The Simpsons

 Cambria sent us a Flat Stanley doll so that we could show him around Eugene.  We took him around some cool places and crossed the border into Springfield so that we could show off the new  Simpsons  mural.  Good ol' Matt Groening  himself announced in an interview that our own dear  neighbor is the Springfield that inspired the show and gave the city permission to claim it.  Rosy fit right in.

Rocky brought this note home for our baby.  It will probably be awhile until he can read it  but it gave me a laugh.

Translation:  The Baby Dinosaur
To: Isaac   From: Rocky
I love you Isaac.  Just  so you know don't kick mom's tummy.
To: Mom - Mom hang in there okay.

To Remember

 It has been a few months since we had a bath picture so I figured it was time. 

 I also wanted to remember how much  fun we have popping popcorn on Friday nights.  The anticipation is priceless.

 And I never wanted to forget that one time that  my husband looked like Don Quijote. 

It's all about the memories.

Roll in the Dough

 Rocky loves Buena Vista and it truly is a great school.  One of the reasons that they have so many cool programs  is because they are constantly fund-raising.   We live on a pretty tight budget so as  a family we aren't all that great about participating.  We said no to the cookie box delivery, wrapping paper, and the silent auction. We did participate in the Box Tops, the jogathon, and the Papa's Pizza coupons.  Since Rocky sold one coupon to me she was entered into a raffle to 'Roll in the Dough'.  I found the raffle ticket in her backpack and gave her instructions to put it in the jar.  She told me later that she accidentally put it in the wrong jar but somehow it made it in and she, miracle of miracles, was drawn.  They wrapped her in tape and she had 20 seconds to roll in dollar bills. 

 The kids were chanting her name and it was pretty much the most exciting event of her life.  She came  out of there with 11 bucks.  You would have  thought it was a million if you had seen her huge smile.

 Daisy and Rosy were also pretty proud.  If you look closely in this photo you can see that Rosy brought her iPod.  It is a toy Barbie phone that she carries around everywhere she goes.  It shows you how much kids model their parents  because any savvy kid knows that she should have at least demanded a Smartphone in her imagination.   She gets by just using the free wifi that she can access at home and at the library  and  mostly uses it to look at pictures of baby animals.  She also makes  a surprising amount of calls to her Oma.  The front side switches between a pretty saucy picture of Barbie and a menu screen and the back side has a sticker of Jesus.  This came in mighty handy the other day when she and the little Muslim girl that lives in the next building  were fighting over it.  They both said it was theirs but Jesus ended up being the deciding witness.  She wants to take it with her everywhere and then spends  most of her time dropping it and making her pregnant mom retrace  her steps back into Costco to find it.

Easter

This is the only photo that I took of Easter.  Bummer.

Cravings

 Believe it or not but in the early days of this pregnancy I didn't want to have anything to do with sweets of any kind.  During the holidays I craved only salt.   I wanted to eat Lay's Potato Chips, but only the original  kind, and sweet potato  fries.  I thought that it would bode well for the pregnancy until the second trimester brought incredible desire for sugar.  It wasn't just sugar though, it was specifically for Little Debbie Snack Cakes.  The girls and I have gone through a box of  almost every variety, which is depressing because if you have ever taken a chance to look at the display there are a ridiculous amount of choices.  I can't figure it out because other treats don't seem to work.  I mean,  we did  polish off our usual Easter Cadbury Mini  Eggs, but other  than that I am mostly looking at long boxes of individually wrapped  processed crap.  What I must actually be craving is some kind of preservative because it could be found in every variety.  Almost immediately after I eat my Cosmic Brownie or Zebra  Cake  the heartburn sets in and I vow that it will be the last box that I buy and then a couple hours later I am checking to see if there are any more  in the cupboard.  I read somewhere that pregnant women crave what their bodies need  and I liked that  idea.    Then I  heard a mean  doctor on  the  radio who  said,  "If  women actually craved  what  they needed  they would  all be making  grocery runs for broccoli."  She was  probably right.  The good thing is that usually after I binge on something I usually don't want to eat it  again  for a couple of years.  Hopefully that holds true, although now I have three little human beings  in my home that  have developed a taste for junk food and have  also learned that it doesn't take that much convincing  to get their mom to buy it.  It took me several years to move away from  processed foods and just one tiny pregnancy to throw me back in. 
On the better side I have also eaten a lot of avacadoes which the internet says is a super food and you can always trust nutrition advice that comes through Pinterest.   I have also gotten addicted to Dave's Killer Bread made into grilled cheese sandwiches.  Brandon just rolls his eyes when I start pulling out the cheese  for my morning hit.
As far as the rest of the pregnancy has gone I will just  say that everything has been harder.   I  am not sure if  it is because I am older or because this one is a boy, but I have been more sick, more tired,  and my body creaks like an 80-year-old  rocking chair.   The good news is that since  this is number 4 the stretch marks have already been a part of my body and that Rocky and Daisy will sit with me and feel the baby move.   I  think  that is  one of  the most interesting  things  about  pregnancy and I love to have my little buddies to share it with.
This  photo was taken clear back  before Easter so I am even bigger now.  I would estimate that the belly is about 1/4 baby and the rest is cream filling.

Seattle

 Phase 2 of our trip took us into the city.  We once again stayed a little outside of the city.  This makes for lower prices and great opportunity to make use of public transit.    It also meant that while Brandon headed into his conference on that first night the girls and I got to kick it in the hotel.  By the time I got them all cleaned up it was basically bedtime anyway.  The next afternoon we took the train in and met up with Brandon.   We Pike's and spent a good time at Beecher's watching them make cheese. 

 It was a testament to how much Brandon loves his little girls when he paid  $11 for a dish of macaroni and cheese.  Even he can't say no to Daisy's big eyes.  In case you wondered, it was worth every cent.

Another Awesome Photo

We walked all over to really get a feel for the different neighborhoods.  When we got to the Space Needle Rosy was having none of it.

 Taking the girls to the fountain may have constituted the most interesting and also most torturous part of the trip.   They loved watching it but after two straight days of being wet I insisted that they stay out of it.  The sun was shining but it was still a little too breezy for water play.

The next day it took me way to long to find Brandon's hotel and everyone was cranky.  Brandon tried to cheer everyone up by telling them that we were going to see a troll under a bridge.  It caught their attention but then Daisy went from being grumpy to being scared.  It took a bit for her to muster the courage to climb up but once she was there she cheered right up.  The best part is the Slug Bug he holds.

 It  was a perfect day for us to explore the parks.  I felt guilty that we weren't paying for them to see any of the museums but then realized that they were just as happy throwing rocks into the lake as they would have been looking at the Star Wars costume exhibit at the EMP.  I am not so sure about their dad.

 Rocky and Daisy set themselves up okay for their first album cover but Rosy sort of blew it with that crazy hair.

 It was a lovely place to visit and we were sad to say goodbye.

Spring Break

 I finally got to experience my dream of going to Silver Falls.  We didn't get  to see all 10 waterfalls which just means we will have to go back. The girls loved going under the falls.  We were lucky because just as we came out soaked by the mist the sun started peering over the trees.

 And with that tiny sunburst we headed out to Olympic National Park in Washington.   It was the last we would see of the sun for a  while.  The last time we camped in a real rainstorm was coincidentally also the last time we tried to camp  during spring break.  There seems to be some kind of lesson here. 

 We found a lovely campsite nestled  in the trees.  We figured that the  leaves would give us some cover from the downpour.    What really happened is that all through the night the calming patter of raindrops would be interrupted by a whoosh of the waterfall indicating that the leaves had given up and the trees released their reservoirs in one big dump.  It was perfect because just as you started to fall asleep it would happen and startle you enough to wake up.  It created a fantastic pattern for a sleepless night. This was helped along by the droplets that somehow always landed right in my eye.  Brandon got out and tightened things up around midnight and we woke up mostly dry. 

 And  things went downhill from there.  By the time we had  gotten ourselves and our stuff out the tent had become more of a bag to hold rain. 

 But that didn't stop us.  Nope. We still wandered our way through the park.   Most of the morning was spent in trying to track down a visitor's center that was opened on a weekday.  Brandon and I still got a good view of the rainforest.  No pun intended.   I am sorry to say that before this experience I had no idea that there was such a thing as a temperate rainforest.  Now I will never forget.  The girls were busy watching Frozen in the back so they probably didn't even notice that we had moved from our campsite.

 We finally stopped at a park because we saw a covered picnic area and decided that we had better take advantage of a dry spot when we saw it.  I didn't even realize that we were in Forks until I saw the Twilight store.  We looked around for vampires or werewolves but didn't see anyone suspicious.    In fact, we didn't see anyone at all.  Probably the folks driving by in their cars figured that we were the weirdos.  Who else has a picnic in this kind of weather if not for beings who sparkle when the sun is shining?

Best Photo Award

 By the time we reached the other side of the giant park it had cleared up enough to actually get out and explore.  First we found a campsite and hung our tent, towels, blankets, and wet clothes all over the trees in a couple of campsites which worked out fine because we were virtually the only people there.  Then we went hiking.

 By the time we finished everything was still a little damp but we were tired enough not to care.

 The next morning was glorious! 
We decided that since we were just going to be in the car most of the morning that the girls should just stay in their jammies and not get anything else muddy.  This was a decision that I regretted almost immediately when we saw other human beings. 

Miraculously the road up to the viewpoint opened and the heavens opened giving us a fog free look.

And that concluded our camping portion of the trip.  The highs clearly out did the lows.  The rainy adventures are the ones that we remember best anyway, right?  The girls told me that their favorite things were eating oatmeal and playing with the flashlights.  Rosy liked sleeping in the tent because she was in the middle part that stayed dry and she actually did sleep.  Ahh, the memories.