Wednesday, May 31, 2017

End of May Fun Stuff


I couldn't get a good shot capturing all the lawns with all the flags, but it seemed to go on before us for a long, long way. Asher told me he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of flags, of those who have served our country.

On Memorial Day we visited the nearby Oak Lawn Memorial Park. We brought a bag of smooth rocks and pens and wrote Thank You on each rock. The kids would place a Thank You rock on a flagged grave marker until we ran out. Which Brennan immediately noted we wouldn't have nearly enough rocks for everyone. They enjoyed that activity, including reading the names and noting which war the individual had fought in.


Kieran, being "reverent" like I asked. I really just wanted him to stop dancing during the picture.

Last Saturday we headed for the coast to visit the old-fashioned (and movie-appearing) ships. First, I didn't know where in Newport to find them. If someone had just told me Bayfront, it would have been easy peasy. Brennan and I were looking everywhere online and NO ONE tells you where the boats actually are, other than "Newport". It was kind of ridiculous. Then, we couldn't find parking. We FINALLY did and walked down the dock to find one of them wasn't there, and the one that was had just closed for walk-on tours. No one was there giving info, nuthin'. We got a picture and headed over to the sea lions which were ultimately much more interesting.

Then we headed for the beach and again spent forever waiting for parking. I think I'm done with Nye Beach. It's not THAT great.

But we had a good time!






He's in the middle of complaining, "No! I don't want to smile!"





For the life of him, he just CAN'T remember where he left his body. Hope it didn't wander off...


ISO: Body. If found, please contact Hollyn







 
See all those people on board? That's while we were parking-spot hunting. :-/

During a recent FHE, we went outside to play kick-the-can (it represented Pahoran and the KingMen, and Moroni vs the Lamanites. Pretty epic). Hollyn's eye started bothering her, so I have her a minimum dose of benadryl, and sent her to the shower which I assured her would help.

10 minutes later she emerged like this:


She's since had it reiterated not to rub her eyes when they itch!
 She was given MORE benadryl AND eyedrops. I hoped she'd sleep it off, but her eyes were still swollen pretty bad the next morning. Enough that I kept her home from school even. She wasn't uncomfortable, but I couldn't get myself to send her looking like an alien. I have my pride.

My friend Angeli took me to The Cherry Poppin' Daddies event here in Corvallis. They sang so many fun oldies like "Beyond the Sea" and Lindy-hop favorites from the 20s and 30s and such. Of course Zoot Suit Riot came up. :-) We had so much fun!



The day of the *perfect curl*

Isn't she a beauty? The little turkey always tells people how cute she is... because "everyone tells [her] so".

It was a long 6 weeks, but track finally ended. Here's Brennan running his last 100m race of the year. He's hoping to do Cross Country in the fall... We'll see if I'm up for it. Track was a GREAT experience for him though. He isn't so competitive that he cared about getting first. (He might have cared if he'd come in last consistently - he was satisfied with being in the middle). But the experience of being part of a team, not to mention the benefits of exercise, was really positive for him.


I'll have to find the videos separately. (Vids are a lot of work to format for posting). Hollyn has no fear about dancing away in front of a crowd. Neither does Kieran.


On the evening of Memorial Day, Thane accompanied the kids and I to a patriotic Community Band concert (The Albany one, not "mine") in La Sells Stuart Center. Kieran was just 3-year-old wild, but Hollyn was wildly enthusiastic about the music. She used a small flag to "conduct", she danced in her chair, she ended up dancing in the aisle. Several people who'd sat behind us came up to me during intermission or at the end telling me how much they got a kick out of watching my daughter enjoying the music.


When I Grow Up I Wanna Be Like My Kids

This was originally written the day after Fast Sunday. I think I had more to write, but now I can't remember, so I'm posting as-is.


Yesterday Kieran announced in sacrament meeting, "I need to poop!" Yeah, he's that kid. So I took him out to the bathroom. While inside the restroom I could make out over the speaker that Brennan had gone up and born his testimony. He does that often so I was only a little sorry to be missing it.

As I walked back into the chapel with Kieran though, I saw Asher going up to the microphone. He bore a short but very sweet testimony himself - for the first time! As we all sat back down together Asher turned to me and told me, "Wow, it feels really good after you bear your testimony!" Awww. Brennan and Asher then proceeded to give each other 2 hugs and Brennan explained, "I told Asher if he bore his testimony I would give him 2 hugs." But Asher quickly added, "The real reason I did it though was for God."  What a sweet kid!

Brennan later mentioned fighting his inner struggle: he really felt pulled to go up and bear his testimony, but he also doesn't really want to, so he demonstrated how he holds on to the bench going "no, no, no" as if he's literally being pulled up and hanging on to the bench for dear life in resistance. He also tells me that he remembers my words about how the less often I bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, the harder it is for me to do it. He really wants to train himself to overcome his fear, so when he feels prompted to go up, he lets go of his fears and resistance. He is seriously the coolest!