Seattle memories...

I wish my memory was better about when we took this trip but I am fairly certain he was 4. One of my favorite memories about growing up was a trip we took to Seattle. Of course this trip was really for a job interview for my dad but he took the whole family up. We actually got to stay in a hotel, truly rare considering my dad didn't fork for a hotel on the way to Pennsylvania (if we couldn't make it there with in 48 hours we weren't going on vacation there). We did get to go to the Space Needle and most importantly we got rent a VCR and watch E.T.. I know not a big deal to most but hey in a family with 5 kids doing this kind of stuff was seriously the best.

Because of these great memories I remember loving Seattle and wanting to share the experience with H. We went to their zoo and can I just say Hogle Zoo does not even compare to any zoo I have been to outside of the state, I actually cringe to go there and see them caged up and only wish that they will work on making it a better experience. I should go back because I know they have made some improvements but really I know they are nothing like anything I have seen so far.

H LOVED the Space Needle. We walked there from our hotel, it was quite a long walk but I remember having to explain to him why there were people sleeping on the street. I forget how sheltered we are and more importantly how much my little boy will need to grow up to know these things. We hit the Children's museum and there was a little carnival thing next door and everything.

Well at the zoo they had a bird exhibit, this is another one of my favorite pictures. He loved having the birds fly up to him. It was great. I hope to take him back again.

San Diego Zoo...

I am terrible at remembering dates of things, I believe we went to San Diego in 2007, but off hand I don't recall. We did end up going with my sister and the zoo was one of our stops. I have gained a lot of weight over the past few years, I need to reminisce more so I can remember why I am trying to lose it, other than to be healthy and for my son.

The boy has a very hard time just allowing a natural picture, if he knows a camera is on him he hams it up for you. But he is still cute none the less. I like to have pictures of us together. It doesn't happen that often but it I love it when they do.

The boy actually took the picture up above, it is of me and my sister outside of the zoo. We LOVED San Diego, we will be going to Legoland this year. I am hoping to lounge at the beach for the majority of the time but we will see.

Slug bug...

Ah yes, the good old days where you would punch your siblings until they were black and blue, now a days you politely tap them so they just know you could have done more than that. A few years back I was trying to teach H the game, well at the time there were not a large number of real "slug bugs" out there, it was hard to find the beetle bugs for me to teach him the game, then for unknown reasons the boy couldn't differentiate between the beetle and a PT Cruiser (really I have no idea why but thought it was cute), so to help with this I allowed the Cruiser to be part of the game. Well it only grew from there, then he wanted convertibles and motorcycles and even more recently he wanted Mini Coopers. On one of our walks with the dog we came across an auto body repair shop and there was what is being called an "old school" Mini Cooper, I guess it kind of looks like one right?

Cleaning day...

So before my wonderful, young man left for his dad's for the better part of the summer I forced him to help me clean. Of course he struggled with me but I finally won out int he end, I had to hold the video games out until he agreed to help. I took this picture while he was helping me and I love that it shows how overly dramatic he is and it shows the pain and agony I put him through while cleaning. I love the Rambo look too, it was a ribbon he had found while cleaning so he tied it around his head. The picture shows him carrying the money jar which is rather heavy but the picture is just too cute.

After we took the picture we were laughing so hard we forgot to keep cleaning, but the thought of cleaning was there at the beginning for a few moments. Oh well, we tried.

Catapulting Indiana Jones...

H loves Indiana Jones, he has a shirt that looks like IJ's, a hat, a whip, a gun and a "man" bag. His grandma gave him this get up for Christmas one year. He can't stand that he doesn't have IJ pants and I have to convince him he can wear any pants. He loves to run around wearing it. Before he left for his dad's he dressed up for a whole weekend. It was rather cute going to the store while he had his hat on and his bag. I didn't get a picture of him dressed up all the way but after our Lowe's class for building his catapult.

He was oh so excited to build a catapult, he said it would make him be a real viking. During this class it was more successful than the Mother's Day Trellis that we tried to complete. The whole time we made it he asked if he could catapult an egg. I finally agreed, it was not very successful, then we tried to give it some height, he finally just decided to catapult it with his hand and it finally cracked. But it was lots of fun none the less.