Archive | family

Each year we vow that we’ll go somewhere sunny and warm for spring break. For one reason or another, we never do.

Until this year.

Months ago we booked tickets to San Diego, California to visit my cousin and his family and to get some much needed vitamin D. We did not have much of an itinerary which made for a completely relaxing and happy family trip.

It has been a few years since the kids have flown (Audrey didn’t remember ever being on a plane, even though she has flown a few times) and they were all super excited.

We left Seattle on a gross rainy spring day and landed a few hours later in San Diego to bright sun and clear skies.

Just what we needed!

Traveling with big kids is so easy. The boys played on their phones/ipads with headphones in the whole time and Audrey spent her time looking out the window, listening to music on my phone and playing with the wikki stix in the kid pack that Alaska Airlines offers. They carried their own bags, were polite to the flight attendants and didn’t spill their drinks. I miss the days of little kids, but this made me remember how much harder it was back then to travel!

(Look at how gorgeous that fiddle leaf fig tree is!)

We spent one day at SeaWorld and had so much fun. Between the clear skies, the rides, the non-existent lines, the dolphin and orca shows, we were all very happy.

Did you know I have a thing for marine mammals? Dolphins, in particular. I just love them. Always have, always will. I teared up multiple times throughout the day when we saw them.

(P.S. when I was in high school I wanted to get a tattoo of dolphins jumping all around my ankle – like an anklet. I’m so glad I didn’t.)

Just across from SeaWorld is Mission Beach so after a full day of rides and animals, we popped over for a few minutes to hang out at the ocean.

It was sunny, but pretty chilly (like high 60’s) so I didn’t think the kids would need to change into the swim clothes that I brought along.

Um … how have I not learned yet that put any water-loving child near the ocean and he will inevitably give himself fully to it. We started by just telling them to only go up to their knees and within minutes, all three of the younger kids were soaked. And loving it.  I totally get it. I was the same way as a kid, too.

On another day, we drove out to La Jolla. It was raining earlier in the morning, but it cleared up just in time for some sight-seeing, sea lion watching and more beach time.

(can you see the sea lions on the rocks?)

Ryan calls California The Motherland. He loves it so much. We met at college in Southern California and he spent a portion of his childhood in Santa Cruz, so it’s in his blood. And, truly, there is so much to love about the laid back attitude, the blue ocean, countless beaches, fast drivers, and health-conscious restaurants.

Speaking of health-conscious … the cousins took us to a dessert place on our last night that certainly does not fall into this category but it was the perfect ending to a great trip.

Audrey ordered the Unicorn Sundae complete with cotton candy, marshmallows, and a candy bracelet. How over-the-top is that?!

Also? Even though it wasn’t very warm, we all were kissed by the sun and it felt so good.

We’re grateful for a quick getaway with time with cousins, swimming, sunshine, dolphins and sweet treats.

And now it’s back to school and work and activities galore before summer break is upon us (how did this school year go so quickly?!).

Ryan and I took the boys on a day trip to Mount Rainier this weekend.

You know how it is when you live somewhere and take certain places for granted and skip out on doing the ‘touristy’ things because you aren’t a tourist? This was one of those things.

But Ryan has summitted the mountain twice (he’s kinda amazing) and we were Audrey-less for the day (because let’s all admit that hiking with a 5 year old girl is not the easiest) so it was the perfect chance to do something fun and outdoorsy with the boys.

The south entrance to Mt. Rainier is about two hours from our house – a beautiful drive through little towns that are in the middle of nowhere and I always wonder what draws residents to choose to live there. You get to the Mt. Rainier National Park entrance which is about 2500 feet above sea level and can stop off at lots of different turn-offs along the way up.

We stopped for lunch and hiked down to the Nisqually River bed, which is remarkably low as a result of our way below normal snow levels this winter.  The river water is all murky looking because it is from a glacier and is filled with tiny particles of bedrock (read the actual description here if you’re interested) and is super chilly even on a summer day. The top of the mountain peeked out through the clouds every once in a while and is seriously breathtaking up close.

After lunch, we ventured on to Paradise – an area at about 5000 feet above sea level with a visitors center, picnic areas and hiking trails. This is the point where the real hikers take off from, but also great for just day trips. If you hit it right, Paradise is filled with wildflowers. We were a little late for those, but it was still so pretty.

Like I said, Ryan has done the big hike twice before and it was so fun to hear more about the specifics of his trips: the gear he used (40 lbs worth), how long it took (4 hours on the snowfield, sleep until midnight, hike to the top and summit at 7am, then hike all the way back down), what the top looks like (a crater you walk across to sign a book. On a very clear day, you can see all the way to Seattle). Needless to say, we were all super impressed with him.

We hiked the trails up for a bit until we were all winded. This hiking mountains thing is not for the faint of heart.

One of my favorite parts was seeing so many different people speaking so many different languages. I forget what an amazing thing this 14,410 ft mountain is. It truly attracts visitors from around the world.

Once we made it down, we stopped in this teeny, tiny town for ice cream, sat for a moment on a chair lift-turned-swing then made our way back home.

I’m so glad we took the day to explore this part of our home state. It makes me excited to find the next ‘touristy’ thing to do with the kids!

Have you done anything fun around your home this summer? Please share!

There’s a super cute mom at preschool pickup who reminds me so much of me just a few years ago. She has an almost four-year old who holds her almost two-year old’s hand to cross the parking lot, while she awkwardly carries her newborn in a cumbersome baby carseat carrier to pick up her just turned five year old from pre-k. She is happy and generally put-together and sweet to her girls. Motherhood looks good on her.

While in line for lunch at our kids’ mothers day tea, we started chatting – about how many children we have and how far apart they are … you know, the things moms naturally talk about while standing in line with strangers – and discovered our families are very similar in age spread. Since I’m a few years ahead in the mothering-four-close-together-children-thing, she asked a question that I haven’t stopped thinking about:

At what point does it get easier?

It was so cute the way she asked it because it wasn’t at all in a complain-y voice like when with they stop needing me every second of the day? or even said out of desperation like when am I going to be able to breath again?! but really just a question of stages, a curiosity of what’s coming next. I loved it.

Mostly, I loved answering.

It gets easier. Soon, it will be so much easier.

They will be able to get dressed on their own and buckle their seatbelt. They can play quietly for longer periods of time and you won’t have to dread the silence (because we all know that a silent two year old is an up-to-no-good two year old). You can sit at the park and watch them climb without having to stand at their sides ready to catch them when they fall. You can even sleep in on saturday mornings and vaguely hear them pour themselves a bowl of cereal and not feel like you better hop out of bed and get them breakfast because they are now capable of doing this on their own.

That’s the stage we’re at with our kids. We’re at the point when it is easier. And it feels amazing.

It’s harder, too, don’t get me wrong, but in very different ways. You become less concerned with things like drawing on walls and fingers in electrical sockets and pay more attention to issues like character and relationships and tone of voice (ahem). It’s a whole new stage of parenting we’re entering with a 10, 8, 6, and 4 year old.  Less physically demanding and more in our minds and hearts. We’ve made it successfully past the precious but constant newborn stage, the darling but mischievous toddler era and now we’re guiding these little people to become kind and generous, responsible, enjoyable, gracious bigger people. What a beautiful, tiring, challenging, joy-filled, selfishness-exposing honor it is to raise kids.

There are times to come when I will look back on those early, early days and think that was easy. And I’ll probably look back on right now and find it difficult. I’m only 10 years in and surely there are the highest of highs and the lowest of lows to come. I still have so much to learn. But as my husband likes to say, perspective is everything.

Be encouraged, weary mom with nursing babe in one arm and pant-less toddler running wild. And keep on going, mama who hasn’t slept in three years and can’t remember the last time you washed your hair.

It gets easier.

You’re doing a great job.

. . . . . . . . .

Just for fun, here are a few oldie photos of life when my babies were babies:

It was tiring back then, but so, so sweet.

First of all,  G O   S E A H A W K S !

The excitement in this city, this household, this girl is out of control.  We love our Superbowl-bound football team!

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Ryan added a new feature to the blog last week – a link to every post on one page in chronological order {you can access it over there to the right on the ‘all posts’ image}.

You know when you find an old box of notes and photos from high school and you don’t mean to but you end up sitting for hours reading through them all, reminiscing, smiling, maybe crying a little? That’s what happened when he showed me the new post archive page. I read those very first posts – back when my babies were babies, when I had no idea how blogging would impact my life – reminiscing, smiling, crying a little.

It sort of put me in a funk.

All last week, I was melancholy, contemplative, creatively dry. It may have been due to the weather because it was dreary, foggy, gray all week and any time you go days without seeing sunshine it makes you slightly crazy.

But I think I was also deeply impacted by those first posts; by how simple they were, how unprofessional and unpolished and pure they were. I blogged because it seemed fun, because I needed a creative outlet, because it was new.  Most of all, what I noticed from those early blog posts is that they felt personal.

I was really hard on myself all week. Have I lost that personal feeling here? Have I become too complicated, too professional, too polished? Because that’s not really who I am and I hate feeling like a fraud.

On Friday afternoon Ryan finally got to the bottom of my pity-party-issues.  We realized that this blog actually has become less personal.  I’ll always be honest about my deepest thoughts and share them freely, I love doing a good craft project and showing you how to do it as well, our house will continue to be a canvas for decorating and the blog will be full of these things.  But they miss about 80% of my regular life – our family, the kids, learning how to parent, what we do over our weekends, vacations, that space between dinner and bedtime. This is what makes up our regular life. And it doesn’t often make it on the blog.

All of this was bothering me until Ryan reminded me that that’s what instagram has become. I may not document our family’s daily comings and goings on the blog anymore, but I do snap photos and post to instagram throughout each day that act like mini blog posts in photo and caption form.

Things like finding Audrey in the refrigerator getting herself a snack:

Or this sweet moment between No.3 and his great-grandpa:

Or that time when I said “smile!” and this is what I got:

Or any of this:

Our life. Moments I look back on reminiscing, smiling and maybe even crying a little.

As it turns out, it’s still personal. It just looks different than it did in those early days. I’m thankful for tools that make capturing our everydays a little easier.

If you’re curious, you can always follow along on instagram {my name is jonesdesigncompany}.

Now if the sun could just show it’s bright and beautiful face …