Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Fashion, artists and old movies.

The kids have been driving us crazy for a ride in the new truck. So today Jason let them hope in and he took them for a couple slow spins around our cul de sac....doesn't seem like much, but it did the trick LOL. We need to get 3 boosters in here....then the trio at least will be free to ride with Dad any time.























I still haven't driven it yet, but Jason totally loves it.

It seems Xander has been bitten by the fashion bug. He came out of his room like this today, then proceeded to tell me how he created his ensemble.























This is 2 pirate bandanna's one he has tied around his waist, the second is tied around his back, then he poked a hole in the top and put a pipe cleaner through it to tie it around his neck. He asked me if he looked nice, I tried not to laugh when I said yes.























After his sisters planted the seed that the outfit looks like a girls shirt he came to me and asked if it is a boy or girl shirt. I had to come clean and tell him it does look more like a girls shirt, he didn't seem too broken up about it LOL.























Funny kid.























Speaking of funny kids...Hayden and Lily are now in love with a new movie. Anyone care to guess which movie? They drew these pictures totally by themselves without us even knowing. Hayden did the one on the right...pretty awesome I thought. You may be wondering what Lily's picture is. Well there is a part in Despicable Me where the minion's are photo copying their bare butts...yup she drew some photocopied butt cheeks LMAO!!!!

Later we got Xan out of his fashion creation and headed to the park for a little bit.


Jericho trying out bigger monkey bars, he isn't making all the way across this set yet.

A little berry picking on the way home.


The kiddos got to watch The NeverEnding Story today. It wasn't a huge hit, but they seemed to enjoy it. It has been a slow process trying to introduce them to live action movies instead of animated movies....they are getting there.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Road trip, Pt 2...better ending this time!

We found another truck on Craigslist today, it was even further away than the last...but we took great care in asking lots of questions and making sure we were getting the straight story this time.
So at 6 this morning we got the kids out of bed, a couple of them were quite unhappy about it to, and got on the road for a 3 1/2 hour drive to Seattle, WA. We brought lots of snacks, movies, water and a picnic lunch. I still had to listen to a good amount of arguing, and make a couple stops at rest areas along the way, but we made it and the truck was in great shape. The kiddos and I spent a couple hours at a near by park while Jason test drove the truck and did all the paperwork crap.

The park was a lot of fun, and it was a beautiful day to be at a park.

There were some really neat twisty features, the kiddos had a good time and got in a lot of leg stretching, before we got in the car for another 3 1/2 hour drive back home.

Brave little man took on every bit of the parks fun.

Lily Bug, relaxing and enjoying a little hammock action in the shade.

Jericho climbed everything.

Xander and Haddie decide to try this spinning thing out together.


So funny!

This pic turned out kind of cool.

Miss Bug was extra photogenic today :)

Cutie pie!

Handsome booger...his surfer shag is almost ready for a little trim in the back again.

How is this little boy so darn cute?

The girls tried out the spinning thing too. They made some funny faces LOL.




Trying out the monkey bars and tight rope.



My little 3 1/2 year old went all the was across the monkey bars...all by himself and without standing on the rope, I was too surprised to take many pictures, what a rookie mistake LOL. This kid is something else, I was totally impressed.


We had a nice couple hours, ate lunch then headed back to meet up with Jason.

Our new wheels. He doesn't look happy or anything does he. The truck is an 02 and has 120K on it...not too shabby. It is in really nice condition and while it was a little more than we were hoping to spend I think it will be with us for a very very long time.

The kids were pissed that they didn't get to ride in it. We told them we have to get some new carseats for the truck first....I don't think that is going to fly for long LOL.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Craigslist fail.

It hasn't happened often to me, thankfully, but today we got slightly singed by someone who posted something on Craigslist. I don't know why anyone would want to waste their time...or other peoples time by misrepresenting something, but I guess some people don't grasp that if you are not honest you are not going to sell your item in a timely manner.
Jason was lucky enough to receive a used car from his Uncle Steve...free of charge, over 4 years ago. It has been his to and from work beater ever since. That car has run so well, and filled a need all this time. The last year has been rough on the old gal though. Jason used to work 20 or so minutes from home, now it is an hour drive to work...so the car has taken a bit of a beating. We decided to start looking for another used, but maybe less so LOL...car. His current beater is a 1997 with almost 260,000 miles on it....gotta love a Nissan. We want to get something that will be able to be used by the family a little more and not be just a work beater. It would be nice if say only 1 or 2 kids, or just Jason and I need to go somewhere to have the option of leaving our lovely, but gas sucking and space hogging, large SUV at home more. We also wanted something that could do a little double duty and would be able to haul small loads. We ended up deciding that we liked the Nissan Frontier's...4 doors, seats 5, plus has a short bed in the back. Perfect. Then we found out what a hot commodity they are right now, figures LOL.
So we have been looking around for a week or so, and found one that looked good in photos, and sounded good in their ad, on Craigslist. It was a 2 hour drive each way, on a day that Jason had to go to work swing shift, to go potentially buy it. We got there and saw that the photos the owners were using were obviously very old, the truck was totally misrepresented and frankly was not worth even close to what they were asking...and was a little too beat up to be what we are looking for. So we got to put up with the whining, hungry every hour, need to potty every other hour and bored the whole trip kiddos for nothing. Yay.

We hung out in Eugene for an hour and a half or so to eat some lunch and let the kids play before heading home and Jason heading on to work.
It was not the day we planned on...but in the end it was a day with my favorite 5 people, how can I complain.

The short break at the park was totally needed.


Round and round and round.


Bug looking pretty cute :)

The park had a fun little sand feature, that we tried to keep the kids out of...but we eventually gave in, I think we felt bad that we would soon have to load them up for a 2 hour drive back home.

It had a neat little water pump too, which of course got things a little extra messy...but it also helped to clean them up too.

Lily getting her foot washed off. It was fun to see them work together, with someone pumping for the others, then switching so everyone got a turn.





Hopefully we get a new car soon, without another long wasted trip.