whopper cake!

this week the boys and i checked out a fabulous book from the library! it is entitled "whopper cake" by karma wilson. this book is great - it is about a grandpa that is cooking a huge cake for grandma's b-day! he uses a pickup truck bed for the pan and an oar for a spoon - just to give you an idea of how big this cake is! well at the end of the book they have a recipe for the cake, but not to fear if you don't have a truck bed handy you can use a 9X13 inch cake pan! so the boys and i tried our hands at the cake this evening! with shannon, erin, gid, and mia coming for a visit tomorrow, we knew we would have some willing taste testers! the boys and i had a great time making the cake. both of the boys are starting to show interest in cooking, grady more than gabe! it totally thrills me to think my little men are interested in cooking and baking! as most of you know, shawn is a great cook and thanks to him - i like to think i'm not half bad myself! we both love to cook and bake - so it just seems natural the boys would find interest in it! and not only is it a great time together, gabe is also learning all about fractions. so its a math lesson as well! gabe had the best line of all this evening...we were busy sifting all of the dry ingredients together, which took a while because the youngest chef was in charge of the sifting, and gabe said, "you know mom, i think the box cakes are a lot easier!" i told you grady was more interested than gabe!!!!

rainforest cafe!

on saturday after we dropped gma off at the airport, we stopped into the rainforest cafe for lunch! we had never been to one of those before and wow was that amazing!!! it was like a theme park and a restaurant rolled into one! gabe had a blast looking around at everything, all of the moving animals, the thunder show...he just took it all in! grady on the other hand, well i'll just say he was terrified of everything! to start off with, there was a fake snake in a tree....and before i even knew what happened i had a little boy climbing up my leg!! poor kid! and then we no more got him calmed down from the snake than he spotted a moving alligator and that really sent him into orbit! and that was all in the front of the restaurant! we then got sat down, he finally calmed down and started enjoying his surroundings! they have an elephant show about every 20 minutes and a rain/thunder show every half hour - the food was okay but, what you are really paying for is the show--and it was worth it!

mema comes to washington!!!

with every visitor, i am more convinced i missed my calling as a tour guide! now i do not know if i am actually that good at my newly acquired occupation, but except for being completely exhausted and totally frustrated with silly seattle traffic, i really do enjoy it! this week we had the pleasure of having gma marilyn (mema) as our guest! we traveled all over the western half of this great state seeing all there is to see! we picked up gma on saturday evening at the airport and headed off for dinner. after a yummy supper at famous dave's, we headed north toward home. on the way, the tour began with a trip past boeing (the everett plant(shawn's work)). that night was pretty tame (as were the ones to follow!) - one, we have two little guys who no matter the visitor still need sleep, two, gma is not a real club scene goer! ha!, and three, gma enjoys watching the olympics as much as i do, so i had a co-comentator for the week! sunday morning we headed off to church and then to the pike place market! i don't know if it was exactly what gma expected, but she came away with some fresh fruit! we took a little rest on the plaza area just north of the market! we enjoyed some of our fruit, diet cokes, and a free concert! that evening we dined on tacos and stayed in the rest of the evening! unfortunately monday - the offical start of the tour- was a very rainy day! and when i say rainy, i am not talking a drizzle here and there! so we headed off to storytime in lynnwood and then back home to rest up for the week to follow. later that afternoon, after naps, it cleared off for about an hour, so the boys and i took gma to picnic point beach. we only stayed for a short time....it started sprinkling again! thankfully when we woke on tuesday, it looked a little more promising for touring! we started out at snoqualmie falls and then headed off to the mountains and snoqualmie pass! the main reason for our trip to snoqualmie pass was so gma could go to the mountains. i had another motive though! this is where we brought judy and charles when we went skiing, and i was anxious to see everything without 10+ feet of snow on top of it!! boy, did it look different! it was a beautiful drive through the mountains, gma snapping away at all sorts of mountain shots!! on the way home, i spotted (or should i say sniffed out) boehm's candies - so of course we had to stop in for a little morsel! we came away with some mint candy, a smore type of candy, a box of fudge, and some various other goodies! there is just something about fresh candy---ok, i'll eat any candy, but i really like the fresh stuff! that evening gabe had soccer practice - so gma got to see him strut his stuff! wednesday morning the boys had dentist appts. first thing, and then we headed off backpack shopping! gma wanted to get the boys their backpacks for school, so we went to target and found exactly what they were looking for!! with shopping out of the way, we went to the bothell country village for play time , train ride, and lunch! the country village is just a little old fashioned shopping, dining, and touristy adventure. now for the train ride--it is not a huge train by any means...they only have enough room for 4 adults and 10 kids on the train. there is room for 3 adults in covered cars and then room for 1 adult in the caboose. guess who got the caboose?! there was a warning on the caboose for people who are claustrophobic - if that gives you any idea how i spent 10 minutes of my wednesday! yee haw! the important part...gma, gabe, and grady had a blast (mostly at my expense!), and from the caboose, i had a great picture opportunity of the rest of the train! hey, you got to look for the silver lining! we enjoyed lunch and took pictures by the huge rooster that stands at the entrance of the village! that evening we headed down to mukilteo beach for some beachcombing! thursday morning was the designated ferry day! we headed back down to mukilteo and boarded the ferry - this was a very exciting day....it was my first time driving onto the ferry. everytime we have been on the ferry, i have been adament about not driving onto it - shawn always does the driving. it is a very close fit for a small car not to mention a tank like the armada, but i am happy to report the armada still has all of it's mirrors and there were not any extra red marks on the ferry! while on whidbey island we toured fort casey - where the kids climbed on some old cannons and checked out the old lighthouse...after that we headed back down to langley for lunch and shopping! after an icecream stop at dq we headed back to the ferry! that evening gabe had soccer practice again. that evening during the scrimmage he played goalie where he stopped a goal! he knew he had an audience--such a performer! friday was our last touristy day - and with that we headed back downtown to the space needle! we had a pretty clear day, we could see mt. baker really well, and mt. rainier, not super clear, but better than usual! we spent a couple of hours there and then dined on lunch at mickey d's! on the way back home, we stopped off at trophy's cupcakes for a scrumptious mid-afternoon snack! gabe had a snickerdoodle cupcake, grady chose the red velvet, gma's choice was the chocolate & vanilla, and my choice was the smore cupcake that had been featured on the martha show!! of course we all had nibbles of each other's cupcakes - every one loved their cupcakes, but i thought gabe had the best one! mine was a close second - grady would probably choose mine, he really liked the marshmallow icing! that evening we headed back down to mukilteo to arnie's for dinner! this morning, we woke up and headed off to the airport -- thanks for coming to visit gma!! hope you had a great time, and as i always say -- hope you enjoyed the quiet trip home!

rubbing elbows!!!

about 2 weeks ago, shawn received an invitation for dinner with jeff turner (president of spirit aerosystems). now while that seemed like an awesome invite, he knew there would be a ton of other people there. it was a recognition dinner for all of the people who have relocated to this area for spirit or others who are up here just working for the time being. well so he sent in his rsvp - i mean who is going to turn down free dinner, especially when you may get to wave hello to jeff turner! well, guess who was the lucky duck who got to share a 4 person booth with none other than jeff himself????? you guessed it shawn!!! reo (another rep) and shawn had been outside on the deck of the restaurant when everyone else had chosen their table, so when they finally meandered in there was only 1 booth left, so they thought "jackpot" they would have the whole booth to themselves and they wouldn't have to worry about saying the "wrong thing" to one of the higher up's!! amidst their celebrating - up walks jeff turner, asking if he could sit with them....looked like all the other seats were taken?!! now, i would have thought they would have saved mr. turner a spot at the head of the table, but guess not, he just one of the guys! shawn was in heaven!! it turns out jeff is pretty normal as far as grosely rich people go! he talked about when he lived up here for a few years, how his kids were the same age as gabe and grady...and he gave shawn some tips of fun things to do and see...most of which we had seen, but it was nice to have the same taste as him!! ooh la la!! now for inquiring minds....shawn was not offered ceo of spirit yet, but now at least jeff turner knows his name!!! i'm sure the offer will be coming shortly!!!! ha!!!

sprinkler time!

today it was a sweltering 78 degrees, so luckily my friend carla and i had planned on taking the kids to play in the sprinklers at forest park!!! i know what you are all thinking--did she really just say "sweltering 78 degrees"!! why yes i did! i have grown accustomed already to washington summers - so when it hits 75 degrees you would think it was 102! yep, i am a wimp! we were obviously not the only ones that thought today was a great day for sprinklers--that place was packed. we drove around the entire park one time without even a hope of a parking spot, we then circled back around, and again it was looking hopeless!! then carla's eagle eye caught a glimpse of a mom packing up her kids, so we reversed and stubbornly sit there until they left--yes, i'm sure the people behind us were loving that! we unloaded and headed to the sprinklers!! we had a great time, grady really got into running from sprinkler to sprinkler this time. gabe pretty much hung out by the same sprinkler the whole time, doing what appeared to be some boxing!! (maybe our next sport?!) after some sprinkler time, we dined on a fabulous picnic lunch and then finished off our day with the playground! the boys had a great time - and on the way home, grady and josiah even serenaded us with their versions of about 5 songs intermingled together!!!! what a wonderful summer day!

and so it begins!!

gabe has officially began soccer for the fall! practice started on tuesday night, and it seemed he just picked up right where he left off last year! he really enjoys soccer and i must admit this is my favorite sport to watch him play - even though i no absolutely nothing about it (even less than basketball-yes it is possible!). he has practice both tuesday and thursday nights for about an hour and a half and games will start after labor day. we also found out that we will be traveling with some of these games...so that should be interesting. they said all of the traveling would be in the puget sound area, so i guess that confines it to about 45 minutes north and south! we sign pee wee up in a couple of weeks for soccer - we'll keep you posted on that one! we will finally get the taste of what it feels like to juggle 2 kids' schedules around. i knew having two little fellas, that eventually the time would come, but i kind of assumed it would be a little later!!! that's what i get for assuming!!!

how about them americans??!!!!!

woo hoo!!!! it is 11:45 p.m. on sunday evening and i am cheering as loud as a responsible mom with 2 little guys in bed can!!!! our 4 x 100 freestyle men's swimming team just won a gold against the french team who felt it necessary to trash talk!! that will teach 'em! i'm not typically a real competitive person, but don't start the trash talking, that just irritates me! i knew how the race ended up (thanks mom!), but it sure didn't take away any excitement! i will probably be a little sore tomorrow from all of the swimming i did in the relay!! they are doing the awards assembly right now, and i must admit there is just nothing better than hearing our beautiful national anthem, seeing the wonderful stars and stripes, and witnessing the pride of an american team putting their everything into a race. oh yeah, i'm so proud to be an american!!! GO USA!

the calm before the storm!

so, this weekend the fox family is going to be LAZY!!! not only do we have an enormously busy 3 weeks ahead of us - gabe starts soccer practice 2 nights a week, next week, gabe's little friends bday party on sat, gma marilyn comes sat. for a week visit, shawn leaves a day after gma for a work trip to wichita, and then returns the same day shan & erin come for a 4 day visit, and then if that were not enough, the next week both boys start school, and somewhere in there i need to finish school shopping - whew i'm tired, but most importantly, if you were not aware the olympics are on!!! for those of you who didn't know, i am a huge olympic fan-- i love all of the action! the action started friday evening with an amazing opening ceremony - the chinese hosts know how to throw a party! gabe, shawn and i all sat in amazement (grady was amazed from time to time) with what they were able to pull off. the fireworks, costumes, and not to mention coordinating 2008 performers in various scenes--nothing less than amazing! this morning we all rolled out of bed - very late, enjoyed a relaxed, completely unrushed breakfast and then resumed where we left off last night. so far today, we have cheered on the women's indoor volleyball team, women's fencing, women's rowing, canadian soccer team (hey we are only about an hour and a half from canada up here and they were playing china (our biggest competitor in medals!)), and currently cycling. swimming and boxing are on our agenda for this evening! so far the americans have won 3 medals - all in women's fencing - an american sweep!!! YEA U.S.A!!!! we just wanted to let you know we have not dropped off the face of the earth--we will back to our exciting travels next week--right now, i've got some cheering to do! GO USA!!!

becoming a junior firefighter!

today, our storytime learned about fire safety. we were read stories about fire fighters, fire trucks, and fire dogs. we also took a trip to the lynnwood fire station! that was definitely the highlight of storytime! the boys got to sit in the driver's seat of the ladder truck and walk through an ambulance, a hazard response vehicle, and the pumper engine. i hope i am getting all of these technical names correct...i guess someone didn't pay very good attention! the fire station is just about a half a block from the library, so we just walked there. it was a fun little jaunt, trying to keep all the kids from veering off course and it was a pretty warm day here - for seattle standards. it is pretty sad, i was sweating bullets in 80 degree weather!!! what will i do when i return to the 100+ temperatures?!! we finished our visit by receiving fire hats and "official" junior firefighter badges -- i guess they are the real deal now!!

splashing around!

today after church, lunch, and sunday afternoon naps, we headed to mount lake terrace rec center to swim. our church is having a summer of a thousand smiles, and so as part of that they rented the whole pool for part of the afternoon! we had heard from various people that this was one of the best pools in the area, so we were excited to check it out! we were not disappointed! they have a lazy river, a leisure pool which doubles as a toddler area, running planks, which are huge floating pads you run on and jump off of, a water fall area, and 2 large pool areas! everyone had a great time!! since pools seem to be few and far between here, we'll definitely have to come back to this one again!!

2 gems in one night!!!

on saturday evening we ventured to a little hole in the wall chicken place called ezell's famous chicken! shawn had heard of this place from one of his co-workers, and i mentioned it to my friend carla, and she had eaten there and she thought it was good, but be warned -- greasy!!! and one more thing, ezell's not only has great chicken, they also have an endorsement from oprah herself! i guess she has eaten here and just can't get enough of their fried chicken and sweet potato pie! well surely shawn's co-worker, carla, and oprah can't all be wrong, so away we went! after picking up our chicken and fixin's we typed into our garmin "beach" and headed to the closest one we hadn't been to. well it looked like the lucky winner was richmond beach. neither of us had ever heard of it, but we were game, so we headed off! what a great find! it is just a small beach, but what a view. the beach is pretty sandy, which is great for digging and driving remote controls in!! so we enjoyed our just the right amount of grease fried chicken, mashed potatoes, home made rolls and apple pie!!!! yum-o! after filling our tummies, we relaxed and enjoyed a beautiful summer evening and sunset!!! the perfect end to a perfect day!

a night with josiah!

grady's best little buddy, josiah came over on friday evening. we were watching him for a few hours so his parents could enjoy a date night! we played trains, made pizzas, played outside, created with play dough, read books and played some more!!! The 5 hours he was here just flew by! our boys loved entertaining josiah, and i think he had a great time too! i've included a slide show with our 3 pizza pie makers and the 4 boys (yes, shawn too!) creating with clay and play dough!! there is also a super precious picture of gabe reading to grady and josiah a couple of bible stories from our kid's bible!!! he let each of them pick their own story and then he read it to them!! i just kind of stumbled upon him reading to them and i was so glad i was able to snap a picture of it!! shawn and i were downstairs cleaning up the play dough mess, and i noticed it had gotten a little quiet. as everyone knows, with 3 little guys in the house - it shouldn't have been quiet, so i scurried up the stairs and found the storytime going on!!! i guess quiet was a good thing this time!