Dorrel and Stephanie: 3rd week of April

Vacation is feeling more like a reality
Our upcoming trip to Wyoming is feeling more like a reality. I'll be leaving with the kids on June 15th and we'll spend time in Yellowstone and central Wyoming. Dode will fly in to Billings on June 25th and join us until we drive home on the 4th of July. We plan to spend some quality time in the Bighorn Mountains and exploring the region where Dode's ancestors settled in the 1800's. This week I bought Dode's plane ticket to Billings and made our camping reservations for Yellowstone and a Wyoming State Park.

Multiple Dr. Appointments
Isaac has been trying to get over an ear infection for over a month. This time, things look good inside his ear so he's finally ready to go and get a hearing test. If everything is normal, we can set this episode behind us. If his hearing isn't perfect, it's on to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. I went in to the doctor and had the sore on my back looked at. I'm now on antibiotics and if that doesn't take care of it, I get to get it excised. Fun!

Anastaya and Mom day 2011
Thursday, Anastaya and I had our special day for 2011. We went down the the museum district of Tacoma. We parked in the free parking garage and took their free Link train to the museums.

Our first stop was the Tacoma Art Museum to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. He might be considered a sentimental artist but I must be a sentimental girl because I love his paintings. Some are funny, some touching, and sweet. It was really neat to stand there before the real paintings.

We also looked at the museum's other collection. They are doing a photography experience called "Mighty Tacoma" where you can have your photo taken. They are collecting all the photos to make a big collage. Here is ours.

After the museum, we went to have lunch across the street at a Gyro restaurant. Anastaya still believes the restaurant in Marysville makes the best gyros. She was not impressed with the mango bubble tea she got. She thought the tapioca bubbles were disgusting.

After lunch we went across the "Bridge of Glass". It's a 500 foot pedestrian bridge over one of the freeways in Tacoma. It contains over 2,000 glass sculptures from local glass artist Dale Chihuly. I can't begin to imagine how much the art is worth.

ceiling on part of the bridge

Venetian Wall on the bridge

After the bridge of glass, we wandered through the Washington State History Museum. It was interesting to spend some time learning more about our state's history.

Anastaya's Hook
There was a hook that Anastaya liked to hang her backpack on when she got home from school. It was in a public area and if too many things were hung on it, I couldn't access William's or Miriam's clothes. She liked to hang her many purses and assorted bags on it as well as her school back pack. I'd given her a limit of two bags but she kept forgetting and I was stuck enforcing the rule. One day I quietly went in, removed six bags from the hook, and brought everything up to her room. I then unscrewed the hook and put it away. When she came home from school and saw the hook was gone, she was not happy. She wanted to know when it was coming back. I told her that the hook was causing problems for me and I took care of it. I explained that I was tired of arguing about the hook and found a solution that worked for me. In amazement she said, "Well, not having the hook doesn't work for ME, I don't want to have to take things to my room!" I had to chuckle at the assumption that it's my job as a mom is to make sure things don't cause a problem for her. I thought I'd come up with a pretty smart solution. She wanted to know when it was going to be reinstalled and just couldn't (wouldn't) understand when I explained that the hook was gone forever.

Isaac builds a hovercraft
Years ago when I was a cub scout leader, Dode built me a hovercraft for the cubs to play on at a pack meeting. We were only able to use it there because...
1. We lived in a farm house without a square foot of cement around it.
2. We used some else's shop vac which had a "blow" feature to provide the air required to propel it

Isaac found it in the garage and decided he wanted to get it going. He used the hose from our shop vac and attached it to the leaf blower to provide the air boost. He had a fun time playing around on the carport. Luckily he doesn't care that the leaf blower is covering him with exhaust fumes, but I sure do when he comes inside!

Cousins play day
Saturday, Randy and Dode went out to Cascade Park (a campground owned by the church) to help with a service project. Randy dropped four of his kids off to play at our house. Everyone had a great time. There was jeep riding, trampolining, fancy fingernail painting, motorbike rides, and lots of talking.