Thus Concludes our Coast-to-Coast Travels, 2010

With Max off-track for September and the realization that none of my grandparents had seen the boys since Benjamin was about 8 months old, we headed to the left coast for a visit this month. We started at my Grandma Mary Lou and Grandpa Al's place in Vancouver, WA. While there, we visited the Oregon Museum of Nature and Science, a wonderful museum where everything is hands-on. I remember loving it as a kid, and my kids loved it as well.

Using robots to play "Connect Four."
The boys spent a lot of time playing container crane operator.

OMSI is now located on the Willamette River (it was next to the Portland Zoo when I was a kid), and the USS Blueback is docked there, so we took a tour of that as well. I don't know who loved it more, Andrew or the boys. We were the only ones on our tour, so we got loads of personalized attention and lots of opportunities to check everything out.

Operating the dive and surface controls.
The LOUD dive siren. Checking out the periscope.
The "trapedo" room (as the boys call it).
Also in Portland, we checked out The Voodoo Doughnut Shop.
Max enjoying his Miami Vice Berry.
Benjamin enjoying The Loop.
Me enjoying The No Name, a delightful mix of chocolate, Rice Krispies and peanut butter. Then we headed down to Salem, where we were treated to my Aunt Kristey's delicious cooking and hospitality and the company of my Uncle Rob, my cousins Angela and Amanda, my cousin's boyfriend Dave, and my brother Jody and his wife Whitney. (I'm not sure why I didn't bust out the camera at their house...sorry about that!) It was an awesome evening and morning with lots of laughs!

That evening we headed back up to Vancouver for a dinner with all of the Vancouver Duvalls. It was fun to meet my cousin's daughter Kalea for the first time.
Then we headed to the east side of the state to Spokane, where we visited my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Clara. (Side-note, we also recreated the "Can I come up now?" conversations through the vent, but this time I was in the generation in the living room while my kids were in the basement - good times.)

Grandma will tell you she's "an old lady," but she can still cook like she's cooking for a harvest crew and her scrambled eggs remain the best in the world! Max will tell you all about them - yum, yum and extra yum!

So after all our visiting, we headed home to recover from our 10,000-calorie a day diet (Andrew and I registered for our first 5k, Fans on the Field) and resume the usual soccer, Scouts, church, playgroup, preschool (for Ben; Max goes back to school next Monday), etc. Thank you to everyone who fed us and housed us on our trip - it is much appreciated and we loved seeing you all!

"If a bird had been nearby, I would have swatted it." Classic!

I thoroughly enjoyed this post of BooMama's. Aside from some of the details of the story and her amazingly talented writing that makes me laugh and/or tear up on a regular basis, I could've written this post about myself after some of those nights of little sleep. As anyone who knows me can probably attest to, I have been known to act like the goat once in a while. OK, maybe twice.

Blink

Here are a few pics and highlights from our last couple of weeks...

We camped at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. This trip will be remembered as "The Trip We Forgot Everything." Here is a partial list of the things we forgot (I'm sure I am forgetting others, ha ha):

• Pillows. The kids good-naturedly said, "That's OK, we'll just pretend our (stuffed) dogs are Pillow Pets." If you don't know what a Pillow Pet is, you need to watch more cartoons.
  
• Paper plates
  
• Plastic silverware
• Matches/lighter
  
• Tinfoil

We just had to laugh...it was seriously ridiculous! Most of this stuff is usually in the trailer, but apparently after 3 seasons of camping, we needed to restock - oops! We managed to borrow some tinfoil and Andrew went to a little store in the town nearby to buy plates and matches. It was a great park, we'll be back in a few weeks with our small group from church. Here are some pics from our monstrous hike that we did there.The boys spent last Friday night at Mom and Dad's where they had a blast at the county fair. Andrew and I did dinner and a movie (The Other Guys).

Max participated in his first Raingutter Regatta last Saturday with Scouts.
This morning, Ben started pre-K (three mornings/week). It was big brother's turn to say "Hey, don't you want a picture of me too?"

Of course I do, punkin', get in there. Soccer season starts tonight for both boys. I think those are the main things going on - hope your summer's treating you well too!

Brothers

Maxwell picked out a button-down shirt for picture day at school this week, so Benjamin had to don a button-down shirt too. It cracks me up that they like to be so matchy-matchy. So sweet! Awww, love those smiling faces.
Benjamin also wrapped up a session of swim lessons yesterday, so here's the obligatory water-slide pic. That thing never gets old. :) He passed Shark level and is moving onto Orca!

A Little Rewind

I'm going to pause and rewind a little bit to the rest of the trip we took at the beginning of the month.

We took one day to visit the Statue of Liberty. We figure the kids are old enough that we should try to do some sight-seeing too when we go back to visit family; there's so much to see in that part of the country!

We kept commenting on how perfect the weather was when we visited the Statue of Liberty...warm but not hot and no humidity to speak of. The day after we flew home, the temps shot up to about 100 and the humidity returned; we were seriously so lucky with our timing!

On our ferry ride to Ellis Island, I kept looking up the Hudson and thinking about how miraculous the Miracle on the Hudson was.
This was the first time I'd seen the Manhattan skyline in person post-9/11. Pretty powerful, to say the least. And while I certainly don't wish injuries on anyone, having someone on crutches in our party conveniently zoomed us to the front of the security lines and up the elevator at the Statue of Liberty. :) (My niece sprained her ankle a few days before our trip.)
Enjoying lunch on Ellis Island. (On a side-note, shout out to the National Park Services! Talk about an opportunity to gouge your eyes out with their food prices, but they don't. We visited the Grand Canyon last year and found their prices reasonable as well. Ski resorts and football stadiums should take note! :) )

We found my great-grandfather's name and Andrew's grandfather's name on the walls honoring the immigrants that passed through Ellis Island.

This is the Registration Hall, where immigrants spent a lot of time waiting to be processed, all their worldly possessions in hand and children running around.
And I don't think this picture really needs any explanation. Love the boys' Statue of Liberty poses!
Benjamin "You Can't Make Me Smile."
This is the original torch from the Statue of Liberty. Apparently it let rain in though, which caused a lot of problems, so it was replaced.
This is some of the scaffolding structural stuff (yes, that's a technical term) on the inside of the SOL.
These views are from the top of the pedestal on the SOL. Views around New York Harbor. Looking north, Manhattan on the left, Brooklyn on the right. Beautiful...
Looking south, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the distance. You can also see the barges setting up for the big 4th of July fireworks show.
In case you were wondering what the back of the SOL looks like. :) Then it was a short ferry ride back to the car and then we had another day or so visiting with the family and playing in the cousins' pool. On our last day, Uncle Ed, Aunt Polly and Matt (who happened to be visiting from CA) stopped in for lunch, so here's a pic of the whole gang. All in all, a wonderful trip...great weather, great sight-seeing, and, most importantly, great to spend time with the family! Kinda makes you wish you could live in two places at once. :)

Our Little Shark

While Max is in school all day, Benjamin is taking swim lessons. Not just swim lessons, but swim lessons where they get to jump off the board every day - Max is a little jealous.

Benjamin, of course, LOVES swim lessons and I'm so proud of how brave he is to jump off the board (quite a bit higher than the board at his cousins') and of how well he is swimming! :)

First Day of First Grade

Here's my boy this morning, heading off to ALL DAY first grade. Sweet new backpack. (Look Aunt Whitney, it's monogrammed!) Man it's heavy with a lunch in there too!

(And the blog posts will be a little out of order because I'll come back and post some more pics from the rest of our vacation later. For now I am just reeling that he's now in school all day - sniff.)

East Coast Vaca

So far, our trip's been a whole lot of awesome.

Uncle Steve's awesome train table.
Cousins' awesome pool. The boys' first times off the diving board.Max about to experience his first belly-flop. Ouch!!

Some awesome relaxation at the Jersey Shore...good summertime fun with cousins. Strolling through downtown shops with a cousin...so sweet...My nieces getting henna tattoos. We also fit in a quick trip to Richmond last weekend to visit Andrew's very pregnant sister, where we got to meet our cute little one-year-old nephew for the first time. On the way down, we managed to get rear-ended in Delaware. It's such a small state, that it's got to be somewhat of an elite club to join to have been rear-ended there. (Luckily, it was so minor, we all just drove on.)

On the return trip, we drove right through the center of DC, so we quickly laid eyes on the Pentagon, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The megalopolis from Baltimore to Richmond is amazing...within 40 minutes, we drove by 2 NFL stadiums, RFK and the Ravens' stadium...and you certainly gain an appreciation of how densely the region is populated when you drive through it.

But all is well, and we're just enjoying our days at the shore. :)