An Opportune Moment: Part Deux

I just looked over the post I typed the day before our first daughter was born (4/11/10). So I looked up "opportune" in the dictionary and this is what it said: "appropriate, favorable, or suitable" or "occurring or coming at an appropriate time; well-timed." After some exhaustive searching on the Puyallup School District website, we learned that the cutoff date for Kindergarten Registration is August 31st. So what they're trying to tell me, is that in just this one day there's enough change that I might have to keep my kid around the house for one more year? One day? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

God knows we love Him and we're going to be extremely grateful for one year closer to kid retirement if the new kid is born today. I closed that post last time with "The nice thing is that when it does happen, it'll be in God's time and, if I'm not mistaken, at the Opportune Moment." Sounds to me like God's time is right now!

Well, we're off to the hospital to have the Kid

Summer's Still Here

We've had some great weather the last few weeks. Even when it's been "cool" in the high 60's, we'll get some nice 70's and maybe 80's the next couple days. A week ago we had some 90's days strung together and it made it a rough time trying to sleep. About 5% of the houses in the area have central air and 100% have central heat. This causes people to do crazy things like get a hotel room 5 minutes from their house because the interior of their own home is hotter than it is outside. We had a fun time frolicking in the heat until sleep time came. Fortunately it only took V 30 minutes and about four different crying instances to get to sleep. Once she did, she slept very soundly.

With just a couple days to go (hopefully) until baby #2, we'll have a plethora of V pictures so she doesn't feel neglected when her new sister enters the real world. The great thing is that we will have two girls to grace the blog's presence when we're done. Here's the recap of things that happen while it's hot outside:

We catch rays in our incredibly spacious back yard.

We try new hot sauces outside so we can spit it out directly.

Let's practice our we love it faces!

V stares off into the distance as in an epic movie.

We practice our stinky faces when #2 goes down the tube.

This was V's first night in her new bed. Who needs covers?

Beach House 2012

The Bi-Yearly Beach House Trip Extravaganza was a week ago and I figured now is the time to write about it since I usually wait until a month after something happens. I still write about it eventually so BACK OFF! I'm proud to say that there were no deaths at the beach house this year. Although we had our fair share of cloudy mornings, we had amazing weather all week. It was at least above the 70s every day and in the 80s on our final weekend. The 80s at Seaside? AW YEAH! Fun in the sun! The best part about this is that we get to jump in 33 degree water and then actually come out of the water to hot weather. The majority of the time it's warm or cold, so you don't even go into the water. Good weather = Good times.

We did all the fun things like going down town to see the Candy Man and we must've got at least a dozen free taffies from him. We played the "Roll the Ball Into the Holes and There's Literally so Much Skill Involved That Only the Most Intelligent People on the Planet Can Master It No Skill Involved" Game. I won 7 times... IN A ROW! What's up now? I'm going to go professional and see if the Olympics will pick it up. We built eleventy seven sand castles. We did all the essentials yo. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures to recap what happened... Well, really it's just a bunch of pictures of V because we know, THAT is what you really want:

Dad: OK V, this is how you make a sand castle.
V: So you pat it like this...

V: Then you DESTROY IT!!!

V: Then you mock them mercilessly!

V: It's a new day and I think I'll be normal for a change...

V: Until I use the beach sand as a Slip & Slide®! WOO HOO!

I just included this to prove that all the kids were having a blast.

Good Weather = Good Times

Last week we had 80 degree weather and it felt great! The nice thing about having a two year old and hot weather is that they want to go outside every moment. The bad thing is that when it's cold, they don't understand why they can't play outside. So you send them outside and they freeze because it's cold and raining. We've noticed that V doesn't really have a cold "button" when she goes outside. She plays until shes a shaking, freezing mess. It's actually quite funny.

Yesterday I had some dental work done that was pretty much the most painful thing I've had done on my teeth since getting my wisdom teeth pulled. Thankfully the good Lord blessed us with a less than stellar weather day so I didn't feel the obligation to go outside until it warmed up. One of the worst things that can happen to a Dad on his day off with the kid is to be too sick to take advantage of it. It's not my most shining moment, but it was unavoidable with the amount of pain I was in. The Wif said that I deserve it for all the times I've worked and she's had to be home by herself. I'll keep working on her.

So we're sitting here inside on a cloudy, semi-raining day (which is pretty much par for the course around here) wondering when it'll be warm enough to go outside again. Instead of going outside, I guess we'll look at pictures of going outside when it was warmer. Aunt Karina moved to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago & here's a recap of their final summer visit before she left:

V: Tire swing for two! A great way to spend the day!

V: It's so bright out here, I can't see myself swing. Still having fun though!

V: Shades make this swing experience much better.

V: Every slide is better with a hug!

V: Aunt Karina just saw that I took my pants off. It's hot out here!

V: Preemptive goodbye wave to Aunt Karina. We love you!

Lake Wenatchee

Again to the Leavenworth Chronicles! It's the only vacation we've had in two months so BACK OFF! April thinks that you guys don't care that much but I don't see her posting too many posts up in here. In fact, go through the list of posts and see how many she's done. Go ahead... I'll wait... Yup, you guessed it: None. Zilch. Nada. The Fatty Nil. Zero. Do you ever notice how the all the words that mean "nothing" all begin with Z or N? That's crazy peoples.

We went back to Lake Wenatchee later in the week and it was absolutely gorgeous! The best part was that there was amazing weather in a place where there is also snow. How often does this happen on the west side of the mountains? Never. Not at all. Zippo. You get the idea. So we did like any other normal people would do and allowed our two year old to play around in the lake. There are times where we actually had her in the stroller and parading around the park as you'll see, but aren't the moments where you can capture the embarrassing High School graduation pictures the ones you have to capture? I say yes. So here are our attempts at capturing those moments... and it didn't happen. She's the cutest kid on Earth! How are we supposed to compete with that? Here ya go:

That's snow behind us on the ground & melted in our mouths.

It's a beautiful day in the mountains and V knows where to have fun.

Dad: What are you doing down there V?
V: I heard on TV that if you dig far enough you can reach China.

Dad: What are you pointing at V?
V: I took off my coat because it was hot and it fell down the hole.

Dad: Why did you take off your pants?
V: I'm protesting the hat Mom just put on me and if I'm going to catch this fish, I need clean pants later to fillet it.

Dad: How big was that fish you just caught?
V: This big!
Dad: That's my girl! 

Mini Golf

Remember when I told you that there were a whole bunch of posts for our Leavenworth trip? "WHERE ARE THEY?" the masses cried! Well, I really don't know. We had a bunch of blah blah blah and a few yadda yadda yadda so we're not really sure. The cool thing is that we get to read it now! Due to the nice weather we decided to see if two-year-olds can mini golf. Well, the answer is... Sort of. We had a great time teaching her about gamesmanship, fair play, the value of sports in everyday life, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The great thing about it is that we have these great pictures cataloging the event. Here we go down the amazing road of mini golf:

V: So they tell me I have to put the ball here on this mat.

V: Then I just hit it into this hole? That seems easy enough!

V: Wait a second, what's with this sand box in the middle of the green?

V: What's with this giant rock? Forget it! Where's my ball?

V: See Mom? This is way easier than hitting it with the stick.

V: Picture with Mom and a hole in one! That makes ME the winner!

Leavenworth 2012

We went to Leavenworth for the 4th year in a row last month and seriously cannot get enough of the place. Fair enough to say that there are too many restaurants in the place that I don't think we'll ever get to them all for at least another couple of years. I'm thinking with our expertise in the Leavenworth department will continue forward for years to come, provided we come up with a plan to keep the fam in line. For the first time we actually took pictures so this might be a WHOLE BUNCH POSTS! The good thing is that you get to benefit from my witty banter about pictures and we'll all be better people because of it!

For the first time on our trek over the mountains, we stopped at Lake Wenatchee. Thankfully the weather was gorgeous and since it was early spring there was still snow on the ground. V was all over the snow too. It's funny when you've probably never seen snow without rain how much you love the idea. I'm positive it only happens twice a year in the ole Puget Sound area. Here are some pictures from the sweet weather and wild frolicking in sunny Eastern Washington:

Tranquil, serene and not at work... vacation rocks.

I actually got a shot of the moment the rock hit the water.

V: This snow is COLD! How am I supposed to play with this stuff?

V: Dad = The ultimate in warmth and comfort.

V: Let go Mom! I can totally do this by myself!

V: I did it! See mom? Now back up 10 feet so I can do a backflip off this log.