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.

Seaside and Sun River, we're coming!

Tomorrow's the day! I am so excited to go on a proper vacation! We have done several mini ones in the last year, a few days here, a few days there, but this will be the first time we are going somewhere other than home with all three kids for a whole week! Tomorrow we drive to Seaside, Oregon to stay in a beach front hotel for two nights. Right now the weather isn't looking super awesome, but not hopelessly rainy (yet!). On Monday, we get back in the van and drive to interior Oregon to stay at Sun River Resort! I am really excited for that one! We have a two bedroom condo for 5 nights, coming home next Saturday. We bought Lynsey and Adam both new bikes for the occasion (yes, I know that Adam isn't wearing a helmet in the picture but he does have one now!) and we are going to be the active family! Well, probably only a small part of the time, but we will certainly make an effort:). Adam does not want to pedal his bike yet, but he likes riding on it and being pushed, so we are hopeful that he will slowly but surely start experimenting with pedaling when he thinks its fun enough. He knows how to pedal and pedals the tricycles at school, but he doesn't really stay interested long enough to do it for the duration of a bike ride. We wanted to buy him a big tricycle, but they aren't easy to find for his size and I thought of it too late to get one before our vacation (even Amazon let me down!). Anyway, we decided that we would try a bike and if it really just doesn't work, Nathan will use it one day I'm sure! So, wish us luck on our vacation! Should be a fun time:).

What else is new . . . not a whole lot! School ended last week Wednesday and we've been enjoying some downtime with a few outings here and there. It's really nice to not have a schedule and just play the whole day by ear. Lynsey has been spending LOTS of time at our neighbor's yard playing with the two little girls there which has been nice. I feel a bit conflicted about it because I don't know them really, but they are always outside and Lynsey has a lot of fun, so I think it's okay. I chatted with them over the fence the other day to let them know that they should just send her home if she's ever overstaying her welcome - they seemed really friendly! The girls are never allowed to come here, I think because their Grandma watches them a lot. I'm sure we'll figure out a balance through out the summer. I know even last summer with Anessa, Lynsey hardly knew any limits, she just wanted to play with her all the time. She is such a social girl! I hate to put a limit on it if there is no harm being done (I don't do random limits) so we'll just stay the course for now and make changes if/when necessary.

Nathan is just a fun little guy:). His newest thing that he says is, "Oh that's right" - pretty much before he responds to any questions, it is so cute! He loves having Lynsey home, and I've even caught him and Adam having some fun here and there:). I have noticed that he really overreacts when Adam gets close, acting hurt even when I can see that Adam didn't hurt him (on that particular occasion). I will really have to be vigilant about not letting him become the victim all the time and blaming Adam for things that he isn't doing. I hope that as Nathan grows older he will learn more how to interact with Adam and we won't have some of these issues going forward. We also of course hope that Adam will learn not to be rough with his siblings (he still pulls Lynsey's hair sometimes, so frustrating!). One thing I have noticed is that he sometimes hits adults kind of randomly, but we have never observed him doing this to another kid other than Nathan and Lynsey. I don't know his motivation behind it, making it super tricky to correct, but I'm not terribly worried about it. I think he's just experimenting a bit with what he can do.

I guess that's all until we get back! My next post should have a lot more pictures - what has happened to my picture taking anyway!!

The boys are moving on up in the world! Or, at least in the area of sleeping arrangements:).

It's official - the crib is GONE from our house! Already been picked up by someone here in Kirkland that had given her crib away after her second child and now needed another one (I told her I wanted her to have it because should we ever have need for a crib again, as in, if the Lord wills it against ALL odds, we would want someone else to do the same for us:)). Nathan has moved up to a toddler bed and Adam is on a twin mattress, currently on the floor. Nathan has done pretty well with the transition! The first few days were like the Honeymoon phase where he didn't get up at all, but he did figure out after a few days that he could now move about the room and took advantage. All in all, though, I have to say it was a pretty smooth transition! A little bit of horsing around, but nothing too alarming. When I tell him it's time for him to have a nap, most days he marches off to his room to go sleep in "ma new bed":). Love that little boy!

We ordered a bunk bed yesterday, so the plan will be for Adam to go on the bottom bunk of the bed for now, until he's old enough to go to the top bunk and Nathan is ready to transition from the toddler bed to the bottom bunk. We know our Lynsey and knew she would NOT want to be left out of the bunk bed shenanigans, so we've told her we will move her bed frame into the other room and she can sleep on the top bunk for now. I think we will move Nathan into the same room as the other two as well so he gets used to sleeping with Adam, which means the party will be on with all three of them sleeping in the same room for a while! If we deem this not to be working we will re-evaluate, and I suspect it will take some adjustment time. What better time to do it than in the summer, right?? We'll see how it goes:).

You might be asking, but why buy a bunk bed and go through all the effort of setting it up if you're only going to be moving in a few months! Well, that's an excellent question! We have actually decided to rent this house for another year. It's funny the process we've been through in the last few weeks as we've come to this decision. We were hoping to sell our Calgary house right away, putting it on the market while the renter was in it. Well, our renter called me the other day and told me in no uncertain terms he would not be agreeable to having showings while he was renting. It was a miscommunication with the property management company, as we were clear with them when we rented it out that we had to put it on the market while the renter was in there. Anyway, after much thought about all the implications of waiting until September to list the house and how that affected our chances of buying here, we decided to just let the renter stay until April 30th (what he really wanted) and putting the house on the market at peak selling season with no one in it to cause any complications, and sign another one year lease here.

There was a time when I would have told you there was no way we would stay in this house another year. It was such a shock at first to go from our nice new house to this "fixer upper", and for several months I just kept telling myself it was only temporary, and that's how I lived with some of the things that drove me crazy. BUT, Brian has gone and planted grass in the front yard, making an AMAZING difference in how the yard looks (seriously, neighbors are applauding the move with enthusiasm!) and it's funny how even one small improvement and investment of ourselves has increased our "ownership" of the place. I think there was a bit of pride involved with my always telling people it was only temporary, that we would be buying something soon (the implication of course always being that we would buy something much nicer!). Living here been a nice lesson for me that I don't have to have the nicest of everything, and in fact, it can be a bit freeing to NOT have the nicest of everything all the time. It's funny, I have become so used to so many of the things that used to irritate me that they hardly bother me anymore. Do I love sharing a bathroom with the kids? Not exactly, but it's completely doable and honestly not as bad as I thought. It's starting to feel a bit like home, and that's really all your kids need, why should I need more than that? So that's our situation for now. Buying will be something we revisit in the Spring when we *hopefully* have a better feel on the longevity of our stay here. Honestly if we only want to stay for another two years, buying isn't worth it because of all the fees you pay to buy and sell here (way higher than Canada). Lots to consider! Thankfully we can put it off for another year:).

Lynsey had her dance recital just over a week ago! She was beautiful and did a great job, but she told us in no uncertain terms that she did not want to do dance again. Okay, that will be all for dance recitals for us then! I don't really mind, if she doesn't love it, I will not be pushing her in that direction! She really seems to like the gymnastics portion of her class a lot so I think we'll continue to put her in just gymnastics classes for as long as she is interested. I am glad I got to see at least one more recital:).

Potty training already? I guess not!

Well, the excited, first-time parent-like optimism that I have been feeling about Nathan's potty training potential has drained away. I was so hopeful. If you have three kids, shouldn't at least ONE of them be easy? Come on, what are the statistics anyway? All I ever hear about are stories of people that have 2 year olds that love the potty and just do it because they want to, often without much encouragement from parents. Here I'm thinking, Nathan's easy going, looks up to his big sister . . . he's going to be The One for me! So on Tuesday, on a bit of a whim, I decided to give it a go.

First day, you don't have super high expectations so when he had a lot of accidents, I didn't stress about it too much. He did have two pees on the potty, so that has to mean something, right?? Day 2 (yesterday) the success level didn't exactly go up . . . he actually started resisting more. He would be sitting on the potty for a long time, refuse to pee, and then I'd let him get up and he'd have an accident a few minutes later. At this point I'm still not frustrated, I'm thinking it's just a learning curve and he doesn't have it yet. It took the first really messy poop in his shorts for me to feel those all-too-familiar feelings of frustration and anger boiling up inside of me. I found myself raising my voice at this little two year old sitting on his little potty after it was too late (but I still make him sit), and he's repeating back to me, "I need to put my poop in the potty, pee-pee goes in the potty", and it was then that I realized that I couldn't do this to him. I went for a run last night to clear my head and try and figure out why I am SO bad at potty training, and I'm sure there are many reasons for that, but the reality is I can't continue. I PROMISED myself when I went down this road with Lynsey that I wouldn't do it again, and here I am 4 years later! Adam was so different because we waited so long and my expectations for him were so different, it took him a while to "get it" but I didn't really get too frustrated at the whole situation. It's when I have this little communicator in front of me that knows what to do, and has shown many signs of being physically ready, that brings up this part of me that I don't want to see. The final nail was this morning when he woke up, I tried to sit him on the potty and he just cried and said he didn't want to and didn't want to . . . you just have to know when to quit sometimes!

So today we are back in diapers and we'll give this another go in September, after all our travel over the summer is complete! Instead of being mad about what he's NOT doing, I am going to focus on what a sweet little guy he is! How he is working hard on his manners (seriously, can you ever get enough of, "Oh thank you, Mommy" and "Oh sorry, Mommy" or even "'Scuse me, Mommy"??). He goes with the flow on so many things, and has to put up with much from his big brother (Adam pushed him down the stairs the other day, very upsetting on many levels for all of us!). He is loving wearing Lynsey's princess shoes, and is getting amazingly good at walking in them! Life is too short! Buying another few boxes of diapers isn't the end of the world:).

As you can see from the pictures, we had a little mini campout in our yard on Memorial Day weekend! It was just one night, and the kids were very excited about it. Nathan didn't do so well, Brian ended up taking him inside during the night, but the other two did great! I think we'll probably try it a few more times over the summer before the big one in August in the mountains. Just this week, we also booked our flights home for Christmas, yay! Happy we'll be able to give our kids family Christmases in both Edmonton and La Crete.

We are going to put Nathan in Adam's toddler bed soon, probably this weekend! I am sad to give up the crib just because I am afraid of what will happen to Nathan's sleeping (especially naps, sniff sniff!) but it is time. He isn't comfortable in his playpen anymore we have discovered, so we need to train him to sleep in a bed before all our traveling this summer. We just have to go out and buy Adam a twin mattress! He has been too big for that little bed for a while, but it's amazing what you put off when it's not a dire emergency!