The beginning of the end of naps . . . :(

We've had some visitors since my last post. On Saturday, we met up with Mark and Katie (friends from Calgary). We went to the zoo in the morning and in the afternoon, their kids came over for a while so Mark and Katie could have a date to celebrate their anniversary. Lynsey was thrilled to get to hang out with Alyssa again! Brian's parents came in on Friday and left on Monday, but they will be back again this Friday - Adam is already asking for Grandma and Grandpa to come back! We had some family pictures done on Sunday and it actually went really well! I was a bit disappointed with the photographer, he wasn't very creative and he didn't try very many poses, but what can you do, it was a groupon! The ones he did get actually turned out much better than expected, especially the ones he got of the boys.

Something else exciting that happened last week is that we finally got our long awaited bunk beds! It's so nice that Adam finally has a bed! We moved Lynsey's bed into Nathan's room, and I just ordered a twin mattress for Nathan so he can sleep on Lynsey's bed for now. It is so crowded in there with his toddler bed and that big bed, it just makes sense to transition him to a twin bed now and get rid of the toddler bed. Sleep hasn't been Nathan's favorite thing lately - he went from having two to three hour naps to having just one nap this week! What?! This seems so sudden, he just doesn't want to nap anymore - and when he does nap, you can bet he'll be up until 10! I'm hoping this isn't the permanent end and we do get more napping from him yet. It is kind of nice that he seems to be at a place where at least if we NEED him to skip a nap, it should be possible, but we'll see - you know he'll be too tired to make it on the day you need him to. Isn't that the law of nature? He is growing up in so many ways, just wish it wasn't in this department haha! He answers questions more consistently now, speaks in much more full sentences, such an interesting little guy!

Adam had a bit of a setback when I took him for a haircut last week - he freaked out just like he used to. I am hoping it's just a one off, but it was a bit discouraging to be sure. He's had a bit of a hard time at school, too, often getting upset for the last hour or so of school. I hope that a nice long break will be good for everyone. He gets to spend over a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house coming up at the end of next week, and I think he will enjoy that.

Lynsey has learned how to make her own ponytails, so you can bet that there are all kinds of ponytail concoctions in her hair on a daily basis! It was unfortunate timing with our family pictures, but I agreed to let her have one ponytail in the front of her hair - it's not like I've ever been super picky about hair and clothes on family pictures before, maybe one day I will be! Oh and she passed her swimming lessons, hurray! We won't do another set until next summer, but at least we know she can move on to level 2.

It has been very hot here for a long time, with a short break of a few days last week, and I am sort of wishing for just some low 20's partly sunny weather already! At least we have found ways to cool the house off so it's not so bad anymore. I know, I know, winter is coming, but winter isn't so bad here so I'm not dreading it that much. We have gone to some beaches and taken advantage of the nice weather here and there, but outings are so much work that I just can't do them every day. At least our back yard has lots of shade in the evenings!

35 years young!

Last weekend I turned 35. Mid-thirties - how odd feeling. Anyway, it was a nice weekend! On Friday, I had a girls night with some friends (and apparently none of us are super camera happy because not one of us whipped out our phones and got any pictures!). We went to the Keg for dinner and then Nordstrom Rack for some shopping! It was a lot of fun! Saturday, Brian and I had a date day! Well, sort of. It started at 3pm so more than a date night:). We took the ferry to Whidbey Island and had a really relaxed time. Our dinner was mussels that were taken from the cove that we were sitting next to, pretty cool. It was a lovely day!

We are back in the swing of things with Adam at RSA full days and Lynsey in half-day summer school. It's been a nice transition back to routine! Lynsey also started swimming lessons this week, which she is doing great in! She was back stroking up a storm yesterday, I was so impressed! Her courage in the water has gone through the roof even just in the past four days since she started lessons. I am confident she will be able to front crawl at least somewhat proficiently by the end of next week:). So happy for her, imagine how much easier it will be for her growing up having confidence in the water and knowing what to do if she falls in! I know first-hand what it's like to not know, I'm so glad my kids won't be in that boat! Our plan is still to put Adam into lessons in the fall, so curious to see how he will do!

The kids' bunk bed will FINALLY be here on Tuesday, so on my next post I can tell you how that's going! Hopefully we can get it put together without major stress, too!

Back from Sunny Sunriver!

We are officially back from our vacation! We had a really good time, but it is ALWAYS nice to come home after being away for so long:).

We left for Seaside, Oregon last Saturday. The van was packed full with bikes, food, swimming stuff, you name it! We got there in the early afternoon that day and we just took it easy, went swimming at the hotel pool before supper and went out to eat close to the hotel. There was a little main street within walking distance that had some places to eat. We tried to go for a walk after dinner but Adam wasn't having it unfortunately. Our hotel was right on the beach, it was really quite a wonderful location! The view from our window was breath taking - I understand why rooms with a view cost more, that's for sure! Falling asleep that first night was an adventure, yikes! Adam and Nathan weren't asleep until 10:15! We started with all three of them on the bed, but Lynsey eventually decided to go to sleep on the floor with her sleepover bed, which was a good thing. Hotels with young kids - not conducive to sleeping!

Day 2 - Our first beach day! Nathan kept calling the beach a "big sandbox" which was really cute:). It started off really well, but unfortunately, Adam had a little mishap when we went to the water. It was my fault, I should have been closer to him and making sure this didn't happen, but he was standing by the water and a wave came in, and he tripped and landed on his face as he was running away from the water:(. He was fine, the water didn't even cover his face, but it was very traumatizing for him. Brian and I took turns trying to help him recover on the beach but it wasn't happening, so I had to take him back to the room. I got him rinsed off, and although he was a bit touchy at first, convinced him to go back to the beach (yay!). There were swings on the beach which were helpful, I think they help him feel a bit more familiar or something. The other two had a lot of fun, and Brian actually took Lynsey back to the beach in the afternoon while Nathan was napping (and I was trying to keep Adam from waking him up!). We went to the hotel pool after Nathan woke up which was fun - can't go wrong when there's a hot tub! I should mention that Adam started using the hot tub while we were in Seaside - he used to avoid them, but he just continues to broaden his swimming horizons! We went out for dinner with three tired and touchy kids, and were exhausted by the time we got back to the room. Adam actually conked out at 8pm (he had a pretty rough weekend all in all, lots of stress and screaming). I know I mentioned a while back that Adam had started peeing his pants when he got upset, and he did this 5 times that second day. Such a frustrating behavior! I guess I hadn't anticipated how out of sorts he would be, since he has done well on our trips to hotels in recent history, always looking forward to them when we told him we were going. I think it was the beach combo-ed with being away from home, being tired . . . he talked a lot about bringing Lynsey to school so I think he was a bit anxious about the lack of routine. I had a feeling he would do better when we got the condo, and I was partially right:). Because everyone crashed pretty early that second night, I got to go for a run down the boardwalk which was really nice:). Perfect conditions - completely flat and at sea level . . . a runners dream;).

Day 3 - Our check out time wasn't until noon, so we decided to make another beach trip that morning. It went pretty well, and it was a bit warmer than it had been the day before (northwest beaches are not super warm unfortunately!). We got back on the road shortly after noon and were on our way to Sunriver. We didn't get to Sunriver until 5:30! Yep, it was a long drive! It was a nice drive, though, some beautiful scenery! We were very excited to get to our condo, which was a lot bigger and nicer than we were expecting! The kids got settled in right away and I knew we had made the right choice going with a condo for a longer period of time. We stayed at the condo that first day to settle in, it was nice.

Day 4 - I decided to be really ambitious and try a really long bike ride to the park. It was much longer than we probably should have tried for our first bike ride, but I wanted to have a destination that the kids cared about and this was the only playground, so we went for it! The first half hour was okay, but Adam had a little fall on his bike and wasn't very happy with his bike after that. He got off and walked for the last 10 minutes or so. It was very hot at the park, but the kids had fun! The way back was really dicey . . . Adam walked for the first bit but we knew he wouldn't last, so I basically had to force him to get back on his bike. It wasn't as bad as I thought, he didn't protest very much and actually seemed reasonably comfortable by the time we got back to the condo. Lynsey did great - she needs an adult to bike with her! She had to keep stopping to wait for the rest of us to catch up! That was the one and only bike ride we did that week. I am hoping in a year or two, bike rides will work better for our family! After Nathan's nap and a steak dinner at the condo, we all went to the Lodge Pool - perfect for our little family:). Not at all busy and yet another kid-friendly hot tub! Yes! Nathan was so funny, he kept lifting his feet and floating onto his back (he was wearing a life jacket) and saying "help!". Too funny, Lynsey had to get the second life jacket and play along with him, she's a good big sister alright:).

Day 4 - We went to the Sunriver Nature Center in the morning. It was a small exhibit with some birds and snakes, a few talks about some different owls. It was a nice change of pace, the kids enjoyed it. We went out for dinner that evening to the resort lodge, a bit pricey but it had a nice view of Mount Bachelor! We went back to the Lodge Pool after and the kids had fun!

Day 5 - Thursday - this was the day we decided to brave the big water park, also known as the SHARC center. We were pretty nervous about it, and it didn't start off very well. Adam was a bit stressed and it was so big and busy, I would be lying if I didn't tell you I was wishing we had just gone to the Lodge Pool! But things settled down after a bit, and it turned out to be a pretty nice morning. As we had been doing several times already throughout the week, Brian and I just split up and one of us took Adam and the other took Lynsey and Nathan. This worked until Lynsey got cold and wanted to just sit on a chair with a towel wrapped around her (the hot tub was for ages 18+, sheesh!). I took Nathan into the toddler area and just kept an eye on Lynsey, but it wasn't ideal. Eventually, Brian switched with me and took Nathan and Lynsey into the toddler area that had sand as well and I stayed in the big pool with Adam. We did all end up together right at the end at least! This is our life now, family activities don't always mean we can all stay together. Hopefully one day that will change, but I guess we'll see! We ended up back at the Lodge pool in the evening again, apparently the kids weren't sick of swimming yet:).

Day 6 - The Fourth of July! We headed over to the Sunriver Village complex where there was a fair set up, and the kids started off at the bouncy houses. It was fun for a bit, but very hot so we moved on to get something cold to eat/drink. It was while we were waiting for our shaved ice (kind of like slushies) that Adam decided he had enough. He could not recover, Brian had to take him back to the condo. I took Nathan and Lynsey around for a bit, checked out the Petting Zoo where Lynsey found a chicken that she was very sad to leave:(. She did get to see him again when Brian took her back while Nathan was napping, but it was still hard for her to grasp that she might never see him again! Oh my little animal lover! We decided to go the pool before dinner this time for our last pool excursion before heading home. It was a bit busier, but still fun. Nathan didn't last very long, I think he had reached his capacity for water play (and just in the nick of time, too!). We had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant and then were able to head back to the bouncy houses for a bit! It was really fun to watch Adam and Lynsey having fun together, and I know it was really special for Lynsey to be able to do a fun activity with Adam for a change. She usually loves making new friends when we're out and about, but a little girl was trying to talk to her and she was fiercely protective of her time with Adam, almost to the point of being a bit rude to the other girl (I wasn't too hard on her for that, I understood how rare this kind of engagement with Adam was!). Lynsey really wanted to see some fireworks, but they didn't have any at the resort and the closest ones were about a half hour away - at 10pm. We felt a bit bad, and considered the possibility that Brian could take her, but then the boys had a really difficult bedtime and it was so draining that we had to abandon the idea. She was okay with it in the end - she'll have many other opportunities to see fireworks in her life I'm sure!

Day 7 - The long ride home! We left Sunriver about 10:45am and took a scenic route home (intentionally, this was not just a nice way of saying we got lost haha!). It was a beautiful drive, didn't feel like 6.5 hours at all! It was so nice to get home (although finding out that one of our fish had mysteriously disappeared was a bit disconcerting! I guess the other fish got a bit too hungry?? Yikes!).

And so today we start with our new summer routine! Lynsey goes to summer school in the morning, and Adam is back in full-time therapy at RSA. I think Adam was ready to get back to routine. He talked a lot about bringing Lynsey to school and seeing his teachers during his stressed-out times while we were gone, so I'm glad he gets back to it today. He had a lot of fun over all, but he is not as flexible and adaptable as I think I was envisioning he would be. I don't regret going at all, I just think we would probably do things a bit differently next time! We are talking about trying to give him more visual cues for transitions and seeing if that might work. I think our trip in August will be better because we're going to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a long time and he loves it there, so we'll see how it goes. It should all be more familiar for him anyway.