Sleepy Carson Again

Earlier this month I was sitting on the couch and Carson crawled up
next to me like this being all whiny. Next thing I knew he was out:


The very next day I found him like this:


Oops. Woke him up.


And this evening Travis and I found him in the kitchen:

Sick With Bad Timing

Okay, being sick is never with good timing, but this was pretty miserable. At least it wasn't on top of a trip or something.

Saturday evening I began to feel sick and had to leave cleaning up dinner to start a miserable night. I finally got to sleep around 6am. I lost 8 pounds. While Travis was with the boys at church Sunday morning, I thought I'd go get the laptop to use while laying in bed. Bad idea. My arms and legs were numb and tingly and when I stood up and walked I was dizzy and my eyesight went to pot. It was like everything was swimming. I made it back to bed with the computer, commented on Facebook about my not enjoying losing 8 pounds overnight, then barely managed (my fingers didn't want to work) to look up "numbness dehydration" to see if everything going on was just from dehydration. Apparently I was severely dehydrated. Gee, no wonder. So I passed out again. All day Sunday I couldn't really get up from bed.

Okay, so that part wasn't horrible timing, at least it was Sat-Sun so Travis could be home with the boys.

Monday I should have been continuing to recover, but instead I had to pack up the boys and go to the photo lab because their online uploader wasn't working. I was in poor shape and couldn't have done it without calling Travis' Mom to help. Then I had a complete idiot try to work with me at the lab. Not only was he an idiot, he was belligerent and rude. Someone else came to ask what he could do for me and Idiot kept talking defensively over me until Nice Guy finally told Idiot to back off. Seriously? I was in bad enough shape that my frustration with Idiot reduced me to tears, to my shame. Thankfully, Nice Guy knew what he was doing, and gave me fabulous results and turnaround.

I had to go Monday for the prints because we needed them for putting up in the new Hunsaker Dental office we were opening in Aumsville on Wednesday. Later on Monday I had to go back for the prints, and pick up frames. Tuesday I had to pick up the custom mats and assemble everything to be ready to put up Tuesday evening for the Wednesday opening. By the time I got to Tuesday evening, I obviously hadn't been given much recovery time, and was told unceremoniously that I looked like crap. I looked in the mirror and was shocked. When I get past the actual being sick part, I start looking better right away, despite still feeling the after effects. Not this time, I suppose because of no recovery. I looked awful. I was still pale and my eyes were rather red and dead.

So, it was a miserable weekend and then some. Normally I don't think I write about miserable things, and I don't know why I would want to remember this, but I guess I do.

But it was exciting to open the Aumsville office! Today was the big opening! Sometime I will have to catch up and do a post on the new office.

Ice Cream at 4am

Emmett got up at 4am last night. WHAT? Why is he doing that?
Worse, I discovered then that Travis had left the ice cream out.

Emmett's Breakfast

Emmett likes to climb on the kitchen table.

Today, he found some Cheerio piles that were for Avery and Carson, along with one of their spoons, and enjoyed some breakfast.

Happy Birthday Travis!

Yesterday was Travis' birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!

Brilliant as I am, I didn't take any pictures of the birthday boy, just of the cake I made him.

It's 3 layers: a brownie bottom topped with 2 layers of chocolate!

As it turned out we didn't eat any yesterday. We went to his parents and had cake there and of course he didn't take this one because why would he want to share? So we ate some today.

Look at that brownie goodness on the bottom

Avery wanted to buy Travis all sorts of big ticket items (a car, a motor home, a tractor, a big tool chest, a boat, etc.) for his present and I kept asking him to think of something smaller. Finally he exclaimed "I can only think of big things!" We settled on a card with a monkey holding just a steering wheel. Inside it said something like "I bought you an invisible car, but now I can't find the keys." Avery thought it was hilarious.

Happy Birthday Travis!

Avery Faces

Avery cracks me up.
Yesterday he was making faces for me, but gave me several nice smiles too!

Okay, Mom, that's enough


But I did get a few more when he went over to the fence




And while we're on the subject of Avery yesterday...

He was trying to dance with Emmett, but as you can see stepped on a block...


And this is Avery's idea of entertaining Emmett
while they wait for me to get him up from his nap




Avery definitely keeps life hopping. Whenever he's gone, it's amazingly quiet in the house!

50/50

It's been about a month and a half since Emmett's first steps, but it takes them a while to walk all the time. He's been walking roughly the same amount for a while now, but in the end crawling is always faster. Yesterday I think we hit a breakthrough though. Emmett walked at least double, maybe triple what he did the day before - he probably walked 50%, crawled 50% yesterday. Today he only improved on that walking percent.

Covered Bridge

Last night I was on a shoot of this subject:

but I did turn the camera on the family a few times






Time to go!


What a great location! I can't wait to go back!

The Great Oregon Steam-Up

There's a place here called Antique Powerland which is sort of a museum for steam powered equipment, antique farm machinery and so forth. This was our first year going to their Great Steam-Up which is basically like a big fair there with tons of the antiques running. They also gave demonstrations in their steam powered saw mill which was pretty interesting.

There's a high demand for Papa

A mini hay baler

A very LOUD, very old car that kept running around deafening us repeatedly

John Deere tractors, of course!

This black machine that's hard to see was blowing smoke rings

A very cool old bubble machine

Antique Powerland also has a mini railroad with tons of cars that they give rides on.
Papa & Emmett, Angela & Alli, Travis & Carson. Avery was sitting with me in front.

Cute little train signals

They even have a train turntable

Just before leaving we spotted this old B.F. Avery tractor.
That's supposed to be a smile.

One last half-hearted attempt... "but Mom, the sun's in my eyes!"

but a fun time was had by all!

Bee

I didn't know this little green bush in our front yard would flower, but ever since these tiny buds showed up the bees have been very industrious.

The boys don't like bees of course, but for some reason they're willing to crouch down right by the bush to watch them all work.

While Big Boys Sleep

Today Avery and Carson fell asleep on the couch together.
How cute are they!

But just after they fell asleep, Emmett woke up from his nap, so instead
of getting any work done I had some nice one on one time with Emmett.

We stayed in Emmett's room to play, otherwise he'd just climb all over his brothers.

Denied his brothers, he tried to climb out his window.

I love how babies sit.
I love their little piggies sticking out.
I love Emmett's downy soft head.
I love his cute neck, I just want to kiss it!

Ooh, Mom has something interesting...

I think I better test its edibility.

Later, after ripping my necklace off, Emmett headed to do damage in our room.

More climbing necessary of course.

Then, it was past time his brothers should be awake, so I took Emmett to do the job. He tried,
he really did, but Carson was just too tired. Notice the drool? That whole shoulder was wet.

How nice it was to have some quiet time just with Emmett!

Heat Wave

Mon-Wed we had a heat wave here with temperatures at 103, 107 and 106. Each was a record for that day, but the all time record here is 108. I know that's not so terrible in some places, but in the northwest not everyone has air conditioning since the number of days over 90 is limited, so it can be a real issue. In fact, the longest streak of days at 90 or above in Salem is 8 and we only average 15 a year! Enough about weather stats (I'm a dork and find them interesting). Anyway, thankfully, we do have air conditioning!

You'd think of all days, those would be the ones I would keep the kids indoors for, yet in my ridiculous head I thought that was the time to set up their kiddie pool. Actually, our deck stays mostly shaded throughout the day, so it wasn't too bad, plus I think we're all still acclimated to the humidity of Milwaukee so we weren't nearly as bothered as I thought we would be.

The nice cool water didn't just draw the boys... it also drew the bugs! I don't recall seeing a red dragonfly around here before, but just as soon as I started filling the pool, this guy showed up and was a frequent, extended visitor all 3 days of the heat! The boys loved watching him.

They didn't love these visitors nearly as much:

This is just a funny shot because Carson was having some issue with his
belly (he probably got it wet - oh no!) when next thing I knew the boys
were comparing their bellies. Way to distract him from the issue Avery!

To The Coast We Go

On Saturday we went to the coast. First stop was lunch, then the Hatfield Marine Science Center because the kids just can't get enough of it.

Poster boy for the science center

Avery finally put his hand in the touch pools and felt this skate!


Some decoration on the touch pools


Emmett wants to touch!


Carson loves Nemo


Next stop, South Beach where it was a very foggy day, but surprisingly pleasant.

They were happy, even buried, honest!


Avery wriggled free, but felt no qualms in making sure Carson was still thoroughly buried


Then Avery buried Daddy. This picture was funny because Carson
decided to step in last minute, but didn't think he needed to look at me.


Fun Fun


Flying


My boys


Sadly, the afternoon didn't end to everyone's satisfaction




Emmett wasn't bothered though


While Daddy changed Carson, Avery played on these great wind-swept trees
>



Changed and newly happy, it was Carson's turn on the trees


Determined to climb over


One of the main reasons we went to the coast was actually for me
to get some photos for a project, so I figure I could share one here

Iconic Newport Bridge

When we stopped for pictures at the beginning of the day, it was much foggier (the main arch wasn't visable!), so I stuck to shots under the bridge. I'm glad it cleared enough by the end of the trip to actually get this shot!