It finally cooled down enough earlier this week to take the kid to the park. (Now it's back in the 100s and day trips include the library or McD's to play inside.) We made a picnic lunch and found a shady spot to watch the kids play. The funny thing is that they did not play on the play structure at all.

Tether ball anyone? Oh, wait there is no ball on that tether ball pole. What do you do with a tether ball pole that has no tether ball? (oh, and when did this boy get SO big?) I have a video clip of him getting up here, which is really quite cool. But, I cannot figure out how to upload videos (still).

Really, I think he is part monkey!What do really nerdy kids do at the park? Well, they (along with their really nerdy dad) launch rockets fueled with baking soda and vinegar! (Let's see if it will work if the video is smaller.) No such luck. I didn't take any still photos of the rocket launching either, not that those would do it justice. Anyway, Brian and the kids played with a rocket kit we got at the "teacher toy store." See what I mean about nerdy kids and nerdy parents?

Last week, we had another Spiral Scout meeting. It has been a busy week and I have got behind in blogging again. Here is Jacob with the "talking stick" sharing with the circle about the work he is doing toward his photography badge. He has a blog that he is using to record and share his work. It is www.jacobsnotes.blogspot.com feel free to check it out and leave him a supportive comment:-)
After a story about popcorn, the kids were supposed to act like popcorn kernals being popped. The little ones seemed to have fun. The older ones...not so much.

The highlight of this meeting was the awarding of the circle's first pins, the Gold Club Award(although the actual pins had not yet arrived). The children have learned about spiral scouts and learned about our meeting facility (which is really awesome). They have made new friends and done projects to get to know each other better. Each child lit a candle representing themself and placed it in a circle. Here is Jacob having his candle lit by Russell.

Here is Nate getting his candle lit. I wish I positioned myself to get better pictures. But, hey I've got them!

"What was I supposed to say now?" Just kidding. This was not the best picture of Russell; but it was the best picture of the circle of candles. Sorry Russell, gotta have priorities.

Jacob and Nate with their certificates and their candles, which they got to keep. This was the best of several. Someone was not very cooperative. Any guesses who that might have been?

We missed the last meeting, because Jacob and I were in Seatlle. At that meeting the scouts made a banner representing our circle, The Laughing Pines Circle (how cool is that name?). At this meeting I was able to add the boys, and another friend who missed the last meeting, to the banner. Is this not a cool banner?

We are making friends in our circle. On Sunday afternoon, Jacob was invited to join the other Spiral Scouts (the older group, there are 3 of them) to go see a movie. He had a great time. Thanks again Beckie for inviting him along. He felt special getting to do something like that "on his own." Or maybe it was just "without Nate." Either way, he had a great time.

Baby Dakota went home on Wednesday. They came by our house first to meet the big brothers. The big boys were busy playing in the pool and playing with my boys. I didn't get any pictures of all four boys together as I had planned. Maybe, next time. Here is a picture of 10 month old Mikey with his new little brother. He was a little rough and didn't know what to make of this little thing getting so much attention.
Today, I got to babysit both babies while Mom went to the doctor. So, I decided to play photographer. It was fun, but I'm not in any hurry to quit my day job, lol. This is the night stand beside my bed, just to give you an idea of how tiny this little is, just over 5 pounds.

A little closer up.

Here is in a laundry basket. He was probably thinking what in the world is this crazy lady doing to me. We were having fun though; at least I was.

Either he had some major, or he was having fun. Maybe he thinks I'm funny!

Unfortunately, vacations come to an end. After a breakfast of awesome pancakes, that earned Jodi the title of "the best cook" (that is another blog in itself), we said goodbye to our friends Gabriel and Sebastian and their daddy. Jodi and I agreed that this would be easiest on our sensitive boys. As it was, Jacob starting crying as soon as we were on the plane. Here is a picture of Jacob with our Captain. I'm glad my car doesn't have that many gauges to read!

Traffic was backed up as we waited for take-off.

Raise your hand if you recognize this toy from the 80s! It's a cousin to the Rubik's Cube, called the Rubik's Twist. I remember calling it a snake, way back when. Anyway, I found this at the mall and bought it as Nate's souvenir. It doesn't say Seattle or anything, but I thought it would be something he would like. He was just happy to get something.

We spent three hours on the road, taking turns twisting and un-twisting it. First you had to straighten it all the way out. Then you had to twist it up the best you could and pass it to the next person. I am amazed at how long this held everyone's interest. This is my recommendation for any upcoming car trip!

"Here Mom, unwiggle this!"

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of teaching Jodi to crochet. I think she had done this before, because she picked it up pretty quickly. We went to the "has everything" store for groceries, potential souvenirs and yarn and crochet hooks. Love that store. Thus began the "Seattle Blanket." I was hoping that security would let me on the plane with my crochet hook. You just never know. This is what the Seattle Blanket looked like when I got home, after two hours on the plane and three hours on the road.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to match dye lots on yarn bought in another state, from a store that does not even exist in your area? In the store, this skein of yarn seemed to matched the yarn I already crocheted. Well, in this picture, you can tell that it DID NOT. But, adding equal amounts of the new yarn to each side gave this baby blanket a unique look. It was finished just in time too! Here is the Seattle Blanket, that now belongs to Baby Dakota.

We now returning you to our regularly scheduled re-cap of our trip to Seattle. Day 3 was a relaxing day at the park, well, kind of. There was a plan...

Aimee and I set out to introduce Jodi to our fun obsession, I mean hobby, of letterboxing. Aimee, stamp carver extraordinaire, made stamps for both Jodi and Jacob. Jodi's "wordworm" stamp can be seen in the photo below. Jacob's is a chipmunk, with his nickname "Boo" on it. I added a log book, stamp pad and pen, to create a letterboxing kit for each of them. Now all we needed were clues. We found a few for boxes in a nearby park. Below are the supplies for our letterboxing adventure.
Jodi with her first letterbox. I understand they have been 'boxing since we left. Aimee, we have created another addict!

The park had a nice climbing wall and the picture was cool too.

This park had the coolest large chess set; although it was missing several pieces. Joshua was jealous when he saw the pictures. Jacob and Gabriel played a game. It was hard because all the pieces were not there and some of the remaining pieces were designated to be others (the black king was actually a pawn, who was taken in the end, because we didn't realize it was the king). The boys had fun; that's really all that matters.

We have two of the "thinking-est" boys. They had some great conversations during our visit (like debating whether or not space and dimension are the same thing, funny story there). A chess game was a natural progression. Jodi, we sure have some smart boys!

Hmm, now what?

Then we went to the mall for lunch and some shopping. It was a fun hang out day.

My computer time has been severely limited by the addition of a baby boy to our family. NO! I didn't have a baby; my sister-in-law did, on Saturday night. Baby Dakota arrived almost a month early. He's a little guy by our family standards, weighing in a 5 pounds 8 ounces (Joshua was 9 pounds 6 ounces, see what I mean by our family standards, lol). He is 18.5 inches long. He is the big guy in the NICU though. He was having some breathing trouble in the beginning so needed some help in the NICU. He is currently off all the machines and monitors. YAY DAKOTA! He may even get to come home when mom does tomorrow if he is eating well.

Meet Dakota. Look at all that hair!

He still had his IV and monitors when I visited yesterday.

Mom got to hold Dakota in the NICU while I was there.

While mom and Dakota are in the hospital, we have been babysitting his 10 month old "big brother." He's the baby who has interupted my computer time. He's really an easy baby. But, I guess I had forgotten how much work a little one can be. My kids are pretty self sufficient now. I mean they can feed and dress themselves. It was quite a task to get everyone out the door on time for church on Sunday :-) This is a good reminder of why we stopped at Nate. It's been fun, but it will be nice to give him back to his parents. Then I can borrow him again when the Baby Bug starts to bite :-)