Long Weekend

This weekend included:

1. Another scout trip for Braydan (Sahale Peak).

I stole the above image from google images

Braydan's 5 star digs

which means . . . . . .

2. Lots of shopping for me!

3. Girls nights (french food, swimming, pizza, more food . . . .

4. Reptile Zoo

***The highlight---watching an employee throw in a rabbit to the the anaconda. I was traumatized (as my crazy camera skills attest), but Kaleb was blissfully happy. I love when he gets so excited that he talks a mile a minute.

5. A Birthday Party

6. Barbeque with friends. The sun came out at the perfect time. Thank you sun!

Cabinets

I've been wanting to post this for a long time! But, Braydan made me wait until the finishing touches :) He started this project in January and worked on it when he could, doing sections at a time.

before

The doors were nice because he could take them in the garage and work, but the fixed parts he had to sand inside. That was one of the worst days ever! We taped off the kitchen, took everything out, and had the biggest mess!

I should have taken the kids on a trip for the day, but we stayed. Every time the kids wanted a snack or something, I had to crawl under the plastic, maneuver around and crawl back out. I was glad when we got that cleaned up!

I had lots of weeks with the cabinet doors missing. And with half done and half not.

And then, just when I thought it was done, he wanted to put molding on top.

And knobs and handles.

But, it's finally finished and I love it. He did an awesome job. He said it's all just practice for when we build our own house, but secretly I wonder if we ever could. We couldn't even agree on knobs and handles!

I'm glad . . .

. . . I'm not the only one who has bad hair days.

Girl Party

So this post is all about me, but I only have pictures of the boys.

When I asked Braydan how the heck Kaleb got that high in the tree, he said, "it's magic." I'm like okay fine. I'll go ask Kaleb. Kaleb heard us talking and answered, "it's just magic Mom." Scary!

This last weekend was lots of fun in the sun. Friday morning I helped Sammy and Emily with the "neighborhood" garage sale. Amber, Rebecca, Kandy, and Angie all came over throughout the day to hang out too. It was fun to talk and work on our tans (or sunburns) and earn money. I love my street! Braydan came home early to take Kaleb on the Fathers and Sons camp out and I left with Amber to take the girls swimming. It was weird just having one baby to look after. Eliza's favorite thing was climbing out and jumping into the water (probably 50 times!). She also loved Amber's floaty thing and I bought one the next day for $1 at a garage sale! She will have fun this summer.

That night we had a girls night at my house and Sammy spent the night. We got up early and had a delicious breakfast at Amber's, went to Emily's to set up the garage sale, and then I left for the farm. The "farm" is not really a farm, but a nice neighborhood up in the hills. Every year they have a garage sale weekend and yesterday there was probably 30 garage sales! I put Eliza in the stroller and we walked the whole thing. I got lots of cute clothes and shoes for the kids, a few toys, and decorations. I got sunburned, but it was totally worth it.

The boys got back in the afternoon and told me all about their adventures. I think they should have fathers and sons more often! Eliza missed them though :)

Discovery Park

Here's some pictures Amber took of the kids on Saturday. She wrote a funny blog about their trip here. Thank again guys! You're awesome.

I love her little pigtails she ended up throwing these shoes in the water

buddies

5 Happy Years

This last weekend we celebrated our 5 year anniversary in Leavenworth! I've been stressing the last few weeks, trying to decide what to do. It's ridiculous because, like Braydan reminded me, "it doesn't matter what we do! We always have fun." Well Friday (the day of), I finally decided we should go on a climbing trip. Amber and Wes happily took the kids (we'll swap them later) and we took off! We had a great time together and pretended we didn't have kids. First we went to a fancy dinner at Viscontes. The bruschetta was amazing! After dinner we checked out more of the quirky town . . .

this is why we needed my camera! I don't know what I'm checking out . . .

still working on learning the video camera part of the phone :) at least there's cool music

. . . and when it was almost dark, we went to find a campsite up Icicle Canyon.

Saturday morning we headed for X Y Cracks, a nice little wall to warm up on.

repelling down

Right off I remembered I don't like cracks! I hate jamming body parts and hauling myself up. I feel like it's not graceful or technical, but probably because I'm not good at it :) Braydan obliged me and we hiked to J-Y Crag next.

Braydan

He lead a fun one (without cracks!) and I loved how sticky the quartz felt. It sure is sharp on the fingers though!

me

We also found Veterns Wall and that one was our favorite. Lots of routes, no people, and full sun! We climbed till 2, hiked back down to our campsite and packed up. We drove into Leavenworth for something to eat and Braydan insisted I needed to have a traditional Brat. Eww! I tried a bite, but gave the rest to him. Before we left I wanted to see the famous chocolate shop. I had no intentions of buying any, but suddenly Braydan was picking out pieces and buying a box for me! I tried to ignore the price and enjoy them for Mother's Day :)

We headed home and got to enjoy more alone time together because the kids were at Discovery Park with the Dyers! What a spoiled weekend for all of us! I thought Kaleb would be so excited to see us, but he cried himself to sleep, wanting to play with Jacob.

One last word . . . .When Mom was here a few weeks ago, she randomly told me, "Braydan is perfect for you, you know." I was kinda surprised, but the more I've thought about it, the more I realized she is right. He really is perfect for me. I'm so lucky to have had 5 happy years with him.

Some freaks of nature

It's been so nice this winter that I was already geared up for summer. But . . . yesterday it "snowed." Okay it just hailed, but my kids thought it was awesome and we had to go outside and play in the "snow."
I love Eliza in this picture :) She could barely walk she had so many coats on.
Other freaks of nature: Kaleb got in trouble today (I caught him red handed throwing dirt over the fence), and while he was in his room for timeout, he fell asleep!

The last and biggest freak of nature: Me + Curtains = Finished. These curtains have been the bane of my existence. Okay, maybe not that dramatic. But I've been working on them for a while.

Lesson I've learned from them:

1. Buy curtains from the store

2. Don't borrow sewing machines

3. Don't leave curtain rods out for little boys to break

4. Curtains need lined

before

After

(you can kinda see the new cabinet color)

before

after

(I still need to tweak these ones a bit)

Here's how I made the rods: Amber told me about her cousin making rods out of dowels. I thought I could do that easy. It worked fine until I left it out and Kaleb stepped on it, snapping it in half. Braydan glued it and it sort of looks fine (on the first window). It only cost $3, including the finials. The finials were wood too and I just sprayed them black.

The other window I got smarter and used pipe ($1). I needed a way to have it bend with the bay window, so I got 2 elbows ($.50).

Glued the finials ($3) on and sprayed the whole thing black.

Now what will I do with my time? Oh yeah, finish my mess of a bedroom. Right now I'm sleeping next to a 50 gallon air compressor and nail gun.