Too much time on my hands!

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

I've been tagged!

Attached or single? Happily Married
Best friend? Aimee
Cake or pie? Pie, Pumpkin with lots of whipped cream
Day of choice? Sunday, love it!
Favorite color? Blue
Gummy bears or worms? Bears, soft ones
Hometown? Great Falls, MT
Ideal vacation? Swan Lake,MT, NO KIDS!
January or July? January, It's my birthday month.
Marriage date? May 12, 2001
Number of siblings? 4
Oranges or apples? Gala or Fuji Apples
Phobias? spiders, losing a child in a store
Quote?Don't sweat the small stuff.
Reasons to smile? I get to be a mom, and I'm leaving them for 4 days with my husband!
Season of choice? Summer, I love the sunshine.
Unknown fact about me: I really like to go out and explore, just not as late as I used to.
Vegetable? Broccoli
Worst habit? Impatience
X-ray or ultrasounds? Ultrasounds
Your favorite food? Anything potato
Zodiac sign? Capricorn

Tag three people: Aimee, Jen, Lara, Auri

Tall Ships Adventure!

Today we went to the Tall Ships in Tacoma. They come to the Puget Sound every 3-4 years, and I thought just maybe it would be way cool. So off we went to Tacoma... If you know me I'm always looking for cheap entertainment for my family. Part of that always includes, how much for parking, tickets, etc. Well, Tacoma has the perfect parking and transportation system to get around. We parked at the free garage, and took the Tacoma link to the festival.

Of course you call it a train ride and any Toddler will think its great!

Logan looked a little disappointed, but he thought it was okay.

We disembarked at the Union Station, walked under the glass ceiling bridge, and low and behold, PIRATES!!!
I took a few shots of the ceiling, and of the glass artwork along the wall.

We were really close to the Tacoma Glass Museum, I thought about taking the boys there sometime....then I figured, 4 year old and glass...not a great ideaWe started walking around the festival and saw these cute old ladies from the senior center putting tattoo's on kids...Here's Logan's version...Ya'll know Cooper wouldn't stay still for a picture.

After some searching we finally found the Childrens Cove, or as we came to call it, Pirate's cove.

The kids were given a treasure map and went to different stations to get a stamp after they learned a different Pirate activity. There was a ring toss, Bisquit Toss. Here's my favorite,

Bat-a-Rat

It's exactly what it sounds like. The kids took plastic bats and wacked them into a garbage can.

Load the Cannon

Load the Cargo.
This was a relay race. The kids ran with a burlap bag to the flag pole and back until all 4 were "loaded". Of course, my son, was smart and carried 2 at once. He would have won, if he hadn't have got distracted by Nick falling down. He had to make sure his friend was okay. Then he slowed down and lost interest. Oh well. I'm really not that competitive.

Raising the flag.

The pirate asked the boys Pirate questions and if they answered correctly they hoisted the flag up the pole. Cooper just wanted to hoist the flag. He didn't want to answer the questions.

We were really lucky to see "The Lady of Washington" sail by us. As they were passing, they let off their cannon, and we thought that was cool. One of the Pirate ladies said they do that on purpose everytime they pass Pirate Cove, because they know they can't shoot back. Once the kids collected all their stamps on their maps they went to a tent to receive their treasure. Which ended up being a beaded necklace. Here's my little sailor.
And my little Pirate!

Cooper would ARRRGH at every single pirate we saw the whole day!

Finally, a chance to get on a boat!

I couldn't pass another visual display of artwork. This is one of the many tightly wound ropes they had on the deck of the boat.
Look mom, I'm a sailor, I'm sailing.
Looking up at the mast.
Making our own boats.
We wanted to get on this boat, but the wait was 2 hours long. Not with 4 toddlers, who at this point were really really hungry.

At first we thought this was a cool statue...
Then it jumped out at Cooper and freaked him out. Jeannene and I took a picture with him so Cooper would think it was okay.
Then he decided that the sword looked kinda cool and wanted to protect his family.
We were so worn out at the end of the day. I didn't even take pictures of all of us on the shuttle bus back to the parking garage. We wish we could have gone on more ships, but after walking almost 1.5 miles with 4 kids we decided we've seen enough.

Happy 4th of July!

During the day Cooper, Logan, Grama Nina and I went to the Auburn 4th of July Celebration at Les Gove park. There were lots of things to do there.

We watched the kids parade and Cooper was so excited to see his friends!

Cooper had his face painted, jumped on the inflated toys, & went down the big slide with Grama & Cousin Jo Jo. Our friends Nicholas, William, & Jen were also hanging out with us.
All the kids went on the little train, which Logan LOVED!!!
They even got to ride the ponies!

Which Logan didn't like so much.

We even saw our old friend from last year! Hi, Dozer! It looks like Cooper's bigger this year!

So much fun, what an awesome way to spend the day! Could it get better? Of course it did. We went to lunch, the grocery store and went home for a nap before our BBQ with our friends.

Good times, Good Friends, and Good Food! Then it rained.

We figured it was a good thing. Wet the earth before the Fireworks. We drove over to our friends house to light the fireworks. The Smith Family put on a great show!

Cooper was loving the sparklers. He would wave with all his might, then drag it on the ground trying to put out the fire. Logan really loved the fireworks, too. He didn't care to much for the loud whistling ones, but he loved "the boom booms" as he called them.

Happy Birthday America!

Cooper's Dentist Article!!!!

Cooper is our little star of the day! I told you he would only sit in the chair for the reporter.

Here's the link to the article in the paper.

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/aub/news/22061349.html

Summer Fun, June edition.

In order to keep the boys cool, we've gone to Jeremy & Jehana's house and went swimming. Cooper loves the water and tries to float on his back. He loves the slide and splashing Mama. Logan is getting more and more used to the water. The first time we went swimming I had to stay really close, as he would trip and fall face first and not be able to get up. I've decided it's worth getting splashed and most importantly I want keep my boys safe. Just add lifeguard to my resume.
June found us celebrating 2 birthdays with the Twiddy cousins. Here is Cooper playing house with cousin Reece at her 4th birthday party. While there they went swimming, and played on the awesome swingset. AND of course got really really dirty in the sand pit.
Logan really like the tire "horse" swing, the slide, the power wheel 4-wheeler and the doggies.

The Twiddy Boys go to the Dentist!

I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and take the boys to the dentist. Logan really didn't need to go, but I had to show Cooper that little brother was going as well. I got a flyer from school stating that "the Smilemobile" was going to be in our neighborhood. I thought that this would be a less intimidating way of taking Cooper to the dentist. Thinking that it would be fun to go to the dentist on a "bus". All week we pretended to go to the dentist, by saying AHhhh! and letting mommy poke around in Cooper's mouth with no biting. Logan seemed to like the game as well, so I thought okay this is going good. Today before we left James read the boys "The Berenstein Bears Go to the Dentist." Everything was going great. We even brought Cooper's blanket and a few Cars. We went to the free lunch down at the school, went to the park..then ......to the SmileMobile..

This is how in my little world it would go....Logan would sit nicely for the Dentist and let the Dentist look at his teeth. He loved the Chair ride...but then...

Reality!
Totally hated it! Oh well. Give him a toothbrush and he's happy again.
Then there was Cooper. I thought...hmmm. He will like the chair ride and sit for the Dentist.

NOT! This is what happened. Cooper never sat in the chair for his exam. He sat on James' lap. The only reason he got in the chair was because a reporter for the Auburn Reporter came in and wanted to take pictures and do an article. He would sit there for the reporter, but not anyone else. He did do a fake AHhh! for the reporter as well.

The trip to the dentist really wasn't as bad as you may think. Trust me, we've had Doctor appointments that were worse and involved a 30 minute temper tantrum.

All in all, no cavities, no worries about the teeth.

Hopefully next year will be better.