Weekend roundup: camping!

I haven't been camping in about 20-years - maybe longer.  There was one outdoor overnight stint in our DINK days but it was barely "camping."  Last week, Matt and I packed up the family and made our way to Oregon to Longbow where we camped in style with my family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and whatever the extension of each is.  In a word, it was awesome.

Cole and Wilson were still reaming from the Olympics so most of the camp trip they wanted to play "beach volleyball" in the dirt, play water-polo while in a floating tube, and play baseball with a badminton set.

They got their first taste of smores:

Spent the day "boating" with mommy and daddy:

And toggled between grandma Lucy art classes and cousin game time:

Toddler track time

Every time I go running now the boys want to go.  This morning I did the Lake Union 10K and as I was leaving the house at 6:30am, the boys were saying "I need to race" through closed tired eyes.  I promised I'd take them running later and jetted out the door.

Later in the morning (post-race) the boys and I made our way to the Queen Anne track.  Cole hopped out of the car already stretching his arms as he's seen me do.  Wilson followed picking his legs up for more stretches.  As soon as we hit the track Cole hollered "ready, set, go!" and was off sprinting.  Both boys ran a full 100 meters at top speed, then Wilson slowed down and finally asked to be carried; Cole kept sprinting the full lap.  At the end of the lap the boys enjoyed "power bars" and were ready to go again.  Cole got to the self-made starting line and turned to Wilson and I saying "you need to clap for me, I'll run," and off he went to our clapping.  Wilson quickly decided he was bored of clapping and ran off to catch up with Cole - then turned back and proclaimed "I'm all done - time for playground."

Story time

Tonight I asked Wilson and Cole to tell me bedtime stories.  Here they are:

Wilson:
"One upon a time there were three little Thomases."
Me: "And?"
"They had three little eyes."
Me: "And?"
"Three little eyebrows."
Me: "And?"
"Three little lipses."
Me: "And?"
"The end."

Cole:
"Once upon a time there was a lion and he went raaaar."
Me: "And?"
"Once upon a time he started crying."
Me: "Why?"
"He missed his mommy and daddy."
Me: "And?"
"Then he had a tummy ache."
Me: "And?"
"Someone gave him medicine."
Me: "And?"
"He wasn't crying anymore and he was happy and he walked around and had some friends and one of them had a tummy ache and he gave him medicine and then ..."
Me: "And?"
"The end."

Race report: Lake Union 10K

This morning I ran the Lake Union 10K as part of a corporate challenge with a handful of folks from my work.  During this race my old boss' advice from work was screaming in my head - the advice?  "You have to go slow to go fast."  I went out WAY too fast starting my first mile at a 6:03, then doing a 6:10, and then finishing the race with an average of 7:10 - the last few miles were horrible. 

That said, I came in 5th female out of 1058.  Next time I'm going to pace, though!!!

Weekend roundup: gardening, picnic, birthday fun!

What a great, and exhausting, weekend.  My dad came into town on Friday and we had a mellow night in.  Saturday construction workers came to knock out our back porch and basement - renovations continue.  Then we packed up and drove to North Bend for my company annual picnic which was amazing.  The boys went nuts in the jumpy houses and on the jumpy slide, we enjoyed bad-for-you food, and drove back in the scalding heat.

Saturday night Matt and I went for a pre-birthday dinner to celebrate his birthday.  We checked out a gastro pub called Black Bottle in Belltown which was great.  Super hipster, and fun people watching.  We enjoyed the scallops with bacon, vegetables, olives, and skirt steak and we just about rolled home.

Today we got up and started gardening ... which we kept doing for nearly 6 hours.  OK, I say we - it really was my dad and the boys and I would make the occasional appearance to pull a few weeds and oo and ah at our new fig tree and blueberry bush.  Surprisingly, our vegetable garden is going nuts getting ready to give us a few squash and we have tons of parsley and basil. 

Wilson was so enthralled by the construction that he decided to dress in his construction finest ... then he fell asleep.

 Tonight we enjoyed a perfect mellow Summer dinner topped off with red velvet cake - the boys sang "happy birthday to daddy" about 15 times, and made him wear the hat.

Olympics!

We have been getting totally into the Olympics in our house.  Every sport we watch, it seems the boys have a new hobby.  First they wanted to play waterpolo - jumping off the couch belly flopping on the living room floor they would kick and throw a ball back and forth.  Then came swimming - both have mastered the backstroke on the rug.  Now it's the steeplechase (I'm just glad they didn't adopt Kemoi's dance).

This past weekend we were in San Diego for a wedding and the boys were drying to "test the waters" (pun intended) with their new sports.  Wilson went "surfing" with his Uncle Gabe:

And Cole surfed in the big pool with Papa Lito and Grandma Lita:

They weren't quite ready to do the butterfly yet.