On Sunday we went to Red Robin to celebrate my birthday, after church with the Grandparents Salisbury and my Aunt Ellen. I had a great birthday! Got some fun gifts and had a fun time with family. That evening Guy and I and Nico went to Whole Foods to get some treats and we sat in the car and drank Izze Pops, then came home and ate dinner and split a Hail Mary dark chocolate tart for dessert while watching a Tinkerbell movie. (my choice:))
Nico and I practiced our calligraphy, I used my brand new pens from the Grandparents Russell and Nico used the pens they got him for Christmas.
We've been going for bike rides, it's a fun way to pass the time. We made it over to where we used to live on Krall street the other day and saw a killdeer hanging out near a puddle on the street. We ended up at the Fort Boise Community Center so Nico could go to the bathroom, which is the furthest we have ridden!
Since the greenbelt is flooded, we are spending time biking the neighborhoods, which I suppose is a good thing because Nico is learning all about bike safety when riding on the street. We rode into the middle of the East End neighborhood and I told Nico to find our way home. He went for a while before recognizing a street and then he knew where we were.
We have rented a storage unit! We are inheriting a few furniture items from the cabin that we want to store until we move, and the moving men brought the stuff from the cabin on Monday. Grandma Salisbury came and picked us up and took us to our storage unit, which is just down Warm Springs about 1/2 a mile away, so the moving men could unload it.
Nico asked Grandma when they could hang out next, and Grandma invited him over to their house on Thursday (they were already planning on watching him on Thursday because of a doctors appointment I had), and Nico was very excited. Grandma told him to be there at 9 AM and so he was sure to remember. I took him over there today at 9 AM. He had a really fun day. He brought over the game of Life and they played it 3 times. They also went to Pojos! And when I came to pick him up, him and Papa were playing Minecraft on the iPad.
Nico is doing a Reading Bingo that he picked up from Rediscovered Books when him and Guy went there to buy a fidget spinner. If he gets a blackout then he gets to go to an after-closing party, so he is working on reading books to fill up the whole thing.
Right now he is reading El-Deafo, a really good graphic novel auto-biography of a girl who became deaf after a childhood illness. He is reading this one to be able to fill in the square that says "A book with a differently abled character".
I spent some of my birthday money on some patio furniture! Target was having a good sale.
"I want to go outside without shoes and take a picture too"
Last Friday was St. Patrick's Day. Allicia bought all the kids something green to wear to school. Nico forgot his green bowtie so I brought it to him as soon as I got home from dropping him off. He was very grateful. Here are all the kiddos after school while walking home.
On Saturday morning I went up to the cabin and Guy and Nico went to the Photronics Phun Day. There was a scavenger hunt, a tour, and he got to try on the bunny suits you have to wear into the Fab.
After they were done they met me up at the cabin because this was the last get together before the Grandparents Salisbury move to their new home. It was good to say goodbye to the place. They are officially moving tomorrow (Friday!). Here's to new adventures!
Sunday was church and Bible Study, and sitting between the two was a birthday party for Ivy, who turned 2 years old on the first day of Spring! It was a rainbow party. Yummy food, colorful streamers. They held it under the covered porch. We had to leave early to get to Bible study on time.
We are planning a garage sale to sell some things and save up for a car. We have a lot of stuff that needs to go. We plan to spend a lot of time during Spring Break decluttering. Just tonight we had delivered a wardrobe we purchased off craigslist. This will help with the clutter, it will replace our hanging closet, and it has doors to close so you don't have to see the stuff inside it. I am very pleased with it. One of the doors even has a mirror.
Picture of Nico at dinner tonight drinking his milk. Thursday is always turkey burger day! His favorite. He eats it one small teeny bite at a time so it lasts longer. He then tells Daddy - "Eat small bites so it lasts longer!"
He has been reading...
Captain Underpants Magic Treehouse books
These are chapter books and he's been reading them outloud several times a day, he even takes them outside while he's playing and reads them to Sammy and Aadam. If he doesn't know a word he either guesses what it is and moves on, or he asks what it is. He sometimes comes into the bathroom while I'm taking a shower and sits on the toilet to read me a book.
There is a Dogman comic where the evil cat takes away all the books in the world and all the people get really dumb. Then when the books come back, they get smart again. So Nico says that he is getting smarter and smarter because he reads.
Grandma camp finished up with success. They were planning a water fight when the parents got there to pick them up, but Grandma was notified of a water shortage Friday night, so they canceled it. Two wells had run dry and on Sunday they were notified that there was no more water. She was without water until Tuesday! And now they are on a boil order. This means that before drinking the water, you need to boil it. Here's the pictures from Grandma Camp: Movie Marathon!
Nico is reading his book "Stinky" to everyone
On Saturday GG came to visit me at my henna booth, she brought me green beans from her garden and sat and talked for a while. I even gave her a henna tattoo!
This week Nico and Evelyn and Aadam and Avery have all gone to VBS. Avery is 3 years old now and was able to join the bigger kids. This has been the most fun VBS so far. Nico says he wants to go to this one ALL the time.
On Tuesday Grandpa and Grandma Russell came into town! We weren't expecting to get to see them that evening, but they got in early enough to head over. Wahoo!
On Wednesday they brought GG with them, and we all went to the Discovery Center. Their new display is called ZAP, lots of things to do with electricity.
Nico also opened some presents.
Grandma and Nico working hard to put all Nico's quarters in his collection folder.
Reading a book before bed
Today was the last day of VBS. I showed up a bit early to pick them up and they were starting a prayer line so anyone who wanted to pray out loud on stage could get in line. Nico did it! Unfortunately I couldn't hear what he said and the video I took, the background noise was very loud and you can't hear. He told me he forgot what he said when I asked him about it later.
Then we saw Grandma and Grandpa again this afternoon. I put some henna on Grandma Russell! (I'll have to take a picture of this to post next week). Grandma and Grandpa took Nico to the library and they came home with some great books.
Tonight I am putting Nico's presents on the table so that when he wakes up he will see them. He has spent a bit of time this week searching for where I hid them. Heehee. I'm excited for him to open them.
Here's the video from Jeff and Avery's birthday party. I put it together with them in mind, so it's not really a "Nico" video, but I put it here anyway if you'd like to watch, Nico is in it too. You can see him light the birthday candles, and hit a piñata, and throw water balloons :)
Friday we started our trip to Arlington! Well, Yakima. We decided to split the trip up into two days. We didn't give Nico his headphones with music right away, decided to wait until Baker City (2 hour drive) where we stopped to have lunch. We were barely passing Nampa when Nico said his first "Are we there yet?" It was hilarious. I know he doesn't really have any context for how long the trip takes, he was a few years younger the last time we made the trip. He asked a lot of questions on the trip, mainly, stuff like "What time is it?" and "Are we in Yakima yet?" Guy kept track of how many times Nico asked "Are we there yet?" (14 times) and how many times he asked a question that wasn't exactly that, but was in the spirit of it, like "When are going to be in Yakima?" (26 times)
When we gave him his headphones with music, he was very very excited, and bip bopped along with the music he was listening to.
When we got to Yakima, we checked in, and then drove to Miner Burger. Guy always breaks his gluten rule for Miner Burger.
Then we went to Jimmy John’s to pick up some grub for Nico. 30 minutes after eating, we went to the pool! Watching Nico walk down the stairs with flippers on was funny. The two people behind the front desk got a real kick out of his getup.
He started shivering and turning blue after about 30 minutes. We stayed for a little bit longer and then trucked it upstairs so he could take a warm shower.
Saturday morning it was time to drive to Arlington!
We arrived around 10 AM. Lots of hugs all around! When Nico "met" Uncle Tom again, he said to him "You used to hold me up when I was baby". He was referring to a picture we have on our fridge where Tom is holding up Nico.
We hung out for a few hours until it was time to eat Pizza! A puzzle, cars, and some toys from when Guy was little.
Mom showed me her Microgreens!
Then we went to the beach cottage on Camano Island. Wow!! It was quite a retreat. It was so peaceful. Don't worry, there is a video below showing you guys the walkthrough. It was beautifully decorated and had everything we needed. It had two rooms, one for the bed and one for the tv. After Nico went to bed every night, Guy and I would watch a movie. And the beach you could see out the front door. It was a short walk away....
We taught Nico how to throw rocks over his head into the ocean or at things on the beach. He practiced a lot, it was sometimes scary to be near him while he did it. Sometimes the rocks went straight up into the sky.
DUCK, GUY!
Then they started a band. It was pretty good. Mom did the shuffle on the gravel for some added sound.
(Mom provided some of these pictures. Thank you!!!)
That night we went to the Chatterbox for dinner, which is a restaurant in Stanwood that serves Thai, Indian, American food (and more maybe?). They were happy to make Nico fried rice with no eggs and no onions, so it was basically rice and beef. If you didn't know already, one of Nico's favorite dishes is rice and ground beef. So this was perfect.
Sunday we went to church at Marysville Church of the Nazarene, which is where we used to go when we lived there. We saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while, it was really great. Nico even remembered to tell his Sunday School teacher that he was gluten free and he said No to a cookie!
After church we drove by our old house. They had painted it yellow and it didn't look the same.
Sunday we ate roast chicken and a bunch of yummy sides for lunch. That afternoon we went to the Kangaroo farm and fed kangaroos and other animals.
I asked Guy if he wanted to own a kangaroo farm and he said No. Good to know. It was really cool to see all the animals they had there.
Some other Sunday moments.
Nico and Tom raced to put their nesting dolls together. Nico spent several occasions playing with these nesting dolls on this trip.
Guy took a short trip to the beach that night
On Monday we took a trip to the beach right before heading over to the Grandparents Russell.
Other pictures from that day...
At the river
Looking for birds through his new binoculars (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!)
Coloring eggs
Helping Grandpa barbecue our lunch
We left Guy there that night and we took Grandma with us to the beach cottage! Nico read Grandma two comic books before bed, and then me and her watched a girl movie!! 27 Dresses, it was very cute.
Tuesday morning we snuggled him up with blankets in front of the tv to watch a movie while eating his breakfast muffin. Nico definitely took advantage of their wide range of movie titles on our trip. We usually had time for an entire movie in the mornings before we would leave to head to Arlington.
Tuesday was a slow picture day. I took a trip to Safeway to walk around while the crew went to the creek for a walk. Thanks Mom for taking pictures! I love that he got a piggy back ride from both Guy and Uncle Tom!
Tuesday afternoon Guy and I and Nico went to visit Rusty and Ellen. They were our mentors when we were living in Arlington, so we really like to stay connected with them. They had a Thomas the Train set that Nico played with while we were there.
Tuesday evening was a yummy pot roast with potatoes and parsnips and carrots. It was very tasty. Then we said our goodbyes and drove out to the beach house for one last night before heading home.
Our trip home on Wednesday took 10 1/2 hours! I think we agree that next time we will break up our trip in both directions, and perhaps stay over in Pendleton on our way back to Boise. The traffic in Seattle area was very bad, we hopped over to the express toll lane thinking we could do that with 3 people in the car, but I think we'll be getting a bill for that, I think you need to have a flex-pass to be able to do that. Totally worth it, though! It would have added at least another 45 minutes to our trip if we would have been stuck in that traffic. We listened to my phone and even took a short cut through Alderwood Mall Parkway to get on 405. It saved us 7 minutes. :)
We were very tired when we got home that night. Nico's friends were outside when we pulled up, and he jumped right on his scooter and started playing. Nico needed that outdoor running around time. Then dinner, showers, a quick trip to Flying M, and then bed time! While we were gone, Jeff cleaned our shower tiles, it looked like a completely new shower. It was an awesome thing to come home to!!
Today we did some reorganizing in here and ran some errands. I can't believe it's already past Nico's bed time and it feels like the day has just started. Wow! Time is just fleeing!
We had so much fun in Arlington and are looking forward to doing it again next year! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Russell for all the food and all the gifts and the hospitality and fun and adventure. We had a blast and can't wait to see you guys again in July for Nico's birthday!
