Toothless

Tyler lost his first tooth today, 07.27.11 at 6 1/2 years old.  He is beyond excited.

Bend - Dee Wright Observatory

A couple of days ago we headed out to the Dee Wright Observatory.  It was our first visit.  The observatory is up a mountain in the middle of a lava field.  It was a fun trip for Tyler who is very much into castles and knights still.  He felt like a knight going up into his fort ready to protect and shoot imaginary arrows at intruders.  

The fort/observatory (it was a climb) in all its rocky glory

 The kids had a lot of fun up top....imaginations run wild

Ready for an attack

 

family pic up top

 The surrounding view was beautiful with several mountains lots of trees and endless lava rock.

 After we finished in the "castle" we walked along the paths that wound their way through the lava beds.






We even found some snow

  When we were finished at the observatory we drove down the street a ways to a patch of grass and had a picnic in the sun, on the grass, in our shorts, next to the snow.

 After some food the kids took turns holding up the snow :)

Bend 2011 - The drive

Oh vacation, how we love you so.  Friday morning we packed up the van and headed out for one long drive to Bend.  Dave and I were inspired by thoughts of sun and warm weather.   The kids were excited to see Grammy and Grandpa.  The trip started out great.  It quickly lost it's appeal for Hailey who was pretty much done driving by Kirkland.  But a few movies, lots of "how much longer", and many many hours and we finally made it.

Ready to go

Yes we made it halfway....park stop in Gresham

at the park

It seems like the end is actually a possibility once we can see Mt Hood.

And we finally made it.....who wants to run up the drive way?  All the Quiggle kids!



The kids even got to help Grandpa move his wheel line before they called it a night



Captain Barbossa

Captain Barbossa - Pirates of the Caribbean

Once again thankful for washable markets.  Brown penned on beard was totally his idea.  I advised against it.  Fortunately it washed right off in the shower.

The inspiration:

the price of legos

A car conversation today while Tyler was looking through a lego catalog.

T:  "Mom, this lego kit is only $19.99.  Isn't that cheap?"
M:  " I wouldn't call that cheap.  That's four jars of stones for you."
T:   "I think that's pretty cheap, Diagon Alley is lots more expensive"
M:  "Yeah, well $20 isn't cheap but Legos are just generally expenseive."
T:   "That's because they are SO AWESOME."

Seattle: Home of the 78-minute summer

Feel like this should be documented for history's sake.  This is the title of an article in the Seattle Times today;   "Seattle: Home of the 78-minute summer".  According to the article we've had 78 minutes of weather above 80degrees since June 1st.  Let's note that today is July 20th.  There have been a whopping 18 hours of temperatures above 75 degrees.  Not even one whole day.  The article goes on to say ""Did you know Everett hasn't hit 75 degrees once this year?" he said. Which means poor Everett hasn't gotten even one minute of summer love.".  And we basically live in Everett.  This summer is the worst.  I need my sun.  Good thing our real summer vacation is just around the corner. 

Of course the rest o the US has had a heat wave all summer. It's all just nuts.

more videos

We've been killing time, stuck indoors in rotten weather this summer, by making videos.  There are videos of all types....talking, singing, dancing.  I find the dancing most entertaining.

Tyler can actually do a pretty cute dancing video.


Tyler silly dancing from Valerie Quiggle on Vimeo.


But things pretty quickly go from cute to crazy or even obnoxious.  And since they are young kids, they think shaking their buns at the camera (or me or each other) is endlessly funny and entertaining.  So the videos quickly degrade to things such as this :)


Kids silly dance from Valerie Quiggle on Vimeo.

Yes, I plan on using these for blackmail purposes at some point in the future.