hello kansas!!

we arrived to kansas on sunday with all of our bags and a mom who was not as exasperated as she thought she would be!! i can now say i have flown with the boys by myself and lived through it! the boys were great on the plane - even receiving 2 compliments on how well behaved they were!! i love to hear that! aunt greta picked us up at the airport and we stopped for dinner at old chicago - just one restaurant we miss up here! we headed to our augusta home and relaxed! monday morning started with our neighbor boys looking for gabe bright and early. they had been waiting for this day since christmas - it was to be a day full of play! grady, greta, and i just chilled - had lunch with grandma and theresa at jimmie's diner, played with princess and then had the best dinner i could ask for in kansas - playa azul in augusta!!! poor washington doesn't know what it is missing!!! they need our fellas from playa azul to put in a restaurant! after a day of stuffing myself to the gills with great food, playing, and relaxing we retired - only to begin again on tuesday! on tuesday we headed to fredonia to see all of our nieces and nephew!! it was again a day full of play. the kids rode the mule, 4-wheelers, played catch with bo, ate cookies and icecream, and played in the sprinklers!! what a great day!! on wednesday, we spent the morning at the fox house and then had lunch with nana. after lunch the boys went to nana and joe's house and played in the pool while i headed to joplin for an overdue visit to miss olivia!!! olivia is my friend julie's baby - who was born in march and this was to be my first visit!! grandma marilyn joined me for the road trip to joplin and enjoyed squeezing miss olivia as much as i did! she is such a sweetie - it was very hard to leave -both julie and olivia!! even though, we headed back to fredonia to get ready for another busy day! on thursday, the boys and i woke up and had breakfast at mom and joe's and then headed back to wichita. we filled our afternoon with errands and then headed back to augusta to make dinner and dessert for dad, roxanna, and grandma marjorie! we had a wonderful evening visiting and playing with gpa glen, roxanna, and gma seiler! we then headed off to bed - hard to believe our trip to kansas was half over!!!

the wedding and kansas city!

on friday, shawn and i headed to k.c. for one of shawn's college buddies weddings. the wedding was on the plaza, which for those of you who do not know, is an area chocked full of some of the best shopping and dining in k.c. - ah! we were in heaven! we stayed at the embassy suites and enjoyed a rehearsal dinner at buca di beppo. the next morning we had a scrumptious breakfast and headed off to shop! we spent the morning on the plaza looking for nothing in particular, but finding all kinds of must haves! we had lunch at the classic cup and then headed off to the hotel!shawn got into his monkey suit-looking as handsome as ever- and i decided i would partake in a nap while he went to the picture time for the wedding! poor guy, he would be out in that tux in the hot, hot kansas/missouri summer afternoon, while i lay watching mtv reality specials! after a nice relaxing afternoon, i got all dolled up and headed to the wedding. the wedding was beautiful, the dinner was fantastic and the reception was a blast! shawn got to catch up with a couple of his college friends, and i had the opportunity to meet lots of new, fun people! we danced, ate, and partied the night away!

we're home! -- well half of us!

after quite possibly one of the longest days of my life - i can safely say, "i am home!" shawn and i woke up not so bright and early at 5:30 in kansas city and headed off to fredonia for some last minute visiting and kissing on our kiddos for one last time for the next 4 days! papa charles is bravely bringing them home on thursday!! after lunch with the fox parents off to wichita to catch our flight home! oh how we were going to enjoy the quiet flight home - 4 hours of napping!!! not so! we get to the wichita airport to find out there are mechanical problems with the plane we are supposed to take to denver - in fact it has not even left denver yet! so after 4 delays, 3 hours, 100+ really happy fellow travelers, and a ticket change later, we were headed to denver!! we landed in denver and because of the major delay we missed our original flight to seattle, but thanks to an united airline ticket agent that showed up to work we were scheduled for the 9:15 flight!! not bad we would be taking off an hour after we should have been home! we enjoyed an airport meal and our favorite airport pasttime - watching the runners (the people trying to get to their connecting flight, inevitably, at the other end of the airport!) we finally boarded the ua507 flight to seattle only to hear, i'm sorry there will be a slight delay as we are having a minor mechanical situation!! well with that fantastic news, i put my head back and closed my tired eyes - they were going to have to carry me off that plane! fortunately during my nap, we took off - i missed everything, snack, safety briefing, movie - but when i woke up i saw the most wonderful sight - the lights of seattle! down in those lights was my edmonds home with my bed just waiting for me! as we left the plane, shawn and i had fully accepted the fact our bags would not be there - but low and behold our bags got there before we did! don't ask me how that happened but they were sitting there all by their lonesome off to the side of baggage claim!! our tired little heads hit our own pillows shortly before 1:00 a.m. - aah, it's nice to be home!!

...and we're leaving on a jet plane!

so this is my last entry for a week or so--the boys and i are heading back to the sunflower state!! poor shawn has to work for part of the week, but will be meeting back up with me on friday to head to kansas city for one of his college buddy's wedding. check back in a couple of weeks for the exciting whirlwind visit update!!! see you all soon!!!!

mt. st. helens

the fox family traveled south to mt. st. helens on friday. gabe had studied about the volcano and was very interested in everything to do about the eruption and every other aspect of the volcano- so what a great opportunity to take in! it was a long, long 2.5 hour trip to mt. st. helens visitor center with a little somebody in the back seat asking about every 5 minutes are we there yet! i always thought that was a little funny until i had the someone asking that question! but finally i got to say we are there! the day was perfect for mountain viewing, it was warm, clear and sunny! it is hard to get all three in one day around here, so we lucked out! we started out at the visitors center where we took in a film on the eruption and the days that followed, exhibits laying out the events that happened, a walk through the wetlands and animals that inhabit the area, and i was also able to get conned into purchasing some souvenirs for our little cherubs!! sucker!! after knocking out the visitors center we ventured another 45 miles into the heart of the blast zone!! now that was pretty awesome - even after almost 30 years there are still numerous trees scattered about like little toothpicks, although a lot less than the days and years right after the eruption! we arrived at the johnston ridge observatory which offers an excellent view into the crater of mt. st. helens-after snapping a few kodak moments, proof we had been there we decided to take in some hiking in the area. the hiking right around mt. st. helens was closed due to snow still on the trails, but unfortuately we didn't find that out until shawn had journied back down to the army to get the backpack!! oh well, a little extra exercise never hurt anyone! so we got a few tips from the forest rangers on where to head and they led us in the right direction. we traveled to the coldwater lake area which is only a couple of miles from the volcano and hiked for a couple of hours!! the hike started out pretty average, but within a few minutes we had some excitement! gabe spotted a snake which was right in the path of daddy and grady, and oh my goodness was there a scream that came from our little boy which i had never heard before!! our fearless little grady seems to be quite frightened of snakes! he screamed, stomped, ran, cried - thankfully that seemed to scare the snake into the other direction! so we got grady calmed down and reassured him that the snake didn't want to see him either and headed off again, praying to not see another snake!! we made it to the top of the huge hill/tiny mountain which offered an awesome view of the surrounding area and a small peak of mt. st. helens. we saw all kinds of deer and elk tracks - rubs on trees from the deer and elk and one more snake!! oh dear, this one really sent grady into orbit. he was told it was dead because daddy had accidentally stepped on it, but while gabe was holding onto it, grady decided to go in for a closer look and it miraculously came back to life!! it took a lot longer to calm him down this time. grady and i decided to sit on an old log and entertain the wilderness with our off key singing- where there were no more snakes around- while gabe and daddy went exploring to the snow line. there was just too much opportunity for seeing another ferocious snake! after the explorers made it back to us, we headed back to the army, but not before mean daddy took a long flower and rubbed on the back of grady's legs while yelling snake - yeah that was hilarious!! mom has the bruises on her legs to prove how hilarious grady that it was -- he couldn't scale mom fast enough! after we had stopped cramping up from laughing and finally got grady to see the humor in it, we headed home - a wonderful day with lots of memories!!

i'm toothless!

gabe lost another tooth on thursday night! this time with the help of little bro! the tooth had been a little loose the last week or so, but with the help of a bump from grady's head the tooth became a lot more wiggly! after wiggling the little tooth for about 15 minutes it was finally free. the tooth fairy made another visit, that poor fairy is really getting to know this address the last couple of months! that makes #3 in about 7 weeks!!

a day full of last times!

today was the last time i will walk those ominous 88 steps to take gabe to first grade, today was the last time gabe is a first grader - ever!, today was grady's last little picasso art class, today was grady and my last "just mommy and me" time until september--yes it is officially summer break in washington! gabe has assured me he is super excited to be a second grader - not the least bit nervous! he came home today armed with summer work, flash cards, reading lists all to keep his brain sharp during the summer - and what did we do....we did 6 pages of his summer work book today! he wasn't real pumped to do it, but i reminded him they had not done ANY work all week and he would be taking the next two weeks for a kansas vacation, so taking 20 minutes out of his busy day would not kill him! i am soooo mean! he finished his work and admitted it wasn't that bad and he was a kid that got to choose a lot of other things, so the fact he hadn't got to choose not to do work was something he could handle! what a hoot! grady finished his little picasso class by drawing mr. mole goes to town! he used mixed media in creating his masterpiece today -which means they used whatever they wanted. master grady chose to create with oil pastels today! miss christine was so sad to see little grady graduate, but she said she was very impressed at grady and his improvement and ambition from the beginning of the classes until now. miss christine wished grady good luck in preschool and said she would miss his goofy little ideas and quick witted humor!! hard to believe he is 3!! so now onto summer - staying up later, sleeping in later (hopefully!), hanging at the beach - just whatever suits our fancy!! hello summer!!

happy father's day!!!

sunday was a beautiful day in washington! the last forever and a day it has been rainy, rainy, rainy and cold, cold, cold, but sunday the sun was shining and it was in the 60's! we started father's day off with shawn's favorite breakfast, then headed off to church where gabe and shawn participated in a father's day competition (they came in second place -- i think that just about killed both of them!), and then we headed home for lemon and garlic shrimp and scallop linguini!! we dined out on the back patio--just had to soak up the sun while we had it!! after dinner and dessert, shawn opened his gifts and then the fox family did our usual sunday afternoon ritual - the siesta! waking up all refreshed, we headed back out into the sunshine for a bike ride!! for those of you that have not been to our house, let me paint you a little picture! there is not an inch of road around our house that is not a hill-so in order to go on a bike ride you will have to, at some point, ride up a hill!! well, we opted to tackle the hill first, so up we went! while shawn and i have pretty awesome bikes - decked out with all sorts of gears and what not, but poor gabe is just stuck with a normal kids bike! he hoofed it up that hill though, luckily he has shawn's competitive genes and there was no way mom was making up that hill and he wasn't!! grady enjoyed the bike ride without even breaking a sweat - ah! it must be nice on the back of dad's bike! but being our little grady, about half way up the hill he started yelling how thirsty he was! after riding around for about 30 minutes and stopping off to play at gabe's school on the playground came the best part of the bike ride -- the super speed trip back down that daunting hill!! whee!!

it's field trip day!!!

on friday, gabe's class had their end of the year field trip. this year we went to the woodland park zoo in seattle! fortunately, there were about 10 parents that volunteered to chaperone, so that meant each parent only had 2 kids!! that made for a really enjoyable field trip! i had gabe and one of his friends, gunnar, who is always very hyper - but creative amanda came up with an energy blaster game that wore poor gunnar out pretty quick! during the last few weeks the kids had been researching a specific animal, doing a report, and presenting their information back to the class. so the idea of going to the zoo was to not only have a fun day, but to view the animal each child had researched and then the child would fill the chaperone in on the animal! gabe's animal was the komodo dragon and gunnar's was the bear. both boys did an excellent job presenting their facts back to me--i never knew there was so much to know about the komodo dragon or bear! we had a great day! while gabe and i were busy at the zoo, grady had an exciting day too! he went to josiah's house for a day full of play!! after we picked up grady, all we heard for the rest of the day was jojo this and jojo that!! he had a great day too!!

maestro gabe in concert!

on thursday evening, gabe and his first grade class had their end of the year concert! they sang and played instruments! gabe played an instrument called a thunder instrument during the song, "i hear music everywhere" and the whole class played kazoos during the song, "a beat in my feet." the first graders last musical number was one titled, "the parade came marching". in that song, the beginning started out soft, as if the parade were far away and then it began getting louder and louder (the closer the parade came) and finally back to soft as the parade left. that was pretty impressive for a group of first graders! we are now to the countdown--only 2 1/2 more school days left!!! we can't wait!

our little picasso

go find your creative thinking caps....you may need them today!! the assignment for art class today was a sea monster. now think back a couple of months ago to fishy in the water--same scenario, grady's sea monster seems to be hiding in all of the water!!! i think we have a case of loch ness monster here, grady's sea monster seems to be elusive! they also made a father's day card, which grady was very proud of. however, he did not want me to take a picture of the card...daddy might see it!! next week is the last little picasso class - grady is going to miss this so much, but when they start up next fall he will be in preschool....oh how we are growing up!

and the painting went down!!!

so, we held off for it to stop raining, but it has yet to cease, so we opted to paint in the garage this morning! i am still not brave enough to paint in the house. it seems that our little picasso gets a little crazy with the paint! just as master grady had said last week, that little pudgy penguin received a nice coat of blue paint. he also streaked the front of mr. popper penguin with some white. the hat ended up a light orange hue!! he so enjoys painting--it is so much fun to watch him create!!

game's over-- now it's party time!!!

after the game on saturday, the red sox and their parents all gathered at spiro's restaurant for an end of the season party and awards presentation! the kids all had a great time feasting on their pizza and cupcakes and the medals they received were pretty cool! coach gary presented the medals and had a special little something he said for each kid! he said gabe had made vast improvements over the season and his ability to consistently hit into outfield towards the end of the season was wonderful. coach gary and coach wayson were both very sad that gabe would only be around for one more season--but that kansas was getting back one heck of a ball player!!! i told them maybe he would come back and play for the university of washington!! that made coach gary smile! (he is employed by the university of washington!!!) they said they would watch for his name! what a super compliment! they also presented the official unofficial red sox scorekeeper with a starbucks gift card! i felt kind of bad taking it -- after all i ended up sort of enjoying my little duty!! although we complained a little about the weather, we had a wonderful time watching gabe and the red sox during their season--it will be nice to have our weekends back though!! for now--soccer is right around the corner and i think we will have two little fellas playing, yep it's just beginning!!!

one last game in the rain!!

the red sox ended their season on saturday afternoon. it was a wonderfully rainy and cool day for a baseball game--yes, you are sensing some sarcasm there!!! depsite the kids freezing their tails off they came out winners of the match up between them and the white sox. gabe had 3 great hits all with him ending up on base and with 3 rbi's! he assisted with an out at 1st base, andrew and him made a pretty awesome paring with gabe at pitcher and andrew playing first base!! each time they were playing those positions they almost always had at least one out! overall the red sox ended their season with 7 wins, 0 losses, and 3 ties! i would say that is a pretty great season!!! go red sox!!!!

our little picasso

today our little picasso used clay to sculpt a masterpiece! the assignment was a popper penguin sculpted by the kids and then miss christine helped them "personalize" their penguins. grady made a fat little penguin all decked out with a baseball hat and 2 baseballs! couldn't possibly be inspired from all of the baseball we have taken in the last few days--poor kid is being brainwashed!! and just like the duckie sculpture, we get the opportunity to paint the penguin after he dries for a couple of days! on the way home from art class, grady and i were dicussing the color palatte for the baseball penguin. he said blue, orange, and yellow just like my duckie! i guess we will wait and see where all these colors end up in a few days! we'll keep you updated!

it's a baseball kind of weekend!!

gabe's red sox team had another game on monday evening, and thanks to my prayers.... we stayed dry the whole game!! gabe's team pulled out the win 20-18! the kids played very well last night, gabe had 4 awesome hits. all went down the 3rd baseline into outfield. with him being a leftie, it is amazing he has already mastered the technique of getting it to go to 3rd base. last year most of his hits went right to 1st base! he helped the team with one out and what i call an almost out! he stopped the ball at the pitchers postition and threw it to first base where it bounced off of the 1st baseman's hand--bummer! but being the optimistic mom - it is an almost out! we have one more game on saturday afternoon against the white sox--i would have to check but the last game against the white sox, i am pretty sure we won!!! so hopefully we will end our season with a win!

tigers 7 -- mariners 5 -- but we still had a good time!

the fox family had the opportunity to take in a mariners major league baseball game on sunday afternoon!! the south mukilteo little league participated in "little league day" at mariners stadium. the teams got to parade around the field before the game, all of the kids received great mariners bags, and then everyone got to watch an exciting game! the game was tied 3-3 going into the ninth inning when the tigers pulled ahead with 4 runs in the top of the ninth--the poor mariners were only able to come up with two!! even with the loss, we had a great time. the boys thought it was so cool to get to march around the field and the snacks just could not be beat!!! grady and gabe both enjoyed blue cotton candy--wow that was a mess!!!! shawn took part in the mariners world famous garlic fries--wow now those are potent!! we all got our fill of snacky foods! and you will never guess what else happened--shawn got on the fan cam--the one they play on the big board. now you may ask "how is it that shawn got on there without the rest of you?" well we all decided it was time to hit the bathroom and the snack bar again--go figure! at first i was sure he was putting me on-but there were others to confirm it had happened!! man, was i bummed, i have always wanted to be on the big screen, and when my chance finally comes, where am i?? why the snack bar, of course! oh well, maybe next time!!!

a rainy game for the red sox!

on saturday, the red sox had another game!! and just as the two before, we got to sit in the rain!! i usually don't mind the rain, but i must admit, i am a little tired of sitting in the rain at baseball games! the red sox played the blue jays ending in a tie-- they are pretty equally matched teams. we played the blue jays at our first game of the season and tied them then as well!! gabe assisted the team with two of their four outs. the first was a line drive to first base with him getting the player out there and the second was an out at second base, stopping the lead runner!! he had 3 great hits with all three going into the outfield. we have a game again tonight, monday, and the clouds look full again!!! guess we'll pull out the raincoats!