Home Sweet Home

We are finally settled in our new home in Oklahoma! So far, we love it here! The people are so nice. Too bad the bugs are just as friendly...

I just wanted to post some pictures of our place, mostly for family, to be able to see where we are. So without further ado:

Master Bedroom. We L-O-V-E the tray ceiling!!

Kitchen. The vaulted ceilings are nice, even if it echoes like a cave in here!

Thank goodness we found a place with a bar... I don't know where we would have put our stools otherwise!

Dining area. The setup in this house was different than what we're used to, so we had to re-arrange a few things, but we think it works... like the armoire? Josh had a few "honey do" projects and this was one of the first! I love the color!

Oh, and we got a fish. Ethan campaigned pretty hard for a dog, so this is his consolation prize. We started with three and within 24 hours were down by two. Ah well. Nemo, Cleo, or Goldie is doing great!

Entry Way. Come on in a stay a while, y'all!

Living area. We love the built-ins!

Don't mind the mantle... decorating it is a work in progress.

Boys' Bedroom. Yep. I've got all three of them in one, big, room! They love it and I love having a craft room across the hall with a lock on it and a window that helps me keep an eye on them in the backyard.

Plus, they LOVE the new bunk beds!

Boys' Bedroom Other Side. "Honey do" project #2. Looks like a completely different dresser!

*Not pictured:

Front. You've seen it already.

Back: The grass is dead. I'll post pictures when I've resurrected it, despite the drought.

Bathrooms 1 & 2: They're bathrooms. I love the master bath, but you can pretty much fill in the blanks with your imagination.

Craft Room: It's card season. I'll post that one when I'm tidy...

Garage: Work in progress. Anyone know where to recycle boxes...?

A New Me!

What do you think?

All Aboard!

On our last weekend in Seattle, we still had a day left on our City Pass and plenty to do, so the fun must continue! We went down to the waterfront and hit Pikes Market again for flowers then boarded a harbor cruise on Argosy Cruise Line. It was so pretty!! Sadly, I only got a few pictures before my camera battery died...

Not sure what he's pointing at, but I love him.

The Seattle Skyline. Ooh! Ahh!

If you look at the center of this picture back behind the loaders, you can kind of see Mount Rainier. It was a lot prettier and clearer than this picture portrays... but, you can see the back of my tour guide's head! You. Are. Welcome.

After the cruise, we ate a Red Robin, right on the pier! Good food, and an amazing view!! Thanks Mom!

My Wild Things

So after our adventures on the peninsula, and all around Seattle, we still had tickets left in our City Pass that were good for a few more days. One of these was to the Woodland Park Zoo, which we could just not pass up... even though I had to take all three boys there alone. As apprehensive as I was, it was so much fun!! We spent most of the day there. We took it kind of leisurely as we made sure to see all of the exhibits and took time out for lunch in the food court.

Our day in pictures:

Finally seeing the penguins! They talked about them for days leading up to this.

They were, by far, the smelliest exhibit.

It was raining on the drive over there and for the beginning of the park. (Hence, the gross hair and hoods.) But right after this awesome dinosaur exhibit, it cleared up and didn't rain again until we were about to head home.

What a perfect day!

My boys in the gift shop, riding the dinosaur. Mason still talks about this...

After lunch, we spied a face-painting tent and I decided to have my wild things made over for the occasion!

My finished Wild Things!!

Ethan: Leopard, Sloan: Lion,

Mason: Supposed to be a puppy but since he wouldn't let the lady finish, he looks more like a baby seal...

Look! A baby seal riding a pony!

This wasn't Zoo Day, but I decided to throw it in just the same. Mom took us all to see Cars 2.

Pretty cute movie. Thanks Grandma!

As you can tell, we had oodles of fun in Seattle this summer. Thank you again, Grandma for the tickets and making our summer so memorable! The boys can't wait to come see you again!

Beautiful Day in the Morning!

After the rainforest, we stayed at an adorable little resort in La Push, and got up early the next day to make it for a little beach hike to the tide pools. It was SO cold, but oh, SO pretty!

Need I say more?

Mom thought of everything!! She brought kites for each of the kids and we flew them on the beach after climbing the rocks of the tide pools. You can just make out the kites...

Starfish in a natural occurring tide pool! So cool, even though I didn't want to touch them!

I must say that Andi and Ethan had the most fun with the waves! They played a little "Catch me if you can" game with the waves until Ethan got caught, big time! He spent the rest of the morning in VERY wet clothes...

Beautiful view with random family...

Even though I didn't post this while Josh was away from us at BOLC like I planned, it's still true!

We LOVE Daddy!!

The wheels on the bus.

Another school year has begun!! And none too soon! Ethan was bored out of his mind, and so I was completely out of things to entertain the boys with. This year, I have two boys in school!! Ethan is my super proud 2nd grader and Sloan is old enough for the Pre-K program in our school district. It's a half day everyday, but the half day is longer than Las Vegas Kindergarten!! Woot woot! For three full hours this afternoon I was down to one, napping, kid. I got SO much done! A girl could get used to this!! Of course, in a few weeks, I'll probably be thinking that this makes my day lonely. Go figure.

They were both so excited to go. Even Mason got in on the action and wore "his" backpack ALL DAY LONG. He was pretty torn up each time we dropped a brother off. He really thought that he ought to be going to school, too. Poor kid. He's still stuck with Mom. But, hey, I gotta keep one playmate!

All my boys, ready for school!

Since Sloan has PM Preschool, we dropped Ethan off at school and went back home for a few hours.

He watched cartoons in his backpack and shoes. He wouldn't take them off, he was so excited!

We live really close to the elementary school, so they don't get a bus from our house, but Sloan's preschool is a several miles away from us, so he gets to catch a bus from the elementary. Sloan refused to let me drive him down to his preschool like all the other moms were doing because he was "just too excited!" to ride a real bus!

This photo is proof of said excitement. He didn't want to pose. He just wanted to hop on!

My baby is somewhere in that huge bus.

The excitement didn't last too long. I got a call from the preschool a couple hours later from the secretary telling me that his teacher had told him that he would be getting back onto "that bus" when the day was done and he had a meltdown. I had to drive down to the preschool and rescue him. After talking about it, he told me that there are lots of hills and bumps and being without a seatbelt is "just unsafe!". He then declared that he was "never getting on that thing again". I guess we'll try again in a few weeks...

Quote of the day:

Me: "Sloan, how was your day?"

Sloan: "Well... I sit by a girl. Which is... wild."

I love my boys, but after a long day at school, I love them more.

The most beautiful place on earth!

While Sami was there with us, Mom wanted to head over to the peninsula to show us Forks, WA (home of Twilight...). Me, hating Twilight the way that I do, was skeptical, but now I see why this place was so inspirational for Stephanie Meyer. We left early in the morning and took the ferry over and then drove to our first stop: The Most Beautiful Place on Earth: The Rainforest. Seriously, If I could, I would live right in the middle of it!! But don't take my word for it:

Our Ferry: The Walla Walla

First shot of the rainforest. It's just so green! I don't know why, but I LOVE moss!

If you look closely below the hanging moss on the trees, you can see a beautiful, clear mountain stream.

Our happy hikers!

Moss! Lots and lots of MOSS!!

See the knarly roots on these trees? Turns out that seeds fall from the trees and deposit into fallen trees and find nourishment in them, then as the tree decays, the roots find their way through it to the ground, and these funky, above the ground roots result. Really, in person, it's impressive!

The kids loved looking for things we couldn't see! Sloan and Andi found this little treasure. Before I could get a good picture of it, he crawled under the brush, but you can still kind of see it...

Just pretty.

More pretty.

Trying to get a picture of all the kids by this "tree cave". I actually like this one!

Andi, sitting all prim and proper, Ethan doing a "manly pose", Mason copying Ethan, and Sloan...

turning around to look in the cave for bears. Oh my.

City Pass: Day 2

Day 2 on our City Passes took us first to the Science Museum. The kids loved playing at all of the exhibits, and the butterfly habitat was a favorite of mine (sadly I didn't get any pictures...). Here's what we did get:

Honey, I shrunk the kids! Mason loved this oversized table. Notice how Andi was the only one who followed my creative instruction to, "Act like you're eating something!". We got to watch the movie from the poster in the background, and it was really cute! I think that if I didn't have three little monkeys of my own, I'd get an orangutan!

Seriously, I think that all of my toys at home must be too normal-sized for my kids to play with...

After the museum, we headed over to the famous, Pike's Market for fresh fish and flowers. A great place to buy both!!

Home of the flying fish!

City Pass: Day 1

My sister, Sami and her oldest daughter, Andi came up to Seattle from Texas to spend some time with Mom and us Gailey's! We did so many things with the City Pass tickets that Mom got us, I can't even remember all of it! Here's what I do remember, thanks to photographic evidence:

Our first morning was spent at the Seattle Aquarium. They got to touch things in the touch tanks, learn about tides, and were mesmerized by the sea otters and seals. It was so fun, even if Mason is scared of bath toys now...

After the aquarium, mom got us tickets to "Ride the Ducks"! It was actually our second time on the ducks, but it's always a treat! These are World War II vehicles that ride on both land and water. They start by giving you a tour os Seattle and end the tour in Union Lake, home of the "Sleepless in Seattle" house!

Next was a quick stop at the Space Needle!

(Mason's not asleep, just too grouchy to look at Grandma while she takes his picture...)

Nothing sweeter than a mother and daughter on vacation!

Our Duck tour guide told us that from the top of the Space Needle, the Music and Science Fiction Museum was designed to look like a broken guitar. Must be really abstract, 'cause I don't see it... do you?

What a fabulous way to and a day!

We feel good!

Oh, we feel so good!

Catherine, Sarah, Rachelle, and Brooks. The gang's back together!! (Minus Andrea and Rayma...)

The weekend of June 25th was my 10-year High School reunion in Vernal, Utah. Go, Utes!! I decided to go to be able to spend the weekend with my high-school bestie, Rachelle! We had a blast! I cannot believe that it's been 10 years!!

It was a whirlwind trip, but a great escape for the weekend! Thanks again, Mom, for taking time out of your busy schedule to watch my little critters!! They still talk about it!

I flew in on Friday around noon, and then we went straight to the mall!! I forgot how much fun it is to shop when you don't have boys trying to escape from the dressing room or a husband telling you to "Just pick something!". I really do love to shop, and she's a great shopping buddy!!

After walking around all day, a pedicure was in order! Sadly, I didn't get any pictures like these stunning ones...

We made it to Vernal late Friday night, but still enjoyed lots of time together before I left on Sunday afternoon. We, of course, re-lived the staples of our youth, and got all gussied up on Saturday night for the reunion. Everybody looked just the same, just grown up! Sadly, not many people recognized me, but that wasn't a huge shock. I guess the highlight of my night was the appearance of my little brothers in my reunion video! I didn't even make it into the video! Ah well, it was fun, even if I only walked away with handfuls of messages for my brothers!

Thanks again for a lovely weekend, Rachelle!

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch.

In a previous post, I included a video of my middle son, Sloan, speaking a few German phrases for my mom. I grew up speaking these phrases with my mom, and in High School when German was offered, I jumped at the chance to learn more of my German heritage. Not that I remember much... mostly just the same phrases my mother said to me and I repeat to my sons each night before bed. All the same, my mom and I bond over a love for German heritage and my boys can't sleep at night before they hear me say, "Ich liebe dich!".

So, while I visited my mom in Seattle for the summer, we took advantage of our proximity to Leavenworth (a little town about two hours away that due to it's surroundings uncanny resemblance, reinvented itself into a mock Bavarian town.) and took the kids to see little Germany!

It was a great day! We bought pastries in the little bakery. We ate ice cream on the sidewalk from the little sweet shoppe. We browsed in all the cute little shops, and since it was...

ACCORDION FESTIVAL!!

We got to do a few little extras!

They had bouncy houses and climbing walls for the kids while enjoying the mountain air and the sweet serenade!

Ethan made it all the way to the top! It was really high! I was so proud, even if he was too scared of letting go of the rope to ring the bell at the top...

We ate lunch at this cute little cafe, and when I mean little, I mean little! It only had, like, 18 seats!

Yum!

Isn't it just darling?!

The scenery is not too bad, either!

Seriously, the view on the drive alone was worth it! Two whole hours of this. I wanted to stop and finish the trip via raft!

As you can gather, we had a great time! Thanks again, Mom, for making our stay with you a fun and memorable one!!