4th of July 2009

Hope everyone had a relaxing 4th of July this year. We kicked it at our friends, Scott and Angela's house along with another couple and their two little boys.

The boys all had a great time running around the yard, playing in the water and consuming a lot of goodies. Scott was cooking up a 4th of July smorgasbord of food that included pork roast slow cooked in the smoker all day, crab legs and corn on the cob along with sides of coleslaw, pasta salad and a fruit tray from the ladies.

Just before Jayden had to go down to bed, dad was able to sneak a few fireworks in this year. Nothing too crazy even though those are DEFINITELY available up here, crazy place up north called BoomCity that has 100 stands of craziness. Even though he was a fan of the few that dad set off he was still won over by what I think is the #1 firework ever made for kids - PopIts.

We're going to the Beach, Beach, Beach......

The Friday before the 4th was supposed to be a beautiful day so we decided we needed to get out and enjoy it. We have not done too much exploring up north here since we moved to Everett and figured this was as good a time as any. A friend of ours suggested we try Whidbey Island and Deception Pass state park.

We looked up Deception Pass and it was only an hour drive up north. It had hundreds of camping sites, day use camping areas, salt and fresh water beaches as well as swimming areas. Sounded perfect!!

Since Jayden still will not nap anywhere other than the car and his bed, we headed out early to try and make the most of the day. Jayden was excited.

When we arrived at the beach area it was awesome. There were ton's of shore line to play on with BBQ's and picnic tables. Even though it was typical Washington shoreline, some sand and a lot of rocks, Jayden did not mind. He spent the better part of an hour throwing rocks into the water and wading out a bit to get his feet wet.

After the rock throwing we walked to the swimming area close by. It was nice and sandy there with a nice roped off area that was pretty shallow. Jayden had a blast splashing around and walking out to the deeper areas with mom and dad. A small puddle of water, which he called his "bath", provided the perfect spot for him to plop down and play in the mud/sand while mom and dad set up a picnic blanket and relaxed a little.

Soon after we enjoyed our picnic, we packed up and headed to the car, stopping along the way for a snow-cone. We had a great time and will definitely be back!!

Happy B-day little man....

A few weeks back the little man made it to 3 years old. It seems like a pretty decent milestone in ones life. While he still has a fair bit of growth to go before he can jump behind the wheel of a car, fight for his country, vote for his leaders, put a Benjamin down on the Lakers to win the title or develop any other bad “grown up” habits, he still gets a pretty sweet step up in daily life at 3.

For one, his toy possibilities grow by about 200%. Whether it’s that he can easily now have toys listed as 3+ (which seems to be a boat load) or that we are more likely to let him have one that is 4+ or 5+ now, there are definitely more options. He’s been talking for a while now but his imagination has definitely been taken up a notch or two in the last month or so. He love’s to play freeze tag and hide and seek, even though he does not fully get the concept of “hiding”. When he hides, he usually just goes and stands next to a wall and giggles while we try and pretend that we don’t hear or see him. When we say “Jayden, where are you?” he giggles and replies “I don’t know, hehehe”. He also is a big fan of playing “grocery store” with his new cash register (the “money pinger”). At the moment he likes being the “shopping man” and dad or mom being the “grocery man” that scans all the items and takes his money. He also may start going to some sort of pre-school some time this year. There are several places around us that provide part time schooling for a few hours a day, a couple days a week at a reasonable price. Of course there is also potty training. We’ve been half heartedly working with him the last few months but will soon be going at it full force.

Better toys, new games, school and the loo! That’s quite a bit!!

Ok, well onto the festivities. His actual birthday fell on a Tuesday this year so dad took the day off of work and we headed to Chuck E. Cheese (a favorite of his, of course). Turns out Tuesday mornings at opening time is the perfect time to go because no one is really there yet!! (Yeah for mom and dad!!). We brought a few presents for him to open and much fun was had. He got to meet Chuck E. and had plenty of coins to plop into whatever machines he wished. We had amassed quite a number of tickets from previous outings and we added a bunch more this time (1300 total!). When it came time to leave we showed him all the cool toys he could pick from. He decided he just had to have this certain item and he would not be convinced otherwise no matter how hard mom and dad tried. What did he want? A mini Tootsie-pop, orange flavor, for 10 tickets. Oh to be 3… :)

After we left the mouse house, we went home and all took a nap. After nap time we decided to take him out to a birthday dinner at the mall. We went to Claim Jumper and had a yummy dinner. He got a special birthday cupcake that he enjoyed very much.

The next day, he had his two best buds come over for cake and ice cream!!

The next day, Thursday, we headed for Portland to see family for a long birthday/fathers day weekend. We started by going to grandma Smith’s house in McMinnville. Jayden had a blast playing out in the yard. He helped grandma water her plants, played hide-and-seek, and rode his little scooter around the grass. On the second day we went to this great big park next to were they live (sorry, no pics, forgot our camera). He had a blast playing on all the jungle gym stuff, in the sand, in the water jets and on his little scooter. Of course he loved playing with the dogs at the house and in his little room that grandma has set up for him.

On Saturday we all went over to grandma Shervey’s house for his big Transformers themed birthday party. Uncle Jon and Aunt Heather came over too and an unhealthy amount of spoiling ensued. :) The following day was Fathers Day but we ended up just relaxing and not doing too much, the week had worn out mom and dad. We did go to a cool little park when we had a break in the weather where Jayden got to play with one of his favorite playground toys, the scooper!!

We headed back the following Monday. We stopped at our friends, Chris and Tiffany, to see their little one, Sydney, and introduce her to Jayden (is there a future marriage in the works?? We shall see). Unfortunately, the little man was worn out and just wanted to go home (he was asleep 10 minutes after we left), so the visit was a short one :)

The following week Jayden had his 3 year check up appointment. We found out he was a perfect square, 39x39!! 39 pounds (90th percentile) and 39 inches tall (95th percentile). A big growth spurt in the last year!!

Monsters vs Aliens

Being a rather big movie buff myself, I looked forward to the time I could take Jayden to the movies with me. I was not sure exactly when this would happen I just knew knew it would, some day....

So they started airing commercials for this movie over a month ago and ever since Jayden has been foaming at the mouth every time he sees one. After said commercial would end he would squeal out either "I go see, I go see!" or "Monnnnsterrrrrrs" or some version of "We go Target" (to buy it). Add that to that the fact that the Golden Arches is dropping a little Monsters vs Aliens plastic nugget into every kids meal and it quickly became apparent that we may "need" to go see this movie with him.

After reading several reviews online from parents that took their 3 year olds I was convinced it would not scare the daylights out of him and we decided we would give it a go and take him to his first movie.

So all three of us headed to the 10:30am showing at the mall. We got there a little early to get good seats and wasted a little time by the arcade machines. We went and got some popcorn and one of the "kids" boxes for the little man, he was very excited. He got to hold the tickets and gave them to the nice man when he was supposed too.

We walked into the theater and it was cool to see how he reacted; Stopping to stare at the "big tv" for a minute, telling me "it's darrk", looking at a new kind of chair he had never seen with seat that flipped up and down, oh and look a cup holder for my drink too.

The movie had been out for several weeks by this time and there were only a handful of other families in the theater, perfect. After he got settled and figured out how to keep from being "folded up" in the chair he was good to go. Also very excited that he got to have his own Sprite, little box of popcorn, some fruit snacks and his blankie. He looked pretty darn cute (sorry, to dark for cell phone pics).

After what seemed like 6-7 previews, after each Jayden would say "I want watch Monsters now please", the movie finally started. It was a little slow for the first 10 minutes and I wondered if it was going to hold his attention but soon after the chick gets hit by an asteroid, grows 50ft, the action kicked in and he was glued to it for the next 90 minutes. He did great and kept quite for the most part. When he would let out a yip of excitement or ask a question I would lean over and tell him "We have to use our quite voices in here ok" and he would lean over and whisper back "ok, ...." and repeat whatever he had just said, cute. One time it was rather funny when a character walked into a huge, silent, empty room and said "HELLO!?!??" to which Jayden of course offered "Hello!". He was a big fan of the giant "fuzzy" monster and the little blue blob guy too.

He was all tuckered out by the movies end, asking to go home in the last 90 seconds or so of the movie because he wanted a nap. Mom packed up our stuff, I slung him over my shoulder and we headed for home.

Perfect.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope that you all have a wonderful day.

Wanted to post a few pictures and videos of our day. Jayden was very much into Christmas this year and was very excited that Santa made his way to our house. Hope you enjoy the pics/movies.

Sorry, had to split the movies into 3 parts. Supposed to be one 13min video, but the web site I host pic's and vid's on has a 5min limit per video. So just watch them in order to get the same effect :)

Getting some Joy out of the Constant Snow Flakes

In case you have been under a rock the last week, it has been dumping snow up here in the great north west. Over the past week we have gotten over a foot of snow in Everett and 8" in downtown Seattle. For a place with lots of steep hills and annual snow fall is just under 3" that's a heck of a lot!! Of course that means most are not prepared for driving in it and that ends up causing wrecks, delays and all kinds of issues. In fact the last three bus rides I have taken (or tried to take) I have waited a total of 5 hours for the bus!

On the bright side I have "had" to stay home for the better part of a week and we have gotten out and enjoyed the snow as much as we could. Jayden seems to really like the snow and this is the first year he could really get out and play in it. Unfortunately the snow that fell was a real soft powder and not very good for making snow men, but mom did manage to snag the last sled from RiteAid and we had lots of fun with that. Hope you enjoy the pic's.

I guess we can let you out of your cage....

Missy and I decided that once we got back from vacation it would be time to switch Jayden from a crib into a 'big boy' bed. He was definitely old enough. He had never tried to climb out of his crib or anything like that so we just have been letting it go.

His current bed converts to a day bed and that is what we decided to go with. We talked about getting him some kind of cool bed but we figured that could wait for another time or occasion. We went and got him some new sheets. He got to pick them out and to no surprise he choose the Thomas ones that we found *He is currently a big fan of the Thomas*.

Overall he is doing just great with the new bed config. He is a little hesitant to get out of the bed when we are not in the room, which I guess is a good thing at this point.

How We Spent Our 6th Anniversary Morning.....

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks getting ready for Mexico and we planned on not doing anything for our anniversary yesterday (more on Mexico in a later blog post obviously!!). We had bought some stuff at the store to make a nice dinner at home and were just going to relax.

That morning Missy got a text from a friend and asked if we want to go to the Evergreen State Fair. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided that it would be a lot of fun to take Jayden and let him see all the animals and maybe ride a ride or two. It was supposed to rain that day but it was still warm so we just hoped for the best. A quick stop at the Bartel's drug store to buy the tickets (discounted) and we were off! The fair was about 20min from our house so it did not take to long to get there at all.

The rain held off just long enough and we all had a blast at the fair!! Jayden was super excited when we went and saw the animals. He got to see pigs, goats, cows, sheep, roosters, ducks, turkeys, chickens and even zebras and reindeer!

After that we went and got so me yummy fair food and chilled a bit. We went and played a few games. Dad payed $5 to "win" a bear for the boy. Dad also payed $10 to shoot baskets for a big toy, but it was not meant to be.

We only rode on one ride with the little man and that was the carousel. He was a little freaked out when we got on it, we only sat in the sled and not on an animal, but he loved it once we started going.

It was a great time. The little guy was all tuckered out by 12:45 or so and we went home. I think we will go back again next year. Here are some of the other fun moments of the day.

We were blessed with a rare beautiful weekend and decided to hit up one of the local parks for some sun and fun. We headed to Forest Park in southern Everett because Missy said they had water fountains and lots of toys to play on.

Jayden loved the water fountains and toys. He was a little shy at first but he warmed up to it after a few minutes. He just ran around laughing and running around the water.

It was a lot of fun. Hopefully we have a few more nice weekends so we can do it again and maybe BBQ and invite friends. Here are some pics from the day:

We Got Jayden a New Kitty!!!

Missy, Jayden and I went for a walk this afternoon. We were headed down to the local fruit and veggie stand about 1/2-3/4 mile down the road from us.

Jayden found a new buddy while we were out. On the way we saw a sign for a garage sale and we could not pass up checking out other peoples junk. They had this giant tiger that Jayden really wanted. He was a little dirty and needs some patching but he was only a dollar. So we figured that if a cycle through the wash ruined him or permanently maimed him it would not be a big loss.

I'm happy to say that he did survive the gentle cycle and is now a happy member of Jayden's SAP (Stuffed Animal Posse). Here are a few pic's of Jayden and mom playing around with the furball.

Weekend BBQ with Good Friends

Last weekend we finally made it over to our friends house, the Schulte's, on Bainbridge Island for a BBQ. It's always so difficult to get our schedules to match up but all the stars aligned and we made a go of it.

It was Jaydens first ride on the boat and he loved it.

Another friend, Jim and his wife Danielle and their son Ayden made it over as well. We all use to work at Escend together and had been quite some time since we all hung out. In fact the last time we were all together the Schulte's only had 3 kids, Jim and Danielle had none and neither did we. So we had lots to talk about :)

There was tons of food and beverages. Jayden had a great time playing in the sandbox with Aaron's littlest - Tessa. Then got pushed around the yard by Ayden and Tessa.

Lots of fun on the island

After dinner the men decided we need to test out some of the toys at the Schulte homestead. One of which was the Jason Giambi Batting Cage! This thing rocked! Very cool setup. We got in and took some hacks at 60-70mph and I actually did rather well for not swinging a bat in 10 years.

My cat like reflexes and quickness too fast for our camera to fully catch!

Then we started messing with the kind of pitches it could throw. We had it throwing some wicked curve balls which I hit really well but then we decided to crank the sucker up to full speed. I tell you what, that thing can hum it in there upwards of 95-100mph. I could not even see the BALL!! I think the wives thought we were going to get killed. Nothing at that speed hit anyone or anything, including the bat ;)

We even got the wives to jump in and take a few hacks. Missy did the best out of the girls!!! She had several solid hits.

Good form!

A great time was had by all and I really hope it does not take us another year to all get together.

Happy 4th of July Everyone

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and were able to enjoy a BBQ and possibly a cold beverage.

We headed over to a friends house for the traditional BBQ, etc our selves. There where several other couples joining us, all with younger kids. We had a really good time and Jayden got to play a lot and eat a lot of yummy food.

Darn E-Mail never stops...

After the little ones went to bed we played some games in the backyard. Horse shoes and croquet where the games of choice. It was fun watching us all try and throw the horse shoes like we knew what we were doing.

Our friends Angela and Scott were great hosts. They just moved into this new house and they have tons of room and a big back yard. We did not really do any fireworks. Mostly due to the fact that one of the houses in their neighborhood just recently caught on fire and did tons of damage so no one was really in the "lite stuff on fire" mood. Plus the boyz are a bit young to really enjoy it just yet.

We finished the night off watching the fireworks on TV.

One funny before hand story was what I will refer to as "The Mellon-ball Incident". Missy had decided to bring a nice fruit tray to the BBQ. It was to be filled with all sorts of tropical delights. One of which was going to be watermelon. She worked hard at making these nice ping pong ball sized "melon balls" out of it using, of course, a melon baller. They where perfect little guys. After she was done she came into the living room and sat down. About this time Jayden walked into the kitchen as he always does and Missy and I started talking about the day or something like that. Jayden is a big fan of the watermelon and about a minute later we both kind of had this "He's really been quite in there" moment of "oh crap!" Missy walks in and sees melon balls all over the kitchen floor and carpet! Jayden quickly deduced that mom was not to pleased with him and left a smoke trail to the living room. I came in and saw the mess all over the floor and tried my best not to start laughing out loud (Missy understandably not really ready to "look back and laugh" just yet). What he had managed to do was take his riding dump truck toy and prop it up against the cabinets. Stood on top of it (pry on his tip-toes), opened the plastic bowl with the melon balls and scoop out arm loads, all while being supper quite. That boy has got mad skillz. Luckily he did not get that many and there were plenty left for the tray.

I think he learned a valuable lesson - When sneaking food never take more melon balls than you can eat or carry.

Trip to Spokane with Jayden is well overdue

Over the weekend of June 27th the Misses and I loaded up the wee-one and headed east. Much fun was had.

Background:
Before stopping in Oregon, Missy and her family moved out to Spokane from Hopkins (MN) some time during her days in middle school (mid 80's maybe?). Shortly thereafter her grandma, aunt and a cousin moved out to Spokane as well as the the Shervey's began to stake their claim to a piece of the great northwest.

I don't have a digital version of any of the pictures I have seen from this "Shervey Spokane Era". I have hand drawn one for you though:

Shervey Clan - Left to right: Middle-School Missy, No-Grey Jon (or one of the Cosby kids. I'm not certin), Less-Grey Wayne, Merry and Mittens

The Fun:
We took off from Everett on Thursday afternoon. Normally we would leave with Jayden later in the evening so he could sleep most of the way but Everett to Spokane is about 5 hours and we did not want to get in at midnight so we left early and prayed that he would do OK. He ended up doing rather well the whole way. Missy did a great job entertaining him by reading books and shoveling snacks back to him. Also a saving grace was a CD of songs from one of his favorite cartoons - The Backyardigans. He loved this and panicked whenever a song finished and there was a slight pause, thinking it had stopped. It saved much need sanity for mom and dad. (Thank you Jon and Heather!).

Snacks and songs got us to Ellensburg where I had looked up a state park we could stop at, have dinner and let the boy stretch his legs. Since he was a good boy McDonald's fries were on the menu for dinner and he enjoyed them with much happiness. It was a cool park/farm. I guess it is a working farm as well and they do school field trips with hay rides and the whole bit. Neat-O!

Dinner at park.

*Side note* - Washington rest areas and state parks have got to be the nicest I have ever seen (and I've seen my share, not a lot of airline miles racked up on family vacations when I was young). They are always very well kept and the bathrooms are always very clean, no matter where you are. GO WASHINGTON!

Back on the road we went. Jayden did really good the second half of the trip. He gets all loopy and giggly when he gets tired some times. He'll just laugh for no reason or you could turn around and look at him and say something silly like "Waffle House" and he'll just bust up. So funny. Jayden entertained Missy with this for about an hour or so at one point.

I had never been to Spokane so of course I had never driven there either. It was a really pretty drive. The first half in the mountains and trees and the second half in the high desert with windmills and farm land. It was really cool and reminded me of a lot of the trips we took as a kid through California, New Mexico and Arizona.

Sunset on the way to Spokane.

We got into the hotel around 9:30pm or so. Wayne had been in Spokane for a few days doing some roofing over at his mom and sisters place so he had already gotten our rooms. We had two adjoining rooms with the double door thingy in between. That worked out really well because Jayden could run back and forth. It was kind of lucky that we got the two rooms this way. That weekend was also something called "Hoop Fest". There where like 18,000 basketball players in town for 3 vs 3 tourneys so hotels were hard to come by.

Jayden stayed awake the whole way so he was really tired. Dad was too.

The hotel we stayed at had a very nice breakfast in the morning. Waffles, danishes, fruit, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, etc. All for free. Jayden likes the Honeynut Cheerio's. Mom swore they had more "honey coating" than normal. Either way they were a hit.

The hotel also had a pool as well. We went out one day and it was nice. Jayden loved swimming around and splashing all of us. Sorry, no pics, we were all in the pool!!

One of the days we went to Coeurdalene, Idaho. Its only like 15 miles from Spokane. It was really cool. Lots of nice waterfront areas with huge parks and playgrounds. We kind of made the mistake of letting Jayden get in the water a little bit. He LOVED it. But we were not really prepared for the water so we could not let him get in very far and could not get in with him, so he was a little upset when we took him out. But he had lots of fun anyway and played a bit more before going back to the hotel for a nap.

Jayden loved the water and was looking very cool.

We went over a couple of times to see Wayne's mom (Jayden's great-grandma) and his sister Wanda and her son Paul. One of the evenings was for a BBQ. It was so nice out. Hot in the sun but really nice in the shade. We hung out in the yard and ate burgers and dogs. Jayden loved playing in the yard. Merry had got him a few other things for his birthday that she brought along to give to him. He loved them all of course.

Lots of fun at great-grandma's and aunt Wanda's

We had a great time visiting with family and friends. It was so great that Jayden got to meet his great-grandma and he really warmed up to her. He just loves grandma's. Hopefully we will make it back out to see them all again soon.

I enjoyed my first trip to Spokane and I'm sure it will not be my last. Jayden did great. We'll have to see if this gives us the courage to try other "road trips" this summer.

Ending Note: On the way home I think this started out as a "No you can have a drink, you can not hold it. No hold. Just take a drink, here take a drink, just............."

Guess who won that one....

Boyz Day

Missy and some of her friends where having a girls day today so Jayden and I decided to have a boyz day!

He is not quite old enough to go to many places. I checked out the Family Fun Center up here but all the rides are for kids over 40inches tall so he's not quite there yet. I don't think he's quite ready for a movie yet either or it would have been Kung Fu Panda (would have been a second time for Dad. That movie rocks, go see it!).

So I decided we would start by hitting up the mall and letting Jayden flirt with all the girls in the play area. He had a blast and was sliding all over the place. Took a couple tumbles but the ground is some kind of bouncy astro-turf cuz he just sort of bounced off it and kept on going! After that we needed some breakfast/lunch so we went to the food court. I decided to try and take him to the Ruby restaurant at the mall. This could have been very stupid. I have never taken him to a restaurant by myself before so I was a little scared and he currently does not like sitting for more than 2 minutes. He did really good. He flirted with all the waitresses. They kept coming over and talking to him and he just laughed and laughed. They also have 2 trains that run around the whole place, he loved those. He also got 3 cardboard cars and sticker packs to play with so that helped a lot too. The food took for EVER to get to us. I was running out of ideas to entertain him and thought table dancing was going to be next! But thankfully he did not freek out and the food came and he was happy to munch on that.


Here he is looking at the train.

After we ate we headed back home. Side story - Heading for the car I noticed a car following me back to my spot (a very nice looking BMW). This is a real pet-peeve of mine. Mostly since we have had Jayden because it make me feel rushed because the person is waiting for my spot. I did have a sweet spot cuz I got there before the mall opened. But its not like the guy saw my parking lights coming on and stopped, he stalked me from the walk way all the way back to my car, with my son. So I took as long as I possibly could to put the little guy in his seat, get his stuff in the car and fold up his stroller. That took about 5-7 minutes and the guy just sat there waiting. Once it was all done I looked at him and said "Oh, I'm not leaving yet, sorry" *tee-hee* some times I can be so mean, but that felt good.

When we got home he took a nice long 3 hour nap and dad took a few winks too.

It was a rather warm day, even though it was overcast, so when he got up and we headed for the park. Ball, blanket, bubbles and a Kung Fu Panda Happy Meal in hand we headed for the big grassy plains of Silverlake Park. He had a blast kicking his ball around, chasing cotton from the trees and eating his french fries. There were lots of people at the park and lots of dogs. He tried to chase down the dogs and feed them french fries but they were a bit to quick for him.


Fry-guy

After a bit we left and shared a sunday from DQ. Then we came home, snuggled up and watched some toons before bed time.

A good day.

Night Night Mommy

Cell phone video I took the other night to send to Missy. Saying goodnight :)
*You may need to turn up your sound really loud to hear, sorry*