grady a.k.a. big bad soccer boy!

tonight was grady's first soccer practice and to say the very least...he was excited! his coach called this morning letting us know that they would be having their first soccer practice this evening, and that is all grady could think about the rest of the day! he had an absolute blast practicing tonight! there are 10 kids on his team....9 boys and 1 girl! tonight they ran, skipped, and high stepped for warm up and practiced their dribbling along with some shooting! we were pretty impressed how well the 3 year olds all kept relatively focused! they will have six 45 minute practice sessions and then end their season on november 1 with an actual game!! as if the practices weren't hilarious enough--their going to throw in a game! grady being our vocal one, had all the answers for the coach! if she asked a question he knew the answer---or at least mr. grady's version of the answer!! he was able to enlighten yet another lost soul to his way of thinking!!! like i've said before, watch out world, here comes grady!!!!

fireballs vs. the jets

the fireballs may not have had the best weather to play in this morning (rainy and cold), but they had an awesome game! they had their first win of the season with a win of 9-4!!! not only did the fireballs have a great game, but gabe was on fire!!! he scored twice and had 4 stops when he played as goalie! the coach has been working really hard this week at practice to get the boys to follow their teammates down the field to score, dribbling and passing.....all the hard work really paid off this week. this was the first game we could tell the boys were implementing things they were practicing into game play! we can't wait until next week----go fireballs!!!!

our weekend--in a nutshell!!

i can explain our weekend in a single word----unpredictable! the unpredictable weekend actually started on thursday when shawn came home telling me he would have to travel to wichita this week!! now that is really nothing unusual, but i usually have a couple of weeks notice, not 3 days!! but work is work - that's why we're here--so i got over that obstacle pretty quick! on friday, shawn was home with grady and i, due to the shortened work week (boeing strike)!!! it was a gorgeous day, so we decided to head to the park for a picnic and playtime--we had a great time. it was nice for grady to have us all to himself--i don't think that has happened since he was teeny tiny! after the park, it was time to pick up big brother at school--after gabe got home, shawn and him decided to play football--in the house! well, long story short, gabe reached down to pick up a ball he missed and poked his eye with one of the plants by our fireplace--ouch! we put a cold compress on it right away, he wasn't crying, but he said he could not open his eye. shawn finally got his eye pried open and saw a scratch on his eye. so, we decided since he couldn't open it on his own and he had seen a scratch, we should head to the doctor. shawn was in the middle of cooking a whole chicken on the grill - so he stayed behind with the chicken, because as we all know, i am quite the grillmaster! so gabe and i hopped in the armada to head off---okay here comes blow number 3-- it wouldn't start! it had worked just fine earlier in the day--who knows, no time to figure it out, so we hop in the car and away we go! we get to the immediate care and they look at the eye and tell me they don't think it looks too bad, so they should be able to take care of it down there instead of sending us up to the optometrist. they ask us 5 million questions, and have poor gabe do about 50 eye tests--with the eye he can't open! well, good news he can still see! so they take us back to the room and put these drops in his eye that make his eye glow in the dark--so they will be able to see the scratch. with further investigation under the black light, the doctor determined it was a lot worse than he had first thought - so we then get whisked up stairs to the optometrist. they get us right in, which always kind of freaks me out--there are other people waiting and they somehow miraculously get us in?! must be bad! so the doctor comes in and says, "we have to get this stopped!" good grief-- keep your comments to yourself! he spouts off some orders to his assistant about 5 drops, for five minutes of something and some other drop and some test!! no time for questions he's back out the door! dr. comment comes back in explaining that the scratch looks like the shape of a mountain across gabe's eye extending pretty far into the white, so to stop the scratch from worsening he put some numbing drops in, some drops to dilate the eye - to keep it from swelling- and place a contact on the eye to form a sort of bandaid! we were then to stop by walgreens and get an antibiotic and tylenol for pain and then be back in the morning for a recheck--yes, saturday morning! although he said the scratch was pretty bad, the eye heals extremely fast and should be back to perfect by morning! so with that we head to walgreens and home for dinner. we take it pretty easy that evening until the kids get in bed and then it is time to figure out the armada!! since shawn and i are both so extremely mechanically inclined when it comes to our vehicles, i head to google and he grabs the owner's manual! shawn decides to try to jump start the army....no go! so it must not be the battery right?! wrong! as it turns out--after much investigating by madam google--the army has a huge battery (and strange one as we will soon find out) so the car couldn't get it started. so we decide on saturday we will go get the battery tested and go from there! well saturday arrives, gabe is to have a soccer game, but with his eye, mean mom and dad think that maybe playing wouldn't be a good idea--he finally talks me into asking the doctor! we get to the appt. - his eye is perfect!! thank goodness! so i ask the doctor, "gabe has a soccer game this morning, he probably shouldn't play, should he?" dr. comment sees absolutely no reason why not--his eye is back to normal! huh?? well, that is all gabe needed so we ran out the door--we had 35 minutes to get home, change and get to the game. no problem-we are only 20 minutes from home and 10 minutes from the soccer field--you do the math! well, somehow we make it !! gabe plays a great game, and no more eye injuries! the score is a little better this week 3-6, we're still on the short end of the win, but good news, gabe stopped a couple of goals while playing goalie! go fireballs!! after the game we decided to attack the battery issue! come to find out, the battery was dead--totally dead, and the battery is some sort of backwards battery, no doubt so nissan can make a bundle! we try a couple of places--no go, so we call the nissan dealership, they have one!!! we tell them to hold it--we will be right there! well, not only is the battery weird, it also costs about twice as much as a regular one---perfect! so we go home with our golden battery, hook it up, cross our fingers--and thankfully the army starts right up!!!! things are looking up right----wrong again!! my sister, who rents our house called on saturday afternoon and told us that there was a little water in the basement!! it had been raining like crazy there for about a week, in fact, she was flooded in on friday, so of course this should happen. we tell her to use the shop vac and keep the dehumidfier going! thankfully is was a very small amount of water - only about a 2 square foot spot- we are so very fortunate to have her as a renter, who knows what would have happened to the house if she weren't there!!! we ended our crazy weekend on a good note though---we finally got all of our yard work done--we are no longer the ghetto neighbors! and we got to enjoy a barbeque with some friends from church on sunday!! i mainly bored you all with this blog post only because i usually only post the great happenings of the fox family--rest assured we are normal, we have bad days too!

oh, the places you'll go!

today, our little man had his first day of preschool! mr. grady was so very excited this morning, he could barely contain himself! it was everything gabe and i could do to get his picture on the front porch this morning! when grady and i arrived at the preschool, he ran right in -- no tears for my little man!!! and no tears for mom either!! now, i wouldn't say i was exactly doing cartwheels, but i kept my eyes dry! i was so proud of him walking right in while there were other little ones not faring quite so well! how could i cry, if he wasn't??!! when i went to pick him up at the end of class, he could hardly wait to tell me everything he had done! they learned how to line up without wiggling (i'm sure this took a while to master!), they made place mats for snack time, played outside, and learned about the circle shape! he had a very busy 2 hours! so to our little man we say go get 'em kid, there are mountains to move out there and for the rest of the world, watch out....here comes grady!!

the fireballs vs. the navy seals

gabe's soccer team, the fireballs (the team picked their own name!), had their first game yesterday afternoon! it was a wonderful afternoon for a soccer game, or just about anything else you may have wanted to do outside! gabe played an awesome game. they play 3 on 3 with a goalie for each team, so each player really gets to have a chance at getting time with the ball! it is a lot better than watching a swarm of little men going after one innocent little ball! gabe played defender (stays back helping the goalie defend the goal) and attacker (just as the name sounds - they attack the ball!). he had a really great time playing both positions!! he was pretty tricky getting the ball away from the other team a couple of times. unfortunately though, the fireballs came up a little short on the scoring in the end!! they do not keep score, but it was pretty clear the direction the victory would have gone! but as we all know - winning isn't everything -having fun and great snacks after the game is!

it's a salmon watching, troll spying, outside kinda day!

on saturday, we made the most of the absolutely gorgeous weather we had been given!!! we started our day off at the ballard locks. right now the chinook are in the height of their run. at the locks they have a salmon ladder where you can watch the salmon moving upstream through the glass enclosure. the salmon were very impressive in size....a nice little morsel they would make! we also spotted a seal in the locks, he was putting on quite a show for whoever was watching!! and no doubt....he was filling up on some salmon! after the locks, we decided we would attempt to find the ever elusive fremont troll! now i say elusive only because he has been elusive to our family--everyone else i have ever asked about the troll are completely perplexed on how we could have missed it!! their claim is that this huge troll is in plain sight--okay so round 3 for the fox family.....i was determined we would find him this time! after some frustration on the part of the driver (me) and the navigator (shawn)- we were not on the same page for a better part of the seek and find troll mission- the troll was spotted! and while there was satisfaction in finally finding the troll, it was less than impressive! i think i had hyped myself up too much....yes the troll is huge and he is holding a real vw bug, but it is a concrete troll...hiding under a bridge...it was not worth the agony and frustration i had put my family through to find it! after troll mission complete, we decided to head down to ballard for a late lunch. we had the pleasure of dining outside on the main street in ballard. a little insight to ballard....it is a mixing pot of all sorts, the eccentric, the rich, the old & odd, the pet lovers, the i'm in my late 20's don't know what i'm doing in life but i'm a trail blazer sorts, you name it you'll see it in ballard! we had a yummy italian lunch and thoroughly enjoyed our people watching! we had some time left on the parking meter so we window browsed along mainstreet and finished up with a stop to tully's coffee! after a coffee energizer, we ventured down to issaquah. while i was in issaquah with gma a couple of weeks ago, i saw a salmon hatchery. i came home and told shawn about it and later that evening while he was rubbing elbows with jeff turner, jeff also mentioned the issaquah hatchery, and said it was a must see! this hatchery was much larger than the one we went to with shannon and erin a couple of weeks ago. there were not as many salmon on the ladders in issaquah as there were in ballard, but the size of the salmon were just as impressive! at this hatchery they had baby salmon who were trying to jump upstream...the cruel fact was that they had no where to go, they were jumping up into little tubes and then being flushed back out!! it was really humorous to watch these poor little fish trying so hard....and getting nowhere!! we had a great saturday--just taking in some great sights!

and we are off to 2nd grade!

today was gabe's first day of second grade!! he was very excited to be heading back to school--ah! what a joy it is to have a child who is not kicking and screaming their way back to school! last night they had open house at his school, where we had the chance to meet his teacher! his teacher this year is mr. davis--this is his second male teacher. his 3 year old preschool teacher was also male, and gabe did very well with a male teacher. so i was elated when we found out he had mr. davis this year, he happens to be the teacher everyone wants their child to have -- lucky us! it was so nice to wake up this morning and know we were back to "our good ole schedule"!

back in business!

the fox tour company was back at it again this weekend! shawn's brother shannon and his family came for a visit! they flew in about 30 minutes after shawn was returning from his work trip to kansas, so they all loaded up in the army and headed toward edmonds! that evening we kept it tame--we had dinner at home and then headed to gabe's soccer practice. after practice we drove down to mukilteo beach for some beachcombing! we had a wonderful evening looking for shells, rocks, and taking tons of pictures! (i think i may have met my match in the picture taking arena--way to go erin!) after we made it back home, we feasted on the fabulous whopper cake!! it was delish! the next morning we took a ride on the ferry to whidbey island. we decided we would just walk onto the ferry and play on the beach on the other side! our family had never just walked on the ferry, so this was a fun experience for all of us! after the ferry we headed for the mountains! we stopped off at a park in sultan for a picnic lunch, and a walk along the river! we were then headed for the mountains - but were then taken off track by a salmon hatchery! while that may not sound like something that would normally take me off my mission---this was pretty cool. it was only about a 15 minute detour, but well worth it! right now we are entering the season when the salmon are returning to their birthing places....the hatchery was packed with huge salmon, splishing and splashing all over the place! after that we continued up to stevens pass - where gabe, shawn and i all went skiing last winter! just like snoqualmie pass - it looked completely different without all of the snow. the ski resorts actually look really run down and sort of like a ghost town out of snow season - i guess hundreds of crazy skiiers and snowboarders make all the difference! we then traded vehicles - we took two vehicles everywhere we went, the kids were all in the army, so to keep everyone sane we switched on the way back home! we stopped off at our favorite coffee shop on the way back. i had warned erin that the barista was VERY strange, but guaranteed the best cup of coffee! she didn't disappoint - she is odd, but if she can make a great cup of joe - i guess i can overlook the strangeness! erin and i enjoyed a very quiet ride home -- it took a us a little longer to get home then the boys, we weren't sure if we were enjoying the ride so much that we were driving extra slow, or that the kids were so crazy that the guys just drove unusually fast! that evening we had dinner at anthony's woodfire grill at the everett marina! we finished off our evening with the kids playing until they (and the parents) collapsed! we started off the next morning with a plan! but as everyone knows, plans are made to be broken! our plan was to catch the sounder (commuter train) from everett station to downtown seattle! my nephew gid is totally into trains -even more than my boys--yes it is possible - but unfortunately - we missed the last train! bummer - we had checked the schedule on the internet, but the site was a little less than user friendly, so somehow i had messed up the train schedule, although when shawn looked at it, it appeared the same to him! so onto plan b--the monorail! you can catch the monorail at the space needle and ride it about a mile to westlake mall--okay so it was a short ride, but fortunately it sufficed the kids! so we took some pictures at the space needle, loaded the monorail and headed down to the market! the market was crazy as usual, but we had a great lunch with a view of the sound! after lunch we walked through the market purchasing some yummy fruit! shawn and i bought some blueberry grapes and baby bananas! the blueberry grapes looked just like blueberries, but tasted like grapes and the baby bananas were just like bananas except about half the size!! too cute! shan and erin bought some delish blueberries--we all snacked on our purchases while sitting in the open area by the market - watching some scientologists be harassed by masked people, homeless people with instruments, and watching and hoping our kids could dart around all the dog poo they were running through! after that excitement we headed back to westlake mall and grabbed some cookies and then boarded the monorail! we headed back home to rest up for a while - the parents rested up & the kids continued to run like crazy monkeys! we went down to mukilteo to the tin fish for dinner with our friend nate - and enjoyed a relaxing evening! on sunday morning, we had a quick breakfast and shan, erin, gid and mia headed back to kansas!!! it was a quick trip, but we really enjoyed having them here!!! i hope we didn't wear them out too bad!!

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!