at the food court and a quick trip to the Disney store for a prize.

It was a fun day.

This is the Place State Park

On Wednesday, we went on an adventure with Grandma Judy.  We hadn't been to "This is the Place State Park" since Willie was 2 years old.  Yes, that's 18 years.  It was pretty much the same as I remembered it being nearly two decades ago.  But, it was different.  There was an excellent Native American program with beautiful traditional dress and dancing.  Oh, I love tribal dancing.

There were a lot of activities, which we sort of missed out on because I wasn't in charge of the map.  There was doll making and arrow head necklace making and other stuff like that.  The people in character in the homes were fun to listen to, and the boys got to ride ponies.  We had a science lesson in the school house and learned that a pioneer barber, one with a striped pole outside his buisness, was also trained in surgery and blood letting.

Oh, and there was a train.  Let's not forget the train.  The kid that was our tour guide on the train, Parker, was hilarious.  He was good enough to do the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, if that were something he was interested in doing.

We ate "Brigham's Donuts" dipped in chocolate and flavor burst ice cream.  We bought old fashioned candy and toys and added about 4000 steps to our daily step totals.  The weather was a little weepy...not really raining but not really clear, until it was time to leave.  It was the perfect day to visit the park.

After, we got lunch and had a picnic at the Liberty park, complete with a small tribe of attacking geese.

It was a great day.

July, so far...

July.  It's here.  The boys finished school on July 1 and 2, respectively and we are ready for summer.  So far, we've managed to get a lot of activities in.

We've bought Quinn a new bed.  He gets out of his a crib a lot and he is almost three.  So, we bought him a new bed.  Now, we just need to set it up.





We've been swimming a lot at great grandpas house and started swimming lessons this week at the Kearns Rec Center Pool.  Elliott is in "whale" and nearly finished with the whole swimming lesson program.  Wyatt is a "crab" for the third time.  He's hopefully finally going to pass it off because I've told him that he must take swimming lessons UNTIL he can pass crab, and then we can talk about it. Quinn isn't old enough to start "fwimming lessons" yet, but as soon as the boys are back in school, I'm going to sign him up for a mom and "baby" swimming class.





On the last day of school, because it was the last day of school and the boys had great report cards, I took them to lunch.  We went to the training table because I wanted a Hawaiian burger and some delicious fries.  The boys were brats before the food came, but luckily settled down when the food arrived.  That was, until, I had to take Quinn in the bathroom to change his diaper.  I came back three minutes later to a complete and total fist fight on the bench.  Wyatt was swinging at Elliott and Elliott way laying on the bench choking Wyatt.  It was awesome.  People were staring.  I was flaming mad, just like Anger in "Inside Out".  I drug the boys outside and yelled them into a wall.  I yelled some more on the way home.  Then, they both spent about an hour (Wyatt a little more because he wouldn't stop screaming) in "sit in the middle of the floor and don't touch anything" timeout.

By the time I cooled down, I'd had it.  It had been a rough week and a rough day.  I texted Ross that I was done with the boys and that when he got home from work, I was leaving and maybe I would come back.




After much internal debate about how lame I thought it might be, when Ross did get home I took myself on a date.  I washed my face and reapplied my make-up.  I combed my hair.  I put on a nice clean outfit and I left.  I took myself to a movie, one that wasn't crowded.  I sat in a corner by myself eating my popcorn and laughing so hard I cried.  Then, I walked to Target from my car and got a few things, getting my exercise for the night as well.

It wasn't lame to go to a movie by myself.  I would definitely consider doing it again.  I had a great time.  I'm a great date.






Our first full day of summer last week on July 3 kept us pretty busy.  We got up in the morning and headed to Haley's.  We played for a while, until it was time to meet dad at his new office and go to lunch.  Then, we headed to Great Grandpa's to swim the afternoon away.  The boys swam for hours.  I floated for hours.  Fun was had by all.  And, the best part?  Everyone fell asleep on our way home.  With three kiddos of such different ages, this doesn't happen much anymore.  It was a small miracle, especially considering the day before I was ready to divorce them all.







On July 4th, we broke with all tradition and created one of our own.  All of us, minus James and Willie, went to a movie.  We saw, "Inside Out."  It was delightful and entertaining and fun.  Elliott and Quinn devoured a family size popcorn.

After the movie we came home and spent the afternoon just hanging out.  Oh, and we lost Quinn.  Long story short, he thought he was playing hide and seek with the boys outside, and decided to, without anyone knowing, hide in the car!  On a 100 degree day!!  We found him, but he'd been in the car about 20 minutes and was covered head to toe in sweat, like he'd just gotten out of the bathtub.  Once he drank about 30 ounces of water and stopped crying, he told us that he was hiding from the boys and couldn't open the door to get out of the car, and we couldn't hear him screaming.  It was terrifying.  It won't happen again.





That afternoon, we headed out to my grandpas to swim and eat dinner with him.  The kids swam with cousins and we had a great bbq with my grandpa.  That evening, with a slight drizzle of rain, we set of fireworks and for the first 4th of July in many years, Wyatt did not throw up.

Winner winner chicken dinner.



And finally, I love my brother and miss him lots.  He celebrated too, just in a different country.