Happy Birthday Jack!

My sweet baby Jack (Can I still call him that? A baby, I mean?) is 2 today! I am so blessed by this wonderfully laid back, happy-go-lucky, funny and sweet little guy. I really don't think he should be 2 years old yet though. It really does seem like he was just born. I always cry when my kiddos have a birthday, but this one is the worst. He's my baby! I have loved having tiny ones around here soooo much! I even cried today as I was reading Ramona Forever to Paige when the girls found out for sure that their mother was going to have another baby. Sob, sob. I didn't want Paige to know I was crying, so I had to turn away and wipe my tears as fast as they came. My baby isn't a baby anymore...

I have been looking at Jack's baby pictures and I remember, just like it was yesterday, holding him right after birth. Oh, he was beautiful. He definitely wasn't the cutest looking though! Poor kid had so many splotches and got scratched right away when his siblings met him the first time, although neither kiddo would admit to it. And then he got baby acne at 8 days old and it continued for 3 or 4 months... But, from the beginning, he was the sweetest child I have ever known. He just radiated sweetness, if that's possible.
Jack on May 30th, 2007

Jack has enjoyed being a baby for as long as he could. He walked at 16 1/2 months and is still not a huge talker. I mean, he talks, but in just one to two word phrases and usually about the same stuff. You know, brroom brrooms, lawn mowers, poop... And Jack has been so adored around here. Not by just me, but by Paige and Mike as well. I remember when Paige would say that we had "the cutest baby" because he was so chubby. And now, she loves helping Jack accomplish new things, like climbing a ladder (which he does with no problems, thanks to Paige), riding a scooter, or saying new things. Paige loves how Jack talks. He does sound pretty cute! And Mike always has a huge smile for Jack when he sees him in our bed in the morning. I know it is not easy to have a kid who doesn't sleep through the night and because of it pushes his feet into your back or stomach (Jack has slept through the night maybe 4 times.), but Jack just looks so happy to wake up to his mommy and daddy in the morning. Mike also loves how Jack is such a good listener. He just obeys. I mean, we have had to flick his little knuckles a few times when we've asked him not to touch something and he doesn't comply, but a little flick gets him right on track. It has been so nice that Jack is so obedient and easy going. We have always been able to take him anywhere.

Jack at one year-

Boy, I may be rambling a bit in this post. So sorry. I guess I just had to get all that out! Here is a video of Jack at his first birthday, just a year ago. He was so little, such a cute little impish lump.

It is so amazing to see the growth of children in their first two years. They go from being almost completely helpless, to being able to get around and socialize and then they turn into little people with distinct interests and personalities. As much as I hate seeing Jack grow up this quickly, I am looking forward to seeing what kind of person he will grow up to be. Unless I mess up big time, Jack is sure to become an amazing man. God gave him such a gentle spirit and wonderful temperament, along with a good sense of humor and smarts. We'll just have to wait and see what he'll do with all that!

Here's a picture of Jack taken at Kelsey Creek Farm this week. He was pretending that he had keys in his pocket, just like Daddy. He's still little, but he's growing up quickly all of the sudden. I'm not crying...sniff sniff.

Kelsey Creek Farm!

Wow! There are so many fun places to go around here! They are soooo much more fun though when the weather is nice. Today the kids and I took a trip to Kelsey Creek Park & Farm and the weather was perfect. Sunny, low seventies. So nice! I loved seeing the animals and watching my children with them. Jack was so cute saying "huwo" to all of them and Jonah quite enjoyed the poop, but he also was a fan of all of the animals, especially the ginormous sleeping pig and a parrot that talked/squawked (I know, it is not really a "farm animal," but I think they had it more like a pet...). And Paige really liked the animals and wanted to keep going to find more (like always). She's always moving! And you know what else I LOVE about this place? It's free!

Here are the kiddos at the entrance to the farm.

Nope, I could not manage a better picture. YOU try getting three excited little children to look at you at the same time when they would rather find some animals (or open up the little gate on the sign)!

Here are some animals we saw.

Here is a short video discussing a critical problem at the farm. Poop was stuck to the sheep's tushie. I'll spare you the picture of the poor sheep.

Bummer! I have been trying to put up some videos of the kids talking about their favorite parts of the farm and it just won't upload. I guess the videos are a little to big. Next on our To Do list: Get a Vimeo account... And just in case you were wondering about what was said on the videos, Jack liked the riding lawn mower at the park and the car ride with Mommy, Paige, Jonah and not Nana best (He was just expressing that Nana did not come along.). He also liked the horses. Jonah liked the big pig, the poop and the parrot. Paige liked the horses and the seesaw at the playground best. So much cuter when they talked about it themselves...

Just to ease your mind...

Jack-Jack is still shorter than Jonah (although Mike does NOT believe that he weighs less than Jonah...)! I just wanted to post a picture of the kids lined up since my sister Shannon was concerned that Jack and Jonah looked the same height when they were on the rock at Kubota Gardens. So, here they are in this not-so-great picture after our little hike on the Pretzel-tree trail last Friday morning (The hike was really great though!). The ground is even this time.

Brroombrroom!

Jack has a one-tracked mind lately. He is completely 100% obsessed with brroombrrooms (cars) from the time he wakes up until he goes to bed. If he talks to anyone on the phone, he will say "Huwo" first, but then quickly follows up with "_____ (could be Dada, Mama, Nana, Auntie, Grandma...whoevers brrroom brrrom he has gone in recently or wants to go in) brrroom brrroom" and "deet" (seat) and "bye bye" or "chao chao", "hee" (key), and then will usually state that the car is "bwoo"- even if it isn't. When Jack sees a car drive by outside, he gets all giddy and squeals, "brrroombrrroom"! Whenever he sees a truck, he yells, "Dada!" and whenever he sees a red car (any red car, from a shiny red Ferrari to an old rusty red Oldsmobile) its "Nana"! And he LOVES to go places in real cars and his play cars (pictured here). You get the picture...Jack LOVES brroombrrooms!

Here's Jack driving his brroombrroom (He will not even try to say "car.") on the deck. My grandparents bought this at a garage sale for $5 when Paigey was a toddler. She liked it. Jonah loved it. But Jack, he super-duper LOVES it! What a value! He usually asks to go out on the deck to "brroombrroom" before we eat breakfast most days, although we cannot really allow that since we eat around 6:45am and we want our neighbors to at least tolerate us.

And here's a little video of Jack in his car. For some reason, he stops doing his normal driving whenever I try to record him. He will stop and say "cheeeeeeese" or he'll get out, or sometimes he'll do something silly, like spin the car around and around. Oh, he really isn't growing a mustache yet. He just has some dirt on his face. And apparently the kids didn't like their dinners...


Oh ya. The finger. Notice in the picture below that Jack's finger is all bandaged up. Poor kiddo got his finger shut in the hinge of the (inside) garage door. Ouch! That is a really heavy metal door. Thank God he did not end up with a broken finger! The x-ray showed a small fracture though, so we've had to bandage it with popsicle sticks for the last week.
The last few days have been beautiful! Super sunny, but not hot. The kids and I decided to wash our deck furniture. Jack decided it was time to wash his car. I think he spent 30 minutes cleaning it!And here is our sweetie, giving Jonah a ride.

And Paige too! I thought she would be too heavy for him. But, nope. He had no problem. He even gave both kids a ride at the same time for a few seconds.

Paige loved this!
The secondary brroombrroom. Paige got this one from Grandma when she turned one. And again, Jack has used it more than the two other kids combined. He drives this one super fast, so watch out! He tries to keep up with the other two kids (who either ride bikes or scooters) with this one.

Again I tried to take some video of Jack on this brroombrroom. And again he tries something new... Oh, and Paige is trying to talk to me about her obsession- her birthday plans. We are already planning her birthday cake and invitations. I'll share it with you all later. It's kind of top secret for now.

Kubota Gardens

Okay, I'm back! I think, actually I know, I had a bit of a blog overload after all of those Antarctica posts... I needed a break from writing and time to just not think. Well, I've been thinking a lot, but about different things, like Jack's upcoming birthday (the fun stuff, like his cake and the bad stuff, like the fact that he's growing up...sniff sniff) and how to keep the kiddos learning and happy and busy and not hungry! We also had a computer space issue and for a week or two I wasn't allowed to put any more pictures onto our computer so that was my real excuse for not blogging. That is fixed now, so I can start snapping away again and share our fun times with you all! I missed you!

A couple of weeks ago, I took the kids to a place called Kubota Gardens. It is in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle, but it was only a 20 minute drive from here. I had never been there before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I expected a path to walk around the garden and I read that there were some bridges to cross. I thought my children would enjoy a walk around the garden, but I didn't expect that they would absolutely LOVE IT! They LOVED hiking on the trails, climbing the rocks and over bridges (some of which were just like balance beams-very fun!) and they just loved their surroundings. "Mommy, this is beauuuutiful!" and "Mommy, can you take a picture of that?" and "Mommy! Isn't this gorgeous?" were things I heard all morning long. I love how my children enjoy nature! Paige finds a lot of beauty while Jonah always finds some kind of "sword" or "magic wand" when we're out in the woods. Jack enjoys hiking as well and loves seeing birds and ducks big-time. There were times where Jack was the leader of the pack, running the trails and giggling just like the other kids.
Below is a picture of the 3 kiddos right as we entered the gardens. As you can see, Jonah has already collected a sword! And Jacko is really proud of himself, as he climbed the rock all by myself. By the way, Jack is becoming more and more like a two year old and likes doing things himself. We often hear "Do"! which means "Don't you help me. I am going to DO this ALL BY MYSELF!" After hiking we came back to this rock to eat our lunch.

Just some pictures of the garden...

Jack, the leader of the pack...

The kids loved this tree and tried jumping up to reach it.
"Huwo duck duck!"-Jack
We hiked around the trails for a good hour and a half before stopping for lunch. There were main trails, like you saw in some of the pictures, but there were also a lot of small paths shooting off of them. We got a little turned around (lost) at the end. It took us quite a while to find our way out!The kids really enjoyed the water features, like ponds, waterfalls, bridges and ducks! We had so much fun! We'll have to go again soon. Paige keeps asking to go there (like every day), plus, there is a geocache or two hidden there! So we'll go for sure, huh Mike?

Antarctica: Santiago!

Well, we are finally finishing our posts for our Antarctica trip. Our last stop was Santiago!!! Well we actually disembarked the ship in Valparaiso, but we didn't spend any time there. The disembarkation process was poorly organized (which surprised me a little, as they do it every week...) and we didn't get off until about 1-2 hours after we were scheduled. This wasn't a problem for us, but the Rollins family had a flight to catch. So anyway, we said our good byes quickly while installing car seats in the cars Zac had pre-reserved and we went our separate ways (the same way actually, but we didn't see each other anymore). It was a really great cruise and we really really enjoyed having Zac, Bran, and Nuala with us (Fiona too, I guess...). It made the whole trip a lot more fun, especially for the kids. The car ride from Valparaiso to Santiago was just a little over an hour.

When we arrived at our hotel, we checked in and decided to do nothing for the afternoon. Crazy huh? It didn't last long though. Julie tried to put Jack down for a nap, I took the kids out to the pool, and Bubba went for a short walk around Santiago near our hotel. Jack wouldn't fall asleep (There was no crib or playpen at this hotel and Jack LOVED the freedom of the bed...) so when Bubba returned, Julie and Jack went with her for a second walk. I stayed with Jonah and Paige at the pool. The water was really cold, so I kinda drew the short straw.

After they got back we decided to go for a short walk to find dinner. This was the only time my personal Google maps I created let me down. I wanted to find the Mercado Central, which is a big fish market, and I had it in totally the wrong place. We did find a really cool old church (that I didn't have on my to see list).

So after a long walk to nowhere, we stopped back by our hotel and asked for a recommendation for something close. They sent us to a nice Italian restaurant that was close by. It was great for the kids, and us too. The food was good. Here is Jack in his final South American high chair. These were so varying in quality (if there even was one at all), but this was a cute one. Plus, Jack looks cute with his napkin tucked in!!!

After dinner we went a few blocks further to the Plaza de Armas. The plaza was similar to many other plazas we have seen on this trip. It was really cool, but even I was starting to get burnt out on looking at older buildings, so we focused our attention on the fountain in the center where some other kids were playing and chasing pigeons. We actually completely let go and let the kids play in the water. Jack loved it. Look at the series of pictures below to see what happened.

Yep, I had to carry him back to the hotel on my back. It was nice!!! Here are Paige and Jonah playing by the fountain and with the pigeons.

This pretty much wiped everyone out and we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. I did, as you can imagine, have way too many buildings and parks to see the next day...

Paige slept in Bubba's room, which she did often during the entire trip. It was really nice to have Bubba with us, for many reasons, but this one also! So after breakfast we headed out again. We walked a lot but made it to everywhere on my list. First we went by the Plaza de La Moneda, then we found the Iglesia de San Francisco, which was built in the 1620's. It was the oldest building in Santiago. Here is a picture from the inside.

There were stray dogs all over Santiago, but especially near the Plaza de La Moneda.

Next we found the Teatro Municipal, but didn't stop to check it out; we had a schedule to keep. Actually I thought we were making great time and would have lots of time in the afternoon to just let the kids play. I was wrong...

After this we found our great American Idol (not the TV show):

I had actually not had any coffee the entire trip. I was trying to cut down on how much I was drinking (basically all day at work), and decided before we left that I would not have any while we were on vacation as a way to change the habit. However, when we found Starbucks, I had to have a latte. You see I have this thing with McDonald's and Starbucks. Really, it is two different things. I never eat McDonald's in the states (our kids don't even know about McDonald's...), but I like to have both McDonald's and Starbucks in as many different countries as possible. Weird, huh? We didn't eat at McDonald's the entire trip, even though they had them in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Santiago. But we did have a coffee at Starbucks.

Don't worry Jack is just having soy foam as he can't have milk and especially not coffee.

After our coffees we went and explored Cerro Santa Lucia. This was one of the best places in Santiago. Basically, it was a hill where some of the original city was built around and where look outs were built to guard the city. Now it is a park, with lots of fountains, a small church, and great views of the city below. Julie and Bubba were totally freaked out about the lack of railings leading up to some (most) of the look outs, but Paige, Jonah, and I loved it. We took this weird elevator a little way up. It didn't get you very far, but it was the first entrance we saw.

These are some of the views from higher up. Santiago is a really beautiful city.

The last picture is actually looking across to the other hill in Santiago, which is called Cerro San Cristobal. I will talk about that in a little bit. We haven't even had lunch yet. Here are some more photos from up on Cerro Santo Lucia. Notice the lack of handrails in places going up to the top. You can kinda understand why Julie and Bubba were nervous, especially with Jonah (monkey) on the lose.

Finally, we made it back down and out on the other side. No funny elevator needed...

Next we headed for lunch. After asking for directions (not easy for us to do in Spanish), we found the Mercado Central. It was nice, but very similar to the Pike Place Market that we we have in Seattle. I guess we are spoiled to have our market, as this was one place many of my friends from Brazil insisted we not miss. Unfortunately it was cold and drafty in the market so we didn't look around much. We ate and headed out.

After lunch we headed over to the Parque Forestal, which is a nice long narrow park that runs between the city and one of the main roads out of Santiago. We found a nice little playground and just let the kids play for about an hour.

Yep Jonah, climbed right down into that. He actually managed to climb back out, but it made a great photo.


Our final stop before going back to our hotel and heading to the airport was the Cerro San Cristobal. This is part of a huge park. They have public pools, a zoo, play areas, and lots more in the park. We didn't have much time left though, and I basically made everyone go there because I wanted to find at least one geocache in Santiago before heading home. So we took the Funicular up to the top of the hill. Here is a view looking back down as we were heading up.

At the top their was a large Virgin Mary statue. We didn't really check it out, it was getting late and I had to find a cache which was still over a mile walk away.

Once we found it and made it back to the Funicular it was starting to cloud up and lightly rain. Plus it was starting to get dark, so the view was gone. I think it would have been better than the Cerro Santa Lucia, as it was higher up.

I forgot to mention that much like the chairlift in Ushuaia, Julie had a fear of the Funicular. Here is everyone huddle in it sitting down, so they don't have to see down the steep hill we were about to back down.

Once we got down we got a taxi back to the hotel. It was getting really late, and we didn't have time for dinner, so we went to a small convenience store that had hot food and a couple of small tables to sit at and ate. It was actually pretty good. When our car showed up, only one came, but the driver assured us we could all fit. I thought that was great as it saved me some money. Here is a picture of everyone else all in the back seat. This wasn't a big car either. Jack is king!!!


Finally, we made it to the airport, through ticketing and customs and out to our gate. There was a small play area in the terminal so the kids were able to play a little more before sitting for 15 hours on planes. When our plane arrived, Jonah wanted to see it from the window but the bars blocked the view, so we had to look under them.

So that is the end of our trip. It has already been two months since we got home, but it is still really fresh in our minds. It was a truly wonderful trip. I won't say once in a lifetime, because I plan to repeat it or at least something similar. South America is great and there is still sooo much more of it to see. And Antarctica, well pictures and blogs can't do it justice. It was a truly incredible place, we definitely need to go back, and this time really explore!!!